Tweet
This thread is about the little changes in the behavior of the game, that need a different strategical approach than in the standard Civ3. I have seen 3 of them so far, but I think there are more for sure.
Barbarian tactics
Barbarians have gotten a real pain in the butt. They don't attack the nearest target anymore, sometimes they even flee from your unit in the fog of war. They keep roaming around your empire and, since they are all-seeing and all-knowing, will for sure target your undefended settler, worker or city in a moment, when it pleases you the least. They keep you on your toes. Making elite Spearmen by placing regulars on a mountain near a barbarian hut does not longer work, because the barbarians avoid to attack below a certain probability to win. If they succeed to ransack a city, they steal insane amounts of money. Consequence: You need more units roaming around your empire to keep it safe from Barbarians. The worst, what can happen, is a massive uprising with raging barbarians. 24 horsemen with improved tactics can ruin you completely and kill all your settlers and workers.
Ability to capture a non-expanded size-1 city
This is the most important change I encountered so far. I did not make any research on this matter, but I suppose, that a size-1 city survives a capture, if there is any culture at all, even though it doesn't suffice to expand the city's borders. This makes captial chasing easier and vastly increases the efficiency of early wars, namely Warrior and Archer rushes.
Cities popping from huts
I consider this to be a quite annoying change. I still want to have control, where I want to plopp a city and where not. O well, it's still possible to disband a city by building a Settler with no food surplus, but it leaves an ugly "trash dump" tile, which lasts till you mine or irrigate the tile. There's really nothing one can do against it, maybe praying more will help
.
Stuff from the discussion follows:
To buy workers is very expensive now
Nuff said. Arrians worker buying strategy is no longer affordable.
The AI actively trades contacts
Although version 1.04f was buggy and allowed the AI to trade contacts even before Writing, the fact remains, that the AI actively trades contacts now, which it (at least for me) never did in Civ3. This can give the human player some advantage, because he can save a lot of money to buy all contacts himself, or at least save some time for scouting.
The AI puts a bigger focus on building wonders
Master Marcus noticed, that the AI is quite a GW addict now, well it was already in vanilla Civ III, but even more with PtW. It will build relentlessly any available GW now, and that combined with its improved scientific priority, that comes at the expense of its early expansion ( slighty, but I'm sure so far ). That's good for the builder player, but beware it's easy now to fall more behind the AI on tech ( Monarch+ ). Perhaps the "behavioral" change that has the most impact on gameplay, especially on larger maps played 'til modern era.
The AI makes more MPPs
So it's easier to be involved in an industrial/modern world war. Contributed by Master Marcus, I couldn't confirm that yet.
The AI upgrades his units more rapidly
When reaching replaceable parts for example, the turn after he has already MULTIPLE infantry defenders in every city. In vanilla Civ III the AI - even the strongest - was keeping its obsolete units much longer.
Have you seen more of these "little important changes"?
Barbarian tactics
Barbarians have gotten a real pain in the butt. They don't attack the nearest target anymore, sometimes they even flee from your unit in the fog of war. They keep roaming around your empire and, since they are all-seeing and all-knowing, will for sure target your undefended settler, worker or city in a moment, when it pleases you the least. They keep you on your toes. Making elite Spearmen by placing regulars on a mountain near a barbarian hut does not longer work, because the barbarians avoid to attack below a certain probability to win. If they succeed to ransack a city, they steal insane amounts of money. Consequence: You need more units roaming around your empire to keep it safe from Barbarians. The worst, what can happen, is a massive uprising with raging barbarians. 24 horsemen with improved tactics can ruin you completely and kill all your settlers and workers.
Ability to capture a non-expanded size-1 city
This is the most important change I encountered so far. I did not make any research on this matter, but I suppose, that a size-1 city survives a capture, if there is any culture at all, even though it doesn't suffice to expand the city's borders. This makes captial chasing easier and vastly increases the efficiency of early wars, namely Warrior and Archer rushes.
Cities popping from huts
I consider this to be a quite annoying change. I still want to have control, where I want to plopp a city and where not. O well, it's still possible to disband a city by building a Settler with no food surplus, but it leaves an ugly "trash dump" tile, which lasts till you mine or irrigate the tile. There's really nothing one can do against it, maybe praying more will help
.Stuff from the discussion follows:
To buy workers is very expensive now
Nuff said. Arrians worker buying strategy is no longer affordable.
The AI actively trades contacts
Although version 1.04f was buggy and allowed the AI to trade contacts even before Writing, the fact remains, that the AI actively trades contacts now, which it (at least for me) never did in Civ3. This can give the human player some advantage, because he can save a lot of money to buy all contacts himself, or at least save some time for scouting.
The AI puts a bigger focus on building wonders
Master Marcus noticed, that the AI is quite a GW addict now, well it was already in vanilla Civ III, but even more with PtW. It will build relentlessly any available GW now, and that combined with its improved scientific priority, that comes at the expense of its early expansion ( slighty, but I'm sure so far ). That's good for the builder player, but beware it's easy now to fall more behind the AI on tech ( Monarch+ ). Perhaps the "behavioral" change that has the most impact on gameplay, especially on larger maps played 'til modern era.
The AI makes more MPPs
So it's easier to be involved in an industrial/modern world war. Contributed by Master Marcus, I couldn't confirm that yet.
The AI upgrades his units more rapidly
When reaching replaceable parts for example, the turn after he has already MULTIPLE infantry defenders in every city. In vanilla Civ III the AI - even the strongest - was keeping its obsolete units much longer.
Have you seen more of these "little important changes"?
, I forgot about the increased cost for workers.
Comment