Civilization VI

[mongers]

Played my first couple of hours of this, not seeing the attraction, maybe because the numbers are more buried and there's no traditional city view. 

[Zoupa]

Yeah, that turned me off quickly too mongers.

[DGuller]

I've never warmed up to Civ 6, and I think the main reason is the district system.  It makes the game too much of a puzzle that you have to plan out from Turn 1, and it's just not fun.

[Solmyr]

I've never especially planned my districts (other than noting that yeah, that spot among the mountains is great for a Campus). Still had fine games. You don't need to plan everything precisely from turn 1 unless you are playing to win on Deity.

[DGuller]

Of course no one forces you to play optimally, but having to trade optimality of gameplay for fun of gameplay is a bad thing in game design.  If adjacency crap were limited to mountains for science districts, it wouldn't be so bad.  The problem lies in the fact that districts themselves generate the adjacency bonuses for other districts to capture, which explodes the complexity of the whole setup.

From what I recall, you have to pencil in places to farms so that they'll give each other adjacency bonuses, figure out which wonders you're aiming for so that they can be built, and ideally not be in the way or wasting good tile.  Some districts also provide area of effect bonuses not limited to their own cities, so that's one more thing to optimize.  In short, the while game was reduced to one big NP-hard optimization problem, which may be fun on its own, but not quite what I'm looking for in a Civ game.

[garbon]

Well one doesn't need to min max.

[PDH]

I just always built and played and had fun with it.  With the expansions it seemed to get some soul.

[crazy canuck]

I just always built and played and had fun with it.  With the expansions it seemed to get some soul.

Yeah, the expansions made all the difference for me.

@DGuller, the only decisions that really need to be made from turn 1 is the general strategy you are going to follow (ie what kind of victories you are going to pursue).  But even then by the mid game you might change your mind.

[Tamas]

Yes, I think one of the things the game does quite well is that your environment and circumstance will greatly influence the path you take, which I find realistic.

[Solmyr]

From what I recall, you have to pencil in places to farms so that they'll give each other adjacency bonuses, figure out which wonders you're aiming for so that they can be built, and ideally not be in the way or wasting good tile.  Some districts also provide area of effect bonuses not limited to their own cities, so that's one more thing to optimize.  In short, the while game was reduced to one big NP-hard optimization problem, which may be fun on its own, but not quite what I'm looking for in a Civ game.

I've never played this way. At most I marked a tile with a pin where I thought a specific wonder or district could be built later. Of course, I also play with a lot of mods, including one that increases minimum distance between cities, so I have lots more space to build on and don't need to plaster the map with cities.

[Tamas]

From what I recall, you have to pencil in places to farms so that they'll give each other adjacency bonuses, figure out which wonders you're aiming for so that they can be built, and ideally not be in the way or wasting good tile.  Some districts also provide area of effect bonuses not limited to their own cities, so that's one more thing to optimize.  In short, the while game was reduced to one big NP-hard optimization problem, which may be fun on its own, but not quite what I'm looking for in a Civ game.

I've never played this way. At most I marked a tile with a pin where I thought a specific wonder or district could be built later. Of course, I also play with a lot of mods, including one that increases minimum distance between cities, so I have lots more space to build on and don't need to plaster the map with cities.

Hmm the increasing minimum distance bit sounds intriguing. Do you know if it makes the AI even worse than it normally is?

Also, any other mods to recommend?

[Solmyr]

Don't think it specifically does, it just stops the AI from slipping between your borders and spamming cities in every little corner of the map (and also makes you consider the placement of your cities, if you want to access specific tiles).

As for mods, anything by JNR and p0kiehl is an almost automatic download for me. For AI improvement I use Real Strategy. And Concise UI for the UI.

[Tamas]

Don't think it specifically does, it just stops the AI from slipping between your borders and spamming cities in every little corner of the map (and also makes you consider the placement of your cities, if you want to access specific tiles).

As for mods, anything by JNR and p0kiehl is an almost automatic download for me. For AI improvement I use Real Strategy. And Concise UI for the UI.

Awesome, thank you!

[Syt]

Played as Martinus Corvinus, but stopped at the end game. I have a huge culture lead and have run out of techs to research, but can't quite get over the hump needed to win. Some turns it says I'm 4 turns away from victory, others it's 80+.

Meanwhile I send swarms of Apostles to convert the Aztecs and Mongols in the West. Meanwhile, Frederick and Wilhelmina are converting the Romans and Phoencians that I had already converted in the East.

Just feels tedious at this point.

[Tamas]

Mathias not Martinus FFS :p