Immortal Rock Band?

[steveg700]

Peter has been marching a rock band through my cities. Must have used it at least eight times now.

How do the percentages work here? I thought they had a flat 50% chance of being consumed with each use? Should I regard this as a bug?

 

[Rosty K]

Why flat 50%? Get your own band and see how it works with promotions... It can be as low as 4% in my experience.

 

[aguliondew]

Each level reduces the chance of them dying. With upgrades rock bands can get to a 6-9% chance of dying. Getting a high rank rock band seems pretty random since alot of them die early.

 

[jddods]

RNG

 

[Victoria]

At the bottom of this post is a link to some guides including one on rock bands

 

[MrRadar]

Peter has been marching a rock band through my cities. Must have used it at least eight times now.

Yes, when AI gets such a monster, it kinda hurts your feelings. But when you nurture such a baby yourself - 15,000 tourism, 20,000 tourism, even 25,000 tourism per concert. That puts a smile on your face
Also, have you noticed that you can tell the outcome by the sound pattern of the gig they play?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Live fast and die young, man, and live forever

 

[steveg700]

Why flat 50%? Get your own band and see how it works with promotions...

I have. They are spent after one or two uses. That's why I said what I said.

 

[Rosty K]

I have. They are spent after one or two uses.

You were unlucky there (or you didn't use their promotions right). Once they have a few promotions and are used on the appropriate sites, the probability of retirement becomes lower. I guess the AI at least knows how to do that (or was lucky). Though I've only seen the AI use a rock band once so far.

 

[Victoria]

In the link https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/civ-vi-rock-bands.27716/ (just updated with patch changes) it is in fact really a 45% chance of failure but still nets you good tourism

 

[steveg700]

You were unlucky there (or you didn't use their promotions right). Once they have a few promotions and are used on the appropriate sites, the probability of retirement becomes lower. I guess the AI at least knows how to do that (or was lucky). Though I've only seen the AI use a rock band once so far.

I don't know what it means to "do it right", but if that means using a campus promotion at a campus, that's what I do. Seems to not affect the percentage. Not a fan of them (because it's dumb), but I've used them a fair amount. They just never survive past the second performance.

Yes, when AI gets such a monster, it kinda hurts your feelings. But when you nurture such a baby yourself - 15,000 tourism, 20,000 tourism, even 25,000 tourism per concert. That puts a smile on your face

Maybe I'm not giving the design enough credit, but I tend to doubt it, because it seems to make the rest of the culture feel marginalized. A sloppy, overpowered, RNG, shoot-the-moon mechanism deprecates the game, even when it works in my favor.

As France, I was leaps and bounds ahead in culture victory thanks to +100% tourism from wonders. Then Russia fielded this rock band that effectively weaponized my wonders against me, and they got at least ten uses out of it before petering out (no pun intended). And now they're ahead in the CV, and if rock bands are this decisive then CV is actually a religious victory in disguise. I didn't found a religion, so I'm not in a position to match Russia's monstrous faith engine. Winds up being another case where the best thing to do is just go to war with the other civ because that's the only way to combat these units marching through my lands without an open borders agreement. I'm pretty sure even rockstars have to pass through a customs office.

 

[Victoria]

And now they're ahead in the CV

Enemy Rock bands do not slow down your CV in any way. It just means they play a better CV than you down to some RNG. ikr it is a bit rough but hey, they have disasters that wipe out entire fisheries and so forth.
Turning in to a more random game, prob going to leave with Humankind.

 

[MrRadar]

Winds up being another case where the best thing to do is just go to war with the other civ because that's the only way to combat these units marching through my lands without an open borders agreement. I'm pretty sure even rockstars have to pass through a customs office.

There is another way now - Music Censorship policy. Adopt it, if you feel threatened, and instruct your customs office to turn them back.

 

[steveg700]

Enemy Rock bands do not slow down your CV in any way. It just means they play a better CV than you down to some RNG. ikr it is a bit rough but hey, they have disasters that wipe out entire fisheries and so forth.[/quote[
Right, Russia pulled ahead by virtue of taking their band on a tour of ten or so of my wonders. They didn't slow me down, they just pulled ahead. I'm sure Scottland will win with a SV well before either myself or Russia can win a CV. That's just the price of playing Huge maps.

Perused your guide. Pretty handy. Thanks!

So, degree of success is separate and distinct from chances of disbanding? A band at a wonder is no less likely to disband as a band at a measly ferris wheel?

Turning in to a more random game, prob going to leave with Humankind.

Well, too bad because you're the best thing about this forum. However, I will be taking a similar hiatus.[/QUOTE]

 

[steveg700]

There is another way now - Music Censorship policy. Adopt it, if you feel threatened, and instruct your customs office to turn them back.

Well, you gotta make it to the space race civic. I'm not sure why, but for some reason Russia has managed to get far ahead of me on the civics tree despite their usual failure to build many theater squares (and certainly not enough to house their great people, who just mill about), and despite the victory progress tab clearly showing my culture-per-turn to be stratospheric relative to anyone else.

I recall in Civ V religious units actually suffered when they didn't have an Open Borders agreement. Wish something like that was in place here, allowing some degree of defense for those who don't build temples.

 

[MrRadar]

Well, you gotta make it to the space race civic. I'm not sure why, but for some reason Russia has managed to get far ahead of me on the civics tree despite their usual failure to build many theater squares (and certainly not enough to house their great people, who just mill about), and despite the victory progress tab clearly showing my culture-per-turn to be stratospheric relative to anyone else.

Then there's yet another way, and old brutal denying access to the venue by squatting. Build a bunch of some cheap units and put them to guard all your wonders, campi, theater districts, etc. A rock band comes - sorry, can we use this place for our magnificent concert? - Yes, sure. Mañana.

 

[Victoria]

Then there's yet another way, and old brutal denying access to the venue by squatting. Build a bunch of some cheap units and put them to guard all your wonders, campi, theater districts, etc. A rock band comes - sorry, can we use this place for our magnificent concert? - Yes, sure. Mañana.

And sadly this is a tactic Russia can use with ease

 

[Archon_Wing]

And now they're ahead in the CV, and if rock bands are this decisive then CV is actually a religious victory in disguise.

Nah it just means you can't ignore faith anymore. You can build Holy sites midgane even without a religion-- most beliefs are actually pretty useless anyways.

 

[steveg700]

Nah it just means you can't ignore faith anymore.

Right, well, I should be able to ignore faith. I shouldn't have to out-spam holy sites to win a culture victory. If I win by out-muscling with a faith-based unit, it's a religious victory. What the point of contention here?

There's a newer, goofier mechanism not related to culture generation steamrolling the ones that preceded it. And the real kicker is building churches has no strong correlation to generating rock bands. Not even a good thematic connection to build the whole thing on.

I don't mind humor, but could do with less stoner humor. Could someone design a historical 4X game that isn't predicated on half-baked, Kevin-Smithyish ideas, puh-lease? I'll throw in for the Kickstarter.

 

[Victoria]

Well I have faith in rock bands more than religion.