how are things going?.

[ptarth]

Browsing the mantis for updates, I see that a ton of things have been added to Keith's todo list.
I'm imagining Chris calling into the office and saying, 'Oh, hey Keith, fix all the bugs on SBR today. I'll be at the beach. Ciao."
He's probably also wearing facehuggers and has a girly umbrella drink.

Also, the different attack report icons are awesome.

[crazyroosterman]

I just noticed I'm a sr rank now holy mc jesus that was quick

[Misery]

Well, I jumped back in, set up a new game (limited my time with it though so as not to risk any stupid pain).

Hmm, one thing that jumps out at me right now is that the early-game is... kinda boring right now.  It seemed interesting for the first few goes, but now I just do the same things pretty much every time.  I havent had reason to change anything so far.  Same buildings, same-ish placement, same order of doing things. 

I'm curious, what's everyone else's current thoughts on the early-game?

[nas1m]

Well, I jumped back in, set up a new game (limited my time with it though so as not to risk any stupid pain).

Hmm, one thing that jumps out at me right now is that the early-game is... kinda boring right now.  It seemed interesting for the first few goes, but now I just do the same things pretty much every time.  I havent had reason to change anything so far.  Same buildings, same-ish placement, same order of doing things. 

I'm curious, what's everyone else's current thoughts on the early-game?

For me its more or less the same.
The variations in my build order have been fairly minor - aside from making sure to get some military now that I will need it.
My recent games only started to differ once the incidents kicked in (the door).

[jerith]

For me, the first few turns are mostly placing as many exploration camps as I can. It would be more interesting if those didn't take up construction slots, because then I could get started on other things at the same time. I don't mind being limited to three (or even fewer) camps per turn, but the science boost from the camps is worth more than a few extra turns of citybuilding and being able to do those in parallel would both speed up the boring bit and make it a little more interesting.

[ptarth]

My early game hasn't really changed that much since I started. The major changes

• Immediately 2x2 placing for riot police, to be filled later.
• Start an engineer as the 1st real building.
• Build pollution generators with a x2 or x3 spacing.

I can't say if it is interesting or not. I've done it so many times now that it just is. In regards to the military issue, we don't have to bother anymore since IIs won't involve us. Plus, Missiles are the best II solution, and for them you NEED a good economy.

The main question I have is, how do you guys manage with such tiny cities? Everytime I load a save to look at it I see these <5k cities. It's so very different than what I do. Which I guess is the point?

[crazyroosterman]

the reason my city's are usually as small as they are is usually because I end up coming across some horrible bug that I have to wait for to be fixed or before the patch at least I would get up to a point usually about 5 o  6 k and then just keep getting disease up to the point were I couldn't arsed to continue hopefully this will change with my current zenith game were I hope to get up to 20 k population or higher.

[nas1m]

The main question I have is, how do you guys manage with such tiny cities? Everytime I load a save to look at it I see these <5k cities. It's so very different than what I do. Which I guess is the point?

For me it's mainly that I don't really feel any incentive to build anything bigger, honestly...

[ptarth]

Disease isn't that big of a deal, you just need 5 CDCs to mostly neutralize them. My growth motivation comes from the desire to have a large income and the desire to spite Chris by demonstrating big cities are possible, even with the gigantic crime density penalties.

[crazyroosterman]

yes I imagine I will achieve that in this game now that I won't just get disease after disease after disease after disease.(especially with their disease immunity cause yea know they over powered enough already)

[Misery]

For me, the first few turns are mostly placing as many exploration camps as I can. It would be more interesting if those didn't take up construction slots, because then I could get started on other things at the same time. I don't mind being limited to three (or even fewer) camps per turn, but the science boost from the camps is worth more than a few extra turns of citybuilding and being able to do those in parallel would both speed up the boring bit and make it a little more interesting.

My problem goes a bit further than that;  what I mean by "early game" isnt just the first few turns, it's more like the first FIFTY turns, or maybe a bit more than that.  Nothing really happens during this time, and I keep building the same city with the same layout every time.  Gets a bit old...

[jerith]

My problem goes a bit further than that;  what I mean by "early game" isnt just the first few turns, it's more like the first FIFTY turns, or maybe a bit more than that.  Nothing really happens during this time, and I keep building the same city with the same layout every time.  Gets a bit old...

I think resources and wonders will help a lot with that. I'm already finding my city has a very different shape just because I'm putting my farmland next to a wonder in Spire territory and expanding rapidly in a different direction to reach a resource that gives my helipads a range bonus. I'm also building a whole lot more linguistics centres than I usually do because I landed right next to a linguistics and police booster.

[Misery]

My problem goes a bit further than that;  what I mean by "early game" isnt just the first few turns, it's more like the first FIFTY turns, or maybe a bit more than that.  Nothing really happens during this time, and I keep building the same city with the same layout every time.  Gets a bit old...

I think resources and wonders will help a lot with that. I'm already finding my city has a very different shape just because I'm putting my farmland next to a wonder in Spire territory and expanding rapidly in a different direction to reach a resource that gives my helipads a range bonus. I'm also building a whole lot more linguistics centres than I usually do because I landed right next to a linguistics and police booster.

Yeah, I think the problem is that, at least in my experience, in the early game, that stuff doesnt exist, and thus isnt relevant.  I just have blank areas with nothing in them, for as far as can be seen (except for *one* tile, and only one, with a butterfly on it).   Without a way to actually venture into new areas (just making the city bigger or making bizarre lines of structures doesnt count) it just gets... so incredibly formulaic.  In all honesty, I currently dont have much desire to play it and am definitely losing interest, which isnt something I want to have to say, but it's the truth of it.  The lack of the exploration aspect or the ability to go somewhere that has actual stuff around it and things happening is kinda killing the whole experience for me.  It kinda feels like Skyward except without STUFF happening. 

For the time being, I'm probably just going to stop; there's no point in going any further right now, I think.  It may well turn out that this just isnt the right game for me, but we'll see.

[jerith]

Yeah, I think the problem is that, at least in my experience, in the early game, that stuff doesnt exist, and thus isnt relevant.  I just have blank areas with nothing in them, for as far as can be seen (except for *one* tile, and only one, with a butterfly on it).   Without a way to actually venture into new areas (just making the city bigger or making bizarre lines of structures doesnt count) it just gets... so incredibly formulaic. 

In a new game with a normal size continent map, I can see several resources and a couple of wonders in the first few turns after building scouts. I had two resources and a wonder visible from turn one. Maybe you just got unlucky? (Or maybe I just got lucky?)

[Misery]

Yeah, I think the problem is that, at least in my experience, in the early game, that stuff doesnt exist, and thus isnt relevant.  I just have blank areas with nothing in them, for as far as can be seen (except for *one* tile, and only one, with a butterfly on it).   Without a way to actually venture into new areas (just making the city bigger or making bizarre lines of structures doesnt count) it just gets... so incredibly formulaic. 

In a new game with a normal size continent map, I can see several resources and a couple of wonders in the first few turns after building scouts. I had two resources and a wonder visible from turn one. Maybe you just got unlucky? (Or maybe I just got lucky?)

It's been the case every time I've started a new game.

And honestly, even if something does appear.... it takes absolutely forever to get there, since the only real way is to extend the city boundaries until you hit it with that.  I'm not exactly big on patience, so this approach bothers me alot.