The Old World, a new Civ-like from Soren Johnson

[FunkMonk]

Seems like a good time to res this thread with the game's release on Steam because people are actually playing it now.

So after playing about 60 turns I have to say I don't get the same vibe as the comments garbon posted from the comments section under the PC Gamer review. The game doesn't feel like it's merely a "small part of the civilization thingy" with "some watered down parts of CK." It sounds to me like the commenter hoped this would be Civ 7. Old World is not Civ and if you play it like Civ you will have a bad time.

[Tamas]

Is it possible to turn off the character stuff? It feels like watered down CK2 and a pointless tack-on to a Civ-like game.

[Syt]

I found the character stuff to more interesting than I initially thought, tbh. My main complaint is the starting rulers always being the same. I think there are options to tune the settings, though, and even switching them off? But I feel the game without them wouldn't be as good, plus they provide some dramatic modifiers (currently everyone loves me because I have a crazy good diplomat ). I like the option that hides the outcomes/modifiers of your decisions in events, though, but I feel you can also screw yourself over a lot if you just go with "what sounds right"

[garbon]

Yes you can turn them off in settings. I like them. When I find them dull, I notice my session has gone on too long.

[crazy canuck]

Syt, there is an option to change the starting ruler archetype.

I like the characters and the impacts they have on the overall strategy.

[crazy canuck]

FunkMonk, try Babylon.  It plays very differently from Rome.

[Syt]

Syt, there is an option to change the starting ruler archetype.

I like the characters and the impacts they have on the overall strategy.

Yeah, I've seen that. Just thought it might be fun to start with completely random characters and not, say, Dido every time you play as Carthage.

Btw, I've thrown together a playlist of soundtracks, from movies and games, plus other stuff that's now my Old World soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2LKAR49si3N8j5YQJRREwl?si=3868adffd2574d48

[Jacob]

I bought the game on the strength of this thread. Enjoying it so far. Lots of things to figure out... how do I keep my cities happy at the beginning (spam festivals?), do you go single family or balance them between many, what resources are the bottle neck ones, what does "not enough family seats" mean and how do I fix it?

So far, so good though.

The orders system is interesting, I like it. The "you're the first one who found this feature, so name it" is fun too.

Still figuring out how much I like the characters... so far I'm in favour of them.

[crazy canuck]

I think festivals are a waste of valuable time that could be used making specialists, armies or more valuable developments - like Forums.  Later on you are going to get tech, buildings and events that help keep discontent levels down.  Don't worry about it in the early game.

Definitely go for three families in your first three cities.  Not only do you get legitimacy points, but you also get the one time boon for a family founding a city, as well as more happiness for that family.  After that try to appoint new cities in a balanced way.  The more unbalanced they are they more unhappy the family with the least cities becomes.

The bottleneck varies across the civ and families you choose.  Playing as Babylonia my main problem was getting enough civics and had lots of tech.  As Carthage I had civics to burn (which was great since I went the diplo/trade route to glory) but very little tech.  Your basic resources -iron, stone, wood and food - are pretty easy to balance.  Keep in mind you can buy anything you are short of right at the start of the game and you will probably buy a lot of stone at first.  Also remember to cut trees -  they regrow and you can cut outside your city limits.  When you get lumbermills you then can just get a steady stream.

The characters vary greatly from game to game and it really matters who you allow to marry into your family.  Their attributes show up in the children and grand children.  So choose wisely to get the attributes that will assist with the strategy you are planning on using.

[Jacob]

Thanks for those tips

What does "not enough family seats" mean?

[crazy canuck]

When you decide on what family to settle a city - look at the tool tips and that will tell you how assigning the city to a particular family will effect the happiness of that family and the others.

So for example if you give 3 cities to family 1, 2 to family 2 and 1 to family 3 you are going to have a very happy family 1, a moderately displeased family 2 and a very unhappy family 3. If you keep giving cities to family 1, family 3 will eventually rebel or at the very least their units will become ineffective.  But if you keep them balanced so that there is never more than a one city difference amongst the families the unhappiness will be minimized.  The optimal goal is completely equal distribution, but of course that will only happen with every third city.

[FunkMonk]

I am really enjoying this game. It gives me Alpha Centauri vibes for some reason. Maybe just because it's really well-made? Good design that improves the genre without leaving it completely behind is hard to find. Humankind fell flat. Firaxis' own Alpha Centuari successor was a pale imitation. Civ 6 is only good for one playthrough before it gets stale. But this? It makes me want to win with every civ on the hardest difficulty, create new scenarios, and try out mods.

Good game, man. GG

[Jacob]

Yeah, I'm enjoying it too now that I've figured it out at least a little bit. It's still going to take me some time to assimilate how to get the most out of all the different resources, modifiers, and interactions and decide how to prioritize them depending on context - but at least I can get out of the first 20-30 turns without being horribly behind now.

[garbon]

One thing I don't get is religion. I generally see the local paganism only develop onces the 'main faiths' have already started spreading. I also saw tooltip about don't worry if you miss out on founding Judaism and Zoroastrianism as you can always found Christianity and Manichaeism later, but I also see those founded pretty quick and again generally sooner than local paganism.

[FunkMonk]

Yeah I'm a little perplexed on religion too. I know that once you build a Shrine you automatically start your paganism in the city it was built but I don't know how the monotheisms start or propagate.

I need to read that part of the manual again