The new patch and Arabia

[Bibor]

I agree with the constatation that arabia's UA is already terribad, coupled with the double oil that's already useless (they boosted oil deposits anyway). Bazaar is fine as it was. It's not like you can sell 16 cotton in a 8-civ game. There aren't enough oases or oil wells to benefit anything substantial from this new Bazaar. I hope it's #1.

 

[Furycrab]

No matter how we parse it, it still comes down to this.

This pretty much, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

So it's settled... Arabia will be far the worst civ in the game, and far more worse than any other civ.
What a pitty, though I know that the devs will probably fix this in the next patch.

The UA while not awesome is still not Ottoman old UA terrible. Gold is always useable.
The UU is going to raise in value since Longswordmen are going fairly dramatically down in value and they always dealt very well with Pikemen.

The UB I think is just broken. It's very powerful now, and if they give the AI positive modifiers for giving them resources it will be even more ridiculous. Broken when compared directly to other UB. I think the bonus they did pick isn't all that good, but if you are going to get a market anyways, if you are going to work the oil tiles anyways, and when you consider the hidden bias where you often start near oil. It's not that bad.

Won't be in my top 5, but I won't consider it the worst.

 

[ColinTH]

I had a post patch plan, play as Arabia, research straight to currency, build the Hanging Gardens along the way (if possible), build a bazar, then try and catch up on Science with a fast growing City.
Number1 - A spoke in the wheels (bad plan).
Number 2 - ok I can give it a go!

 

[_hero_]

I agree with the constatation that arabia's UA is already terribad, coupled with the double oil that's already useless (they boosted oil deposits anyway). Bazaar is fine as it was. It's not like you can sell 16 cotton in a 8-civ game. There aren't enough oases or oil wells to benefit anything substantial from this new Bazaar. I hope it's #1.

Well, with the boosting of Tanks and the reduction to Mechs, Oil has become a little more valuable now making Arabia's UA a little better.

But yeah, it could be either/or.

Edit: and it's not like you'd ever sell 16 cotton in an 8 civ game. You'd have to have a monopoly on all the cotton tiles to do that. Normally, what happens is you have no more then half of any one luxury. Arabia's Bazaar let's them basically take everyone else out of the market for trading luxuries.

 

[Furycrab]

I agree with the constatation that arabia's UA is already terribad, coupled with the double oil that's already useless (they boosted oil deposits anyway). Bazaar is fine as it was. It's not like you can sell 16 cotton in a 8-civ game. There aren't enough oases or oil wells to benefit anything substantial from this new Bazaar. I hope it's #1.

When you end up with a lot of duplicates it's not all that awesome, but if you end up with 3-4 extras of each of your Lux you could sell all of the ones you have for gold, and practically give away the rest for favorable diplomatic modifiers.

 

[Randall Turner]

and practically give away the rest for favorable diplomatic modifiers.

forgot about that.

 

[Furycrab]

forgot about that.

I've played a few games where sometimes I have extra resources and underdogs that don't like me all that but are completely broke so I couldn't sell them my extra resources as arabia, having the ability to give something that won't make them catch up but will make them like me more is certainly something I would do to keep the underdogs off my back.


I had a game where I was playing on a huge Earth world map with arabia (mostly for chievs) and I must have had 15-20 deals going down at all times. If I were to get positive diplo modifiers for giving resources to broke AIs I would have had probably 30-40 deals going.

 

[Babri]

here's a case where the naked now clearly implies complete replacement of the previous mechanic. there are others as well. #1 is going to be it. given the presumably increased value of luxuries, it would be really weird if they were giving some additional benefit to an already overpowered unique building. the trend in this patch has been nerfing of overpowered things like meritocracy's gp, landed elites food bonus.

You should consider 'Civilization Unique Abilities' instead when judging Arabia UB. I still think that it is #2. As another poster suggested, they probably took this idea from TBC so I hope they don't remove the luxury bonus.

 

[ColinTH]

I've played a few games where sometimes I have extra resources and underdogs that don't like me all that but are completely broke so I couldn't sell them my extra resources as arabia, having the ability to give something that won't make them catch up but will make them like me more is certainly something I would do to keep the underdogs off my back.

Sometimes at the back end of the game, you can check to see if anyone wants to buy your resources and the answer is no. The very next turn a couple of City States change hands and you have a buyer! But I do like your idea, I will have to bear that in mind - Thanks.

 

[Furycrab]

Sometimes at the back end of the game, you can check to see if anyone wants to buy your resources and the answer is no. The very next turn a couple of City States change hands and you have a buyer! But I do like your idea, I will have to bear that in mind - Thanks.

I was mostly mentioning how incredibly powerful the UB currently is and might be next patch, my feeling is that they struck out the whole free Luxury mechanic, even if as a consequence it will turn Arabia from relatively easy to relatively weak.