RFC Europe playtesting feedback thread

[merijn_v1]

@micbic
You don't have to for me, but if other players want a poll, you ahead.

I vote their should be one, spawning at 1130, the start of the Kingdom of Sicily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sicily

 

[Hamir]

My feedback for England on Beta 1 (so forgive me if any of this is out of date; am currently d/l Beta 2 so will try that out soon)

UHV: Generally a playable UHV, but i do think the French demands are a bit excessive. It basically means you have to collapse France and take their capital, and the majority of their cities, to win. It's certainly do-able, as if you take one or two cities they generally collapse. But not sure it really 'works', it seems a bit backdoor. If France doesn't collapse i cannot see how the UHV is really do-able at all in its current form, you really have no chance of creating an Army to defeat them, though i stand to be corrected...

Resources: I do feel England is a little under-resourced, when you consider the huge amounts you find in other areas of the map, but my only real annoyance (it's little more than that) is with the copper and clam in the South West, which i never actually work. I like having London-York-Bristol-Chester as i think it's by far the most efficient set-up. But if i want the clams/copper i can't have Bristol (4W of London), but have to either go 1S, which often overlaps with a French city and cannot work the Stone, or 1W, on top of the sheep which forms Bideford which is not so historical (and leaves a gap to London). So i'd much prefer the clam/copper each to move 1E....

UU:
English Longbowmen seems like an ok unit, but it seems a bit pointless at the moment.
You need Military Tradition to get it, which means from the start of the game as England you need Literature, Plate A., Gothic A., Monument B., Classical K., Alchemy, Civil Service, Chivalry, Guilds, Patronage, Drama and then Military Tradition. That seems to me to be a bit excessive, and you are unlikely to get any longbows in England until long after the French Wars are over. Especially as you don't tend to have great teching ability early on until your Cities have developed...

I'd much rather you got longbows as England a few techs earlier than other Civs, so you can actually use them. Not sure the exact solution but i do think it could do with some balance. Would like to hear others' thoughts on this...

Late game:
TBH i have not actually got to the end yet! But i'd imagine the first UHV is the hardest.
Basically i think for the most part it's very good, the Irish and Scottish parts of it are well balanced and it all seems to work well. Once you get over the early tough part you can forge a strong Civ.

 

[Agent327]

Tried out the Byzantines in BetaII, but got a CTD only a couple of turns in the game...

 

[dafiden]

Tried out the Byzantines in BetaII, but got a CTD only a couple of turns in the game...

Yeah, I get CTD's maybe once or twice a game (not gaming session) in this mod. When I reload, they go away, so they aren't a big deal to me. Did you reload and try again?

 

[Agent327]

Aha. No, I didn´t, assuming CTDs shouldn´t occur period. (If it happens in my mod, I know I´ve done something wrong somewhere.) But I´ll try again.

 

[FakeShady]

That is correct. I have been very busy with real life lately and did not get around to many things on my "to-do" list. Unfortunately, I know it is going to be a while before I can spend more time on the mod and since it had been so long I wanted to get out the improvements we had made.

Sorry, didnt mean to be pushy. So long as its on your "to-do" list, and you have a clear idea of what to do regarding Venice's UHVs... thats good I assume you do not need any more suggestions already. That topic has been discussed far too much.

 

[sedna17]

Aha. No, I didn´t, assuming CTDs shouldn´t occur period. (If it happens in my mod, I know I´ve done something wrong somewhere.) But I´ll try again.

Yeah, CTDs may happen randomly because we do have a fair amount of new art, and Civ IV has a long-known memory leak problem. Normally restarting is fine in this case. If a CTD happens repeatedly on the same turn (i.e. it prevents you from continuing the game), then please post the save because that indicates a problem (normally a missing/corrupt art file).

 

[Opera]

Boasting time. Sorry for that but I want to share.

I played a game on Monarch with the Franks till 1401 and I made a great empire that I'd like to show you.

First of all, it's a very feudal empire with 4 duchies: Leon, Bourgogne, Rhine and Denmark. Feudal Monarchy, Feudal Law, Serfdom, Manorialism, Organized Religion, Vassalage. Probably very much 'backwards' for 1401. Most of the economy comes from farms.

Here are various screenshots:

Spoiler Main France and the main Duchy of Bourgogne :

Spoiler Rhine France and the Duchy of the Rhine :

Spoiler Duchy of Denmark :

Spoiler Iberian France and the Duchy of Leon :

Spoiler Northern Italy / Austria and the other part of the Duchy of Bourgogne :

Spoiler Southern Italy :

I'm leaning on making a Duchy out of the Portugal (for now a Province of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which is the second in score).

Anyway, it's a really great game, too bad I missed the two first UHV conditions!

 

[merijn_v1]

Boasting time. Sorry for that but I want to share.

I played a game on Monarch with the Franks till 1401 and I made a great empire that I'd like to show you.

First of all, it's a very feudal empire with 4 duchies: Leon, Bourgogne, Rhine and Denmark. Feudal Monarchy, Feudal Law, Serfdom, Manorialism, Organized Religion, Vassalage. Probably very much 'backwards' for 1401. Most of the economy comes from farms.

Here are various screenshots:

Spoiler Main France and the main Duchy of Bourgogne :

Spoiler Rhine France and the Duchy of the Rhine :

Spoiler Duchy of Denmark :

Spoiler Iberian France and the Duchy of Leon :

Spoiler Northern Italy / Austria and the other part of the Duchy of Bourgogne :

Spoiler Southern Italy :

I'm leaning on making a Duchy out of the Portugal (for now a Province of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which is the second in score).

Anyway, it's a really great game, too bad I missed the two first UHV conditions!

No offense, but I think it's your own fault. You only had to focus on the UHVs more and less on broading your empire. Those UHVs aren't the toughest ones.

But you used the UP optimally.

 

[Opera]

No offense, but I think it's your own fault. You only had to focus on the UHVs more and less on broading your empire. Those UHVs aren't the toughest ones.

But you used the UP optimally.

Oh yes it's clearly my fault, I played it badly. I failed to expand in Italy and in Germany; I had my two cities in Spain though and only Marseilles along the Rhone Valley. I suppose I was also a bit worried of loosing my cities with the spawns; although that's no excuse for missing Italy.

However, it was hard to achieve Renaissance Art soon enough. Not sure what I did wrong here; maybe it was because I had too many cities.

 

[Morholt]

I find I can get Renaissance Art first nearly every time by researching Civil Service, starting the Corvinus library, then researching up to Arabic Knowledge and picking Renaissance Art from the Library.

 

[thwump]

Is something wrong with the new France UHV? I got credit for 6 colonial projects before I had built any (had 3 or 4 in production), and the wonder one was marked not yet past 1401 even though I had all the wonders. At first I thought that maybe the text and the conditions were flipped, but even after getting more than 6 colonies I didn't get the other yes.

I have a couple saves if they help.

Edit: turn right after it gave me credit for the projects is this one

a later one after I had made a bunch of projects here

btw, how do you tell which colonies you've made? I don't see them on the city screen.

 

[merijn_v1]

Is something wrong with the new France UHV? I got credit for 6 colonial projects before I had built any (had 3 or 4 in production), and the wonder one was marked not yet past 1401 even though I had all the wonders. At first I thought that maybe the text and the conditions were flipped, but even after getting more than 6 colonies I didn't get the other yes.

I have a couple saves if they help.

Saves always helps in these bugs.

 

[kochman]

Played as the Dutch in Beta 2.
I like to play my first game with them for a number of reasons...
1) I like their UHV conditions
2) You can see how much of Europe has developed by that time
3) Unlike Austin Power's father, I like the Dutch

Before I start, I just want to point out to the Turk, the damn Arabs respawned in 1281, so you can take that part out of your repetition repetoire. They do respawn.

I started with the standard placement of Amsterdam, and had space to found Antwerp with my second settler. By the 3rd turn an independent Groningen had flipped to me.
Well done modders!
Germany was prospering, and the home of Protestantism. Austria had crushed Hungary and took her lands (finally). France was gone. Burgundy was confined to Marseille. Spain and Portugal had taken over the Iberian. The Norse and Swedes were doing fine, as were the Russians. No Poles or Kiev. Bulgaria was pretty large, Byzantium was tiny, but independent... Ottomans had a large empire in Anatolia and the Levant... then they collapsed! Venice was doing fine. Genoa had settled some islands.

I managed to take Calais (ind), Bremen (Norse), and Luxembourg (ind) before too long. I hit the Open Borders condition with ease... also the GM condition. However, I failed the colonies... despite all the "unbalanced" bonuses of being Protestant.

Good game! No obvious bugs. Can't wait to try out some other civs now.

 

[Morholt]

Speaking of Austria, shouldn't they have some UP to the effect of inheriting collapsing neighbor civs, inheriting vassals after a while, having increased chance of culture flips or something like that. Having to invade Hungary is really ahistorical (unless Hungary is held by the Turks first).

 

[The Turk]

Before I start, I just want to point out to the Turk, the damn Arabs respawned in 1281, so you can take that part out of your repetition repetoire. They do respawn.

LOL, really? I've rarely EVER seen them respawn
But thats not exactly what I want, they probably respawned in Damascus right? I want them to respawn at a specific date in Egypt, at Cairo, as the Ayyubids, and have them start off with a relatively good sized Army, which they then can use to retake the Holy Land

 

[merijn_v1]

LOL, really? I've rarely EVER seen them respawn
But thats not exactly what I want, they probably respawned in Damascus right? I want them to respawn at a specific date in Egypt, at Cairo, as the Ayyubids, and have them start off with a relatively good sized Army, which they then can use to retake the Holy Land

Realy. In almost all of my games when the Arabs collapse, they return. (maybe exaggerated, but at leat 60%)

 

[Zipzapzup]

Sure they return, but the Pope calls for a crusade in exactly the turn they respawn leading to Arabia descending in civil war once again.

 

[thwump]

Played as the Dutch in Beta 2.
I like to play my first game with them for a number of reasons...
1) I like their UHV conditions
2) You can see how much of Europe has developed by that time
3) Unlike Austin Power's father, I like the Dutch

Before I start, I just want to point out to the Turk, the damn Arabs respawned in 1281, so you can take that part out of your repetition repetoire. They do respawn.

I started with the standard placement of Amsterdam, and had space to found Antwerp with my second settler. By the 3rd turn an independent Groningen had flipped to me.
Well done modders!
Germany was prospering, and the home of Protestantism. Austria had crushed Hungary and took her lands (finally). France was gone. Burgundy was confined to Marseille. Spain and Portugal had taken over the Iberian. The Norse and Swedes were doing fine, as were the Russians. No Poles or Kiev. Bulgaria was pretty large, Byzantium was tiny, but independent... Ottomans had a large empire in Anatolia and the Levant... then they collapsed! Venice was doing fine. Genoa had settled some islands.

I managed to take Calais (ind), Bremen (Norse), and Luxembourg (ind) before too long. I hit the Open Borders condition with ease... also the GM condition. However, I failed the colonies... despite all the "unbalanced" bonuses of being Protestant.

Good game! No obvious bugs. Can't wait to try out some other civs now.

I played the dutch yesterday as well. Groningen flip helps make getting great merchants much easier than in the previous versions. Colonies are going to be hit or miss depending on how developed everyone else is. I was only competing with england and only managed to beat them on 2 colonies (so I won because multiple people can build indian and chinese trading ports). If there are two colony builders I don't see how you can get it done.

Dutch aren't going to get much power out of protestantism because they don't have the cities or the time to build up faith points. But any of the large nations really take advantage of it.

 

[Wessel V1]

Which makes me think that the faith points should be calculated by another formula, for example:

Faith points / number of cities = bonus. However, This means that a lower number of cities is desired for a large bonus. To solve this: f / (n * 0,5) = b. Even more appealing to me would be an exponential decreasing bonus, but I'm not that much of a mathematician to construct a formula with this. However, n near limit should be really large in this case and the limit should be chosen very carefully.