Has anyone chosen a Dark Age legacy yet?

[elephantsidread]

I did the dark age in modern where you get reduced culture but build rail and factories doubletime. It was perfectly fine but it does force you in particular direction, you don't need much culture. I think that is a big flaw with modern that the civics tree is barely necessary, even for culture victory.

 

[Nikolai II]

Can't say I chosen it at all, no. Feels too limiting.

 

[elephantsidread]

Can't say I chosen it at all, no. Feels too limiting.

Some Dark Ages are interesting. I think the idea is that it is mean to create a sort of novel gameplay for an age to spice things up. Regrettably, currently they are not all quite so interesting but I see the potential.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

I did the dark age in modern where you get reduced culture but build rail and factories doubletime. It was perfectly fine but it does force you in particular direction, you don't need much culture. I think that is a big flaw with modern that the civics tree is barely necessary, even for culture victory.

I am playing a game at the moment (Rome > Norman) where I have a lot of territory and settlements but have completely ignored the distant lands. I think I will choose this economic dark age and America for the next Age, it looks worthwhile to me.

 

[Taefin]

Sounds very similar to my most recent game on Deity. I had 4 dark age options coming out of Exploration - I was Mongolia and consolidated my continent, finishing the Military path, but apparently you get a dark age option if you have 0 specialists haha.

Amina was so far ahead of me in every respect except settlement count that the economic dark age was actually a huge boost. With 18 settlements having an extra resource slot on every town was incredibly useful, and the cheap Rail/Factory purchases meant I could rush buy over a dozen of them within a couple of turns. With all my factory resources I was getting 40+ progress per turn. Ended up with a T67 economic victory...close thing too because Amina was 2/3 of the way to a science win.

I feel like I am 50% through exploration on this exact game. That dark age option is looking pretty shiny, since I won’t really need military or cultural legacy rewards. I’m tempted by the early planes too, except every game feels like getting early planes.

Edit: Update: I’m choosing this dark age. Since I got military golden age by conquering only HL settlements, the military rewards focused on creating units in DL settlements is zero, I already got the good military attributes. So it’s coming down to 2 science and 2 culture attributes, which are also less useful for my current game, vs a dark age that will help get factories online fast.

 

[marius_kaparius]

I'm still curious about what happens if you fail to score a legacy point in any category. During one of the preview streams it was hinted something special would happen. My daughter has started her first game of Civ ever and she seems content sending Hoplites around the map, I might find out

 

[Melkus]

Coming back to this - I had a Carthage game where science sources were very rare but the game turned out fine - this fits the case for a dark age, right?

But this is just not an option:



It wouldn't make sense anyway because I'm Ming now and I intend to use that - but that's not what I mean. With another civ, I might be more curious how this works. My leader Xerxes is all about culture.

What I mean is: why does it have to take ALL my legacy points? I also can't imagine any narrative that fits this bonus.
And it doesn't even say how big the boost might be. Meh.

 

[Vincent_lacruz]

Coming back to this - I had a Carthage game where science sources were very rare but the game turned out fine - this fits the case for a dark age, right?

But this is just not an option:

View attachment 723953

It wouldn't make sense anyway because I'm Ming now and I intend to use that - but that's not what I mean. With another civ, I might be more curious how this works. My leader Xerxes is all about culture.

What I mean is: why does it have to take ALL my legacy points? I also can't imagine any narrative that fits this bonus.
And it doesn't even say how big the boost might be. Meh.

Yeah, I really think dark ages are a big miss... They should have done something like this:
- If dark age selected => no golden age possible
- Per dark age selected => -1 legacy point in all other domains (cumulative, do not impact joker point)
- (Maybe?) allow to take two golden age in the next age transition ("epic age")

Because the idea of dark age is solid, to say "I was totally wrecked last age but I can somehow make a comeback" is interesting. But like it is done right now is even more a handicap, since losing ALL other hard earned bonuses is too crippling (attribute points are not only powerfull, they are required to perform at least correctly...)...

But it must be done correctly, because I agree that if the dark ages are too powerfull it could become the strategic way to botch one legacy path to gain a big boost...

 

[stealth_nsk]

Yeah, I really think dark ages are a big miss... They should have done something like this:
- If dark age selected => no golden age possible
- Per dark age selected => -1 legacy point in all other domains (cumulative, do not impact joker point)
- (Maybe?) allow to take two golden age in the next age transition ("epic age")

Because the idea of dark age is solid, to say "I was totally wrecked last age but I can somehow make a comeback" is interesting. But like it is done right now is even more a handicap, since losing ALL other hard earned bonuses is too crippling (attribute points are not only powerfull, they are required to perform at least correctly...)...

But it must be done correctly, because I agree that if the dark ages are too powerfull it could become the strategic way to botch one legacy path to gain a big boost...

I like dark ages as an option, so I disagree with the first part. I think dark age should allow spending legacy points in other paths, just in unique ways, not available for normal games. That way it could be done both interesting and balanced.

 

[Melkus]

It's a great idea that needs careful implementation and didn't get it, that's what I find a bit frustrating (but it can still be saved).

Let's say I push Persia into a corner and leave them at just one or two settlements in Antiquity, but they come back with two big horse armies as angry Mongolia in Exploration, declare war on everyone who harassed them and start pillaging your stuff.
That would be stunning and is the general idea, but is it what's happening in games? Has anyone told stories about this? No.

(Could also work the other way around ofc, but the game is not yet able to beat us up that badly, I think.)

 

[shaglio]

Due to a brain fart and inaccurate fingers, I accidentally picked the Modern Age dark age in my latest game (you get Flight at Combustion but.. something or other). You clearly wouldn't do it out of choice if trying to win fast, but it was kind of fun to get planes up that quickly and start bombing people.

I chose this in one of my games. I was going for a Science Victory and I didn’t built any settlements in Distant Lands. The Dark Age was that I unlocked Flight at Combustion (which helped me), but planes cost twice as much to build (whatever). I guess it worked because I wound up winning my Science Victory in the end. How much the Dark Age helped, I have know idea.

 

[Kurtbob]

I like that dark ages can be selected; options make games fun

Just a thought that popped in my head. Introduce dark ages under wildcard choices. If the player selects a non-wildcard darkage, they keep their legacy points; choose a wildcard one and lose all of your legacy points. Wildcard darkages are available if the player zeros out on multiple pathways; each wildcard dark age choice would be unique/flavored to the combined missed pathways...you could make them stronger (with an equally stong malice) based upon how many missed pathways they represent (four obvioulsy being the max).

Another thought: darkages unique/flavored towards the civ/leader you choose. They already have leader flavored legacy choices, so I don't think this would a stretch.