So I've been gone a long time, and just got a few games under my belt with the latest version. Thought I'd give my perspective on how the mod is running from someone who hasn't touch it in a while.
Leaders: I played China both times, definately a fun and powerful civ. The only thing I can is just looking through the list of leaders there were a lot more of them I was interested in playing. So the "feel" is good, I can't comment too much on the strength yet.
Religion: I am enjoying Religion a lot more than the base game. The religious choices seem a lot more interesting and balanced (I chose Dance of the Aurora for the first time ever!), and I like how your religious national building gives you a strong incentive to spread your religion.
As far as spreading religion, Missionaries are a lot better now, and quickly become the default way to spread. I am having more success spreading religion, though moving your religion to another continent can be difficult even with trade routes and missionaries. But its a difficult push....not a hopeless endeavor, which is what I wanted to see.
Military: I can't say much here just yet, both of my games were very passive (I was on an isolated start so it made sense). My only feedback, I do like the weakening of ranged units overall. I do think the spearmen is a bit strong at 11, 10 might be good for him. I find that he kills everything, archers can't scratch him, warriors die to him as do horsemen.
Policies: Overall, a huge improvement from the base game. I've tried both Might and Liberty as my starts, and enjoyed both of them a good amount. For my Might start, I actually wound up on an island with no barbs, so I moved over to Liberty. However, I found the tribute bonus and the free settler still made it a good investment.
I question whether Rationalism is too strong. 10% bonuses are now very rare in the game so that's a strong bonus, plus the golden age. And the +2 science per specialist is actually an incredibly good bonus.
Terraforming: The Farm Adjacency bonus is interesting, and I put it to good use. Villages seem interesting for the culture, though I think gold is lacking (see below).
I do think that jungle removal at metal casting is too late, I had a jungle start (with good jungle resources) that I quit once I realized how long it would take to clear them and put down plantations.
I found the Great Merchant Towns to be very useful because of the food, and I settled most of those. I built a few academies early, but then bulbed the rest.
Gold: I thought the investment system was neat when I saw it on paper, but after a few games I find it very tedious.
Mid to Late game I am swimming in money, so I can invest all the time, which is just a boring waste of clicks to me. It would be something if I could invest in multiple buildings on the same round so I don't have to keep coming back. I don't need it for CS with CSD, so that is basically all I am doing with my gold.
So overall I don't value gold at all. I would rather have more expensive buys than the constant investments.
Buildings: Just a few building notes.
Seaport: Very interesting what you all did with this one. Its very very powerful, but costs coal. I am liking it so far.
Stockyard: Good use of horses late game. It comes at a point where I still need horses for my military units so there is a strategic choice. And then late game I can start adding the building to my lesser cities.
Well/WaterMill: My general comment is about all of the nonriver/river buildings. I don't see the point of this. Rivers are still better in this mod...except now there is one more building added in at a time when there are already plenty of things to build. I would rather just have the weaker watermill....or just create 1 building type for all cities....and just allow the river starts natural advantage to be its differentiators.
Culture Buildings: I find them all general more useful, and build them now.
Stoneworks: This building is a hella powerful now!
Trade Routes: Right now Internal Trade Routes just seem a lot better than external ones. Growth is a big deal now, so funneling food into a city is huge. That and gold again feels weak overall. I didn't try any land trade routes, the sea ones are still very strong.
Happiness: Overall, I found happiness to be a nonissue. First thing, expanding in this version is so much easier than the base game....and I think that's a bad thing. You start recreating the land grab from Civ 4, and I preferred a Civ having to develop some infrastructure after 2-3 cities before pushing some more.
But beyond that, I never had to do anything to attend to my cities' happiness. I never built a Colosseum or a zoo, didn't need to. I got to 10 happiness pretty easily and stayed that way through the majority of the game.
I recognize all of the work that has gone into that system....but I'm going back to some of my original arguments made a long time ago. The system is more fiddly, its harder for new players to understand....and I am not seeing the benefits.
The scaling luxury idea makes sense and I like how it reduces their need early on. Perhaps you could incorporate the +1 happiness per X people idea to the coliseum and zoo to again promote Tall play. But the original system is simpler and works pretty well...I've never had a big issue with it.
Misc: Astronomy doesn't tell you that all of your units can cross ocean now...which confused me.
All of the terrain reveals tied to tech....I don't understand the point of this. All of the early techs are good for one thing or another, I don't need all of the tile reveals tied to it as well.
Leaders: I played China both times, definately a fun and powerful civ. The only thing I can is just looking through the list of leaders there were a lot more of them I was interested in playing. So the "feel" is good, I can't comment too much on the strength yet.
Religion: I am enjoying Religion a lot more than the base game. The religious choices seem a lot more interesting and balanced (I chose Dance of the Aurora for the first time ever!), and I like how your religious national building gives you a strong incentive to spread your religion.
As far as spreading religion, Missionaries are a lot better now, and quickly become the default way to spread. I am having more success spreading religion, though moving your religion to another continent can be difficult even with trade routes and missionaries. But its a difficult push....not a hopeless endeavor, which is what I wanted to see.
Military: I can't say much here just yet, both of my games were very passive (I was on an isolated start so it made sense). My only feedback, I do like the weakening of ranged units overall. I do think the spearmen is a bit strong at 11, 10 might be good for him. I find that he kills everything, archers can't scratch him, warriors die to him as do horsemen.
Policies: Overall, a huge improvement from the base game. I've tried both Might and Liberty as my starts, and enjoyed both of them a good amount. For my Might start, I actually wound up on an island with no barbs, so I moved over to Liberty. However, I found the tribute bonus and the free settler still made it a good investment.
I question whether Rationalism is too strong. 10% bonuses are now very rare in the game so that's a strong bonus, plus the golden age. And the +2 science per specialist is actually an incredibly good bonus.
Terraforming: The Farm Adjacency bonus is interesting, and I put it to good use. Villages seem interesting for the culture, though I think gold is lacking (see below).
I do think that jungle removal at metal casting is too late, I had a jungle start (with good jungle resources) that I quit once I realized how long it would take to clear them and put down plantations.
I found the Great Merchant Towns to be very useful because of the food, and I settled most of those. I built a few academies early, but then bulbed the rest.
Gold: I thought the investment system was neat when I saw it on paper, but after a few games I find it very tedious.
Mid to Late game I am swimming in money, so I can invest all the time, which is just a boring waste of clicks to me. It would be something if I could invest in multiple buildings on the same round so I don't have to keep coming back. I don't need it for CS with CSD, so that is basically all I am doing with my gold.
So overall I don't value gold at all. I would rather have more expensive buys than the constant investments.
Buildings: Just a few building notes.
Seaport: Very interesting what you all did with this one. Its very very powerful, but costs coal. I am liking it so far.
Stockyard: Good use of horses late game. It comes at a point where I still need horses for my military units so there is a strategic choice. And then late game I can start adding the building to my lesser cities.
Well/WaterMill: My general comment is about all of the nonriver/river buildings. I don't see the point of this. Rivers are still better in this mod...except now there is one more building added in at a time when there are already plenty of things to build. I would rather just have the weaker watermill....or just create 1 building type for all cities....and just allow the river starts natural advantage to be its differentiators.
Culture Buildings: I find them all general more useful, and build them now.
Stoneworks: This building is a hella powerful now!
Trade Routes: Right now Internal Trade Routes just seem a lot better than external ones. Growth is a big deal now, so funneling food into a city is huge. That and gold again feels weak overall. I didn't try any land trade routes, the sea ones are still very strong.
Happiness: Overall, I found happiness to be a nonissue. First thing, expanding in this version is so much easier than the base game....and I think that's a bad thing. You start recreating the land grab from Civ 4, and I preferred a Civ having to develop some infrastructure after 2-3 cities before pushing some more.
But beyond that, I never had to do anything to attend to my cities' happiness. I never built a Colosseum or a zoo, didn't need to. I got to 10 happiness pretty easily and stayed that way through the majority of the game.
I recognize all of the work that has gone into that system....but I'm going back to some of my original arguments made a long time ago. The system is more fiddly, its harder for new players to understand....and I am not seeing the benefits.
The scaling luxury idea makes sense and I like how it reduces their need early on. Perhaps you could incorporate the +1 happiness per X people idea to the coliseum and zoo to again promote Tall play. But the original system is simpler and works pretty well...I've never had a big issue with it.
Misc: Astronomy doesn't tell you that all of your units can cross ocean now...which confused me.
All of the terrain reveals tied to tech....I don't understand the point of this. All of the early techs are good for one thing or another, I don't need all of the tile reveals tied to it as well.
.
