http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2016/11/02/civilization-vi-tries-make-best-civilization-v/
Finally remembered to check for Chick's review of Civ. As usual he nails it.
One unit per tile continues to be an unmitigated disaster in Civilization VI. Which is particularly galling, since Civilization VI makes significant strides in other parts of the design. You can see here some of the same insight that went into making XCOM and XCOM 2. This doesnt feel like a game design turned over to an intern at Firaxis. It feels like a game design where sometimes someone said hey, wouldnt it be cool if
? and sometimes someone else said no...
I like Jon Shafer, I made OOTP trades with Jon Shafer, Jon Shafer broke Civilization and they are still trying to fix it.
it whiffs on fundamental systems like espionage, religion, diplomacy, and war. Religion in particular is an obtuse, undocumented, under-the-hood mess. Oh, its also one of the main gameplay pillars. Oops. Diplomacy is still a casualty of the bad AI. To Firaxis credit, theyve made diplomacy more transparent. Theyve also borrowed some concepts from Paradoxs games, which are at the leading edge of modeling diplomacy as a gameplay system. This would have been a great idea if Civilization VIs diplomacy AI wasnt so sputteringly incoherent. It will declare war on you from across the world, do nothing about it, and then ten turns later sue for peace, complete with monetary reparations. Uh, okay, Spain. Thanks? It will refuse absurdly advantageous deals. It will promise not to do something and then do it. You will promise not to do something and then it will decide you did it. These issues arent new. Theyre just newly transparent....
One of the big problems is that Civ VI tried to make diplomacy a Big Deal like CK2 without adding the flavor and Major Consequences of diplomacy in CK2. Here it's almost pointless because the AI is about as effective a diplomat as Jimmy Carter.
And of course warfare, arguably the single most significant pillar of gameplay for how its constantly waiting in the wings and the single weakest gameplay mechanic for how the AI is incapable of playing it, can be summed up in four words: one, unit, per, and tile. Can you hear that splorching sound? Its the suck of the tarry legacy of Civilization V...
Wars are tedious, slow, inconsequential, boring and ultimately pointless. If you want to win a domination victory find nitre, make a rifleman, and clear the map. It's stupid because the AI is about as good at war as Andre Maginot.
For instance, if you build three archers, you get machinery tech at half price. Dont ask why. You just do. Many achievements make sense. An observatory built next to a mountain gives you half off astronomy. Some dont. Privateers teach you electricity, shooting someone with a musket leads to frigates, and sewers let women vote...
I hate the achievement system. Ed Beach is a great wargame designer (which makes the fact that he didn't fix conflict sort of baffling) but he managed to turn Civilization into an on-rails strategy game.
Okay, its not my place to second guess game design. As you know, you go to Civilization with the game you have, not the game you might want or wish to have at a later time. But it is my place to note that when I go to Civilization, Im looking for more than just a laid back single-player cities builder with the AI frittering idly in the margins. I cut my teeth on Sid Meiers grand strategy without a brain-dead tactical layer drizzled over the top. I admire a lot of what Firaxis is doing to move on from the mess of Civilization V. Theyre headed in the right direction, even if they are dragging a lot of baggage.
Like Civ V, this game is fundamentally broken by the one unit per tile dogma. It can't be fixed in future updates. It's a flawed design that simply doesn't work. Their plans for expansions, which include a second leader for each Civ, are retarded but I do look forward to seeing which female they pick to lead the US.
Like Civ V it's a bad game that is worth playing. If you are mostly brain dead it might even be fun because you'll be level with the AI. Bob will love it, I'm sure.
The two best things about Civ VI are that it works awesome on a SP4 and that people keep randomly and accidentally getting Culture Victories. I've done it twice now (once going to domination and once for science...both ended early because I won on culture which I was not paying even a little attention to). The civ board posts about "wtf sick of random culture wins" are glorious.
Ya done fucked up Firaxis. Again.