Why are luxuries removed?

[Lucius_]

Purity likes farms because of the tech web, not because they are earthy. Purity has affinity leaf techs that gives farms bonuses like +1 production and +1 food.

The problem is the tech web isn't intuitive. There is no reason to get those techs. They are out of the way for any win, unless you need more affinity levels. For that, there are other options, especially when Lev Tanks are so tempting. So it's easy to miss all these synergies unless you literally study the web. Even if you knew about the Purity farm bonuses, you might not know you can get +1 science from farms as well, because that tech is way off in Harmony land.

I've completed 20 games and just now realized there is a tech that gives +1 food for plantations. I just don't tech that direction very often. I think the north side of the tech web needs work. I also think the southeast corner needs work, because I rarely go those directions.

 

[Gorbles]

The southeast is required for all of the Victories that aren't Domination . . . soooo.

 

[sprang]

If Health is the analogue of Happiness, and luxuries are happiness-generating resources, then CivBE HAS luxuries:

Silica

Should there be more, and what would they be? Vitamin Salad? Alien Magic Blood?Glaucoma Herbal Treatments?

 

[Lucius_]

The southeast is required for all of the Victories that aren't Domination . . . soooo.

Sorry I should have quantified that a bit more. I'm mostly talking about outer ring, field theory, planetary engineering, hypercomputing.

Thinking about it, that's probably what I mean moreso than areas of the tree. Most of the outer ring stuff comes too late and isn't worth researching. The benefits aren't worth it so late in the game and the research cost is prohibitive. They aren't worth beelining early.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

If Health is the analogue of Happiness, and luxuries are happiness-generating resources, then CivBE HAS luxuries:

Silica

Should there be more, and what would they be? Vitamin Salad? Alien Magic Blood?Glaucoma Herbal Treatments?

Silica is that for supremacy, one health each. Resilin does it for purity by percentage health boost to the city from having one resilin. Harmony doesn't seem to have a health booster that depends on city placement, but they have one that costs 4 xenomass.

So health from resources does exist, it's just that it's mostly just one resource (for each affinity) plus Joy From Variety if you have it. It ain't no spice trade i can tell you that.

 

[Gorbles]

Sorry I should have quantified that a bit more. I'm mostly talking about outer ring, field theory, planetary engineering, hypercomputing.

Thinking about it, that's probably what I mean moreso than areas of the tree. Most of the outer ring stuff comes too late and isn't worth researching. The benefits aren't worth it so late in the game and the research cost is prohibitive. They aren't worth beelining early.

Yeah, that's something of an issue, but how do you fix it given tech scaling? I think that formula is what may need addressing, I'm not sure. A lot of the east side of the tree is worth exploring (and I got it wrong, sorry, I was on about the southwest, hah) in general. More of the left side isn't, but is heavily tied to victory techs.

 

[Lucius_]

Yeah, that's something of an issue, but how do you fix it given tech scaling? I think that formula is what may need addressing, I'm not sure. A lot of the east side of the tree is worth exploring (and I got it wrong, sorry, I was on about the southwest, hah) in general. More of the left side isn't, but is heavily tied to victory techs.

Increase affinity level for victory would help. Most of the time I can win only researching 1 outer ring tech and the associated leaf tech. For Purity, that's always Nonotechnology. If I needed, affinity 16 to build the wonder, I'd need another outer ring tech to reach it. That means getting the +1 production for farms would be a higher priority than Nanotechnology. Or going to get Mantles before Nanotechnology. The game would be longer so these little buffs aren't coming so late, relatively speaking. And I need the affinity levels anyways. And Nanotechnology isn't a high priority at that same time anymore.