#General feedback and thoughts on first game

2 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

umbral imp
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Just finished my first game. I'm a long-time sporadic civ players (since civ1), and I wanted to write up my thoughts . overall I'm glad it's so different, but there's a lot of things that could be improved. I think I will come to love it on it's own, and I do enjoy it's not the same as civ 6/5 - I could just keep playing those if I wanted to.

**TL; DR:

  • nice graphics, some fun game play ideas, some may-be-good gameplay ideas (ages), UI is lacking, information is lacking**

** the good **

  • the game and the city and building tiles is beautiful
  • the diplomacy is interesting and it's more clear why a leader dislike you and what you can do about it
  • the different victory paths are building blocks, helping (somewhat) to understand how to achieve it.
  • a lot of little things are done to alleviate the frustration of spending hours and hours and then loosing since you did something wrong much earlier. Yes, this is a strategy game, but at the lowish difficulty it should be possible to learn to win along the way. I think this is most friendly civ game ever, and I do appreciate that.
  • the legends path - it's fun to see the progress as you spend time int he game, even if you don't win.
  • the leader attributes is really nice, I enjoy the customization of playstyle
  • leaders not always being actual rulers or nations; i think it gives a nice pick of historical figures and I appreciate that.
  • no builders! I love the city improvement now. I do loved it in the old old games when you could build everything everywhere, but I think it's finally not tedious! Just fun to see the landscape develop and the city sprawl
  • how to build districts/cities: love the sprawl. I didn't like the districts in VI, i felt they kinda ruined the neat look of my empire, but now it works.
  • towns and cities; very cool concept. Love to specialize more explicitly. However it would be nice to see the actual output in gold/food (what is converted) and where it goes.
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** the questionable **

  • ages: this is the big one. I think there are some fun and dynamic play options about it, but it does feel weird to end an age and start over? the remvoval of some units, turning cities to towns. I understand the choice for a fresh start but it also feels a little too much? I"m not sure how I feel about not being able to take one civ through the ages too; i think that has been the catch phrase of civ forever: build a civilization to stand the test of time. But now we don't.
  • leaders not being connected to their civ, again I will see how this feels. it's a game mechanic, but it removes the game a little from it's heritage?
  • crisis: I really like the concept of crisis now that we have ages; things are spiraling at the end. But I think the event narrative was a little flat? I actually missed what it was the first time it popped up. Unlike the random environmental events which get beautiful graphics/cut scene, I wish we got a screen like that. I also wish it was a little more intense or clearer way to mitigate was there. Now it's just sort of there. I think it's really interesting idea for a gameplay mechanic and narration, but it's not there yet.
  • building over previous ages buildings. I think I just lack some help text or understanding of this mechanic. It feels weird to have buildings go obsolete - we still use libraries and universitates and gardens today? And I don't really understand the pro/con of building over. It looks like previous buildings still provide benefit, so the only reason to build over would be to save land ? I also think the UI could use an improvement here: what resources will you loose and what will you get with this choice
  • the game seem a little barren in the ancient and exploration age, and suddenly you get A LOT of buildings in the modern age. this is pretty much how civ has always been I guess
  • victory paths. I think this is mostly just about explaining: I fumbled the exploration age science since it didn't tell me how to see total yield for a tile, or how to increase it. It also didn't clarify about placing specialist in ONE district or across all cities etc. not sure the other paths are the same, but i think again it's a UI issue too. I lack information.
  • random narrative events: could use a little more explanation, some of them are allmost non-sensical in their wording (are you... using generative AI for these?) , overall fun idea tho