So, the "total random" map type.... pretty fun. Tried that out today, it really makes things interesting indeed. Really have to shape strategies based on how the region is shaped and what tiles are where, and smiting and adding tiles yourself becomes more important.
Overall, things are really looking good here.... except for one thing:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=11477The crime system... seems a bit of a mess. On Hard, half of the game becomes JUST anti-crime stuffs (which mostly consists of finding ways to spam more basic military buildings and related production buildings) and building more cities to house resources to be used by the anti-crime stuffs (which themselves must still contain a blob of random military buildings to prevent the crime in the resource city). The actual battles between units and all of that became.... trivial. There was actually LESS strategy here as time went on.
The impression I get about the crime system is that it is there to encourage the player to make a decent amount of military buildings on each side, so that there's always a large-ish number of units (thus being more difficult to manage). I have to wonder, though, if there arent better ways of doing this. But also, it's just very.... monotonous. The player has very little in the way of actual options, and even less in the way of real strategy, to specifically deal with crime. Makes city-building less interesting also as it gets more and more out of control.
Definitely thinking that this needs some sort of change; I was finding it really hurt the gameplay as a whole. I dont know what to suggest here specifically, but.... one way or another, I really think it simply doesnt work. I would much rather base my city designs on current plans/strategies, and also on reactions to the current situation, and stuff like that, rather than constantly fighting a simple arbitrary number that just wont stop rising.
