Its been a long long time since i have played (since the first week) and one of the major turn offs for me was the matter of there being no downfall to mass producing towns, unlike with Civ (yeah, I went there, unfortunately). I was wondering if this has been remedied in any sort of way? Thanks!
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no. you want to expand as much as you can. To be honest, I always thought Civ's method of limiting expansion really odd, since every civilization tried to expand as much as possible 
I think it depends on which version of the game you have: don't have the Armageddon DLC? Expand as much as you can. Have the new Armageddon DLC? Be prepared for those lightly defended sub-size 5 cities to be one-shot by the invading Dremer.
In a recent impossible game, I had two Dremer warriors show up on turn 26 near my capital and a new city. The 55hp 20 melee damage units, combined with the "Gates" they spawn with (20 elemental Damage 80 hp towers, really) meant I couldn't hold the new city, despite it being garrisoned and on a hill.
With the new DLC, I'm certainly having to spend more production on combat units compared to settlers.
In a recent impossible game, I had two Dremer warriors show up on turn 26 near my capital and a new city. The 55hp 20 melee damage units, combined with the "Gates" they spawn with (20 elemental Damage 80 hp towers, really) meant I couldn't hold the new city, despite it being garrisoned and on a hill.
With the new DLC, I'm certainly having to spend more production on combat units compared to settlers.
Also, with the armageddon DLC, losing your cities creates a Dremer castle: a 150hp, 20 elemental attack base that will spawn more dremers.
it somewhat anoys me that you cannot have all the victory conditions on now. why not a kill the dremer and all the mages ? Etienne
no. you want to expand as much as you can. To be honest, I always thought Civ's method of limiting expansion really odd, since every civilization tried to expand as much as possible
(The Civ IV mod (and hopefully Civ 5 - though it's still beta) "Revolutions" added a vastly better stability mechanic that, among other things, limited expansion.)
@etienne
you can have it... just finish of the other mages and after that you go into the dremer dimension
you can have it... just finish of the other mages and after that you go into the dremer dimension
I believe that the correct response to penalizing the mass-production of towns is something that I have seen in many 4x space games:
Since creating a town starts it off with a population of 1000, creating a settler should subtract 1000 from the producing town.
Instead of creating population out of thin air, you relocate them.
This would put an end to the current spamming of settlers, make neutral towns more important, and, in general, add strategic depth to expanding your empire.
The only real downside I see is how the AI would handle such a change, but seeing as the AI doesn't expand enough in the current game, it might not be so bad.
As I don't expect the creators of the game to make such a radical adjustment after the release, is it at all possible to mod this game? After all, this is a simple change.
Since creating a town starts it off with a population of 1000, creating a settler should subtract 1000 from the producing town.
Instead of creating population out of thin air, you relocate them.
This would put an end to the current spamming of settlers, make neutral towns more important, and, in general, add strategic depth to expanding your empire.
The only real downside I see is how the AI would handle such a change, but seeing as the AI doesn't expand enough in the current game, it might not be so bad.
As I don't expect the creators of the game to make such a radical adjustment after the release, is it at all possible to mod this game? After all, this is a simple change.
I'm not sure about "1000" - we could make it a more or less lossy process - but that seems like a good concept.
It is *possible* to mod the game - someone already made a tool. But it was pulled: ATM the game is locked-down.
Given that I think no one outside the devs (and that tool maker) know how simple such a change might be. (Or others with experience with this engine?) If there's already a tag/hook for it in the code then it'd be as simple as entering some data. If not, it could require a major effort.
^Actually, that was just unpacker of game assets. Plus converter of crypted xml files to normal xml.
It seems tech used is very similar to older games developers made.
Unfortunately, at this moment official stance is that modding using 3rd party tools is prohibited in these forums.
Pity, considering that having lots of variables in xml files could be great for easy modding...
It seems tech used is very similar to older games developers made.
Unfortunately, at this moment official stance is that modding using 3rd party tools is prohibited in these forums.
Pity, considering that having lots of variables in xml files could be great for easy modding...
I feel like the city sprawling early on is mostly balanced against producing non-settlers. Your build queue is pretty much always constructing things in your capital. Build 4 more cities, have 4 less rangers or whatever. And while a city seems very important, taming the wild, conquering neutral cities, and finding gold/mana in lairs, can also be very strong.
In the end, yes, you pretty much spam out cities, especially once you capture or get a second level 5 city. But up until that point, the game is pretty well balanced.
In the end, yes, you pretty much spam out cities, especially once you capture or get a second level 5 city. But up until that point, the game is pretty well balanced.