I've been playing a bit of Fall Further (with Fall Flat) while we patch up Orbis. Some of the stuff I like a lot, some I'm not so sure about. So here are some thoughts on, if I were God-King of Civ, I would merge and what I would avoid like the plague.
First, the tech tree in Orbis is insanely more intuitive to me. I just don't think the base tech tree from FFH makes a lot of sense: I'm sure if you play it a lot you get a feel for it, but certainly things you'd expect to be near eachother or flow from one to the next can be way across the tree and it just seems like a mishmash. Sure the tech tree from Orbis could be tweaked (the later techs should be way more expensive IMO) but it certainly flows more naturally.
I really kind of like the necessity of building the base barracks/archery range/etc buildings to produce anything but basic warriors. It makes you plan out what you're doing a lot more in the early game and makes cities less interchangeable.
On the other hand I think the stuff with all the master fletchers, master outfitters, master whatevers, etc, that let you build various unit upgrades starts getting too involved. There is a point where you move too far away from the base Civ engine and the complexity-from-simplicity greatness of Civ gets lost. I think this stuff moves over that line.
The upgrade path for giant spiders is really cool. I'm not sure it doesn't make spiders TOO desirable but it's definitely very fun. In Orbis I just wipe out spiders as soon as I find them, it's just not worth it.
I like having to capture Elephants or Griffons to make War Elephants or Griffon Knights. It makes the strategy on wiping out griffons or not a lot more interesting, where in Orbis the griffons are dangerous enough you probably want to just wipe them out as soon as you can unless you REALLY need a unit that can fly over a mountain range or something.
This is a minor point which I'll bring up in the minor requests thread, but City of a Thousand Slums has a bigger health penalty in FF (+5 sickness?) which is good. I think this is easily one of the most powerful wonders if you settle in a location planning ahead for it, is easy to build relatively early, and doesn't seem to be a big priority of the AI. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing the penalty go up to +10 sickness or something. +5 sickness is nothing for an extra ring of tiles.
I didn't realize Imperial Roads were an Orbis thing. I'm torn: With the ease you can get mobility promotions in FFH, the imperial roads pretty much let you move across your entire empire in one turn with many units. Is it possible to kick it from 1/4th cost to 1/3 cost? I like them but they're really too powerful.
I prefer the slower approach to adding new civs in Orbis: The new civs are hit and miss in FF, and the best ones will no doubt continue to be added to Orbis anyway.
First, the tech tree in Orbis is insanely more intuitive to me. I just don't think the base tech tree from FFH makes a lot of sense: I'm sure if you play it a lot you get a feel for it, but certainly things you'd expect to be near eachother or flow from one to the next can be way across the tree and it just seems like a mishmash. Sure the tech tree from Orbis could be tweaked (the later techs should be way more expensive IMO) but it certainly flows more naturally.
I really kind of like the necessity of building the base barracks/archery range/etc buildings to produce anything but basic warriors. It makes you plan out what you're doing a lot more in the early game and makes cities less interchangeable.
On the other hand I think the stuff with all the master fletchers, master outfitters, master whatevers, etc, that let you build various unit upgrades starts getting too involved. There is a point where you move too far away from the base Civ engine and the complexity-from-simplicity greatness of Civ gets lost. I think this stuff moves over that line.
The upgrade path for giant spiders is really cool. I'm not sure it doesn't make spiders TOO desirable but it's definitely very fun. In Orbis I just wipe out spiders as soon as I find them, it's just not worth it.
I like having to capture Elephants or Griffons to make War Elephants or Griffon Knights. It makes the strategy on wiping out griffons or not a lot more interesting, where in Orbis the griffons are dangerous enough you probably want to just wipe them out as soon as you can unless you REALLY need a unit that can fly over a mountain range or something.
This is a minor point which I'll bring up in the minor requests thread, but City of a Thousand Slums has a bigger health penalty in FF (+5 sickness?) which is good. I think this is easily one of the most powerful wonders if you settle in a location planning ahead for it, is easy to build relatively early, and doesn't seem to be a big priority of the AI. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing the penalty go up to +10 sickness or something. +5 sickness is nothing for an extra ring of tiles.
I didn't realize Imperial Roads were an Orbis thing. I'm torn: With the ease you can get mobility promotions in FFH, the imperial roads pretty much let you move across your entire empire in one turn with many units. Is it possible to kick it from 1/4th cost to 1/3 cost? I like them but they're really too powerful.
I prefer the slower approach to adding new civs in Orbis: The new civs are hit and miss in FF, and the best ones will no doubt continue to be added to Orbis anyway.
