Your BtS questions

[Robert]

Welcome to Apolyton!

[binTravkin]

That's one thing they had to fix in BtS
Both the lighthouse and dike stuff.
I would agree a city not being directly on the coast should not be able to count as coastal for trade purposes and therefore be unable to build harbour and coastal wonders, but at least lighthouses should be allowed.
After all lighthouse isn't really a city specific improvement, rather terrain specific similarly as farms and mines.

[Robert]

Sometimes it is irritating indeed, but it just adds more dept to strategical decisions on where to place your city.
For that purpose I do love it.

Like that you can't build a lighthouse next to fresh water, but need ocean next to your cities. It just adds dept to the game. I want to lighthouse next to the fresh water, but have to locate my city in such as way that it's next to the salt water as well.

Love it, makes things complicated

[binTravkin]

Well there's always necessary complication and an unnecessary one, the latter mostly falling also in the 'unrealistic' category..

[Robert]

Originally posted by binTravkin
Well there's always necessary complication and an unnecessary one, the latter mostly falling also in the 'unrealistic' category..

A dike and a lighthouse build 50km from the water falls within the unrealistic category for me

[MoonWolf]

Extra hammers from water tiles with dike? That can be awesome!

New question: Are there any new leader traits?

[sneaky]

Originally posted by CyberShy
Welcome to Apolyton!

Thanks.

Originally posted by CyberShy


A dike and a lighthouse build 50km from the water falls within the unrealistic category for me

Indeed it would.

The Dike does seem quite strong. I was afraid it would be too situational, but riverside and/or harbor cities are quite common.

[korn469]

1) What's the new AI like? Give us some high and low points with the new AI.

2) How do seige units get experience points now that they can't kill units?

3) What's the new air combat like?

4) Can paratroopers do a paradrop and then move/attack on the same turn? If not, then do you find paratroopers useful?

5) How useful are great spys?

[ptzvetan]

Can the workers dig channels as smbd said?

[Robert]

Originally posted by MoonWolf
New question: Are there any new leader traits?

No, but the Expansionistic trait has been changed, worker production +25% instead of +50%

The Dike does seem quite strong. I was afraid it would be too situational, but riverside and/or harbor cities are quite common.

Now imagine a Financial civ with a dike/lighthouse city next to fresh water, with a dike and the Maoi Statues....

Every fresh water tile is:
3 food
2 hammers
3 commerce

that's a pretty kewl city

[Robert]

1) What's the new AI like? Give us some high and low points with the new AI.

The new AI is REALLY good
high points:
- naval attacks, it comes with 3-5 ships (defended by 2 more) and attacks you right from the sea!
- It tries to accomplish a cultural victory
- It comes (certainly at the higher levels) with huge invasions! Really HUGE!
- It places it's cities much much much better. Also the advised city location you get is much better.

Some bonusses of the AI have been removed, and some human penalties have been removed as well. (ie. less angry and sick faces by default on emperor and beyond)
It's harder to beat this AI. I used to be pretty good at beating the AI at immortal, now I have troubles with emperor.

2) How do seige units get experience points now that they can't kill units?

Just like before. They can leave the combat as a winner, or as a loser (retreat). If they win, but just can't damage the other units any more, they get xp's as if they won.

3) What's the new air combat like?

I'm not deep into air combat, but there are more possibilites to defend against air units. Jet Fighters have a 100% interception change, units can intercept more then once per turn. There are interception promotions to many units.
Cities can only hold 4 air units. Forts can also hold 4 air units.

4) Can paratroopers do a paradrop and then move/attack on the same turn? If not, then do you find paratroopers useful?

Hmmmm, let me think........
I haven't done much paradrops. (there are areas in BtS that I've hardly done properly, it's hard enough to learn all those new elements and implement them in your games)
I don't think that a paratrooper can attack after the drop, but I may be wrong.

5) How useful are great spys?

In the early game they're very important.
I always settle them as spy specialists to get an extra +12 EP's and 3 extra beakers. Those +12 make a huge difference in the early game. One can also decide to bring them to an enemy city and get an instant 5000 EP against that city. Then you can do a lot of espionage against that other civ. I prefer the +12 in general though, because I can spread it out a bit more.

The Great Wal gives GS points now, instead of GE points.

Can the workers dig channels as smbd said?

Forts can be used as channels now.
That works only for the tiles next to water tiles. You can thus build a 3-piece channel like this:

x = fort
c = city
w = water

wxcxw

or just in a normal situation:

wxxw

[=DrJambo=]

Is there a Random/Shuffle map option and if so what map types does it include?

Cheers

[MoonWolf]

Lot's of interesting new features I see! nice with forts that can hold air units (also bombers, btw?), I've missed that. I see have to change my playing style dramatically against the AI. My defences are often rather low, but I'm better on counter attacks. See this must be changed now...

The Great Wal gives GS points now, instead of GE points.

Scientist or Spy?

[Robert]

Originally posted by =DrJambo=
Is there a Random/Shuffle map option and if so what map types does it include?

Cheers

There are a couple of new map scripts.
I like the "Big and Small" one most. I generates continents, with islands mixed in. You can also pick the "snaky continents" option there, which generates.... wel... snaky continents
You can chose to have islands mixed in, or have the islands as a 'seperate' continent(s).
You can also chose normal islands or tiny islands.

There are a couple more maps, I'm not very familiar with them.

Random map? Have to check that.

Lot's of interesting new features I see! nice with forts that can hold air units (also bombers, btw?)

Yes.
They've tried to really make forts more interesting.
Forts also can grab resources, ie. on other landmasses, without you wanting to put a city there. (ie. that small island outside your coast with a horse resource, that's within your cultural influence)

Scientist or Spy?

Great Spy.
The Great Wall generates Great Spy points.

[=DrJambo=]

When you use a fort to capture a resource, do you get the same bonuses to the tile as you would using the standard improvement? E.g. camp/quarry/mine, etc.