City States seems a bit broken IMO.

[R3dKnight]

I'm comparing first two games I went through.

First game, Japan, I went aggressive on nearest city state, took it over and realized it caused Permanent War status on other states in the world. Not great of a reward either for taking it. I went on and dominated everything in early game and restarted in Prince difficulty, thinking what I had missed out on.

Second game, took Arabia - plan to make as much gold as possible and tribute cultural city states. Man - how broken! I made so much culture by just tributing gold every 10 turns with 50gpt. Made 3 city states ally and just roll in the culture unlocks. Why the heck would anyone want to conquer city states in the first place? These guys are worth 13 monuments easily for cheap price! I'm gonna see how many city states I can ally with with this peaceful game.

Also: Is it possible to make trade routes with foreign cities like previous Civs? Building roads incur great costs so I'm not sure if it's viable.

 

[lissenber]

When i first got the game i tested how fast it could run with 19 civs + 28 city states and with 19 civs + 0 city states. My conclusion was that city states add way too much to the AI turn (when you click next turn, you have to wait for the AI to make his turn). City states nearly doubled the waiting time (and that was on turn 1).

So i`ve never played with city states on.

 

[Asylumer]

It doesn't seem like Foreign Trade Routes do anything besides boost influence for the City-State random Road quest.

And you're right about City-States being incredibly powerful when you Ally instead of conquer. At least the Maritime and Culture states. Military is decent for a steady stream of units but not worth it when it's time to allocate your palm greasing budget.

Quite a bit too powerful for the limited involvement required. I think that City-States should be made more like Minor Nations and they'd try to expand outside of rare occurrences where they war with a neighbor and take their city. More involved with politics and a bit more varied with their demands, so the player has to work for the great benefits they provide.

Also, probably vassals should be re-included in Civ 5 so that you can force the City-States into giving you tribute.

 

[Valdyr]

I wish you could convince an ally city state to end permanent war against a civ. I have to keep units in Bucharest's territory blocking all the tiles leading to the city because they're at permanent war with Songhai, who continue to attack them even during my peace with them.

 

[MonorailCat]

When i first got the game i tested how fast it could run with 19 civs + 28 city states and with 19 civs + 0 city states. My conclusion was that city states add way too much to the AI turn (when you click next turn, you have to wait for the AI to make his turn). City states nearly doubled the waiting time (and that was on turn 1).

Wow thats a mysterium .. doubling the AIs on the map doubles the loading time. How could that ever happen?
*sarcasm off*

 

[boredatwork]

What came first, the chicken or the egg?


Were city states added to spam fill the quiet periods due to long production times or were production times increased to avoid overloading a player already having to deal with too much city state spam?