[GS] I still don't like the Future Era.

[darkace77450]

Gathering Storm has been out for a month now, and while there's much to love about the expansion, the Future Era still feels superfluous to me. I was hoping it would grow on me as I played the expansion more, that I'd warm up to what the Future Era offers, but that's not happening.

Yes, it extends the length of the game a bit, but does it make the late game any funner? I don't feel the new Science Victory is anymore exciting than the previous iteration. The opposite is true, in fact; I'd personally rather launch the Mars colonization mission and be done with the game. Similarly, Diplomatic Victories drag on a bit longer than I feel they need to because they're balanced around an extra era.

Climate change is a bit of an unbalanced mess, so the late game techs that reduce carbon emissions are of limited use. And because I play Civilization in no small part because of its historical theme, things like Giant Death Robots are sorts of additions I hoped to never see in the game.

Are you guys getting more enjoyment out of the Future Era than I am?

 

[LMT]

One of the best things about the new SV is that once a civ launches their exoplanet expedition, there's nothing you can do to stop it. Previously, you could always use spies to slow down or even completely halt a SV by another civ, but now you can only do that up to a certain point.

I just finished a fun game as Freleanor. Willelmina had sent her expedition and just won the International Space Station project. It was a race against the clock. I had to scrounge every last bit of faith I had to buy rock bands to win a CV. And really, I have no idea what I'm doing with CVs. I almost never play for them.

But my point is that I actually had a sense of urgency to win ASAP. Winning did not feel inevitable, even though I had a huge empire and a ton of tourism.

Oh, and I had a chance at a DV just before the end of the Space Station competition. I had 9 points and so much favor that I was sure I was going to win then. But no, the AI did the smart thing and voted me to lose a point.

Not all of my late games have been like this, but I do think they're more interesting.

 

[Aristos]

One of the best things about the new SV is that once a civ launches their exoplanet expedition, there's nothing you can do to stop it. Previously, you could always use spies to slow down or even completely halt a SV by another civ, but now you can only do that up to a certain point.

You can still make sure the SS takes 50 turns to get there, but with the SP-wide strategy the AI uses, it's not easy (but fun).

Then again, if you let them launch, you probably deserve the loss.

 

[Zinowolf]

One of the best things about the new SV is that once a civ launches their exoplanet expedition, there's nothing you can do to stop it.
.

You can wipe them out and that is easy. Once they have launched, bomb any remaining space ports and then just obliterate them. You will have 50 turns which is more than enough time.

 

[FenrisWolf456]

I like the new tier of Governments and appreciate the flexibility they offer and that they provide strong bonuses and actual maluses. I know it's against the design ideals of the game, to not have negative impacts on the player, but I do think that having some drawbacks on choices make them more interesting to consider.

But the rest of the future technologies and civics seem rather sparse. I don't mind the GDR being part of things again, but I do feel it was a mistake to just go with techs being upgrades to a single unit that you may not even end up using. You just end up developing tech just because. It really feels like they could have done a lot more, especially in regards to the climate change mechanics. Where are things like bio-fuels and clean energy (perhaps an alternative to the farm that produces less food but fuel for a bio-fuel reactor). We have Seasteads, but why not something for research or culture, or a way of supporting a district (we have man-made islands as it is now). I also feel that space ports and the whole science victory are under-utilized. There's the whole ISS 'competition', but why can't a civ not put up their own space station for science gains, or for something like a telecommunication grid to develop more culture? Or even the idealized Star Wars program to defend against incoming nukes.

It just all feels half-developed. Perhaps there just wasn't time to develop more. Or they didn't want to burden the art team with even more units and tile buildings (they've done a stellar job for this xpac as it is) ... I still think the Terrestrial Laser should be, you know, actually on the ground, and be an actual building attached to a space port.

But they did sort of hint that a lot of this was still in the testing phase to see how things work. So perhaps there will be some tweaks or additions to come in the future.

 

[Disgustipated]

I find the era okay, I like seasteds.

I do have one question. How does the carbon recapture project work? I can't tell if it's even doing anything.

 

[FenrisWolf456]

I find the era okay, I like seasteds.

I do have one question. How does the carbon recapture project work? I can't tell if it's even doing anything.

It's a project you can run in an industrial zone. Once completed, you are rewarded with some diplomatic favour, and a small amount of your overall CO2 contribution is taken away from your total. It would have to be something you do a fair number of times to have any real impact on things.

 

[acluewithout]

I'm amazed the future techs don't buff any others units apart from the GDR. You'd think maybe Mechanised Infantry would get additional movement from Cybernetics, or Modern Armours would get additional defence from Smart Materials.

But yeah, Future Tech is disappointing. It's disappointing there's not much actually there beyond the Tier 4 Governments and GDR. And then it's disappointing again, because you basically never get to the Future Era because the game's pacing is so whack.

Sigh.

 

[Sagax]

The Civic tree is somewhat interesting - rarely relevant, but those civics can be fun to experiment with.

The tech tree is rubbish, though. Having most of the future techs solely about one single late game unit, and hiding one single SV tech among them just feels like forced extension to the SV. Meanwhile, players chasing other victory conditions (except for DipV) are playing RnF with random floods and hurricanes.

I do have one question. How does the carbon recapture project work? I can't tell if it's even doing anything.

Each time you complete it, you remove 50 points of your accumulated emission. In the late game where you usually have thousands of emission points. So yeah....

 

[Sostratus]

It's a project you can run in an industrial zone. Once completed, you are rewarded with some diplomatic favour, and a small amount of your overall CO2 contribution is taken away from your total. It would have to be something you do a fair number of times to have any real impact on things.

I can't tell if it's even doing anything

Each time you complete it, you remove 50 points of your accumulated emission. In the late game where you usually have thousands of emission points. So yeah....

AFAIK, having completely zeroed my emissions in many games, the project really just harvests diplo favor from the air. In theory it can stop the last stages of warming but you will probably be there when you get the tech anyways.
It cannot reverse warming at all.
I understand not putting sea ice back, but you would think they could at least tone down the Haboobs ruining your empire every turn.