Hello lovely lurkers and hello my dear fellow players, who hopefully visit at a later time.
Well time flies. It's now more then 1 year ago that the last PB I participated in has ended (PB40) in February 2019. A lot has happened since then for example 11 more PBs
I learned quite a lot in that PB and try to improve even more here. One important thing I learned last time is how much effort goes into those games and their reporting. So in order not to burn out quickly I will change the following things compared to PB40:
I won't report every single turn: This took a lot of time last time and there were quiet a lot of turns that were rather boring. I will still try to report regularly just not every single turn.
Scale down micro-management planning a bit: Last time I did plan with my own spreadsheet, which I will link later. But in addition to that I also tracked what every single worker did this turn, what my cities did the turn. This was good to check if my spreadsheet is correct, but it also took a lot of time. So those extra tracking steps will go and the spreadsheet planning will stay.
C&D: I also tried myself at C&D. It was really interesting, but it takes a lot of time, like really a lot. For examples analyzing the graphs was a huge effort, but at least it lead me to develop the grids for graphs feature addition. I will most likely only track the score increases in the beginning and stop that as soon as the data I can gather from that gets muddy.
I hope with that I can reduce the time I need for this game to a manageable degree.
Barb spawning mechanics (stolen from SevenSpirits):
Barbs are spawned for each landmass individually. The game will spawn barbs up to a max of one barb per 50 (on prince) unowned tiles on the landmass. This is why islands (smaller than 50 tiles) won't get barbs.
At other difficulties, unowned land tiles per barb unit:
Also: how many barbs spawn per turn on a landmass? It's one, plus one more for every four missing units. So if a landmass supports 20 barbs, and there are currently 4 on it, then there are 16 missing, so 1+4=5 will be created.
Note that all the changes here are additions to what you already find in BtS unless otherwise stated as NEW
Changelog version 1.3
Tile Yields and Improvements
Lumbermills: Available at Machinery, +1 commerce, +1 commerce with Electricity, Lumber mills now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers
Forest preserves: +1 commerce, now +1 commerce on the corner of rivers like above
Game Mechanics
Drafting: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft. A city must now end a draft at size 6 instead of size 5 (So size 8 to draft a rifle, size 7 to draft a musket).
AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), Religious victory, and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions.
Fail-gold: You never get fail-gold if you also completed the wonder somewhere else (so no National Wonder fail-gold, or doubling up on a wonder to guarantee yourself a paycheck. The game still informs you that you received "0 gold" from your hammers).
Toroidal Maintenance: Now return city maintenance as if the map were Cylindrical.
Inflation: Inflation still occurs with increasing turn numbers, but in addition if (All techs you discovered / All available techs) * Maximum turn numbers is higher then the current turn, inflation takes the calculated turn from techs as a base for the calculation.
War Weariness: War weariness declines faster after the war ended
Religion spread: Spreading religions via missionaries to your own cities never fails
Global warming: Removed
Espionage: Active missions removed
Espionage: 'No espionage' option fixed, see bugfix section for more details
Techs
Agriculture: Cost 40 instead of 60
Mysticism: Cost 60 instead of 50
Fishing: Cost 50 instead of 40
Metal Casting: Cost 300 instead of 450
Alphabet: Cost 250 instead of 300
Mysticism: Now adds +1 commerce to Palace
Astronomy: Add Paper as another prerequisite
Refrigeration: lose +1 sea movement
Buildings
Castle: Obsoletes at Corporation instead of Economics
Customs House: Cost 120 instead of 180, also applies to all UBs based on Customs House (Feitoria)
National Wonders
Red Cross: Cost 200 instead of 600
West Point: Cost 550 instead of 800, +5 XP instead of 4, Requires a level 5 unit instead of 6
Wonders
Resource modifiers: All wonders that had +100% production with a specific resource now only have +50% production with that resource.
Great Lighthouse: +1 trade route in coastal cities instead of +2
Statue of Zeus: Obsolete at Gunpowder
Unit mechanics
Flanking: Flanking strength (used to calculate damage from flanking strikes) of all units reduced by 50%.
Circumnavigation: +1 trade route in all coastal cities instead of +1 movement and can be achieved by everybody
Coastal blockade: only blocks trade routes, blockaded cities can still work blocked tiles.
Land units
Scout: +200% vs animals instead of +100%, no tech required, that way everybody starts with a scout, movement 1 (+1 gained with Hunting)
Swordsman: +20% city attack instead of +10%, also applies to UUs Jaguar Warrior and Gallic Swordsman
War elephant: Strength 7 instead of 8
Airship: Cannot see submarines
ICBM: Cost 1500 instead of 500
Tactical Nuke: Cost 750 instead of 250
Nukes: Nukes never create fallout on tiles containing strategic resources.
Naval units
Work Boat: no longer require any tech (still require Fishing to work water tiles).
Privateer: Required techs are Gunpowder and Astronomy instead of Chemistry and Astronomy
Submarine and Attack Submarine: Flanking vs Transports
Corporations
Tech: Discovering the corresponding tech for a corporation earns you an executive of that corporation. To settle the HQ you still need a great person.
Sid's Sushi Co.: Food bonus per resource 0.25 instead of 0.5 and culture bonus per resource 1 instead of 2, maintenance costs halfed
Mining Inc.: Hammer bonus per resource 0.75 instead of 1, maintenance costs 3/4 of original
Civics
Serfdom: +1 hammer on Farms and Watermills, +1 commerce on Windmills
Emancipation: lose unhappiness bonus, gain +10% Hammer in all cities
State Property: Lose +10% Hammer in all cities
Environmentalism: Available at Biology instead of Medicine, remove Corporation costs
Vassalage: Medium cost instead of High
Traits
Financial: +1 commerce on land tiles that have 3+ commerce, +1 commerce on water tiles that have 2+ commerce, +100% production of bank
Expansive: Remove Worker bonus, add +100% production of Aqueduct
Creative: Reduce Library bonus from 100% to 50%, Remove production bonus for Colosseum
Charismatic: +100% production of Monument, +100% production of Colosseum
Imperialistic: +100% production of Stable
Aggressive: +1 happiness on Barracks and +100% production of Jails
No City Trading: Unable to trade cities, cities appear untradable in diplomacy screen
No Map Trading: Maps appear untradable in diplomacy screen
No Wonder resource modifiers: Resources do not affect world wonder or world project construction speeds.
No Immediate Peace (Peace treaty negotiations are only possible after 5 turns)
True AI Diplo: All single player trade items are also available in MP
BUG integration
BUG fully integrated
New BUG feature "Grid for graphs"
New BUG feature improved Active advisor screen
Cosmetic changes
Adjusted placement of techs in the tech tree, so that the Paper requirement for Astronomy looks nicer
Additional bug fixes
The No Espionage game option now works properly:
GSpy points are converted into Great Merchant points.
Espionage no longer gets converted into culture.
Cultural expansion now happens at normal values.
Spies cannot be built.
Graphs are always visible on contact.
Workboats no longer count as military units for upkeep. They're also no longer considered a military unit so a War Academy will not speed their production.
Trade route turn order bug.
Foreign trade route cities lost permanently when your city using those routes is destroyed (fix is taken from BTS unofficial patch).
Build culture double production.
Build wealth/research/culture + production automation double production.
Proposed trades including cities, where the cities no longer exist to be trades, are not cancelled (note: I consider this a bug because proposed trades are already cancelled if a player lacks the requisite e.g. resources/gold. could be considered not a bug).
Production decay counter on a type of build (e.g. axeman) is not reset after completing one if the next item in the queue is of the same type (fix is taken from BTS unofficial patch).
Feature growth/disappearance rates, and bonus discovery (mine pop) rates, do not scale with game speed.
Diplomacy Pausing: Diplomacy windows do not occur on game login whilst the game is paused.
Autosaves: Autosaves are generated at login and log out; log out saves are saved to a folder specified within the global defines XML file. Default location is C:\temp.
Maximum player number increased to 52
Additional alterations have been made to enable hosting of games on the pitboss server belonging to Zulan. These changes are detailed here
CvCity::init - Building a city on floodplains no longer removes floodplains, they'll still be there if city is destroyed (from Mongoose SDK)
CvCity::getProductionModifier (three versions of this function) - Changed to allow mods to create negative production modifiers (thanks NotSoGood)
CvCity::setBuildingHealthChange - Fixed several copy/paste and logic bugs affecting bonus building health from events, especially after city conquest (thanks Emperor Fool)
CvCity::setBuildingHappyChange - Fixed several logic bugs affecting bonus building health from events, especially after city conquest
CvCity - Added function getNumActiveWorldWonders()
CvCity::PopOrder - Fixed issue introduced by prior attempt to fix handling of buildings with player limits. Building classes which set iMaxPlayerInstances should now work correctly regardless of what iExtraPlayerInstances is set to. (thanks ztjal)
CvCityAI::AI_yieldValue - Fixed issue causing city governor and AI to heavily weight food when building gold or any other form of commerce. Produced unexpected and poor results for human player, did not help AI either.
CvCityAI::AI_doHurry - Fixed several bugs where AI would incorrectly think it was getting a great deal on a pop/gold rush when it was actually doing the other kind of rush. (thanks Pep)
CvPlayerAI::AI_isFinancialTrouble, CvCityAI::AI_updateBestBuild, and CvPlayerAI::AI_getMinFoundValue - Fixed bug in calculating expenses when AI has negative gold per turn
CvCityAI::AI_cityThreat - Fixed bug when AI is running crush strategy, wrong int was divided
CvCityAI::AI_neededDefenders - Improved efficiency and minor tweaks
CvCityAI::AI_chooseProduction - Fixed bug reducing AI production of workers, and a similar issue for barb players producing too many
CvDLLButtonPopup::launchFreeColonyPopup - Removed cities whose liberation player you are at war with from popup.
CvPlayer and CvDLLWidgetData - Fixed bug where you could acquire unlimited free techs from Oracle or Liberalism (thanks Emperor Fool)
isPotentialEnemy in CvGameCoreUtils - Fixed bug leading to AI launching invasions when unable to declare war, troops eventually got bounced when war was declared
CvGameTextMgr::setBuildingHelp - Fixed issue in mods with display of exposing spies text for buildings which lower espionage defense (thanks Afforess)
CvGameTextMgr (many places) - Fixed issues where unhappiness and unhealthiness from civics or buildings would incorrectly show up as -(unhappy face) instead of +(unhappy face) in several circumstances. (Thanks EmporerFool, Grave, Afforess)
CvGameTextMgr - Game will now properly display info for buildings which generate unhappiness in an area or globally, or produce state religion unhappiness (should these ever come up in mods)
CvPlayer::canFound - Changed handling of founding on water tiles so that Python callback has final say if it is turned on
CvPlayer::removeBuildingClass - Fixed issue with removing buildings when building class was maxed out for some mods (thanks EF)
CvPlayer::canTradeItem - You can now ask AI members of your own team to change religion or civics (thanks denev)
CvPlayerAI::AI_civicValue - Fixed crash bug in multi-player simultaneous turns games created by necessary re-timing of AI_doSplit (thanks to TheOnlyDJCat for debugging help)
CvPlayerAI::AI_conquerCity - Fixed bug where cityAcquiredAndKept event reported wrong player in some circumstances (thanks Maniac)
CvPlayerAI::AI_targetGold - Fixed bug causing AI to not bother with budgeting for expenses for first 40 turns of scenarios and advanced start games
CvPlayerAI::AI_foundValue - Added missing division for iClaimThrehsold (thanks denev)
CvPlayerAI::AI_unitValue - Stealth boats do not make good escorts since they often don't defend, so AI is now very unlikely to use them as escorts for transports.
CvPlayerAI::AI_getHealthWeight - Fixed bug for mods where civics with negative iExtraHealth were evaluated incorrectly (thanks phungus420)
CvPlayerAI::AI_getHappinessWeight - Fixed bug for mods where civics with negative happiness effects from troops, largest cities, or war weariness were evaluated incorrectly
CvPlayerAI::AI_bestPlotEspionage - relevant weights are 0, +- 50, +- 100, so comparison for Agg AI should be < 51 instead of < 50
CvPlayerAI::AI_changePeacetimeTradeValue and CvPlayerAI::AI_changePeacetimeGrantValue - AIs you haven't met yet will no longer get angry at you for trading with their worst enemy (thanks Sephi)
CvPlayerAI::AI_doDiplo - Fixed issue where team is sneak attack ready but hasn't declared war, AI would still demand tribute. If other team accepted, it blocked war declaration for 10 turns but AI still launched invasion and was then bounced when it could eventually declare.
CvPlayerAI::AI_getStrategyHash - Fixed incorrect counting of destroyers as mobile anti-air
CvPlayerAI::AI_getTotalFloatingDefendersNeeded - Fixed poor decision by AI if it has captured one or two cities on someone else's continent, it would minimally defend its new cities
CvPlayerAI::AI_getStrategyHash - Fixed several bugs where player ID was used where team ID was intended
CvPlayerAI::AI_targetCityValue - Fixed issues with valuation of cities with inactive world wonders, multi-holy-cities
CvPlayerAI::AI_commerceWeight - Improved valuation of generating culture in human player cities when culture bar is > 50% (ie, player probably going for cultural victory)
CvPlayerAI::AI_bestTech - Fixed potential rare crash bug in mods where units with no transport capacity can upgrade to units with transport capacity (thanks Afforess)
CvPlayerAI::AI_missionaryValue - Fixed copy and past bug causing overvaluation of missionaries for AIs going for cultural victory early in the game.
CvPlayerAI::AI_unitValue - Fixed potential crash bug in looking up AI_unitValue for UNITAI_MISSIONARY units without passing a valid CvArea*
CvSelectionGroup::continueMission - Fixed issue causing units with multiple orders to forget their later orders under certain circumstances. (thanks Pep)
CvTeam::doTurn - Added barbarian passive tech fix from Mongoose SDK
CvTeam::shareCounters - Fixed bug causing inappropriate overflow research and effectively free techs when forming a Permanent Alliance
CvTeam::addTeam - Fixed bug where, if civs A and B join in a permanent alliance, they get the max of A and B's espionage points against C but C just keeps its point against A and loses its points to B if that's higher
CvTeam::shareCounters - Fixed bug in permanent alliances when No Tech Brokering is turned on, where a civ would often become unable to trade a tech they had researched after entering a permanent alliance.
CvTeamAI::AI_doWar - use bFinancesProLimitedWar for limited war calc instead of max war version
CvTeamAI::AI_calculateAreaAIType - Fixed incorrect index usage (thanks cephalo)
CvUnit::convert - Fixed potential issue in mods where units with transport capacity might upgrade to units without (from Mongoose SDK)
CvUnit::shouldLoadOnMove - Fixed issue with all terrain land units moving onto water tiles with transports in them (from Mongoose SDK)
CvUnit::canMoveInto - Removed strange behavior where setting a unit to be unable to enter a terrain type would be overridden by features (forrest, fallout) (thanks TC01)
CvUnit::isIntruding - Kept 3.17 unofficial patch feature that vassal spies are never caught in master's territory
CvUnit::canAirDefend - Land units which are on transports can no longer defend against air attacks (from Mongoose SDK)
CvUnit::collateralCombat - Kept 3.17 unofficial patch feature which allows mods to enables barrage promotions for collateral damage units
CvUnit::canSpread - Moved Python cannot spread callback to end of function where it belongs, will speed up those mods which use this callback a little
CvUnit::canRangeStrikeAt - Added check for whether target plot is visible (thanks God-Emperor)
CvUnitAI::AI_spreadReligionAirlift and CvUnitAI::AI_spreadCorporationAirlift - AI will no longer airlift multiple of the same kind of missionary or executive to the same target spread city on the same turn
CvUnitAI::AI_paradrop - fixed bug with valuation of terrain bonuses causing paradrops to avoid bonuses in some circumstances when intention is clearly to encourage landing on bonuses and pillaging
CvUnitAI::AI_settleMove - fixed bug when settler cannot reach a city site in an area (blocked by mountains, other player). Caused settler to wait infinitely in city instead of loading into transport.
CvUnitAI::AI_assaultSeaMove - Fixed bug where unit type was used when unit AI type was intended
CvUnitAI::AI_specialSeaTransportMissionary - Fixed minor bug in valuation for executives
Knowledgebase For Modders
All of these are additions for balancing the game
GlobalDefines.xml
CIRCUMNAVIGATE_MIN_WATER_PERCENT = The Circumnavigation bonus is only active if the map has more then X per cent of water tiles
TECH_COST_CIV_COUNT_HARD_CAP = Upper limit civs giving known tech bonus. 0 is disabled
TECH_COST_CIV_COUNT_HARD_CAP_LOWER = Lower limit civs giving known tech bonus. 0 is disabled
TECH_COST_MODIFIER_PER_ERA_MULTIPLIER = Use highest era (possibly capped) and multiply with the fraction of contacts knowing the tech, TECH_COST_TOTAL_KNOWN_TEAM_MODIFIER, and TECH_COST_MODIFIER_PER_ERA_MULTIPLIER
TECH_COST_MAXIMUM_ERA_CAP = Use highest era (possibly capped) and multiply with the fraction of contacts knowing the tech, TECH_COST_TOTAL_KNOWN_TEAM_MODIFIER, and TECH_COST_MODIFIER_PER_ERA_MULTIPLIER
TECH_COST_TOTAL_MODIFIER_EARLY_CAP = Use highest era (possibly capped) and multiply with the fraction of contacts knowing the tech, TECH_COST_TOTAL_KNOWN_TEAM_MODIFIER, and TECH_COST_MODIFIER_PER_ERA_MULTIPLIER
TECH_COST_TOTAL_MODIFIER_ADVANCED_CAP = Use highest era (possibly capped) and multiply with the fraction of contacts knowing the tech, TECH_COST_TOTAL_KNOWN_TEAM_MODIFIER, and TECH_COST_MODIFIER_PER_ERA_MULTIPLIER
SLAVERY_NERF_ENABLED = Whips generate now 30/20/20/.. hammers for the 1/2/3/.. whip
CIRCUM_FOR_EVERYBODY = Every player receives the circumnavigation bonus
ENABLE_EXECUTIVE_SPAWNS_FOR_STRAGGLERS = An corp executive is spawn for players discovering this late after the HQ was settled, might be broken
ENABLE_FINANCIAL_RIVERSIDE_PENALTY = Financial bonus does not apply on river tiles
ENABLE_TREAT_TOROIDAL_MAINTENANCE_AS_CYLINDRICAL = Toroidal maps have the same maintenance cost as cylindrical
ENABLE_NO_ESPIONAGE_FIX = Does what it says
OWN_CITY_FAIL_GOLD_MULTIPLIER = You no longer generate fail gold for multiple same national wonders etc.
ENABLE_PITBOSS_PAUSE_FIX = Does what it says
PEACE_TREATY_NEGOTIATIONS = Works with the disabled "Immediate peace treaty negotiations" game option. Defines when peace treaty negotiations can start
TECH_COST_SCALING_ALGORITHM = Enable the tech cost scaling from SevenSpirits Tides of War mod
ENABLE_ALWAYS_SUCCESSFUL_DOMESTIC_RELIGION_SPREAD = Missionaries always succed spreading religions to your own cities
ENABLE_RIVER_SIDE_YIELD_ALSO_ON_CORNER = River bonus (Lumbermill and Forest Preserve) also applies to the corner tiles
ENABLE_NON_WORKABLE_TILES_DUE_TO_COASTAL_BLOCKADE = If a tile is blocked by a coastal blockade the adjacent cities can no longer work this tile
CIRCUMNAVIGATE_FREE_TRADE_ROUTE = Gives +X Trade routes on circumnavigation
ENABLE_INFLATION_TECH_ALTERNATIVE = Inflation still occurs with increasing turn numbers, but in addition if (All techs you discovered / All available techs) * Maximum turn numbers is higher then the current turn, inflation takes the calculated turn from techs as a base for the calculation.
CIV4BuildingInfos.xml
DirectProductionTraits = This gives a straight hammer reduction to the building. e.G. a Granary with value 10 would cost 10 hammers less.
bAddsFreshWater = makes the city act as a source of water
CIV4TraitInfos.xml
iCityUpkeepModifier = The upkeep per city is reduced by a per cent value
ExtraYieldLandThresholds = works just like ExtraYieldThresholds, but only on land tiles
ExtraYieldWaterThresholds = works just like ExtraYieldThresholds, but only on water tiles
iTradeRouteModifiers = gives a per cent bonus to trade route income similar to the harbor
CIV4TechInfos.xml
FreeUnitEverybodyClass = Gives everybody, who discovers the tech a free unit
CIV4ImprovementInfos.xml
bPermanent = was changed so that it no longer controls if an improvement can be pillaged, everything else still applies
bNotPillage = now this controls if an improvement can be pillaged
CIV4BonusInfos.xml
bNukeImmune = makes the tile on which this bonus resides immune to fallout, so improvements on it won't be destroyed by nukes
CIV4UnitInfos.xml
DirectProductionTraits = This gives a straight hammer reduction to the unit. e.G. a Worker with value 10 would cost 10 hammers less.
Here I want to give a short list of the major and minor things I did wrong. I already talked in detail about the major problems in my last post, so I will keep it short. I also want to mention what went right. Destilling from this I want to make a list of things I want to improve in in my next games. Lastly a short list of things I noticed, disliked etc.
Major problems:
Misreading the map and failing to settle the gold
Financial crash in the T75s
Culture pressure
Producing more Great Persons
Minor problems:
A bit too many workers for the population I had
River mine build instead of farming the corn in my capitol
Some questionable tech decisions.
Expanding into the north and east.
PRO was a great trait to have, but I feel I'm not aggressive enough for the AGG trait
Things I did right:
Improvements in city placement
Exploration was a lot better compared to PB39, although I could have send out a few chariots earlier as soon as I had open borders with the neighbors.
I developed a microplanning of which I'm very proud and which helped a lot in planning. I think my micromanagement improved compared to PB39
Due to this planning tool, my knowledge of the game mechanics increased a lot
Conquering RFS was the right decision, but could have been done earlier
First attempts at C&D, but more improvements can be made here.
Things to look out for in the next games:
Improve GP farming
Read the map correct from the start (size, player distance, maintenance costs)
Better prepare for the financial crash due to maintenance
And lastly some additional things, I noticed:
I really liked my city naming scheme more then that in PB39. It was a lot easier to remember which city is which and I had more connections to the city names. In my future games I will try to find naming schemes that have more meaning to me
Naming units. I think this was a total time waste. It did not help in any way and at some point I forgot to do it. I also did not incorporate it more into my reports.
I think a little my reporting can still improved, but I'm not sure in which direction.
I should try out more traits. I played Agg twice in a row now and some point I would like to try myself at Philosophical and Spiritual.
Now one thing I want to try in this game is the new Protective with its trade bonus. This will mean shifting the focus slightly towards techs that help with trade like:
Currency: +1 trade route
Compass: For the harbor
Optics: For the caravel and with that +1 trade route from circumnavigation
Engineering: For the castles +1 trade route
Expansive is also a nice addition for the harbor bonus and of course the granary. It will also be important to grow my cities bigger for the additional +5% trade for every pop above 10.
Now some civs that have some synergy with Pro or Trade:
America: Their UU benefits from Pro, but most importantly they have a nice UB that replaces a building I want
Babylon: Would require a good use of the UU in the beginning.
Carthage: Obvious because of their UB. I definitely want Expansive with this.
Celts: Mainly for the UB synergy, but overall not that interesting
China: UU benefits from Pro
France: UU benefits from Pro
Germany: UU benefits from Pro, but late
Ottomans: UU benefits from Pro
Portugal: I do want Custom Houses later anyway
Spain: Decent UU, but more importantly the UB replaces the castle and never obsoletes
The most interesting civs here are America and Carthage. I also don't want to imply that any above civ is particularly strong. In the end a lot will come down to the start, if I see water immediately and of course this will be a land based map.
I'm downloading the mod and will be having some fun with the AI.
Good luck with this - I'll be around for some light-touch dedlurking, if that's all right. Of course, my specialty is trying to keep spirits up when things go wrong. Hopefully I'll be useless .
Have to say, the trait that caught my eye was the buffed IMP (relative to BTS), particularly with EXP nerfed, although it's much more important you pick something that interests you. Also, if I'm reading the changelog correctly there's no new source of culture (c.f. barracks in RtR, or even the wider range of traits with bonus to building libraries). Where do you feel you're going to get your border pops?
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
All kinds of lurkers are welcome here. Yes you are right that there are no new sources of culture. With the exception of some civs it's the same as BtS.
I will keep that in mind when it comes to choosing leaders/civs.
(June 1st, 2020, 05:51)Charriu Wrote: Just out of interest, did you do some test games or stems this opinion just from reading the changelog?
I just fired up a basic test game with one of the new leaders - ORG/PRO, for fun. The fact that you get 2 commerce not 1 from your initial trade routes with the capital (1 + 0.25 for cap + 0.75 for PRO) feels nice. In the food/hammer focused early game, easy commerce without cost is good. I'd read the changelog and thought of this as a mid/late game advantage, but actually it kicks in quite early. It's about 25% of the income at my first and second expansions (the cap has cottages and double gold, so not so much there), and if my micro were better I'd have a trade route up at the third expansion as well.
It feels like a nice little snowball kick, and one that should mesh well with a fast expansion trait.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
.
