[GS] Rock Band Discussion

[cvb]

The archeology system [...] allows you to reveal artifacts 3 eras before your current era. If you're 3 eras ahead of the target Civ, or the world era, something strange will happen.
For example, when you use Mechanized Infantry killing a Swordsman, maybe an artifact is created instantly, your Mechanized Infantry is actually creating artifact. If you let a Tank to step on a tribal village, apart from tribal village bonus you may also see an artifact being created in place...

Good to know! I wrote a note to myself with the modification point to automatically upgrade the AIplayer's units (for free) so they are left behind at most 2 eras. Thanks!

 

[Tuvok694]

Can you give me an advice?
I'm playing as Canada, and I'm leading in science and diplomacy. Peter from Russia is playing concerts in my land with his seemingly immortal rock band which is generating large amounts of tourism. He is heading fast towards a culture victory. Do I have to declare war on him to get rid of that rock band or is there any other defense against this?

EDIT: Never mind, Russia won that culture victory 8 rounds after I wrote this. The rock band performed successfully every single round for about 20 rounds in the whole.
Why do my own rock bands always die after three concerts??

 

[Disgustipated]

Ouch. For reference declaring war can help, but you can't kill their rock bands, but you can send them back to their nearest city which may help. You would probably have to conquer their cities to really have an impact if the situation is that bad. Best to be proactive and not let it get that bad.

 

[CaptainPatch]

The several times I tried a Rock Band unit, the band disbanded after just one or two gigs. Meanwhile, I followed several Rock Bands from other civs that kept performing gig after gig after gig. Makes me think the devs programmed in a distinct bias. Anyway, for what a Rock Band costs I could create a couple Missionaries or an Apostle which I find to be MUCH more useful. So I no longer bother with Rock Bands at all.

 

[kaspergm]

The key for a successful rockband is the right promotion and some luck. You always want a first promotion that lets the band perform as if 2 levels higher - so either the one on wonders, on theatre squares or on entertainment complexes. This will tremendously boost your survival rate (I think rate at this point is down to 26 % to retire or maybe even lower). Next step is basically luck, because you need to get the band to level up once more, which will knock down the chance even further, down to 16 % on favoured venue I think. At this point, you've very likely to keep them going for a while. At this point you're also likely to get another level up (down to 9 %) and then the final level up (no promotion, but down to 4 %), which makes you basically invincible.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I'm playing as Canada, and I'm leading in science and diplomacy. Peter from Russia is playing concerts in my land with his seemingly immortal rock band which is generating large amounts of tourism.

Just place a unit of any kind on your districts and wonders. They can't do anything.

 

[Tuvok694]

Just place a unit of any kind on your districts and wonders. They can't do anything.

Really? You know how many districts there are in the late game. And the map would really look ugly with those tons of units.

The developers should introduce at least some kind of defense against those rock bands. Just today I was playing as Poundmaker and was leading in every category except culture. Then a Canadian rock band visited all my wonders (and I had built quite a lot of them), and some districts, they performed about 20 times in a row and Canada easily got the culture victory.
I sent them some rock bands of my own, but they never performed more than 2 times.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

I mean, we had the exact same issue with Religious units and the exact same solution applies--only this time it's conviently already implemented.

Putting Rock Bands on the Religion Layer is a slam dunk; what could be more on-theme than Religious units blocking Rock Bands, Theological battles over whether your band can perform, Battles of the Bands themselves, and Russia condemning your band for shallow political reasons?

 

[Archon_Wing]

Really? You know how many districts there are in the late game. And the map would really look ugly with those tons of units.

They can't play on most kinds of districts without a promotion. It's campus, theater, and entertainment, as well as wonders. You shouldn't have that many ECs to begin with, and if you have a lot of theater districts and not winning your own culture, victory, something is wrong.

A single band can't play on the same venue twice either, so it's not like you have to block all of them.

 

[God of Kings]

I mean, we had the exact same issue with Religious units and the exact same solution applies--only this time it's conviently already implemented.

Putting Rock Bands on the Religion Layer is a slam dunk; what could be more on-theme than Religious units blocking Rock Bands, Theological battles over whether your band can perform, Battles of the Bands themselves, and Russia condemning your band for shallow political reasons?

I would like to see battles waging between apostles and rock bands (especially if the rock band in question is promoting a different religion).

After all, many religions condemned rock music back when rock music was new.

Here is an example in real life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus

Evangelical Christian groups in the United States condemned the British-based Beatles.

It would also present an opportunity to add in the Moral Panic policy card that gives religious units more power to stop "immoral" foreign rock bands from corrupting the youth of your civ.

 

[Disgustipated]

Evangelical Christian groups in the United States condemned the British-based Beatles.

Just look at the PMRC, you can thank Al Gore's wife for that one. Good thing those days are over. 2 live crew didn't bring our country down after all.

 

[Arilian]

Sorry if it was mentioned, but the gold promotion seems bugged - it always five comulative gold. (If it is intended, it is stupidly op) O was getting 17.000 gold for 1 concert at the end, just playing only on wonders

 

[Tuvok694]

Did they mention the rock bands in the patch announcements? I am very much hoping for a change concerning the "indie" promotion. Flipping ANY city in one turn with two rock band concerts is just ridiculously overpowered.

 

[local_hero]

I have barely used rock bands (or ski resorts) even though I'm a cultural player. It feels like cheating.

Anyway, tried to use rock bands in a post patch game and it was ridiculous. The tool tip informed me that there was a 24 or 26% chance I'd lose my rock band if I played. I lost all but one rock bands after their first concert. The other one disbanded after their second. Had the Hallyu policy and maximised success rate with promotions and correct avenue. Ugh, quite upsetting I must say, won't bother again.

 

[Socrates99]

Just look at the PMRC, you can thank Al Gore's wife for that one. Good thing those days are over. 2 live crew didn't bring our country down after all.

The Satanic Panic! Dont worry, I believe they're trying to bring it back. Just saw a news story about Catholics in Poland burning Harry Potter books. Reminds me of the condemnation of Ozzy and Judas Priest in the '80s.

 

[EpicWestern]

Rock bands seem like they may be ridiculously overpowered for cultural victory. The first two levels are harmless, but once you get to level 3 the concerts provide insane tourism. Got an 11,000 in my last game which represented 20 turns worth of regular great work tourism. Peaceful culture was always a bit of a boring grind late game, so can't complain too much, but I do see this being a problem once people get the hang of optimizing rock-band rushing and other aspects of late game culture will just be set aside.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Rock bands seem like they may be ridiculously overpowered for cultural victory. The first two levels are harmless, but once you get to level 3 the concerts provide insane tourism. Got an 11,000 in my last game which represented 20 turns worth of regular great work tourism. Peaceful culture was always a bit of a boring grind late game, so can't complain too much, but I do see this being a problem once people get the hang of optimizing rock-band rushing and other aspects of late game culture will just be set aside.

I believe this is their purpose. Rock bands aren't intended to be balanced relative to other source of late game tourism. They're designed to allow the player to finish up a cultural win that might otherwise drag on or get away from them.

 

[Browd]

^ This. Rock Bands are to culture victory what GDRs are to domination victory -- a way to bring the game to a swift conclusion.