IvoryPavane
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2019
- Messages
- 441
It's interesting that the Cree where one of the better economic civs before, because of trade routes/mekewap, and then they make the Inca, who also have a recon UU, a UI that also allows food/production tiles (though mekewap is more consistent) and a food from trade routes ability. Maybe they just like that setup over at FXS.
+50% on something like commercial hubs alone is a great ability, but it applies to the buildings too, which are more expensive than districts normally. Thermal baths are very good with their extra amenity and +2 production aura. They really are not a pure warmonger civ.
I strongly agree. People often get in the mindset that Civ is the Beat Up Deity AI Simulator, and discount that in MP, the power level questions really get exposed. What better way to test balance than give comparable players equal gameplay bonuses and let them choose civs? I also think the devs need to organize more "dev clashes" or whatever Ed and Carl did, but with more people involved. I think Stellaris does this and it does lead to rapid turnaround on "overpowered" stuff since, no one likes losing to their coworker when he keeps pitati rushing you every week. The water cooler trash talk is a powerful motivator.
If you really balanced the civs, units, buildings, etc, I think it would make the game better overall, and it would let issues around the fundamental game design and AI be separately handled. (Not that I advocated perfect starcraft level balance. Just bring some of the big outliers a little more towards the middle.)
My friends and I did something similar by sitting down and thinking about the Civs from a multiplayer perspective. We’ve all “mained” a GS Civs and then compare our notes after the game. It’s pretty fun!
But it does change the game exponentially and changes the outlook. Like The Inca’s UU is very very strong in the AI, but it’s pretty easy to deal with if they go on the offensive. Whereas their turtle ability is very strong.
And equally so, I’ve been surprised to the reaction to Phonecia as being considered overall weak, whereas my experience with them has been very different (not to brag but Dido is winning most of her matches haha!), and I think it’s because her abilities are much more efficient against other humans than against the AI- perhaps? Or maybe I just have a groove with her. She’s currently house banned so I’m giving Kristina and Wilfred a roll over the weekend, so I’ll report my findings!
But to my original point, the ranking of a Civ needs to have fairly solid context behind it. I’m not sure the game needs to be balanced around multiplayer persay, but I do think it’s very odd that the very subtle power of Canada was released in the same expansion of the very overt power of the Maori...