Keep in mind I've been on a long Galciv 2 and Alpha Centauri binge.
This is pretty much my first time giving the BTS expansion pack a go. Started on prince level, with the 'world builder' map script. Huge world, 12 opponents, normal speed. One thing that really bugs me right away is how cultural boundries extend into the sea, making naval exploration difficult without making treaties with everyone. I miss the AC borders a lot already!
My starting city started way up north with a few tundra squares, but having *5* bonus tiles in the sea more than made up for it! 2 crabs and 3 clams.
Not long after playing, around 1400 BC or so, someone had already circumvented the world! WTF? I hate that little sound the game makes when the goal is reached, its so depressing. The map script was really nice. Lots of mountains made me think more carefully about city placement. Flood plains would occasionally show up along tiles that weren't desert, which was a nice twist.
Another thing that bugs me slightly is how units will stay the same for 1000s of years. I started with Civ2, (and I *always* built Leonardo's workshop), and in AC its pretty easy and cheap to keep your units upgraded. Plus its a lot more believable having a 1-1-1 sentry around in the endgame on AC than it is having a Quechua warrior around in the industrial age on Civ.
Some cool things I noticed was how smart the AI could be. I had been playing a solid builder strategy with most of my relationships being pleased, friendly, and a few 'cautious'. Well all of a sudden China declares war on me, but they were half way across the world and they had half my score (I was in the lead, 100 points ahead of Hannibal). This is normally not a concern in other games, but 2 turns later a huge fleet with a small stack of musketeers and knights lands on one of my lightly defended cities... making amphibious assaults??? I was lazy on upgrading and replacing archers and it was well into the industrial age, so I lost a city. (I had machine gunners being trained too, )
Maybe I'm missing something on the governor settings? On AC you can control how the governor acts down to the minute detail. Once I get up to 15+ cities I usually set the smaller, frontier cities that are away from the action on autopilot, but sometimes they build odd things.
So anyway, i beat back the chinese and now my friendly Hannibal rival is edging close to me on the score race. I think the 'one more turn' syndrome has definitely set in!
I hear from apolyton that there is a 'alpha centauri' mod for BTS. I wonder how it plays!
Alright, enough of my ramblings! More gaming awaits!
This is pretty much my first time giving the BTS expansion pack a go. Started on prince level, with the 'world builder' map script. Huge world, 12 opponents, normal speed. One thing that really bugs me right away is how cultural boundries extend into the sea, making naval exploration difficult without making treaties with everyone. I miss the AC borders a lot already!
My starting city started way up north with a few tundra squares, but having *5* bonus tiles in the sea more than made up for it! 2 crabs and 3 clams.
Not long after playing, around 1400 BC or so, someone had already circumvented the world! WTF? I hate that little sound the game makes when the goal is reached, its so depressing. The map script was really nice. Lots of mountains made me think more carefully about city placement. Flood plains would occasionally show up along tiles that weren't desert, which was a nice twist.
Another thing that bugs me slightly is how units will stay the same for 1000s of years. I started with Civ2, (and I *always* built Leonardo's workshop), and in AC its pretty easy and cheap to keep your units upgraded. Plus its a lot more believable having a 1-1-1 sentry around in the endgame on AC than it is having a Quechua warrior around in the industrial age on Civ.
Some cool things I noticed was how smart the AI could be. I had been playing a solid builder strategy with most of my relationships being pleased, friendly, and a few 'cautious'. Well all of a sudden China declares war on me, but they were half way across the world and they had half my score (I was in the lead, 100 points ahead of Hannibal). This is normally not a concern in other games, but 2 turns later a huge fleet with a small stack of musketeers and knights lands on one of my lightly defended cities... making amphibious assaults??? I was lazy on upgrading and replacing archers and it was well into the industrial age, so I lost a city. (I had machine gunners being trained too, )
Maybe I'm missing something on the governor settings? On AC you can control how the governor acts down to the minute detail. Once I get up to 15+ cities I usually set the smaller, frontier cities that are away from the action on autopilot, but sometimes they build odd things.
So anyway, i beat back the chinese and now my friendly Hannibal rival is edging close to me on the score race. I think the 'one more turn' syndrome has definitely set in!
I hear from apolyton that there is a 'alpha centauri' mod for BTS. I wonder how it plays!
Alright, enough of my ramblings! More gaming awaits!