I thought I start a thread for balance changes / tweaks for NFP Game Modes and specific mechanics introduced by NFP (eg Diplo Quarter). My suggestions are below. Apocalypse Mode. Give Soothsayers some sort of pre-requisite. Just crazy everyone starts with them. eg requires Mysticism, or only purchased in a Dark Age. Apocalypse Mode. Give us some other ways to mess with Disasters too. Maybe an Apostle promotion or some Religious Beliefs. Apocalypse Mode. Add in the Zombies from Red Dead (or have a separate "Zombie Game Mode"). Partly, I just think you can't have a proper Apocalypse without Zombies. But also it would introduce a Disaster mechanic that's a bit more interactive, because you can't just fix the problem by repairing pillaged tiles - you'd actually have to fight the blighters. No strong views how the mechanic would work - maybe they're random like barb units, increase dramatically once you get to the apocalypse, if they "capture" a city they release a big burst of extra zombies, and maybe late game you can use soothsayers to summon more (at your own risk, obviously). Or make Zombies its own game mode, so you don’t have to have Zombies in your Apocalypse Mode but you can if you want. I mean, wow. Zombies. Zombies with their own game mode. Awesome. Secret Societies Mode. Once a Civ joins a Secret Society, that Society can no longer be discovered via the map (eg barb camps, city states, natural wonders...). Instead, Players can then only discover the Society via Diplo Visibility. See here for reasoning (link). [Or if that doesn’t work / people don’t like it, maybe just reduce / get rid of the free Governor titles, or only have the free title for the first person to find a society or one free title when you actually select a society. All those titles so early is just too OP.] One free Gov Title seems about right. SS Seem much better balanced now, but I still think they need more trade offs per the next few bullet points. Secret Societies Mode. Give having a SS some trade-offs behind relationship modifiers, even if it’s just negative Alliance Points for Civs with different Societies. Or maybe each level reduces the minimum unhappiness required for Revolt (eg two levels of Secret Societies means Cities revolt on -6 Amenities instead of -8). Secret Societies Mode. Have World Congress Resolutions that actually target specific Secret Societies, so you're at risk of other Societies ganging up on your Society. Perhaps also have Casus Belli linked to the Societies, again just to create a bit more jeopardy. Secret Societies Mode. Buff Hermetic Order. Tone down Void Singers a tad. this seems sorted. Shuffle Mode. Option to have two Eurekas per Tech, and game randomly choose which Eureka is used for that tech each game. eg one game Masonary’s Eureka is Build a Quarry; another game, it’s Build a Shrine (or something else). Natural Wonder Picker. Please add a similar picker for choosing City States and for excluding particular Civs. sorted, plus we also got to pick / exclude Civs. Awesome. Dramatic Ages Mode. Add back Normal Ages, otherwise the different ages are just too binary. Dramatic Ages Mode. Keep the Golden Age Policy Cards, but add back Dedications. Dark Age and Normal Age Dedication would still just give you additional ways to earn Era Score. Golden Age Dedications could either provide just a small bonus (given the old bonuses have been moved to Golden Age Cards), or could also let you earn addition Era Score (although maybe reduced overall). Dramatic Ages Mode. Include the Era Score overflow Mechanic in the base game. Dramatic Ages Mode. Make Georgia’s new bonus apply in the base game, not just Dramatic Ages Mode.
This would be quite unbalanced I guess. 4 players can pick their SS quite early and the rest has to wait to get one. My solution for all the gov titels was to give one as soon as you find the first SS. You will get another promotion once you reach the era where the next upgrade can be unlocked. Or maybe even give out all the upgrades for free and never get a second gov titel.
Added / modified the following: Apocalypse Mode. Add in the Zombies from Read Dead (or have a separate "Zombie Game Mode"). Partly, I just think you can't have a proper Apocalypse without Zombies. But also it would introduce a Disaster mechanic that's a bit more interactive, because you can't just fix the problem by repairing pillaged tiles - you'd actually have to fight the blighters. No strong views how the mechanic would work - maybe they're random like barb units, increase dramatically once you get to the apocalypse, if they "capture" a city they release a big burst of extra zombies, and maybe late game you can use soothsayers to summon more (at your own risk, obviously). Secret Societies Mode. Once a Civ joins a Secret Society, that Society can no longer be discovered via the map (eg barb camps, city states, natural wonders...). Instead, Players can then only discover the Society via Diplo Visibility. See here for reasoning (link). [Or if that doesn’t work / people don’t like it, maybe just reduce / get rid of the free Governor titles, or only have the free title for the first person to find a society or one free title when you actually select a society. All those titles so early is just too OP.] Secret Societies Mode. Have World Congress Resolutions that actually target specific Secret Societies, so you're at risk of other Societies ganging up on your Society. Perhaps also have Casus Belli linked to the Societies, again just to create a bit more jeopardy. Yeah, maybe restricting discovery of Secret Societies that way would be too restrictive. However, I really like the idea of discovering secret societies via diplomacy, but that's a bit of a dead letter with the current mechanics, so I was trying to fix that. I also think Governor titles need to be reduced. Per above, another approach might be you only get one title for selecting a Secret Society, or only the first player to discover a particular society gets the title.
I like the ideas excpet this: I'm all for more disasters, but zombies should stay out, in my opinion. I've thought of something similar for this but instead of zombies they were actually groups of historical nomadic barbarian hordes like Huns, Xiongu etc. Not sure if they would fit the Apocalypse mode or in another game mode. Either way why not have earthquakes instead of zombies or bring in the plague mechanic from Black Death as someone else mentioned on another thread?
For what it’s worth, I’ve added a few thoughts on Dramatic Ages Mode (although ultimately I’ll have to see how it plays). Dramatic Ages Mode. Add back Normal Ages, otherwise the different ages are just too binary. Dramatic Ages Mode. Keep the Golden Age Policy Cards, but add back Dedications. Dark Age and Normal Age Dedication would still just give you additional ways to earn Era Score. Golden Age Dedications could either provide just a small bonus (given the old bonuses have been moved to Golden Age Cards), or could also let you earn addition Era Score (although maybe reduced overall). Dramatic Ages Mode. Include the Era Score overflow Mechanic in the base game. Dramatic Ages Mode. Make Georgia’s new bonus apply in the base game, not just Dramatic Ages Mode.
Updated as at April 2021. Pretty happy we got Zombies to go with Apocalypse Mode. Bit sorry Secret Societies didn’t get tweaked to add more trade offs and or intrigue, and personally I’d still like to see a narrow “normal” age in the dynamic ages mode.
