First Civ that's too easy to be playable :(

[Kutuzov]

But they had the base of Civ5 to work with for this game, the fully patched and expanded Civ5 base, not vanilla. Did they learn nothing from the last release, not to mention the expectations that the NEXT game would be better than the last, or at least, nearly equal? A few minor little issues, I could totally understand and could care less about, what we have here is a massive colossal epic disaster.

As soon as you know how to play, that is, how to win, you can not avoid winning and there is absolutely no challenge in doing so even on the most difficult setting.

Funnily enough, you will find that your experience playing Civ games will also help you to dominate other 4x games of a similar nature very quickly too. While they may have some innovative ideas, the basic principles, 4x, remain the same which enables you to play a new 4x title on a fairly high difficulty level very quickly after purchase.

 

[Ghost_Nappa]

Indeed. A basic feature is pretty well useless if the AI can't use it properly. The Tech Web is interesting but it utterly befuddles the AI then perhaps they need to change it.

I like how the game gives me options for almost every kind of situation. It makes it really fun to play for me. Way more than CIV V or every other CIV (for that matter) before ever was. Changing that - what I see as an improvement - to somewhat counter the weaknesses of the AI, would be a major setback imho.

 

[Darvon]

The tech web is one big trap-choice. Everything that isn't directly leading to an affinity boost is wasted time.

The whole thing could be replaced with a single button that gives you an affinity point every x beakers without losing many meaningful decisions.

As for the guy that said the AI can win by turn 240. You can domination win well before that just by spamming t4 affinity units from your -400 health superwide empire. No bonus hammers/food from trade required (It doesn't matter that they take 4 turns to build instead of 1 when you've got dozens of cities with nothing better to do)

 

[m15a]

The tech web is one big trap-choice. Everything that isn't directly leading to an affinity boost is wasted time.

Pioneering?

 

[kirbdog]

actually turning off staggered starts hurts the AI... those factions that land later than you, get more military to start, along with workers, and science boost.

Have the slavs land last beside you, and you will be attacked.

Compare to Civ V, where the opponents got similar bonuses on turn 1.

You may be right. I don't know. But more power on turn 1 is what the AI needs...

 

[kirbdog]

You can domination win well before that just by spamming t4 affinity units from your -400 health superwide empire. No bonus hammers/food from trade required

I agree with you; the game as it is ... pretty broken.

But then it's made that way so that it can, hopefully, be fixed. You know, the exigencies of rushed production so that the people at Firaxis can eat, kinda thing.

Mods (or an official patch) can do more than remove trade routes and will do more than they already do now... the game hasn't been out for 2 weeks.

If you will forgive the shameless pimping, you might enjoy trying a game with the mod in my sig, which already takes measures against t4 affinity units and negative health empires. Or you might not; up to you what to do with your purchase.

 

[CraigMak]

Yep, the AI is garbage, the game is broken and severely imbalanced. The AI is completely useless on every difficulty. Multiplayer is massively luck based as well as chocked full of imbalanced OP strats.

The tech web is pointless because all you do is tech to whatever gives you your chosen affinity. All else is irrelevant except affinity.

But looking back at Vanilla Civ 5, it was pretty horrible as well. They have a long way to go with this game. Lets hope they actually get there.

 

[Lanth]

@ OP (and others) -

I read the first page of the thread, but not 2 or 3, so this may have already been brought up.

Are you playing the vanilla game with the stupidly overpowered trade routes? If so, then you should try playing a mod that balances them out better, and see if it's still such a cakewalk. I'd suggest BeBa, which also has some unspecified 'AI changes' (XML changes ported from CiV5) that could spice things up a bit too.

 

[bhavv]

Well in my last game Elodie did astonishingly well. Second place score, conquered two AIs, and even surprisingly won somehow. She was right next to me so I reloaded and sent a couple of Angels to demolish her cities, only to find that they couldn't capture the cities so I'll just start a new game.

I was too busy getting every single wonder built in my capital as I normally do, and I managed that and got the achievement at last, and also my first game played to over 300 turns.

 

[Algeroth]

But they had the base of Civ5 to work with for this game, the fully patched and expanded Civ5 base, not vanilla. Did they learn nothing from the last release, not to mention the expectations that the NEXT game would be better than the last, or at least, nearly equal? A few minor little issues, I could totally understand and could care less about, what we have here is a massive colossal epic disaster.

As soon as you know how to play, that is, how to win, you can not avoid winning and there is absolutely no challenge in doing so even on the most difficult setting.

Stramge. For Civ5 the had the whole patched and expanded Civ4 and Civ5 still turned out the way it turned out.

 

[BlueTemplar]

Indeed. A basic feature is pretty well useless if the AI can't use it properly. The 4X genre is interesting but it utterly befuddles the AI then perhaps they need to stop making complex games.

FTFY. You see the issue with this reasoning?

The tech web is one big trap-choice. Everything that isn't directly leading to an affinity boost is wasted time.

I feel this is mostly the balance issue of lvl4 affinity units being overpowered in combination with an AI that can't fight its way out of a miasmatic canyon wet paper bag.

I can see several interesting techs that don't care about what your chosen affinity is to be powerful :
- Pioneering, obviously
- Planetary Survey + Biochemistry + Biology if there's a lot of Algae/Coral nearby
- Alien Sciences + Genetic Design + Alien Genetics if there's a lot of Xenomass nearby (you need only lvl2 Harmony to build these buildings).
- In general, all the tile improvement boosts (that don't require specific resources) like the +1 Food to Farms from Ectogenesis pod.

 

[Mecatronico]

and also my first game played to over 300 turns.

And here I found why my opinion of this game is so different of the rest of the board, I dont remember of ever winning a game in less than 300 turns in any Civ, I almost never go for domination but even when I do I first tech all the way up, in Civ V I always stay put build everthing everywhere and only move after I can build nukes and until then I didnt build any military units unless someone Dow me, this way I lost cities and have difficult going after the AI that by the time have a huge Empire and modern army. Of course this is faaar from optimal play and I never won on imortal but I am happy with my game and have fun. Now, I know BE is broken and need pachs but some people in this boards, not necessarily the one I Quoted, need to see that you are CivFanatics the top of the fanbase of course any Civ will bem easier for you than for an average Joe like me.

 

[Adjuvant]

I think in this state/version, apollo is too easy, too, but this is going to be echoed by 20,000 dedicated fans of turn based strategy 4x. What about the other 300k people you'll never hear from on these forums, to whom they want to sell the game.

It's not hard to kill a player in any game. If the designer so wished, they could implement one command, bang, you are dead. The challenge is to make that little bit of resistance to make the game fun, to make it seem the player is struggling to a satisfying win. I have all confidence that is coming in time.

In time...

...but as I said, there are people playing to whom soyuz is incomprehensible. So where is the middle ground? I believe they are working on it. These guys improve all their games over time.

 

[Dirk1302]

Civ5 is too easy too. I have recently taken that one up and i think it's fairly good now although nowhere near Civ4. You can see it in the posts there, it's all about how soon science or domination is reached on deity instead of if a victory is possible at all.

Apparently Firaxis targets a broad public now who can all boast to each other how they can all can play deity. Pity.

 

[Adjuvant]

Even if there are 500 people bragging competing to win deity faster, that is not broad public. You're looking through a lens of people who participate on a fansite, here.

 

[Dirk1302]

Even if there are 500 people bragging competing to win deity faster, that is not broad public. You're looking through a lens of people who participate on a fansite, here.

Yeah well the issue is that nerving the higher difficulties is not neccessary. I know the complaint from the past: "They made deity too difficult with all the ridiculous bonuses". So what play emperor or whatever. But apparently Firaxis listens to these people and well maybe i would have done that too if i had to make a living out of selling a game. But this has ruined it for me, i don't want to be able to play deity after ~50 hours of play.

 

[ErichRommel]

Yeah well the issue is that nerving the higher difficulties is not neccessary. I know the complaint from the past: "They made deity too difficult with all the ridiculous bonuses". So what play emperor or whatever. But apparently Firaxis listens to these people and well maybe i would have done that too if i had to make a living out of selling a game. But this has ruined it for me, i don't want to be able to play deity after ~50 hours of play.

Cant be more true! People complaining that its not challenging and "balanced" arent the majority and should never be catered exclusively! I dont care if you play deity Civ 5 all the time, i wanna have fun gaming and not making it a hardcore "work" experience. BE may have some minor flaws but all in all is a great game and im sure with a patch or two will be even better! So all "hardcore" no challenge players stop complaining your just making yourself look nerdy

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[GAGA Extrem]

I feel this is mostly the balance issue of lvl4 affinity units being overpowered in combination with an AI that can't fight its way out of a miasmatic canyon wet paper bag..

It's more of an issue of tying the 3 of 5 victory conditions to Affinity levels. Once you have the key early and mid game techs there is no reason to grab anything but Affinity techs - because you will never recoup the science cost before you end the game. Just like you usually ignore the lower part of the CIV5 tech tree when you go for a science victory.

 

[Bkeela]

I've just started Apollo and although I can imagine once one has half a dozen or more cities pumping out trade routes that victory is assured, but I can't even get to that point. Typically the AI will spam cities which limits my own ability to spread, then there are outposts which limit me even more. Meanwhile I kill aliens to earn science, but by the time I've scraped together a few affinity upgrades, AI cities with Tacjets don't even let me get close.

I'd like to see some LP videos of these geniuses playing so that I too might learn to laugh my way to an effortless Apollo victory.

 

[ErichRommel]

I've just started Apollo and although I can imagine once one has half a dozen or more cities pumping out trade routes that victory is assured, but I can't even get to that point. Typically the AI will spam cities which limits my own ability to spread, then there are outposts which limit me even more. Meanwhile I kill aliens to earn science, but by the time I've scraped together a few affinity upgrades, AI cities with Tacjets don't even let me get close.

I'd like to see some LP videos of these geniuses playing so that I too might learn to laugh my way to an effortless Apollo victory.

Absolutely! Playing on sojuz the AI puts up a good challenge. They expand fast and when your in the way DoW and attach at once. So either quoted wins with "no" military pressure at all have been on isolated islands or these pps play a different game ^^.