A Random Person said:
I just played a game in the mod. This is definitely THE best mod I have played so far and I can't wait until v1.0 is released. That being said, I'd like to offer some "constructive critisism". I have not taken time to read all the 3000+ posts so sorry if I ask something already asked or comment on something already commented on.
Civics: Although the mod is overall really good, I think the civic section needs some serious work. First, the civics that require a certain state religion are not indicated at all in the game, in fact the message asking you to switch to them still appears without the required state religion. Also, many of the civics aren't very good compared to civics in the main game. For instance, pacifism adds unhappyness, increases unit maintenenance, and only adds 50% gpps in Ffh. In the main game it adds 100% ggps (I think) and doesn't have the unhappiness. I think the disadvantage of having a civic should be that you don't get the bonus of other civics. The only thing to balance their effects out should be maintenance costs. Also, some of the informative pop up messages telling you to switch civics aren't right (guilds, city states, etc.)
I will check the messages, they need to be straightened out. It isn't my goal to make any aspect as powerful, or more powerful, than vanilla civ. Only to make it balanced and worthwile from within the mod. So I would want to address any civics that weren't worth using but not ones that are weaker than their vanilla versions. Pacifism was increased from 50 to 75% in 1.0 though.
Resources: For some reason their seems to be a really low amound of incense, reagents, and mithril, but maybe it was just my map.
Units: Later in the game, there are too many units to pick from when making an army. War chariots should be taken out and their should be a higher maximum amount of Knights (They're too similar), Conjurers shouldn't be buildable after Demon Summoners, Macemen shouldn't be buildable after palidins. Disiples shouldn't be buildable after you get the Priests for your religion, and Priests should gain the disiples culture adding ability. I also found that the catapult quickly became useless except to lower city defences. Their should be a better catapult, maybe a trebuchet or balista, in tier 3 or 4. The cannon is really weak compared to other units available at the same time and should probably get 10 or more strength. I also found it annoying to have to build a building every time I wanted new units, expecially the ones without other bonuses. Some of these buildings should be removed and their units moved to other buildings. The thieves guild should probably add gold instead of removing it because it is taking unused gold out of a lord's treasury and circulating it in the general ecomony. Some promotions giving bonuses against unit types are also almost worthless because their are at least 5 unit types at any given time (expecially giant slaying, there is only one type of giant in the game).
None of these units are buildable if you can build all of their upgrades. So you can't build conjurers in a city you can build demon summoners. The problem is that if you have built your max number of demon summoners, or you are in a city that can't build them because they dont have a summoning chamber, what should I do? Not let you build anything? In that case the conjurers can still be built.
Priests did use to have the convert function of disciples, and disciples used to obsolete. The problem with that is you end up spending so much mroe production for the same effect that it becomes to expensive to do. So disciples were left in, rather than have the players waste all the extra production.
The cannon exists for 1 reason, for players that don't have archmages. If you have archmages there is no reason to have cannons. They aren't intended to be the equal of the other t4 units, just an option for players that dont want to spend the time to research the magic stuff. Just like mercenaries offer some mounted units to civs that dont research the mounted techs/buildings/etc.
Im not concerned with making all units at the same tier equal, only to make them appropriate in a given situation. Without cannons it becomes impossible to take late game cities without spellcasters.
Religion: I think a "chaos" type religion should be added. It would allow units such as goblins, giants, and orcs (you can't have a fantasy game without orcs!). Also, it would be cool if after a certain point, barbarians gained goblins which could be very cheaply produced and would swarm into your land if you were stupid enough to let a barbarian city last long.
The intent was that barbarians would be all "monster races" (orcs, goblins etc). I have a problem getting the computer to use the monster untis when I first made them but they are working better now, look for this in phase 2. There is also an Orcish player civ (the Clan of Embers) planned for phase 2.
There also aren't very many sources of culture. The Theater, the obelisk, and wonders are the only ones I could find at all. I think many of the buildings should contribute at least some culture.
The Carnival will be introduced in 1.0. It grants +1 happy and +20% culture in the city it is in. More importantly if you bring the animals you capture to the carnival you can add them to it. Bears become Dancing Bears, Panthers become Caged Panthers, Wolves become a Wolf Pen, Tigers become a Tiger Cage, Lions become the Lion Page. Each of those animals adds an additional +3 culture and +1 happy to the city. So a full carnival adds more culture to a city than most wonders.
To help make catching animals easier I have made a few changes in 1.0. Animals no longer dissapear, although the gane stops making new ones at a certain point at least they will stick around until someone kills them. The promotion that allows you to capture animals was moved to Animal Husbandry and only requires Combat I, so you can get it pretty quick. It is available to Recon and Elf units.
