[GS] Your first impression score of this expansion

[acluewithout]

Gathering Storm: 9/10, but hopefully 11/10 after a few patches.

In summary:

• The Maps are beautiful. The new scripting, particularly the way mountains and continents are done are just gorgeous. My cities sit in beautiful river valleys, with towering mountains, jagged coasts. Exploring is genuinely exciting.

• Natural Disasters are incredibly fun and well done. No, not hugely impactful. I don’t care. Still fun. Maybe slightly too many too volcanoes, and hopefully we’ll get Earth Quakes and Tsunamis at some point because I really feel their absence. But yeah, awesome.
  
  
• The infrastructure stuff – canals etc. – are also fun and well done. No, not hugely impactful. I don’t care. Still fun.
  
  
• Resources and Power are very well done. I’d hoped resources + loyalty would slow conquest, and I think it does to some extent. But I think both Resources and Power need more work, and the IZ and its buildings, and Tier 3 buildings generally, are still not there.
  
  
• FXS, thank you for reworking England. Thank you so much. They’re much better and are finally playable again. Thematically they’re awesome – an empire of Coal and Iron. Pax B is basically okay now, and I’m loving the extra trade routes. But, yeah, England is still a bit rubbish. You need to buff the Royal Navy Dockyard and look at Workshop of the World again (it maybe should focus more on Factories).
  
  
• World Congress is great, and much better than Civ 5. I really like random resolutions, with player choice coming more from emergencies. I think the World Congress does still need more work though, but it’s a fabulous first cut.
  
  
• Grievances are terrific, and may end up being the best thing about GS both for new / casual players and veterans. It finally feels like the AI makes sense. Just wonderful. And it looks like there may now be negative loyalty for conquered cities via Grievances? Awesome.
  
  
• On the other hand, the future stuff (other than Tier 4 governments) is very weak. What there is, is very good, but there’s not much overall. FXS need to fill out the future tech better. (I mean, Predictive Systems (basically Strong AI) ... gives you just ... bigger Windmills?)
  
  
• The new Civs are great. Really great. It feels like there is a really good mix of Civs now.

• Also, a lot of the other balance changes, QOL and other polishes are just fantastic and just what the game needed. Yes, I think some work is still needed on balance and mechanics, but the list of what needs work has got a lot, lot shorter after GS, and overall the game feels much more satisfying. I think with some really serious tweaking and patching, GS and Civ VI could really nail it.
  
  
• Rise & Fall’s Governors, Government Plaza and its buildings, and loyalty need more work. I get that this is stuff GS was not looking to significantly rework and that’s fine for this expansion. But there is a lot of room to expand and improve these RnF mechanics, and this is the main area where the game still feels lacking to me. FXS need to go back to these via DLC and or a Third Expansion (#onemoreexpansion).
  
  
• If there is a third expansion, it probably also needs to look at ideology and maybe economics and colonization. Post GS, and post a few patches and fleshing out a few things from RnF, Civ Vi would feel very, very satisfying and complete. But, yeah, the game is missing something with ideologies, economics and colonization, and I think there is more that can be done there. A third expansion would also need to look at tying together more mechanics too, to offset any potential bloat and because there are a few too many disconnected systems floating around at the moment.

• My only real beefs with GS is the game is still too fast and too easy (link), and resources, Power and T3 buildings need more work (link and link). I think there’s also a stack of tweaking and balancing needed (link link link). The AI is overall much more rational than it used to be, and it’s city and wonder planning seem better, but with t is also more passive (and yet still seems to kill all the City States?).

• There is also maybe an overall issue with yields at this point. I mean, there’s now way more mountains on the map, which is cool, but it also means Campuses routinely have crazy high adjacencies. Then there’s extra yeilds from Disasters. Then extra yields from Pingala. And Civ was already generous with gold growing on the ground. Just saying, maybe the total yields in the game need a good look. I mean, there’s lots of clever ways to get science - Trade, Policies, Dedications - but do any matter if you can always build three +4 campuses out the gate, plus 6 - 7 science from Pingala?

• But overall, GS is just awesome. A really strong expansion, making Civ a really great game. It really feels like Civ VI is going in the right direction, and will end up the best version of Civ ever.

9/10.
I think for the fun factor and how it changes how you play the game, GS meets or beats BNW release.
A few obvious bugfixes and tweaks and it'll be 10/10 territory.

The biggest impact civ6 had on release was how much more fun it became to build your empire with the new district and tile mechanics.
I think GS has delivered a nice extension of that fun where RF didn't. I mean, you get disasters, and late game calamity, and power and industrialization and stuff. I feel like the stage of the game where you are "autopilot this end victory" has been pushed back until you win - At least until t4 gov't/ seasteads, I'm always trying to just get that one more unlock to place or slot or build.
A phenomenal job on the new civs. Worth the extra $10 IMO.


Or maybe there's a big flood and you're eagerly watching to see where the fertility was added, but then you have 3,471 alerts covering your screen so you can't see anything.
I would be happy if they either added a fertility lens, or they made it so when you click on the sidebar notification for the disaster, it will make the fertility floating +1's pop up again.

Agreed. GS feels like the first real expansion.

I think GS also significantly improved loyalty and emergencies, so sort of of redeems RnF a bit too in those area.

There’s a lot of stuff in GS that feels really satisfying, but the numbers and some details aren’t quite there yet. Hopefully FXS will really nail this in the patches.

(Cheeky, I know, but I hope they can see their way to give a tech hub as an alternate T3 building for the IZ. They could just recycle the Research Lab building with some different colours.)

 

[Engeez]

My first impressions of Gathering Storm: 2/10

The Good: Natural disasters, world congress, new leaders, wonders ect all great features. Artwork beautiful, music great.

Straight to the ugly:

I find this game virtually unplayable after 150 turns (sometimes less) on Deity as the other AI’s are just way too friendly in the game. I know if I get past turn 30 I’ve won the game.

I find once walls go up unfortunately there is zero chance an AI can threaten me. Not only that if I’m leading in everything they simply refuse to fight me, I need to create my own fun by denouncing everyone and acting like bipolar Isabella in Civ 5 to prevent falling asleep.

I thought I could change the army size values in the yields.xml file to make the AI more aggressive and competitive in war but alas, as the Inca I easily won a war 678 vs 3763 military strength and took all of poor Hungary’s cities except one that had 2 population in the snow just so they could keep playing their role in the game. They even levied a city state during the war so I took that as well. I just shook my head at the shear ease I was ripping through their units. They never once threatened any of my cities nor tried to take any besides slamming black knights over and over into one of my encampments. Do they even know what a battering ram, seige tower, observation balloon or siege weapon do?

I’ve never once seen an AI siege unit target a regular unit, which is sad. AI navies don’t converge rather send one or two units at a time to get massacred, builders still don’t improve features properly, and rarely are AI’s ever able to take a city. Also, don’t get me started on AI air warfare, it’s laughable to say the least.

My biggest gripe is the AI’s are just way too friendly on higher levels and aren’t remotely tactical in warfare. Which is sad because I had high hopes for this expansion.

All in all, I find this expansion virtually unplayable due to the ease of play. For those who enjoy winning everytime and endless uncontested conquest, this expansion is for you.

If there are just two improvements FXS could include in the next patch I would suggest the following:

1) Have the AI capable of winning by domination. I have run countless Autoplays and have never once seen any Civ come close to this. If the AI is capable of taking walled cities consistently then this game immediately goes from 2 to 8.

2) Give a 10% buff for each Civ met for each Tech/Civ that has been researched already in order for those lowly latent civs to stay remotely competitive.

 

[Depravo]

It's great that railroads are finally in. They still don't have the world-changing impact they had in real life though.

I'd like range based game functions to be based on travel time instead. For example, IZ regional bonuses should apply (for example) up to 2 MP away rather than 'six hexes'. Give you some reason to lay that plate beyond 'getting soldiers from A to B slightly faster'.

 

[King Rad]

I gave it a 9. I've only been able to play about 280 turns so far, but I really like the new additions. Sure, it has [and probably always will] have balance issues. But I really like the current approach, especially the strategic resources and engineers being able to build tunnels [really helpful when your empire is on two sides of a mountain range]. Realized after reading through this that I haven't really enhanced the connections within my empire that railroads now allow. Love the natural disasters [and the ability to use dams, etc. to minimize them - just hope I get to sea walls before my 5-tile island city sinks beneath the waves]. I would love to see luxury resources moved to a system like the strategics. Really only just now getting to some of the major changes [sea level rising in about 10 more turns], but this is already my favorite rendition of this franchise.

 

[ZeroSuitSenpai]

A solid 8 for me. The future era and diplomatic victories are pretty much total busts, imo. But I enjoy nearly everything else about the expansion.

 

[criZp]

Many nice additions and improvements, like better minimap, grievance system, world resource panel, filling in cavalry & recon lines, adding defensive spy promotions. Canals and tunnels. New strategic resource system is very interesting but needs work, same with power system. Touch screen support is cool since I just got a touch screen PC, but I can't play in bed yet because touch controls are buggy and need fixing. Glad that my inca boys are finally in.

Railroads are nice for unit movement and land trade, but if you're playing peaceful and do most trade over ocean they seem kinda worthless to make, unfortunately. The bridge is a only-one-in-the-world wonder, for some reason. Rock band unit would be more fun if it was actually clear how it impacted my victory progress. Natural disasters are whatever. Diplo favor and UN has potensial but the diplo victory needs some changes. Replace vote for diplo win with a vote for UN session leader, who sets the agenda of the voting, sounds like an improvement to me. The future era is boring, you just unlock some generic cards and death robot upgrades, and the science victory project. Total meh.

Overall 6/10, needs work.

 

[MaryKB]

I love how things look now, and I love, love, LOVE Eleanor! I do like how resources work, and I'm also fond of grievances. I like the idea of diplomatic favor, I'm really enjoying how I have more things to trade now.

I'm really quite underwhelmed by climate change and the world congress. So far I feel climate change is pretty much impossible to avoid, and also it's not very impactful. I'm mostly ignoring it, except I'm being choosy where I'm placing my districts and wonders. I feel that's sort of a bit immersion breaking, I mean as a ruler I'm building cities and my people are thinking "Okay, let's not build this here, because in a few thousands years our descendants are going to pollute the world and it'll be lost to flooding" I do wish climate change was less inevitable, comes later, and really was more than just a few tiles being lost.

I'm also mostly ignoring the world congress, I feel resolutions are very weak, and I'm bored by how it's so random. I liked last game's better, where you know what's coming up (and you can even pick what'll be voted on!), and you can try to negotiate and make sure your desired proposals are going to pass. And some had game changing impact, like embargoing your opponents or setting up your world ideology, and so on. Now I'm just sort of "meh" and I don't really care about voting.

But I do prefer how world projects are now, I like how you can see what everyone's doing, and it's not just about you building projects in your cities. I used to always switch all my cities to production, and I didn't know how much I needed to win. But I do feel rewards are very weak, except for ones giving you 1 Diplomatic Victory point. I'd love to see something like if you win you get an extra Wildcard policy card or something.

Oh and did I mention I love Eleanor?

 

[Sostratus]

So far I feel climate change is pretty much impossible to avoid, and also it's not very impactful.

The concepts are okay - dirty vs clean power, tile flooding, etc - but I agree strongly that the numbers are such that no one can ever stop the warming (you can only win before it happens) and because of that you just have to play around it being inevitable. Even with worldwide carbon recapture spam, you won't be able to reverse the flooding.

 

[criZp]

Even with worldwide carbon recapture spam, you won't be able to reverse the flooding.

I think the carbon recapture project is just there for the sake of that UN contest where you try to minimize your nations CO2