Final Tuning: The "F" stuff

[ElliotS]

Has anyone ever managed to found with God of the Expanse?

Yeah it used to be one of my favorites but it just feels really weak now. It probably works well for civs like Russia, but I think it needs a bit of extra faith to compete.

That or every city gets +2 for border growth only. (My favorite option.)

 

[Stalker0]

I agree with Voremonger, anti-aircraft units are way too strong against non-aircraft units.

I’m torn here. On the one hand, AA guns defense is very high I agree. They are tough cookies.

On the other hand, you are giving up offense for defense, that’s the point of the unit. You are sacrificing offensive projection to buy more defense. So defense is important.

And on my secret third hand, you can argue that those units are meant to be guarded by other units. If they get attacked they should just die.

So I can go either way here

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

Has anyone ever managed to found with God of the Expanse?

I fail a lot, even made 6-8 cities as Russia, Monument into Shrine (better than Shrine - monument on Russia equals second border burst from the second decrease if you have full Authority left side as soon as monument is up) only to not even be close to founding. I don't think it's good if a civ designed around the thing a pantheon is built around has such issues with founding after taking it. Still, the two times I took it as Russia I was pretty unlucky, everyone founded before or around turn 150 on Epic and that's not super normal. It could use a bit of a buff anyway. Maybe a slight number increase?

 

[Owlbebach]

Yeah it used to be one of my favorites but it just feels really weak now. It probably works well for civs like Russia, but I think it needs a bit of extra faith to compete.

That or every city gets +2 for border growth only. (My favorite option.)

I'd rather increase faith from border growth slightly (maybe to +18 or +20, not more). I managed to found with it for Russia, but still was disappointed. Didn't have enough faith to spread etc. What was the pre-change value, do you remember? I mean before +hammers were introduced

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

In the tactics game Advance Wars, Anti-Aircraft guns perform extremely well against foot soldiers, since they get shredded by the shrapnel, but the vehicle is almost totally useless against armor. Can a combat class penalty/bonus be implemented with existing promotion mechanics?

 

[Gokudo01]

In the tactics game Advance Wars, Anti-Aircraft guns perform extremely well against foot soldiers, since they get shredded by the shrapnel, but the vehicle is almost totally useless against armor. Can a combat class penalty/bonus be implemented with existing promotion mechanics?

actually it's not hard to make a promotion against a class of unit

 

[Stalker0]

Taking a look through the various Pantheons, the only one that looked off to me is Goddess of Springtime.

Its not bad per say, I just feel that Goddess of Fertility is straight up better. Fertility prioritizes getting shrine first, so you get your faith going quicker. The food bonus from fertility is also much better and much more consistent. The little bit of extra gold and tiny bit of extra faith from springtime is just not worth it to me. But even I don't know if its F, honestly I'm pretty happy with the pantheons now a days

 

[Noob Fanboy]

That extra gold can help a lot with early wars

 

[chicorbeef]

Yeah, gold is a big deal (both for poverty reductions and its raw value), and Goddess of Springtime is often pretty good at that.

 

[Stalker0]

Having played a lot of Terra starts, I still think the Explorer isn't cutting the mustard. The main reason for me...its not capable of handling the large number of barbarians it comes across in unexplored territory. Ultimately knights are far better in the role right now, not just because of mobility, but because they actually can deal with the red pain (see below).

My thought, instead of barb penalty, they should get a bonus. Give them the brute strength promotion from the warrior, and let them actually do more than just run away from barbs in new lands. They can be "little conquistadors"

 

[ryanmusante]

Having played a lot of Terra starts, I still think the Explorer isn't cutting the mustard. The main reason for me...its not capable of handling the large number of barbarians it comes across in unexplored territory.
View attachment 492825

That looks insane. Do you have raging barbarians turned on? That is a small island?

 

[Stalker0]

That looks insane. Do you have raging barbarians turned on? That is a small island?

Regular barbs. That’s just par for the course with my terra starts. Because there are no civs starting in the new world barbs accumulate over time. It’s one of the appeals actually of taming the new world. Not every island will be that bad, but waves of barbs is normal.

It just means explorers are utterly useless

 

[ryanmusante]

Regular barbs. That’s just par for the course with my terra starts. Because there are no civs starting in the new world barbs accumulate over time. It’s one of the appeals actually of taming the new world. Not every island will be that bad, but waves of barbs is normal.l

That sounds interesting, like the New World being colonized and the having to resist the waves of natives overtaking. How does the AI usually respond in Vox Populi? If the new continent requires distance traveling, do they land several units at a time? Is it a competition to take territory?

 

[Hinin]

That sounds interesting, like the New World being colonized and the having to resist the waves of natives overtaking. How does the AI usually respond in Vox Populi? If the new continent requires distance traveling, do they land several units at a time? Is it a competition to take territory?

I regularly play with that setting, since it allows some interesting games :

- In the early game, there is a lot of conflicts, since we are all gathered on the same continent, which makes only half the landmass of the map. Since everyone is cramped up, it allows some interesting European-styled gameplay : whenever someone can embark over the ocean, expeditions are prepared, and it is non-stop conflict with the barbarians of the new world. I remember a game with France, where my Musketeers had difficulties dealing with dozens of heavy skirmishers spawning all over the place.

- It changes the potency of some unique attribute quite a bit : the Spanish become even more powerful (with Zealotry, you'll invade the New World in no time), Polynesia is op (for obvious reasons), any civilization with a unique unit in the Renaissance era will obtain a significant advantage, since combat with A LOT of barbarians is to be expected, some "early game" UA become relevant again (Carthage, Shoshone with all the ruins, America and Russia will expand once again etc), and naval civilizations can also take the lead by forbidding access to the new world. A lot of fun I say.

- For the AI capacity to deal with such "unusual" settings (flood of bbs, necessity of organizing expeditions to create a foothold etc), I won't say it is the best, but, with enough time, it can create its colonies. It will just be a little later than for humans (maybe having the "chill barbarian" setting could allow the AIs to be more relevant in that kind of game).

In any cases, try this map at least once : the lack of space in the early game can create some tense situations, but just think about all these lands waiting for you beyond the horizon.

 

[tripleducky]

Here's a thought, just an opinion though. Wind plant vs hydro plant. In many situations, wind plant is a better option. It feels like you are being punished for settling rivers, which I feel like should not exactly be the case.

I mean, hydro plant may technically be the better choice overall, but for quick cash wind plant can't be beat.

Also, the "flooding" event you get next to rivers seems like it is cruel and unusual to me.

In both cases I feel like river settling is being punished. I may be wrong but I'm thinking the only benefit to settling on a river is the water mill and the baths. Shouldn't settling on rivers be a no brainer? Or should I be thinking about the above and settling one tile away?

I'm not totally sure if this is a valid complaint, but I've played like 10 games now and it still feels valid so I'd like to hear someone else's thoughts.

Edit: Actually I turned the bad events off but I now recall there being drought or something for non-river tiles so I guess that it probably balanced. But my point about the wind plant still stands.

 

[Bromar1]

Does anyone like Synagogues as a follower belief? I ferf like it is pointless unless you are already all in on a WLTKD strategy (China, Fealty, etc)

 

[tripleducky]

Also if I get a cap that has so many hills I can't put down a river farm triangle I feel like I need to remake.

 

[LukaSlovenia29]

Yeah, I'd too prefer if my river cities had a choice whether to build a hydro plant or a wind plant.

 

[Noob Fanboy]

Does anyone like Synagogues as a follower belief? I ferf like it is pointless unless you are already all in on a WLTKD strategy (China, Fealty, etc)

The building is balanced, you don't need to be china to use it. Just use great merchants

 

[CrazyG]

Do people like the new churches? I find they just don't payoff in many realistic scenarios. You need to build so many missionaries to make them payoff, are there commonly situations where building churches then missionaries actually spreads faster than just building missionaries? To gain on raw %, you need to build 20 missionaries after a church to gain on that dimension. However, its only relevant when that marginal 5% is what tips a city, which won't happen most of the time. And for your own cities, inquisitors are still better. So that 5% bonus matters only when in a tight religious competition for a foreign cities, where you are purchasing massive numbers of missionaries.

Even if the above happens, prophets or military seem like better solutions that diluting your own religion just to spread it. The extra passive pressure is nice, I'll give them that, but its an easy "F" for me. Am I I'm missing something?