Animal Barns - Nerfed from +5 Food per Horse down to +1

Forge - Nerfed from +5 Industry per Copper down to +1

To me, the impact of these two simple changes seems to include:

1. City population growth is slower
2. District construction is slower
3. Troop generation is slower
4. Chopping trees makes a bigger impact
5. The best Knowledge Star choice ("A Tribe's Legacy"), isn't so clearly "Storytellers" (+1 Science per pop) anymore.  The Legacy traits of +1 Industry per pop and +1 Food per pop are now more attractive than they used to be.
6. Civics that boost food and industry are more valuable
7. Settling in a territory with a luxury resource that boosts food or industry is more valuable.
8. Settling in a territory with a natural wonder that boosts food or industry is more valuable.
9. Constructed wonders that boost food or industry are more valuable
10. Religious tenets that boost food or industry are more valuable.
11. Trading for luxury resources that increase food or industry is now more important.
12. Science matters more.  Lower pop means fewer workers and soldiers, so the race for more advanced technologies and weaponry becomes more critical. That depends on science.
13. Money matters more.  Slower production means buying out construction makes a bigger difference; whether you're using money to speed up the production of troops, districts, or infrastructure.
14. Your ideological leanings matter more. (the event choices that gradually move you away from or toward bonuses like +10% Food, Industry, Science, or Money, +2 CS, etc.)
15. AI Persona traits that boost Industry or Food make a much more significant impact, especially in the early game
16. AI opponents are now more challenging.
17. Stealth matters more.  Slower military production means that ambushing or getting ambushed matters more.
18. Spycraft matters more.  The use of sabotage or disinformation is more valuable when you can't raise an army as quickly.
19. Alliances matter more.

As someone who typically goes for max population, I respectfully disagree with your choice of the word "radically." I do not notice an impact on my playstyle from the change. 

This is because there are a lot of techs which increase access. So before there would only be 10 horses on a map, but now by mid game there can be 40+. The net impact is the same but it spreads out the gains over multiple eras- I feel that's a great change and more historical. Since horses' benefits wrre not static but became more valuable over time (until automobiles).

Having said that, I really like your analysis of the potential changes and if that's what the devs were going for, it's a good direction to take. So kudos for the implementation of the increased access infrastructure idea.

Yeah, you need more resources to achieve the previous gains, but you do get access to those resources eventually. Although more granular strategic resource access indeed works nicely with the 'X per source' stuff. From the playthrough I'm in currently it looks like a massive balance upheaval, but at the same time I only lately started playing with more restrictive rules (2-4 continents, New World on, I used to make sure that I'd have 1-2 neighbours at most until now) and it's the first time it rolled everyone on one continent, so I'm not sure how much of it is the update only.

For me the radical change is the Luxury Resource rework, the Stability is a real struggle, industry cost rework turned down ideal cities for me from 5-6 territories to 4-5, now with surplus of Stability being much harder to build without cultures with specific focus on it either through LT or EQ, it seems like 2-4 is comfortable max (at least until Industrial/Contemporary, where a lot of Stability boosts appear, although I didn't get there yet - but that also seem nice, they were superficial upgrades at that point previously).

I agree DNLH. I love the nerf to stability from luxury resources. I find it much more challenging to keep stability at 100% - now I have to live with ~50% until later eras. This makes random events/osmosis more impactful too, since they can push you below the limit. The whole trade thing brought about some very positive consequences.

Yeah, I am really liking the strategics and luxuries rework, too.  Managing imports and your trading economy has become a real balancing act, more engaging, and more fun.

That said, as much as I like the new luxuries and trade changes, I do wonder if the Animal Barns and Forge may have been tuned downwards a little too much, and maybe +2food/horse and +2industry/copper, or even more benefits, might make a bit more sense.  Here's why:

• Before Bonny, the boosts from these infrastructures were +5food/horse and +5industry/copper , and it was reasonable (roughly) to have 3-5 of these resources in the early/mid game, and 10+ late game through trade.  That'd be netting you 15-25 food/ind and 50 food/ind respectively.
• Post-Bonny, the boosts are only +1 each, and while the available horses and copper on the map have become higher to match (though maybe a little lower total), trading for them has become more expensive.  In the old days I'd make a strategic trade agreement with another empire and I'd happily gobble up their horses and copper for a few hundred money, one time fee.  But in the Bonny Trading System, those horses are going to cost me 40-60 money per turn and I might only get 3-5 horses from them.  If I'm buying extra horses for my Animal Barns, the question is, is +3 food on cities worth 50 money per turn?

Dayvit78 wrote:

As someone who typically goes for max population, I respectfully disagree with your choice of the word "radically." I do not notice an impact on my playstyle from the change. 

That's a fair point.  Just because it's impacted my gameplay significantly, doesn't mean it will be the same for others.