Era change has kind of always been part of Civ franchise. But the emergent storytelling* was in that that there was no explicit transition between eras. You were hunting dears and suddenly you sent your battleships conquering the world ? Amazing !
There's also a gameplay/feeling part in its failure : you run out of time quickly ; you can't do everything even on difficulty 1 and long ages. And the game is not more fast for as much : without wars, turns follow themselves without much happening. Building times also have increased, if it was not enough.
So yeah, there's a stale feeling and feeling of urgency at the same time that's unpleasant.
There's also the units reset : I had two full of units commanders, result : only one kept its troops if I'm right.
* I call emergent storytelling something the player has to remark himself and make of it kind of a story or rewrite history.
I agree with the sentiment of this, I don’ think it’s the eras themselves.
I have a few musings after 250 hrs. ( I like the game but it could be better)
1. Era’s are too short. Often don’t get enough time to do the tasks, or just enjoy your empire. Agree. This tends to be more felt as the ages progress.
-Modern can be very short if your empire is big and you have lots of boosts.
-Hoping future expansions add more to each era.
-Started playing on longer eras mode but it gets grindy in the last few turns if you do well (that’s a Civ standard for late game
)
2. Think the attribute system and narrative system partially drown out a sense of connection with later empires, particularly in modern. Your empire bonuses are just one of many late game.
3. Some Civs have very weak tradition policy cards that don’t carry over well. Very niche abilities like bonuses on rivers, need to have a stacking per era.
- Mayan or Greek traditions are more universal than say Egypts or Songhai’s
4. Some victory paths are too easy or too quick. Like culture in exploration.
5. Narrative events; are to invisible and maybe too many. We play Civ cause we like strategy. You take a Civ or leader and see how you can use their abilities to best affect. The joy is in figuring out how to maximize their bonus with other mechanics and figuring what works with your play style.
-Narrative events undermine this, but if they were more visible to the player like goodie huts then, it’s an exciting earned boost.
Recommended fixes
1. Increase the points needed some era paths, like more relics for sure, or less ‘free’ ones in the tech tree. As new Civs get added to the game so do more wonders, making the Ancient era culture game easier. Raise the bar.
2. Weaken attribute point system. Reduce power of some, make the rewards harder to get. Should only get them from completing Golden age not the partial goal points.
Honestly I would almost scrap attributes and replace with momento slots that are earns with progress or just get small buffs to each leaders 2 types, eg military/ science etc. similar to the 1st boosts in each tree. Ibn gets access to all.
3. Age process rewards are more fun when they give the temporary effect, keep cities, wonders give culture, keep religion. Golden ages should be harder to get and give one attribute point only at final tier plus other effect.
4. Boost the traditions of some Civs per age for niche effects. Like culture on navigable rivers.
5. Strengthen natural wonders, make interacting with the board better. (The late game policy for wonders is good). There is a reason Isabel is fun and strong. Maybe weaker wonder policies for 1st two eras.
6. Narrative events- more thematic ones to your Civ and leader are the better ones.
- they all need to be more ‘visible’ to the player. Civ is popular as a planning game, not a luck or role playing game.
