[GS] GS impressions/random observations thread.

[Trav'ling Canuck]

That doesn't figure to my experience where I won ties against several other civs, all having spent the freebie vote, and I had significantly more Favor banked than them.

I don't think we've been given a hint as to the tie-breaker is if everyone just voted only their freebie vote?

Since I've not seen anyone report losing such a vote, I'd guess the tie-breaker goes to the first civ (the player in single player), or alternately, as you supposed, to the civ with the most favour, since it seems that will usually also be the player.

Someone who plays multi-player might be better able to shed light on this.

 

[DWilson]

That doesn't figure to my experience where I won ties against several other civs, all having spent the freebie vote, and I had significantly more Favor banked than them.

If everyone uses the free vote, then everyone spent 0% of their favor, and the tiebreaker fails. I am currently guessing the second tiebreaker is player order, but I cannot be sure without testing.

Ninja'd

 

[Starwars]

Does anyone else have occasional troubles when recomissioning Nuclear Plants? Like when I finish the project, it does nothing. The age of the reactor stays the same. But other times it "goes through" and works properly.

 

[Kibikus]

Does anyone else have occasional troubles when recomissioning Nuclear Plants? Like when I finish the project, it does nothing. The age of the reactor stays the same. But other times it "goes through" and works properly.

Yes, I saw that in my last game. Sometimes the project would work, and would reset the reactor age to 0, and sometimes the project would finish, but the age would remain the same and continue increasing. By the way, does anyone know at what age there starts to be danger of an accident? I saw that one of my reactors reached age 12, but I have no idea how dangerous that is.

 

[Disgustipated]

LOL I'm battling Eleanor France right now and her cities are weak as kittens except for 1 city at strength 79 (which has the Garde Impériale inside). I don't understand why. Is this just buggy or am I not understanding something about the city strength mechanism? She should not have a 10 strength city.

Spoiler :

 

[Morningcalm]

Observations:

1. World Congress is much disliked and now I know why. You can't really *choose* the resolutions. Sure, you can pick from between two options in each category, but you can't pick the category. Not only does this make Diplomatic Victory more luck-based than it ought to be, but it means you get frustrating situations really early where entire amenities are lost because even the AI allies of yours decided they don't like your luxury.

2. The World War scenario is actually a multiplayer mod, not a single-player scenario, so it cannot be accessed directly from the Scenarios menu. I spent a long time looking for it. I guess the only way to get the achievements is to play it multiplayer and win? Can you simply host a multiplayer scenario with all AI opponents to get them?

3. It's tough to play as Eleanor--the loyalty-based bonus of hers is simply too small scale to really topple enemy capitals, even with spy revolt missions succeeding, Amani and her promotion, etc. I think it's luck-of-the-draw in part, and requires a lot of food to exert truly strong loyalty pressure (along with Bread and Circuses projects). I'd be glad if someone could do a strategy write-up on her. In the meantime I'm contemplating doing a (brief) historical analysis of her for my Civ: Game vs. History thread.

4. The main menu is nicely animated compared to the Rise and Fall menu, but the music remains the same, which is unfortunate.

5. The new civ abilities (esp. Inca and Maori) are so long-winded and require so much analysis. I am still really annoyed that the loading screen for civs does not include details on the unique unit(s) and unique infrastructure(s), which requires looking at the Civilopedia in-game. Because the Civilopedia....

6. The Civilopedia is STILL inaccessible from the main menu.

7. Games still can end really early (Cultural Victory). No idea what the devs were talking about when making victories maybe take longer. I still haven't played a game where it dragged out to the Future era. Usually long before that, I've won (and this is on Higher Difficulties, like Immortal and Emperor. I no longer do Deity due to how frustrating it is, even when the AI remain easy to defeat).

8. The AI is still really easy to beat. Militarily, they don't seem to focus units effectively enough. I've seen units dawdle around my weakened city without taking it all too many times.

Despite these gripes, I like the expansion so far. The new civs are quite fun to play, even Canada, whose inclusion I deeply resent (still). But Laurier is a fun opponent and he almost makes up for it (much the same as Curtin *almost* makes up for the farce of Australia's inclusion over Maya, Ethiopia, etc). The disasters are neat as well.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I want a pantheon that will let you throw workers into a volcano for faith

For the sacrifice to mean something, shouldn't it be a Governor or a Great People?

Sacrificing Hypatia to the Gods would actually be as close as the game ever came to being realistic. . .

 

[Infixo]

I am still really annoyed that the loading screen for civs does not include details on the unique unit(s) and unique infrastructure(s), which requires looking at the Civilopedia in-game.

Better Loading Screen.

 

[Sagax]

7. Games still can end really early (Cultural Victory). No idea what the devs were talking about when making victories maybe take longer. I still haven't played a game where it dragged out to the Future era. Usually long before that, I've won (and this is on Higher Difficulties, like Immortal and Emperor. I no longer do Deity due to how frustrating it is, even when the AI remain easy to defeat).

Try Diplomatic Victory. Hate me later.

 

[Greasy Dave]

Does the royal society still allow you to use builder charges to rush Space projects? I'm trying to rush the mars haibation project, placed the builder on the space district and ..nothing? No option to increase the project production. Am I missing something?

 

[Starwars]

Does the royal society still allow you to use builder charges to rush Space projects? I'm trying to rush the mars haibation project, placed the builder on the space district and ..nothing? No option to increase the project production. Am I missing something?

It still works, not sure what could be happening there.

 

[PhilBowles]

Started a game as Hungary yesterday, it's just ridiculous.

My capital is in the green spot. I got a scout from a goody hut ~T3 and the rest is history. Kupe had met 2 CS first and Curtin 2 down south, but I got 5. Luckily, I also got the crazy barbarian spawning thing, so there's always enough gold to levy.

Based on that map, my first thought was "Why did you start as Hungary on Borneo?"

My new start initially looked poor, as I spawned in completely open grassland - but I was a couple of moves away from a decent site with mountains and volcanoes, exploration revealed I was on a narrow island stretching along the entire west end of the map from north to south and completely alone except for five city states, one of which is Bologna. As I'm Sweden, that's a match made in heaven - I also got a quick pantheon off Nazca plus a goody hut relic - Divine Spark, naturally, in the circimstances, so once I have libraries up each of my campuses (one complete, one under construction) will generate 4 GS points a turn by around turn 50-60 assuming I get the third envoy with Bologna in time.

Sweden doesn't look to be quite the GP factory it is in Civ V, but with this start it might come close.

 

[Zaarin]

PSA: If you plan to befriend Mansa Musa, be mentally prepared to experience this every other turn:

View attachment 518486

Creepiest. Laugh. Ever. I've really grown to hate Mansa Musa.

I mean I guess their reasoning is "hey we don't have a preferred Jewish religion Civ yet, but Phoenicia is probably close enough."

I'm sure it is, but it's also completely wrong.

 

[Red_warning]

Getting Gaius Duilius as an admiral as Phoenicia, oh wow.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I'm sure it is, but it's also completely wrong.

That's why religions should just be randomly chosen.

 

[darkace77450]

The Police State policy card is gone. I wonder what prompted its removal.

 

[AriochIV]

Getting Gaius Duilius as an admiral as Phoenicia, oh wow.

I did too!

The Police State policy card is gone. I wonder what prompted its removal.

I'm guessing no one used it. I know I never did.

 

[Siptah]

The geographical naming is bugged. I just started a game as Hungary, and the volcano that I can see from the start is named Damawand (a volcano in Iran). Persia isn't anywhere to be seen nearby, I guess it somehow named it after the last civ I played as... or is there really now volcano for Hungary on the list?

 

[Karmah]

Uluru + Petra + Nazca Lines + Cahokia Mounds + Giant Heads

This is a game of civ BE right?

 

[BenitoChavez]

3. It's tough to play as Eleanor--the loyalty-based bonus of hers is simply too small scale to really topple enemy capitals, even with spy revolt missions succeeding, Amani and her promotion, etc. I think it's luck-of-the-draw in part, and requires a lot of food to exert truly strong loyalty pressure (along with Bread and Circuses projects). I'd be glad if someone could do a strategy write-up on her. In the meantime I'm contemplating doing a (brief) historical analysis of her for my Civ: Game vs. History thread.

I had great success flipping cities in my Eleanor game. I conquered 4/7 AIs in my immortal game before I accidentally won a culture victory. This is my quick and dirty guide.

I basically built a theater district in every city, got the divine spark pantheon, had founded a religion and got cathedrals and the belief that allowed me to purchase Theater/Campus buildings with faith. That gave me lots of GWAM points and plenty of space to put Great Works. With only those buildings each city can hold 7 GWs each. If you have 2 cities in range of an opponents city that's -14 loyalty for them. 3 cities is -21 loyalty. That plus using spies to remove governors and reduce loyalty even further was generally enough to flip most cities, even very high pop ones. For spies I leveled them up by stealing gold and once they were maxed out on promotions I sent them to nearby cities I wanted to flip, sending two spies to a city, one to remove governors while the other spammed reduce loyalty missions.

I found Theaters and Holy Sites to be the most important districts to build in every city with a few Campuses to keep up in science. Entertainment districts and the Bread & Circus promotion can help flip cities but I found it mostly unnecessary as long as I had enough GWs. Similarly building lots of farms for high pop cities can help as does having golden ages but again GWs and spies were the main thing. Building the Oracle is also really helpful for great people points. Other wonders with GW slots I built in border cities and chopped them out with Magnus, but if you don't get those wonders it isn't a huge deal. Using apostles and missionaries to convert enemy cities can also help exert more loyalty pressure.

Once I flipped a city I used the religion governor (forget his name) to faith buy Theaters and Holy Sites and faith buy buildings within them using my religious beliefs (faith generation was really important). Then I moved all my GWs into the newly flipped cities and also sent my spies to a new city I wanted to flip. Rinse and repeat to conquer the world.