Barathor
Emperor
- Joined
- May 7, 2011
- Messages
- 1,202
What would you guys think of Polystralia becoming a water faction in Rising Tide? Basically, all it means is that their capital starts in the water instead of on land (dispersing the starting areas and leaving more room on land for the others).
I'm really excited for the maps on RT and all those extra tiles to utilize -- they're going to feel huge and be a lot of fun to explore. Also, more factions can be fitted onto those maps without disrupting balance and having things feel too cramped. A Standard map can definitely support 12 factions now over the vanilla 8. In fact, that number may be closer to what the ideal total should be now so that the population density of the map doesn't feel too spread out and empty without enough tension between neighboring factions.
But, regarding starting locations, if we're throwing in 4 new factions, but only 2 are starting in the water, that means those 2 need to get squeezed onto the mainlands somewhere with the other 8 -- amongst all the wild areas, canyons, and mountains taking up tiles, while there's still plenty of ocean tiles to utilize. Plus, now we have land marvels on some maps which look like they take up 3 tiles for the major feature and additional tiles for each of the minor features. (Also, personally, I only play on Standard maps -- Massive isn't an option. Plus, as I said above, those maps may still feel too big and spacious, even with all 12 factions.)
If Polystralia starts out in the ocean too, that would mean we'd only need to squeeze 1 more faction onto land. It would make a clean 25% of the factions start out on water. You don't want water capitals to be too common of a thing, but I don't think it's good to make it too unique either. Perhaps 3 lies right on that fine border.
Polystralia definitely has the flavor for it and I also think there trait is flexible enough to not matter whether they're on land or sea -- right? So, if Hutama initially has to construct trade "vessels" instead of trade convoys, do you think he'd be alright? Or should he get an additional, small perk which makes his trade vessels/convoys start amphibious without Planetary Survey? It would tie him closer to water trait-wise and not just flavor-wise. It also represents how Polystralians traded extensively from their islands back on Earth to feed other nations and gain raw materials and goods they lacked.
EDIT: Though, from the latest Let's Play video with BAStartGaming, it looks like the game isn't as demanding when finding starting locations -- or rather, water tiles are evaluated much better (which they should be, coast is almost like plains now). I could be wrong, but from what was seen, that didn't look like an archipelago type of map which makes regional divisions without regarding large landmasses. So, perhaps factions can now make planetfall around small islands away from the main landmasses too, which helps with dispersion.
Another thing to add to the flavor; perhaps the ability to construct water cities was learned from their close neighbor and friend which they've traded a lot with back on Earth to help each other out during the crisis -- [Japanese Faction].
Vanilla Civilopedia said:
I'm really excited for the maps on RT and all those extra tiles to utilize -- they're going to feel huge and be a lot of fun to explore. Also, more factions can be fitted onto those maps without disrupting balance and having things feel too cramped. A Standard map can definitely support 12 factions now over the vanilla 8. In fact, that number may be closer to what the ideal total should be now so that the population density of the map doesn't feel too spread out and empty without enough tension between neighboring factions.
But, regarding starting locations, if we're throwing in 4 new factions, but only 2 are starting in the water, that means those 2 need to get squeezed onto the mainlands somewhere with the other 8 -- amongst all the wild areas, canyons, and mountains taking up tiles, while there's still plenty of ocean tiles to utilize. Plus, now we have land marvels on some maps which look like they take up 3 tiles for the major feature and additional tiles for each of the minor features. (Also, personally, I only play on Standard maps -- Massive isn't an option. Plus, as I said above, those maps may still feel too big and spacious, even with all 12 factions.)
If Polystralia starts out in the ocean too, that would mean we'd only need to squeeze 1 more faction onto land. It would make a clean 25% of the factions start out on water. You don't want water capitals to be too common of a thing, but I don't think it's good to make it too unique either. Perhaps 3 lies right on that fine border.
Polystralia definitely has the flavor for it and I also think there trait is flexible enough to not matter whether they're on land or sea -- right? So, if Hutama initially has to construct trade "vessels" instead of trade convoys, do you think he'd be alright? Or should he get an additional, small perk which makes his trade vessels/convoys start amphibious without Planetary Survey? It would tie him closer to water trait-wise and not just flavor-wise. It also represents how Polystralians traded extensively from their islands back on Earth to feed other nations and gain raw materials and goods they lacked.
EDIT: Though, from the latest Let's Play video with BAStartGaming, it looks like the game isn't as demanding when finding starting locations -- or rather, water tiles are evaluated much better (which they should be, coast is almost like plains now). I could be wrong, but from what was seen, that didn't look like an archipelago type of map which makes regional divisions without regarding large landmasses. So, perhaps factions can now make planetfall around small islands away from the main landmasses too, which helps with dispersion.
Another thing to add to the flavor; perhaps the ability to construct water cities was learned from their close neighbor and friend which they've traded a lot with back on Earth to help each other out during the crisis -- [Japanese Faction].
For a moment, I thought this was an official update or something.
