Let's talk Constellations

[Zechnophobe]

So yeah, this is the major new event thing going on in .32, and I think it needs some work. Let me try and hit on all the points:

1) Currently Astrological events trigger every couple of turns in the early game, and have little to no effect on play, because they require religions to exist that couldn't possibly exist then. And then you rarely see these events when the religions ARE around (Due to a 'thicker' pool of possible events, these become more rare).

2) A lot of events have poor description text as to exactly what they do. This is very frustrating to deal with because they are so common. Some say that 'research' is better, but no more beakers get made. Some say graveyards are easier to pillage, but it doesn't seem to have an effect. Others will silently and with little warning change terrain for 20 turns near your cities. Most of this is unknown to someone who hasn't researched their effects.

3) The current system has it so that different civs will have different Astrological events taking place in their empire at the same time. This is a bit of a flavor break. On the same turn I'll see the Black Hand go into prominence, while someone else gets a different Constellation. We aren't so far away that our night sky should be so different!

4) Not enough of the Astro events DO something most of the time. And we get twice as many as we used to, but now we aren't getting dead dukes, crazy cultural advisors, or upgraded obelisks... we are instead bombarded with useless bits of 'ohh, if only I'd somehow founded Ashen Veil already...'. It gives the player a lot of negative feedback. "You should have gotten a religion already!" etc etc.

 

[Fafnir13]

My thoughts exactly, although I suppose, after all these games, we'd run out of affluent dukes eventually...
Here's a thought. Why not disable the constellation events until someone researches astronomy? That would seem appropriate.

 

[Marksman77]

Not all constellation events have religious prereqs, there's Bhall's for Clan. So there's at least one available from turn 1.
What about making them appear in (semi-)even intervals, eg. every 20 turns or so, independent of other events?
Like a counter that increases by a random number between 0.0 and 0.1 per turn and if it reaches 1 a random constellation event occurs. Don't know if it's possible to do, I'm a Python zero.

 

[Grey Fox]

There is one for Illians too. But then you might argue that a golden age at turn 1-10 is a bit overpowered and/or a waste.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Ceridwen's depends on evil alignments rather than civ or religion.

 

[Blackmantle]

Although i whould say that maybe it whould be good to give the team some time to flesh those constellations out (perhaps not all are even implemented and some will be reserved for ice? Thats the risk of being a beta tester after all and so i think its a bit early to scrutinize a feature that has just been introduced .)
i have to agree that those should be global (if thats usefully possible) and that they shouldnt come into play at least for the first 50-100 Turns (+scaled on game speed.). (even though upon research of Astronomy sounds qite flavorful, it seems to late to really be of any significant impact.)
Also timing them phasely or on fixed turn intervalls whould be neat.

On documentation and full implementation: wait and see. Im sure the team will come up with something. Patience is your friend.

 

[TheJopa]

So what precisely constellations do? So far I have found that Mulcarn (bear) temporary turns land to tundra, Sucellus heals units. But what i.e. Danalin does (more suicides and more fish), and all the rest?

EDIT: Blackmantle was faster. I agree, we are just beta testers but this is a damn good beta.

 

[Blackmantle]

Danalin if it triggers for you and you have OO as state-religion gives a golden Age. (as does the ones for Agares, Junil, Sucellus, Kilmorph, Esus and Lugus) (At least if you chose that option )
So these are the really major ones (perhaps the one for Dagda favors the Grigori?).

On a side note: Must be really fun to hop religions during those ages if you get a good streak. Constant golden age.



Indeed its a beta that puts about 90% of "finished" and commercial games to shame (and raises expectations towards the rest of the industry as a whole which it will never be able to fulfill completely.).
Which perhaps leads many to the assumption that its allready finished. Thats one of the reasons i keep repeating it so people who perhaps don't know and as such falsely assume everything need be polished get to know / understand (is not true for the op i belive. But im sure there are more than enough readers around here where this impression is fitting.). Also pointing it out that those events are not very well implemented is surely not a wrong thing to do, as it garners the teams attention to the subject (so @ op: please don't see this as an offense. Its not meant that way.). Though i feel the degree of scrutiny is a bit hefty.

 

[AngryZealot]

Constellations, to be frank, piss me off. I just ignore them now.

I think the whole system should be redone.

Is it possible to add a star map screen? As turns progress, an arrow can move around in circles to show the current astrological situation. The screen could show in detail the significance of the current sky and how it impacts the game.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think that it would be nice if the religion-associated constellations allowed you to switch to its religion (assuming you would normally be able to) without any anarchy. Or if it provides some sort of bonus for switching.

 

[MrPopov]

a star map or contellation map would be easy to exploit.

Just swich religion a turn or two before the constellation shows up and you get a golden age.

I would like to see different effects from the constellation events. How about instead of getting a golden age if you have that religion, all units with that religion get the blessed promotion, or 2XP, or you get a free priest of that religion in your capital, etc. There are a lot more interesting fun things that wouldn't be exploited if the constellation map idea was implented.

 

[TheJopa]

I think that it would be nice if the religion-associated constellations allowed you to switch to its religion (assuming you would normally be able to) without any anarchy. Or if it provides some sort of bonus for switching.

I'm not sure if player is supposed to switch religions all that much. It is against the theme and switching religions should be punished, not rewarded. Switching religion should cause massive unrest in old religion cities, and cause priests to abandon you, or even turn against you.

 

[feydras]

I like Farfir's idea of having them require Astronomy. There isn't enough reason to research Astronomy on most maps i play and i don't think it's too late game at all. By that time most religions should be founded.

I also like the idea of making the constellations appear in a pattern but then would want the religion golden age ones nerfed.

If the constellations are made regular and follow a pattern then a star chart could be made for the manual and wiki and used as a legitamite ingame tool.

 

[Fenboy]

I'm not sure if player is supposed to switch religions all that much. It is against the theme and switching religions should be punished, not rewarded. Switching religion should cause massive unrest in old religion cities, and cause priests to abandon you, or even turn against you.

I'd agree, and I'd add other religious units to that. "Oh we're going to worship the Order now, but let's keep our old Diseased Corpses, that'll be fine". Of course for Valledia that might be appropriate

 

[JJR]

After looking though the XML files, it appears that 8 out of the 21 possible constellations do nothing (or are not implemented) but are still enabled as possible events.

 

[uberfish]

Frequent random events which give the player no meaningful choice are more of an annoyance than anything. The events should really look something more like this:

An astrologer in (city A) warns of an imminent planetary conjunction in (constellation C)

option 1: This is a sign from the gods - convert to religion X, rewarded with a half duration golden age
option 2: We needed a new Royal Astrologer - gain a free specialist in city A
option 3: Let him found a temple - gain a temple of religion X in the city
option 4: We have no need of false prophets, let us concentrate on research instead - gain a one time beaker boost

and for the goblin waste dumping:

Goblins are dumping waste near city X, what do you want to do about it

option 1: ignore them - tile gets -1 food as currently
option 2: find the tribe and attack them - spawns hostile goblins and wolf riders on a mission to attack the city
option 3: burn the waste - starts a fire in the tile and gives a temporary health penalty

 

[Gelvan]

@uberfish
yeah i also think an event has to have some choses, or at least two which are available always and 1-2 others which are available if you have the correspending religion/civ.

still i'd be interested, if the flavour text which is shown with the constellation events has an impact (as for grave robery etc.) on the game already or in the future.

 

[Fenboy]

One annoying thing about constellations is that, as they are so frequent, they don't half gum up the End of Game Timeline.

 

[Broken Hawk]

I think they should occur infrequently and have a dramatic global effect. Right now they are just a distraction.

 

[Caradoc]

Seems to me a free Golden Age is way too generous. Maybe if it only lasted a couple of turns (or until the next Constellation, whichever comes first.) More appropriate would a "We Love Our" turn for the Capital.