Stunned. Just stunned.
I think I need to collect my thoughts a bit, maybe wait for the patch, before I say too much.
I’m thrilled FXS have made so much effort and have tackled so many gaps and problems. They’re really great guys. Honestly, I hope we get more expansions and patches and whatever just so we can keep hanging out with these guys.
There is a lot in this patch which isn’t just rebalancing or QOL. No, there are things in this patch that really rework the game entirely.
Diplomatic Victory is obvious and was probably needed rework. I’ve no idea how this will play out.
But the changes to
IZ and production are equally game changing - from the looks of it, production may become almost independent of terrain - pretty much any city can have hammers. Indeed, the main adjacencies for IZ appear to now be infrastructure not really terrain.
Likewise
Lumber Mills don’t have any real placement rules anymore - now everyone gets +1 regardless if they’re next to a river or not. And they come earlier so you don’t have to factor in the delay to get them. That seems ... less interesting?
I may really be wrong about that and we really need to see how it all plays out. But while I’m thrilled we’re getting more hammers - more hammers EVERYWHERE FOR EVERYONE is maybe not a good change... the game is meant to be challenging. You are meant to play the map.
How the IZ will work for various Civs I can’t guess. England can throw down Dams and Canals. Khmer and Rome love aqueducts. Netherlands could learn to love aqueducts too and have some absolutely God Tier IZs. Crikey. Even Coastal Cites may have got a back door production boost because they’re more likely to have canals.
Holy Sites granting even more faith could be seriously nuts. Faith was already crazy powerful.
I am excited. Promise. I’m just a little apprehensive for all these reworks still result in playing the map and interesting choices. I’m a little worried some of this plays into
@Trav'ling Canuck ”play your way” criticism. I hadn’t really seen that as being such an issue, but some of these changes feel so “everything is awesome” that I’m not sure there will still be meaningful choices.
That said. At this point in the cycle, I’m thinking FXS have a good sense of balance, so I’m not that worried. But there are so many massive changes I could see us needing a balance patch for the balance patch.
