seasnake
Conquistador
Okay, finally got to play the full version. Here's my thoughts, if anyone cares:
The Good:
Combat -- much better. The chess tactics are a superior game. Want fun? Try to take a city on a peninsula, you need to think about how you'll get enough of your troops close enough to damage the city before they all die. Navies crucial in those situations.
Soical Policies -- I cannot say how great these are. They all matter, and there's always a trade off, and you can't possible get them all in one game. Also, when you get them is key. You may not want to be France and accumulate a ton of early culture because you'll be spending it on early policies from the three branches open at the start. You may be better of waiting until the medieval era and then making friends with culture city states and building monuments and temples. Then you can quickly pick up policies in Patronage or Piety instead. Many levels of strategy.
City States -- They provide direction on many levels, they're valuable enough you will want to be their friends sometimes, they're strong enough they aren't a sure thing, and they really impact diplomacy. An attack on Rio can start a war on Rome, is it worth it?
Wonders -- Unlike Civ IV, every Wonder is extremely useful. With only one Industrious leader there seem to be less wonder cities in the world, so you have a shot at any one of them with planning.
Scalability -- the graphics are highly scalable, making it look pretty good on a newer computer but run well on an old laptop. Kudos there.
Great people planning: You have a lot more control over which GPs you'll get, no random chance factor. Nothing worse than getting a prophet in the old game late when you needed gold or wanted to rush a wonder. Now you plan it out.
The Soundtrack -- like it a lot, including the guy who does the tech voices and the wonder quotes. Great music and good actor.
The Bad:
UAs -- they have an impact on the game, but not that much. A game with Rome feels similar to a game with Songhai in many respects, too many. The UAs need to be a little more unique or replay value will suffer.
Turn length -- even on a good computer turn length seem disproportionate to the amount of stuff on the screen.
Lack of feedback on Diplo screens -- your foreign advisor should be able to give you some record of your past dealings and say if they were good or bad. Also you should have some idea of general sentiments toward you and other civs, if England and Greece are having trouble your agents should know that and you can exploit it. I can ask for a pact of secrecy against them, declare war, etc. without any idea how realistic it is that the AI will accept.
The Ugly:
Rivers and River deltas -- seriously they're a disgrace.
Interface -- instead of streamlined write buried and you have it. It's all there, but in an effort to highlight the most important features they've buried a lot of other features.
Advisor voices -- they're annoying. I'd love to turn them off.
The main screen and its music -- It's not ugly per se, but if you're going to follow up to the game that had Baba Yetu and the awesome globe you need to top it. I don't get the feeling the contacted Christopher Tin for that one.
The Good:
Combat -- much better. The chess tactics are a superior game. Want fun? Try to take a city on a peninsula, you need to think about how you'll get enough of your troops close enough to damage the city before they all die. Navies crucial in those situations.
Soical Policies -- I cannot say how great these are. They all matter, and there's always a trade off, and you can't possible get them all in one game. Also, when you get them is key. You may not want to be France and accumulate a ton of early culture because you'll be spending it on early policies from the three branches open at the start. You may be better of waiting until the medieval era and then making friends with culture city states and building monuments and temples. Then you can quickly pick up policies in Patronage or Piety instead. Many levels of strategy.
City States -- They provide direction on many levels, they're valuable enough you will want to be their friends sometimes, they're strong enough they aren't a sure thing, and they really impact diplomacy. An attack on Rio can start a war on Rome, is it worth it?
Wonders -- Unlike Civ IV, every Wonder is extremely useful. With only one Industrious leader there seem to be less wonder cities in the world, so you have a shot at any one of them with planning.
Scalability -- the graphics are highly scalable, making it look pretty good on a newer computer but run well on an old laptop. Kudos there.
Great people planning: You have a lot more control over which GPs you'll get, no random chance factor. Nothing worse than getting a prophet in the old game late when you needed gold or wanted to rush a wonder. Now you plan it out.
The Soundtrack -- like it a lot, including the guy who does the tech voices and the wonder quotes. Great music and good actor.
The Bad:
UAs -- they have an impact on the game, but not that much. A game with Rome feels similar to a game with Songhai in many respects, too many. The UAs need to be a little more unique or replay value will suffer.
Turn length -- even on a good computer turn length seem disproportionate to the amount of stuff on the screen.
Lack of feedback on Diplo screens -- your foreign advisor should be able to give you some record of your past dealings and say if they were good or bad. Also you should have some idea of general sentiments toward you and other civs, if England and Greece are having trouble your agents should know that and you can exploit it. I can ask for a pact of secrecy against them, declare war, etc. without any idea how realistic it is that the AI will accept.
The Ugly:
Rivers and River deltas -- seriously they're a disgrace.
Interface -- instead of streamlined write buried and you have it. It's all there, but in an effort to highlight the most important features they've buried a lot of other features.
Advisor voices -- they're annoying. I'd love to turn them off.
The main screen and its music -- It's not ugly per se, but if you're going to follow up to the game that had Baba Yetu and the awesome globe you need to top it. I don't get the feeling the contacted Christopher Tin for that one.
