PTW - New Stuff, Mysteries, and Thoughts

[Theseus]

Well, I started my first game tonight... we've got a lot to figure out and play with.

First, there have definitely been some MAJOR tweaks to the AI. Buying workers? Forget it... I tried to buy 2 early on from Caesar, and he wanted 184 gold + 5 gpt! A little bit later, I realized that ALL the AI civs wer 3-4 techs ahead of me, AND each had 200-400 gold, under Despotism.

Second, the Celtic Swordsman is just brutal. Nothing can stand in its way (very expensive though... imagine my surprise when I realized it costs 80 GOLD to upgrade Warriors). I don;t know about the other UUs yet, but some serious tattooed whoop-ass oscillation is the only thing that has given me a chance.

Third, the interface improvements are just GREAT. Forget the MP craziness... for SP, this is a must-have.

As people get PTW, I'll be interested in what we see.

[Dominae]

I haven't had the pleasure of seeing the "Worker-buying fix" myself, but it nonetheless brings me great pleasure to hear a report that the AI wants at least 100 gold per Worker. Marvelous.

I've noticed that Barbarians act a lot differently. They won't beeline for the nearest target anymore. In fact, they appear to ignore military units and concentrate on disrupting your cities. This makes them a tad tougher to deal with, since you can't taunt a Barb to get him to assault your fortified Warrior (on a mountain, no less).

At first I thought that the Numidian Mercs (the Carthaginian UU) was a tad overpowered, but I'm glad to see that their high cost balances them out. I like to think of them as Swordsmen that don't require Iron (although their stats are flipped).

I haven't really been tempted into building any Outposts yet. The problem is, you lose the Worker. As the "Worker-buying exploit" showed us, early Workers are pivotal. But, when you can finally spare a Worker, you've probably finished REXing and don't need Outposts. There are two times that I would consider building them: first, if I capture foreign Workers and I early on and want to avoid any future negative relations; second; if I'm playing on a large or huge map, where you eventually have to stop REXing even if the landmass isn't covered.

Goody huts appear to give free cities more often (not just Settlers). I may have noticed this because I'm mostly playing with the Americans in MP (I don't usually play Expansionist civs in SP), but twice in three games I got a free city out of my first or second hut.

The new automation options and buttons are just fantastic, especially the one that forces all automatic moves to happen immediately; I always hated to have to wait until the end of the turn for my Workers to finish their "Complete in 1 turn" jobs.

As I play more I'll post some comments on the new civs, especially their UUs. One thought for now: the Mongols look like a nice addition for us warmongers (eh, "late-blooming builders"); their traits allow them to dominate the early game, while their UU comes at a fantastic time for a GA. Basically they've got amazing "timing", which, as we know from the poor Zulus, is critical for success in sustained aggression.


Dominae

[Dominae]

Wow, just got Prince. Yay 'Poly!

[vmxa1]

Yes I wen to buy some workers and it was no longer a 20-30 gold thing. I have a sensation that the barbs were no longer slaming on in. They seemed tolook around and bail out if a stronger unit came their way, but did want to pillage. I am doing Arabs so far and have yet to get my UU. I want to see how they look and play.

[Theseus]

Yeah, the Barbs are dancing around, which is actually quite a pain. I got my first horde in a while, which was great for the CSwords, but took probably 10 turns to deal with the remnants.

Dominae, what's the auto-move thing? Which button?

All the *****ing notwithstanding, I have to say that Civ3, with the patches and now PTW, is the most amazing game I have ever had / played (for reference, other than Civ-type games, my previous pick would have been Wing Commander Privateer). Playing the Celts today was a whole new experience... and then Braveheart was on TV tonight, so I know I'll have dreams of running into battle naked and covered in tattoes and blue paint!!!

(sorry for the image)

[Jaybe]

Theseus, I believe the "do the auto-moves NOW" button is MP only.

[Dominae]

Yup, sorry for not being clear on that one; CTRL-U is the right hotkey, but it only works in MP. Wonder why...?


Dominae

[lockstep]

Any thoughts on the additional industrial age features yet? What's it like to go for the 'money' route (stock markets & commercial docks)? What do civil defenses and radar towers mean for the common 'blitzkrieg' strategy?

[Objectivist]

Celts, eh? I wonder if my Celtic strategy thread had an influence on your choice

Actually Theseus , I am curious to the degree the Celtic thread influenced your choice of Civ. Did my thread make you want to play the Celts first? If you could also provide any feedback as to how useful the strategies in the actual thread were I would appreciate it.

Thanks alot,
Obj

[Theseus]

I answered in your thread.

I started another game tonight... I want to see what happens with Numidean Mercs as an offensive force (so-so).

AGAIN, the AI civs are performing at a wholly different and higher level. BOOM, they're all 2-3 techs ahead (on Emperor).

Research seems to have changed significantly as well... I am researching Theology, pretty sure that I'm the first, and I am UNABLE to research in less than 20 turns. I'm set to to 10% research.

"Details" in the Foreign Advisor screen is great.

[Theseus]

And it's slightly embarassing how many ruins dot my continent.

[Jawa Jocky]

Adams Smith Trading Wonder has jumped several positions on my List of Wonders. With the addition of commericial docks and stock exchanges that is even more free upkeeps from that wonder. I actually used a leader to build it.

[Catt]

I've only played one game on a tiny map as Celts, with the Scandanavians and Mongols on my continent and the Carthaginians across a narrow sea lane (so contact with all possible) -- whole post subject to disclaimer of only one limited game. Too early for me to say with any certainty that there are truly significant changes with the AI yet, but if you forced me to give an opinion () I would also say that there have been some pretty substantial tweaks to the AI and general game core.

We know about the changes to the barbs. As to tech advancement, I also got way behind very quickly (on Emperor) -- I attributed it to goody huts since both my continent-mates were expansionist, but given the other early reports, I wouldn't be surprised to learn of some tweak which affects AI tech acquisition. One of the more pleasant surprises was the infrastructure development -- the Mongols (Mil - Exp; build Off. Units and Production often) had a robust infrastructure -- lots of city improvements, including going so far as to have stock exchanges in several cities not too long after discovering Corporation. I frankly expected them to be a bit like the Zulu, but no - the conquered Mongol cities were in many cases very well-developed.

Catt

[ducki]

I think the AI has been seriously tweaked...
I fairly recently graduated to Regent and did rather well, trying a game or two on Monarch(ouch!) and I am 99.99999% sure that it's much harder now.

I even downgraded to Warlord to try out the Celts, since I normally don't play anything but Industrious and boy, howdy! the AI sure seemed to be moving faster than normal on improvements and tech.

Maybe it was an unlucky start, where all the AIs started trading tech early or maybe I still don't know how to do an early "rush" or something, but I fell rather behind on warlord! I'm used to being a bit behind until mid-Middle Ages on Regent and Monarch, but Warlord?


Also, the new Barbarian AI, while occasionally annoying to someone who will build 5 or 6 cities before building any defenders, I'm glad they're not so stupid any more and will actually run away instead of giving me a bunch of Elite Warriors early on.

So, to bring this wretched ramble to an end, I definitely think the AI has been given a serious upgrade. Possibly a full "game difficulty setting" upgrade, without the production bonus, of course.

[Kizami]

Ruins in PTW???