Hey all,
I'm still catching up and testing things, but here's my working changelog based on the discussions and feedback I've received over the past few weeks. Thanks again for your invaluable help. I'm pasting this 'raw' (i.e. no bullets) because, frankly, I'm sleepy.
These changes aren't 'locked' but they're also relatively agreed upon. I'd like to use this set of changes for the next beta if they don't cause a riot.
Cheers,
G
Order and Freedom seem good, they've gained more options. But I'll be honest, I dislike the new Autocracy. It's outright worse than the current bundle and few issues are really fixed. I wouldn't say those changes are relatively agreed upon as they seem to have pretty much nothing to do with the discussion in the Autocracy thread and seem a bit random to be honest, like making Autarky even worse somehow which nobody asked for. Seriously, you're a warmongerer - with old one, at this point you might have 20-50 cities on standard. That's 60-150 production, and some gold from internal trade routes, as compared to the benefits from trade routes and a heavy penalty to trading with others. If you're Venice it's maybe a buff, but Venice will be going Freedom for 4 trade routes, not even paying this one any attention.
Lightning Warfare is pretty much unpickable, United Front (often considered the worst) is unchanged, NWO's change doesn't change much, MIC will still be first picked, etc. It's probably better MIC is still first picked but Autocracy as a bundle is not OP than it receives the LW treatment (I doubt anybody wants that) because it's one of the reasons to not just go Order, and if Autocracy lost that too, I can't see myself not going Order instead for warmongering needs. Gunboat as it is is nothing but lots of text still as the policy is pretty much only +40 influence from gifts and features that don't actually work to make you more than Friends (and/or require more than they're worth) so it's still an easy F. Autocracy thread explained why the policy doesn't really work as it is, basically -1000 penalty ruins any hope of tributing to become more than friend.
BWC is better than Nationalism and is C (obvious A if very coastal) though, but I've seen too many AIs who pick resource pantheons despite only having the resources around the capital - someone who picks that while only a small amount of his cities is coastal won't really benefit much if at all, and it might even be an F then. Total War is better than what it is now, but it's hard to say how good it is. This one might be good, though, especially if you're an Imperialist too. I like the synergy with unit gifts, but both unit gift policies still remain bad.
I also question the runestone. Does it work on neutral tiles and roads? If not, people will be building roads in neutral area to pillage them. The UA still sucks but that's okay if UB carries it and it synergises in such a way. Thematic and fun, I like that, but in practice it could become either broken or unfun. This one will have to be tried.
Overall I like most changes to Freedom and Order though not buffing Creative Expression to be better is a bit disappointing too because it's not going to be picked as it is (GAP are the worst yield, culture it gives is a joke even for Egypt), but Autocracy got hit a bit. Overall some steps in the right direction, but some that aren't, as is expected for a beta. I know however during the course it will most likely become way better, just like the last beta patch trail turned out right and for the better in the end.
Like changes to freedom, it looks so good now.
why AI cant allow me to pass their borders for 50-100 gpt...
