I am trying Orbis out for the first time, and so far it's
The changes to improvements are EXCELLENT. For the first time, I'm running a civ that isn't elf on FoL and doing quite well at it. Gotta love forester huts. The 3 food per pop certainly took a little getting used to, but I can see why it needed to be done.
The civics are amazing. Categorized in a very logical fashion without anything seeming like a right answer. I can do something other then sit on City States. I also like how even early early civics have special features, like building troops with food. Really helps against early barbarians.
The tech tree is interesting. Some things seem rather odd, but make sense upon further consideration. It seems like there are more interdependencies then before, which I like, but maybe that's just my imagination.
Finally, the changes to units make so much sense. Hey guys, we invented bronze weapons and
EVERYONE can use them. Seriously, why wouldn't a hunter be able to wield a bronze knife? It makes the iron line tech useful no matter what you're doing. Giving many units negative modifiers to city attack was also brilliant. Means that even with all units benefiting from the metal line you'll still want melee troops for that final push. Also quite happy to see pikemen thrown into the mix. Even in the era of arquebus and cannon, pikemen were a staple of most armies. Now that can be reflected in game again.
Oh, and thanks for putting a national limit on arquebus. Late late game always became a sea of arquebus with the occasional national unit. Not that exciting.
I'm sure there are negatives to be found. Haven't tried it out in multiplayer yet (plan to, once I get my friends on board) and haven't gotten to see the AI in action. I'll be posting more feedback as I acquire it.