Necessary changes to the REF

[thehouse1]

I just beat the game at the highest level in 46 turns, my new record. It is very broken. The problem is that any point in the game I can decide I want to start the WOI. With in 10 turns I can start the WOI and my chances to win are the same. If I start in at turn 35 or turn 200 the REF is basically aways 3 times my size. What is the point of building a good economy if it does not help you.

 

[sbtop]

Yeah I'd really like to go back to Col1's system where the REF size was pretty much fixed by difficulty level.

It was a race against the other colonial powers to get a prosperous empire going that could defeat the REF before one of your rivals declared independence. I like that style of game a lot. You have to adapt to the game conditions and progress does not get punished, but is encouraged.

The only challenge in Col2 seems to be to expolit the system to prevent the REF from growing too big.

I totally agree. A fixed size REF would encourage colony growth, not penalise it.

 

[Southern Hunter]

The whole point of the game should be to expand your colony, economy and military to the point where you are powerful enough to take on a pre-existing super power, your king. That's what happened in real life! If you can expand your strength to the point where you can get "10 zillion dragoons and another zillion produced each turn", what should happen is you should congratulate youself for playing really well, and you should move up in difficulty or go for an earlier win.

What didn't happen in real life is that the King did not go "Oh, well this tiny colony didn't produce much revolutionary sentiment prior to going into open rebellion, I guess I'll commit an insufficient number of soldiers to the Royal Epiditionary Force and then give up, even though I'm a super-power and would happily crush any colony that produced a lot of revolutionary sentiment prior to going into open rebellion with 500 troops". Because that's pants-on-head ********.

It is a plain and simple fact that C4C as it currently stands is ******** because of how the REF scales. We saw, in this forum, experienced CIVers get beaten on easy difficulties until they figured out the ******** REF mechanic, and now they can effortlessly beat the game on the hardest difficulty in less than 50 turns. And people are defending this mechanic!?

Fix it, fix it, fix it.

Yes, nicely and eloquently argued

 

[Viperace]

Read all the posts and agree with you guys.

Let me reiterate:

• 
  REF size should be fix at game start, depending on difficulty

• 
  REF size increase over time by a small number (to simulate motherland empire expansion, to increase player's tension)

• 
  Pissed off the King? increase the REF size

These should basically patch up the broken REF-mechanics.
Other cool stuff to be brought back from Civ1, or be added are

• 
  European War status affect Colonial war status

• 
  REF may land and aid you in fighting against other colony or natives

• 
  Foreign Intervention Forces (Bring it back please!)

• 
  Random events - these suit Col much more than they suits civ4

Bottom line, this is a game with a clear goal in mind - achieve independence within certain turns. The finale should be grand and memorable. It is OK to diminish the player's return for expanding too much, but NOT OK to punish him to the extend that he rather stay in 1 city and achieve Independence in 40 turns. After all this is a game of economy and the one who can tap the most resource/gold/natives... in the New World shall be rewarded

I hope Firaxis can fix this via an official patch

 

[Finarfin]

I'm all about replayability and variety, so I'd like to see the starting REF forces randomized in size and make up within given parameters based on difficulty level.

 

[Becephalus]

Events changing the REF periodically would also be nice, and take some of the control out of the players hands. Which would help make each game see less identical when you see, oh crap the REF just dropped in half, I wonder how long that will last, and rush to DoI.