LienRag

Javelin soldiers with infinite reload ability will either be overpowered (if reasonable value for the damage are used) or unhistorical (if it is nerfed). They are really the soldiers that are the most in need of an "ammunition" system. Of course this ammunition system has to be not too micromanagy if the game is to stay fun.

A mod for Greek A.D. could be nice, if it fitted more precisely the period warfare...

A civilization with non-infinite fields (and not micromanagy like AoE, really non-infinite fields where you can't rebuild a field in the same place when the soil is exhausted) would play very differently and as such be a nice addition.

That is the only real problem, as there is no way to play the game without any siege ability.

Would be nice to have a game mode (or mod ?) for that, indeed. Like you get one preparation phase (not real-time) with some resources to put buildings and walls on the map before starting the real-time play.

Where is there gather rate shown if you don't click on the portrait ?

Indeed. Nice idea ! Well, having not-cavalry-though-similar-to-cavalry would make the civilization less different, so having a fast unit yes, but it shouldn't be as fast as cavalry. Could be faster than everyone in jungle, and slower than cavalry in open terrain maybe ? Training cavalry from captured stables should require a specific Hero imho, or a specific tech at least.

Isn't this how things are supposed to work ? There is no problem with a candidate civilization staying in limbo for a long time while it is put under scrutiny and its problems solved one by one...

One real improvement that Alpha 26 brought is that the mini-map is now actually a mini-map instead of a mini map. I mean, it's not just a repetition in smaller size of the big map, but it now bears very clear and legible symbols for all the important things (you don't have just a yellow spot for a gold mine, that could be confused with a yellow player unit, you now have a very clear symbol meaning "there is gold here". It could be even nicer if there was a way to toggle off/on all these symbols, when a player is in need of something specific. Also, there's a huge problem with relics : they are crucially important, yet once you spotted one but moved your unit away from it (because it's useless to try to capture it with only one unit) you have no way of remembering where it was. There are two possible solutions : 1 - Make the symbol for relics stay on the map, with a greyed color when it's not currently visible (since it may have moved). Of course remove the greyed symbol if the location becomes visible again and the relic isn't there anymore. 2 - Allow to put "pins" on the map, so when you explore and want to remember where the relic was (or another thing, like a commercial road) you can pin it. For the normal map, I find it often difficult to see where exactly is the highest point of an area (I mean, if there's a small mound somewhere, which is the highest point of that mound ? It's often really not obvious to see). It would be nice to be able to toggle geographic curves view... Also, when placing a tower, it would be nice to see the exclusion zone for other towers that it provokes. What is visible is only its range, which (from what I understand) is different.

The fact that it cannot be enforced doesn't mean that it won't be followed at all, since it establishes a common agreement of what is considered useful. Eisenhower famously said that "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable".

Indeed and it would be nice to have this fixed. But still, it's not the same problem than building a dock somewhere and noticing only later that the ships can't cross to the main water area...

Well, if (as I suggested) we require a source of irrigation for rice paddies, it's not possible to not provide the civilization using them with another source of fields when water isn't available.

Greater range, really ? I'm in no way specialist of the Han dynasty of the period, but that's not generally how crossbows work. They do indeed have longer reload and may have less impact that longbow, but they're known for having longer range. Even Aiend agreed with that. Also, if the problem with making Crossbowmen too cheap is that it makes them economically OP, it' always possible to make them less efficient at economic tasks (like Skiritois). Would need a reason to justify that, though.

I tried that but it didn't give any difference. (you meant right-click on the portrait, right ?)

That is exactly my proposal, yes (just that instead of "other grains" I wrote "millet"). Well pumps are not how rice paddies are produced (rice needs to much water for that) and more importantly, I'm not sure that they'll be fun rather than very micromanagy. If the problem is for mainland maps, is it difficult to add a few small ponds on them ? Maybe even one on each starting location, at the edge of the initial territory ?

Well, I translated from French, the exact phrase is "réduit les technologies de 50%". If it doesn't, what does it do besides expanding territory ? Also, I didn't entirely understand what you wrote : you mean that it was supposed to have an aura which reduces tech costs, but that aura was scrapped ?

A remark : wouldn't it be possible to have the rice paddy buildable only near a water source (or another rice paddy with access to a water source) and have millet fields with lower production value buildable where irrigation isn't available ? It would make the placement of paddy fields more strategic, as if you put all on a line depending on one of them having access to water, the enemy destroying this watery one will make are your fields unusable (this should be made clear to the player, by the way : all the workers on the dried field putting their food in the granary/town center and becoming idle).

What does the Emperor Wu catafalq do ? It's written "reduces tech costs by 50%" but on the techs I checked, no it doesn't.

OK thanks. I just realized that the "additional workers have less efficiency" isn't specific to the Hans, I just noticed it there and thought it was a way to make the Civilization different... I still don't know how much efficiency each additional worker loses, though.

Well, when I tried to start a Campaign after finally being able to try a27 (thanks to the Debian team, BTW) I found that there are none except for the tutorial... So, were I to try to play a Scenario, as obsolete as they may be, how do I do it ?

I disagree entirely. Respecting roadmaps may be impossible for the reasons you've stated but making roadmaps certainly is not. Joke aside, a roadmap that is "more what you'd call a guideline than actual rules" is still actually useful as it gives, well, guidelines about what is expected at a specific release or what can/should be postponed.

No, what is it ? Also, I thought that the point with Hans was that it's better to not fill the fields entirely, but as I wrote earlier, I have no idea about how much is lost by filling them.

I really struggle to have a good food influx when playing Hans. I do build farms but don't know how many are needed (apparently I never have enough) nor how I should staff them : how much is lost when I put three women on the same field rather than three women each on its own field ? With other civilizations 8 to 10 farms are usually largely enough, but clearly not with the Hans...

Indeed, Yaoi units would probably help with getting more girls to play the game...

What would be really needed would be a roadmap for the game, actually. So balancing between civilizations would be done on specific versions (like 0.30, 0.35,...) and other releases could be for experimenting different things.