Hola peoples, this is a small write-up that I made as I played my first game.
The game is beautiful. And I don't mean that in the graphics of the terrain and such, but in the eye for detail, for the little things. The hand-drawn pictures of everything, the icons as you hover over and complete a technology, I love those kind of things. The game is very charming.
But speaking of graphics; much like in Endless Legend, the terrain graphics are confusing. Which is because there are too many terrain types; a Forest and a Woodland, a Prairie and a Dry Grass, and sometimes with Berries or other small things on them - you can't see at a glance what kind of terrain you have, you need to turn on the FIDS indicator for that. This probably can't be changed, but very preliminary, I think this is less of an issue than I found it to be in Endless Legend, both because there are fewer terrain types (but multitudes more than in Civilization), and because this is more rooted in history. Still, this is a semi-serious issue in my opinion. For one, you have all these many kinds of terrains with different yields that you can't tell at a glance. And for two, you can't even identify the same kind of terrains at a glance, because the red-green tiles at the top and the yellow-green tiles at the bottom are both 'Dry Grass':
Also, one of my larger worries - the territory system - seems to have been alleviated. Because you can relatively easily expand your city with quarters, so as to work other tiles as well, and so you can naturally grow through a territory and actually make use of the land. The puzzling of 'which district goes where' is... Something I feel ambivalent towards. But I am looking forward to experiencing it in full! All in all, nice.
Is it intended that the left-mouse button drags the screen around, not the right mouse button? Intuitively, I would assume it'd be the right one, but it is the left one.
Also, I can't move the screen by pushing my mouse against the screen's edge.
It is also odd that I normally move units with the left mouse button (right? Or not?), but then in battle, I move them with the right mouse button.
I like the idea of how armies can raze forests to create siege weapons to besiege a city, a very nice and realistic innovation. However, in Civilization, the default strategy is to chop down your own forests, because yields now are much more important than yields later. I assume that will now also be the case, unless letting the forest stand is a vastly superior option - but then you are also leaving forests for enemy armies to convert to siege weapons, so... That's a high risk.
I like the music! Though it sounds oddly orchestral for the ancient age?
I like the events! Very 'simple' things, like whether to have a lunar or a solar calendar - again, I love the eye for detail.
Is Faith already implemented? I saw it as an option on the 'The Pecking of Poultry' event, but I'm not sure it did anything.
The descriptions are overall clear, but I did have some points:
- 'per Number of the same Repeatable' - what does that mean (on the Parade's, Games', and Feast's description)?
- 'Boarding Vessel: No special rules' - well, why mention it then, if this apparently does nothing (on the Quadrireme's and Pentekonter's description)?
- 'Naval Transport: Ranged-combat naval unit, must have line of sight to attack. Replaces land Units which embark to travel across ocean tiles.' - this took me a few seconds to figure out, but what I think you are saying is two things:
1) 'Land units can travel across ocean tiles by transforming into a Transport Galley'
2) 'Ranged combat naval unit, must have line of sight to attack'
To me, these are two separate points. Also, should 'ranged combat' have a '-' in between the words? And should 'unit' be capitalised? Not saying it should or shouldn't be so, just wondering.
- 'Setup yourself the priorities in your City' - this sounds odd, I would rewrite it to 'Manually set the priorities in your City' (on Expert Policy)
- 'Technology subventions' - I love the use of language here (I learned a new word!), but it's a shame that this one option has a different text size than the other options, because of its length. Give them all a similar text size, somehow, I would suggest.
- Very slight inconsistencies; previously I noted that 'Unit' is capitalised, but when hovering over 'Money' (top right corner, your income per turn), you see that while 'Administrators' is capitalised, 'unit' is not.
- Do we really have nineteen armies with generals, as of turn one?
- This yellow box, on the 'Food', 'Industry', and 'Money', should be underneath the text:
I as of yet have no real clue what it does, but I can imagine things, and so I probably like the 'family' concept of buildings (I'm guessing this means that you won't build a Charcoal Kiln in the Modern Era, but instead a Factory or such).
I would appreciate something that informs me that city X has built Y. This is kind of like the notifications area at the bottom of the screen (it took me some time to realise this existed), but I keep needing to press on the button to open it. Maybe this can be left open, once I have clicked on it once?
(edit; I think this actually already works, maybe I closed it by accident?)
(second edit; ah, I think it does stay open in general, but it closes after going to the technology screen and back to the main screen - that doesn't seem to be intended, does it?)
I would also appreciate anything that can be built to both show its theoretical effect (e.g. '+4 Food per Territory') and its actual effect (e.g. '+12 Food for 3 Territories').
If I press on the 'next turn' button without having selected anything to research (i.e. it says 'No research'), would it be better to open the research pop up to the side, or the full-fledged technology screen (the latter is my preference, the former is what it does now)?
If I press 'next turn' from within the technology screen, shouldn't it close the technology screen, so that I can see the map? I would intuitively expect the game to do this.
I like that curiosities (so much better than goody huts, because of their variation) are dynamically generated.
What does 'Capture their flag' mean here?
For 'Supplied' and 'Maimed', it shows an infinite amount of turns. However, as I understand from the description, this is not true (and indeed, my units did heal and supply). Shouldn't the amount of turns that it will take to reach full health and strength be shown here?
Also, I much agree with what
this user has to say about Research and Building Options. To veeery shortly summarise (but really, read it), I agree:
Especially with regards to the design of the technology tree, the underlying axioms, so to say.
Also with regards to the feeling of relative uselessness of Babylon's Emblematic Quarter, because it, in essense, replaces a Farmer's Quarter.
And also with the fact that there are so many buildings (as I said above), and that it is unclear what I should pick. 'I want to improve my food' > 'okay, I see five or more options, but what is their practical effect, can the game calculate this for me so that I can better decide what to pick?'.
As for my first game:
Probably not good at all, but, I enjoyed it! While I am in no position to speak of balance, I do suspect two things. One, that I would massively reduce the rate of research - but then, I always play Civilization on my customised Marathon speed, so that is probably just me. I like to be able to build everything, and this game literally has dozens upon dozens of options that I just speed past while researching technologies (and that is while focusing on food, not on science, but also not on production). Two, that I suspect money plays a very important role, because the cost to build a city out of an outpost escalates very quickly. Maybe - but again, what do I know of balance - this might need to be adjusted eventually.