About Inferno and Symbiosis

[HarryBuddhaPalm]

I have all the expansions except these last two. They're both on sale at Humble Bundle right now but I'm still not sure I want to get them. I know that they weren't made by Amplitude and I've read some complaints about them. I've heard that the Kapaku are a pain to play with because they turn the map into volcanoes and there is no way to terraform the land back. I like the Cultists because they're a one-city faction so the Mykara appealed to me but I've heard that they're pretty weak. I've also read a lot of complaints about the Urkan and a lot of people have said that they play with the expansion turned off because they dislike them so much. So, I'm wondering what is good about these two expansions and if they're worth getting. Yeah, they're cheap right now, but still, if I'm not going to play with them then why bother? They sound pretty bad, really.

[Gilmoy]

They're both fun! They present new challenges. Winning with them is not trivial. Winning against them is not trivial.

A vocal minority of players will always complain about something. More players than that think both new expansions are OK. Ultimately, you'll have to judge for yourself.

Mykara isn't quite as strong as Cultist because it doesn't get free mercs, but it's strong enough. Most of the "weak Mykara" complaints were from hardcore multiplayers.

[edit] Inferno also introduces the Dust Eclipse mechanism, which can be a game-changer. Its biggest effect is to inject dust into your early economy. One dust eclipse around turn 15 can give you 400+ dust, which lets you easily buy a governor hero or buyout some buildings. That can completely change your early-game strategy.

Inferno's Kapaku finally introduces a Cavalry hero (all of its heroes are Cavalry), which completes the set of all possible class hero skill trees. (Eslek Tarosh is the sole Flying hero.) The cavalry hero skill tree is pretty good, worth hiring. So you may want to enable Inferno even if you don't play as Kapaku, just to be able to hire a mercenary Kapaku hero as a general.

[HeavyHoplite]

Both are amazing. The Symbiosis Expansion isn't as good as Inferno in my opinion though. Mykara is hard to pull off as a faction unless you are very aggressive and the other mechanics (the Urkans) the dlc adds just aren't as good when compared to Inferno's Dust Eclipse mechanices. Not to say the Urkans and Mykara are bad, rather Inferno's Dust Eclipises are better and the Kapaku is a really strong and fun faction.

[LeaderEnemyBoss]

There is a community patch which (in my opinion as the creator) among other things fixes the balance issues which where indeed there. The volcanic terrain complaint is overblown, as volcanic terrain isnt really bad for other factions, and it gets very expensive to spread.

[Mephisting]

I have both, and I like them. I will admit that im not the biggest fan of the Urkan myself, but they can be disabled without disabling the Mykara (which I love). I don't have much to say about Kapaku but I do like the dust eclipse that the expansion adds.

[HarryBuddhaPalm]

Originally posted by Mephisting:

I have both, and I like them. I will admit that im not the biggest fan of the Urkan myself, but they can be disabled without disabling the Mykara (which I love). I don't have much to say about Kapaku but I do like the dust eclipse that the expansion adds.

I was under the impression that you couldn't disable them without disabling the whole expansion. It doesn't matter. I ended up buying them. Thanks for the replies, everyone.

[Terijian]

"I was under the impression that you couldn't disable them without disabling the whole expansion"

In the new game screen go into advanced game settings (where battle speed and stuff are) and you can disable the urkans on the right side

[Brucato]

I like the Urkans lol. In fact I like the Mykara (though havent played AS them). If nothing else they add some MORE beauty to the game.