RFC Europe playtesting feedback thread

I agree that Kiev is still too strong but so is your beloved Bulgaria. They seem stable enough to survive to the 20th.C. Trouble is they keep hogging the Adriatic coast when I'm playing as Venice. Tone them down a bit eh.
But as I said before Venice is good now, the galleas looks much better and the growing olive plantations look really nice.:goodjob:

The only major issue with Bulgaria is getting the Adriatic coast before Venice. Holding Durazzo for a period of time is fine, but Simeon usually get everything from Ragusa to Peloponnese.

The Byzantine - Bulgarian wars now go well enough. I will try to increase some of the stability penalties to see if that helps. Some tests are needed.
 
The only major issue with Bulgaria is getting the Adriatic coast before Venice. Holding Durazzo for a period of time is fine, but Simeon usually get everything from Ragusa to Peloponnese.

The Byzantine - Bulgarian wars now go well enough. I will try to increase some of the stability penalties to see if that helps. Some tests are needed.

BTW Where are the Barbary pirates? All I've seen up to 1600 as Venice is one barb caravel which attacked my galleas but caravels can't raze or blockade as Wessel has mentioned on the other thread. Should be galleys or war galleys IMO.
 
Got neutral Raguza and Belgrad with Austria ... If Venizia sleeps for 400 years, yes, than maybe Bulgaria gets the coast. After 1250 Bulgaria settled at the coast south of me. With 2 vassals at start Austria is a joke, stopped playing 1400, nothing to do.

Will now play Venezia, maybe i see a pirate this time :mischief: and i am sure, i won't see Bulgaria anywhere near the dalmatien coast.

bye Myri
 
I think maybe we should seriously rethink all tech rate / cost. If just halve it, later civs will be too strong, and AI is bad at catching up.

Maybe: for every civ that discovered that tech, reduce 5% cost, cap at 50%. Or let the Pope be a tech broker and distributer, like: gift Divine Right to everyone. Arabia get chivalry automatically after the first crusade. Every civ attended to crusade get +500 beakers toward chivalry.
 
Bulgaria again sucked badly, Venetia 1005, have Coast + Greece + parts of Italy, Bulgaria has 3 cities and I did not fight them.

There is really no need to nerf Bulgaria further, just teach Venezia how to expand by sea or conquer cities with mercenaries.

Tech seems fine for me, but maybe it's because i trade tech a lot. For me it's ok that later civs have a tech advantage because they have nothing else but tech.

I don't think it's a good idea to add much more barbs to conquer Kiev, because if they are successful a lot of barbs could conquer Poland, Austria, ...

bye Myri
 
Arabia has an interesting capital, Antakya, the left of the two cities they can instantly capture from Byzanz. Shouldn't they settle first? A successful counterattack would destroy them. At least they are muslims :)

bye Myri
 
Yes, the problem with the Arabians is that you can easily kill them at start with your swordsmen, even if the 2 cities in the Levant flip to them. The AI instantly spreads around its troops rather than do a concentrated attack like the human. Having Antakya as a capital is not that common though...

I just want to report that currently in emperor, youtien's strategy of getting the Round Church for Cordoba is impossible, and barbs from the north continually trash my resources. Why are there so many barbs in Hispania around this time anyway?
 
I got Round Church for Cordoba in emperor - razed Toledo, Toulouse, conquered Barcelona and Pamplona. Work on tiles with gold, like silver, gold. Cordoba could finish RC in 6 turns. Once we get Civil Service, things would be a lot easier.

Cordoba should build Noria - Smokehouse - Round Church. Settler, I always found Cadiz in previous versions, but now I think there would be a better spot, like, Madrid. Will try again later.
 
I can't even research vaulted arches before somebody builds it, and that's after I've conquered Barcelona. I did raze Toledo and built city next to the iron on a hill (probably where Madrid is) and my archers can reasonably defend without losses. But where do you find the time to build troops, and if you hire mercenaries, how do you sustain your research (I max out at 20% even working all money tiles in my other cities)? Pamplona's 2 crossbows are too much for even triply promoted city attack axemen. And how do you cope with the barbs that come nowadays to pillage west of Cordoba?
 
Map changes or how to ruin balance. Seems the map changes in Alpha 6 only have the intension to strenghten favorites civs, unfornately Spain, Moscow and Kiev did not need to get stronger. Now we need nerfs for Spain, Moscow and Kiev to compensate the map changes. Kiev is a really bad joke, there are hills under Kviv and Kharkov to make sure the Mongols don't hurt to much.

Woot, i saw a pirate. Add some more of them pls.

bye Myri
 
Map changes or how to ruin balance. Seems the map changes in Alpha 6 only have the intension to strenghten favorites civs, unfornately Spain, Moscow and Kiev did not need to get stronger. Now we need nerfs for Spain, Moscow and Kiev to compensate the map changes. Kiev is a really bad joke, there are hills under Kviv and Kharkov to make sure the Mongols don't hurt to much.

Woot, i saw a pirate. Add some more of them pls.

bye Myri

While I'm sure the changes in balance in favour of certain civs aren't intentional, I have to agree with you. Spain was already too strong. Now it's been made even stronger. Bulgaria still has too much stability and is too expansive. In my present game as England I even had to kick them out of France. What the hell were doing all the way over there?
And Kiev and Burgundy, who are not even supposed to survive to the end of the mod, are often the late game leaders. Many features have been improved with each successive Alpha version. Unfortunately balance is not one of them. I suspect the main culprit is the new faith feature which was shifted the balance in favour of some early civs at the expense of some of the later ones.
 
I found a bug on the mercenaries. When the AI hires them, the get about 10 of the same units with exacltly the same promotions and experience. All the Berserkers in the screenshot are all mercenaries with the same exp.
 
Got a lot of Berserkers with Venetia, too, one by one, most of them 0 or 1 exp.

bye Myri
 
While I'm sure the changes in balance in favour of certain civs aren't intentional,

For Kiev i am sure they are :) If the hills stay they have to fight the Mongols with bowmen, spearmen und lancers to get a chance to get killed.
Edit: Kiev has a major defensive position. I don't say the person who changed the map knowed Kiev should get killed by the Mongols, i just say he/she made sure they won't get killed.

Bulgaria still has too much stability and is too expansive.

That's totally different in my games, maybe the triple amount of barbs at emporer are the reason. So a solution would be to add a few more barbs for Bulgaria at monarch.

And Kiev and Burgundy, who are not even supposed to survive to the end of the mod, are often the late game leaders.

Burgund has to cheap tech, they rule with 3 cities and often get more.

bye Myri
 
I can't even research vaulted arches before somebody builds it, and that's after I've conquered Barcelona. I did raze Toledo and built city next to the iron on a hill (probably where Madrid is) and my archers can reasonably defend without losses. But where do you find the time to build troops, and if you hire mercenaries, how do you sustain your research (I max out at 20% even working all money tiles in my other cities)? Pamplona's 2 crossbows are too much for even triply promoted city attack axemen. And how do you cope with the barbs that come nowadays to pillage west of Cordoba?

Pamplona is after Round Church, Barcelona first. You get 1 -2 Berber cavalry at Tanja by luck, That's good against barbs.
 
Have not tested the last alpha a lot.

But concerning Bulgaria, it's safe to say now its UHV is overpowered. It worked in RFC because Babylon was a doomed civ anyways. Not having the unrest period means no direct instability from conquest and makes it easier to keep those cities, as you can build earlier walls and all.

Bulgaria is also pretty isolated, with much room to expand (which includes Kievan Rus' land if collapsed). They only battle seriously with Byzantium...

RFCE does not pretend to emulate history but it makes no sense to have a strong Bulgaria in the middle-late game.

On the other hand, i'd like very much a Spain that does not sit around accomplishing nothing. Cordoba should die often, Spain's last UHV should be more specific to war in Europe and end at least in the 1700s... I don't want to win before using tercios! :cry:

(some UHVs, in general, end too soon)

Maybe I'll create a thread in the same way as the Kievan Rus/Eastern Europe one for Iberian suggestions, if that's okay.
 
Pamplona is after Round Church, Barcelona first. You get 1 -2 Berber cavalry at Tanja by luck, That's good against barbs.

What's a Berber cavalry? I have never EVER had any flip to me (all I get is an archer, occasionally a galley), and I've never had the chance to build any in monarch or emperor. I usually ship my archer there to protect Cordoba (since barbs don't appear in Africa till later) and use Tangier for producing workers.
 
Again Antakya is the capital of Arabia and again Bulgaria only has 3 cities.

bye Myri
 
What's a Berber cavalry? I have never EVER had any flip to me (all I get is an archer, occasionally a galley), and I've never had the chance to build any in monarch or emperor. I usually ship my archer there to protect Cordoba (since barbs don't appear in Africa till later) and use Tangier for producing workers.

Poor one, i always get 1 or 2 Berber cavalry :) And i always get a galley or two, not just always a bowman.

bye Myri
 
Do you get that from the diplomacy screen (i.e. when you talk to Saladin), or do you read that in the Religious screen?

Does anyone happen to have a screenshot of this?

from diploscreen.
 

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