Interesting Observations

[Afforess]

These are a few observations I've had after actually play two games today. (Truth be told, this is the first time I've actually played a game, not just tested, since August. Embarrassing, yes.)

Observations:

• The AI will tell me that it "wouldn't betray it's close friends" when I try to get it to cancel trade routes with another player, but, the AI will let me bribe them into a war for the same player. I think there is something bugged there.
  
  
• I've seen a bunch of the AI's using trade caravans. Interesting, since I stopped using them ever since they got nerfed.
  
  
• I love the BULL actual effects, that buildings give.
  
  
• Barbarian Civ's that spawn as Minor civ's seem to start too weak. One spawned right in front of me, and I massed a small army of 7 light swords, and crushed it fairly easily. Got a nice size 4 city and two workers out of it.
  
  
• A few of the techs in the tech tree form islands. (An island means that the tech never is needed to research another tech; and becomes unnessecary to research.) One major island is "The Wheel." You don't need to research the wheel, ever. If you skip it, you can grab monarchy (for roads), and move on from there. Sure, you lose the horse techs, but I often never get access to that resource anyway. I think that these techs need to be fixed.
  
  
• Culture spreads too quickly. I think the culture level thresholds all need to be increased. Because of all the new culture buildings, you can rush a culture victory in the Renaissance, fairly easily. That doesn't make much sense, as RoM should last much longer.
  
  
• My Mountains mod rocks. Really. I hate to boast about myself, but I never really realized how great it was. Being able to get 3 from previously useless mountains is really handy.
  
  
• Generalstaff's Civic Buildings have been a real empire-saver. The festival building especially, since it is kinda overpowered, but it has been a huge boost to my economy, allowing me to expand much faster.
  
  
• The updated construct sounds for buildings are nice.
  
  
• I found this analysis site that shows how many posts where on the RoM forums, and the top authors. Guess who was number one? Number two? It might surprise you. Or not.

It probably surprises you all how little I actually played the game, but it was nice to spend an evening actually playing. I probably won't touch modding for another week or so, as I want a break after that hectic, and seemingly never ending series of betas...

 

[RobO]

Did you manage to "play" or "finish" two games in one day? It has taken me several days to get into the 1900's in one game, and that is on a small or normal size map. But then I have other things on my plate, and the waiting time btw. turns is around a minute or two now.

One thing that really strikes me is the amount of food available in late game. I have two cities at size 30-35 early 1900's (ca. turn 600 of 1050). I kind of like it, as I like the slow growth at start, but it is a bit much, and I think the cannery could be toned down. It gives around 15 food in several cities. Also, the industries spawned from the corporations effectively double the effect of a corporation (I presume the original intention was for the yield of the corporation was to represent the industry it spawns).

 

[little_cyclone]

I too enjoy using the Civic Buildings Mod. On more than one occasion its influenced me to choose a civic I would not previously utilize due to the building that becomes available. (Mercantilism anyone? ).

I haven't had much of a chance to use Trade Caravans yet, whats changed?

I have noticed the AI willing to declare war over embargoes, but I had merely chalked that up to their greedy and bloodthirsty nature

The BULL addition makes it much easier and more interesting in choosing new buildings to assemble

 

[Hydromancerx]

One main thing I have noticed in comparing the new RoM 2.8 to Rom 2.8 beta is now since cities grow so slow and production takes much longer. Mods like GeneralStaff's early buildings are much harder to get before they become obsolete. Before I could pump out a bunch of early buildings and have a small but stable empire. Now by the time I can build a few early building my techs are much farther head.

In short i think the techs need to be slower or building production need to be faster. Note this is all from snail speed experience.

 

[os79]

One main thing I have noticed in comparing the new RoM 2.8 to Rom 2.8 beta is now since cities grow so slow and production takes much longer. Mods like GeneralStaff's early buildings are much harder to get before they become obsolete. Before I could pump out a bunch of early buildings and have a small but stable empire. Now by the time I can build a few early building my techs are much farther head.

In short i think the techs need to be slower or building production need to be faster. Note this is all from snail speed experience.

You can go into Assets/XML/GameInfo and find the file called Civ4GameSpeedInfo and adapt this iConstructPercent line. Currently, it is at 300, while training units is at 250. You may want to experiment a bit these figures.

 

[TechXLtd]

One kinda funny thing to me is that I've been playing Fallout 3 for PC and I noticed that the building sound for building a bunker sounds suspiciously similar to the opening and closing sound of the vaults in Fallout 3. I wonder if Zappara plays Fallout 3 as well?

 

[Supercheese]

One kinda funny thing to me is that I've been playing Fallout 3 for PC and I noticed that the building sound for building a bunker sounds suspiciously similar to the opening and closing sound of the vaults in Fallout 3. I wonder if Zappara plays Fallout 3 as well?

Actually, I made that sound (see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=331505). It comes from SimCity 3000 -- the "Missile Silo" sound.

 

[TechXLtd]

Actually, I made that sound (see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=331505). It comes from SimCity 3000 -- the "Missile Silo" sound.

Ah, so you play SimCity 3k too eh? I thought the police station and casino sounds were similar.

Edit: Nice to see the older games would have other useful purposes in newer ones

 

[zappara]

One kinda funny thing to me is that I've been playing Fallout 3 for PC and I noticed that the building sound for building a bunker sounds suspiciously similar to the opening and closing sound of the vaults in Fallout 3. I wonder if Zappara plays Fallout 3 as well?

Yes, I've played F3 through and really liked that game (been Fallout fan since the first game in the series). Fallout hasn't influenced RoM in any way (at least I hope so).

Ah, so you play SimCity 3k too eh? I thought the police station and casino sounds were similar.

Edit: Nice to see the older games would have other useful purposes in newer ones

Civ 1-3, SMAC, Galactic Civilization I-II, Simcity 4000 and so on have served their purpose when I've been making RoM

 

[Afforess]

Yes, I've played F3, Civ 1-3, SMAC, Galactic Civilization I-II, Simcity 4000

Good Man. I've played Civ since Civ2, and SC since 2k. And F3. All great games.

 

[JosEPh_II]

Did you actually finish 2 games in one day afforess?

It takes me a week to play one through!

Did you start in Ancient Era?

JosEPh

 

[Afforess]

Did you actually finish 2 games in one day afforess?

It takes me a week to play one through!

Did you start in Ancient Era?

JosEPh

No...

I played one on Monarch difficulty, and lost... Embarrassing, but In my defense, I got a tundra starting spot, and took forever to get a settler.

The other game is still in progress.

 

[JosEPh_II]

Current game is up to 1080AD and it takes 18secs between turns now. Giant fractal map, 9AI.

Storms seem to last forever now. Several of my coastal cities have had storms continually spawning along their boundaries since their founding. So coastal travel is very slow. I've almost given up trying to transport units by sea. It's quicker over land instead of fighting the storms. But to get to the rest of the Continent I have to get around a mountain range choke point.

Some of the Barb cities have reached size 9 pop. Fat plumbs when you bring in enough mixed units.

JosEPh

Just got Caravels, maybe now the storms will subside?

 

[dexter_inside]

I've been playing a Standard-sized Emperor game and it's really become challenging in Medieval age.
Even had -4 gold per turn with 100% tax, a feat I've never pulled off before

Btw, nice thing w/ barbarians using about 2 workers per city, they make cart paths to mine

About culture, I always play with cultural victory off. It really should get fixed.

 

[little_cyclone]

...In my defense, I got a tundra starting spot, and took forever to get a settler...

Try Advanced Start. If you are dissatisfied with your starting position it gives you the option to change before begining the game.

Personally I've always liked either Donut maps (has a little of everything, water, land, interaction with other nations) or Smart Map script for the World or Europe sized to Large. Unfortunately when my save file hits about 2.5-3 mbs I start getting crashes every few turns, so Huge and Gigantic maps are out for me

I have noticed that (even early on in games) that 2.8 seems to take longer between turns then previous incarnations..

 

[civ_king]

I always MAF when I try to play on giant or gigantic, I used to play on gigantic but now I can't even start on giant I liked to play me and 1 other civ with revolutions on on a terra map

 

[JosEPh_II]

It's 1180AD and I have caravels and have started to cross the oceans. The Maze of storms is overwhelming. I literally have to zoom out for a top down view to navigate through them. It's tripling the time it takes to circumnavigate the world.

JosEPh

 

[generalstaff]

[*]I love the BULL actual effects, that buildings give.[/url]

Yes, yes, yes. It helps me calculate which buildings I can truly skip.

With that said, some buildings still need to be converted. Petra shows up as a Pink Square, chances are other wonders need to be corrected.

[*]Generalstaff's Civic Buildings have been a real empire-saver. The festival building especially, since it is kinda overpowered, but it has been a huge boost to my economy, allowing me to expand much faster.

I balanced Festival in a new version today, which also fixes the Caravan Post/Merc Camp graphics. I reduced the Happiness by 1 and Gold by 2, which should be enough to be balanced. However, I would agree that any building which adds Gold directly saves empires, especially with Revolutions.

@little_cyclone

Advanced Start is fun, for reason beyond choosing a smart starting spot.. I like playing Ancient Age/Advanced Start with default points. It represents a 10000BC start. My only issue is that they AI does make the best choices for an advanced start, but that may get solved by increasing the difficulty.

I am also glad that my civics buildings allowed more variety in civics chosen, which was one of my goals.

 

[Grunthex]

[*]I love the BULL actual effects, that buildings give.

Seconded! Or thirded, or whatever!

[*]Culture spreads too quickly. I think the culture level thresholds all need to be increased. Because of all the new culture buildings, you can rush a culture victory in the Renaissance, fairly easily. That doesn't make much sense, as RoM should last much longer.

Definitely. Even if you don't rush it, you're going to get one by accident if you're a builder before you finish.

[*]My Mountains mod rocks. Really. I hate to boast about myself, but I never really realized how great it was. Being able to get 3 from previously useless mountains is really handy.

Agreed. It's bad form to toot your own horn, so hand it over and I'll do it for you! Bonus points for the sailing mod that keeps pre-caravels out of the ocean

My own little thoughts follow, from two late-industrial not-quite-finished games.

• The new food levels to grow a city change things SO much. Late game cities no longer spring practically by accident into size 25 metropolises, and earlier you actually pay attention to food. Those events that empty the granary are noticeable!
  
• More so than ever before, it seems like production is king, rather than food as it was in earlier Civ4 iterations. Unfortunately, no one told the AI. Seeing most of the forests gone, and forts on the ones that remain (!) makes me cry.
  
• The new building requirements for siege seem to hurt the AI. Anecdote: Last game, Genghis brought a reasonably decent mini-Stack-o-doom up to a city of mine. His problem? He brought 1 trebuchet to accompany his 20ish combat troops. In the past, he'd have 4 or more. Result: He spent 8 turns bombarding, allowing me to bring my main force in to defend. With only one trebuchet to suicide, he lost the force, I lost 2 units.
  
• I'm torn between congratulating you on the excellent balance for storms, and just wishing they'd go away. Having them never fade out, but never quite take over means your balancing is great, but it seems odd that my destroyer navies can't take up sentry positions without being storm-lost.
  

Regardless of my little criticisms, you've hit this one out of the park. Again. You out RoM'd RoM, and I'm not getting ANYTHING else played...

 

[vincentz]

Talking about interesting observations :

Two barbarians being dropped of by a couple of galleys.
Never seen that before.