[SPOILERS] Cornflakes PB53

[Cornflakes]

Can’t ask for DOW on 3rd party or civics/religion swap (those options aren’t in the multiplayer Diplo window). Trading cities is allowed by mechanics but banned by agreement. But yes to everything else.

[Cornflakes]

Can’t ask for DOW on 3rd party or civics/religion swap (those options aren’t in the multiplayer Diplo window).

Actually these options have been added to the diplo window for Close to Home. The DOW at least is a nice change. The civics/religion swap is probably just a waste of space on the diplo window. Does swapping civics/religion via diplo still incur anarchy?

[Miguelito]

Hm, offering swap to slavery +theocracy and a religion could now telegraph "better get some units out, X of religion Y is gonna attack you" or something

[Charriu]

These options are enabled by the new "True AI diplo" game option that is present in both CtH and RtR. You can check with F8 if it is enabled. I included all diplo option, because including less would have been more work. Remember developers are lazy

[Cornflakes]

3rd city is settled and the scouts have pushed back a lot of fog so it's time for an update. First a close-up of the civ:

   

I'm not entirely pleased with the 3rd city given the resource-rich sites a little further west and east, but it is what it is. I wanted to work those 6-yield copper and cows 100% of the time, and I'll be able to swap them around as needed. With the banana and copper I can get an 8-turn worker at size 1 while Utrecht is growing, then swap copper to Utrecht and let The Hague grow. I was pleased getting my 3rd city down already ... only to look around and find that 3/5 rivals started with 3 cities out of the gate I fear my advanced start choices were not optimal. If I had just started with 3 size-1 cities I would probably be ahead already with all three grown to size 2. Whoops.

   

Here's my dotmap. Green and Yellow were my other candidates for 3rd city. Each picks up two new food resources  Need to get those founded ASAP. But I didn't have the worker labor for those sites, nor workboats, which is why I decided on the banana city first. Really need to get settlers out ASAP though.

And then there's the center of the wheel  That pink dot is pink in terms of game-defining value. Three new luxuries, 2 of which get doubled by my cheap forges, and average of 5 commerce per turn from each. I really wish the center was a barren wasteland like the random wheels maps I rolled. The barren wasteland would provide a more balanced game. As-is there is a huge game-defining discrepancy between those who own the center and those who don't. I'm now thinking Feudalism takes a back seat to unlocking EIM early with triple-bulb Optics > Astronomy.

I'm hoping to time a settler out of the Utrecht for the east corresponding with the workboat completion. I think I'll be a little slower with the settler. At size 3 working Deer + copper + ivory Utrecht will be at 13 f-h per turn ... quickest way I see is grow to 4 (EOT18), invest 3 turns to exceed 40/100 > 2-whip for settler EOT22.

[Charriu]

Don't forget that you also need paper for astronomy in this mod.

[Cornflakes]

Don't forget that you also need paper for astronomy in this mod.

 What was the reasoning behind the additional prerequisite? This change is definitely NOT close to home. It changes the entire bulb game play. Part of my reasoning for selecting the Dutch was for the synergy with Philosophical trait to unlock the UU via bulbing. Astronomy can effectively no longer be bulbed. Paper unlocks Education on the bulb path, which unlocks Alphabet > Printing Press. On as standard sized map that's 4 more GScientists required in order to bulb. On this Tiny map I could get away with 1-bulbing 75% of each and research the rest. But this is a huge change from base.

[Charriu]

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
  

I'm sorry that you realized this just now. I also checked if I had forgotten that change in the log, but it is there.

This was my reasoning for the change:

So what will I do about those problems. Well first I think the Astro bulb needs to be delayed. It destroys the purpose of the caravel and introduces fast moving unit-carrying ocean-moving units way to early. It always felt like an exploit to me or at least an oversight by the developers. This is the reason why I added Paper as a requirement for Astronomy, to delay the discovery of Astronomy somewhat.

[Cornflakes]

I guess the motto for this this game is "Scientists early, scientists often, scientists all the time!"

Unfortunately this map is too small to make it to the now-later Astronomy before game over. Should have picked Zulu

[Charriu]

• Dutch - No change from base. Levee is late. East Indiaman could be PHI-bulbed early-ish. Would that be decisive? Probably not.
  

I'm really sorry I didn't mention this earlier.  I see that you did mention it in your initial thought-process, but at the time it didn't click on my side.