[GS] Unusual number of bugs and poor judgement calls?

[Ondolindë]

Has GS brought an unusual number of bugs and simple wrong judgement calls that may border on carelessness?

I am enjoying it for the most part, but I don’t remember R&F nor any other previous release have as many small and big complaints. That is really affecting my enjoyment a bit. I did hear Civ V vanilla had a lot of complaints at release, but I came late to that so I didn’t experience it. Now, I also have experienced many that feel just right as well. There are bunch of those.

So, here is a list of the ones I remember people mentioning the most. But I know there are more so you’re welcomed to add to these lists or refute the ones I’ve put there.

Bugs:
Unconnected roads
Unwarranted achievements
Barbarian spawning irregularities
Civ inappropriate map generation causing multiple restarts

Faulty Judgement:
Canada as is
World Congress active without meeting all civs
World Congress’ impact
England’s nerf
Rock Bands as they are
Dimplomatic Victory length and tediousness
Ending game way before future era (why have a future era seems to be the question)
AI (hahaha, has its issues, but not GS specific as we all know, but had to mention it)
CO2 generation and effects
Disaster intensity and impact

Things just right
Civ selection in GS for the most part
Grievance mechanic
Disasters mechanic as an idea
World Congress coming back
Hall of Fame coming back
Multiplayer in the cloud
PC/Mac/Linux simultaneous release
New map and art design (so beautiful)

 

[AriochIV]

I haven't found GS to be especially buggy. Particularly when compared with Civ VI vanilla, which was nearly as bad as Civ V vanilla... nearly unplayable into the late gate.

RS seemed non-buggy by comparison, since it fixed a lot of bugs, but nowhere near all of them and introduced plenty of new ones.

Now as for poor "judgment calls"... that's far too subjective to quantify.

 

[WillowBrook]

Not an unusual number of bugs IMO - of those you list, only the uneven barbarian spawn and misfiring achievements are for certain bugs. And only one of those affects gameplay.

Many of the things on your "poor judgment" list are matters of opinion. Some balance issues will be taken care of with patches. Some can be modded to users tastes.

I'm no expert on computer games, and I'm not sure what your standard of "usual" is, but GS doesn't stand out to me when it comes to bugs and judgment calls.

 

[Elhoim]

Roads are definitely bugged.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

The most annoying bugs are the Apadana is not giving the first 2 envoys and Big Ben sometimes takes away a large sum of gold instead of bestowing it.

 

[Disgustipated]

Dimplomatic Victory length and tediousness
Ending game way before future era (why have a future era seems to be the question

don't these contradict each other? Can't complain diplomatic victory is too long and then say game doesn't go on long enough. I think diplomatic victory is fine. It's silly to even try to balance victory methods against each other. Some are faster than others, and I'm fine with that. Though I can see how this is an issue in multiplayer.

road graphics may not be a bug, but intended, though I can't imagine why.

Achievement issue hardly relates to the game itself.

I haven't had too many issues with map placement, only needed one restart in my Mali game and England game.

Canada is fine, learn to use National parks.

Disasters are fine, I don't want them to be worse. I lost 2 full charge builders yesterday to repeated floods at level 2, and you guys want disasters to be worse? I was really aggravated.

 

[Naktis]

Well let's hope patch is coming soon, would be sad if we had to wait till summer for big update patch

 

[acluewithout]

Well let's hope patch is coming soon, would be sad if we had to wait till summer for big update patch

GS was a great expansion and the last patch made a lot of good changes. But, yeah, there is still a lot of stuff that needs to be better tuned (which maybe just reflects how complex the game is).

I'd be very happy to wait for a summer patch if that patch really did get the game really, really tight. Balanced Units. More carefully considered Resource Requirements. IZ, Workshop, Factory, Powerplants and Tier 3 Buildings balanced. Having another look atht some of the Policy Cards. Better game pacing. Climate change more meaningful. Really nailing the World Congress Mechanics. No more recruit partisans. Military Engineers and infrastructure getting another look. England not sucking.

Not too much to ask, is it?

 

[Aristos]

Now as for poor "judgment calls"... that's far too subjective to quantify.

Because of variable overflow?

 

[comatosedragon]

... and Big Ben sometimes takes away a large sum of gold instead of bestowing it.

Really? I have never seen this; thankfully. Big Ben and Forbidden Palace are my two 100% wonders (get built every game, no matter what).


The biggest bugs to me are right clicking on those notification icons on the right hand side (to make them go away) and the UI thinks you are trying to send some unit halfway across the world ....... Oh, And sometimes being notified of an environmental disaster on the other side of the world, with the text of the message making you think your land/titles/units were affected.

 

[Haggbart]

On the contrary, I can't remember a release this successful in the history of the Civ franchise. Especially since it has also improved performance a lot and optimized the game for older computers.

 

[Jaybe]

Silly inanities alert!
Civ will NEVER be perfect, nor will it ever please everyone. Because civilization will never be perfect, nor will it ever please everyone.

So onward towards constructive criticism, and let’s keep it civil.

 

[FenrisWolf456]

Has GS brought an unusual number of bugs and simple wrong judgement calls that may border on carelessness?

I am enjoying it for the most part, but I don’t remember R&F nor any other previous release have as many small and big complaints. That is really affecting my enjoyment a bit. I did hear Civ V vanilla had a lot of complaints at release, but I came late to that so I didn’t experience it. Now, I also have experienced many that feel just right as well. There are bunch of those.

So, here is a list of the ones I remember people mentioning the most. But I know there are more so you’re welcomed to add to these lists or refute the ones I’ve put there.

Bugs:
Unconnected roads
Unwarranted achievements
Barbarian spawning irregularities
Civ inappropriate map generation causing multiple restarts

The roads are an unfortunately thing. Or more-so railroads. I'll have to look to see if roads are an issue, at least for me. For some reason though railroads seemed to be joining better in my last game, other than when hitting a district where it seems the rails just disappear and then start up on where I place the next railroad segment. There should be some underlay or at least tile edge connectors.

Achievements are certainly buggy and will hopefully be fixed soon, and hopefully the name of that Swedish one gets fixed too.

Haven't seen the barbarian issue first hand, so hard to comment on it.

I'm not sure the civ starting positions is really a bug, more than just improper weighting of biases. And in the end they are just biases, there's no guarantee you'll get an ideal starting spot, not that I really think you should every time. But I certainly understand the desire for an appropriate start, especially after multiple restarts for a thematic Mali desert game.

Faulty Judgement:
Canada as is

Personally I feel Canada is greatly under-rated. The main issue is that they don't have anything that makes them stand out from the crowd of other civs. I had a great time playing with them in a large tundra empire, though that is probably partly due to nationalistic bias.

World Congress active without meeting all civs
World Congress’ impact

I think I would have liked the first civ to meet everyone else establishes the world congress, and some era points for doing so. Then that triggering everyone meeting everyone, much like it was in Civ V.

The proposals seem mostly impactful enough, it's more getting results that you want or that is the issue. With the random proposals, you can end up with things you just don't care about. The AI could do with preferences as well, both in general to each civ, and for the victory path the civ is going for. So a science pursuing civ should be more inclined to vote for say the 100% production towards academies rather than just defaulting to city centre, or promote GPP for scientists (or against, if they don't want other civs getting them and catching up).

Rock Bands as they are
Dimplomatic Victory length and tediousness
Ending game way before future era (why have a future era seems to be the question)

Diplomatic Victory length seems fine. If anything should be a late game victory path, it should be diplomacy. But it could certainly use a bit of an overhaul to provide more points and avenues to get those points to make it more interesting.

Science is already stretched out to the late game, and I don't think there is much that can be done for Religion and Domination (other than potentially AI improvement to provide more effective resistance or aggression).

That leaves Culture, which does seem to come too fast, which I think will need some number tweaking more than anything. I mean, you could lock it behind having to build some late game building, but that seems a lazy way out of it. Rock Bands seem to be the GDR for culture, meant to help speed up a game you're already winning, though they could be tools to help catch up some. Again, seems like something that could be a simple number's tweak.

CO2 generation and effects
Disaster intensity and impact

I haven't liked the speed of CO2 and its effects on the climate so far. I have mods that alter the number some but not sure on it yet, as the only full game so far with it produced no significant amounts to even register for Phase 1 by the end of things on the cusp of the Information Age. I think the main culprit is with how modern units use fuel. Currently it's every unit outputting every turn and there's nothing you can really do about it. But I feel that if a unit is parked and fortified somewhere, the vehicles aren't really in use and there shouldn't be any use of fuel and thus no emissions. Fuel should be used upon movement or attack, of for when a unit is healing (i.e., getting resupplied and performing repairs).

 

[Smity2k1]

There are a few bugs and items that are not perfectly balanced, but nothing seems egregious.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

There are certainly bugs and issues, but is that actually unusual?

 

[Abaxial]

I have seen a small bridge in the middle of the Atlantic!

 

[Victoria]

There are just so many old bugs not fixed.
There are plenty of exploits down to both design and bugs.
There are so many new toys that it obfuscates a lot of issues.

So when you step back and think about things you can be as frustrated as a monk in a brothel but if you immerse yourself in a game it can still be quite enjoyable.

 

[Infixo]

So when you step back and think about things you can be as frustrated as a monk in a brothel but if you immerse yourself in a game it can still be quite enjoyable.

The monk immerses and agrees

 

[Ondolindë]

There are just so many old bugs not fixed.
There are plenty of exploits down to both design and bugs.
There are so many new toys that it obfuscates a lot of issues.

So when you step back and think about things you can be as frustrated as a monk in a brothel but if you immerse yourself in a game it can still be quite enjoyable.

That image of a monk in a brothel really sticks, doesn't it? And it really makes a point. Thanks!

My question is what toys would you have to give the monk so that he is truly obfuscated to not notice what is happening at the brothel?...Never mind. On second thought, don't answer that.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

That image of a monk in a brothel really sticks, doesn't it? And it really makes a point. Thanks!

My question is what toys would you have to give the monk so that he is truly obfuscated to not notice what is happening at the brothel?...Never mind. On second thought, don't answer that.

I recommend a fidget spinner. Surely a sufficient distraction.