RFC Europe playtesting feedback thread

The research rate is WAY to fast, you guys need to slow it down, 500-1200AD was not called the Dark Ages for nothing, research rate NEEDS to be slowed down by a lot, I'm able to get most tech's in 2-4 turns,

Seconded. Research rate needs to be slowed down overall, not just for the big civs.
 
Also I'm quite sure skirmishers require horses to be trained, because currently your able to get them without horses, which doesn't make sense.

Also for the next version I would have to strongly suggest making it so that the Pope can call a crusade on Jerusalem if the city belongs to the independents, because or else Arabia collapses, and a crusade is never called again, which is really annoying, not to metnion at the time of the crusades, the Middle East was in political disarray anyways (until Saladin) so why not have the ability for the Pope to call a crusade on Independents?

Another thing about the Crusades I was wondering, is why can't you call a crusade on Antioch, Alexandria, or another city with Orthodox Christianity or Catholicism in the Levant?

Another thing that raised my eyebrow is why is it that the Ottomans are frequently Orthodox Christian, even though they start off with a lot of imams? Maybe they should start off with more, and the same goes with Bulgaria why are they so often Catholic? And once I saw a Orthodox Vikings

And for Abu Yusuf (the Second leader for the Moors), was the best intro you could think up of, "Welcome to the Desert" I mean really guys:crazyeye:
May I suggest (and you can change it to whatever), "Let us be friends, and Allah will smile upon us, or let us be enemies and may Allah curse you" (trying to show Yusuf's conservative look at Islam), but this is just a rough quote, just a suggestion.

Still don't agree with Joan of Arc being a leader of France, there are tons of better candidates then a short lived general

Why does Calais flip to the English? In my European History textbook, it clearly states that the Flemish Nobility were loyal to the French Crown, so why does it flip? I don't know how many of you have played Medieval 2 Total War (really great game), but the English in 1080 start off with Caen, a city in Northern France, but you should also have Bourdeux flip to the English as part of the connection Anquatine has with the English nobility. So basically remove Calais flipping to the English, instead have a city like Rennes or Brest flip to them, and instead of having Cherbourg spawn, have Caen spawn, which has always had ties with the Dukes of Normandy, you should also have Bourdeux flip.

A few things about the English start, I think they should start off with one more boat, and one more settler. They should have more defence in the cities that spawn to them in France, such as more crossbowmen perhaps, or else its always siezed back.

And I'm still confused why is it that the Reformation is started with the Industrial Revolution tech? I mean does no one else find this a bit too late? I think having it at Priting Press was a good idea (or somewhere there).

Marrakesh it useless, the Moors NEVER capture it, even though they will settle in Morocco now, they never capture it, I would suggest just having it flip to them, since it was an integral part of there Empire anyways.

I know you guys are working on this, but Germany is still too weak.

Please add Sicily back to the Arab settler/war map, no one settles there anyways, and it would be nice to have some rivalery for the island, also adding JUST one more indepedent city there (perhaps Syracuse?) really would not hurt.
FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Sicily

Not criticism, but I thought it was funny how Spain captured Florence, but not Sicily, they should be more inclined to capture sicily (Naples)

Please don't take this has ""Hatred"" towards this mod, the only reason I take my time to do this is because I love this mod so much, it really is a joy watching it grow from nothing (a couple years ago), to a mod almost on par with regular RFC;)
Happy Summer Holidays to you all!
 
Just a little discussion on the post from The Turk since I think it made some good points.

I agree it should be possible to crusade against Independents. I don't think it would be too overpowered that this essentially guarantees a victory for crusaders since often this will set up conflicts later. Is it more likely for Arabia to respawn if another civ holds their territory?

With the way religion mechanics work I think might just be necessary to live with the possibility of Orthodox Ottomans. Would more missionaries really help since they seem to start with enough for their initial cities?

I didn't know much before about the history of Calais, but from wikipedia I do see what you mean about it being weird flipping to england since they conquered it later. I do see a lot of Caen getting founded now and flipping. I think its good if something flips to the English, but am not sure what he best places are.

Printing press still causes the reformation when a Catholic civ gets it, I'm not sure whats up with the protestantism at industrial rev in the tech tree.

Honestly Marrakesh is just useless anyway as it is. Oasis doesn't provide extra food so you can't work that much extra from it. I don't know if its a good idea to burden a civ with the city unless its made stronger.

Germany is sort of in a weird position. I've seen it strong sometimes, but it seems like its a dice roll whether its strong or awful.

Sicily should be more interesting as a site whatever the details. Its a really good city site right now but it hardly ever gets settled. What happened to the barb city that used to be there in an old release?

Just some more feedback, I've really enjoyed the mod (if only UHVs were more difficult :))
 
Also I'm quite sure skirmishers require horses to be trained, because currently your able to get them without horses, which doesn't make sense.
Excellent point, and easy to fix.

Also for the next version I would have to strongly suggest making it so that the Pope can call a crusade on Jerusalem if the city belongs to the independents, because or else Arabia collapses, and a crusade is never called again, which is really annoying, not to metnion at the time of the crusades, the Middle East was in political disarray anyways (until Saladin) so why not have the ability for the Pope to call a crusade on Independents?
Another excellent point. I believe it was the 5th Crusade that was aimed at taking Egypt first, with the plans to eventually take Jerusalem after having destabilized the power base of the Arabs.

Another thing about the Crusades I was wondering, is why can't you call a crusade on Antioch, Alexandria, or another city with Orthodox Christianity or Catholicism in the Levant?
Or, how about heretic versions of religions popping up? They could just be blanket "heretics", being able to be present anywhere, that cause stability issues and can also spawn Crusades if they get powerful. Maybe that is too much work for not much payoff though.

Another thing that raised my eyebrow is why is it that the Ottomans are frequently Orthodox Christian, even though they start off with a lot of imams? Maybe they should start off with more, and the same goes with Bulgaria why are they so often Catholic? And once I saw a Orthodox Vikings
I often seen Orthodox Scandinavian. I think this is ok though, I mean, it could have potentially gone that way (though the Catholics proselytized more than the Orthodox after the initial spread of Christianity.

Still don't agree with Joan of Arc being a leader of France, there are tons of better candidates then a short lived general.
I think this is a case of the LH being available, so why not use it.

And I'm still confused why is it that the Reformation is started with the Industrial Revolution tech? I mean does no one else find this a bit too late? I think having it at Priting Press was a good idea (or somewhere there).
Seriously. I mean, for all intents and purposes, without the printing press, the Reformation would have never become what it did. The rapid and cheap spread enable by the idea spreading revolution that was the printing press led to the creation of the conflicting literature against the wishes of the Catholic powers.

Please add Sicily back to the Arab settler/war map, no one settles there anyways, and it would be nice to have some rivalery for the island, also adding JUST one more indepedent city there (perhaps Syracuse?) really would not hurt.
FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Sicily
Well, war map maybe... they didn't found anything in Sicily. They conquered by the sword.

Not criticism, but I thought it was funny how Spain captured Florence, but not Sicily, they should be more inclined to capture sicily (Naples)
Historically S. Italy and Sicily were targets of the Spaniards and Burgundians... but this isn't to say that the riches of Florence wouldn't have been tempting. One or two games of conquering Florence instead of Sicily/Naples isn't bad at all. It would have been harder after the Medicci came around. Is there any mechanism to make Florence a more powerful city than the average independent?

Please don't take this has ""Hatred"" towards this mod, the only reason I take my time to do this is because I love this mod so much, it really is a joy watching it grow from nothing (a couple years ago), to a mod almost on par with regular RFC;)
I think everyone knows and appreciates honest evaluations of this awesome mod aimed at making it better.
Awesome points here from the Turk!
 
Excellent point, and easy to fix.
I thought it was a gameplay thing. Skirmishers are one of the most basic units and thus shouldn't be restricted, IMO. Think about it like if the Horse resource meant some good breed or something. Horses were everywhere in Europe anyway.

Or, how about heretic versions of religions popping up? They could just be blanket "heretics", being able to be present anywhere, that cause stability issues and can also spawn Crusades if they get powerful. Maybe that is too much work for not much payoff though.
I don't know for the team but I think adding a new religion just for that is too much work. Maybe just make it so any independent city with Catholicism and either a big culture or a big pop can be targeted.

I think this is a case of the LH being available, so why not use it.
Yeah, and I still think she can say. I like her :)

Seriously. I mean, for all intents and purposes, without the printing press, the Reformation would have never become what it did. The rapid and cheap spread enable by the idea spreading revolution that was the printing press led to the creation of the conflicting literature against the wishes of the Catholic powers.
Protestantism do appear at Printing Press. It's founding process isn't as regular as other religions. It is set at Industrial Rev so no one not Catholic would found it. Maybe adding a help text to PP saying it does found Prot might be good.
 
Or, how about heretic versions of religions popping up? They could just be blanket "heretics", being able to be present anywhere, that cause stability issues and can also spawn Crusades if they get powerful. Maybe that is too much work for not much payoff though.

I think you might have misunderstood me, I just thought it was silly how you couldn't call a crusade on an "independent" Jerusalem, because anyways at the time of the crusades, the Middle East was hit by political turmoil (until as I said, Saladin came)

I often seen Orthodox Scandinavian. I think this is ok though, I mean, it could have potentially gone that way (though the Catholics proselytized more than the Orthodox after the initial spread of Christianity.

Well although I am ok-ok with seeing a Orthodox Scandinavia, I still think that in 995-1000 AD, catholic missionaries should spawn for them, since this represents the real time when the Vikings converted to Christianity (the Danes). As for the Ottomans, I think in your next release, more imams should be given to them, since the Ottomans ARE Muslim, you can't have it any other way.

Or, how about heretic versions of religions popping up? They could just be blanket "heretics", being able to be present anywhere, that cause stability issues and can also spawn Crusades if they get powerful. Maybe that is too much work for not much payoff though.

I think you might have misunderstood me, I just thought it was silly how you couldn't call a crusade on an "independent" Jerusalem, because anyways at the time of the crusades, the Middle East was hit by political turmoil (until as I said, Saladin came)

I often seen Orthodox Scandinavian. I think this is ok though, I mean, it could have potentially gone that way (though the Catholics proselytized more than the Orthodox after the initial spread of Christianity.

Well although I am ok-ok with seeing a Orthodox Scandinavia, I still think that in 995-1000 AD, catholic missionaries should spawn for them, since this represents the real time when the Vikings converted to Christianity (the Danes). As for the Ottomans, I think in your next release, more imams should be given to them, since the Ottomans ARE Muslim, you can't have it any other way.

I think this is a case of the LH being available, so why not use it.

So if I found a leaderhead for a leader AFTER Charlemange but BEFORE Louis 14, could I send you the link to replace Joan of Arc with? Because believe me I will find one.

Seriously. I mean, for all intents and purposes, without the printing press, the Reformation would have never become what it did. The rapid and cheap spread enable by the idea spreading revolution that was the printing press led to the creation of the conflicting literature against the wishes of the Catholic powers.

I think you might have misunderstood me, Protenstanism NEEDS to start with Printing Press, but currently on the tech tree, its says it starts with the Industrial Rev tech, I think this is a bug

Well, war map maybe... they didn't found anything in Sicily. They conquered by the sword.

Fine, ya I think it should be added to its warmap then, so the human player dosen't lose stability when taking over the island and the computer player will eventually take it. But to do this I STRONGLY URGE you guys to have 2 or AT LEAST 1 independent city on Sicily, Palermo and Syracuse would be great! Not to mention it would make it so that the Spanish, Arabs and whoever else can take the Island has the initiative to.

Historically S. Italy and Sicily were targets of the Spaniards and Burgundians... but this isn't to say that the riches of Florence wouldn't have been tempting. One or two games of conquering Florence instead of Sicily/Naples isn't bad at all. It would have been harder after the Medicci came around. Is there any mechanism to make Florence a more powerful city than the average independent?

Well ya sure, you could have it so that they have more wealth/culture in the city and perhaps give Florence more buildings then the average Independent city.

These were some other things that came to me while playing today:

1. I thought when you convert to Catholicism the pope spawns missionaries towards your cities, because playing as England once I converted to Catholicism, no missionaries sprouted out, even though only 1 city was Catholic

2. Techs for Western and Northern European Nations is TOO fast, and this is on Monarch. Viceroy is unplayable, completely, since its just not in sync with the rest of the game.

3. Independent Cities, which spawn from the beginning of the game, really need to be better fortified, against barbarians which just roam around. Is there a way to stop Barbarians from razing cities, like can you stop the viking raids on France from razing all your cities, and instead hold on to them?

More comments will continually be added, oh and by the way, when are you guy's looking to release your next update?
 
I thought it was a gameplay thing. Skirmishers are one of the most basic units and thus shouldn't be restricted, IMO. Think about it like if the Horse resource meant some good breed or something. Horses were everywhere in Europe anyway.

Actually horses were VERY expensive in Europe, and were not at all very common, war horses especially were impossible to find

I don't know for the team but I think adding a new religion just for that is too much work. Maybe just make it so any independent city with Catholicism and either a big culture or a big pop can be targeted.
No, what I meant was, why can't a crusade target a independent Jerusalem, because it reality at the time of the real crusades the Middle East was in chaos anyways.

Protestantism do appear at Printing Press. It's founding process isn't as regular as other religions. It is set at Industrial Rev so no one not Catholic would found it. Maybe adding a help text to PP saying it does found Prot might be good.

Wait I don't understand. Isn't it that even if a Muslim or Orthodox country is the first to discover Printing Press, it doesn't start the reformation, its only the first CATHOLIC civilization which founds it which starts the reformation. I think its really stupid to have the reformation start with the Industrial Revolution, could you please change it back to it starting with Printing Press. Also another question I had, is what happens if you find the Printing Press first, but you don't want to convert? Can't we have it so that the holy city will change to a civ which DOES accept the reformation?
 
Reformation starts at Printing Press. It is triggered by the first Catholic civ researching PP. That one civ will get the Holy City, no matter what, it seems.
 
Germany is sort of in a weird position. I've seen it strong sometimes, but it seems like its a dice roll whether its strong or awful.

Well the initial destruction of the german civilization due to a single horse archer should be gone with the next version :)

I did some resource counting within the fat crosses of civ's Capitols.
Germany is clearly at last place with only 2 (wheat/silver)
Sweden has only 3 (fish/fur/timber)
all other civs have at least 4, generally an important strategic resource included (iron/horse/copper)
Cordoba has a whopping 7 :)

If germany somehow doesn't build an additional city to the west or that space is already taken.. well str 4 spearmen don't really stand a chance against pretty much anything, and the civs around germany usually notice that at some point :)

Curious why the germans are at such a disadvantage.
 
Actually horses were VERY expensive in Europe, and were not at all very common, war horses especially were impossible to find

So that's why Skirmishers should NOT require horses. On all the other suggestions I somewhat agree (though some 'historical stuff' simply cannot be represented in this game, because it is Civ 4. Why should missionaries spawn in 1000 AD? Ruins the game). Jerusalem would be a nice target even when independent, but other than Alexandria, it would make little sense to have other options. Who would want those anyway? If Jerusalem is catholic, there might be an exception to that.

Also, there was a barbarian city in Sicily. It was on the wrong spot IMO because there was a better one, but there was a town up there. Nobody wanted to conquer it. It is like Ireland, which is also one of the few blank spaces on the map in 1700 AD. There should not be a barbarian city. It doesn't matter for the human and the AI will be too afraid to attack it.
 
I'm sorry, are you kidding me? Do you actually think that skirmishers, which is OBVIOUSLY a horse unit, should not require the horse resource?? Hello!? War horses were quite rare, does not mean that they should be made by a civ from the very start.

And I don't understand why having missionaries spawn when you open borders with the pope is such a bad idea? It makes perfect sense, in fact Papal Inqusitors should also be sent to Catholic nations with open borders with the Pope.

And what is so wrong with having independent/barbarian states in Sicily? In RFC, Ireland used to never be conquered by the English, but Rhye go it to work. As for Sicily, if you add it to the warmaps of more nations, I'm quite sure they will take it. In fact I'm going to do just that, I'll create two Independent cities on Sicily, and I'll tell you what happens, I'll play as some distant civ, to make sure that the human (me) doesn't interfere.
 
Okay, I am back again with this Hungary question because this irritates me much :P

After 4 games(emperor ofc) I found the good spots for cities so the barbarians are not that much of a problem right now (at least I can defend against them ). My problem now is the stability. I have 6 cities with 3 manor houses and I collapse whatever I do.

http://img820.imageshack.us/f/civ4screenshot0001.jpg/ http://img811.imageshack.us/f/civ4screenshot0002.jpg/ (sorry, I don't know how to upload pictures)
As you can see my 2 main negative effects are "expansion" and "foreign". -8 on expansion is inexplicable since Hungary according to history ruled the Carphatian basin wich should be the most stable area for Hungary (lets not count Croatia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdom_of_hungary_europe.png

Now the next problem is foreign. I have pretty good relations with every chatolic country. Only Genova is "cautious", the Pope is "friendly" (I even led a crusade) and everybody else is "pleased". The orthodox countries are mostly "cautious" except for Byzantine wich is "annoyed". Should this result in -15 foreign?

Now no matter what I do, I collapse in two turns maximum.
Also note that I am playing on emperor difficulty, still this could be a bit more balanced imo...
 
I'm sorry, are you kidding me? Do you actually think that skirmishers, which is OBVIOUSLY a horse unit, should not require the horse resource?? Hello!? War horses were quite rare, does not mean that they should be made by a civ from the very start.

The Turk, you must remember that civ is a game. Skirmishers are there for scouting purposes. There must be such a unit that does not require any resources. By your logic, a horse unit requires horses, which is in theory fine, but the much better option is to have a unit that does not require horses and has different graphics. If it looks like a horse, it shouldn't require horses, but it shouldn't look like a horse. Remember (I'm saying this often in this subforum it seems, so I'm talking to many playtesters in general here) that this is a game, and in games, some things are abstract and cannot be fully realistic. There are so many things that would make the game a little bit more realistic but much less playable...:(
 
I'm sorry, are you kidding me? Do you actually think that skirmishers, which is OBVIOUSLY a horse unit, should not require the horse resource?? Hello!? War horses were quite rare, does not mean that they should be made by a civ from the very start.

But it's OBVIOUSLY no war-unit. It's a recon unit. Most explorers had normal horses in those days, certainly no special war horses.

As for Protestantism:
This is controlled by python. It says the first catholic civ that get printing press, founds protestantism. But when I tested it (as France) the Barbs founded protestantism a few turns after the begin of the game (let's say: 512 AD). Panopticon added the requirement Industrial Revolution, so the Barbs were unable to get Protestantism. It isn't a bug, but it isn't very nice either. I think there should be a way to get rid of this. (that you see in the Civilopedia that Ind Rev. is a requirement)

BTW: It is possible to get an Crusade if Jerusalem is independent. Otherwise there is something wrong with the code.
 
Well concerning the skirmisher unit, when I first brought up the issue, which was A LONG LONG time ago, someone said, oh ya, that's a mistake we'll fix it. This is the first time I've been told that the skirmisher acts as a scouting unit, which I guess makes sense, but then why not just give is extra movement points (since its a light light cavalry unit) and just call it a scout?

Concerning the Protestantism issue, since when can the barbarians found anything? Do they even have a tech tree? I was under the impression, that they just spawn units at certain times during the game, not that they could research techs. Can't you just have it so the ALL CATHOLIC CIVILIZATIONS (opposed to barbs on independents) are allowed to found Protestantism and keep it at Printing Press, because I'm sure no one wants to wait till the Industrial Rev to found the religion, thats just stupid, in the next release, I hope you guys can fix that

As for the crusades, ya, I'm not sure why you cannot call a crusade against an Independent Jerusalem, otherwise once Arabia collapses (which is fairly common, after the first crusade), the pope NEVER calls subsequent ones!

And on a side note....
I'm off to go watch ENGLAND vs USA! What an epic match, will England fulfil there revenge for losing to USA 1-0 at the 1954 (something like that) World Cup!?

Which reminds me, wouldn't it be cool if in the late game, you could have exhibitions, like world congresses, which spring up around Europe, and you vote for where the are, and they give you a boost of beakers and commerce/production, like a type of World Expo, I thought that would be quite cool ;)
 
Well concerning the skirmisher unit, when I first brought up the issue, which was A LONG LONG time ago, someone said, oh ya, that's a mistake we'll fix it. This is the first time I've been told that the skirmisher acts as a scouting unit, which I guess makes sense, but then why not just give is extra movement points (since its a light light cavalry unit) and just call it a scout?

Concerning the Protestantism issue, since when can the barbarians found anything? Do they even have a tech tree? I was under the impression, that they just spawn units at certain times during the game, not that they could research techs. Can't you just have it so the ALL CATHOLIC CIVILIZATIONS (opposed to barbs on independents) are allowed to found Protestantism and keep it at Printing Press, because I'm sure no one wants to wait till the Industrial Rev to found the religion, thats just stupid, in the next release, I hope you guys can fix that

As for the crusades, ya, I'm not sure why you cannot call a crusade against an Independent Jerusalem, otherwise once Arabia collapses (which is fairly common, after the first crusade), the pope NEVER calls subsequent ones!

I hope you could yourself realise the Skirmisher is a scout. It is too weak to be a real war unit. And it's fast enough to explore fast. But we can indeed call it a scout.

I don't know why the Barbs founded protestantism, but they did. You all didn't notice because it was a revision, no new version. You DON'T have to wait untill Ind. Rev to found protestantism. The code works fine. If you are catholic and you discover printing press, you'll get protestantism. It is just an optical bug, not a gameplay bug.

I've seen some crusades against independent Jerusalem myself. So you surely can have a crusade against an independent civ.
 
Ok, I'm so-so fine about the skirmisher, I still think it should be renamed Scout, and it should look like a scout.

Then why don't you just remove the Protestant icon from the Industrial Rev. Tech, and have it on the Printing Press Tech? Is it really that hard to sort out?

And according to your civiopedia, you cannot call a crusade AT ALL (because you for some reason can only call crusades on Jerusalem) if Jerusalem is controlled by a Catholic, Orthodox or Independent civ, so it HAS to be a Muslim Civ (ie. Ottomans or Arabs, or the rare chance of the Cordovans owning it)

Also what do you think about adding independent cities (1-2) in Sicily, and adding Sicily to the Arab war map? Since historically they owned the island, it was called the Emirate of Sicily (big surprise there :lol: )
 
Two cities would definetely be too many, the island is too small. We had a city there in an earlier version. I'm not so sure why it was removed (although it was located on a suboptimal place), but I think it is because the AI never really tried to take over the island. I don't know if the war maps can solve this problem, perhaps it is the way Civ 4 handles overseas land battles. I know that the Better AI mod has improved the AI on that, so maybe we should...:mischief:
Spoiler :
Hint: the word "merge" is in the sentence
If so, I like the suggestion of a barbarian city in Sicily, which must be on the river and encompass the resources.
 
Anything in Sicily should start as independent, not barbarian, and the city should be Palermo... it's really a no brainer.
 
Ya I have to agree with kochman on this, this is what I did one game (posted in the picture)

Also I love Wessel V1 idea of merging better a mod with RFC Europe, which would create better AI, that would be great, why not do it! :)

PS. I just added the two cities for fun, I'm not saying that the fish HAVE to go there (although the one near Syracuse kinda does) but other then, that this is basically here to prove that you can place two cities on Sicily, and my game did not run ANY slower then usual (I was the Norse), which proves that adding more independent/barb cities is not a bad idea
 

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