I finished one game with this version (65.2/12) on the weekend. (Settings: Immortal, Germany, Continents normal map size.) Posted the few bugs I encountered earlier in the bugs thread. Now some suggestions/observations on gameplay:
Generally it was a great game!
I really like most of the new features especially:
- new tech tree,
- unit overhaul
- and of course especially the new promotions.
On these I am not sure after just one game
- buildings without %-modifiers - what is the idea behind this?
- slowed down workerspeed,
- improvements,
- iron/horses needed for late game units.
Now more specific:
units:
- Warriors should upgrade to spearman instead of swordsman.
I rarely saw any spearman ingame, but hordes of warriors nearly until late game. Iron is relatively rare and the AI (and especially the city-states) seem to miss it to upgrade their warriors in time. They only vanished during Renaissance wars. And as the ressource based units are considered elite, it seems natural to upgrade standard warriors to standard spearmen insted of elite swords.
- Horsed Units are either too cheap (production) or too strong (way more CS and MP) in comparison to other units especially (long)-swords.
Making them more expensive while staying strong seems the more historical solution to this.
- Composite bowman come too early and/or are too strong.
I would put them in the second row of classic tech as they are now just one tech row behind bowman. I could build them even before bowman, teching more on the under(?) site of the techtree.
- barbarian ships should spawn later.
There are no player ships before classic now, so barbs should not have ships earlier than any (AI-)player.
- When producing a settler I don't get the surplus food 1:1 added to the prod and the food storage is emptied. Is this intended or bugged?
If intended please change it back. Emptying the storage only needs more micromanagement to optimise and why making the super important prod in early game even more important and food weaker? But settlers could be a bit more expensive (120).
buildings/specialists:
- Scientists (+3) are too strong, merchants (+2) are too weak (at least in comparison to other specialists.)
Scientists and engineers with +2 would be okay, merchants should produce at least 3 gold as gold is weaker than prod and science.
- The mint is too weak.
+2 per ressource should be minimum. With +1 you would need at least 3 or better 4 ressources to even consider building a mint. And this rarely happens. So make it +2 and/or add something extra.
Religion:
- Veneration (+1 faith per believer up to 10) and especially Inspiration (+1 culture per believer up to 10) seem extremly powerful to me.
Perhaps more like +0,5 would be better.
Policies:
- The first two
tradition policies seem way too powerful to me. Thats just too much free food (4-8) so early in the game.
All AIs taking tradition have super capitals (15+) relatively early, the others are weak in comparison. I played four games (at least early game) with this tradition tree. Two times I took tradition myself = easy early game. The times I took honor/piety the tradition-AIs went far away in pop and science. The +x food from the opener should be replaced by something else (e.g. +2/3 % growth per policy). I feel it's a really
big balance issue at the moment.
Improvements:
- Generally I need more experience to get a feel for the changes, but I think mines with 4 prod come too early (late classic with fresh water). Better move to late medieval with and renaissance without fresh water.
And is there an unaccounted +1 on all mines in industrial times? My mines produced 5 hammers in late game.
- It would be nice to replace trade posts with villages/towns. I just mean name and graphics. Trade post spam feels weird.
Promotions:
- Please make the ship promotions +10% instead of +20% (and optionally remove the ships/cities-lines). It is too easy to kill enemy navies with +60 % CS after just three promotions, especially when the AI likes city attack promotions and or extra movement/sight as much as these powerful navy killers.
- Weaken the wolf pack promotions
at least a bit. Of course subs should be glass cannons, but one shooting everything and making ridiciolus amounts of damage against cities is too much.
Happiness:
- I really like "your" system. It's has way more flair than vanillas. But there are some problems that need tweaking, I think.
(1) It's to easy to make normally developed cities nearly completely happy (1-3 unhappiness in a 20+ city, "all in green"). I build nearly no coloseums, zoos and stadiums. Boredom was never a problem.
(2) There are strange jumps in happiness going from +15 to -10 in the same round. I think garrison influence on happiness is the main reason for this.
(3) AI was often really unhappy late game (after ideology, don't know before). In wartime they had often rebellions, hindering their war efforts. The penalties for annexing/conquering cities seem extremyly sharp as long as they are "in rebellion". Perhaps a connection to the garrison problem mentioned above.
It's hard for me to suggest something specific as I am not sure how the system exactly works. I read the guide, of course, but without the exact numbers it is still more a feeling than math.
Enough for now.
Thanks again for your efforts!
