Is DE slowly turning into a pay to win/enjoy game?

[Rivai177]

I find it quite bizarre where most DLC civs are quite stronger at the moment.
I'm not really sure if they are over-tuned or are just extremely versatile to the point where they're almost comfortable with any situation.
Or is it that vanilla civs are basically stuck with the cookie-cutter meta builds we used to abuse back in 2005 to the point where it is boring and since these builds are very old that it is easy to find a good counter? It's not really just about winning or how strong the civs are. but new DLC civs bring so much new features that some of them could be called quite the broken ones.
Ik the game is not quite balanced where most of the community agrees that some DLC civs like USA and Mexico are actually OP.

[Squamiger]

otto has been around since 2005

[iron_turtle]

It is just lack of balance patches. There should be small balance patches every 2-3 months. They have already tested the mini update once, where the game gets updated just by opening the game. They need to release faster balance patches that way.

[Garja]

Actually it's not just balance. Balance overall it's not even terrible. It's more about the clusterfuck of features that DE added.
To OP question, yes new civs have a different design where they have potentially access to almost everything. Old civs have design limitations in terms of unit roster for example, but also other things (upgrades, way to collect resources, etc.). They partially reworked some legacy civs (btw tad civs already had that new design) adding some features. For example all nilla civs now have atleast an uprade for musks or skirms, some of the non musk/goon civ now have those units available from new cards, etc. It's probably not enough to make old civs on the same level of flexibility but old civs already benefit from a more straight forward approach in most cases.

[look]

I like the current balance, I think you can play without complaining that something is super broken.
It's impossible to have a perfect balance with 22 civs.

[alistairpeter]

I like the current balance, I think you can play without complaining that something is super broken.
It's impossible to have a perfect balance with 22 civs.

Are we playing the same game?

[Hazza54321]

22 civs but the same 3/4 are played and guess if those civs are dlc or not

[Rivai177]

22 civs but the same 3/4 are played and guess if those civs are dlc or not

Seeing so many new high elo players that one-trick 1 dlc civ and abuse it to climb the ladderm you got those and ports 10/10 lamers.

[Rivai177]

Actually it's not just balance. Balance overall it's not even terrible. It's more about the clusterfuck of features that DE added.
To OP question, yes new civs have a different design where they have potentially access to almost everything. Old civs have design limitations in terms of unit roster for example, but also other things (upgrades, way to collect resources, etc.). They partially reworked some legacy civs (btw tad civs already had that new design) adding some features. For example all nilla civs now have atleast an uprade for musks or skirms, some of the non musk/goon civ now have those units available from new cards, etc. It's probably not enough to make old civs on the same level of flexibility but old civs already benefit from a more straight forward approach in most cases.

I think the most changes (some are actually nice) to the vanilla civs are quite useless in a sense that they would answer to a vanilla civ's weakness by granting the civ some sort of new features that are either completely trash or would occasionally cause another limitation that makes it just not worth it.
I wish they could just rework some civs while keeping their original taste if that makes sense

[GuiliuG]

22 civs but the same 3/4 are played and guess if those civs are dlc or not

Well, besides USA, no DCL civs are in the top 10 of the most played civs so…

[look]

22 civs but the same 3/4 are played and guess if those civs are dlc or not

Seeing so many new high elo players that one-trick 1 dlc civ and abuse it to climb the ladderm you got those and ports 10/10 lamers.

they should remove the fast age UP for fortress..
It doesn't make sense to have 1 TC bonus and a quick age up at the same time.

[alistairpeter]

I remember when aging up with a tc was a civ bonus instead of an age up politician