Civics seem balanced

[Martinus]

From the civfanatics' preview:

Once you have solidified your borders, and assuming are still at peace, it is time to make your empire more productive. There are various ways that you can do that. As mentioned above, religion is one way. Civics, of course are also a great way to fine-tune your government. The beauty of this system is that you don’t need to focus only on the later Civics choices to make your empire as productive in certain circumstances. Under the Labor section, Serfdom (which comes at Feudalism) may be a better choice than Emancipation (which comes at Democracy) if you like more productive workers. Civics such as Police state and Nationhood (which allows you to draft one unit per turn, and get +2 happiness from Barracks) are excellent choices during war-time. The Pyramid wonder enables all government civics, but it doesn't mean it's a good idea to immediately switch to Universal Suffrage (+1 shield per Town; Can spend Gold to finish productions), since you most likely will have very few towns and not much Gold at this early stage of the game. Another thing to note is, unless your leader’s trait is Spiritual, you might not want to change up your Civics choices too much, as that leads to a period of Anarchy.

[The diplomat]

The Pyramid Wonder enables all civics choice? wow!

[Stuie]

Originally posted by The diplomat
The Pyramid Wonder enables all civics choice? wow!

Yeah - that seems a bit powerful. Guess that makes it worth the gamble of losing all those shields if you don't build it before another civ finishes it.

[Aks K]

No only government civics else it would be too powerful

Aks K

[Stuie]

Ah - right you are Aks K - just the government civics. That's ok then.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

I still say it should give +2 engineers in that city, a greater chance of a Great Engineer, and reduced maintainance costs in all your cities (plus culture, of course). To me, that just makes far more sense!

Actually, does anyone know (MarkG, Solver??) if any kind of tourism is in the game again?

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

[hexagonian]

I am so pumped about civics...In fact I dug out my copy of SMAC just to get used to the effect. (I actually went out a bought a used copy because my son 'stole' my original copy)

New appreciation for a game that I did not play enough when I got it.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Aks K
No only government civics else it would be too powerful

Aks K

That's still pretty cool.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

I know where you are coming from Hexagonian. I borrowed SMAC from a friend several years ago and-you won't believe this-wasn't even aware that social engineering existed (I didn't have a manual!) The whole time I was wondering where the governments were, but just assumed the game didn't have any . Then, when Civics got mentioned, people started saying how it sounded like SE in SMAC. When I asked more about it-someone showed me a screenshot of the SE screen. Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather-it looked BRILLIANT. So, what did I do? I went and found a copy and BOUGHT IT (not easy to do anymore!) Needless to say, I have been really enjoying me SMAC experience, and am amazed at how many Civ4 features are actually SMAC features 'making a comeback!'

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

[kolpo]

Yeah, the revealed civics seem to be well balanced, the
Hereditary Rule ability for example(each unit in city makes 1 person happy with no limits) seems me good not only for militaristic players but even for defensive builders, because it gives a non-military bonus to having many military units. This seems me well balanced with the other options in the category.

I'm happy that they have choiced for balanced civics rather then "newer are quite always better".

[Fried-Psitalon]

I know three people who will be very happy in a warm, special place to read this thread....