New Official Version - December 1st (12-1)

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Is this diplomacy bug already known?
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Standard Emperor Siam on Communitas_79. SV on Turn 399.

Spoiler :

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This one was a pretty dominant one by me. Russia had a major tech lead going into Renaissance, but I was able to catch up, and unlike previous games the civs were decently balanced on territory, so no one was able to race ahead. Though with the usual numerous wars toward the end, but nothing I couldn't handle. I now have a full 20 tech lead over my rival....so a complete stomp.

A few notes:

1) I still do not like the strategic resource bonus for statecraft. In general, here is how I find the CS game goes:

a) By Renaissance I can take nearly every CS if I commit to it, the AI mostly ignores CS up to this point.
b) Late Renaissance the AI wakes up to the fact that CS are good, and starts competing with me.
c) By Industrial the AI gets aggressive. A combination of GD bombs, wars that take out CS, open doors I can't block, or opponent spheres I can't block....the number of CS allies steadily dwindles, often down to 5 or so.

So what always seems to happen is, I use my strategics, I lose CS allies, and then I have strategic deficits. Its a feel bad mechanic, and I wish it were replaced with something else, or the mechanic was switched to friendships but with more required.

2) I think its time to consider desert for the skirmisher bonus. Currently desert is a penalty instead of a benefit, and I think it should be terrain skirmishers get benefits on. Skirmishers were commonly used in desert warfare (as are tanks in later era desert war). Moroccos UU is a skirmisher! From a UI perspective, sometimes desert and plains can look very similar, and its sometimes hard to tell teh difference. Or getting a flood plain confused with its desert neighbor. But ultimately I think the skirmisher could stand a bit more variety, its already pretty narrow in what terrain it can be useful in, adding desert would give it a bigger niche.

3) Museums are very expensive for what they provide, I found its commonly a building I can just never get around to building on mass. Also Stock Exchanges are horrendously expensive, I get them in my capital if even then.

4) I tried Air Defense a few times and then dropped it. Even with the change from several versions ago its still a very bad promotion. I think the only way it would see use is just to give it to cover as an add on when you get to flight, because its never worth taking.

5) A ran an experiment where I decided to settle an island off water. So at the cost of 10-20 GPT of city connection, loss of lighthouse/harbor/seaport resources, and 10 extra unhappy (and generally my happiness was really good this game until the very very end)...I have this nice city with a very solid protection. The AI only tried to hit once with a land invasion, which I was able to repel with ease. So I think the experiment was a success, and I will consider more off water settling in the future.

Spoiler :

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Just highlighting how sharp the AI has become on choosing WC resolutions. This is how you counter me attempts at spheres.

I had similar countering in my last play through. Before I could sometimes win a Diplomatic victory when I was actually going for a science victory. Now it’s in a better place with dynamic, frustrating fun as I’m thwarted through the ages.
 
Stalker0, perhaps you could try an experiment with Tetouan (from one of your previous games, the one with Morocco vs. Portugal), if you settle it two tiles southeast (on stone), I think you'd be able to defend it without navy support, just with ranged units.
 
@Stalker0

1) I completely agree about AA ability of destroyers too strong

2) Also about reducing AA range of AA guns (maybe not SAMs) from 3 to 2. I'd also reduce their melee strength a bit and make them squishier to land attacks

3) I am not sure if it is in the base VP or if it comes from another mod, but I think airports create a city connection (I know, they come late in the game), so they could increase the value of inland island cities a bit

4) Seeing those screenshots, I get an impression that AI is favoring melee ships over ranged a bit too much. Was it just one off or is it common?
 
This is one of those times I just scratch my head at the Religious Pressure System. Russia has enormous pressure in its cities, with mandirs, no other secret sauce at the moment.

Spoiler :

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Meanwhile in my holy city, with churches, mandirs, and orthodoxy I can only manage 168 pressure. (I also have fully converted Egypt and Shoshone and all the CS around me).

Spoiler :

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The pressure is so high that those top 4 cities I just hit with a Great Prophet, and it barely even dented their followers (which I though GP acts as an inquisitor so I don;t understand how that works).

Where is Russia getting all of this secret pressure from?
 
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Maybe city density? But yeah, the religious pressure, faith generation (some civs seem to have >1000 per turn based on the number of missionaries produced), and whether or not a missionary even makes a dent is usually a complete mystery to me.
 
As far as I am concerned religion is one of the worst mechanics in the game & most broken. Extremely biased towards civs with a religion against those who haven't, tedious gameplay seeing who can convert who the quickest & keep at it, which to tell you the truth nothing like reality. Yes, I know there are some real advantages in having one & gamey tactics to use to your advantage but that is not how I feel it should be played, particularly when all other parts of the game are really improved all the time & strong.

I know many on here will disagree, but wonder whether that is because the mechanic is fun or more likely what they can gain from using them.
 
Standard Communitas_79 Emperor as Spain. DV on Turn 375 (SV on Turn 376).

Spoiler :

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So this was a complete curbstomp in this game. Though Russia started to get large in the late game, it wasn't fast enough. Meanwhile I was 20 techs ahead and an unbeatable army, so it was just a matter of time. Only a few notes:

1) So DV is a little bipolar at the moment. On the one hand, winning it without a vassal is exceptionally difficult on competitive difficulties, as the AI has gotten very good at using open doors and warfare to really trim down the ally CS count in the late game. On the other hand, vassals make DV very easy. One vassal following your world ideology can bag you like 8 votes....before even counting their embassies and the like (9 if you have order). That's an incredible amount of votes. In this game I had given up on CS allies, didn't take statecraft, didn't get any diplomatic wonders. I won hegemony simply because I had 2 vassals.

Now if we all say that getting a vassal is just part of the DV playbook, I think that's fine. If people would rather DV be less bipolar, perhaps the hegemony number should be lowered but vassal votes count less.

2) Got to try out the new Spain. Ultimately I think it was a good change. The UA is weaker but still solid. The hacienda did take some getting used to. I am still not sure if multiple resources of the same type stack for the building, so maybe a tooltip update their, but the puzzle of finding good places for them was enjoyable. Its always fun as Spain fighting Theodora in the medieval age, as you get Conquistadors vs Cataphracts which makes for an interesting matchup.

3) Difficulty wise. So on the one hand, in previous runs I have seen the warmonger from hell take the map and give me a run for my money. But weirdly on these last two runs when that didn't happen....I runaway with the game like I have never done before. I can't remember ever being more than 20 techs ahead of number 2, and I've done it twice in the last two games. so that seems off.

4) I think we could remove the ranged attack from the GDR. Its already proving to be a very dominant unit, and the free attack completely screws with the combat calculator, GDRs will often 1 shot units that its only supposed to do 60-70% damage to.

5) I greatly enjoyed Theodora as my vassal, she was a total b**** the entire time. Complaining, stealing my CS around me, throwing out a global liberation on occasion....it was fun to see her try to wiggle from my grasp. Conversely Shoshone was the first civ in a very long time that actually just agreed to be my vassal! And it was cool, he didn't do it in the trade screen, he just came to me and said "you are amazing, I wish to offer you my fealty". I was like "um....for real?" Then went to the trade screen and sure enough he agreed to be my vassal. It was very cool. While Theo hated my guts, Shoshone and I were best buddies, and were great trading partners the rest of the game. So of course I gave him whatever he wanted, and Theo got garbage from me ;)
 
Standard Communitu_79a King as Rome. CV on Turn 397.

Spoiler :



Start
Heavy forest start with cocoa monopoly. Found England on the same island and decided she must die before Banking, so I picked Authority. Persia and Siam were to the north so I wouldn't lack a target after England. I built Stonehenge way earlier than anyone else could've grabbed it, and picked Renewal due to all those trees. I founded Caesar Salad with Hero Worship (basically full warmonger path from now on) and Thrift (never lacked gold since then). Spent all my iron on Legions and then declared war on a Friendly England. The war took quite a long time due to rough terrain (desert and hills and mountains), but it was pretty one-sided with Legions vs Archers, Spearmen and Horsemen. Ended up capturing two cities (London and York) and razed the other two with basically no buildings. I settled Ravenna on a city ruin later on.

Meanwhile, my first four cities had finished all buildings and were spamming units until the supply limit.

Medieval to Renaissance
With my island united and Persia being BFF, I paid them to declare war on Siam so I could convert Persia. The war was too successful and Siam lost all but one city and became Persia's vassal, while Persia gained a religion. So much for the shared religion opinion bonus. All other Persian cities still followed Caesar Salad though, so at least I didn't get a penalty. I enhanced with Orders and Sacred Calendar, and reformed with To the Glory of God, aiming for a CV (if it happened before Domination).

I sent my explorers to the east and west and founded the world congress before anyone even got their first Caravel. Mongolia had most of Greece, but Brazil and Arabia were the tech/policy leaders close to me. Without wars it was hard to keep the lead against Tradition civs. I started spamming Caravels and Galleass to prepare for a future cross-continent conquest. I also passed Casus Belli and someone else sanctioned Mongolia. Obvious next target. At this point, Tradition/Artistry Arabia had the same number of policies as me (Authority/Artistry).

The first city took a while for me to capture with fresh Corvettes and Frigates and a few City Assault Cover II Tercios attacking from water, while another batch of ships had to handle the non-stop barrage of Mongolian Caravels and Galleass. It went slightly easier after I liberated Quebec City and had some place to stand on, but Tercios at that point were too outdated so the land battle was a stalemate. Once I unlocked Fusiliers and upgraded my bunch in Quebec territory though (Imperialism policy too good), it was a complete pushover and I quickly nabbed 3 cities (including Karakorum, his Holy City) and liberated Colombo and Mycenae (Alexander loved me) before I accepted his capitulation. No one batted an eye on all this bloodshed.

Spoiler :


Even though I wiped the Holy City status from Karakorum and spent all my faith on Missionaries (double boosted), Mongolia decided to undo all my progress with his own Inquisitors, so pressure remained high against my cities and the two liberated City States, and I had to pop an Inquisitor periodically.

Industrial
Alexander, Harun and Darius decided to NOT love me anymore. Persia settled a city on the tip of MY island, and amassed his navy there, while being HOSTILE all the time. As if I would be scared. I surrounded his navy with 2 of mine (Ironclads + Frigates) from both sides, and provoked him enough so he declared war on me to avoid his DP with Brazil (I had nothing on that side).

Spoiler :



Sardis was down in 2 turns, along with his so-called navy of Corvettes and Frigates, and then I started chipping away on Gordium and Pasargadae while having ship killers handle the Persian ships coming down from Bactra. Siam became my voluntary vassal for around 50gpt. Having way too many ships, I also started liberating Lampang from La Venta (which went back and forth 4-5 times since Siam couldn't possibly hold it), and Kamphaeng and Panama City from Persia. Siam lost Phitsanulok to Persia and was about to lose Vientiane too before I saved him from death. At this point my Ironclads had Pincer/Blitz or Dauntless/Vanguard and my Cruisers had Logistics, so every coastal city was a curbstomp from now on.

~20 turns since the start of war (it was bribed and he refused to make peace for a few more turns), Persia capitulated, leaving me with 3 vassals and 3 conquered capitals.

Modern+
Brazil and Arabia both had a DP with Greece, but they denounced each other. I decided to start with the seemingly easier Arabia. He was gone in 7 turns.

Spoiler :


Mongolia captured Athens, eliminating Greece from the game as well. I had two choices: conquer Brazil and then declare war on Mongolia and Persia for their capitals, or just wait for the eventual CV. I didn't like betraying my new BFF Genghis, so I picked the latter and ended the game slightly later than it should have been. Brazil never dared declaring war on me despite having -600 opinion and denouncing non-stop.

Other stuff
  • I ran out of buildings very often, so I was able to spam diplomats to ally more than half of the City States, despite not having Statecraft or any DV wonders.
  • I ran out of paper often too, so most cities used the Research process on and off to work on my terribly low science (compared to culture).
  • I usually have higher culture than science in my games, but this game was so extreme that I finished the entire Autocracy tree before entering Information era.
  • Rome's UA made sure my 17 puppets could keep up on infrastructure. Sometimes even puppets started using processes.
  • Happiness was very easy early game with 7 cities (always 100% happy with less than 20 unhappiness in the entire empire), but quickly went out of hand starting Industrial when I started amassing puppets and specialist slots. My non-puppet cities always have capped happiness (= population), but each of them working 10+ specialists and puppet unhappiness/urbanization brought it below 50%. Should I have annexed more cities at the cost of tourism/tech/policy cost for more happiness?
  • AIs are willing to trade their own inaccessible cities for a good price now. Mainly defenseless island cities.
  • Speaking of defenseless island cities, AIs start going for them with Colonists. Maybe we should buff Colonists to give an exclusive defensive building so those island cities are actually viable?
  • Zeros don't cost oil or supply, so you can put 6 of them in every city if you have enough production. That feels overpowered.
  • City governor almost never works forts, even when fully buffed with both policies.
  • Gold had never been a problem in this game, even when I never charged any tax. I was able to comfortably pay each of my vassals 100-150gpt for them to vote nay on sanctioning me, while buying City States from Mongolia to liberate them for fun.
Potential bugs/balancing issues
  • Arabia had way too many Camel Archers in Modern era. They should never have trained that many without having horses to upgrade them all.
  • Brazil had way too many Bandeirantes. And they never upgraded them.
  • Tributing was a pain with owned territory blocking pathfinding. Valletta was impossible to tribute after I grabbed all land surrounding the city with a citadel.
  • At the same time, tributing is OP when you have the critical amount of units to outdo the -290% penalty to tribute every single turn. See Colombo in the second screenshot. Maybe make the tribute cooldown longer?
  • The Elite Forces tenet (Newly created Military Units receive +15 Experience. Military Units gain 50% more Experience from combat.) plus oil strategic monopoly made my units level up like mad. It was fun, but also seems highly favourable to humans who know to preserve units. I was wiping out entire navies in one turn, taking cities in one turn, and taking capitals in three.
 
Have you noticed any slowdown in turn times?
Turn time got faster at the end with 3 civs out of the game :lol:

Two more points that I forgot:
  • Consistent CTD a few seconds after I open the tech tree after winning the game (just one more turn), or a few seconds after I finish all my unit movements
  • Civilized Jewelers made me gain 1-2 Great People every turn. Really broken.
 
Turn time got faster at the end with 3 civs out of the game :lol:

So overall turn times are the same? Are you using 4UC? If so, is it the latest version?

Oh, and was this on 12-1-3, or the latest Recursive beta?
 
12-1-3, no 4UC.
 
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