[NFP] Thoughts on game modes

[Inhalaattori]

Apocalypse Mode: 1/5
I dont like this mode at all. The idea of adding new disasters was great, but the mode was big disappointment for me. I would have liked to see more realistic disasters like earthquakes and plagues. This mode doesnt really add anything interesting to the game IMO.

Secret Societies: 3/5
Decent. My big problem with this mode is that Ai simply cant use cultists at all. Also lets hope December patch makes this mode more balanced.

Dramatic Ages: 4/5
I like this mode more than the normal Ages system. This mode makes the game simply more interesting and exciting.

Heroes and Legends: 4/5
Well done mode. All heroes have their uses so its much better balanced than Secret Societies.

 

[playshogi]

If they want to dumb down the game this is the way to do it. Now everyone should be able to beat deity. The only challenge is to see if you can beat the game in ever lower turn numbers. I used to enjoy watching Potato McWhiskey play the game, but with these new modes, it's just boring to watch as well as boring to play.

 

[anonxanemone]

If they want to dumb down the game this is the way to do it. Now everyone should be able to beat deity. The only challenge is to see if you can beat the game in ever lower turn numbers. I used to enjoy watching Potato McWhiskey play the game, but with these new modes, it's just boring to watch as well as boring to play.

I'm of an opinion that Diety difficulty could be considered a "game mode" in itself. It's basically a survival game in the early turns by giving handicapping via raw bonuses to the AI.

What a game mode does (and what I believe is the intent of the developers) is to give a different flavor to the game. Victory "world records" should be benchmarked with these modes off since they drastically change the context of the game.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

Apocalypse Mode: 3/5
I like the idea a lot. In implementation I would have preferred if natural disasters could just wreck cities (disabling them for # of turns and worse storms simply removing cities) instead of the literal apocalypse at the end of the game which invalidates me trying to win if global warming hits before I win or worse you win before the effects even happen.

Secret Societies: 0/5
I was really really intrigued by the name before it was announced but was massively let down. Its essentially just civ-wide governors and its horrible balanced. The pace of the game is already pretty wonky (I play with mods to slow things down) and this mode really makes that about 1000x worse. It feels like an exploit and the AI especially can't keep up. Easiest way to win deity is enabling this mode.

Dramatic Ages: 4.5/5
By far the best mode thus far in my opinion. It really mixes the game up in an enjoyable way and scratches my itch for wanting revolutions in the game. My only complaint is the AI can't recapture their cities or even capture other free cities.

Heroes and Legends: 4/5
Have not had much play time with this one. I've enjoyed it thus far and it seems to be a bit better balanced than SS. The AI still can't play the base game well though so this additional layer isn't utilized well by them.

Tech/Civic Shuffle: 4/5
My second favorite mode. This really mixes the game up and actually can help mask some of the AI's incompetence because the player is put at a disadvantage until you memorize eureka.

I'm of an opinion that Diety difficulty could be considered a "game mode" in itself. It's basically a survival game in the early turns by giving handicapping via raw bonuses to the AI.

What a game mode does (and what I believe is the intent of the developers) is to give a different flavor to the game. Victory "world records" should be benchmarked with these modes off since they drastically change the context of the game.

I actually think they should disable normal achievements when you have most of the modes active and only allow you to earn mode-specific achievements. Hall of fame should have a separate section for "Mode victories".

 

[TreVor_ish]

I'm of an opinion that Diety difficulty could be considered a "game mode" in itself. It's basically a survival game in the early turns by giving handicapping via raw bonuses to the AI.

What a game mode does (and what I believe is the intent of the developers) is to give a different flavor to the game. Victory "world records" should be benchmarked with these modes off since they drastically change the context of the game.

I think we gonna have somewhat survival mode with barbarians (Kevin was subtle enough).

 

[walkerjks]

Apocalypse - almost every game. Yeah, the randomness is annoying and I don't ever compete in the competitions or even build a soothsayer. But I also don't improve tiles very quickly and disasters improve them for me. A bracket volcanoes specifically because they will be producing a lot un-improved by the end of the game. Once in a while, something incredibly annoying happens (my city approaching size 4 so they can build a critical district gets blown back to size 2), but that is rare. And I've never seen an asteroid.

Secret Societies - Every time. Extra governors just solve so many problems, such as early culture production (Pingala + 1 promotion super fast with any sort of luck). Or super early Magnus. Or super early whatever.

Tech Shuffle - Most games, even though it slows down (can't get away with ignoring half the tech tree) my usual style of peaceful cultural wins. It does make early games more interesting. But if I am trying to benchmark something, this is turned off as it is a lot of randomness on when you can get Political Philosophy, for example.

Dramatic Ages - If I want to play an Eleanor eat my opponents with books game, it is on. Otherwise, it is off. I find losing cities incredibly annoying.

heroes and legends - Run these every game so far. Very random and I don't take as much advantage of this as I should (lots of tourism from the epic and relic, besides the other benefits), but in generally this is fun, though I wish there were more heroes useful without fighting wars. But there are plenty of heroes incredibly useful outside of combat. 3 free districts? Sign me up. 8 envoys + free faith? Super fast way to early political philosophy by harvesting marginally useful bonus resources? Free sea resources to combine with the right pantheon or governors? There are a lot of interesting things you can do with heroes. So it's active. I may turn it off at some point.

Tech Shuffle I always keep on, sometimes with the techs hidden and sometimes without. I wouldn't bother with Babylon though, they are immune to the tech side of the shuffle, though having Feudalism be hidden can be somewhat painful for them.

Unless tech/civic shuffle also shuffled the eurekas/inspirations randomly. It's not my idea and I know it doesn't make any sense, but shuffling the trees and the eurekas/inspirations would solve some of the Babylon problems.

 

[Ila]

Sanguine Pact limitations? It seems that after what seemed forever it wasn’t allowing a religion to be formed using this society ? Very new to this game any suggestions or similar experiences ??