Gunner
Emperor
Its been a little while since I was last involved in the project, and I apologize for my absence. I should be able to stay more active now since the part of my school year that matters for college applications is behind me 
A lot has changed and several things have been added since I was last here. Now that I have one 1.36 game under my belt I thought itd be nice to post my thoughts, with emphasis on the comparison between the mods status now and from around October.
One big thing Ive noticed has been the great increase in overall polish for the mod. Things just seem to be working much better and more intuitively. Where before civilizations would collapse at seemingly random times, we now have a new stability system which clearly tells when a player is in trouble. Fighting independence wars is no longer the complete headache it used to be, yet they are still challenging.
The first incarnations of UHVs were just being implemented when I drifted away, and at the time I was opposed to the idea. Most of the proposed objectives seemed either tedious, unfun, or ridiculously hard, and I had little hope for their eventual salvation. While by no means perfect, the current batch of UHVs seems to be much improved. In my game as Carthage I was pushed to try things I never would have considered in a normal game of conquer everything in sight at a deliberate pace/just wait and build the spaceship. I hadnt realized just how much of an improvement this is before, and I can now in good conscience say that UHVs have fundamentally changed the game for the better.
There have also been some notable improvements made to the UPs. The ones that really stuck out to me were the English and Persian powers, which previously IMHO were just awful.
There are a few other mostly superficial changes which I would also like to complement. First off, I think Prestidigitator has done a wonderful job with the Babylonian civ. It is just as professionally done as the rest of the civs. I also enjoyed the addition of the Coliseum and Leaning Tower as wonders. They do a good job to further differentiate the mod from vanilla and add some always desired flavor. Finally, I applaud the introduction of Chamaedrys ME art set. Little things like that really help.
Unfortunately I didnt come across any instances of the plague in my one game as Carthage. The game ended rather early at 970 AD, so Im not sure if that was intended or not. I do recall at one point seeing the plague icon next to India on the score panel, but that was it.
Here are some of my suggestions specifically related to having played as Carthage. My initial reaction one starting up the game was that the Carthaginian civ doesnt have easy access to either dye or elephants (arguably) the two resources it was most famous for. To remedy this I suggest that the current elephant resource in modern-day Morocco be moved to somewhere along the North African coast. Specifically I think the tile 4 west and 1 south of the city of Carthage would be best, but really any would do. Putting a dye resource near Carthage would solve two issues. The first is the rather obvious historical/role-playing one. The second is that it would make the dye UHV more manageable and enjoyable. In its current implementation one must obviously conquer Per-Wadjet and Tyre, which might give you the necessary 3 resources. In my game, however, I only received one of the resources near Tyre, since culture from the Babylonians took the other. This forced me to then make a mad dash for the dye in northern France. Giving an additional dye resource near Carthages starting location would make the player only have to go after Per-Wadjet and Tyre, which would be the case if Babylon had already fallen anyway. Without you are forced either conquer part of Babylon or settle northern France, neither of which seems like a reasonable or intended part of the objective to me.
One overall suggestion I have is to somehow make stability a bit more transparent. I completely realize that we dont want to have every factor displayed in a spreadsheet matter, but the current implementation tells the player almost nothing. First of all, I didnt realize that those categories on the financial advisor were related to stability until I had almost finished my game, and that was only accomplished through my re-reading of the readme file. A simple title above them would go a long way towards alleviating the problem. Beyond that, I wish there was just some way to get more feedback overall. I didnt have much of a clue what the problem was when my cities category had only one star. Would it be possible to somehow have a tool tip come up over the categories and tell you something? I understand that that might be very difficult though.
My final suggestion is actually a restatement of one of my old ideas. Heres my original post from the second page of this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4458744.
Im going to start a new game as the Turks soon, so maybe then Ill be able to comment on the plague system and any improvements in the congress system. One final thing I'd like to close on is just to reinforce how much I think the mod has improved. Despite what some of you may be thinking about how certain small issues may be ruining it now, let me assure you that in the bigger context of things this is definitely RFC's best moment so far. Great job Rhye
A lot has changed and several things have been added since I was last here. Now that I have one 1.36 game under my belt I thought itd be nice to post my thoughts, with emphasis on the comparison between the mods status now and from around October.
One big thing Ive noticed has been the great increase in overall polish for the mod. Things just seem to be working much better and more intuitively. Where before civilizations would collapse at seemingly random times, we now have a new stability system which clearly tells when a player is in trouble. Fighting independence wars is no longer the complete headache it used to be, yet they are still challenging.
The first incarnations of UHVs were just being implemented when I drifted away, and at the time I was opposed to the idea. Most of the proposed objectives seemed either tedious, unfun, or ridiculously hard, and I had little hope for their eventual salvation. While by no means perfect, the current batch of UHVs seems to be much improved. In my game as Carthage I was pushed to try things I never would have considered in a normal game of conquer everything in sight at a deliberate pace/just wait and build the spaceship. I hadnt realized just how much of an improvement this is before, and I can now in good conscience say that UHVs have fundamentally changed the game for the better.
There have also been some notable improvements made to the UPs. The ones that really stuck out to me were the English and Persian powers, which previously IMHO were just awful.
There are a few other mostly superficial changes which I would also like to complement. First off, I think Prestidigitator has done a wonderful job with the Babylonian civ. It is just as professionally done as the rest of the civs. I also enjoyed the addition of the Coliseum and Leaning Tower as wonders. They do a good job to further differentiate the mod from vanilla and add some always desired flavor. Finally, I applaud the introduction of Chamaedrys ME art set. Little things like that really help.
Unfortunately I didnt come across any instances of the plague in my one game as Carthage. The game ended rather early at 970 AD, so Im not sure if that was intended or not. I do recall at one point seeing the plague icon next to India on the score panel, but that was it.
Here are some of my suggestions specifically related to having played as Carthage. My initial reaction one starting up the game was that the Carthaginian civ doesnt have easy access to either dye or elephants (arguably) the two resources it was most famous for. To remedy this I suggest that the current elephant resource in modern-day Morocco be moved to somewhere along the North African coast. Specifically I think the tile 4 west and 1 south of the city of Carthage would be best, but really any would do. Putting a dye resource near Carthage would solve two issues. The first is the rather obvious historical/role-playing one. The second is that it would make the dye UHV more manageable and enjoyable. In its current implementation one must obviously conquer Per-Wadjet and Tyre, which might give you the necessary 3 resources. In my game, however, I only received one of the resources near Tyre, since culture from the Babylonians took the other. This forced me to then make a mad dash for the dye in northern France. Giving an additional dye resource near Carthages starting location would make the player only have to go after Per-Wadjet and Tyre, which would be the case if Babylon had already fallen anyway. Without you are forced either conquer part of Babylon or settle northern France, neither of which seems like a reasonable or intended part of the objective to me.
One overall suggestion I have is to somehow make stability a bit more transparent. I completely realize that we dont want to have every factor displayed in a spreadsheet matter, but the current implementation tells the player almost nothing. First of all, I didnt realize that those categories on the financial advisor were related to stability until I had almost finished my game, and that was only accomplished through my re-reading of the readme file. A simple title above them would go a long way towards alleviating the problem. Beyond that, I wish there was just some way to get more feedback overall. I didnt have much of a clue what the problem was when my cities category had only one star. Would it be possible to somehow have a tool tip come up over the categories and tell you something? I understand that that might be very difficult though.
My final suggestion is actually a restatement of one of my old ideas. Heres my original post from the second page of this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4458744.
If you read farther down youll see that 9 individuals went on to complement the idea and agree that it would be an excellent addition once Warlords was implemented. What does everybody think of it now?
Im going to start a new game as the Turks soon, so maybe then Ill be able to comment on the plague system and any improvements in the congress system. One final thing I'd like to close on is just to reinforce how much I think the mod has improved. Despite what some of you may be thinking about how certain small issues may be ruining it now, let me assure you that in the bigger context of things this is definitely RFC's best moment so far. Great job Rhye
)
