I need to update this but the past week has been stupid.
Gotten into Vassalage. Not amazing at present but it scales better than Bureau. Longbows are in position to deal with Thoth. I've settled 2E of the dye to my south/Thoth's north. That makes and further expansion to his north difficult to do, and I should be slamming the door shut and turning the lock in the next 10 turns. He has Compass and about double my MFG, I have a reasonable fod lead on him. I think I have a tech lead on him now, up MC and a good chunk of HBR, down Compass. We both have a tech lead on everyone else (because of that tech lead I'm not so concerned about meeting Joey and Pin but I have their maps due to a trade with Brick). The MFG is not that scary due to PRO longbows but should enable a good knight rush depending on his tech route. I can beat his tech speed and have more food to use workshops. Ball is in his court, I have ability to reply and still retain advantage I think.
My CY is #1. I have too few workers but I will start building 3 and 4 turn workers from capital and the city that overlaps the rice which is about 2 turns form the happy cap (Capital is at happy cap once turn rolls). I have plenty of food for 3 pop whips and am stacking whip unhappy. Once I get Calendar I can regrow. At present I have enough happy to stack the whips and not enough great tiles to work. I do regret not getting Machinery for Serfdom-replacement-civic and 125% speed workers but only enough to think that it is a viable tech rush strat but not broken.
I am going to start settling towards CH now. I need 1 front city against him, but we do not really compete for land due to knights arriving in about 35 turns. Most land we would contest would not be settled for about that length.
On the mod, I currently think that Vassalage needs a nerf. This was expected. I believe that it likely needs to be nerfed in terms of number of buildings that have bonuses. 3 is probably enough. HR feels worth prioritising at last.
Religious civics are a bit meh IMO. They don't feel right. Probably need a lot of dll coding for what I'm thinking of. After screwing around with it I believe that making OR give +25% production to buildings regardless of religion is probably more fun for players. Religion still needs reinventing separate from the civics. The civics I have no opinion on balance as yet. OR does not feel broken. No other civics available to any other players that I know of.
Lumber mills feel "right" for SMEG mod but not an implementation that would fit with RtR (obviously). MC does feel like the right sort of place in the tech tree for them. Main issue with lumber mills is that they will always land on a 3 yield tile but every other resource is on a 2 yield tile so the are some issues with looking at the tile improvement as only giving +1 hammer when, say, mines give +2, for fewer worker turns, from an earlier tech. I think that lumber mills do need to peak earlier than mines on the tech tree. I believe that looking at them as terms of a workshop replacement is right, that lumber mills without any civics should give output equivalent to a full improved workshop that has the ideal civics, as 6 yield tiles. But as a tile improvement that gives yield once built that only gives 2 steps of improvement which means fewer levers available to balance.
Currently thinking that +1 hammer when built, available at MC is the right starting position. +1 hammer at Paper fits with immersion and with tech tree positioning. Second upgrade available no later than RP or Chem would also position LM as good tile improvements. Rail road giving +1 hammer does not seem good with the bonus coming too late.
Forest preserves acting as cottages on forests still seems right, but I've not used one yet. I will us them at the city site to the NE of the capital. They seem niche because hybrid cities using some cottages are not "ideal" but have that advantage that long term give a large chunk of health and some hammers so may be viable cities to build factories in and still have all the commerce multipliers, so work well with large cities with minimal overlap ie overlapping outer ring tiles with other cities.
I'm not convinced that PHI is broken. Yes I have 3 settled GS. Only 2 come from the new mechanic. They required additional food to produce due to lower %age modifier on gpp generation. I generate additional 20bpt from those free GS. That has created insurmountable tech lead and left me in a position to give up contested land to other players ie I lost that ideal front city to Plako. On a smaller map (ie normal sized for RB) that would have cost a lot more. There is a window of opportunity/weakness involved.
If others disagree, it is trivial to create new specialists that have lower per turn output that could be created when a great person is produced, that do not also generate gpp and cause a positive feedback loop. That was the reason SMEG went with settled great specialists, not ordinary specialists. That would allow greater control over the output type, amplitude, numbers generated etc and also allow another balance lever. I think there are enough choices in this area to leave it in SMEG mod. I continue to agree with others that it does not fit into RtR and that RtR will have to continue with the snowball +150% gpp PHI implementation.
Barb generation, the removal of barb animals, is ideal, and I will implement it into the next major release of RtR. I think the issue that CH has found is to do with barb spawning which is caused by the number of tiles on the continent, and the presence of spawn busters from other players causing everything to spawn next to him. That's not a bug, that is why spawn busting is necessary.
Harbour replacement systems: I think that this would fit into RtR, and feedback from others concurs, but needs to be toned down a bit from SMEG because frankly I fucked up with SMEG from screwing around with tile values. The shipyard/drydock system specifically needs a good bit of work. The pier/lighthouse system needs more work and will not, under any circumstances, be introduced into RtR.
Tech cost scaling and tech cost scaling (not tech tree alterations): Still reviewing this, and want feedback from other players but it seems to be working well. I plan to introduce the tech cost scaling, and change the cost of the front row techs in RtR (this has been intended prior to the conception of SMEG mod so don't blow your tops over this. It's originated from ToW anyway).
Tech tree alterations: Still awaiting opinions form other players. Jury is out.
3 traits/no start techs: I like it in SMEG. Don't know how others feel. Still not being implemented into RtR although would perhaps be interesting as a game option. I will have difficulty reorientating to only having 2 traits.
Gotten into Vassalage. Not amazing at present but it scales better than Bureau. Longbows are in position to deal with Thoth. I've settled 2E of the dye to my south/Thoth's north. That makes and further expansion to his north difficult to do, and I should be slamming the door shut and turning the lock in the next 10 turns. He has Compass and about double my MFG, I have a reasonable fod lead on him. I think I have a tech lead on him now, up MC and a good chunk of HBR, down Compass. We both have a tech lead on everyone else (because of that tech lead I'm not so concerned about meeting Joey and Pin but I have their maps due to a trade with Brick). The MFG is not that scary due to PRO longbows but should enable a good knight rush depending on his tech route. I can beat his tech speed and have more food to use workshops. Ball is in his court, I have ability to reply and still retain advantage I think.
My CY is #1. I have too few workers but I will start building 3 and 4 turn workers from capital and the city that overlaps the rice which is about 2 turns form the happy cap (Capital is at happy cap once turn rolls). I have plenty of food for 3 pop whips and am stacking whip unhappy. Once I get Calendar I can regrow. At present I have enough happy to stack the whips and not enough great tiles to work. I do regret not getting Machinery for Serfdom-replacement-civic and 125% speed workers but only enough to think that it is a viable tech rush strat but not broken.
I am going to start settling towards CH now. I need 1 front city against him, but we do not really compete for land due to knights arriving in about 35 turns. Most land we would contest would not be settled for about that length.
On the mod, I currently think that Vassalage needs a nerf. This was expected. I believe that it likely needs to be nerfed in terms of number of buildings that have bonuses. 3 is probably enough. HR feels worth prioritising at last.
Religious civics are a bit meh IMO. They don't feel right. Probably need a lot of dll coding for what I'm thinking of. After screwing around with it I believe that making OR give +25% production to buildings regardless of religion is probably more fun for players. Religion still needs reinventing separate from the civics. The civics I have no opinion on balance as yet. OR does not feel broken. No other civics available to any other players that I know of.
Lumber mills feel "right" for SMEG mod but not an implementation that would fit with RtR (obviously). MC does feel like the right sort of place in the tech tree for them. Main issue with lumber mills is that they will always land on a 3 yield tile but every other resource is on a 2 yield tile so the are some issues with looking at the tile improvement as only giving +1 hammer when, say, mines give +2, for fewer worker turns, from an earlier tech. I think that lumber mills do need to peak earlier than mines on the tech tree. I believe that looking at them as terms of a workshop replacement is right, that lumber mills without any civics should give output equivalent to a full improved workshop that has the ideal civics, as 6 yield tiles. But as a tile improvement that gives yield once built that only gives 2 steps of improvement which means fewer levers available to balance.
Currently thinking that +1 hammer when built, available at MC is the right starting position. +1 hammer at Paper fits with immersion and with tech tree positioning. Second upgrade available no later than RP or Chem would also position LM as good tile improvements. Rail road giving +1 hammer does not seem good with the bonus coming too late.
Forest preserves acting as cottages on forests still seems right, but I've not used one yet. I will us them at the city site to the NE of the capital. They seem niche because hybrid cities using some cottages are not "ideal" but have that advantage that long term give a large chunk of health and some hammers so may be viable cities to build factories in and still have all the commerce multipliers, so work well with large cities with minimal overlap ie overlapping outer ring tiles with other cities.
I'm not convinced that PHI is broken. Yes I have 3 settled GS. Only 2 come from the new mechanic. They required additional food to produce due to lower %age modifier on gpp generation. I generate additional 20bpt from those free GS. That has created insurmountable tech lead and left me in a position to give up contested land to other players ie I lost that ideal front city to Plako. On a smaller map (ie normal sized for RB) that would have cost a lot more. There is a window of opportunity/weakness involved.
If others disagree, it is trivial to create new specialists that have lower per turn output that could be created when a great person is produced, that do not also generate gpp and cause a positive feedback loop. That was the reason SMEG went with settled great specialists, not ordinary specialists. That would allow greater control over the output type, amplitude, numbers generated etc and also allow another balance lever. I think there are enough choices in this area to leave it in SMEG mod. I continue to agree with others that it does not fit into RtR and that RtR will have to continue with the snowball +150% gpp PHI implementation.
Barb generation, the removal of barb animals, is ideal, and I will implement it into the next major release of RtR. I think the issue that CH has found is to do with barb spawning which is caused by the number of tiles on the continent, and the presence of spawn busters from other players causing everything to spawn next to him. That's not a bug, that is why spawn busting is necessary.
Harbour replacement systems: I think that this would fit into RtR, and feedback from others concurs, but needs to be toned down a bit from SMEG because frankly I fucked up with SMEG from screwing around with tile values. The shipyard/drydock system specifically needs a good bit of work. The pier/lighthouse system needs more work and will not, under any circumstances, be introduced into RtR.
Tech cost scaling and tech cost scaling (not tech tree alterations): Still reviewing this, and want feedback from other players but it seems to be working well. I plan to introduce the tech cost scaling, and change the cost of the front row techs in RtR (this has been intended prior to the conception of SMEG mod so don't blow your tops over this. It's originated from ToW anyway).
Tech tree alterations: Still awaiting opinions form other players. Jury is out.
3 traits/no start techs: I like it in SMEG. Don't know how others feel. Still not being implemented into RtR although would perhaps be interesting as a game option. I will have difficulty reorientating to only having 2 traits.