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Okay so I just finished my first game of BTS, Earth Map (americans), Warlord difficulty and I have some thoughts I felt I'd share with you guys and hopefully start a dialogue on things done right, wrong and identify some issues with the game.
The New AI: (4/5)
I haven't found to many problems with this, with the exception of Corporations which I will discuss further down. Overall, I find the new AI is simply better. For me, the new Noble is Warlord. Meaning I had to drop down a level and still found the game just as competitive. I was in 3rd place for the majority of the game. Which is a welcome change. I find that most of the AI improvements are found in efficiency and city placement more than in the war department. Though most of this could be due to my difficulty level choice.
The Aposticle Palace/New UN proposals: (3/5)
For the most part I found these disappointing. Rarely did any resolutions come up for the palace and when they did the majority of the time it was just a vote for the resident. I hear that there are triggers for some of the votes in the palace, (I'd love to know what they are), but I feel they do not come up enough. Similar situation for the UN, as usual I had nothing but the same old votes. Never once did I get any options for trade embargoes/war declarations. So I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in this department. Mostly for the fact that the new UN resolutions never show up and thus make it impossible to incorporate them into my strategy.
The New Units: (5/5)
There is not much for me to say in this department, mostly because I was in the space race by this time however I think what stood out most were the paratroopers/guided missiles. Mostly due to their balance. I love the paratroopers because they're powerful enough to be useful yet so situational that they are not a game breaker. I think their range is just right and the fact that they're required to be in a city makes it so that the paratrooper is not useful in every war. They also, in some cases, may require you to get an open borders with a neighbor that you normally wouldn't have. I like the guided missile because it allows you to soften targets before you land should you not be able to place bombers in range. It also adds some more emphasis to your navy which I'm always a fan of. However, these aren't the cruise missiles of civ3 that allowed you to build 20 of them and decimate your enemy. A couple other weapons worth mentioning are the Privateer and the Anti-tank weapon. The privateer is a nice addition, and without being too powerful, that allows you to blockade some backward nation and sink some of your rivals ships without a full blown war. The Anti-tank is nice too because you can no longer build massive stacks of modern armors and mechs and be guaranteed a victory.
Corporations: (3/5)
Mixed feelings, mostly because placed in foreign cities they are too powerful because the AI seems to not know how to use them. Possible solution may be that the founder has the soul authority to spread it. As is it is now, you drop down one executive in a foreign city and they'll spam it until they destroy themselves with it. Some have found this to be a nice idea but the problem is that they'll also spread it without regard to other civs. For instance I had an alliance with Darius and hated Tokugawa so I thought I'd crush his economy with Mining Inc. well behold I drop down 2 executives and he does the rest in his 50 other cities. This is all well and good except for the fact that Japan didn't stop there, they proceeded to spread it to every other civ on the face of the planet including my ally, who then spammed and destroyed himself with it. I am a strong believer that the founding civ should have to soul power to spread, that way not only does it take a very long time to crush a rival civ with corporations it also makes it more strategic. That way if I have Standard ethanol and my ally has no oil I can spread it to him without him shooting himself in the foot and without all other rivals getting the bonus. Until that time I deem corporations broken.
Espionage: (5/5)
Simply put I love it. Very balanced. When I heard about the concept of stealing techs I was nervous. Then I played and realized that it takes a HUGE investment to get anywhere near stealing tech. I also found that the AI is pretty good at catching spies making the whole thing that much more difficult. Nice addition without being too overwhelming.
New Civs:
I haven't given this a rating mostly because I haven't played them to judge their strengths/weaknesses. Though new civs are very hard to screw up in my eyes
Space Race: (3/5)
Many of you are probably going to think I'm being to harsh here but thats simply because the space race was not as advertised. First of all ship customization is, for lack of a better term, lame. Customization consists of picking which shade of gray I want my ship to be. Also I was a little disappointed with the whole "race" portion of the game . I was lead to believe that I'd have a wider range of options when it came to speed choices, whether I wanted 5 engines or 1 engine. This is not the case, I was left with the option to build 2 engines or 1. I felt I was led to believe that I would have to make choices between speed/and probabilty of success and strategize how to get it all up before the AI. Right now I still feel like I'm filling out a shopping list.
Random Events: (5/5)
I like these, it provides the opportunity to shake things up a little with rival civs, requires you to always have a little cash on hand, and just adds a little flavor to the game with out being catastrophic. i.e. destroying cities.
Overall: 28/35 (80%) B-
Overall I felt the expansion was above average. FIraxis took a step in the right direction and expanded content and really tried to shake up the game a little bit. The main complaint I had with Warlords (lack of content & innovation) is not present in this game. So I think the only constructive criticism I would have is that Corporations need to be patched. And the space race changed a little, include more options, balance between engines (enough will speed it up, too many will slow it down. More life support, will increase the likelihood of success at the price of speed. etc.)
Again this was only my first game, so maybe I'll find more too it in the second and third and at higher difficulty, however I do think it does have some inherent flaws that, luckily would be easily prepared in a patch.
Thanks for your time,
Dan
The New AI: (4/5)
I haven't found to many problems with this, with the exception of Corporations which I will discuss further down. Overall, I find the new AI is simply better. For me, the new Noble is Warlord. Meaning I had to drop down a level and still found the game just as competitive. I was in 3rd place for the majority of the game. Which is a welcome change. I find that most of the AI improvements are found in efficiency and city placement more than in the war department. Though most of this could be due to my difficulty level choice.
The Aposticle Palace/New UN proposals: (3/5)
For the most part I found these disappointing. Rarely did any resolutions come up for the palace and when they did the majority of the time it was just a vote for the resident. I hear that there are triggers for some of the votes in the palace, (I'd love to know what they are), but I feel they do not come up enough. Similar situation for the UN, as usual I had nothing but the same old votes. Never once did I get any options for trade embargoes/war declarations. So I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in this department. Mostly for the fact that the new UN resolutions never show up and thus make it impossible to incorporate them into my strategy.
The New Units: (5/5)
There is not much for me to say in this department, mostly because I was in the space race by this time however I think what stood out most were the paratroopers/guided missiles. Mostly due to their balance. I love the paratroopers because they're powerful enough to be useful yet so situational that they are not a game breaker. I think their range is just right and the fact that they're required to be in a city makes it so that the paratrooper is not useful in every war. They also, in some cases, may require you to get an open borders with a neighbor that you normally wouldn't have. I like the guided missile because it allows you to soften targets before you land should you not be able to place bombers in range. It also adds some more emphasis to your navy which I'm always a fan of. However, these aren't the cruise missiles of civ3 that allowed you to build 20 of them and decimate your enemy. A couple other weapons worth mentioning are the Privateer and the Anti-tank weapon. The privateer is a nice addition, and without being too powerful, that allows you to blockade some backward nation and sink some of your rivals ships without a full blown war. The Anti-tank is nice too because you can no longer build massive stacks of modern armors and mechs and be guaranteed a victory.
Corporations: (3/5)
Mixed feelings, mostly because placed in foreign cities they are too powerful because the AI seems to not know how to use them. Possible solution may be that the founder has the soul authority to spread it. As is it is now, you drop down one executive in a foreign city and they'll spam it until they destroy themselves with it. Some have found this to be a nice idea but the problem is that they'll also spread it without regard to other civs. For instance I had an alliance with Darius and hated Tokugawa so I thought I'd crush his economy with Mining Inc. well behold I drop down 2 executives and he does the rest in his 50 other cities. This is all well and good except for the fact that Japan didn't stop there, they proceeded to spread it to every other civ on the face of the planet including my ally, who then spammed and destroyed himself with it. I am a strong believer that the founding civ should have to soul power to spread, that way not only does it take a very long time to crush a rival civ with corporations it also makes it more strategic. That way if I have Standard ethanol and my ally has no oil I can spread it to him without him shooting himself in the foot and without all other rivals getting the bonus. Until that time I deem corporations broken.
Espionage: (5/5)
Simply put I love it. Very balanced. When I heard about the concept of stealing techs I was nervous. Then I played and realized that it takes a HUGE investment to get anywhere near stealing tech. I also found that the AI is pretty good at catching spies making the whole thing that much more difficult. Nice addition without being too overwhelming.
New Civs:
I haven't given this a rating mostly because I haven't played them to judge their strengths/weaknesses. Though new civs are very hard to screw up in my eyes
Space Race: (3/5)
Many of you are probably going to think I'm being to harsh here but thats simply because the space race was not as advertised. First of all ship customization is, for lack of a better term, lame. Customization consists of picking which shade of gray I want my ship to be. Also I was a little disappointed with the whole "race" portion of the game . I was lead to believe that I'd have a wider range of options when it came to speed choices, whether I wanted 5 engines or 1 engine. This is not the case, I was left with the option to build 2 engines or 1. I felt I was led to believe that I would have to make choices between speed/and probabilty of success and strategize how to get it all up before the AI. Right now I still feel like I'm filling out a shopping list.
Random Events: (5/5)
I like these, it provides the opportunity to shake things up a little with rival civs, requires you to always have a little cash on hand, and just adds a little flavor to the game with out being catastrophic. i.e. destroying cities.
Overall: 28/35 (80%) B-
Overall I felt the expansion was above average. FIraxis took a step in the right direction and expanded content and really tried to shake up the game a little bit. The main complaint I had with Warlords (lack of content & innovation) is not present in this game. So I think the only constructive criticism I would have is that Corporations need to be patched. And the space race changed a little, include more options, balance between engines (enough will speed it up, too many will slow it down. More life support, will increase the likelihood of success at the price of speed. etc.)
Again this was only my first game, so maybe I'll find more too it in the second and third and at higher difficulty, however I do think it does have some inherent flaws that, luckily would be easily prepared in a patch.
Thanks for your time,
Dan
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