jimmytrick
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2002
- Messages
- 84
The title of this thread is to get the attention of someone from Firaxis.
The following comments are based on playtesting 1.17f.
I am hoping that an adjustment can be made to the following elements of gameplay that are incomplete or broken:
1. Artillery
The artillery unit cataput and cannon are so ineffective in relation to other available units that they are worthless in every sense. The only purpose they could serve in the game is handicap human players who make the mistake of building them.
Soren, ignore anyone who tells you differently because they are wrong.
This problem cannot be corrected in the editor because improving the artillery without having a way to instruct the AI to build more of them breaks the game.
2. Fortifications
Fortifications are useless in the game right now. Like artillery, I know that Soren is aware that fortifications are broken, because his AI does not build them. Fortification were incredibly important throughout history and must be represented in this game.
3. Tech Trading
While some confused gamers have reported that the newly patched AI behavior that leads the AI to trade techs at the speed of light makes the game too hard, it actually makes it too easy.
It is no longer necessary for the human player to research at all during the majority of the game. Once a tech is discovered and traded by the AI the human can trade for it at a fraction of the research cost. This leads to the absurd situation that the optimal play strategy is to avoid research.
4. Colonies
Since colonies are not colonies in any sense of the word, rename them accurately as resource centers. Eliminate the cost of a worker but assign a turn cost as in terrain improvement. This is all logical.
5. 1.17f new bug "j-goto command"
This command will move both fortified and unfortified units, it will empty out an army, but it will not move workers of different national backgrounds. This is highly embarrassing as it shows clearly that little or no testing was done before the patch was released.
Summary: Soren, I understand that fixing these fatal flaws in game design will take you a lot of time (and there are other things that must be done to finish the game as well). I realize that you don't have to do this.
Going the extra mile to complete the design implementation will however do much to enhance your reputation and future as a game designer.
I will be editing this post to add other gameplay glitches from time to time.
Thanks for your time.

The following comments are based on playtesting 1.17f.
I am hoping that an adjustment can be made to the following elements of gameplay that are incomplete or broken:
1. Artillery
The artillery unit cataput and cannon are so ineffective in relation to other available units that they are worthless in every sense. The only purpose they could serve in the game is handicap human players who make the mistake of building them.
Soren, ignore anyone who tells you differently because they are wrong.
This problem cannot be corrected in the editor because improving the artillery without having a way to instruct the AI to build more of them breaks the game.
2. Fortifications
Fortifications are useless in the game right now. Like artillery, I know that Soren is aware that fortifications are broken, because his AI does not build them. Fortification were incredibly important throughout history and must be represented in this game.
3. Tech Trading
While some confused gamers have reported that the newly patched AI behavior that leads the AI to trade techs at the speed of light makes the game too hard, it actually makes it too easy.
It is no longer necessary for the human player to research at all during the majority of the game. Once a tech is discovered and traded by the AI the human can trade for it at a fraction of the research cost. This leads to the absurd situation that the optimal play strategy is to avoid research.
4. Colonies
Since colonies are not colonies in any sense of the word, rename them accurately as resource centers. Eliminate the cost of a worker but assign a turn cost as in terrain improvement. This is all logical.
5. 1.17f new bug "j-goto command"
This command will move both fortified and unfortified units, it will empty out an army, but it will not move workers of different national backgrounds. This is highly embarrassing as it shows clearly that little or no testing was done before the patch was released.
Summary: Soren, I understand that fixing these fatal flaws in game design will take you a lot of time (and there are other things that must be done to finish the game as well). I realize that you don't have to do this.
Going the extra mile to complete the design implementation will however do much to enhance your reputation and future as a game designer.
I will be editing this post to add other gameplay glitches from time to time.
Thanks for your time.