'Rising Tide' expansion announced!

[Minor Annoyance]

Could also be redesigned to become a bigger part in affinity victories. ^^ Would even make sense, the "ideology" of your people has so much more to do with their culture than just their scientific advances. I'd actually say pushing Harmony further towards culture, Purity towards production and supremacy towards science would make a lot of sense when it comes to "flavor". But of course, a lot of mechanics would need to be redesigned around that.

I had thought of making a mod that added projects that increased affinity and change the wide virtue synergy bonuses to be free affinity levels to give more ways to get affinity. I hadn't thought of making these different methods specific to affinities though. I don't think I could give specific affinities through virtues anyway.

Not going to to a lot of modding with an expansion on the way. Just going to finish what I've already started then wait and see.

 

[m15a]

I get the feeling that even the water themed sponsors start on land but can build on sea faster than the non water themed sponsors.
Maybe I'm wrong and they fix some stuff, but there are so many problems now if they start at sea immediately.

The RPS interview mentions maps that are "entirely water". If that's accurate, then there would have to be some way of having a capital on water. It also means that it wouldn't be an exception for certain factions.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I double it's entirely entirely. I'd likely be so few islands as to require mostly water play.

 

[Ryika]

I think a map that is nothing but water would become really, really boring really really fast. With no barriers at all tactical combat would be completely taken over by domination of numbers. A mostly-water map with a ton of tiny little 1-4 tile islands, too small to really settle on, but big enough to create a "labyrinth" of paths could actually be a lot of fun. Emphasis on sea-combat would probably even help the AI by a lot if the old issues the AI had with naval units (sacrificing half their army in neutral water, being completely incapable of dealing with submarines, etc.) are being resolved.

 

[Galgus]

Cities on water in general will be boring without some ingenious catch to it that I have yet to see.

Perhaps the geography and depth below water will do something to make all water wars more interesting.

 

[player1 fanatic]

Could also be redesigned to become a bigger part in affinity victories. ^^ Would even make sense, the "ideology" of your people has so much more to do with their culture than just their scientific advances. I'd actually say pushing Harmony further towards culture, Purity towards production and supremacy towards science would make a lot of sense when it comes to "flavor". But of course, a lot of mechanics would need to be redesigned around that.

Hmm...

What if instead science giving affinities, it is culture that gives points, that are prerequisites for researching affinity related techs?

 

[iki]

The RPS interview mentions maps that are "entirely water". If that's accurate, then there would have to be some way of having a capital on water. It also means that it wouldn't be an exception for certain factions.

It does? Then you would need Titanium and Geothermal to become both land and sea resources.

It would also cripple you militarily as they are adding about 3-4 Naval units. Which still doesn't help you with Affinity Specific units being useless on that map save for some Purity ones.

Or you get some kind of amphibious tech which would feel really really lazy if it's a blanket technology.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Angels can walk in shallow waters, and everyone gets hover cavalry and artillery. Carriers always be carrying.

 

[iki]

Angels can walk in shallow waters, and everyone gets hover cavalry and artillery. Carriers always be carrying.

Still an ocean based map will ignore a large amount of units don't you think??

I like small island maps I usually play on Archipelago. So I like both land and sea units.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Yes I think. So never use the 100% water map that I'm 99% sure does not exist. We're putting a lot of thought into something that can be safely ignored later, if it even exists.

 

[iki]

Yes I think. So never use the 100% water map that I'm 99% sure does not exist. We're putting a lot of thought into something that can be safely ignored later, if it even exists.

Indeed but I find theorizing part of the fun. In even going to make a what if expansion thread once I've got all my artwork sorted.

 

[TabeticClown]

People have high expectations for BE : People are dissapointed with BE
Same people have low expectations for RT : People love BERT

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Indeed but I find theorizing part of the fun. In even going to make a what if expansion thread once I've got all my artwork sorted.

I like theorizing too. I don't get much fun out if assuming they're going to do something stupid and then pointing out how that would be stupid. "What if the made a map where more than half the units were useless? That would suck." Hardly deep thoughts on that topic.

 

[m15a]

It does? Then you would need Titanium and Geothermal to become both land and sea resources.

I was on my tablet before so I couldn't quote and link right, but here's the quote for the RPS interview:

the water gameplay, even if you play on a map that’s one little ocean or one that’s entirely water, it’s still a big deal, one that changes the strategic landscape.

I agree that it sounds strange, so maybe I'm misinterpreting it or they misspoke/were misquoted or they just meant "mostly water".

 

[Endar]

I wonder how they are going to make diplomacy interesting: there is nothing you can trade with other nations.

In Civ4 diplomacy was great because you had so many resources to trade: food resources (+health, extra bonuses for different types), luxury (including 3 that were produced by special Wonders) and strategic resources, technologies, maps, etc. Plus there was a UN.

In BE we have nothing. There are just a couple of strategic resources that everybody have and that's it. OK sometimes I ran out of oil - but nobody wanted to sell it to me because everybody wanted to spam satellites themselves.

BTW Endless Legend has the same problem with diplomacy.


However I think that the biggest problem of BE was the military AI, or more precisely - NO military AI. AIs are simply not capable of performing any attack: I managed to win without losses when they outnumbered me 5 to 1. This is horrible.

Firaxis should at least teach their AIs to move their units in formations, to form the front and to protect strategic choke points. This is actually a quite simple task, I have done something very similar myself (as Game AI programmer).

Right now AI send its units on pointless suicide attacks, especially warplanes. Speaking of planes, last time I have seen interesting and capable air warfare was Civilization 3: Conquests. Those were the days...

 

[Gorbles]

While the AI is certainly incompetent, struggles when confronted with a lack of space and can be baited into wonderfully-dumb suicide attacks . . . if you're winning with 500% casualty rate disparities, I suggest upping the difficulty level.

And if you're getting those casualty ratios on Apollo, I definitely recommend uploading some VODs - more helpful tips for the rest of us, especially those that are more warmongering than Science-rushing.

 

[TabeticClown]

While the AI is certainly incompetent, struggles when confronted with a lack of space and can be baited into wonderfully-dumb suicide attacks . . . if you're winning with 500% casualty rate disparities, I suggest upping the difficulty level.

And if you're getting those casualty ratios on Apollo, I definitely recommend uploading some VODs - more helpful tips for the rest of us, especially those that are more warmongering than Science-rushing.

Right? I hear a lot of people claiming the game is too easy, but I just don't see how it's any easier than Civ V.

 

[joncnunn]

Right? I hear a lot of people claiming the game is too easy, but I just don't see how it's any easier than Civ V.

The primary cause was Staggered start of the AIs, especially on CD release. (AI bonuses were increased on the first patch for the highest two difficulty levels.)

Basically for the CD release, the AI wasn't getting as much from the stagger bonus as it would have had naturally if they had landed on the same turn the human did.

A secondary cause is that humans are much better at optimizing tech research on the tech web for their chosen victory condition than the AI, but that was already the case for Civ V.

 

[TabeticClown]

The primary cause was Staggered start of the AIs, especially on CD release. (AI bonuses were increased on the first patch for the highest two difficulty levels.)

Basically for the CD release, the AI wasn't getting as much from the stagger bonus as it would have had naturally if they had landed on the same turn the human did.

A secondary cause is that humans are much better at optimizing tech research on the tech web for their chosen victory condition than the AI, but that was already the case for Civ V.

Even taking that into consideration I highly doubt that anyone except the top 2% or so of players could say Apollo difficulty was easy for them at launch.

A similar thing happened when Dark Souls 2 was released. Everyone thought it was too easy because they'd spent years practicing with Dark Souls 1, so of course it wasn't going to seem as hard as their first experience with the rules and mechanics of the game.

 

[iki]

I like theorizing too. I don't get much fun out if assuming they're going to do something stupid and then pointing out how that would be stupid. "What if the made a map where more than half the units were useless? That would suck." Hardly deep thoughts on that topic.

Eh I guess your correct. In SMACX The naval cities were Overpowered so much they often became banned in MP games. The pirates and aliens also received bans in this. Yeah I played with them just so I could watch the videos in single.

I just hope this doesn't happen in this.