Couple things that annoy me about moving from era to era after playing many games

[Barak]

Having just moved from exploration to modern eras I was very annoyed to find that my 8 ships placed in my 2 fleets were not transferred to the next era as well as my three main cities were no longer connected by roads with no seeming way to connect them.

I know that land units get mostly carried over (but poorly placed in the new era) but why did I lose all my navy?

I also think there that nearby cities should automatically connect with roads.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Having just moved from exploration to modern eras I was very annoyed to find that my 8 ships placed in my 2 fleets were not transferred to the next era as well as my three main cities were no longer connected by roads with no seeming way to connect them.

I know that land units get mostly carried over (but poorly placed in the new era) but why did I lose all my navy?

I also think there that nearby cities should automatically connect with roads.

If your two fleets each had a Fleet Commander you shouldn't have lost any ships. As long as I had enough Commanders, I've never lost a ship in the Exploration - Modern transition, and the last turns of the previous Age are for building enough Commanders, IMHO.

Loss of connections between cities is more problematic. I've had individual cities and/or settlements lose contact on transition, but there doesn't seem to be any logic to it: a settlement right next to the capital loses contact, while another one half the world away keeps it.

On the other hand, loss of long-distance trade was one of the first things to go when empires collapsed, because it took the wide-ranging Imperial/Royal government to keep the trade routes open and safe enough to use. Given that, I can understand the loss of 'contact' between settlements - I just wish there was some more direct connection between such events and what went on during the Crisis period that preceeded it. After all, it was a set of conscious decisions by Roman leaders that caused the loss of contact with places like Roman Britain and Northern Gaul, not utterly random 'events'. Some Cause and Effect in the game would be nice . . .

 

[Cedbird77]

I have not played the game yet. This does not sound good. But not a dealbreaker for me. I am hoping that as the game grows the additions will smooth over these blemishes. And the greater work will out shine the wonky stuff

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I have not played the game yet. This does not sound good. But not a dealbreaker for me. I am hoping that as the game grows the additions will smooth over these blemishes. And the greater work will out shine the wonky stuff

The Age transitions, especially for long-time Civ players, are probably the wonkiest part of the game.

- Made more wonky by the fact that each transition starts with a Crisis period that appears magically no matter how well or poorly you are doing, and then a 'Dark Age' of several hundred years during which all sorts of things - like your units disappearing or moving across half a continent, or cities losing contact - happen 'off stage' with no input from the gamer. That sort of thing is hard to take if you are used to being in complete and utter control of your Empire/Civ, all of its units all the time, all of its economy, etc.

As a historian I'd be tempted to say Get Used To It, because it's a lot more 'realistic' or at least connected to the history the game claims to be about, but I also understand how painful it is to be presented with Massive Changes to your carefully-constructed Civ, including a complete change to its name, units, Uniques, and all new Civic trees and graphics.

As you can tell from a brief review of the threads on this Forum, a lot of people are presenting alternatives or modifications to try to get around this whole mechanic, and I would not be at all surprised if there were official modifications to it in future DLCs, but at the moment, that's the way the game plays . . .

 

[Barak]

If your two fleets each had a Fleet Commander you shouldn't have lost any ships. As long as I had enough Commanders, I've never lost a ship in the Exploration - Modern transition, and the last turns of the previous Age are for building enough Commanders

I agree that that is the way it is supposed to happen. In a recent game, I had 2 fleets commanders each with 4 ships at the end of exploration age. When I transitioned I had the 2 fleet commanders, but both where empty of ships.

And as for the lack of roads connecting my core cities, it really became an issue in my first war of the age. Worse, in distant lands I had 2 cities side by side that during the exploration age were connected by roads, but upon transition to the modern age the road was lost, meaning the 2 cities were no longer connected which was an issue as there was a minor river between them and all my armies got put in the homelands.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I agree that that is the way it is supposed to happen. In a recent game, I had 2 fleets commanders each with 4 ships at the end of exploration age. When I transitioned I had the 2 fleet commanders, but both where empty of ships.

And as for the lack of roads connecting my core cities, it really became an issue in my first war of the age. Worse, in distant lands I had 2 cities side by side that during the exploration age were connected by roads, but upon transition to the modern age the road was lost, meaning the 2 cities were no longer connected which was an issue as there was a minor river between them and all my armies got put in the homelands.

Movement of land armies - and fleet commander, for that matter - can be very problematic. In a game I am still playing into Modern Age, my one army in Distant Lands got moved back to Homeland, and it is going to take 8 - 10 turns to move it back to where it want it.

But as far as I know, if you had 4 ships under each Fleet Commander when the transition started, they should still be there when the next Age begins. Again, in the game I have on-going, I had 3 Fleet Commanders at the end of Exploration, and 14 total ships. Didn't have time to build another Fleet Commander, so at the start of Modern Age I only have 12 ships - 4 for each Fleet Commander, but each commander started the new Age with 4, a full Fleet.

 

[Gorbles]

The game gives a generic warning about needing Commanders to keep your units, but imo this should be surfaced better / constantly (especially once you hit Crisis territory / are approaching a specific Age-ending victory).

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

The game gives a generic warning about needing Commanders to keep your units, but imo this should be surfaced better / constantly (especially once you hit Crisis territory / are approaching a specific Age-ending victory).

I have seen such a warning in the game when I had too many units for the number of commanders, but it doesn't come up in the turns before the end of the Age reliably to remind you to crank out more commanders before you lose units in the transition to the new Age!

 

[bigjim1]

You can also turn off the crises when you first start the game (under "Advanced" options).

 

[uppi]

But as far as I know, if you had 4 ships under each Fleet Commander when the transition started, they should still be there when the next Age begins.

Yes, they should. And most of the time, they are. But I had one game as well, where I was missing ships while having empty commander slots. I have no idea what triggers it or how to prevent it, but I have seen it happen.

 

[CliffCo]

The game gives a generic warning about needing Commanders to keep your units, but imo this should be surfaced better / constantly (especially once you hit Crisis territory / are approaching a specific Age-ending victory).

Maybe players new to the game that have played minimal hours do need more warnings about it, but anyone who's played it for longer shouldn't need to be reminded.

 

[CliffCo]

Yes, they should. And most of the time, they are. But I had one game as well, where I was missing ships while having empty commander slots. I have no idea what triggers it or how to prevent it, but I have seen it happen.

Were they removed from the game completely or just moved between commanders? I've had it where this happens like it does with land units.

 

[uppi]

Were they removed from the game completely or just moved between commanders? I've had it where this happens like it does with land units.

Removed completely (well, as far as I could tell).

 

[CliffCo]

I recently reported an issue on the official discord. I had 4 navy commanders fully packed and spread out across the whole map, but when i transitioned to the modern age all 4 were within the same city. Took me 15-20 turns to get two of them back to my cities in distant lands via the top of the map, luckily the route wasn't blocked by an AI settlement.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I recently reported an issue on the official discord. I had 4 navy commanders fully packed and spread out across the whole map, but when i transitioned to the modern age all 4 were within the same city. Took me 15-20 turns to get two of them back to my cities in distant lands via the top of the map, luckily the route wasn't blocked by an AI settlement.

This is part of the 'random movement of armies/fleets' that has annoyed gamers since the beginning. I have had armies moved from one continent to the other, fleets moved all over the map, and both armies and fleets at the start of a new Age trapped in some settlement/city that was blocked off by foreign settlements.
Since I don't expect them to get the programming to correct this any more than they have ever gotten it to get starting biases correct (since at least Civ V!) I would hope that at least they would allow us to move one each Fleet and Army to wherever we want before the end of the first turn of the new Age. That wouldn't give us complete control, which doesn't make any sense coming out of centuries of Crisis, but it would avoid the worst debacles of the current 'system'.

 

[sonicmyst]

I hope they could retain some starting position of the commanders during transition, or at least make them spawn in the nearest settlement from their last known position.

 

[CliffCo]

I hope they could retain some starting position of the commanders during transition, or at least make them spawn in the nearest settlement from their last known position.

I find the majority of my army commanders start a new era in the same city they were in previously, it’s the naval commanders that move every time, and the units within an army commander always get messed up.

 

[stealth_nsk]

This is part of the 'random movement of armies/fleets' that has annoyed gamers since the beginning. I have had armies moved from one continent to the other, fleets moved all over the map, and both armies and fleets at the start of a new Age trapped in some settlement/city that was blocked off by foreign settlements.
Since I don't expect them to get the programming to correct this any more than they have ever gotten it to get starting biases correct (since at least Civ V!) I would hope that at least they would allow us to move one each Fleet and Army to wherever we want before the end of the first turn of the new Age. That wouldn't give us complete control, which doesn't make any sense coming out of centuries of Crisis, but it would avoid the worst debacles of the current 'system'.

Positioning units far from player territory doesn't make sense with war resets. Keeping units far away is either for exploration or war. While I agree breaking exploration is annoying, it's a pretty minor thing. And for wars it looks like trying to circumvent the whole age reset by renewing wars where they ended.

It probably would be good to select where on your territory the units are located, but most of the time they are quite ok. You have plenty of time to move where you need them.

 

[UWHabs]

Positioning units far from player territory doesn't make sense with war resets. Keeping units far away is either for exploration or war. While I agree breaking exploration is annoying, it's a pretty minor thing. And for wars it looks like trying to circumvent the whole age reset by renewing wars where they ended.

It probably would be good to select where on your territory the units are located, but most of the time they are quite ok. You have plenty of time to move where you need them.

The only really bad part of the reset is when fleets spawn in land-locked lake territory (or when they give your starting cog in some trapped location). Sure, it's a mild annoyance when an archer spawns in my capital rather than on my front line, where it "ended" the previous era.

I wouldn't hate having a little bit of leeway in teleport ability, or where my troops start. But I'm also generally fine as long as they don't completely mess it up.

 

[stealth_nsk]

The only really bad part of the reset is when fleets spawn in land-locked lake territory (or when they give your starting cog in some trapped location).

I believe it was fixed in the last patch, if I remember correctly