Game mechanics differences from Civ

[ezzlar]

Why not add a thread about the mechanics in the game for those that are used to how it works in Civ? (And for those that are lazy enough not to read the manual). Some things I observed:

- Food and growth seem to differ? You stockpile food and it is used for units among other things.
- What is the point of citizens? It seems like the city gets the yields for all the improvements you build no matter how many/few citizens you have.
- If you build an improvement you can train a specialist on that plot by clicking on the green plus sign. The specialist then increases the yields already given and can add some more benefits as well. The specialist consumes one citizen. Is the specialist movable?
- What is the connection between all the units in the growth upper tab and growth? They just decrease growth? Deduct?
- Sometimes building costs are expressed as "Cost: XXX and Build: XXX". What are they refering to?
- Cities actually dont build stuff. Workers do. Cities mostly act as summon point for resource collection? And they build units of course.
- Many of the heir bonuses only apply if the heirs are used in positions as "leader" or "governor".

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Why not add a thread about the mechanics in the game for those that are used to how it works in Civ?

Looks like you just did

 

[Deggial]

I don't own the game and only can try to comment on these points due to Let's plays I've watched. So please take this with a grain of salt. (Maybe the comments are even obvious and therefore pointless. If so: Sorry for that.)

- Food and growth seem to differ? You stockpile food and it is used for units among other things.

As far as I know, food is not only used for the production of mostly civilian units, but also for the upkeep of your military units. This has to be confirmed, though.

- What is the point of citizens? It seems like the city gets the yields for all the improvements you build no matter how many/few citizens you have.
- If you build an improvement you can train a specialist on that plot by clicking on the green plus sign. The specialist then increases the yields already given and can add some more benefits as well. The specialist consumes one citizen. Is the specialist movable?

I think, you've answered your own question already. While citizen give minor benefits by their own, apparently you mainly need them to be trained as specialists. I don't think it can move after their assignement.
One of the "some more benefits" is the extension of the city's border around an applied specialist. This seems to be quite an imprtant point, imo.

 

[Loerwyn]

- Cities actually dont build stuff. Workers do. Cities mostly act as summon point for resource collection? And they build units of course.

No, cities do build things, but you can't from the start. You have your civilian and military units produced in a city, but as you progress in the tech tree you unlock things like 'Forum I', which are essentially like city centre buildings in Civ VI from what I can tell. They cost a value of stone and take a couple of years, but they add to your resource generation.

 

[Nikolai II]

I wrote an article on the game for Norwegian gaming site Spillhistorie.no today. It's in Norwegian, but I'll add a google translate for you. I go into the big changes compared to Civ in the early part.

Norwegian https://spillhistorie.no/2020/05/07/forsteinntrykk-old-world/

Google translated: https://translate.google.com/transl...torie.no/2020/05/07/forsteinntrykk-old-world/

 

[ezzlar]

Some more things I noticed:

- Cities use all tiles that have a yield. A tile wont have a yield unless you build an improvement. I like this part, number of citizens doesn´t make a difference here.
- When you build something in the city, the produced yield of that type (food, military shields or civic hammers) is used for construction. So a high yield increases production speed. The yields not used are added to your stockpile.
- Produced food and growth and two different factors
- What determines the time for workers to build something? Same for all same building types no matter where built? (excluding worker production time bonuses)

 

[tedhebert]

two thing, one clear and one I'm less sure:

- Farms ARE pretty much essential in this game. You need food for a lot of things. That's a nice change from CIV 6 ;-)
- Wood is also needed for a fairly important number of things, but... I'm having a lot of problem finding ways to get it outside of chopping and clearing continuously with my worker. Am I missing something ? a building that generates it automatically or something ? If not, I feel this will become very tedious very fast ! But, I'm still in my very first game, so it just might be a noob problem also ;-)

 

[SammyKhalifa]

two thing, one clear and one I'm less sure:

- Farms ARE pretty much essential in this game. You need food for a lot of things. That's a nice change from CIV 6 ;-)
- Wood is also needed for a fairly important number of things, but... I'm having a lot of problem finding ways to get it outside of chopping and clearing continuously with my worker. Am I missing something ? a building that generates it automatically or something ? If not, I feel this will become very tedious very fast ! But, I'm still in my very first game, so it just might be a noob problem also ;-)

lumbermills if i recall

 

[tedhebert]

lumbermills if i recall

Ok I probably need to research something specific then, and haven't had the chance or chose something else... thx

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Ok I probably need to research something specific then, and haven't had the chance or chose something else... thx

yeah I'm still at the point where I don't know what is where, or what does what at times.

 

[Loerwyn]

Ok I probably need to research something specific then, and haven't had the chance or chose something else... thx

Yeah, you can't generate wood resources until you get the lumbermill - it is in the tech tree, but the tech tree itself is more fluid and random than the fixed structure (but not pacing) of Civ's. You can harvest wood by chopping forests (20 wood) or scrub (10 wood - think I got the name right)

 

[tedhebert]

Yeah, you can't generate wood resources until you get the lumbermill - it is in the tech tree, but the tech tree itself is more fluid and random than the fixed structure (but not pacing) of Civ's. You can harvest wood by chopping forests (20 wood) or scrub (10 wood - think I got the name right)

yes I know about the chopping forest and scrubs... and yes you got the numbers right... but I havn't researched lumbermills yet, so I felt it's pretty annoying to have to chop all manually ;-) Not to mention very micro-management

 

[Loerwyn]

yes I know about the chopping forest and scrubs... and yes you got the numbers right... but I havn't researched lumbermills yet, so I felt it's pretty annoying to have to chop all manually ;-) Not to mention very micro-management

The game is very micro-management oriented! I suggested in Discord we be allowed to have some automation options, such as point-to-point road-building and units healing until at full health, and a bunch of people disagreed. I disagree with the disagreeing, because I think as an /option/ it's perfectly valid.

 

[Deggial]

I agree that a ‘heal until at full health’ option would be useful.
Especially, as it doesn’t oppose current game mechanics: workers consume one order per turn when building their projects. It would be completely reasonable to let healing units consume one order likewise.

 

[Casualty of war]

Old World Cities have three resources that determine their build speed on choices in that subcategory: Food (Green fruit,) Training (Red shields,) and Civics (Tan gavel.) You could specialize your cities, have a gavel-licious city that cranks out Archives in a blink, or you can you can diversify and balance. Tile developments and city build choices and Family alignment and Governor choice and Law selection are how you bring up those numbers.

Food is crucial. Wood is scarce until Lumbermills, so no point in beelining Archers first (made THAT mistake!) I have happily operated in the red financially by just selling off a surplus 100 Food per turn.

Old World is a descendant of CivIV and those skills translate, but CivV and CivVI are dramatically different demanding much different approaches and strategies. I'm having to unlearn and relearn quite a bit.

 

[ezzlar]

I dont find food that exciting. It is not used for building stuff but for feeding people and units. Civics on the other hand are used to train your building specialists and later to upgrade them, very important for every yield you want.

The on map harvesting by any unit could be removed. Far too much micromanagement for me, never using it.

 

[Loerwyn]

I agree that a ‘heal until at full health’ option would be useful.
Especially, as it doesn’t oppose current game mechanics: workers consume one order per turn when building their projects. It would be completely reasonable to let healing units consume one order likewise.

Exactly! The main argument against was it removes control over orders per turn, but building tile improvements does that anyway? The road one would function just like an improvement, and the healing one consumes the movement just as it would in Civ.

 

[Soren Johnson]

If you put a unit to sleep, it will wake up after passively healing to full health (1 HP/turn). An auto-heal that actually spends orders probably makes sense.

 

[Loerwyn]

If you put a unit to sleep, it will wake up after passively healing to full health (1 HP/turn). An auto-heal that actually spends orders probably makes sense.

Oh, that is a mechanic I didn't know! Thank you, Soren, I will be sure to use that in future.

 

[Abegweit]

If you put a unit to sleep, it will wake up after passively healing to full health (1 HP/turn). An auto-heal that actually spends orders probably makes sense.

Well, I rather like the current mechanic since I often will send a unit to war before it is fully healed. However a road-to function is badly needed. It really is annoying to have to move the worker and put down the road on every tile.

Speaking of "sleep", though, why it is in a sub-menu? That's even stranger for "pass". In a game like this, where you so often have to make a decision that you can't afford to spend an order on a particular unit, it should be right beside the "next unit" button. Split the space. Make a "next" button and a "pass" button right there.