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If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
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[spoilers] Going Dutch: The Commodore Files
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Snake Thoughts, volume 1:
Whoa. So we're actually running a snake pick for the first time in years in RBmod and I have no heavy preferences. At all. Seems incredible, doesn't it? There are definitely some aversions I have, but in general I'm going to pick a good combination and try to win this sucker through good play. Novel, ain't it? I have some thoughts on the various traits, though...I'm going to order them from “earliest” to “latest”, rather than any strict power ranking, because the mod does a good job eliminating the most egregious of the offenders, both overpowered and underpowered. -Expansive: This one is probably one of the most changed traits; its core early benefit is intensified greatly, however. +35% to workers and work boats is just tremendous for start speed...a fishing start looks a lot better with expansive, and you have to work hard to not get a faster worker out of the bonus here. As long as you're building workers and work boats, the hammer savings of this trait are going to be very impactful. Later on, the trait gets quite the hodge-podge of boosted buildings; on aqueducts this translates to benefits in the factory era, while harbors are great in the trading-heavy Pitboss environment and markets plus grocers are solid if unsexy boosts. Good trait! -Imperialistic: My head and my heart fight about this trait. The simple benefits of +60% on settlers are obvious and far-reaching during the (often long) expansion portion of the game. The great general emergence bonus is always nice latter on, and although cheap custom houses aren't the be-all, end-all, in RBmod's Free Market trading game they are definitely worth building. But...kind of dry, overall. Useful trait! -Protective: Cheap granaries are a game-changer. Anyone who's played BtS expansive knows how huge they are. Cheap walls, better defenders...are fringe benefits at best by comparison. Useful when you use them, but you don't actually want to be defending behind walls much. Still, granaries also make Protective a strong contender for “main” element of your leader pick. Workhorse trait! -Creative: How do you feel about eliminating a major potion of your gameplay? Being able to plant without having to plan for the culture problem is just huge. There is nothing like it. Creative also gets a tremendous early game boost for being able to ignore Mysticism and the religion tech lines; if you want those wonders or Monarchy that can be annoying, but otherwise, son, you should be making a beeline for Currency anyway! The cheap buildings are definitely minor; theaters are cheap anyway, coliseums (unless UB) are fine but meh, and observatories are super-late typically. But it's still a hell of a power trait! -Aggressive: Boy this one got a work-over. The cheap barracks with culture is nice, allowing a mysticism delay...but you still don't want to spam barracks early, so it's not like fire-and-forget creative. -25% maintenance is a powerful benefit early on, although in the end of all things you're still wanting courthouses and their ilk. The cheap drydock is good late, for what its worth. Late-game, there is no trait more massively influential than Aggressive for military conflict; easy access to commando, amphibious, and the gamut of counter-promotions makes your gunpowder units unholy terrors of the battlefield. I like Aggressive quite a lot. Fun trait! -Charismatic: The first benefit of Charismatic is incredibly powerful; a straight up +2 happy for free everywhere skews the whole game at times. More efficient 1-pop whipping, bigger early cities...a modicum of discipline is required but good use of Charismatic can be every bit as snowball-boosting as creative culture or protective granaries. But it takes effort. The military impact of the trait reverberates all the way down the line as well, particularly in XP-hungry naval combat. Other prettier traits get picked a bit more, but not because of any weakness here. Excellent trait! -Industrious: I don't know how I feel about this trait, to be honest. I don't much like it, but I get an impression that its good for me. Forges are an essential infrastructural building that cost an arm an a leg to build...when I'm not industrious, I tend to be criminally slow about building them. And make no mistake; Industrious is about forges...it helps with wonders, but not nearly as much as planning, preparation, and tech path do. Industrious does create a sort of mental block at times, as other players go “Ind guys' got it, not going to bother”...but wonders are much more minor than forges. Interesting trait! -Financial: Financial is a good, good trait guys. It was; it still is. For all that, how the trait is good has definitely shifted. The lack of riverside bonus means Financial is quite strange in how it improves its tiles, for one; the Financial player focuses on farms and watermills along most rivers while cottages sprout on dry tiles. This works out to a very growth-focused early game setup, at the price of cottages coming online a bit later than normal. There are two other times when the Financial tile boost is handy; in the early game, Financial coast is wonderful for tech rate. Then, late game, Financial likes to grow into the “cracks” with fishing villages much much more efficient than with all other players' coast-working settlements. The cheap banks are a very strong boost, making Banking a lynchpin tech for Financial players, biasing Financial toward rifling lines and upgrading in general. Again, Financial is still a very powerful trait, but it is much slower to yield its full benefit. Phenomenal trait! -Organized: Old Faithful keeps on chugging. Death and taxes are still universal constants. Murphy's Law still rules the battlefield. Organized is still the premier economic trait. I like that; good to have some consistency in your life. Lighthouses, courthouses, and factories are fantastic buildings to get half-off, and the “always on” savings of Organized help from the first settlement onward. There is nothing sexy at all about Organized, but I never regret having it; nobody ever does all game long on any non-childish difficulty setting. It's dull at times...but still the best trait. -Spiritual: Here's another trait that hasn't changed in RBmod. Except somehow, it is much better. Spiritual is still nice for switches and swaps, but the civics you can pick! Serfdom, Vassalage, Environmentalism, the column swaps are all much better now. I'm still at a loss for how best to evaluate this most flexible and interesting of traits, but I do know it is stronger late than early, and late it is just amazing. Transformative trait! -Philosophical: Okay, so here's good ole' Philosophical, just a bit more. Still the snowball-boosting wunderkind, helping shrine and bulb and probably allowing a hard-to-manage fourth natural golden age...there is a lot tricky you can do with Philosophical. If I get it, though, I'm going to be just using it for pure Writing-Academy-Education line path. I'm very curious to see how “screw trickiness, just push Great Scientist” goes in one of these games. When I'm playing with my novel airship and axeman army, I'll let you know. Speed trait. So, who shall I pick? I...don't know.  But I know I don't want a repeat, with the exception perhaps of Toku or Bodacious (actually, if either is available, I might be legally required to take them). I like to have an early trait paired with a late trait...but sometimes two late or two early just work well enough with each other that that ideal can get tossed out the window. Here's my pick list, traits shown early to late:Quote:Saladin (Pro/Spi) As you can see, the key to RBmod leaders is that all leaders are viable. Are they all equally strong? Well, no...but they are close enough that other factors begin to matter more than the straight traits. Synergy is overrated, typically, in Beyond the Sword, but here in the wild and wooly RBmodland, it is all the difference in the world. So I'm going into this with one mandate from heaven; if Tokugawa is available, I must pick him. Anything else is all about the start techs the start calls for and then a leader that compliments the civilization. For example, if I can afford a mysticism start, then Cre and Agg leaders are less attractive; a big aspect of their early appeal is how they can avoid mysticism and the religion lines for culture. Anything that sets up for a super-early pottery likes Pro; fishing starts get a lot of benefit from Exp and Fin. UU and UB syngery considerations become much bigger a deal, like with Pro Terraces, Cre Ball Courts, and Phi Obelisks. This is all a wonderfully freeing experience, if almost debilitating in sheer choice. And this is after I winnowed literally half of the leaders in the game for purely arbitrary reasons! So then, what about civilizations? Well, techs are still king; if you have grains and a deer, you need to plan on Agriculture in your start. There are very few civilizations in BtS that are chosen for raw UU/UB overpoweredness. And India, Inca, Vikings all have received significant nerfs...they're still valid civs, but no longer are they automatic. So I'm going to winnow the list for similarly arbitrary reasons, and organize the remainders by tech: Quote:Agriculture/Wheel:I'm well aware I kicked the Mongolia starting techs to the curb; I'm at peace with that. So aesthetics; I like some civs more than others for completely irrational reasons. Japan is rarely viable, but if I can justify the Pottery-friendly coastal start techs, I'm definitely going that direction. I do have a desire to win; thus far it looks like the way to win a big RBmod pitboss is to be Aztecs. I'm all for them, their cheap courthouse and mysticism start supports a Spi leader quite well. Protective Inca is never not a consideration, and if it's all chopping all over in the start then fast workers might make a lot of sense. Basically...we'll see. Exciting times here. Now let's see our start!
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
Dedlurker reporting for duty. Here to put in a good word for Shaka of Babylon, because fun. Or Shaka of a even more fun Civ when I've had more time to think about it, or we see starts or whatever. But I'm high on an AGG leader for this one. For economy and FUN.
Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon
Well, like I said, Toku is the first choice, because Toku. But I really love Shaka of something mildly syngergistic.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
Yeah if Toku is available then YES PLEASE!
Did PRO get drill back in the current incarnation of RtR? Would make Chucklenaughts more chuckle-ey. Or skirmishers, although Mali doesn't have Toku synergy. .. Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon (September 1st, 2014, 10:08)spacetyrantxenu Wrote: Yeah if Toku is available then YES PLEASE!Pro has no drill, still, but... (September 1st, 2014, 13:28)Ichabod Wrote: May I suggest the Celts? I'd like to see free guerilla 2 promotions being put to good use and this probably fits very well with Toku.  Well, within reason. Again, the primary selection criteria will be first of all techs; but if we land Toku and get pasture resources? Celts all the way. That is the only circumstance I can see us opting for the Celts, though. The Aztecs are generally a far nicer civilization; sure, their swordsmen are worse, but I'll always take a cheaper courthouse UB over anything not called "terrace".
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
By the way, Krill, you must be drooling over all the data this is going to generate...
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out. 
Not really, I wish I had time to throw in the -40% against archers for Impi and -25% against archers for WC, but the combat calulator shows those links as green and not red which makes it too easy to fuck it up. Those are the changes I want to see tested but just don't have the time to implement. In all honesty, I'm drifting away from RB, simply because of RL commitments like actually finding a job. Maybe Tomorrow...
(September 2nd, 2014, 12:16)Krill Wrote: Not really, I wish I had time to throw in the -40% against archers for Impi and -25% against archers for WC, but the combat calulator shows those links as green and not red which makes it too easy to fuck it up. Those are the changes I want to see tested but just don't have the time to implement.I still think the minimalist changes of impi losing mobility and WC losing withdraw would be worthwhile. Still, we are going to see both civilizations here, I'm sure. Aggressive and the barracks' changing will make Zulu an easy pick for a while (unless you want to nerf Zulu by instead killing ikhanda culture...) Only have so much time in a day, though, like you said. Good luck on finding that job...
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out. |
