BTS Screenshots Repository

[frob2900]

Do note that the production will drop quite a bit when I come out of the golden age, though.

Ah, I didn't notice the Golden Age! Phew, for a moment I though that was a real game breaker

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Yeah, but it'll cut into your science, gold and espionage. I rarely find that 10% of my income is worth a happy face or two.

20 % will give you +2 by default, + 1 from collosseum and + 4 (!) from hippodrome, thats + 7 .
It will be one of the first things I'll try when I get my hands on BtS (if I find enough food and health resources).

 

[DrewBledsoe]

20 % will give you +2 by default, + 1 from collosseum and + 4 (!) from hippodrome, thats + 7 .
It will be one of the first things I'll try when I get my hands on BtS (if I find enough food and health resources).

I'm playing Byzantium atm, on a huge map late 1450's marathon/monarch. Even though I've 2 holy shrines, one spread to almost 30% of world's pop, and banks in all big cities, plus of course courthouses and all the like, AND mega cottage spammed, most being at least villages, I'm struggling to run 40% science. In warlords, I would probably have been running 70% science with a massive gold profit. Reasons, partly getting poisoned a lot, mostly just the upkeep of my several hundred troops, which believe me are not there for show, but to attempt to deter the weekly invasion forces of the ai

The game has changed dramatically in this respect. Good luck finding 20% to spend on culture before the late game........

 

[Fraulzar]

Citadel no more has higher bombardment damage bonus (-25% like Castle, was -50%)

Spain has really been brutalized by the nerf bat in BtS, which is puzzling because I don't think they were widely considered one of the "power" civs. I always liked them and felt they were underrated though, so the trend is troubling. It's not so much any one horrible nerf, more of a "death by a thousand cuts" sort of thing. Doubt Firaxis even set out to "rein in Spain," but that seems to be how the way it has played out.

Consider:

• Conquistador bumped back in tech tree thereby diminishing value of + melee bonus and now requires gunpowder as well.
  
• Direct nerf to Citadel siege resistance.
  
• Indirect nerf to Citadel by overall lessening of importance of siege weapons.
  
• Expansionistic trait nerfed.

Will wait and see how Isabella and Spain play before howling from the rooftops, but it doesn't look promising on paper.

 

[Nicopol]

A closeup of the Moai Statues and an illustration of what changing to Universal Suffrage (without anarchy) and rush buying Dikes everywhere on an archipelago map does to your production.

if it is really so hardcore like in the picture it will be a thing for the next game balancing patch...

 

[Innawerkz]

I like it. The statues only benefit one city and I feel it will balance out the occasional water start that sometimes happens in multi-player where your absence of quality production is huge factor in the outcome. This may be the answer to the 'hill' heavy start other players get.

Of course, in the end, you may be proven right when the multi-player threads start clamoring for it to be toned down!

 

[Nicopol]

yes, the Moai Statues is ok (national wonder) but the dyke seems to be broken

we have to test it in MP games...

 

[The Navy Seal]

Wow I like the Dike already that + hammers will be great on 1 plot land cities.

 

[Virulent]

I was thinking that the Moai Statues would be good to use in making a city which is dedicated to pumping out naval units. Of course if you are playing the Dutch the dike would make it even better.

 

[Dutch Canuck]

I'm looking forward to seeing the Dutch Dike at work in my cities - but I don't think it will be a problem game balance-wise because one must wait until Steam Power. That's a long wait! The Moai Statues on the other hand are available with Sailing - that's much earlier than Dikes/Levees. (So it'll be a while before the Dutch can compound the two.)

 

[Watiggi]

I don't think it's imbalanced, remembering that the screenshot was in a golden age.

 

[Random Oracle]

I'm looking forward to seeing the Dutch Dike at work in my cities - but I don't think it will be a problem game balance-wise because one must wait until Steam Power. That's a long wait! The Moai Statues on the other hand are available with Sailing - that's much earlier than Dikes/Levees. (So it'll be a while before the Dutch can compound the two.)

That's true, but Steam Power is not that far away and beelining it when you have a lot of coastal cities seems like a very viable strategy. For the record, here's my production without a golden age. A significant drop, but still more than twice than it was without the dikes. It certainly is a very powerful unique building under the right circumstances. Here's also a picture of the Moai Statues + Dike + Heroic Epic + Drydock city under normal conditions.

 

[Landstander]

@Random Oracle

What resolution do you play on? And what size is your monitor?

 

[MangleMeElmo]

Is it true that the generic units now look civ-specific? If so, I'd like to see some of the Zulu. It's just odd playing Warlords with Impis being my only dark-skinned units, and the rest of my guys are fair-skinned. Even worse, the black Impis become white dudes when you upgrade them.

 

[Random Oracle]

@Random Oracle

What resolution do you play on? And what size is your monitor?

1600x1200 with a 20" LCD monitor. I resized the pics to 1024x768 though.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

That's true, but Steam Power is not that far away and beelining it when you have a lot of coastal cities seems like a very viable strategy. For the record, here's my production without a golden age. A significant drop, but still more than twice than it was without the dikes. It certainly is a very powerful unique building under the right circumstances. Here's also a picture of the Moai Statues + Dike + Heroic Epic + Drydock city under normal conditions.

But how long did it take you to build the staues with no production at all? This must also be taken into consideration. I ended up putting them in what turned out to be the NE city current game, far from ideal, but the new ai (one of its positive points) doesnt let you setlle for ideal...still Im destroying it on Monarch, will go back to Emp or Imm after a few games....Dike and Statues is very powerful if you've only a few cities. The ai is better now, in the fact that if you only have a few cities, you're probably going to die anyway....Yet more swings and roundabouts.

 

[Random Oracle]

But how long did it take you to build the staues with no production at all?

That would be one turn -- with a great engineer.

But you do have a point indeed, the Moai Statues are great for getting production to a coastal city such as that, but building them in the first place can be a pain. I probably wouldn't put Heroic Epic in the same city in a normal game, but I was really production-starved in this archipelago map. Normally I think the Moai Statues make a city more of a hybrid since all those sea squares provide quite a bit of commerce.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

That would be one turn -- with a great engineer.

But you do have a point indeed, the Moai Statues are great for getting production to a coastal city such as that, but building them in the first place can be a pain. I probably wouldn't put Heroic Epic in the same city in a normal game, but I was really production-starved in this archipelago map. Normally I think the Moai Statues make a city more of a hybrid since all those sea squares provide quite a bit of commerce.

Good analysis The statues don't often really fit anything much at all, but are a nice bonus. Archaepeligo, or Islands changes all that....but then I've been playing this stupidly brilliant game for nearly 40 hrs straight now, (with forum posting breaks of course)while listening to 10gigs of random HD mpgs, and Crystal Gayle "Talking in Your Sleep" is playing, how apt

 

[Pikkis]

Spain has really been brutalized by the nerf bat in BtS, which is puzzling because I don't think they were widely considered one of the "power" civs. I always liked them and felt they were underrated though, so the trend is troubling. It's not so much any one horrible nerf, more of a "death by a thousand cuts" sort of thing. Doubt Firaxis even set out to "rein in Spain," but that seems to be how the way it has played out.

Consider:

• Conquistador bumped back in tech tree thereby diminishing value of + melee bonus and now requires gunpowder as well.
  
• Direct nerf to Citadel siege resistance.
  
• Indirect nerf to Citadel by overall lessening of importance of siege weapons.
  
• Expansionistic trait nerfed.

Will wait and see how Isabella and Spain play before howling from the rooftops, but it doesn't look promising on paper.

Citadel siege resistance isn't weaker than it was earlier, but other civs get same resistance now too (like I said Walls/Dun resistance bonus has been increased). So it's only weaker compared to other civs, not to what it was earlier.

New thing I noticed: Spearman and Phalanx graphics have been swapped (might be said earlier, I think, but I didn't notice any reply about it).

 

[Jamesds]

Ugh, I was playing yesterday and Genghis Khan asked me if I could join him in his war with the Byzantines. I said Yes, and suddenly he was Furious with me!! The Byzantines had become a vassal nation, and I had effectively declared war on him . He still said "Thankyou, James"... - I think this was a bug that was fixed in Warlords, guess I will post it in the Bugs forum. Anyone else had this?