What would you cut?

[MagisterCultuum]

I still think that replacing farms(/plantations/camps/etc) with "blighted farm(/plantation/camp/etc)," which would have negative yields, be "permanent,", and eventually upgrade back to the old improvement could be good, instead of creating deserts and destroying improvements.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

The ability for Great People to Lightbulb technologies.

It would maybe prolong the researching, not a bad thing, though, especially as some techs are being cut. The great scientists from writing are a bit of a slippery slope as is, since they lead down the magic line to the godly crown of arkhaniam (sp!).
I think the other uses for great people are usually more interesting, but maybe that's just me.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think that Great People should instead have a spell that lets you choose which tech to put their research towards.

 

[Roghar]

I fully agree with the chorus against blight as it currently is - micromanagement nightmare and AI can't handle it.

Either fallout or a temporary (declining) health hit would achieve pretty much the same effect without all the bother. Ho about -5 health in each city, improving by 1 every 100 turns?

 

[mtagge]

The ability for Great People to Lightbulb technologies.

Just bouncing an idea out there. If you were to remove this ability perhaps replace it with a series of otherwise unbuildable world/national wonders. The command post seems to be a reasonably balanced use for the great commander as it is.

That and it could untie the Over/Undercouncils from the holy cities.

 

[syndicatedragon]

I haven't played this for too long, but here are three changes I would make.

1) Change Raiders trait. Commando just seems too powerful for a free promotion. Combined with Haste, it makes chariots and other horse units into super units that can strike virtually anywhere.

2) Seriously nerf siege units. Catapults make city defense nearly pointless. I guess FfH uses the old Warlords bombard formula, and combined with the huge withdrawal %, cats are just way too powerful for how much they cost.

3) Fix the AI so it doesn't adopt the first religion that happens to come along, especially if it will change their alignment. It's really frustrating when I set up a custom game for a nice epic Good versus Evil battle, and everyone ends up good or neutral because of religion spread. It seems like religion spread needs to be slower, too.

 

[Grunthex]

I've thought this too (regarding religion adopting/alignment changing). Especially as no one really seems to prioritize OO, but FoL and RoK get beelined in almost every game. The closest we get to religious conflict is the RoK block against the FoL block -- and we lose half the Evil leaders to Neutrality, joining RoK. In 4 out of my last 6 games, no one ever bothered researching AV at all for more than 500 turns... that's 300 turns after every other religion.

While I don't think it has any chance of happening, I'd love to see two more alignments (not a second axis, but more gradiations - between Good and Neutral, and Evil and Neutral. Then change the religious alignment shifts as follows:

Order shifts you up to 3 positions from your original towards good (an Evil civ becomes semi-Good)
Empyrean shifts you two positions toward good.
RoK shifts you POSITIVE one towards neutral good (evil becomes semi-evil, neutral becomes semi-good, good remains unchanged.)
Leaves stays how it is
Overlords shifts you down one towards neutral evil (reverse of RoK)
Council shifts you two towards evil (or neutral evil? How bad are they, really?)
Veil shifts you three to evil.

Probably more work than it's worth, but I can dream.

 

[Roghar]

I haven't played this for too long, but here are three changes I would make.

1) Change Raiders trait. Commando just seems too powerful for a free promotion. Combined with Haste, it makes chariots and other horse units into super units that can strike virtually anywhere.

2) Seriously nerf siege units. Catapults make city defense nearly pointless. I guess FfH uses the old Warlords bombard formula, and combined with the huge withdrawal %, cats are just way too powerful for how much they cost.

.

1) Could we replace Commando with Mobility then? Its a much easier to get promotion, and for the high move units isn't as much an improvement as Commando. It would however strengthen 1 move units in the early game. Actually a better option could be Flanking 1, seems appropriate for Raiders to be able to attack and run away, and would drop the power substantially

2) Disagree with siege weapons being too strong. Apart from the tech, need an expensive building, to build the things and then slowly move them around. Now with walls etc reducing bombard, their ability to defeat defences is slightly nerfed already. MAYBE could cut down their withdrawal chance slightly but I think its worth seeing how it plays out with the revised city defences.

 

[syndicatedragon]

1) Could we replace Commando with Mobility then? Its a much easier to get promotion, and for the high move units isn't as much an improvement as Commando. It would however strengthen 1 move units in the early game. Actually a better option could be Flanking 1, seems appropriate for Raiders to be able to attack and run away, and would drop the power substantially

Yeah, I like that idea. To me, "raiding" is kind of a hit-and-fade sort of attack. Flanking would be perfect for that.

 

[westamastaflash]

Yeah commando is crazy good. With tasunke you can roll over several neighbors with warriors since they can travel on the roads your enemies built for you.

 

[OzzyKP]

I fully agree with the chorus against blight as it currently is - micromanagement nightmare and AI can't handle it.

Either fallout or a temporary (declining) health hit would achieve pretty much the same effect without all the bother. Ho about -5 health in each city, improving by 1 every 100 turns?

Ah, well, if we get rid of terraforming altogether then no one will need to worry about micromanaging. The AI wouldn't be at a disadvantage, blight would just suck equally for everyone.

 

[PinkPikachu]

Any building that does nothing aside from allowing you to build another unit. They should be removed or flushed out to allow them to do something other than slow down your production and confuse the AI.

Useless summons, such as the Azer. If a spell has no flavor or usefulness it should be removed or reworked.

Unending vassalage Requests. You should never be approached to vassalize a state with a different alighnment unless it has the same religion as you do, and you should not be approached to do so constantly.

Privateers. They are overused by the AI, consider making them a national unit.

Elephants. They do nothing but slow down the early game and take up slots that should be used to spawn animals that can be defeated/subdued.

Great Commanders. Give us Great Generals instead.

Lengthy, all consuming fires. Give fires a much higher chance of burning out rather than spreading farther. I have used a single adept to put entire elven empires into chaos.

This newly registered lurker agrees. Having buildings just for the sake of having buildings isn't diversity, its clutter.