[GS] Pillage Yield in GS

[steveg700]

Science from pillaging campuses is more or less understandable.

Science from pillaging mines, though... what have they been mining there, Australium???

Yeah, I don't think anybody would complain about campuses--even perhaps to the exent of them rewarding pillaging generously. I could see a mine (or quarry) over a resource as a possibility.

But science just for looting some axes and picks? Maybe a dead canary or two? Yeah, nah.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

I hate to break it to you, but pillaging is already grossly overpowered. Somebody above posted about using revolting cities with the Scythian, but that is mere child's play compared to what can be done with the Aztecs. It's tedious, but it's tantamount to what the Aztecs did. large scale human sacrifice. If you do it right you can launch the tech victory before 1 AD, perhaps even earlier If they improve pillaging in GS it won't matter. I don't think they have very good Playtesters.. I am testing out seeing how fast I can max out tech while having only one permanent city and no significant output besides production. So far I have an aerodrome built around the year 2000BC and I am only running 3 sacrifice centers.

 

[Ansive]

This is really sad. I don't like how the pillage game is shaping up.

Staying in war should quickly raise war weariness
Pillaging should generate grievances
Pillaging should depend on opponent's progress not yours (low to no yield if behind eras, low yields for free cities)
Pillage policy should be 50% not 100%

There were also other interesting suggestions in this thread (districts amassing yields, pillaging stealing gold or faith, no science from mines)

 

[Draco84]

I think the easy fix is to set the pillaging yield to be based on the defenders era.

Alternatively
Give it flat yield based on defenders era then multiply by difference in tech/civic difference between and have it maxing out at 50% to 200% base yield.

Then code the AI to pillage more often to catch up.

Also add 5-10 grievances per pillage would be nice, and add 5 grievances to all civs for each pillage to a free city or city State.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I hate to break it to you, but pillaging is already grossly overpowered. Somebody above posted about using revolting cities with the Scythian, but that is mere child's play compared to what can be done with the Aztecs. It's tedious, but it's tantamount to what the Aztecs did. large scale human sacrifice. If you do it right you can launch the tech victory before 1 AD, perhaps even earlier If they improve pillaging in GS it won't matter. I don't think they have very good Playtesters.. I am testing out seeing how fast I can max out tech while having only one permanent city and no significant output besides production. So far I have an aerodrome built around the year 2000BC and I am only running 3 sacrifice centers.

Maybe Sumeria is better(Persia?)? Since their units move faster.

 

[Victoria]

500 science seems a stretch.

The joke is that they did scale it down from base at real ease.. it is in the patch notes

• Adjust pillaging rewards of science and culture improvements to be a base value of 15 instead of 25.

... but it is still way OP. They may have introduced it for the plague scenario

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Using the Aztecs I finished the entire tech tree in the year 1200 BC in a marathon game. It would have taken me about another 35 turns to finish the science victory by passing Magnus around to all my cities with extensive forests.

 

[Kamino]

I have discovered pillaging yields by experience a few days ago.
Totally broken system!
And total nonsense for the culture/science gains!

Complete an industrial knowledge in one turn by pillaging a classical age tiny civ's mines, really?

Best overall strategy now: spam (only) units and "farm" other civs and city states by pillaging them. Great!

 

[Sagax]

Funny how they were positioning this pillage buff as an indirect buff to Norway, while every single civ with a stronger kit benefit more from it.

Introducing - the Ottoman Barbary Corsair. Pillage to your heart’s content without spending a single movement point and laugh at Norway’s pathetic attempts to compete with you in this regard. Absolutely haram.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

Funny how they were positioning this pillage buff as an indirect buff to Norway, while every single civ with a stronger kit benefit more from it.

Introducing - the Ottoman Barbary Corsair. Pillage to your heart’s content without spending a single movement point and laugh at Norway’s pathetic attempts to compete with you in this regard. Absolutely haram.

That Corsair is insane. I was able to drag the Ottomans from the bottom of the tech and civic trees to the very top with the free pillaging. Absolutely bonkers. I'm glad its somewhat balanced by being an incredibly fragile unit.

 

[Victoria]

Today my Corsair jumped on a campus, went pillage, pillage, pillage, pillage and backed out of range.
Now in the old days of light cav that would have been 200 science but my Corsair got near 2000.
Next to the campus is a 3 tier commercial hub...
Can Firaxis please remove corsairs from the game because this is insane. I am only using one promotion line on corsairs which seems wrong and not historical.

 

[MrRadar]

On top of that all, AI now seems much more efficient in repairing pillaged districts and buildings. So within a war you get to pillage the same district twice, sometimes even three times.
Also, hundreds and hundreds of coins from a pillaged aqueduct - one could think they drink liquid gold, not water.

 

[Gaonac'h]

Also it seems like there is a bug if you are pillaging a building and have a UB yourself, pillaging a temple as the Khmer for example when conquering the city you will get a fully repaired Prasat if you didn't pillage the district.

 

[orasis]

Yeah, pillaging is actually useful in this game. You can get some pretty nice yields.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Yeah, pillaging is actually useful in this game. You can get some pretty nice yields.

Useful? If you mean breaking the game is useful then yeah.

 

[orasis]

Useful? If you mean breaking the game is useful then yeah.

It's only game breaking if you're playing on anything below king. If you're playing on immortal or deity.... it's, useful.

Have any saves to share?

 

[Victoria]

If you're playing on immortal or deity.

You mean after turn 50 deity feels like king... because that’s what is can feel like.
Don’t bother taking cities, just pillage. On deity they repair stuff very fast now.
If you do take cities, buy a builder, make some mines, then give it back. The joys of investment.
Buy a bomber with gold, bomb a couple of pastures and it has paid for the bomber.
Deity is supposed to be hard, not lard.

 

[Ondolindë]

Yeah, pillaging is actually useful in this game. You can get some pretty nice yields.

Useful? If you mean breaking the game is useful then yeah.

You mean after turn 50 deity feels like king... because that’s what is can feel like.
Don’t bother taking cities, just pillage. On deity they repair stuff very fast now.
If you do take cities, buy a builder, make some mines, then give it back. The joys of investment.
Buy a bomber with gold, bomb a couple of pastures and it has paid for the bomber.
Deity is supposed to be hard, not lard.

I agree with @Victoria and @Troy Bruckner here. Useful is one thing, researching one or two techs in one turn is another. Accumulating tens of thousands of faith points with Monumentality is also another. Soon you could find yourself just going on One More Pillage instead the so loved One More Turn because you would be in the future era when everyone is still in medieval or popping settlers and builders like the GP never used by the AI. I exaggerate, but close enough and hope my point is across. What’s the fun in that? You already know you’ll win, but by pillaging? Where’s the testing of time here? And what if you don’t play domination where pillaging is most prone to happen? This is absurdly out of place in my opinion. And what’s sadder about this is that Firaxis should have known better. They’ve been at it for a while now, I think.

 

[Elhoim]

And what’s sadder about this is that Firaxis should have known better. They’ve been at it for a while now, I think.

The only logic here seems "People like yields, let's give them more yields!". We are all Pavlov's dog.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

It's only game breaking if you're playing on anything below king. If you're playing on immortal or deity.... it's, useful.

Have any saves to share?

I have no idea where to find the file. It's there, but I can't find the folder to share.