[GS] GS impressions/random observations thread.

[MrRadar]

So it appears, you must build railroads on your city tiles too, cities don't get them automatically, like in the olden times. They get roads, but not railroads. Unless you build them with ME, they stay at 0.5 movement points.
I... I don't know what to say.

50 points from Gryffindor!!!

 

[Siptah]

So it appears, you must build railroads on your city tiles too, cities don't get them automatically, like in the olden times. They get roads, but not railroads. Unless you build them with ME, they stay at 0.5 movement points.
I... I don't know what to say.

50 points from Gryffindor!!!

This is really stupid and nonsensical. The only reason I can think of is the resource consumption. But is this enough for such an unintuitive handling?

 

[Starwars]

You actually flipped a city state? I've never been close, though haven't played Eleanor yet. I keep hearing it's possible, but to me it's still this mythical thing.

Yes, though I was into the Modern Era and my cities were pretty much surrounding them at that point and I was focusing heavily on getting great works. They started flipping one by one. I was very surprised when I saw the "loyalty faltering" icon on the first one, haha.

I've never flipped a citystate with any other leader.

 

[MrRadar]

This is really stupid and nonsensical. The only reason I can think of is the resource consumption. But is this enough for such an unintuitive handling?

Ok, now that I'm back from the Grand Canyon, where I've done some relaxing screaming, I sort of remember that was the case in the original Civ, Civ 1 that is. There you had to build even roads on your city tiles, iirc. So we're back to the roots, in a way.

Yes, strategic resources may be one of the reasons as well, it does not help though that at the moment only coal is consumed while building railroad anywhere, the iron reserve stays the same, probably bugged.
But anyway, at least cities covered by the Factory influence zone could get them by default, is that too much to ask?

 

[Jaybe]

This is really stupid and nonsensical. The only reason I can think of is the resource consumption. But is this enough for such an unintuitive handling?

The only thing nonsensical about it is that it is totally different than the traditional way it has been done. Players have to 1) learn about it and 2) adjust to the change.

Yes, documenting or informing us of it beforehand would have been better.

 

[TomeTraveler]

Yes, though I was into the Modern Era and my cities were pretty much surrounding them at that point and I was focusing heavily on getting great works. They started flipping one by one. I was very surprised when I saw the "loyalty faltering" icon on the first one, haha.

I've never flipped a citystate with any other leader.

In my Freleanor game I flipped Buenos Aires late in the game, well after flipping the two Canadian cities that were my only other prey. Buenos Aires was unintentional, I didn't even notice it was faltering in loyalty until they defected to me.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I guess the quote doesn't depend on if it passes...

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Firaxis artist shares concept art:

https://twitter.com/KatNicoleB/status/1098760085961101312?s=19

 

[Pietato]

I don't think Auckland was changed. Its bonuses just became more important becuase of seasteads, offshore wind farms, etc making you want to work water tiles more. Auckland effected lakes in R&F too

Shows how often I settle near lakes. Always found them useless for the civs I use.

If Eleanor flips a city-state, can you refuse/free them?

 

[TomKQT]

This is really stupid and nonsensical. The only reason I can think of is the resource consumption. But is this enough for such an unintuitive handling?

It's maybe not intuitive for an old Civ player, but IMHO it makes sense, especially considering that now you have to pay for each railroad tile - so why should city tiles be free? You have to buid railroads also in cities, don't you?

It would be stupid if railroads didn't appear automatically in cities and you couldn't build them there. Which could have easily happened, considering how many bugs similar to this one is Firaxis's QA team able to ignore.

 

[Karmah]

Ok, now that I'm back from the Grand Canyon, where I've done some relaxing screaming, I sort of remember that was the case in the original Civ, Civ 1 that is. There you had to build even roads on your city tiles, iirc. So we're back to the roots, in a way.

God this flash! You're si right, I remember now building a road and an irrigation on the tile with the settler before settling.

 

[KayAU]

I finally managed to finish my first GS game, with Pachacuti, by achieving a science victory. My thoughts:

• The natural disasters add a nice bit of flavor to the game. The default setting of 2 seems about right for me.
• Pillaging is really powerful now, and I like it. I played mostly peacefully, but used pillaging during some emergencies to cripple my opponents and gain large amounts of faith, science and gold. I like that I can get so much without the need to capture cities.
• The World Congress is fun, but not quite the game changer I had hoped for. I miss the ability to make proposals.
• I appreciate the new resource system, and also the new power system.
• Canals are also really fun.
• The future techs are somewhat...barebones. Upgrading the GDR is okay, but I consider it a bit of fun and flavor, more than an actually useful unit. I wish the techs unlocked more interesting things. Seasteads are good, though.
• Roads and railroads look rather messy now, with dead ends sticking out everywhere.
• Named terrain features on the map are really lovely.
• Pachacuti is a really powerful leader, although he is a bit dependent on having the right terrain.
• The Terrace Farm is one of the best unique tile improvements in the game, especially considering that it is available right from the start.
• Overall game difficulty is still really low on King. As I finished, I was leading on my closest competitor by 27 techs, and had a higher score than my next 3 competitors combined. I was only a few turns away from a culture victory. I had 7/10 points for diplomatic victory, and vast amounts of favor.
• In this game, I lost my second city at a point when I was completely dominant, to a Rock Band! That was really weird. It flipped back later, of course.
• I like the new science victory. While it takes a while to get there, there is at least some interactivity to try and speed up the mission.
• The game still drags on long after it has been decided, but it is mitigated to some extent by having more things to do in the late game, such as creating canals, managing power, using rock bands, and so on.
• Offshore windmills are amazing, and very spammable.
• I appreciate being able to to Carbon Recapture and Laser Station projects in the endgame. It feels somewhat satisfying to do projects which directly translate to cleaning up your mess and speeding up the victory.

Overall, I am really happy with this expansion. There are certainly things which could be improved, but it adds a lot, and I consider it well worth the price.

EDIT:
One point forgot to mention:

• Pachacuti's bias to spawn near mountains means he is also likely to spawn near a continental border. This means a free tech boost, and opportunities with certain policy cards.

 

[Pietato]

In this game, I lost my second city at a point when I was completely dominant, to a Rock Band! That was really weird. It flipped back later, of course.

Indie rock promotion drops a city's loyalty by 50. If two with this promotion play the same city in the same turn, it flips to free the next turn. It is crazy.

 

[Uberfrog]

Firaxis artist shares concept art:

https://twitter.com/KatNicoleB/status/1098760085961101312?s=19

I really enjoyed seeing Kat and Grant on the livestream talking about the art and animation. I love seeing this concept art and the slight alternate versions of each leader. I think all the leaders in GS are excellent.

 

[Karmah]

• Overall game difficulty is still really low on King. As I finished, I was leading on my closest competitor by 27 techs, and had a higher score than my next 3 competitors combined. I was only a few turns away from a culture victory. I had 7/10 points for diplomatic victory, and vast amounts of favor.

Time to move up

 

[blue heron]

Yesterday played my 2nd game, this time with French Eleanor. Where my first game had no barbs at all, in this one they are everywhere. At the beginning this is fun, but after a time two things become clear: there are constant Golden Ages due to all era scores from clearing barbarian camps near your cities (also for the AI btw) and the AI is no military threat to me, since everyone's units are busy killing barbs.

 

[Victoria]

Some of Kupe's lines are too slang-y for my tastes

This is what confuses me... It is Kupe from back then for a start, not a modern leader.
Elders do not tend to speak like Kupe even now.
Kupe is speaking the language of the Maori on the street and I feel this is where Firaxis fell down a bit.
Regardless, I am just gob smacked by this civ's design, I am struggling to not play more games with them.
Current game is Maori, I want to build up maraes so I can rush to cold war and win a CV purely on Maori rock bands... after all a marae gives me culture and faith... perfect.
However I was just thinking how would the Maori's go on an inland sea map...Normally there is one natural wonder central and there is a lot of jungle. Their ability to be faster on water allows the large pond to sort of be a portal.

 

[knighterrant81]

What? For me it's the opposite, wipeing a civ adds a ton of grievances on all civs against me. Capturing the last city of a civ is like -150 grievances with everybody

Yeah I don't really know what is up. It could have been something else, or maybe a bug. All I know is I was conquering Scotland and everyone hated me, and I remember thinking "oh this is just like the warmonger system, can't touch anyone without the world ganging up on you" then I finished them off and things were all better all of a sudden. Maybe it wasn't the grievances, maybe it was a bug, I don't know. Later Egypt and Poland did launch a counterattack on me.

You certainly are, just going into detail on them now in another thread. Even if your rock band dies it will give you a point toward victory if you targeted your main CV rival. If your bands survive and start playing wonders you can shave 5-10 turns off with each concert, quite scary.

That's good to know, but I wish the game did a better job of showing it - see my comment about the UI.

 

[KayAU]

Time to move up

Yes, you are right of course. I have played and won on Deity before, but I don't enjoy it as much. The problem isn't that it is too difficult, but rather that I feel it limits my playstyle. I like playing peacefully and building lots of wonders, but on Deity, I feel pressured to play very effectively, and exploit the AIs spectacular military incompetence. I really wish the difficulty was created more by the AI getting smarter, rather than just giving it massive bonuses. I think it is possible to create a reasonably competent AI without it costing too much, as I seem to remember that the Vox Populi mod for accomplished this for Civ 5.

Anyway, I am steamrolling the AI a bit too much now. Perhaps I'll knock it up to Emperor, at least.

 

[kaltorak]

Yes, you are right of course. I have played and won on Deity before, but I don't enjoy it as much. The problem isn't that it is too difficult, but rather that I feel it limits my playstyle. I like playing peacefully and building lots of wonders, but on Deity, I feel pressured to play very effectively, and exploit the AIs spectacular military incompetence. I really wish the difficulty was created more by the AI getting smarter, rather than just giving it massive bonuses. I think it is possible to create a reasonably competent AI without it costing too much, as I seem to remember that the Vox Populi mod for accomplished this for Civ 5.

Anyway, I am steamrolling the AI a bit too much now. Perhaps I'll knock it up to Emperor, at least.

Same as me. I play 1 or 2 difficulties lower than I can manage always, bc I like to play it like an empire, not like a game I need to win. I dont rpg and I still play to win, but I do it like I feel like in each moment, not always with the victory in mind.