|
I was bombarded with ads in the lead up to NextFest about "play for free" from Feb 5-15...then it's just a 60 turns demo. I thought it was going to be some novel marketing strategy to go F2P for two weeks. It ends pretty much when the interesting mechanics are coming into play immediately and not a turn later (both game I attempted ended the moment I have a age 3 building finished).
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2024 22:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 00:32 |
|
|
Mayveena posted:I doubt they have that expectation, Civ is a very long running series. I think they want to present an alternative to Civ for those who may have burned out on it or who are looking for another alternative. Yeah, Millennia definitely feels like a game that's trying to capture a certain segment of the market rather than toppling Civ outright. It can't be a Civ-killer, there's too many people who would turn away from it first.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 00:11
|
|
|
Does the civ choice in millennia actually do anything? It feels like they’re doing the humankind thing of building your civ as you go but it’s not too clear
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 06:03
|
|
|
FrancisFukyomama posted:Does the civ choice in millennia actually do anything? It feels like they’re doing the humankind thing of building your civ as you go but it’s not too clear They're doing the humankind thing but wisely (IMO) not tying the bonuses to a specific Civ and instead letting you build up via national ideas. So the different civs are just to keep track of who's who. It's also possible the AI players play differently based on Civ. As for myself, I enjoyed the demo and played through it twice. I didn't get to see any special ages, but almost activated the age of blood using "raiders" which seemed extremely powerful. I only missed it because someone tecked to iron age a turn before I did.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 06:29
|
|
|
I'm not sure that I like that ages are determined by the research leader. The AI just goes for the vanilla ages (or gas difficulty meeting the prereqs) so enh. It needs to be more complicated than that, or involve bidding, or something.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 06:51
|
|
|
TheDeadlyShoe posted:I'm not sure that I like that ages are determined by the research leader. The AI just goes for the vanilla ages (or gas difficulty meeting the prereqs) so enh. Ya, the ages and tech tree is actually why I'm not interested in it. It makes the game pace weirdly aggressive and seems like starting positions + starting bonus picks can cause massively imbalanced starts vs others that spiral out of control quickly. There are a lot of things I like (the improvement system, the towns, barbs being actually loving dangerous if you're not paying attention), but a lot of pieces that feel janky or maybe just not my speed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 07:09
|
|
|
TaintedBalance posted:Ya, the ages and tech tree is actually why I'm not interested in it. It makes the game pace weirdly aggressive and seems like starting positions + starting bonus picks can cause massively imbalanced starts vs others that spiral out of control quickly. There are a lot of things I like (the improvement system, the towns, barbs being actually loving dangerous if you're not paying attention), but a lot of pieces that feel janky or maybe just not my speed. It's an early demo, it could get a lot of jank correction and balance changes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 18:14
|
|
|
Lowen posted:It's an early demo, it could get a lot of jank correction and balance changes. And it could not. Why post this? I gave my opinion over the demo, of course it could change, and if it does, I may update my position if it moves in a direction I like.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 19:50
|
|
|
So the 4x genre has always intrigued me, but my limited interactions with has left me feeling a little overwhelmed at first blush. Is there a particular choice pick in the genre for someone new? Either with a real strong tutorial / introduction or has a lot or well thought out community guides for newcomers?
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 22:09
|
|
|
Walked posted:So the 4x genre has always intrigued me, but my limited interactions with has left me feeling a little overwhelmed at first blush. Civ (without expansions) is honestly pretty welcoming, it has strong tutorial support. If you don't care about the historical portion, Age of Wonders 4 has very very clear tooltips/guides and is reasonably intuitive - it leans more combat heavy than a 'traditional' 4x (Age of Wonders: Planetfall if you like sci fi to fantasy) Related, if you're a Warhammer 40k nerd, Gladius is an excellent combat focused 4x (with Paradox levels of dlc, but they're all optional race packs, the base game is fun enough) Really I think Civ is probably the one I'd recommend if you're just trying to experience the genre, it has mountains of youtube support and guides and an active thread here. It's not my preferred game, I play more Age these days, but if you're new, there's a reason it's the grandfather.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 22:40
|
|
|
Walked posted:So the 4x genre has always intrigued me, but my limited interactions with has left me feeling a little overwhelmed at first blush. Get Civ 5 for pennies on some sale.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 22:50
|
|
|
I wish there was a version of Civilization Revolution that was easy to recommend these days. If you wanted to dip your toes into something very 4x-light, you could try Battle for Polytopia or Space Tyrant. Megazver fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Feb 7, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2024 23:29
|
|
|
I've been playing the Millennia demo and there's a lot I like; the production chains for cities make for interesting decisions, the alternate ages look cool (I haven't gotten any yet), and the slotting units together to form on the fly armies is a good solution to the problems of one unit per tile. But right now it seems like a game with great ideas but in need of better implementation; the whole game feels unpolished in various ways; the popup sticking mechanic means they're constantly getting in the way, documentation is lacking (some tile improvement popups seem to show yield but some don't), and it just feels generally janky. I'm hoping they're able to improve the interface in which case it could be a real gem of a 4x game, but it isn't there yet. Bremen fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Feb 8, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 07:21
|
|
|
Yeah I liked that demo a lot more than I expected, which to be fair, after Humankind hosed it, was a very low bar. A lot of the design decisions are taking from older Civs (Civ 3's underdeveloped army system somehow being the actual solution to the 1UPT and deathstack problem as a good middle ground, public works from Call to Power so we don't have to gently caress around with worker units), and even non-Civs (the resource harvesting -> refining system coming from Knights of Honor), and it's creating something that's a real cool take on civ-likes and is actually kinda the direction I'm hoping Civ 7 takes, in particular how harvesting buildings, refinement buildings, and towns outside of cities are creating this sense of urban sprawl as a more simulationist take on Civ 6 districts (which I do like a lot). Hope they keep working on it, I'm deffo interested now.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 07:39
|
|
|
TaintedBalance posted:And it could not. Why post this? I gave my opinion over the demo, of course it could change, and if it does, I may update my position if it moves in a direction I like. Because that's my opinion of the demo. It had balance problems and some UI jank but based on my experience seeing games develop over time I think they'll be fixed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2024 08:02
|
|
|
Playing the Millennia demo and laughing out loud at the battle scenes with the enemy guys running out of their fort to take a little swipe at my guys before running back in
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2024 23:42
|
|
|
Love it and can’t wait to see later era battles. Honestly though, I hope it didn’t take a lot of time because it could have been spent better elsewhere.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 00:11
|
|
|
Microplastics posted:Playing the Millennia demo and laughing out loud at the battle scenes with the enemy guys running out of their fort to take a little swipe at my guys before running back in most of the game feels like it could be good or bad depending but that part just looks awful. both because it's a lot of waiting around watching something you can't control and because of how much the outcome depends on what your unit AI does, I lost multiple battles which would be easy wins if my archer acted at all sensibly I might change my mind if the units turn out to follow clear rules that you can plan around but for now it feels very frustrating
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 00:43
|
|
|
Jeb Bush 2012 posted:most of the game feels like it could be good or bad depending but that part just looks awful. both because it's a lot of waiting around watching something you can't control and because of how much the outcome depends on what your unit AI does, I lost multiple battles which would be easy wins if my archer acted at all sensibly None of the Archers I knew acted sensibly, so I guess that point is just realism.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 02:13
|
|
|
Raiders in Millenia are funny. Warfare XP is already the simplest to get, and the national spirit of early rushes sends it far enough ahead the others don't even compare. With Wild Hunters, I was lucky to scrape up enough exploration points for two of the basics; but Raiders? Cleaned the tree out, and had the points to do so again with plenty left over for heals/more raiders.  ...But I suppose the real punchline here is managing to wipe out everyone else on the continent and still not getting Age of Blood. Go figure.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 03:58
|
|
|
FrancisFukyomama posted:Didn’t master of magic get a straight remake pretty recently? I remember the main complaints bc the game was too slow paced and needed fast animations It got a couple new DLC too. It's a good game and the animation stuff has been fixed, but it holds onto a lot of outdated game mechanics (sprawl as many cities as you can, late game is absolutely awful, and only two winning conditions: domination & research.) There's also something about the visuals too that feel off: The original master of magic was very colourful game, and the remake has a very dull and sparse palette. It's not the artwork, per se, but more the low-saturation art direction that they chose with Thea doesn't translate well with Master of Magic.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 09:59
|
|
|
The best way to describe Millenia, imo, is that it's a civ-like that looks and feels like a Slitherine game
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 10:02
|
|
|
Its cavemen to cosmos but from the ground up. It improves it a lot, bit it still threatens to be too much.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2024 22:10
|
|
|
I really like some of the concepts in Millennia compared to civ. Such as the way city terrain improvements work, and the fact that new cities you settle don't actually belong to your empire at first, but are vassals. I'm very positive about the mechanics so far.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 06:54
|
|
|
Goofy combat screen aside, I just like how your line infantry screens for your archers in the back. It's not quite as painfully random as Civ4, and not as hard for the AI to grasp as 5/6, hopefully. I haven't quite pinned the AI's effectiveness, but it seems to do reasonable? Outside of the player running all over it with those wacky raider units.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 08:48
|
|
|
Didn’t civ 4’s combat system with its first strikes and withdrawal chances sort of do similar stuff, only it wasn’t visualized?
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 11:06
|
|
|
FrancisFukyomama posted:Didn’t civ 4’s combat system with its first strikes and withdrawal chances sort of do similar stuff, only it wasn’t visualized? It was similar, but the naked percentages gave it XCOM disease, where a war can be decided by (un)lucky rolls on the first fight. It felt bad to have your army rolled over in one turn by bad luck, but it also sucked to win on your dice alone. Withdrawal chance helped, but that, too, was completely random if it triggered or not. Catapults could never deal more than 50% of a target's health in damage, and I wish something similar was true for all units, so any combat between non-withdrawal troops wasn't an all or nothing affair. Since Millenia goes.. is it 9 turns? in each fight, the losing side often has the opportunity to disperse or try for better terrain.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 11:21
|
|
|
IV's focus on doomstacks also meant that losing a big stack to a bad confrontation was war-deciding - losing a full army is more of a moderate setback when it only represents a tenth of your military power overall.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 11:27
|
|
|
One thing I really liked in Millenia (well, two things) is that they capped extra growth for a city to 200% based on surplus food and housing, and clearly indicate how close you are to that 200%. I've always had a habit of maxing growth to the detriment of other resources and overall tempo in Civ (Civ 6 helped me wean some of this off but still), and the game just going "it'll cap quick so knock it off with that hypergrowth poo poo" is very good to me and my tendencies.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 15:22
|
|
|
Jabor posted:IV's focus on doomstacks also meant that losing a big stack to a bad confrontation was war-deciding - losing a full army is more of a moderate setback when it only represents a tenth of your military power overall. Well, IV's counter-doomstack units were supposed to be siege units but the AI never used them to cause maximum collateral damage(in fact it rarely directly attacked with siege units at all), opting to use their city defense-lowering function exclusively. There was way more of a dynamic than meets the eye, but the AI just couldn't use it so there was never a need to mess with it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 15:33
|
|
|
i really enjoyed my time with the millenia demo. it'll take some really intensely negative reviews for me not to buy it now. the fact that the age changes can fundamentally alter parts of the game (removing diplomatic options or adding a whole minigame based around exploration in the demo) is really neat. the boardgamelike token system for yields is really fun. The modular civ buiding is a lot better in this than it was in humankind, at least so far. There's definitely a lot of rough edges but it IS a demo, and not every demo can be as perfect as the one for Balatro.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 15:59
|
|
|
Tried getting SMAC to run online multi-player with a friend over the weekend and we gave up
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 18:00
|
|
|
Who'd have thought a game from 1999 would have issues?
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 18:00
|
|
|
I'm looking for a big hit game that will revive 4x and get EA and Take Two to re-issue SMAC, such an awesome game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 18:49
|
|
|
titty_baby_ posted:Tried getting SMAC to run online multi-player with a friend over the weekend and we gave up The CSPAM strategy game thread has some galaxy-level SMAC players that could probably help.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2024 19:58
|
|
|
There’s a big Distant Worlds 2 patch out. True to form, the patch notes link is broken but if you figure out what’s wrong with it, it’s a .doc file.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2024 21:49
|
|
|
Entorwellian posted:It got a couple new DLC too. It's a good game and the animation stuff has been fixed, but it holds onto a lot of outdated game mechanics (sprawl as many cities as you can, late game is absolutely awful, and only two winning conditions: domination & research.) There's also something about the visuals too that feel off: The original master of magic was very colourful game, and the remake has a very dull and sparse palette. It's not the artwork, per se, but more the low-saturation art direction that they chose with Thea doesn't translate well with Master of Magic. I tried it out and it just felt waaay too outdated, plus as you mentioned the visual somehow seems worse than the original the breaking point with me was all the random ruins, theres nothing interesting in them, they are littered all over the goddamn place, and it seems like a pretty good chunk of the game is just clearing them out?
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2024 02:53
|
|
|
babypolis posted:I tried it out and it just felt waaay too outdated, plus as you mentioned the visual somehow seems worse than the original I mean you can find items and gold/mana in them, those are important in the early game. And the dangerous ruins (Towers and Nodes) can have Magic Books and unique spells in them on the higher difficulties.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2024 10:12
|
|
|
Mokotow posted:There’s a big Distant Worlds 2 patch out. Im still waiting for order queuing. I feel like it makes the game too dull and hands off compared to DW:U and so haven't got above 10 hours in the sequel, but will jump on when they bring back proper manual play. theres been a topic on the forum since launch, continually bumped and active yet its taken years and still no sign of it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2024 12:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 00:32 |
|
|
Anno posted:Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, which I think went under the radar last year as AoW4 was about the launch but I thought was a pretty solid fantasy 4x AoW/MoM-type thing also got an expansion announced that seems to add a good deal of content. Releasing Feb 13th. I've been playing the demon/troll expansion mentioned here, and it's quite fun! In addition to summoning regular corporeal demons with Occultism spells, you can use demonology crafting to make demonic spirits who possess units/items to grant them buff. Demons gain XP and levels, but in a different way than regular units. A Tourist demon gains XP for number of tiles moved, and they give big boosts to movement speed, vision, and XP gain. Demons also gain bonuses based on the cult you used to summon them, and some of these are really good. You found cults by spending special units to infiltrate cities, each city has their own fixed cult, and my current fave is the one that gives the unit 1 gold gen per turn. I hear there's another one that removes upkeep entirely, which would be quite nice when I'm recruiting tier 3 units in midgame. Apparently you can also fuse demonic spirits to make greater demons once you advance a little bit, and change their cult affiliation with rituals. That means there's at least two different lists of combinations you will be figuring out. I'm still more fond of necromancer overall, this is probably my favorite necro game for several reasons, but I'm really impressed at how well this slots in to an already quite fun spin on the 4X genre.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2024 20:27
|
|
