MacPhearson
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2007
- Messages
- 7
Hey all,
I just finished my first complete game of BTS and a lot of things seemed odd. I have posted the game near the end for ya'll to take a look at and give some feedback. (btw, if you take the final city on the Korean home continent and make peace, the game will end as is in 1999).
A few comments about it:
I usually play islands or multiple continents, standard size, prince level. (I know Blake and the boys claim that the AI's don't rely on tech trading to stay with the human, but being spread out initially really does slow down their devlopment until caravels). I usually do not win by military conquest, although I often fight at least 1 opponent. In this game Fredrick and his lackies the Greeks decide they wanted a piece of me, and after I had gutted their empires, I realized that world domination was within my grasp (I had enough population, but only 43% of the world's land mass; turns out the Koreans held 21% of the world's land mass, and since you need 64% to win.....).
As I said, some things seem odd. Normally I run 80-100% science at the end game, while maintaining a large standing army. In this game I was running about 40% science and still out researching the AI in terms of turns til completion on various techs. Is my income just that good that I can research at such a low rate and still have enough beakers to keep up the research rate?
During war, unhappiness is not uncommon, but I have never seen it to this extent. The save I loaded should be 1992, with the Koreans having 1 city left on their main continent (they have 1 city hidden within Victoria's island kingdom). I can't recall the exact number now that I am out of the game, but I had over 30 unhappy faces in my capital from war, and I have jails and Mt rushmore complete. It was even worse before I wiped out the Germans (who had become vassels of the Koreans). At this point in the game I am running 0 science and 40% culture to minimize my losses, which are around 400 gold per turn; they were over 1k per turn while the Germans were still unassimilated. I started the war with the Koreans with 100 turns to go, and have not fought them previously in this game; it is less than 15 turns into the war, so why is my unhappiness so high that its killing off my citizens?
I founded Sid's Sushi in my capital and spread it to my 2nd city, mainly to test it out but also to possibly grow my smaller cities. The Sushi icon in the city screen says my cost is -41 gold, but when I look at the maintainence costs, the break down says its -82 before courthouse, ergo -41 with the courthouse. It is costing me ~40 gold in each city in maintanence fees, thats 80ish total, yet it brings in a total of +10 to my capital. With all of the city improvements and Wall Street, thats +30 gold. It is not even covering the cost it is imposing on just my capital. Does this seem right? Now that I can see the inflation numbers, and reading here, I realize how this has been changed, but the overall cost of the corporation seems a bit excessive. Has any one else seen values like these?
I also realize from reading here that this is probably one factor as to why I am staying competitive in the research deptarment, because the AI has built several corporations too. And if they have spread it, I am sure they are feeling a drain as well.
A few other comments:
The AI does seem better at warfare, with some combine assualts (although Fredrick came calling with macemen and trebs to my riflemen). Korea's planes tore up some of my bombers; I have now learned to attack their cities with planes first, so that their planes might get shot down during interception, and then hit with the bombers.
Korea was being a pain with the spy's until I popped a Great spy and place it in their capital. I also kept a spy behind their lines for the entire war checking on their troop movements.
Asoka approached me at the end of the original conflict with the Germans and asked to be my vassel; I have not seen this before.
It seemed like every turn at least one newly aquired city asked to be turned over to Asoka (and occationally the Koreans), even though I am clearly winning score wise, powerwise and culturally. I know people have reported this here already, but it seems really odd that they didnt ask to be returned to the German empire, even though it still existed on the same continent.
All in all it was a good game, and tight even though it was on noble and I have been playing prince for a while. The tide definately turned when the veterans of the Germanic-Greco war recieved upgrades to modern armor and a free cruise to the Korean home lands.
In conclusion, the war weariness and the cost on my empire during wartime were a big surprise. I realize that maintaining an entire other continent is cost prohibative in BTS, but I wanted to see it for myself. Inflation was a real kick in the butt too. Thanks for taking a look at it, and any comments are appreciated.
MacPhearson
I just finished my first complete game of BTS and a lot of things seemed odd. I have posted the game near the end for ya'll to take a look at and give some feedback. (btw, if you take the final city on the Korean home continent and make peace, the game will end as is in 1999).
A few comments about it:
I usually play islands or multiple continents, standard size, prince level. (I know Blake and the boys claim that the AI's don't rely on tech trading to stay with the human, but being spread out initially really does slow down their devlopment until caravels). I usually do not win by military conquest, although I often fight at least 1 opponent. In this game Fredrick and his lackies the Greeks decide they wanted a piece of me, and after I had gutted their empires, I realized that world domination was within my grasp (I had enough population, but only 43% of the world's land mass; turns out the Koreans held 21% of the world's land mass, and since you need 64% to win.....).
As I said, some things seem odd. Normally I run 80-100% science at the end game, while maintaining a large standing army. In this game I was running about 40% science and still out researching the AI in terms of turns til completion on various techs. Is my income just that good that I can research at such a low rate and still have enough beakers to keep up the research rate?
During war, unhappiness is not uncommon, but I have never seen it to this extent. The save I loaded should be 1992, with the Koreans having 1 city left on their main continent (they have 1 city hidden within Victoria's island kingdom). I can't recall the exact number now that I am out of the game, but I had over 30 unhappy faces in my capital from war, and I have jails and Mt rushmore complete. It was even worse before I wiped out the Germans (who had become vassels of the Koreans). At this point in the game I am running 0 science and 40% culture to minimize my losses, which are around 400 gold per turn; they were over 1k per turn while the Germans were still unassimilated. I started the war with the Koreans with 100 turns to go, and have not fought them previously in this game; it is less than 15 turns into the war, so why is my unhappiness so high that its killing off my citizens?
I founded Sid's Sushi in my capital and spread it to my 2nd city, mainly to test it out but also to possibly grow my smaller cities. The Sushi icon in the city screen says my cost is -41 gold, but when I look at the maintainence costs, the break down says its -82 before courthouse, ergo -41 with the courthouse. It is costing me ~40 gold in each city in maintanence fees, thats 80ish total, yet it brings in a total of +10 to my capital. With all of the city improvements and Wall Street, thats +30 gold. It is not even covering the cost it is imposing on just my capital. Does this seem right? Now that I can see the inflation numbers, and reading here, I realize how this has been changed, but the overall cost of the corporation seems a bit excessive. Has any one else seen values like these?
I also realize from reading here that this is probably one factor as to why I am staying competitive in the research deptarment, because the AI has built several corporations too. And if they have spread it, I am sure they are feeling a drain as well.
A few other comments:
The AI does seem better at warfare, with some combine assualts (although Fredrick came calling with macemen and trebs to my riflemen). Korea's planes tore up some of my bombers; I have now learned to attack their cities with planes first, so that their planes might get shot down during interception, and then hit with the bombers.
Korea was being a pain with the spy's until I popped a Great spy and place it in their capital. I also kept a spy behind their lines for the entire war checking on their troop movements.
Asoka approached me at the end of the original conflict with the Germans and asked to be my vassel; I have not seen this before.
It seemed like every turn at least one newly aquired city asked to be turned over to Asoka (and occationally the Koreans), even though I am clearly winning score wise, powerwise and culturally. I know people have reported this here already, but it seems really odd that they didnt ask to be returned to the German empire, even though it still existed on the same continent.
All in all it was a good game, and tight even though it was on noble and I have been playing prince for a while. The tide definately turned when the veterans of the Germanic-Greco war recieved upgrades to modern armor and a free cruise to the Korean home lands.
In conclusion, the war weariness and the cost on my empire during wartime were a big surprise. I realize that maintaining an entire other continent is cost prohibative in BTS, but I wanted to see it for myself. Inflation was a real kick in the butt too. Thanks for taking a look at it, and any comments are appreciated.
MacPhearson
(see the thread under 'bug reports')
