That this is weird but only b/c we're used to civs and other 4Xs that have unique wonders... though I'm starting to not hate this model only b/c it felt more exciting to race to see who could get the enormous amount of resources first, rather than a race to see who could generate more hammers. Though at the same time, it felt extremely cheesy that I was able to immediately claim 3 Wonders in one turn b/c i had a ton of resources.
Well, when building a wonder is competitive, there's a risk-reward element of gameplay. In Civ VI, you definitely have tricks to master that let you "get gud", like timing chops and socketing trade routes. The missing piece is being able to easily reference who has started or completed projects, I get bothered when a civ ninjas me out of a wonder because I had no idea there was competition in the first place.I agree with stinger: The race still exists and it is very real. Gathering the material is not trivial and other uses for it have to be postponed to reach the target numbers. There is planning involved and opportunity costs.
Personally, I am actually very pleased by OW’s take on wonder. Gone are the frustrating days, when wonders got snapped away one turn before being finished, something that I (and probably not only I) hated in all 6 iterations of ‘Civilization’.
Sure, us Civ players are used to this misery. But this is not, how it necessarily has to be in a 4X game!
In Old World, you get a notification that someone has claimed dibs, and that's it. The time to build is fixed, and only diverts the worker (or, for Builder leaders, workers). Kinda underwhelming. I certainly like that wonders require resource conditions, but I don't agree that condition constitutes a satisfying element of race, particularly in the later game when gold is plentiful and I can buy 1000 stone at a go easily. Wonders aren't unlocked individually either, they just get unlocked in waves by upgrading culture levels in a city. Since the capital is usually going to level up faster than other cities, there's a certain chance all the wonders will be concentrated there. It all lends to a certain lack of dynamics that keeps wonder-building from feeling monumental rather than procedural. Maybe if the wonders had stages and different requirements for each stage, like technologies or special resources (e.g. marble, gold).
Certainly the game could benefit from something competitive outside of warfare. Right now, the game is very introverted. I don't really have any insight into what other civ's are doing, what kind of leader they have, what their goals are. When I finally got into spymasters, I found they really didn't do much in the way of international intrigue. I mean, they only assassinate your own people.
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