Digitaltrends GDC article

Well, now we're talking about something very different from declaring war by default. Instead, it sounds like war is one of many options to deal with espionage.
 
You can still bribe City-States. :( Just adding more quests won't fix a system that's fundamentally broken.


No, it was mentioned previously. And it's a Pantheon Belief. "Faith" is the name of the resource.

edit: The "National Intelligence Agency" sounds like a National Wonder. Which leads me to "wonder" if National Wonders are included in the total of 9 new Wonders. If so, we're already there (if Michelangelo's David is a Wonder).

I agree Arioch. The best approach would have been to implement Gazebo's City-State Diplomacy mod. In there, too, you could still bribe City-States, but the cost of doing so was prohibitive.

Aussie.
 
I agree Arioch. The best approach would have been to implement Gazebo's City-State Diplomacy mod. In there, too, you could still bribe City-States, but the cost of doing so was prohibitive.

Aussie.

Even if you can bribe city states, (may have increased in cost, we do not know that yet) new missions would make it possible to compete with richer civs for city-states.
 
I agree Arioch. The best approach would have been to implement Gazebo's City-State Diplomacy mod. In there, too, you could still bribe City-States, but the cost of doing so was prohibitive.

Aussie.

We'll see. Multiple quest-lines was requested by myself and many others because the issue right now is bribing is the most effective way to get what you want when their questlines end prematurely with kill city-state X and that's often not a reasonable request. I'm glad they put multiple quests in, as it was obvious and a common fan request.

The quests themselves are also subdivided into global quests and quests specific to civs will greatly help. And we don't really know the specific type of quests or how gold may have been scaled in terms of influence. I believe some articles indicate some quests fullfill themselves, like reaching a certain faith quota, They will likely also remove or readjust its patronage buffs that extend our gold gifting. Between Piety and Patronage I can't see both social policy trees NOT getting revamped given Faith as a new currency will need a social policy alignment and patronage likely will no longer work as intended with espionage, which will likely also need a SP buff somewhere. In anycase, We just haven't heard about them as they fall more on balance/miscellaneous issues that don't make good bullet points for PR junkets.

Further, we also know city State influences have been overhauled. There are now 4 bars to represent influence. You can also bully a city state to get what you want, not to mention espionage missions to overthrow governments or rig their elections. All those are only worth doing if bribery is either a high level option (ie: significant work needs to be put in before you can bribe a CS, or it's cost is increased or influence capped). So saying bribing is still in and therefore City states are still broken is a bit premature.

Lastly, with 1 spy at renaissance and 1 new spy per era (industrial / ww1 / modern ) + 1 with intelligence agency, It's reasonable for those going for diplomatic wins to deploy at least all 5 of their spies in city states. This should significantly increase difficulty of a diplomatic win, especially if gold is nerfed, and I lean towards this view.
 
I agree Arioch. The best approach would have been to implement Gazebo's City-State Diplomacy mod. In there, too, you could still bribe City-States, but the cost of doing so was prohibitive.

Aussie.

I thought that the gold costs/effectiveness were also being cut for G&K also? I'm not sure that they have said how severely, but I think it has been mentioned.

It may well be that the quests are the only way to ensure reliable support from the city states.
 
I really hope people are not thinking that the "four bars" have ANYTHING to do with Quests, it's just change in how influence is portrayed... I think..
 
I really hope people are not thinking that the "four bars" have ANYTHING to do with Quests, it's just change in how influence is portrayed... I think..

We don't know. There's really no point changing how the current influence is portrayed with 4 bars like that as the current gui has no issue with it.

The bars could be a timer of sorts showing how long until your espionage mission completes, or there could well be intermediate stages (small steps) within the current relationship status.

But that's a minor minor point, there are at least three much bigger things why complaining about gold and city state influence is premature.

Here's an example of the new complexity of city states from a newly translated interview.

GG: The changes to the City State system sound interesting. Can you disclose a bit more about their quests?
DS: Next to the already mentioned ones, like 'kill x barbarians' or global quests like 'build the most wonders in y turns' there is the addition of a quest type where you have to retrieve a tribute payment from another City State. If you come with an army that is strong enough this can work for you and you'll get the gold and perhaps even a few workers.
But behind your back the threatened City State can complain about you to another player and plee for their help against you.

That sounds like a private civ specific quest being given out. Sounds fun.
 
All that said & done, though, Gazebo's approach was pretty sweet, & deserved to be made a fully integral part of the game. I don't doubt that I'll be making use of it in the expansion-assuming he upgrades it!

Aussie.
 
All that said & done, though, Gazebo's approach was pretty sweet, & deserved to be made a fully integral part of the game. I don't doubt that I'll be making use of it in the expansion-assuming he upgrades it!

Aussie.

I don't doubt that he will!

At one point there was some discussion of incorporating CSD into VEM, but there was feedback from a few players that it required too much micro and they didn't enjoy it, so it was left out. Firaxis probably took the same tack and didn't add the mechanic to the expansion for the same reason.
 
I'm pretty sure it's not 4 bars. I looks more like one bar which moves right or left from the centre (presumably for positive or negative influence).

The two screenshots here seem to back this up:
http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2012/02/6287442e8b2a667821e64bdbdcbd3e25.jpg
http://www.desktopreview.com/assets/11409.jpg

I've been saying that all along but nobody ever seems to care to listen xD.

I always said that it's just one bar instead of four seperate bars (like it was done in vanilla) AND it has nothing relating to Quests (well, except influence but that they don't fill up individually)
 
I've been saying that all along but nobody ever seems to care to listen xD. I always said that it's just one bar instead of four seperate bars (like it was done in vanilla) AND it has nothing relating to Quests (well, except influence but that they don't fill up individually)
I think most people accept this as obvious, but that won't stop the odd weird theory from popping out.
 
I think I was the not the only one with wired theories - but I am cured from it, now :D

The problem with theories is, that, without evidence, they are just a guesswork. At least, my theory was based on facts known so far (up to 3 quests + money for influence). As long as there was no counter evidence, my theory was as valid as any other - and maybe even more likely as some.

The counter evidence that broke my theory was the finding of this little button at the bar's end. It was never brought into discussion before and after I recognized it, it made my theory highly unlikely.

That's how science works: Develop a theory that explains reality best and try to find facts that *contradict* this theory.
 
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