New Beta Version - Feb. 9th (2-9)

[vyyt]

This is going to sound extremely random, and I don't have any proof of this just 7 played games with my word.
Anyways, in this latest version I have yet to have a defensive spy catch an enemy spy at all, I've had a level 1 spy sitting in my capital from the dawn of renaissance throughout the ages and despite constant tech-steals, gold-steals, assassinations and all that good stuff and the spy is still level 1.

This is quite a common complain. I think you should level your spy first by for example using him as a diplomat. Then he will become more effective in catching rival spies.

 

[Gizmoman]

This is quite a common complain. I think you should level your spy first by for example using him as a diplomat. Then he will become more effective in catching rival spies.

Oh, so level 1 spies can't defend at all now?

 

[CrazyG]

Oh, so level 1 spies can't defend at all now?

They can, but they just aren't very likely too. Try sending a spy to be a diplomat or to rig elections for a while, then move him on defense once he is at least level 2.

 

[JamesNinelives]

Oh, so level 1 spies can't defend at all now?

For the record I put my spy in my capital and he does level up. He just doesn't tend to kill people much until he's higher level. You can put them where you like to level though, diplomats do particularly well (and I guess city-states are now good places too).

 

[JamesNinelives]

I'm running this beta, with the hotfix I think (2-9-4b) and I'm still getting issues with the city-states. No embassies popping up everywhere, but you can still improve a city-states resources multiple times and the improvement is a great person tile improvement instead.

I've seen holy sites and citadels specifically pop up when using the 'improve resource' option.

Spoiler Citadel Horses :

Spoiler Holy Iron :

Also, @HeathcliffWarriors I wanted to mention I received a 'it's a pity no-one has wiped you out yet' message from Attila - probably because I just settled near him and refused not to do it again (his attitude is hostile currently). I forgot to take a screenshot, but I can at least say it does still happen. Personally I don't mind these, because it means I can goad him into war if I want to.

Spoiler Attila the Angry :

 

[DeAnno]

I don't really know what's exactly happening with these CS GPTI but I find myself amused by them.

Played the start of an Inca game with the 1 range slingers on Diety. Eventually missed a religion and got a too adventurous city taken by a Monty JagSpear carpet around T100, but the slingers waged an interesting harassment campaign against a nearby Germany before then, fighting against Archers and Warriors. They couldn't really take his capital, but they did surround it, keep killing his units, and eventually get me a GG (probably should've held it for the Aztec front later and not been greedy to steal his Germany's luxes.)

Having played with both Slingers and Picts in some starts recently Picts feel 200% more overpowered though. Most busted UU in the game right now probably, you can even upgrade your initial Warrior to one on like turn 10. I think in particular maybe the Pict deserves to only be 12S instead of 13S due to its niche being fast tech at mining and early Pantheon generation, neither of which is crippled by eventually being obsoleted by Swords 2 columns later.

 

[SuperNoobCamper]

I don't really know what's exactly happening with these CS GPTI but I find myself amused by them.

Played the start of an Inca game with the 1 range slingers on Diety. Eventually missed a religion and got a too adventurous city taken by a Monty JagSpear carpet around T100, but the slingers waged an interesting harassment campaign against a nearby Germany before then, fighting against Archers and Warriors. They couldn't really take his capital, but they did surround it, keep killing his units, and eventually get me a GG (probably should've held it for the Aztec front later and not been greedy to steal his Germany's luxes.)

Having played with both Slingers and Picts in some starts recently Picts feel 200% more overpowered though. Most busted UU in the game right now probably, you can even upgrade your initial Warrior to one on like turn 10. I think in particular maybe the Pict deserves to only be 12S instead of 13S due to its niche being fast tech at mining and early Pantheon generation, neither of which is crippled by eventually being obsoleted by Swords 2 columns later.

Pictich warriors get neither Formation I nor Anti mounted like spears tho, it's something i always hated about them, yeah unlocking them at mining is a huge deal but i would not call them the most OP units just because 1 range archer which is not going to stay anyway suck.

 

[azum4roll]

Picts do have double movement on mountains and pillage without spending movement though, and they both aren't lost on upgrade.

Speaking of Picts can the faith on kill trait be added as a promotion instead of being tied to the unit like in BNW?

 

[SuperNoobCamper]

Picts do have double movement on mountains and pillage without spending movement though, and they both aren't lost on upgrade.

Speaking of Picts can the faith on kill trait be added as a promotion instead of being tied to the unit like in BNW?

it's a promotion in my game, maybe it has something to do with PAD's 3rd&4th UC ?

 

[Mambo668]

I'm running this beta, with the hotfix I think (2-9-4b) and I'm still getting issues with the city-states. No embassies popping up everywhere, but you can still improve a city-states resources multiple times and the improvement is a great person tile improvement instead.

I've seen holy sites and citadels specifically pop up when using the 'improve resource' option.

Spoiler Citadel Horses :

View attachment 546420

Spoiler Holy Iron :

View attachment 546421

Also, @HeathcliffWarriors I wanted to mention I received a 'it's a pity no-one has wiped you out yet' message from Attila - probably because I just settled near him and refused not to do it again (his attitude is hostile currently). I forgot to take a screenshot, but I can at least say it does still happen. Personally I don't mind these, because it means I can goad him into war if I want to.

Spoiler Attila the Angry :

View attachment 546422

Speaking about difficulty....So big lead in points already in 610 AD. Chieftain difficulty or warlord should look like that, most AI's have more than 2x lower score than human player. The problem is i am sure it is not warlord difficulty.

 

[JamesNinelives]

Speaking about difficulty....So big lead in points already in 610 AD. Chieftain difficulty or warlord should look like that, most AI's have more than 2x lower score than human player. The problem is i am sure it is not warlord difficulty.

Taking one metric in one game really doesn't give you a good idea of what's going on. What happened in this game is simply I am playing a civ has a very strong early game and got extremely lucky.

The previous game which I didn't post (same difficulty, same civ, same settings) I got my arse kicked. The only thing that really tells you is that the Shoshone can be very swingy, and perhaps that I play this civ a lot. Also worth noting this is not standard settings, it is a Huge map on Epic speed.

Update: I got a screenshot of the Vikings threatening me this time .

Spoiler Its an omen :

I am also at war with three of my neighbours now (England, the Iroquois who pretended to by my friend, and The Huns) because a) I expanded very rapidly and b) I neglected to build enough military. I actually declared war on the Huns myself because Austria offered a joint war. I was prepared to defend against England sooner or later but didn't account for Hiawatha. And to be fair, the Iroquois did warn me they weren't happy when I denounced England (in order to gain a city-state alliance). I just hope Morocco to the South doesn't join in.

 

[Gidoza]

This is quite a common complain. I think you should level your spy first by for example using him as a diplomat. Then he will become more effective in catching rival spies.

In my current game, whenever I've had gold stolen from my treasury, it has *ALWAYS* been the full 100% of my treasury. The only way 100% of a treasury could ever be feasible in the real world was if my level 1 spy was helping the enemy spy to steal it and then taking a cut for himself.

 

[Crag Hack]

Unless I missed something, its still like that. Each city is grabbing the global median, modify it with its own needs modifiers and then compare it with the real yield per citizen outcome. If you lead in tech, you have more buildings which make the city more effective and with it, your population more happy.
The major change was the addition of an additional layer of happiness/unhappiness comparison on the level of the cities. As long as enough cities or global sources could deliver enough happiness to compensate the unhappiness of some of your cities, nothing bad was happening (in previous version). Now, cities wich big unhappiness suffer from that, even if your total happiness is above any threshold. Its an increase in complexity and micromanagement. If you like that or not is up to you.

Unless I am reading outdated in-game help description, unhappiness does not work like that.

Your description is for old version when yields were compared to the global yields. But it seems it was changed since and now yields compare to only your empire yields.

Whether empire comparisons or global comparisons is better I don't know currently. Each might have its advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Rekk]

Your description is for old version when yields were compared to the global yields. But it seems it was changed since and now yields compare to only your empire yields.

Where is your source for this? There was a couple of patches where we tried out empire yield comparison, but it has since gone back to a global yield comparison.

 

[CrazyG]

Some more feedback on the early game.

Barbarians are a bit too weak IMO. It is pretty common for camps to appear near a city state and get wiped out within a single turn. A warrior with promotions has a pretty good chance to solo a barbarian camp.

Maybe brutes could go to 8 CS, to match warriors. Maybe some bonus defense to camps too.

I really enjoy how relevant chariot archers are now with archers weakened, but boy are they frail.

Update: I got a screenshot of the Vikings threatening me this time .

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post, but is this odd for your games? The AI always harrass me like that, I'd have no clue how to avoid it.

 

[Crag Hack]

Where is your source for this? There was a couple of patches where we tried out empire yield comparison, but it has since gone back to a global yield comparison.

Source is wikipedia in-game. Look under Concepts in the section "What causes unhappiness". Clearly there says at length that each city is compared to empire averages.

 

[Recursive]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post, but is this odd for your games? The AI always harrass me like that, I'd have no clue how to avoid it.

I thought certain insult messages were disabled in VP. I stand corrected.

 

[BiteInTheMark]

I never rush construction mainly because the civs/settings I play favour Calender, Military Theory or Fishing. I always take Construction before Trade though, unless I'm next to Sugar or Spices. Construction is needed to get to Mathematics, which is a go-to tech IMO .

I've picked God of craftsman one month ago with Germany and have to say, under good circumstances, you pump out wonders like lollies. But with the increased modifier from Earth Mother, I think a fast growing capital can do now similar things and have more growing potential than Craftmanship.

 

[BiteInTheMark]

Source is wikipedia in-game. Look under Concepts in the section "What causes unhappiness". Clearly there says at length that each city is compared to empire averages.

The only real thing you can be sure in the civilopedia are the yields and modifier descriptions, cause it seems those take the information directly from the data base. A lot of civilopedia information is outdated, especially general informations.
Needs taking the empire median last only 2 versions cause it nearly always ended with a doomstack of unhappiness in the late game and was a fail concept.

 

[Crag Hack]

The only real thing you can be sure in the civilopedia are the yields and modifier descriptions, cause it seems those take the information directly from the data base. A lot of civilopedia information is outdated, especially general informations.
Needs taking the empire median last only 2 versions cause it nearly always ended with a doomstack of unhappiness in the late game and was a fail concept.

I don't know how you know what is the current version based on. I rarely see useful descriptions and explanations here. Apparently Civilopedia is useless too. A system without explaining what it is doing is like no system at all.