Balance is a tough thing, especially in a game like this with so many levers. I try not to judge devs because it’s an ever-changing thing, and it’s not always going to be right 100% of the time.
But if they really are about to nerf Inca vils without giving the civ any buffs… that is ridiculous.
First-- yes, I agree that Inca is still playable without the trush & vil rush strats. They have a lot of options. BUT this was the one aspect that made them unique and better than other Meso civs. Nerfing it is just pushing Inca firmly to a Tier 2 role, with no real reason to pick them over Aztec or Mayans.
Inca has this one strat that they excel at above all other civs. ONE STRAT, that was obvious from a mile away, easy to scout, and easy to defend against if you know what you’re doing. Yes it’s frustrating if you don’t, but so are Mangudai. It’s a total Feudal all-in that can be completely handled & punished by someone who reacts half-decently. BUT it was the one thing Inca was great at.
So let’s review their Civ bonuses, now that their one extremely useful and unique bonus has been nerfed to dust harder than a Phase 3 Marvel hero post-snap–
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Free llama. Hey it’s better than nothing! But since starting herdables are now guaranteed to be near your TC, it’s nothing more than +100 food you can tap into in early feudal age. Not much of an eco bonus compared to any of the others!
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Villager Blacksmith upgrades-- now starting in Castle Age. Annnd what is the point of this bonus now? It’s not going to help your vils fight back or survive against knight or xbow raids. It’s basically a worse version of the Spanish vil tech. Now instead of getting this bonus in the Feudal Age, aka the time it’s most applicable, it’s pushed to lategame where it’s way, way less useful. BTW, remember how Inca was one civ that could survive & thrive against a scout rush without quickwalls or spears? Don’t worry, that unique little advantage is gone. They’ll now have to react against a scrush exactly the same as every other civ. Cause what’s more fun than everyone being exactly the same?
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Houses support +10 pop. No complaints here, it’s a nice little bonus. Not as big as some others, but I’ll take it and say thank you like a good lil’ crippled orphan boy in the soup line.
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Buildings cost -15% stone. Again, nice little bonus, though overshadowed by some others (cough Franks)
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Team “bonus”, faster building farms. This one has been mocked since the beginning, and is such an obvious target for a buff that the fact that the devs aren’t doing anything about it while they nerf the civ… seems like clear undeniable proof that this is all the result of a salty poopy-pants noob dev, and not in the interest of actual balance.
But just to elaborate for anyone unfamiliar-- Incas team bonus has a near-negligible affect on their & their team’s ecos, while forcing an adjusted build order or else risking a severe punishment. Remind me which other Civs have a team bonus that negatively affects the team unless all the players are aware & adjust to it?
Someone on reddit calculated the increased farm building speed as 2% overall food bonus.
WOW. Buckle up Speed Racer, I don’t know if you can handle the pure G forces of a TWO PERCENT SPEED INCREASE. Someone tell the Vulcans we’re approaching FTL travel and are ready for First Contact.
Remember that without this bonus, every other civ gets click the Horse Collar upgrade right before placing new farms, and it will finish in time to affect the new farms right as they finish. But if you’ve got an Inca player on your team, you better be ready to get your Horse Collar a good 7.5 seconds BEFORE starting to build your farms (I hope you’re ready to micro those vils for 7.5 XTREME seconds of SPEED wood chopping, or else they’re just gonna be idle while you wait). If you don’t plan for this, the farms build too quickly and miss out on the bonus-- +75 food, a 42% increase. That might not sound like much to the late, great Lucille Bluth who apparently helped design the Incas, but most players know that food and wood are extremely important in Feudal Age.
So to reiterate-- the Inca team bonus forces the player and all teammates to adjust their timings and build order. If you do it right you get a 2% bonus, if you do it wrong you miss out on 75 food per farm, at a time in the game where food & wood are critically important.
Let’s tally it up. With this “balance” change, Incas now are sitting at 2 good but minor civ bonuses, 2 that are nearly useless, and a team “bonus” that at best gives +2% food boost and at worst costs you 75 food per farm. That one’s about as useful as a cursed typewriter that’ll make you a best selling crime author but also make the crimes come true.
IN CONCLUSION, Give them something. It doesn’t need to be much. Ideally their Team Bonus could become something that’s actually a bonus, but I won’t be picky because Incas seem to be balanced by the Sinister 6 of Sloppy Civ Design. They just need SOMETHING positive to offset what is a HUGE nerf to the one role Incas actually excel it-- messy Feudal trush based fights.
And until they get something like that, I have no choice but to ridicule the soft-hearted noob dev that clearly got so rocked by a trush that they ragequit directly into the codebase to make these “balance” changes. Having been on the other side of that many times, and seeing just how terribly some players handle getting trushed, and how upset it makes them… I present, in one act, my new script for a dramatic reenactment of the game that prompted this furious frothy change. It is based heavily on my experience from ranked games, so I hope you find it devastatingly realistic.
The Dev Who Was A Noob
EXT. ARABIA - Open on a 1v1. One rook dev vs. one Inca player
Dev: “Hello, I’m NoobdevTheNoob, GLHF to my opponent! I don’t know what strat you might choose but I look forward to matching wits!”
Inca: Obviously does a Trush cause they’re Inca. You know it’s coming dude. If you don’t, well, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realize the 2+ vils on stone when they age up at 16 pop might be a clue
Dev: “I am SHOCKED and appalled! But that’s just one tower far away so I bet I can just ignore it!”
Inca: Builds another tower
Dev: “OMG NOT FAIR HOW IS HE DOING THIS?? Well I’ll just build my own tower and see how he likes it!”
((DevNoob proceeds to try and build his own tower… in range of the Inca tower… with only 4 vils. People actually try this online, I don’t get it))
Dev: “NoooOOO my tower isn’t working! This is moldy baloney!”
Inca: Builds another tower
Dev: “Well he’s only got 8 vils. I’ll attack with 9. Because I’m a developer, I know that 9 is more than 8 so this will deal vith it”
Inca: Slaughters the devs vils in a total massacre
Dev: “WHAT HOW COUDL THIS HAPPEN I HAD MROE VILS! Well let me try something different…”
((DevNoob doesn’t try something different. Dev alternates between building new towers in range of Inca towers, and rushing with not enough vils to do any real damage. Again, people really react this way. After it already didn’t work. Even at 1100+ rating. I don’t get it))
Dev: “NOOO THIS ISNT FAIR YOU ARE USING NOOB STRAT THAT IS SO NOSKILL YOU NOOB. YOUR VILS ARE CHEATING THEY SHOULD BE DEAD”
((Dev calls Inca player some more names, then ragequits))
Dev: “I reacted exactly correctly and played like TheViper King Hera but his vils still beat mine. Inca bonus too OP, wins 100% of the time, and there is no counterplay. Let’s put it in the Castle Age only, because I am a pro player so I know the most important time for villagers to get in the mix of battle is during the age of Knights, Crossbows, and Mangonels”
Fin
((DevTheNoob and Inca Player bow to thunderous applause. Then Dev nerfs the indoor acoustics of the theater because the clapping is too loud))
TLDR; Heavily nerfing the one strat Inca are the best at, while failing to buff any other part of the civ (especially the rotten poison apple of a team “bonus”) is irresponsibly bad balancing, and seems more like the reaction of angry noobs on the ladder than that of a rational actor. Also, I very much don’t want to do real work today, so I’m going to get upset about this on the internet instead