September Update Thread

[acluewithout]

Shipyard provides +1 production to all unimproved Coastal Tiles.

This is an okay change. I don’t think it’s intended to be particularly powerful. It’s just a tweak.

Coastal Tiles after a lighthouse and shipyard will now be +2 food, +1 gold and +1 production. That’s certainly better than an unimproved Plains tile. Added to that, Coastals have the potential to be quite high pop, so you may have a few spare citizens to work those tiles.

I think the best use of this Shipyard bonus will be reef, which until now you couldn’t do anything with and don’t give Harbours any adjacency.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Terra Map Hype

That was literally my reaction! I squealed with joy at the announcement, which came as a surprise to the other people on my bus, believe me .

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Now I have pressure to finish my current game before Thursday.

Same here .

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

As much as I have been asking for Terra, the Continents and Islands map intrigues me more.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

May I also just say that, in an industry dominated by developers who tend to abandon their products almost as soon as they are released, it's great to see a developer-like Firaxis-put so much hard work into these regular, substantive updates to the game .

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

On the other hand you'd have a better AI, community patches, and a HumanKind mod already available for civ6 if they had released the source code in the same timeframe as civ4.

Perhaps they are holding off until they feel all their major updates are complete, before releasing the code. Only thing that makes sense, given how consumer & Modder friendly Firaxis has always been in the past.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

However, I really wish they would dedicate the Mausoleum more completely to the sea, and drop the engineer part. It is too unbalancing. It's one thing to get an extra "+300 to a wonder" charge. It's another entirely to get a second charge on James Watt or Korolev or Von Braun. Or use civ5's inspiration and give a little yield every time you use a great person.

Must dare saying == Nobody should ever touch that wacky Halicarnassus/Mausoleum further after the latest "Admirals" set of fixes. It **IS** now as perfect as it could be.
I've been hooked onto those Engineers' second charges for a long time.. i admit. Losing them would be a terrible shift in most of my strategy plans. It's all about synchronicity steps that occur once the wonder gets activated. Combined with GP Pts boosts & Pingala, the entire defensive components necessary to keep AI-Warmongering "flaws" at bay -- would just ruin too many development edges or optimal growth factors.

Soooo -- please stop right there with that Wonder, Firaxis.

 

[oakdragon]

Masks like the one on the shelf are typically associated with the Carnival of Venice. But it's not Carnival season. That's in... February.

Well, this is the Antarctic Carnival update, obviously.

 

[Pietato]

Great patch, all good stuff. However...

WHERE
ARE
THE
MAORI
CHANGES?

Ed said they were looking into Maori having to use Lumbermills

 

[Sostratus]

I've been hooked onto those Engineers' second charges for a long time.. i admit.

Oh it is a terrible affliction. I literally suffer agony when I play a civ and don't leverage mausoleum-watt-tesla. I just think that from a design standpoint it's not a good feature because you are very susceptible to tuning it; either an extra charge is too strong, or it's not which implies engineers are too weak. If all engineers just had 3 charges of wonder rush or something that would be a different story.

I love the wonder as it stands but I know on the inside that it is negative for game health. It makes a much better sea petra anyways.

 

[acluewithout]

Things I hope might still make there way into the next Patch:

1. Help recovering from Disasters (eg Liang provides production to Disaster Recovery, or you can spend gold or use Military Engineers to speed repairs).

2. Colonial Cities are more valuable, so they’re worth the effort of settling (e.g. Colonial Cities give Diplomatic Favour via a Diplo Card - that said, Continents + Islands map is a kind of backdoor buff to Colonial Cities, so I’m okay being open minded).

3. Better Balance between Melee and Anti-Cav units.

4. Better Balance Tanks v Infantry. Both use the same amount of oil, but Tanks are just better overall.

5. Aircraft don’t have Aluminium maintenance; instead, they just need Aluminium to be built.

6. Future Techs. Have Future Techs buff normal units, not just GDR, and maybe buff some buildings too.

7. Give Lumbermills a bonus for being on Rivers.

8. Some sort of nerf to Campuses (eg make them more expensive compared to other districts - Campus Spam sucks).

9. Get rid of Raise Partisans Spy Mission. It’s just another reason not to build Neighbourhoods.

10. Cities actually require power after certain techs are unlocked; and lack of power causes unhappiness.

11. AA strength and aircraft slots scale for Naval Units that form Fleets or Armandas.

12. Democracy and other Tier 3 Government exclusive Policy Cards are useable by the equivalent / related Tier 4 Government (otherwise, moving to Tier 4 Governments is actually a step backwards).

13. AI builds less Catapults and, at higher difficulties, has help upgrading units that require resources.

14. Armouries or some other building provide a little bit of extra Niter (it’s okay Niter being a strategic resource like iron or horses, but please just a nod to Niter being something you can actually manufacture fairly easily); and Naval Unit Resource requirements halved (so you’re not having such a stark choice between Frigates and Muskets).

15. Bugs and other Nits. Fix the following: RND +1 and Encampment etc experience not attaching to units. England doesn’t gain Trade Route for settling a continent if it’s already captured a city on that continent (boo!). “Mountain” Natural Wonders don’t count as Mountains Tiles for Campuses and Holy Sites (Boo!). Clarify if Seige get experience from Encampment Stables (they currently do, but not mentioned in CivPedia, Tool Tips etc).

[edit: also, 16. Railways. Some sort of buff from Railways, eg Cities connected to a Capital by Railway get +% Production. Dear God, please make Railways do something more interesting. Please! We need a reason to build the flipping things!

17. Specialists. Return Harbour and Encampment Specialists back to their original yields (ie science / culture + gold).]

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Things I hope might still make there way into the next Patch:

1. Help recovering from Disasters (eg Liang provides production to Disaster Recovery, or you can spend gold or use Military Engineers to speed repairs).

2. Colonial Cities are more valuable, so they’re worth the effort of settling (e.g. Colonial Cities give Diplomatic Favour via a Diplo Card - that said, Continents + Islands map is a kind of backdoor buff to Colonial Cities, so I’m okay being open minded).

3. Better Balance between Melee and Anti-Cav units.

4. Better Balance Tanks v Infantry. Both use the same amount of oil, but Tanks are just better overall.

5. Aircraft don’t have Aluminium maintenance; instead, they just need Aluminium to be built.

6. Future Techs. Have Future Techs buff normal units, not just GDR, and maybe buff some buildings too.

7. Give Lumbermills a bonus for being in Rivers.

8. Some sort of nerf to Campuses (eg make them more expensive compared to other districts - Campus Spam sucks).

9. Get rid of Raise Partisans Spy Mission. It’s just another reason not to build Neighbourhoods.

10. Cities actually require power after certain techs are unlocked; and lack of power causes unhappiness.

11. AA strength and aircraft slots scale for Naval Units that form Fleets or Armandas.

12. Democracy and other Tier 3 Government exclusive Policy Cards are useable by the equivalent / related Tier 4 Government.

13. AI builds less Catapults and, at higher difficulties, has help upgrading units that require resources.

14. Armouries or some other building provide Niter (as a nod to Niter being something you can manufacture fairly easily); and Naval Unit Resource requirements halved (so you’re not having such a stark choice between Frigates and Muskets).

15. Bugs and other Nits. RND +1 and Encampment etc experience not attaching to units. England doesn’t gain Trade Route for settling a continent if it’s already captured a city on that continent (boo!). “Mountain” Natural Wonders don’t count as Mountains Tiles for Campuses and Holy Sites (Boo!). Clarify if Seige get experience from Encampment Stables (they currently do, but not mentioned in CivPedia, Tool Tips etc).

Good list. Aircraft should have Oil maintenance. Maybe increase tank oil requirement by +1 per turn.

 

[lotrmith]

Giving Campuses adjacencies for Reefs means it's now easier to build Campuses everywhere, maybe making playing the map with them less fun. ... But, you know, maybe I'm wrong and it'll be totes fine. ... I mean, it's not like you're going to get +6 or +8 Campuses from Reefs ... Guess we'll see how that kind of stuff pans out... I'm not really all that worried.

Coastal pillaging will be juicy! Buff to naval raiders.

 

[ossi]

Hoping for a Highlands Map. Don't understand their obsession over the tilted axis map. The new Continents and Islands map will be my first go to, however. Nice!

Also waighting for Highlands Map since the Inca came out. It cannot be that difficult to adjust the Civ 5 script!?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

About the mask and skull, from Reddit by an employee:

”Those are just items left by the gnomes that live in our studio. WHO KNOWS WHAT THOSE ODDLY OUT OF PLACE ITEMS COULD MEAN?!"

Too easy:

Gnomes have always been associated with Zurich, which is in Switzerland, right next to Venice, which is also indicated by the mask. Venice confirmed for next DLC, probably in February.

The skull could also be Swiss, as in Swiss Pikemen handing knights' heads to them at the Battle of Morgarten, one of the pike victories that ushered in -
The Renaissance.

But I strongly suspect that it indicates the Mayans, who have been both much requested and the subject of a bunch of new archeological finds in recent years: they are due.

Another point for both Venice and the Maya is that both Civs, to be done right, would require a 'tweak' to the basic Civ pattern to properly represent the City-State politics of the Maya and Renaissance Italy. That would tie in nicely with the trend of GS of providing variants in Civ Uniques and starting attributes (Inca, Mali, Maori, etc)

Finally, to make a Terra Map work there has to be something really valuable on the 'empty' continent to make it worth going there. That was the major fault with the Terra type maps in Civ V. The 'Mystery' that was mentioned, then, has to be referring to some kind of Bonus: Resource, Natural Wonder, Terrain Type, City State - that is absolutely not available anywhere else.
Maybe the Potato Palace?

 

[inquisitive_otter]

Re: Lighthouse buff, +2 Housing if Harbor is adjacent to City Center.

This change is really interesting. Basically, you can rush lighthouses to get trade routes (with the new veterancy buff) and you can even ignore granaries, since they provide equal housing bonuses. Is it even worth it to build commercial hubs anymore?

Victoria is going to be really strong with the new veterancy buff, so many free ships!

 

[Ziad]

Re: Lighthouse buff, +2 Housing if Harbor is adjacent to City Center.

This change is really interesting. Basically, you can rush lighthouses to get trade routes (with the new veterancy buff) and you can even ignore granaries, since they provide equal housing bonuses. Is it even worth it to build commercial hubs anymore?

Victoria is going to be really strong with the new veterancy buff, so many free ships!

Commercial Hubs still provide gold and trade routes for non coastal cities. GMs are still better than GAs for civil benefits.

Personally I build both.

 

[Haig]

acluewithout's suggestion list is just perfect..

...exept I love the partisans missions, good proxy way to harass enemy empire plus it adds to the roleplay when they pop out in my territory.

 

[FeiLing]

edit) well then... @Everyone: please note that major adjacency bonus means +1, not +2 like everyone seems to be thinking. Pretty sure in the video the campus policy card is active doubling adjacency bonuses.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

@Everyone: please note that major adjacency bonus means +1, not +2 like everyone seems to be thinking.

Major adjacency = Yield Change of +2
Standard adjacency = Yield Change of +1
Minor adjacency = Yield Change of +1 per 2 instances.
(e.g. Harbor recieves +2 gold for City Center, +1 gold for each sea resource, & +1 gold for every 2 districts.)