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Quotehttp://Civilization V Announced
Firaxis reveals the next title in the celebrated strategy series.
by Steve Butts
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February 18, 2010 - 2K Games just made the day a little brighter with the announcement of a brand new title in the best-selling Civilization series. Sid Meier's Civilization V, currently in development at Firaxis, will feature an "entirely new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions, and a cavalcade of expanded features that deliver a fully immersive experience providing hours of enteratainment as players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known."

Perhaps most significantly for fans, the series is making the jump to hexagons rather than square tiles to "allow for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay, and stunning organic landscapes." The entire game is being built on an entirely new engine that's being built from the ground up to bring players "closer to the Civ experience than ever." Diplomacy is handled full screen now, with full leader animations and appropriate languages. Players who aren't inclined towards negotiations will find that war feels "more massive" and includes ranged bombardment from behind front lines.

Civilization V will also include an "extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements," and an "in-game community hub where Civ fans can share content and compete against each other."

Hexagons? In Civ?
Firaxis' director of creative development and series' eponym Sid Meier shared his enthusiasm for the new project: "Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenge for our team. Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing." He added, "We're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series."

No release date has been set. Come back to IGN for more information soon.

Quote from: Grallon on February 18, 2010, 01:26:55 PM
More of the same linear bullshit! :bleeding:

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on February 18, 2010, 01:30:13 PM

Would you prefer a parabola?

Quote from: Grallon on February 18, 2010, 01:26:55 PM
More of the same linear bullshit! :bleeding:




G.

QuoteI just wrote down the main points of the article.

- Switch from squares to hexagons changing the way the game plays. More room for maneuvers and more tactical options.
- Changes to combat. More depth in combat, no more stacking of units. This will lead to bigger focus on terrain.
- Inspired by Panzer General.
- Reintroduction of Bombardment, now archers and siege equipment can shoot over melee units.
- Better diplomatic AI.
- More diplomatic options between players.
- Less "cheating" AI.
- Religion is not a factor anymore.
- Ressources are not infinite. For example one source of horse only supplies enough horses for 1 unit, but when that horseman dies the horses will respawn as a unit. (this confused me alittle, i guess we will have to watch it in action)
- City States as a sort of small countries that never develop beyond their single city. They can provide bonusses if you befriend them, or you can take over their land.
- Civics are out, now there is something called "Social Policies".
- About the same amount of wonders, the tech tree will feel familiar. Great People still in.
- Some victory conditions changed. For example in Conquest you only have to capture all the other capitals. Eliminates boring mop up phase.
- Unique Civ leader bonusses, no more standard "Spiritual" or "Financial".
- DirectX 11 support.
- Built in webbrowser. Sid Meier is also working on a facebook application of Civilization.

Quote from: Grallon on February 18, 2010, 01:37:28 PM
I've often stated here how Civ games are always built on the same model: start point A - run your civ through the tech tree - end point Z - thus linear.

Even though Im sure you got my point but was only trying to be snarky :)

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on February 18, 2010, 04:22:35 PM
That is at the core of what Civ as a game is.  It's like complaining about American football because players can use their hands to touch the ball and there are too many breaks in play.

Quote from: Jacob on February 18, 2010, 04:30:14 PM
Fuck yeah!  Can't wait to get this!

Too bad that they're taking religions out, they're a lot of fun.

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on February 18, 2010, 04:22:35 PM

That is at the core of what Civ as a game is.  It's like complaining about American football because players can use their hands to touch the ball and there are too many breaks in play.

Quote from: PDH on February 18, 2010, 05:07:26 PM
Panzer Civilization sounds cool.

Quote from: Ed Anger on February 18, 2010, 07:18:59 PM

Quote from: PDH on February 18, 2010, 05:07:26 PM
Panzer Civilization sounds cool.

The Norway map is gonna be super hard.

Quote from: Ed Anger on February 18, 2010, 07:18:59 PM

Quote from: PDH on February 18, 2010, 05:07:26 PM
Panzer Civilization sounds cool.

The Norway map is gonna be super hard.

Quote from: Fate on February 18, 2010, 04:48:56 PM
I like that they're returning more to a Civ3/SMAC look rather than the cartoonish style of Civ4.

Quote from: Syt on February 18, 2010, 03:07:11 PM
A Dane on P'dox has summed up from a Danish games rag:

Quote
- Less "cheating" AI.

Quote from: Grallon on February 18, 2010, 07:17:46 PM

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on February 18, 2010, 04:22:35 PM

That is at the core of what Civ as a game is.  It's like complaining about American football because players can use their hands to touch the ball and there are too many breaks in play.

Terrible analogy.  The development of a civilization shouldn't be equated with the progress of a game set with arbitrary rules.





G.

Quote from: Kleves on February 18, 2010, 09:11:08 PM
The map is awesome. :mmm:

Quote from: Tonitrus on February 18, 2010, 09:40:22 PM
And actually, while I like the idea of hexes in terms of gameplay, the biggest annoying thing about them, is that it will make moving units with the arrow keys/number pad on the keyboard nearly impossible.  :D

Quote from: Martinus on February 19, 2010, 02:44:43 AM
LOL culture system is probably the best improvement done to the game system after Civ 2. Most people absolutely love it and it has been in each of the game iterations since then. Fat chance it is done away with.

Quote from: HisMajestyBOB on February 18, 2010, 10:26:26 PM

Quote from: Syt on February 18, 2010, 03:07:11 PM
A Dane on P'dox has summed up from a Danish games rag:

Quote
- Less "cheating" AI.

Bullshit. Cheating AI is a cornerstone of the Civ series.

Anyway, I've been playing Civ2 recently. I forgot just how much fun it is, and how much Civ3 sucks.

Quote from: Syt on February 18, 2010, 03:07:11 PM
A Dane on P'dox has summed up from a Danish games rag:

QuoteI just wrote down the main points of the article.

- Switch from squares to hexagons changing the way the game plays. More room for maneuvers and more tactical options.
- Changes to combat. More depth in combat, no more stacking of units. This will lead to bigger focus on terrain.
- Inspired by Panzer General.
- Reintroduction of Bombardment, now archers and siege equipment can shoot over melee units.
- Better diplomatic AI.
- More diplomatic options between players.
- Less "cheating" AI.
- Religion is not a factor anymore.
- Ressources are not infinite. For example one source of horse only supplies enough horses for 1 unit, but when that horseman dies the horses will respawn as a unit. (this confused me alittle, i guess we will have to watch it in action)
- City States as a sort of small countries that never develop beyond their single city. They can provide bonusses if you befriend them, or you can take over their land.
- Civics are out, now there is something called "Social Policies".
- About the same amount of wonders, the tech tree will feel familiar. Great People still in.
- Some victory conditions changed. For example in Conquest you only have to capture all the other capitals. Eliminates boring mop up phase.
- Unique Civ leader bonusses, no more standard "Spiritual" or "Financial".
- DirectX 11 support.
- Built in webbrowser. Sid Meier is also working on a facebook application of Civilization.

Quote from: lustindarkness on February 19, 2010, 09:32:34 AM
Any rumors of when this comes out? Looks good to have for my next deployment.

Quote from: Martinus on February 19, 2010, 02:44:43 AM
LOL culture system is probably the best improvement done to the game system after Civ 2. Most people absolutely love it and it has been in each of the game iterations since then. Fat chance it is done away with.

Quote from: Tonitrus on February 19, 2010, 10:28:10 AM

Quote from: lustindarkness on February 19, 2010, 09:32:34 AM
Any rumors of when this comes out? Looks good to have for my next deployment.

I think the only thing one of the articles said was "Fall 2010"

Quote from: Martinus on February 18, 2010, 05:46:49 PM
I'm disappointed noone said the map sucks. :(

I'm kinda sad they are removing religions but otherwise it looks cool.

Quote from: lustindarkness on February 19, 2010, 11:20:04 AM

Quote from: Tonitrus on February 19, 2010, 10:28:10 AM

Quote from: lustindarkness on February 19, 2010, 09:32:34 AM
Any rumors of when this comes out? Looks good to have for my next deployment.

I think the only thing one of the articles said was "Fall 2010"

Yeah. http://www.civilization5.com/ says Fall 2010 also.

Quote from: DGuller on February 19, 2010, 10:37:44 AM

Quote from: Martinus on February 19, 2010, 02:44:43 AM
LOL culture system is probably the best improvement done to the game system after Civ 2. Most people absolutely love it and it has been in each of the game iterations since then. Fat chance it is done away with.

It's not a problem if you're just conquering everything in sight.  It's a problem if you like playing a medium-sized civilization for the whole game, and want to grab an extra city or two in strategic location.  The enemy culture would choke off that city, which makes it even more impossible to effectively generate your own culture in that city, so you've got no way to make the city viable without further conquest.  Even the culture bombs frequently fail to detonate.

I'm not arguing that culture should be done away with completely, but it should be toned down so that it is much less likely to impede on the city squares.  Maybe you should have city squares be off-limits to a culture grab; regardless of culture percentages, the square belongs to the civilization with the city.  If there is ovelap between two cities, then have the culture be the tie-breaker.

Quote from: Jacob on February 19, 2010, 03:15:15 PM
I usually don't have that problem, and I rarely go for all out conquest.  If you're running a strong culture, and have a few of the auto generate culture things going then the city usually ends up doing okay.

QuoteAlternately, you can conquer the adjacent cities and destroy them, if you don't want to conquer everything - or keep one or two as a culture buffer to give your new city room to expand.

Quote from: Martinus on February 20, 2010, 05:16:38 AM
...it's akin to leaving slavery out of Colonization).

QuoteCiv V interview: losing religion, and teaching the AI to lie
11-Mar-2010 Civ V's lead designer explains the game's most daring decisions.
1 CommentsCivilization V is on its way, and it's changing some of the fundamental ways a Civ game works. The square grid is gone, unit stacks are gone, even God is gone - they've scrapped the religion system. We talked to the game's lead designer Jon Shafer and producer Dennis Shirk to find out the reasoning behind these changes, and what they're focusing on instead.

PC Gamer: What makes a good Civ game?

Jon Shafer: Every Civ game has its own charm. The core is always that it has tiles and it has turns, and this is something we've talked about in the past with Civ 4. The ability to pace the game with the turns. Also, the core of the Civ gameplay is always that one-more-turn sense. When we're designing it we always want to have some mini-goal that's in the back of your mind that's telling you, "You shouldn't go to bed yet. There's more that you can do."

PCG: What are the biggest differences between Civ V and and IV?

Jon: There's a few things. One of the big ones is that, instead of square tiles, we're going to have hex tiles. There's a couple things with hexes that give the advantage over squares. First off, graphically they look better, because no tiles share corners. You can have more of an organic look. You don't have to have 90 degree angles everywhere, you can have it more free flowing. It also helps out with gameplay. Everyone who plays Civ knows that when you move your units, or whatever, visibility range, you generally want to go along diagonals, because you cover more distance that way than if you go a straight line. With hexes that's no longer a factor, so there's benefit in gameplay and in the visuals.

Couple other things. We're really excited about the changes we're making to the combat system. Anyone who's familiar with the old SSI [Strategic Simulations, Inc] games like Panzer General will recognise the change that we've made. That's the inspiration behind the system. We really liked the mechanics in that game, so we took the basics from it and iterated on it.

Some of the details on that is that instead of having big stacks of units like players are used to, you're only going to be able to have one military unit on each tile. So you'll see fronts form on the battlefield more, instead of these big masses. We're also going to be introducing ranged units to the game, like archers and catapults. They'll be able to fire over multiple tiles and hit enemies away from them. We think those things will make the combat really exciting.

PCG: Is combat more of a focus, or diplomacy?

Jon: We're trying to keep that balance. We definitely don't want Civ V to only be seen as a wargame. We are adding depth there, but its depth you'll see if that's the area you're interested in. Diplomacy is one of our big focuses. We wanted to have the other AI players have their own agenda, so they develop a plan on how to win the game, how to deal with their neighbours. They determine whether they're going to be hostile or deceptive, so they could pretend to be your friend and then backstab you later. So there's more going on under the hood than there ever has been.

PCG: So when you're selecting an opposition leader, does your choice determine that, or are they adaptive?

Jon: It's a mix of both. We wanted the AI players to be recognisable, so they're not just completely random personalities. Ghandi will play a certain way, George Washington will play a certain way. But it's also not hard and fast. If someone realises that, say they're on an island somewhere, they'll be able to recognise that and think, hey, building a big navy will help me out this game, so I'm going to go that direction. Or if they're in a landmass surrounded by a bunch of players, you might have an aggressive leader who's a bit more conservative because he realises his situation is tenuous. We wanted to have that mix where you generally recognise how characters act, but it's not predictable.

PCG: What have you streamlined from previous games?

Jon: We made some changes with religion. Because diplomacy is one of our focuses with Civ V, planning what an AI leader is thinking, how he's going to win the game, that wasn't something that was meshing very well with the religion system. In Civ IV, the religions were primary factors of who liked whom and who disliked whom. And that wasn't meshing very well with what we wanted to do, so we decided to move on without the religion system. But that's mainly because we wanted diplomacy to have more depth and not be so predictable. We wanted to make sure that the AI leaders were taking into account the same things as the player was taking into account. A player might not care what religion you're running, but they might care quite a bit if you attack one of their friends.

Let's see if there's a couple good examples...

Dennis: Jon's point about stepping away from religion is a good one. We want people to remember that as these systems are taken away, in favour of new systems, we're never leaving gaping holes where people are going to be saying, 'Oh my god, they took out religion, what am I going to do now?'.

We're putting in new mechanics, especially with diplomacy, that are making the game an entirely new experience - especially with things like city states. City states are a new mechanism on the map. They're smaller, single city, weaker NPCs scattered throughout the map. They never really grow that much, but they're there to grease the wheels of diplomacy.

Jon: There are a few mechanics of making making friends with them and getting rewards, and you can kill them of course if you want. But the thing we're excited about with these is: say you've made friends with a particular city state, and another AI power that's more militaristic decides he wants conquer it. You have this interesting situation that didn't exist in previous Civ games. Rarely were you concerned about other players, their survival, their situation. Now you can have this web of client states who are subservient to you and working towards your victory, and protecting them is very much in your interests. It works both ways. If you're a militaristic player, you now have to worry about who you're attacking because it might bring in a larger alliance against you.

PCG: Will the city states persist throughout the game or will they die out?

Jon: They start at the beginning like all other players, and they'll stick around to the end if they're able to survive that long.

Dennis: I was playing an excellent game the other day. City states that are close to your borders are candidates for you to take, because they give very good resources. I ended up taking a neighbouring city state, and that immediately sparked off a war with another civilization that was getting benefits from being friends with that city state. That war went on for some 200 years, with them trying to liberate the city state and me trying to keep and claim what I felt was mine.

PCG: What do you think is the central appeal of the game?

Jon: Civ V is a different flavour of Civ. It's the opportunity to live out history in an exciting fashion. I think a lot of people have read historical books or movies and get excited about that kind of thing. Anyone who has watched Gladiator or Braveheart and that sort of thing, it's an opportunity to get into history yourself, almost as if you're an actor in the story. I think that's the biggest draw of the game, in addition to the strategy and the mechanics, it's really the experience of living history.

Dennis: This gives everyone the opportunity to be great. A 13-year-old can come in and play it and they can either succeed greatly or fail greatly, and take something from it and then try something new. It caters to the hardcore. If you're one of those numbers people, then that's open to you.

PCG: How does Civ V treat established history: are you mostly trying to stick to it, or rewrite it?

Jon: We like to stick to using history as a backdrop for the story that emerges as you play, so you might end up with particular situations that have a nod to history but they're pretty much coincidental. In one game I was playing the other day, one of the city states in the game was Venice. And I was Rome. And starting next to Venice is a neat situation, like, 'Oh yeah, that makes sense'. History is the framework for the game, it's not something that we want to stick to completely. Ultimately we're catering to that interest in history, and we want you to feel like you are a leader, but you are the leader of your own nation in your mind, less so than behind a specific character in a specific time period.

PCG: You mentioned the combat before, how will allies work?

Jon: Generally it's building relationships. There's not a ton of formal arrangements you can make, there are some, but a lot of it is based on how you behave in terms of the game rules itself.

If you build your city next to an AI's capital, in previous games they would be like, "Oh whatever." But now we've added additional logic that lets the AI evaulate what's going on in the game as a whole in the same manner as a human would do. So if you build a city next to someone's capital, that's actually going to annoy them. They'll realise that you're settling very aggressively, and that will have an adverse relationship on them. They'll call you up and will say, hey, you're expanding there, don't do this. If you continue doing it, they'll notice that as well, and if they might actually ask that you make concessions, like give them money or something in exchange for keeping their friendship. Otherwise you could have a cold war situation.

So in terms of working with the AI players, we wanted to focus a lot on the acts of being a good neighbour, the acts of being a good ally, moreso than specific individual arrangements.

We do have some additional ones, like the research. You can have both players spend a sum of money upfront and over time together you'll get a research bonus so that it stacks up over time and the longer it goes on, it crosses a tipping point where you've got more out of it than you've spent upfront. But if relations breakdown before that point, if you attack somebody, then that becomes a very wasteful move. You want to make sure that you make these agreements with people you really trust. We're trying to attack both areas, but the focus is on how players behave rather than formal arrangements.

PCG: Is there support for the backstab player?

Jon: There are some AIs that behave in that manner. So I just mentioned the research agreements. There's some AI who to lull you into a false sense of security will offer you a research agreement and will use that to make you lower your guard and then attack you afterwards. There's a lot of situations where the AI players will use deception, because they have the ability to respond as the player does.

One example I mentioned before was if you settle near an AI, they ask you to please not do it, and you have the opportunity to tell them, 'Don't worry, we'll be nice,' or 'We don't care what you think, whatever'. And if you're more direct, then that's something that people recognise, but they won't hold it against you. But if you say that you're going to be nice, and then you go back on your word, then that's a much more serious incident and players will take notice of that. The AI can also perform in that same manner, where they'll respond to you and say, "Oh, we're just passing through, don't worry about it," and then they'll attack you.

PCG: What are the multiplayer plans?

Dennis: We're going to have the same basic modes that we had in Civ IV, but we're going to be talking about that soon.

PCG: Do you see Civ V as an incremental progression of Civ, or a revolution?

Jon: It's more of a revolution than a refinement. The basics are all still the same, but the new combat, the focus on diplomacy, the city state, those are all new mechanics. We lean in the direction of trying to innovate rather than refine. We recognise that Civ is a great game, and we didn't want to just keep piling on top of that base. We wanted to create something that was good in its own right, where we could try new things and provide a new flavour of Civilization.

PCG: Any other changes you want to mention?

Dennis: The modding tools that we're providing with Civ V. While V is every bit as moddable as Civ IV was, the tools that we're providing eclipse everything we've had before. We're including a standalone world builder that anybody could use to create their own worlds. Another thing we're adding is an in-game mod browser, so within the brower in-game you can go to our system and download and install mods directly. People will be able to upload their mods into that system. We're really trying to bump up the community aspect.
Richard McCormick

Quote from: DGuller on March 12, 2010, 01:59:00 PM
I wonder how you'll store your units during peacetime if you can only do one per hex.  You can't park them all in the cities, but it would be annoying to have to keep them deployed out in the field permanently.  I also wonder how city defense will work.  Does losing one battle cost you the city?

Quote from: Berkut on March 12, 2010, 02:10:47 PM

Quote from: DGuller on March 12, 2010, 01:59:00 PM
I wonder how you'll store your units during peacetime if you can only do one per hex.  You can't park them all in the cities, but it would be annoying to have to keep them deployed out in the field permanently.  I also wonder how city defense will work.  Does losing one battle cost you the city?

I do that now sometimes.  It is convenient to dump them in unused tiles so long as there are roads. 

Just leave them all sitting out in the forest.

Quote from: DGuller on March 12, 2010, 01:59:00 PM
I also wonder how city defense will work.  Does losing one battle cost you the city?

QuotePreviously players would create a ton of cities in order to grab up all the important land around them, placing "stacks of doom" within the cities for defense. Civ5 does away not only with the stacks, but also with traditional city combat. Cities now defend themselves, with their HP based on their total populations. This means that players now have to focus on placing their armies in a formation that better defends the territory around the city (ideally keeping enemies from ever reaching a town to begin with), as well as build fewer cities overall so that the few they have can expand enough to reach large population levels. To help with this players can spend their gold to absorb new pieces of land around the city, making land-grabbing more an exercise of healthy empire building than an exercise in who can spam cities and create some sort of prehistoric urban sprawl.

Quote from: Berkut on March 12, 2010, 02:10:47 PM

Quote from: DGuller on March 12, 2010, 01:59:00 PM
I wonder how you'll store your units during peacetime if you can only do one per hex.  You can't park them all in the cities, but it would be annoying to have to keep them deployed out in the field permanently.  I also wonder how city defense will work.  Does losing one battle cost you the city?

Just leave them all sitting out in the forest.

Quote from: Kleves on March 12, 2010, 02:20:26 PM

Quote from: DGuller on March 12, 2010, 01:59:00 PM
I also wonder how city defense will work.  Does losing one battle cost you the city?

QuotePreviously players would create a ton of cities in order to grab up all the important land around them, placing "stacks of doom" within the cities for defense. Civ5 does away not only with the stacks, but also with traditional city combat. Cities now defend themselves, with their HP based on their total populations. This means that players now have to focus on placing their armies in a formation that better defends the territory around the city (ideally keeping enemies from ever reaching a town to begin with), as well as build fewer cities overall so that the few they have can expand enough to reach large population levels. To help with this players can spend their gold to absorb new pieces of land around the city, making land-grabbing more an exercise of healthy empire building than an exercise in who can spam cities and create some sort of prehistoric urban sprawl.

From http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sid-meiers-civilization-v/1076627p2.html

QuoteLOL culture system is probably the best improvement done to the game system after Civ 2. Most people absolutely love it and it has been in each of the game iterations since then. Fat chance it is done away with.

Quote from: HisMajestyBOB on February 18, 2010, 10:26:26 PM

Quote from: Syt on February 18, 2010, 03:07:11 PM
A Dane on P'dox has summed up from a Danish games rag:

Quote
- Less "cheating" AI.

Bullshit. Cheating AI is a cornerstone of the Civ series.

Anyway, I've been playing Civ2 recently. I forgot just how much fun it is, and how much Civ3 sucks.

Quote from: DGuller on February 19, 2010, 03:55:48 PM

Quote from: Jacob on February 19, 2010, 03:15:15 PM
I usually don't have that problem, and I rarely go for all out conquest.  If you're running a strong culture, and have a few of the auto generate culture things going then the city usually ends up doing okay.

There are two problems with this.  First, it takes an awful lot of time to catch up to the old owner's culture in the affected squares.  A huge fraction of the game time.  Second, it's usually hard to build the city up to generate its own culture when it's starved of city squares.

QuoteYes, that works, but that hardly qualifies as limited conquest.  Eventually you fall into the trap of having to keep expanding, because now your buffer cities are choked by the enemy culture.  The fact that capturing one city forces you to lay waste to a couple more is exactly one of the things I find very annoying.

Quote from: DGuller on March 12, 2010, 08:45:13 PM
I'm not sure why you're being so combative.  Obviously anything in the game is part of the gameplay, I'm just pointing out how some game mechanics are not producing fun results.

QuoteI'm also not sure that they are keeping that feature.  I didn't see anything about how control of squares is determined for newly conquered cities.  Ideally once the squares are assigned to a city, they stick, so eventually the map starts being filled out with immutable irregularly-shaped provinces.

Quote from: Jacob on March 12, 2010, 08:59:43 PM
One thing they better fix one way or another is the annoyance of getting combat and enemy notificactions at the beginning of the turn, only be jerked all over the map for various pop-ups so you have no idea where the combat happened.

Quote from: Jacob on March 12, 2010, 08:59:43 PM
One thing they better fix one way or another is the annoyance of getting combat and enemy notificactions at the beginning of the turn, only be jerked all over the map for various pop-ups so you have no idea where the combat happened.

Quote from: Tyr on March 12, 2010, 03:51:36 PM
One thing I want back- partisans.
I loved in Civ 2 where after a civ has the proper tech one of their cities is conquered and *boom* cool sound effects and free units in the hills.
Or is this actually in later ones and I've just somehow never encountered it...

QuoteLOL culture system is probably the best improvement done to the game system after Civ 2. Most people absolutely love it and it has been in each of the game iterations since then. Fat chance it is done away with.

I liked it. I'd want it improved even. In Civ 4 its not mallable enough, it takes most of the game to flip a city.

Quote from: HisMajestyBOB on February 18, 2010, 10:26:26 PM

Quote from: Syt on February 18, 2010, 03:07:11 PM
A Dane on P'dox has summed up from a Danish games rag:

Quote
- Less "cheating" AI.

Bullshit. Cheating AI is a cornerstone of the Civ series.

Anyway, I've been playing Civ2 recently. I forgot just how much fun it is, and how much Civ3 sucks.

I note they just said less, not complete removal ;)

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on March 13, 2010, 06:50:01 AM
Be gooder if they just made SMAC2.

QuoteIt will come as no surprise to those of you who are familar with expansion packs for previous Civilization games that Gods & Kings will add more techs, units, buildings, Wonders, and playable Civilizations. But what about the big brand new game elements that will change the way you conquer the world? Let me lay it out for you:

Tons of New Stuff. I know I just mentioned it, but I want to draw attention to just how many new things we've got here: 27 new units, 13 new buildings, 9 new wonders, and 9 new playable civilizations. Among the new civilizations are the Netherlands (William I, Prince of Orange), the Celts (Boudicca), and the Mayans (Pacal the Great).

Religion: That's right; quite possibly the most requested major addition to the game is coming in the Gods & Kings expansion. Using the new "Faith" resource, you'll be able to found your own religion and grow it from a simple Pantheon of the Gods to a world-spanning fully-customized religion.

Reworked Combat System: The expansion has a reworked combat system along with an AI that places more emphasis on balanced army composition. Among the changes to the combat system is the addition of melee naval units, which will force you to really rethink the way you execute your naval assaults.

Enhanced Diplomacy, with Espionage: In addition to being able to establish embassies with your rival civilizations, spies will now be an important part of how you conduct your foreign affairs. Surveying foreign cities, stealing advanced techs, and garnering influence with city-states are some of the things you'll be able to do with this new powerful mechanic.

New City-States: With religion being added to the game, it only made sense to introduce Religious city-states which will interact with your religion in special ways. In addition, Mercantile city-states will be attractive for those of you who love to grow your civilization's treasury. All city-states will use the greatly expanded quest system, making city-states more dynamic and diplomatic victories more challenging, while decreasing the importance of gold when dealing with city-states.

New Scenarios: Three new scenarios will be coming in Civilization V: Gods & Kings. Experience the fall of Rome, explore the medieval era, and my personal favorite: a unique scenario in a Victorian science-fiction setting.

Quote from: Kleves on February 16, 2012, 04:21:34 PM
My major problem with Civ V was that all civilizations played pretty much the same way. I would have liked to see an expansion that focused on making the civs more unique - especially the units.

Quote from: Martinus on February 21, 2012, 10:18:51 AM
I may be the odd one here but I thought it was more fun than most of the earlier iterations. It felt more streamlined and less micro-manage-y. I also liked how you could win this game easily with 3 cities or so.

Quote from: Martinus on February 21, 2012, 10:20:07 AM

Quote from: Kleves on February 16, 2012, 04:21:34 PM
My major problem with Civ V was that all civilizations played pretty much the same way. I would have liked to see an expansion that focused on making the civs more unique - especially the units.

Err, that's rather silly considering that the choice of "civics" made every game different. Of course if you chose the same civics every time, it felt the same, but there were different choices to make if you wanted to play a militaristic, or a cultural or a ICS civ.

Quote from: Razgovory on February 18, 2010, 04:32:07 PM

Quote from: Jacob on February 18, 2010, 04:30:14 PM
Fuck yeah!  Can't wait to get this!

Too bad that they're taking religions out, they're a lot of fun.

Probably saving it for an add on.

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on February 21, 2012, 11:15:44 AM

Quote from: Martinus on February 21, 2012, 10:20:07 AM

Quote from: Kleves on February 16, 2012, 04:21:34 PM
My major problem with Civ V was that all civilizations played pretty much the same way. I would have liked to see an expansion that focused on making the civs more unique - especially the units.

Err, that's rather silly considering that the choice of "civics" made every game different. Of course if you chose the same civics every time, it felt the same, but there were different choices to make if you wanted to play a militaristic, or a cultural or a ICS civ.

Eliminating the mega stacks and sprawl were all great.  I just found the game lacking in something.

Quote from: Tamas on May 20, 2012, 03:34:51 PM
When will it be out?

Quote from: Tamas on May 20, 2012, 03:34:51 PM
When will it be out?

QuoteChurch Property: +2 Gold for each city following this Religion
Initiation Rites: +100 Gold when each city first converts to this Religion
Interfaith Dialougue: Gain Science when a missionary spreads this religion to cities of other religions
Papal Primacy + 15 to Influence resting point with City States following this religion
Peace Loving: +1 Happiness for every 5 followers of this Religion in non-enemy cities
Pilgrmage: +1 Faith for each foreign city following this Religion
Tithe: +1 Gold for every 4 followers of this Religion
World Church: +1 Culture for every 5 followers of this Religion in other civilizations

QuoteAsceticism: Shrines provide +1 Happiness in Cities with 3 followers
Cathedrals: Use Faith to purchase Cathedrals (+1 Faith, +3 Culture, +1 Happiness, Artist Specialist slot)
Choral Music: Temples provide +2 Culture in Cities with 5 followers
Divine Inspiration: Each World Wonder provides +2 Faith in city
Feed the World: Shrines and Temples provide +1 Food each in city
Guruship: +2 Production if city has a Specialist
Holy Warriors: Use Faith to purchase pre-Industrial land units
Liturgical Drama: Amphitheaters provide +1 Faith in cities with 3 followers
Monasteries: Use Faith to purchase Monasteries (+2 Faith, +2 Culture, more with Wine or Incense)
Mosques: Use Faith to purchase Mosques (+3 Faith, +2 Culture, +1 Happiness)
Peace Gardens: Gardens provide +2 Happiness in city
Religious Art: Hermitage provides +5 Culture in city
Religious Community: +1% Production for each follower (max +15%)
Swords into Plowshares: 15% faster Growth rate for city if not at war

Quote from: Martinus on May 21, 2012, 09:57:41 AM
I think there will also be a Religious Victory but not sure what it entails.

Quote from: mongers on May 21, 2012, 06:27:46 PM
So will this work on my old althon dual core laptop with no dedicated graphics ? :unsure:

Quote from: Viking on May 22, 2012, 11:12:03 AM

Quote from: mongers on May 21, 2012, 06:27:46 PM
So will this work on my old althon dual core laptop with no dedicated graphics ? :unsure:

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/intro.aspx

Quote from: mongers on May 21, 2012, 06:27:46 PM
So will this work on my old althon dual core laptop with no dedicated graphics ? :unsure:

Quote from: DGuller on May 22, 2012, 01:07:21 PM

Quote from: mongers on May 21, 2012, 06:27:46 PM
So will this work on my old althon dual core laptop with no dedicated graphics ? :unsure:

In text-only mode, maybe.

Quote from: DGuller on May 22, 2012, 01:07:21 PM

Quote from: mongers on May 21, 2012, 06:27:46 PM
So will this work on my old althon dual core laptop with no dedicated graphics ? :unsure:

In text-only mode, maybe.

Quote from: Martinus on June 19, 2012, 08:48:12 AM
So it's the US release date today. Tell us what it is like when you get it. :)

Quote from: Tamas on June 19, 2012, 08:52:39 AM

Quote from: Martinus on June 19, 2012, 08:48:12 AM
So it's the US release date today. Tell us what it is like when you get it. :)

try FlyVPN. you need to download it, then you can get a free trial password from their site.Turn of Steam before connecting to a US proxy, turn Steam back in, have the game activate, finish the download (should be able to turn off the proxy so it goes faster), then switch Steam to offline mode, and play.

Do it fast so I know if it gets you banned from your Steam account :P Altough it shouldn't, I understand people do this regularly

Quote from: Martinus on June 19, 2012, 09:12:27 AM
Also, it appears that the Mac version is already available.  :cool:

Quote from: Kleves on June 20, 2012, 10:02:06 PM
There's some nice new options. Doesn't fix my main problem with the game: every civilization is so damn generic.

Quote from: Martinus on June 22, 2012, 03:27:44 AM
Ok, so first of all, for all the Euros out there, the expansion pack is already available on Steam.

Quote from: FunkMonk on June 23, 2012, 11:10:33 AM
I'm the Ottomans on a Continents map. Spawned on a large island off the coast of a large continent. After setting up a few cities I captured the city-state Lisbon and renamed it Porkchopograd since the damn eggplants gave me a rough go at first.

Since then I founded the religion known as Timmayism and my armies of Trebuchets and Janissaries have spread the word of Tim onto the continent, capturing Vienna with its spearhead units of Seedy's Coppas and Ed's Waffen SS. Additional reinforcements in the form of Marty's Men, Timmay's Brigade, and Berkut's Band are en route across the Errant Sea to join the rest of our armies as we prepare to backstab our Spanish ally Isabella and throw her into my harem pit. The forces of "LOL can I be: Ottoman Empire" are irresistable.

I like the game so far. :)

Quote from: jimmy olsen on June 24, 2012, 05:31:31 PM

Quote from: FunkMonk on June 23, 2012, 11:10:33 AM
I'm the Ottomans on a Continents map. Spawned on a large island off the coast of a large continent. After setting up a few cities I captured the city-state Lisbon and renamed it Porkchopograd since the damn eggplants gave me a rough go at first.

Since then I founded the religion known as Timmayism and my armies of Trebuchets and Janissaries have spread the word of Tim onto the continent, capturing Vienna with its spearhead units of Seedy's Coppas and Ed's Waffen SS. Additional reinforcements in the form of Marty's Men, Timmay's Brigade, and Berkut's Band are en route across the Errant Sea to join the rest of our armies as we prepare to backstab our Spanish ally Isabella and throw her into my harem pit. The forces of "LOL can I be: Ottoman Empire" are irresistable.

I like the game so far. :)

:w00t:

What are the tenets of this religion?

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on June 25, 2012, 08:34:40 AM
Does teh expansion make it mroe interesting?

Quote from: DGuller on June 25, 2012, 10:17:18 AM
Austria is super-duper-overpowered.  That is all.

Quote from: Viking on June 25, 2012, 04:05:03 PM

Quote from: DGuller on June 25, 2012, 10:17:18 AM
Austria is super-duper-overpowered.  That is all.

Is buying city states cheap?

Quote from: Viking on June 25, 2012, 04:19:02 PM
basically twice as much as a settler?

Quote from: Tonitrus on June 25, 2012, 04:36:51 PM
500 to bag the city?  Sounds way too cheap...often costs that much or more just to get to friendship.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on July 10, 2012, 01:08:24 PM
Good. Nukes suck. I always turn off the MP anyway.

Quote from: Pitiful Pathos on July 15, 2012, 10:23:53 AM
So I just bought it plus the expansion.  Is there a good online strategy guide or something?

Quote from: Pitiful Pathos on July 15, 2012, 10:23:53 AM
So I just bought it plus the expansion.  Is there a good online strategy guide or something?

Quote from: Pitiful Pathos on July 15, 2012, 10:23:53 AM
So I just bought it plus the expansion.  Is there a good online strategy guide or something?

Quote from: Pitiful Pathos on July 15, 2012, 06:46:38 PM
Are there any unhappiness, maintenance or cost disadvantages to building cities farther away from each other, as in previous Civs?

Quote from: Viking on October 25, 2012, 06:29:42 PM
G&K is worth getting. The mods are mature now and all of the mods require G&K. Well, if you haven't played vanilla out yet, do that first, then get G&K.

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on December 13, 2012, 03:07:05 PM
I've started two games as Rome.  In both I was no where near Iron, in my second its not even visible on the freakin map.  What good are legionaires if you can't build them ever?

Quote from: DGuller on December 13, 2012, 03:16:47 PM

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on December 13, 2012, 03:07:05 PM
I've started two games as Rome.  In both I was no where near Iron, in my second its not even visible on the freakin map.  What good are legionaires if you can't build them ever?

They're no good at all if you can't build them, in my experience.

Quote from: Zanza on December 21, 2012, 04:22:58 AM
Is Civ5 + God&Kings worth 30 Euro?

Quote from: Razgovory on December 21, 2012, 05:41:57 AM
It really depends on age and gender of the thirty Euros.

Quote from: Zanza on December 21, 2012, 04:22:58 AM
Is Civ5 + God&Kings worth 30 Euro?

Quote from: DGuller on December 21, 2012, 09:04:20 AM

Quote from: Zanza on December 21, 2012, 04:22:58 AM
Is Civ5 + God&Kings worth 30 Euro?

Yes, most definitely.

Quote from: Razgovory on December 21, 2012, 05:41:57 AM
It really depends on age and gender of the thirty Euros.

Quote from: Pitiful Pathos on December 21, 2012, 10:05:34 PM
What are the best mods these days for Civ5 + G&K?

Quote from: mongers on February 20, 2013, 02:42:31 PM
Continued with my 2nd game ever, I ended up playing for 8 1/2 hours last night.  :Embarrass:

Quote from: DGuller on February 20, 2013, 02:56:55 PM

Quote from: mongers on February 20, 2013, 02:42:31 PM
Continued with my 2nd game ever, I ended up playing for 8 1/2 hours last night.  :Embarrass:

Yeah, that can happen sometimes.  :blush:

Quote from: mongers on March 11, 2013, 06:43:06 PM
Got around to continuing my game, it's 1915 and the agressive Askira, at war with Washington, has entered the later's territory to finish him off; I think I'll have no option than to come to his defence, otherwise I loose a valuable buffer territory, which I imagine will trigger WW1 across the map.  :cool:

Quote from: Viking on March 11, 2013, 06:56:45 PM

Quote from: mongers on March 11, 2013, 06:43:06 PM
Got around to continuing my game, it's 1915 and the agressive Askira, at war with Washington, has entered the later's territory to finish him off; I think I'll have no option than to come to his defence, otherwise I loose a valuable buffer territory, which I imagine will trigger WW1 across the map.  :cool:

You can give him units. Get access, enter his territory and give him the units.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on February 20, 2013, 02:53:30 PM
Is g+k the only expansion out so far?

QuoteThere's going to be a second major Civilization V expansion. It's called Brave New World, it introduces 9 new Civs, the concepts of tourism, ideologies, international trade routes and archaeology, and basically it sounds like it's pretty huge on an under-the-hood front. I had a big chat with Firaxis lead programmer Ed Beach and senior producer Dennis Shirk on what's in there, why, how it works and why we'll be forming impressive in-game art collections.

RPS: I guess the thing is to sum up for me and the readers how this is going to make Civ V different.

Ed Beach: We felt like with Gods and Kings, we'd really done a good job looking at the early to mid-part of the game, adding a lot of content and a lot of richness to the game there, with the new religion systems and then later with the espionage system. And we didn't want to ignore that part of the game entirely, so we'll talk later about the international trade routes which definitely come into play right at the very beginning of the game and are a big new change there.

Overall what we wanted the focus for this expansion to be was to look at that back half of the game from when you get into the twentieth century, and then you push on to one of the four different types of victories that are supported in Civilisation V, and we wanted to ramp up the tension and excitement level in that part of the game. So there are two things that we did: one was that we looked at the conflicts of the twentieth century. We already had a concept we just started to introduce in Civ V a little bit about different ideologies, where we had a freedom policy tree, an order policy tree, and an autocracy policy tree, and we wanted to bring that to the fore and really make civilisations make a commitment to one of those three different types of ideologies.

So when you reach the modern era you have to look around the world, see who's going with which of the ideologies, who's your friend, what type of victory you want to pursue, which ideologies might help you get there. You've got to make a key decision at that part of the game, are you going to be a freedom Civ, are you maybe going to take the workers of your country and try to unite them and get behind order and push towards victory that way? So there's a big decision point there, big political and diplomatic blocks form around that, and that's sort of where the tension towards the end of the game revolves.

RPS: And you're completely locked to it once you choose it, presumably there's no way to switch out to another one?

Ed Beach: Mostly. You can change it. You probably don't want to, but there is this idea of a brand new system we have for cultural victory. Before in cultural victory all you were trying to do was just fill up policy trees, and you weren't interacting with the other civilisations at all, very, very different now with Brave New World.

With Brave New World what you're doing is you're creating Great Works as well as Wonders, basically all sorts of different items that will attract people to want to come and visit your civilisation and sample all the great elements of culture that you have present in your civilisation. That starts producing what we call Tourism, and what you're doing with the Tourism is you're taking the glories of your civilisation and you're pushing it out on all the other players and civilisations in the world, and getting them to realise what an amazing civilisation you've created.

If you push that cultural pressure out on them hard enough, and you have a different ideology than they do, then you can actually start to see effects in the game that are sort of similar to the 1989 bringing down of the Berlin wall, maybe Arab Spring sort of thing that we've seen more recently, where the people within those AI civilisations will start to become very unhappy about their leadership having adopted an unpopular ideology. And they will actually gain a whole bunch of unhappiness and they can actually choose, wow, we really need to switch and adopt freedom or order, or whatever the ideology that's putting that cultural pressure on them is.

RPS: So you could basically disrupt someone's autocracy and either they roll with it and adapt to what their people want or they basically end up losing because they're in a state of revolt?

Ed Beach: Right. And as a player, if you are put in that position, then, you were saying do you ever switch ideologies, well you could, you might be in a situation where maybe you're a very scientific player and you've been ignoring this whole cultural, diplomatic, theological battle, but your people are telling you that you picked the wrong ideology. You could go and switch to a different one and hopefully get your scientific progress still fast enough that you can get to the finish line before everyone else does.

Dennis Shirk: And you can certainly suck it up, if you're not playing a culture game and your people are getting brow-beaten by this other ideology and they want to switch, I might decide to do the strongman thing and instead build plenty of happiness-inducing buildings and try to offset that loss of happiness to stick with the ideology that I believe in. So as a player you have options for that.

RPS: And the AI will presumably be trying to do the same to you, or does it behave a different way to how a player would in that regard?

Ed Beach: It's playing the same game you are.

RPS: Ok. And with the ideologies, presumably there can be any amount of say, freedom ideologies, they don't get taken out of play like building a wonder does once the first person chooses it or anything?

Ed: That's correct, that's a good point because the way the religion system works is as you're configuring your religion, you're pulling those religious beliefs out of the common pool, and once you lock that belief into your religion, it wasn't available to anyone else.

Ideologies are a little bit different but they are more free-form than the social policy trees that are in the game right now, where there are five different choices, and the way they branch is all kind of hard-wired into them. With the ideology system, we just have level one, level two and level three social policies, we actually call them ideological tenets, and you can mix and match those and configure them. You can't get a level three tenet until you have a certain number of pre-requisite level one and level two tenets, but you can kind of build up your own ideology. Your Russian order ideology is drawing from the same pool as the Chinese order ideology of your neighbour, but they might decide to choose exactly what social policies are slotting in where, and build it a little bit differently than you are.



RPS: With this added on to Gods and Kings as well, it's quite a complex game now compared to Civ V when it first came out, which seemed to be trying to streamline a bunch of stuff and split it into core values, and now you've got quite a lot to learn in there.

Ed Beach: I would say that is true, but we do like the fact that a lot of these systems come on line and get unlocked as you go through the game, so you don't have to learn it all at once, even if you're brand new to this and you buy whatever megapack gets you all the content at once...

RPS: Civ V ultra-gold platinum edition...you're going to run out of qualifiers soon for those I think...

Ed Beach: As soon as you get that pack you could still dive in, and you get to the early part of the game, you've got to learn religion, and now you've got to learn our trade routes, but then you play another 20 turns before another system kicks in, and they sort of build throughout the game like that.

Dennis Shirk: There are still new players out there that will probably try this not having touched Civ V. Being the second expansion pack, this is something that we really wanted to keep kind of building on, that people have been playing the game, at least our existing fans, for quite a long time now, and they're ready to try some new depth to the game.

Ed Beach: And nine new civilisations coming to the game. We can't talk about them all right now, we can only really talk about Poland, but what we have stuck to is that every time we introduce a new civilisation, we try to shake up the play style. That's one of the things about Civilisation V, each civilisation has its own unique abilities that give it a special path through the game, and we've definitely done that as well with all the different civilisations in this expansion, which now brings the total to 43 different civilisations.



RPS: Good lord, that's a lot of time to spend at the menu when you first boot it up I think. Was this, and I guess Gods and Kings too retrospectively, was it ever a part of the original game's design, or was it only stuff that has come up as a result of what people are playing and what people are asking for?

Ed Beach: We've definitely come up with concepts, especially on the expansions on the fly, because as our fans have played it for a while, I mean we're constantly on the community sites looking for the things that they think would be really awesome in the game. Sometimes we pick up on those ideas, sometimes we pick up on the ideas simply by playing some of our older titles, but we always see these lulls in the game, for instance in Civ V, the late game we didn't think was as compelling as it could be.

The first half of the game, as we know with exploration, the new things that come online in the middle of the game are all very compelling, but as people start gearing up for the victory types that they've wanted, sometimes you find yourself clicking 'next turn' just a little bit too often instead of really engaging with the game. With this expansion we really wanted to give this whole new level of these interactions and ways to win in the late game that really make the late game race, the victory race, a lot more exciting.

RPS: Does it become more unpredictable as opposed to the more common long-winded stalemate that we do see in games in Civ?

Dennis Shirk: I personally think it's become more unpredictable because especially the new battle of the culture game, your outgoing culture versus their incoming, et cetera, that battle means that you never quite know if you're going to win. Just like if you're playing Domination, you can try your best but sometimes you're going to hit a roadblock. You might find that other civilisation that has this culture game that's as strong as yours that might be really difficult to overcome, so you decide 'I'm pretty far in the tech tree, I'm going to start switching to that' and go for a spaceship instead, or decide to get to a culture victory by capturing all their great works or something like that.

I think you have play styles that you can switch to now whereas before, especially with the culture game, you couldn't really switch. When you'd started down the culture path, you were dedicated to that. You couldn't easily switch to a culture victory, you couldn't gear up suddenly for a domination win. So I think the play styles are going to be a lot more varied.

Ed Beach: And part of that is that each of the ideologies, there are three ideological trees, and each of them supports three different ways, three of the different victory types with a lot of the ideological tenets that you can purchase within that ideology system. So for instance, if I'm playing as a freedom civilisation and I want to go for a culture victory, in that particular game what I want to do is, freedom gets huge bonuses for building broadcast towers in cities, and spreading their culture in that sort of Radio Free Europe, Voice of America type style, and that's one way to go to a culture victory. But it might be very different if I'm playing as an order civilisation.

The way that the order civilisation wants to get to the culture victory, is they want the workers of the world to unite, and so if you can have a civilisation where your people's happiness is very, very high, and all the other civilisations in the world see 'wow, they have very great happy workers in their order civilisation, maybe that's the way that we should be going,' and you actually get bonuses to go towards the victory in that circumstance by trying to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and making the workers of the world all happy with everything.

We have four different victory types, but a lot of the different ideologies actually have different ways to play the game to get to those victory types, so again another explosion of different ways to play through the game.

QuoteRPS: You mentioned this tourism concept for culture; is that something that's actually visible in any way or is it more just a concept to explain the number as it were?

Dennis Shirk: It's very visible, what we've basically done is before you just generated culture, you built lots of buildings, you filled up your tech trees. Now the culture yield itself is actually a defence for your civilisation, the amount of culture you're pushing out. When you get to around a third of the way through the game, you're going to start generating great people: great artists, great writers, great musicians, and they're going to be able to create a great work of art or a great work of music in the game, and we actually have, in your cultural buildings now, we have slots for these, so one of your great artists might create 'Starry Night' and you put that in one of your museums.

That piece of work now is creating tourism, and it's an actual yield, and you're staring to build up tourism. Later on when archaeology comes online, you're going to be running around on a second phase of exploration and discovery in the world when archaeology comes up because there's now all these digs around the world that are actually reflections of stuff that happened earlier in the game where a battle might have taken place, where a barbarian camp was. You can extract artefacts from these sites and also put them in your museums.

Some of your wonders now have different great work spots, they create tourism. So you're now creating tourism in parallel with creating culture, and that's going to directly go head to head with other people's culture, and you can get bonuses,. In other words if you have open borders with another civilisation, that creates a boost for your tourism. If you've got trade routes to that other civilisation, more boosts to your tourism. So it's an ongoing battle that really becomes dynamic late in the game, because late in the game when you have a lot of tourism being pumped out, other civilisations might have to take notice and start creating more culture to defend against it, because their culture's now being overwhelmed by your pushing tourism, it's a dynamic way to play that game.



Ed Beach: We actually have a screen in the game where it's a way for you to browse all the great works and amazing things that your civilisation has created. You can click on those, bring the painting back up, listen to the music again, just sort of enjoy your civilisation's culture if you want to.

RPS: Yeah, 'Look how amazing we are.' That's a nice idea.

Dennis Shirk: That's kind of cool on a side note, it doesn't really impact gameplay too much, but all of our great people now, the great artists, writers and musicians, aside from being real people, all of the writing snippets and the music samples and the artwork that you see come up when you use them are actually those great works. So, 'Starry Night' coming up, or Shakespeare's Hamlet, you'll hear Morgan Sheppard actually reading a snippet from Hamlet. It's actually a really nice touch on top of it.

RPS: The archaeology thing, does that actually reflect previous in-game events like would you actually find a relic on a battle you know you'd been involved in a century earlier, or is it random?

Ed: It actually is, and as battles occur earlier in the game, we're writing data onto the map, storing that information, and so at the point in time whenever the first civilisation discovers archaeology, at that point in time we do sort of lock down where all those different, we call them antiquity sites, are.

Those antiquity sites we keep track of, which civilisations were involved, whether it was a battle, whether it was an ancient ruin that was uncovered or a barbarian camp that was destroyed, and so that's exactly when your archaeologist goes there, he's going to try to extract that item and he'll be able to take it back and create another great work, an artefact, and put it in the museum. And based on the different types of museums you have, you're sort of trying to collect different types of archaeological pieces.

So for instance the Louvre, if you think about the Louvre, it's got art, archaeological things, all sorts of things from across the world. So for instance, if you build the Louvre wonder, trying to fill that with a great diversity of different works of art and artefacts from all sorts of cultures from around the world, and the better you satisfy those what we call theming bonuses from the different wonders and museums in your civilisation, the extra points of culture and tourism that you can generate.



Dennis Shirk: It's actually a really interesting mini-game that kind of happened into being that our community gameplay testers really started to enjoy, because you've got this UI that you can bring up that shows all of your great works and artefacts in all of your different buildings. As Ed said, theming them or matching them up or putting all the ones that you've found in one particular building, you can get different variations on these tourism buffs, like plus two tourism or plus four tourism, if you theme them well, so actually discovering the themes because we're not documenting them. It's up to the fans to find all these different kinds of themes. It can give you big benefits, but it's actually a lot of fun just seeing what will actually match up from similar time periods, the kind of variety and diversity of artwork you put into place. Very cool.

RPS: Is there any extent to which you could game that, like you have in the early game, you have loads of different battles near where you are knowing that you'll come back to them later with your archaeologists and just get as many relics as possible?

Ed Beach: Not every single ancient battle turns into an archaeology site, and we do try to keep a relatively even distribution of them across the map. So you can make sure that there are going to be a couple nearby you, but there's no real advantage to try and form extra ones of those.

RPS: Ok, cool. That's completely the kind of thing that a min/maxer player would do if it was there, I'd imagine.

Ed Beach: You're not the first person to have thought of that.



RPS: You mentioned the trade route stuff could happen right from the start of the game?

Ed Beach: Yes, what happens is that both land and sea trade routes open up right in the ancient era, you get one of each type typically, and as the game progresses you can get more and more of those, and those represent the way your civilisation generates additional wealth. It used to be in Civ V that settling along a sea coast or along a river gave you free gold. We've taken that gold out of the game and now you actually have to earn it by creating these trade routes.

Trade routes not only shift gold back and forth, but as the game progresses and the other systems in the game unlock, you can start to see that maybe you're trading with a civilisation that's much more advanced than you are scientifically. You're actually getting a trickle of science back from that interchange of goods. You'll also see, once the religion game is in place, that religion will spread along trade routes. You might want to think twice about whether or not you want to hook up a trade route to somebody who has a very strong religion's holy city. That might be good if you want that religion to come into your civilisation, but if you're trying to keep it at bay, you may not want to do that.

So the trade routes, you can unlock by the end of the game, you usually have seven or eight trade routes at least, and there are a lot of different implications for what cities you decide to hook up with with trade, what other civilisations you're connecting to, there's a lot of depth added to the economic side of the game with that new system.

Dennis Shirk: And keep in mind, these aren't just nebulous UI trade routes that float around the map; you actually build the units, you build a caravan, you build a route and they act as an automated unit. When you build your caravan you decide to assign it to a trade route, it comes up with a city list and shows you all the benefits of the different cities in the area that you can connect to, and then it's going back and forth and you have to also protect those routes because barbarians can kill the caravan. If you're at war with someone they can come and find your routes and destroy them, so there're actual physical units on the map that you interact with. They're not just a nebulous concept that you have to just bring up a UI screen to look at.

RPS: Presumably you need to have discovered all the cities they can go to, just because you said it would work from the start of the game and obviously the map starts off dark, they couldn't just head off into the ether and find someone to do it with automatically?

Ed Beach: Correct, although you don't necessarily have to have uncovered every step on the path, they'll be able to come up with the best sea route even if you haven't explored all of it, but as long as you've found that other city on the coast you can open up trade with them.

Dennis Shirk: But they don't have visibility, in other words they might pass right underneath the fog and that's where the barbarians might be, so it actually behoves you to have some military units out in the ether, keeping your paths lit up to make sure nothing bad happens to your financial goods as they're heading off into the fog.



RPS: Is there an element in the game which you're really proud of but most players probably aren't going to notice?

Ed Beach: I think probably the system that we were talking about before where the different ideologies interact with each other and they can possibly cause enough unrest in another civilisation that that's going to be the tipping point.

That system grew out of where we were going with the design, with ideologies and with culture and the new culture victory, but it sort of has this kind of interesting ring in the contemporary world with events that are happening in the middle east right now so. We weren't trying initially to mirror world history with that, we were just trying to come up with a neat system for the game, but all of a sudden it started to have these echoes in terms of current politics and stuff that was pretty fascinating.

RPS: I guess it kind of does the Cold War thing a little bit as well, where two countries are really opposed without necessarily being in open conflict.

Dennis Shirk: Right. Also the way that it ties into the New World Congress to the way that you're going to have horse-trading in terms of the buying and selling of tech with other civilisations. A lot of that coming into play in the late game, combined with the ideologies really gives it this 1980s/1990s Cold War feel.

RPS: Thanks for your time.

Civilization V: Brave New World is due this Summer.

QuoteNew Culture Victory: Spread your culture across the globe, dominate all other cultures. Create masterpieces with Great Artists, Writers and Musicians that are placed in key buildings across your empire like Museums, Opera Houses, and even the Great Library. Use Archaeologists to investigate sites of ancient battles and city ruins for priceless cultural artifacts. Become the first civilization with a majority influence in all other civilizations to achieve a Culture Victory, becoming the envy of the world.

New Policies and Ideologies: Enter the Industrial Age and choose the ideology of your people: Freedom, Order, or Autocracy. Each ideology grants access to increasingly powerful abilities, and serves the different victory conditions in unique ways. The choices you make will impact your relationships with other civilizations for the rest of the game.

World Congress: The importance of diplomacy is intensified and city-state alliances are more important than ever. Change the diplomatic landscape through a new World Congress that votes on critical issues like implementing trade sanctions against rogue nations, limiting resource usage, designating host cities for the World Games, and the use of nuclear weapons. Game-changing resolutions, vote trading, intrigue and a new lead-in to the Diplomatic Victory ensures that the end of the game will be more dynamic than ever before.

International Trade Routes: Build your cities into hubs of international trade by land and sea, creating great wealth and prosperity for your people, while also spreading religion, cultural influence, and science. The number of trade routes increases through the advancement of economics and technologies, the creation of wonders, and the unique abilities of your civilization. Will you connect to a closer city for a lower payoff and a safer route, choose a longer route with more risk for the bigger payoff, or perhaps point your trade route inward, sending vitally important food and production to the far corners of your own empire?

New Civilizations, Units and Buildings: Nine new leaders and civilizations are introduced, including Casimir of Poland, each with their unique traits, units and buildings.

New Wonders: This expansion set introduces eight new Wonders including the Parthenon, Broadway, the Globe Theater, and the Uffizi.

Two New Scenarios:

-   American Civil War: Fight the "War Between the States" from either the Union or Confederate side as you focus on the critical Easter theatre of operations between the capital cities of Richmond and Washington.

-   Scramble for Africa: The great colonial powers of the world are scrambling to explore the Dark Continent and extend their reach into its interior. Search for the great natural wonders of the heart of Africa as you explore a dynamically-generated continent each time you play.

Quote from: garbon on March 15, 2013, 09:04:34 AM
Poland as a civilization?

Quote from: BelzebubbaI don't see the need to include a Polish Civilization at all.

In all Civ-games you could simply choose the Russians and then roleplay as Poland by getting eaten up by all of your neighbours.

Quote-Solidarity -receive a free Social Policy when they advance into each new era

Quote from: Martinus on March 24, 2013, 04:49:20 AM
Cool video from PAX

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Urh0oRLBXiw

Shows Pedro II, Ashurbanipal and the new tourism mechanics for cultural victory. Love it, as I always liked winning culturally, but it always felt somewhat lacklustre.

Now Polish culture will rule the planet! Pierogis and Catholicism for all! :unsure:

Quote from: garbon on March 24, 2013, 09:45:54 AM
Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with things Brazil.

Quote from: garbon on March 24, 2013, 09:45:54 AM
Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with things Brazil.

Quote from: Viking on March 24, 2013, 12:58:12 PM
tourism related UU

Quote from: Tyr on March 25, 2013, 04:19:04 AM
Sad but true.

Quote from: Tyr on March 25, 2013, 04:19:04 AM
Modern countries sell better than ancient civilizations. Sad but true.

Quote from: Zanza on March 25, 2013, 12:10:00 PM
And the HRE had Charlemagne as a leader, who could just as well be claimed by the French civilization,

Quote from: Grey Fox on March 30, 2013, 01:15:41 PM
Got my first, ever in all version of Civ, domination victory.

It's a little boring.

Quote from: Syt on March 31, 2013, 02:10:06 AM
Then I hope there'll be a discount for G&K owners.

Quote from: Syt on March 31, 2013, 03:15:32 AM
And it would be an incentive to people who haven't bought G&K yet to get both together, because G&K is now a glorified civ pack.

Quote from: Berkut on April 03, 2013, 01:55:38 PM
Anyone else try the Smoky Skys scenario that came in God and Kings?

Steampunk inspired...looks pretty cool, would maybe make a good MP scenario.

Quote from: Berkut on April 03, 2013, 01:55:38 PM
Anyone else try the Smoky Skys scenario that came in God and Kings?

Steampunk inspired...looks pretty cool, would maybe make a good MP scenario.

Quote from: Warspite on April 04, 2013, 09:45:24 AM
I bought Civ V, at last, the other day. Good fun, but i'm still wrapping my head around the no-stacks system and cities always being defended. Every war now turns into the Battle of Stalingrad, it seems.

Turns out also that my girlfriend is a life-long Civ fan. That I did not see coming.

Quote from: Warspite on April 04, 2013, 09:45:24 AM
I bought Civ V, at last, the other day. Good fun, but i'm still wrapping my head around the no-stacks system and cities always being defended. Every war now turns into the Battle of Stalingrad, it seems.

Quote from: Berkut on April 04, 2013, 11:33:10 AM
Huh, that is kind of cool seeing how you work that Marty.

I approach the game in a completely different manner.

I don't play at all with an eye towards "I want to see if I can win via this mechanism, and will choose accordingly..."

I mostly pick what I think is an interesting civ that has some kind of cool mechanic going, and then see how it develops.

"Winning" for me is really just a way to provide me with a direction to play, rather than a goal per se.

You seem to approach the game from a stance of "Here is how I want to win, so I will make these choices" while I go from a "I want to make these choices, how can I win with them?"

I don't win very often, tbh. :)

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 04, 2013, 11:43:15 AM
Mart's way of playing the game is what is plastered all over every guide or forums on Civ V.

First you pick which type of victory you want to achieve than you plan your civ accordingly.

It's impossible to start a game & halfway thru to decide, "I'm going cultural victory" & actually win that game. Atleast, highly unlikely. Especially if you went wide.


Marty, have you ever tried a one city challenge?

Quote from: Martinus on April 04, 2013, 12:01:32 PM

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 04, 2013, 11:43:15 AM
Mart's way of playing the game is what is plastered all over every guide or forums on Civ V.

First you pick which type of victory you want to achieve than you plan your civ accordingly.

It's impossible to start a game & halfway thru to decide, "I'm going cultural victory" & actually win that game. Atleast, highly unlikely. Especially if you went wide.


Marty, have you ever tried a one city challenge?

Yeah, OCC is my usual style. Even without OCC I usually go no more than 2-3 extra cities.

By the way, what map size and speed do you guys play? I usually play on Tiny/Quick.

Quote from: Berkut on April 04, 2013, 11:33:10 AM
Huh, that is kind of cool seeing how you work that Marty.

I approach the game in a completely different manner.

I don't play at all with an eye towards "I want to see if I can win via this mechanism, and will choose accordingly..."

I mostly pick what I think is an interesting civ that has some kind of cool mechanic going, and then see how it develops.

"Winning" for me is really just a way to provide me with a direction to play, rather than a goal per se.

You seem to approach the game from a stance of "Here is how I want to win, so I will make these choices" while I go from a "I want to make these choices, how can I win with them?"

I don't win very often, tbh. :)

Quote from: Martinus on April 04, 2013, 11:41:04 AM

Quote from: Berkut on April 04, 2013, 11:33:10 AM
Huh, that is kind of cool seeing how you work that Marty.

I approach the game in a completely different manner.

I don't play at all with an eye towards "I want to see if I can win via this mechanism, and will choose accordingly..."

I mostly pick what I think is an interesting civ that has some kind of cool mechanic going, and then see how it develops.

"Winning" for me is really just a way to provide me with a direction to play, rather than a goal per se.

You seem to approach the game from a stance of "Here is how I want to win, so I will make these choices" while I go from a "I want to make these choices, how can I win with them?"

I don't win very often, tbh. :)

I'm more OCD I guess. :)

What difficulty level do you play on usually, by the way? For me it's either Warlord or Prince (so not very high) but I win pretty much every time.

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 04, 2013, 12:07:37 PM

Quote from: Martinus on April 04, 2013, 12:01:32 PM

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 04, 2013, 11:43:15 AM
Mart's way of playing the game is what is plastered all over every guide or forums on Civ V.

First you pick which type of victory you want to achieve than you plan your civ accordingly.

It's impossible to start a game & halfway thru to decide, "I'm going cultural victory" & actually win that game. Atleast, highly unlikely. Especially if you went wide.


Marty, have you ever tried a one city challenge?

Yeah, OCC is my usual style. Even without OCC I usually go no more than 2-3 extra cities.

By the way, what map size and speed do you guys play? I usually play on Tiny/Quick.

Giant/Marathon

Nah, not really. Did that only once. ~1500 turns or so.

I meant the OCC options, where you can't own more than one city? No Puppets either.

Quote from: Solmyr on April 04, 2013, 02:37:59 PM
I play on largest map size, usually with continents. I prefer lots of land space.

Quote from: Martinus on April 04, 2013, 12:01:32 PM
I usually play on Tiny/Quick.

Quote from: garbon on April 04, 2013, 06:44:13 PM

Quote from: Martinus on April 04, 2013, 12:01:32 PM
I usually play on Tiny/Quick.

*rimshot*

Quote from: Solmyr on April 04, 2013, 03:22:42 PM
I don't mind long games, actually. I just like lots of lands to explore and settle. Civs look more like real countries too, than if they just have a paltry three cities.

Quote from: Solmyr on April 05, 2013, 10:26:34 AM
I do return to saves. Just now I returned to my England game from a year ago. :P

I'm often pretty bad at building large armies for offense. I always like to build those cool buildings first. :P My warmongering depends a bit on the civilization - if I have a warlike civ with a suitable UU and time to build up an offensive army, I can go on offense. More likely if there's someone close by on lands that I want myself. I rarely go for outright global conquest spree though, unless I play the Mongols or something.

Quote from: crazy canuck on April 05, 2013, 12:18:40 PM
I always go for the long game.  Some of the games never get finished but thats ok.  With this game it is the journey not the destination.

Quote from: Martinus on April 12, 2013, 07:51:48 AM- You can capture great works from foreign civs when you conquer their cities (think France - build musketeers and foreign legions, loot foreign cities for great works of art, bring to Paris, win culturally  :menace: )

Quote- Piety and Rationalism no longer mutually exclusive

Quote from: Tamas on April 12, 2013, 08:33:43 AM

Quote- Piety and Rationalism no longer mutually exclusive

:bleeding:

Quote from: Tamas on April 12, 2013, 08:44:22 AM
I don't think I like this expansion as of this moment. There, I said it.

Quote from: garbon on April 12, 2013, 08:42:45 AM
:hmm:

Given that they are adding Brazil, seems a little odd for Portugal to have a monarch who reigned with a regent in exile in Brazil...

Quote from: Martinus on April 12, 2013, 09:08:26 AM

Quote from: garbon on April 12, 2013, 08:42:45 AM
:hmm:

Given that they are adding Brazil, seems a little odd for Portugal to have a monarch who reigned with a regent in exile in Brazil...

Well, as always they are desperate for some sort of gender diversity, so as with most female monarchs, their choices are quite questionable historically.

Only Catherine and Elisabeth are really solid choices - every other female leader could be easily replaced by several much more deserving male leaders.

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 12, 2013, 09:35:38 AM
In the current expension, I don't get Religion. In my last game I didn't get to found a religion so I accumulated faith without ever being able to spend it.

Quote from: DGuller on April 12, 2013, 09:42:48 AM

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 12, 2013, 09:35:38 AM
In the current expension, I don't get Religion. In my last game I didn't get to found a religion so I accumulated faith without ever being able to spend it.

You can generate certain great people depending on your policy trees.  I particularly like to spam great scientists with my extra faith near the end of the game, if I need a tech boost.

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 12, 2013, 09:54:07 AM

Quote from: DGuller on April 12, 2013, 09:42:48 AM

Quote from: Grey Fox on April 12, 2013, 09:35:38 AM
In the current expension, I don't get Religion. In my last game I didn't get to found a religion so I accumulated faith without ever being able to spend it.

You can generate certain great people depending on your policy trees.  I particularly like to spam great scientists with my extra faith near the end of the game, if I need a tech boost.

I couldn't find where to buy those Great People?

Quote from: garbon on April 12, 2013, 09:29:28 AM
Btw, that split of Christianity also seems odd. They aren't splitting any other religions are they?

Quote from: Tamas on May 17, 2013, 07:32:46 AM
Fuck'em. If run-of-the-mill-slavs Polacks can pose as a unique civ, Hungary should, too.

Quote from: Viking on May 17, 2013, 07:43:05 AM

Quote from: Tamas on May 17, 2013, 07:32:46 AM
Fuck'em. If run-of-the-mill-slavs Polacks can pose as a unique civ, Hungary should, too.

meh, Polaks are just Hungarians with Winged Hussars. So, yeah, Poland yes, Magyars no. You already have "The Huns".

Quote from: Syt on May 17, 2013, 07:46:06 AM
I'm guessing one of them is going to be Ukraine. Cossacks!

Quote from: Martinus on May 17, 2013, 07:48:06 AM

Quote from: Viking on May 17, 2013, 07:43:05 AM

Quote from: Tamas on May 17, 2013, 07:32:46 AM
Fuck'em. If run-of-the-mill-slavs Polacks can pose as a unique civ, Hungary should, too.

meh, Polaks are just Hungarians with Winged Hussars. So, yeah, Poland yes, Magyars no. You already have "The Huns".

Besides, Hungarians are already represented as Austria and Turkey.

Quote from: Martinus on May 17, 2013, 07:49:02 AM

Quote from: Syt on May 17, 2013, 07:46:06 AM
I'm guessing one of them is going to be Ukraine. Cossacks!

Could be. Other plausible theories are Venice or Sicily/Naples (as a nod to non-Roman Italy).

Quote from: Martinus on May 17, 2013, 08:41:40 AM
However, apparently Ragusa has been spotted as a city state in one of today's previews, which puts a significant damper on Venetian theory (as Ragusa probably would have been on their city list).

Quote from: Warspite on May 17, 2013, 08:50:18 AM

Quote from: Martinus on May 17, 2013, 08:41:40 AM
However, apparently Ragusa has been spotted as a city state in one of today's previews, which puts a significant damper on Venetian theory (as Ragusa probably would have been on their city list).

Does it? Ragusa was only under Venetian sovereignty for a century or so.

Quote from: PDH on May 17, 2013, 09:23:40 AM
They could just borrow names from other Civs.

Quote from: Syt on May 17, 2013, 10:05:13 AM
They should add Serbia. Their special ability is to clear their cities of foreign influence, at the loss of population. Special unit: tracksuit brigade.

Quote from: Martinus on May 17, 2013, 07:48:06 AM

Quote from: Viking on May 17, 2013, 07:43:05 AM

Quote from: Tamas on May 17, 2013, 07:32:46 AM
Fuck'em. If run-of-the-mill-slavs Polacks can pose as a unique civ, Hungary should, too.

meh, Polaks are just Hungarians with Winged Hussars. So, yeah, Poland yes, Magyars no. You already have "The Huns".

Besides, Hungarians are already represented as Austria and Turkey.

Quote- The Autocracy, Freedom and Order social policy trees are now the three main ideologies
- Unlocked in Modern Age or once you have built 3 factories; at which point you must chose an ideology
- There will be diplomatic benefits/penalties for those of the same or different ideology
- Can be changed (though this is not generally advised) but you will have a period of Anarchy
- There will be 16 different policies in each Ideology with three different levels, you will have to unlock a certain amount of level one and two policies before level three unlocks
- The first person to unlock an ideology get 2 free policies, Second gets 1 free policy
- Each of the ideologies will give bonuses for 3 out of the 4 victory conditions; Autocracy : Culture, Diplomatic and Domination; Freedom : Culture, Diplomatic and Space; Order : Culture, Domination and Space

QuoteAutocracy Ideology

Level 1:
- Elite Forces; Wounded military units inflict 25% more damage than usual.
- Mobilization; Purchasing units 33% cheaper.
- United Front; Militaristic CS give units twice as often when at war with common foe.
- Futurism; +100 Tourism with every civ when a GWAM is born.
- Industrial Espionage; Spies steal techs twice as fast.
- Fortified Borders; +2 local happiness from each defensive building.
- Universal Healthcare; +1 local happiness for each National Wonder.

Level 2:
- Militarism; +2 Local happiness from each Barracks, Armory and Military Academy.
- Lightning Warfare; +3 movement for Great Generals. +1 movement and +15% attack for Armored units, armored units ignore ZoC.
- Police State; +3 local happiness from each Courthouse. Courthouse production is 50% cheaper.
- Nationalism; Unit maintenance reduced by 33%.
- Third Alternative; Strategic resources doubled. +5 science and food in capital.
- Total War; +25% production for military units. New units get +15 XP.

Level 3:
- Cult of Personality; +50% Tourism to civs fighting a common enemy.
- Gunboat Diplomacy; Gain 6 more influence (standard speed) than normal from CSs you could demand tribute from.
- Clauswitz's Legacy; Receive a 25% attack bonus to all Military Units for the next 50 turns after this policy is adopted.

QuoteFreedom Ideology

Level 1:
- Avant Garde; +25% GP rate.
- Creative Expression; +1 culture from each Great Work.
- Civil Society; Specialists consume only 1 food.
- Covert Action; Chance of CS election rigging doubled.
- Capitalism; +1 local happiness for each Bank, Mint and Stock Exchange.
- Economic Union; +3 gold for each trade route with another civ with Freedom.
- Universal Healthcare; +1 local happiness for each National Wonder.

Level 2:
- Volunteer Army; 6 units are maintenance free. Receive 6 Foreign Legion Infantry Units immediately.
- Urbanization; +1 local happiness from each Granary, Aqueduct, Water Mill and Hospital.
- Their Finest Hour; Combat strength of cities increased by 33%.
- Universal Sufferage; Specialists produce 1/2 unhappiness, Golden Ages increased by 50%.
- New Deal; All Great Person improvements get +4 to appropriate yield.
- Arsenal of Democracy; +25% production when building military units. +20 influence from gifting units to CSs.

Level 3:
- Media Culture; +34% Tourism generated by cities with a Broadcast Tower.
- Treaty Organization; Gain 4 more influence per turn (standard speed) with CSs you have pledged to protect.
- Space Procurements; May buy spaceship parts with gold.

QuoteOrder Ideology

Level 1:
- Hero of the People; +25% GP rate.
- Socialist Realism; +2 local happiness from Monuments. Monuments cost 50% less.
- Skyscrapers; Gold cost of purchasing buildings reduced by 33%.
- Patriotic War; +15% attack bonus in friendly territory.
- Double Agents; Spies twice as likely to capture enemy spies attempting to steal a tech.
- Young Pioneers; +1 local happiness from each Workshop, Factory and Solar/Nuclear/Hydro Plant.
- Universal Healthcare; +1 local happiness for each National Wonder.

Level 2:
- Academy of Sciences; +1 local happiness from science buildings.
- Party Leadership; +1 food, gold, science, production and culture in each city.
- Resettlement; New cities start with an extra pop.
- Cultural Revolution; +34% Tourism to other Order civs.
- Workers' Faculties; Factories grant +25% science and production cost is half the amount.
- Five-Year Plan; +2 production per city and +1 production for each mine and quarry.

Level 3:
- Dictatorship of the Proletariat; +34% Tourism to civs that have less happiness.
- Iron Curtain; Free Courthouse upon city capture.
- Spaceflight Pioneers; May finish Spaceship parts with Great Engineers. +10 science in capital.

Quote from: Martinus on May 18, 2013, 01:00:25 AM
I'm kinda tempted to make a high-happiness, high-tourism Autocratic Byzantium with Futurism, Fortified Borders, Universal Healthcare, Police State, Third Alternative and Cult of Personality and then win a Cultural victory.  :ph34r:

Quote from: The Brain on May 18, 2013, 02:36:30 AM
Freedom has Universal Healthcare? :wacko:

QuoteBelgium
Serbia (and Yugoslavia)
Croatia
Switzerland
Holy Roman Empire
The Franks
Phoenicia (not really European, but worth pointing out)
Hungary
Bulgaria
Lithuania
Estonia
Latvia
Italy
Florence
Albania
Macedonia
Czechs
Iceland
Finland
Norway
Moldova
Kosovo
Montenegro
Monaco
Georgia (if you'd consider them European)
Armenia (if you'd consider them European)
Slovakia
Papal States
Romania
Ukraine

Quote from: Syt on May 20, 2013, 07:42:47 AM
Scotland would still be a possibility, yes?

QuoteI can't say anything yet, unfortunately. We'll have all the most serene details as soon as we get the okay.

Quote from: Martinus on May 22, 2013, 11:49:17 PM
Ok, so not-so-subtle comment from PC Gamer in response to a question if they can reveal the name of the missing European civ:

QuoteI can't say anything yet, unfortunately. We'll have all the most serene details as soon as we get the okay.

Venice confirmed.

QuoteAssyria
Unique Ability: Treasures of Nineveh
Every time you capture a city*, you gain a free technology that the city's owner has, and you do not. If you're completely ahead in tech, this does nothing.

Unique Unit: Siege Tower
Replacing the catapult, Siege Towers grant a bonus to attack against cities to all adjacent melee units. The tower itself can only attack cities.

Unique Building: Royal Library
Replaces the regular Library, and grants +1 Science for every citizen in the city where it's built. It also contains a slot for a Great Writing (part of the new Culture system) which, when filled, grants all units trained in the city with an xp boost.

Adviser T.J. says:
Assyria was always my biggest rival in the few games I played in the press build. Their civ ability makes it possible to spend most, if not all, of your resources on military early on, and steal your way back up the tech tree as you conquer. Taking cities is always tough in the early game, but Assyria is great at it. Once you get a Royal Library, your science scales based on population—so I would recommend taking Tradition policies, keeping your empire small and well-fed, and razing most of those cities you captured for the tech boost.

QuoteBrazil
Unique Ability: Carnival
Ain't no party like a Brazilian party. While you're in a Golden Age, you generate double Tourism (the new resource used for cultural victory) and double your chance to get a Great Artist.

Unique Unit: Pracinha
A replacement for modern Infantry, these guys build up points toward a Golden Age every time they defeat an enemy.

Unique Tile Improvement: Brazilwood Camp
Starting once you research Machinery, you can build these on any Jungle tile. They generate two Gold and, once Acoustics is researched, two Culture as well.

Adviser T.J. says:
Brazil is one of those civs that isn't going to play a whole lot differently from most in the earlier eras. Other than maximizing your happiness to produce more Golden Ages (and taking the policies that make them longer and more frequent), the best you can really do is manage your city placement to get the maximum number of Jungle tiles. If you don't start off near many, that probably means you'll want to take Liberty policies and go crazy with those settlers. From there, start preparing to become a military power once Pracinhas become available. Use them wisely while they're relevant, and once they become outdated, you can choose whether to scale back the aggression and focus on culture... or keep blazing along the warpath.

QuoteIndonesia
Unique Ability: Spice Islanders
The first three cities you found on continents other than the one you started on are immune to razing, and provide two extra, unique luxury resources.

Unique Unit: Kris Swordsman
This Swordsman replacement gains a random unit promotion the first time it is used in combat.

Unique Building: Candi
Replacing the Garden, the Candi must be built in a city on a river or lake. It grants you +2 Faith for every world religion that has at least one follower in the city.

Adviser T.J. says:
It's hard to figure out where to start with these guys. I'd consider them an advanced player's option. If you're into early conquest, tech up to Kris Swordsmen, make a lot of them, then plan your battles around the abilities they receive. Making the best use of the Candi seems tricky, since there isn't really a sure-fire way of encouraging other civs to send Missionaries your way, other than having good road systems and Open Borders treaties. Obviously, you'll want to take Liberty and Exploration policies, colonizing other continents as quick as possible. Those unique luxury resources will be hugely profitable with the new trade system.

QuoteMorocco
Unique Ability: Gateway to Africa
You generate three Gold and one Culture for every civ and city-state you have a trade route with, on top of the normal trade route income.

Unique Unit: Berber Cavalry
A replacement for standard Cavalry, you get bonuses for fighting on home turf and in Desert tiles. These bonuses stack if you're fighting on a Desert in your own territory.

Unique Tile Improvement: Kasbah
Only buildable on Desert tiles, rockin' the Kasbah will give you one each of Food, Production, and Gold.

Adviser T.J. says:
Morocco was the only playable civ in the preview build, so I spent a lot of time with them. Expanding and diversifying your trade from a central hub city (using Tradition policies) as fast as possible is hugely profitable. The new Commerce tree (which doesn't really focus on naval stuff any more—that's been moved to Exploration) is your best friend. You should almost never run out of gold or happiness, with Golden Ages being almost constant in the late game. The Kasbah is a bit of an annoyance, as Desert tiles are usually where I set aside land for Great Person improvements, and I didn't make much use of the Berber Cavalry. Picking up the Desert Folklore religious tenet early is also extremely helpful. Cultural victory is the most obvious path, but trade routes to city-states also open up easy avenues to Diplomatic dominance.

QuotePoland
Unique Ability: Solidarity
You get a free social policy every time you advance to a new era. BOOM.

Unique Unit: Winged Hussar
Replacing the Lancer, these guys are... how best to put this? How about "straight-up boss." They're faster and more powerful than a Lancer. If they deal more damage in combat than they take, the unit they're fighting is forced back one tile. If the enemy has nowhere to run, they take extra damage and may be destroyed.

Unique Building: Ducal Stable
A more awesome version of the non-ducal Stable, building one of these will generate one Gold for every Pasture within the city limits and grant all mounted units built there 15 XP.

Adviser T.J. says:
I really like Poland. If not for the bombshell that is... one of the unannounced civs we're not allowed to talk about yet, I'd even say they're my favorite new civ. Winged Hussars might be the most fun to use military unit in the entire game (and they're up against the likes of Danish Berserkers, so that's saying something). I recommend going straight into Honor policies, banking some Great Generals, and preparing to sweep all competitors off of your starting landmass by the end of the Renaissance. At that point, you can use your incredible ability to get free social policies to pick your poison in terms of victory conditions. Continue your conquests overseas or settle down? Either way, you'll probably want to go into Rationalism, since Science is the fast-track to those free policies.

QuotePortugal
Unique Ability: Mare Clausum
You get double to bonus gold for forming trade routes with cities that have different resources than you.

Unique Unit: Nao
A Caravel replacement with a one-time ability to execute a Trade Mission. You'll have to be adjacent to the territory of a civ or city-state you're at peace with, and the Nao will generate a one-time Gold payout that gets higher the further the ship is from your capital. It's also slightly faster than a stock Caravel.

Unique Tile Improvement: Feitoria
This one's interesting—it must be built on an empty coastal tile within the boundaries of a city-state. As long as it stands, it gives you a free copy of every resource that city-state has, even if you're at war with them.

Adviser T.J. says:
Some really interesting and fairly complicated mechanics are at work here. Like Indonesia, I'd classify them on the more advanced end of the difficulty scale. You'll want to tech up your navy and get Exploration policies as soon as possible, and generate as much gold with your Nao fleets as you can. Seek out city-states with particularly rare resources, especially ones you don't have access to, and get those Feitoria down to boost your happiness and trade income. Since gold can help you win just about any victory type, I wouldn't say Portugal is especially disposed to any given path. Science might be an interesting choice, especially since adopting the Freedom ideology now has an ability that lets you buy Spaceship parts instantly with cash.

QuoteThe Zulu
Unique Ability: Iklwa
You only pay half Gold maintenance for melee units, and all military units require 25 percent less XP to earn a promotion.

Unique Unit: Impi
Replacing the Pikeman, the Impi executes a ranged spear throw before combat begins that's not quite as powerful as a same era ranged unit.

Unique Building: Ikanda
The Zulu alternative to the Barracks does everything a Barracks does, as well as granting all pre-gundpowder units built in the same city faster movement and greater combat strength.

Adviser T.J. says:
Similar to Rome, the Zulu are extremely dangerous in the early game. I always took a deep breath when I discovered they were my neighbors. Your military will be a force to be reckoned with up through the late Medieval era, and you should probably aim to have Domination victory more or less sealed up by the time you research Gunpowder. Once the world begins to tech up, you'll want to start being conservative with your units. An Impi built at the Ikanda that is upgraded all the way to an Information Age equivalent will keep all of its unique promotions, making it a hugely valuable late game fighter.

Quote from: Syt on July 10, 2013, 09:05:58 AM
The steam ship with the digital copy doesn't arrive in Europe before Friday.

Quote from: Tamas on July 10, 2013, 09:20:16 AM

Quote from: Syt on July 10, 2013, 09:05:58 AM
The steam ship with the digital copy doesn't arrive in Europe before Friday.

VPNed to unlock my full-legal Euro preorder :cool:

Quote from: Syt on July 10, 2013, 09:25:37 AM

Quote from: Tamas on July 10, 2013, 09:20:16 AM

Quote from: Syt on July 10, 2013, 09:05:58 AM
The steam ship with the digital copy doesn't arrive in Europe before Friday.

VPNed to unlock my full-legal Euro preorder :cool:

You know that that's a bannable offense on Steam, right.?

Quote from: Tamas on July 10, 2013, 10:38:15 AM
:rolleyes:


I didn't cheat Steam out of a single penny, I preordered for my proper price in Euros. I know they don't allow it, but evidence suggests they don't really give a damn.
I think it doesn't matter for them.

Like Amazon, when I wanted to buy an e-book shipable only to a US address, they note was like "We are sorry but we can only sell this to a US address. BY THE WAY, click this link if you want to change your adress".

Quote from: Razgovory on July 10, 2013, 10:14:15 PM
So is it any good?   The game, not the Hungarian criminal.

Quote from: Tamas on July 11, 2013, 02:16:48 AM
:rolleyes:


Yes I am enjoying the new features, but I think one of the big drawbacks of the trade system is that I am in the 1500s on a normal map and turn resolution is as sluggish as if it was in the 20th century already.

Quote from: Zanza on July 12, 2013, 10:10:33 AM
Eh? A sale on the third day? That's a bit off-putting if you bought the game at full or even pre-order price...

Quote from: Viking on July 11, 2013, 08:42:14 PM

Quote from: Tamas on July 11, 2013, 02:16:48 AM
:rolleyes:


Yes I am enjoying the new features, but I think one of the big drawbacks of the trade system is that I am in the 1500s on a normal map and turn resolution is as sluggish as if it was in the 20th century already.

soo.. for those of us who can't run sensible AI turn times on large maps this seems like a recommendation to upgrade the rig before upgrading civV?

Quote from: DGuller on July 12, 2013, 11:32:20 AM
I never understood the gripes about Civ V.  I think it's the best game of the series, and it's made even better with this expansion.

Quote from: garbon on July 12, 2013, 11:35:41 AM

Quote from: DGuller on July 12, 2013, 11:32:20 AM
I never understood the gripes about Civ V.  I think it's the best game of the series, and it's made even better with this expansion.

My only gripe, and it was the same with all games in the series, is that AI resolution of turns in the end game takes forever long.

Quote from: DGuller on July 12, 2013, 11:37:30 AM

Quote from: garbon on July 12, 2013, 11:35:41 AM

Quote from: DGuller on July 12, 2013, 11:32:20 AM
I never understood the gripes about Civ V.  I think it's the best game of the series, and it's made even better with this expansion.

My only gripe, and it was the same with all games in the series, is that AI resolution of turns in the end game takes forever long.

That I don't get either.  My four year old PC manages just fine (though is has an SSD in it, so maybe that speeds it along).

Quote from: DGuller on July 12, 2013, 11:32:20 AM
I never understood the gripes about Civ V.  I think it's the best game of the series, and it's made even better with this expansion.

Quote from: Syt on July 12, 2013, 12:59:03 PM
Anyways, I've learned my lesson today. I will never, ever pre-order anything on Steam again, even if there's a pre-order discount; esp. if release might coincide with major sale. I will only buy games that are on sale from here on out. Unfortunately I've already pre-ordered EU4 and Rome2.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 12, 2013, 07:20:01 AM
Brave New World is 33% off on Steam for the next 4 hours.

Quote from: Syt on July 12, 2013, 12:59:03 PM
Anyways, I've learned my lesson today. I will never, ever pre-order anything on Steam again, even if there's a pre-order discount; esp. if release might coincide with major sale. I will only buy games that are on sale from here on out. Unfortunately I've already pre-ordered EU4 and Rome2.

Quote from: Solmyr on July 12, 2013, 01:21:39 PM

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 12, 2013, 07:20:01 AM
Brave New World is 33% off on Steam for the next 4 hours.

Wtf, they made it cheaper than for preordering?

Quote from: KRonn on July 12, 2013, 01:14:53 PM

Quote from: DGuller on July 12, 2013, 11:32:20 AM
I never understood the gripes about Civ V.  I think it's the best game of the series, and it's made even better with this expansion.

I've had Civ5 for a while, but only played a little. Probably just didn't put the time into the game. Lately I've been playing more and liking it a lot, especially the handling of combat and the much fewer combat units needed, no stacks. Speeds up the game, especially end game, since I'm not trying to move and manage all those units. In previous games end game can become not fun. I like the policy idea, and more. I think it's a very worthy successor to the ones that came before it.

Quote from: Korea on July 12, 2013, 05:52:47 PM
Just me or or are the Shoshone OP?

Quote from: FunkMonk on July 13, 2013, 11:50:54 AM

Quote from: Korea on July 12, 2013, 05:52:47 PM
Just me or or are the Shoshone OP?

In the one game that I'm still playing they've consistently been in the top two or three throughout the game. Having a sample size of only one isn't that scientific though :P

Quote from: DGuller on July 13, 2013, 12:45:38 PM
Does anyone use trade for anything other than stuffing their citizens with food?

Quote from: DGuller on July 13, 2013, 12:45:38 PM
Does anyone use trade for anything other than stuffing their citizens with food?

Quote from: Zanza on July 13, 2013, 03:27:39 PM
Do you guys use land-based trade? My sea trade seems to be much more profitable to the point that I never use land-based trade if I have a harbor...

Quote from: DGuller on July 13, 2013, 04:06:03 PM
I really feel like such an asshole when some city revolts away from oppressors to join my empire, and I raze it to the ground.  :blush:

Quote from: FunkMonk on July 13, 2013, 03:42:15 PMThat said, I'm getting between +6 and +16 gold per turn from each of these five routes. I'm curious to know what amounts of gold people are getting from sea trade.

Quote from: Korea on July 14, 2013, 12:59:54 AM
Really fucking hate the barbarian spawn rate in BNW. I can't focus on the liberty tree and improving my civ because I have to spend so much time destroying barbarians for the first 100 turns. It's just annoying.

Quote from: Zanza on July 14, 2013, 12:32:49 AM

Quote from: FunkMonk on July 13, 2013, 03:42:15 PMThat said, I'm getting between +6 and +16 gold per turn from each of these five routes. I'm curious to know what amounts of gold people are getting from sea trade.

I got 27-32 gold per route from sea trade in the late game. But even earlier it was always more profitable than land-based trade.

Quote from: FunkMonk on July 14, 2013, 07:13:27 AM

Quote from: Korea on July 14, 2013, 12:59:54 AM
Really fucking hate the barbarian spawn rate in BNW. I can't focus on the liberty tree and improving my civ because I have to spend so much time destroying barbarians for the first 100 turns. It's just annoying.

It caught me by surprise in my first couple of test games. I actually like it. I usually never bothered hunting down barbarian camps and only built a skeletal early game army but now I'm finding it pretty fun to build up raiding parties and go barb hunting. I'm curious to see what Raging Barbarians plays like now.

Quote from: Syt on July 14, 2013, 06:49:22 AM
Yay - made it to 1888, when I ran into a repeatable crash. Turns out there's an issue with archeologists.  <_<

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12599496&posted=1#post12599496

Apparently, there can be issues when digging up something that doesn't belong to anyone, esp. when playing as America/Washington.

Quote from: garbon on July 14, 2013, 09:24:33 AM

Quote from: Syt on July 14, 2013, 06:49:22 AM
Yay - made it to 1888, when I ran into a repeatable crash. Turns out there's an issue with archeologists.  <_<

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12599496&posted=1#post12599496

Apparently, there can be issues when digging up something that doesn't belong to anyone, esp. when playing as America/Washington.

Hmm...does that mean I cancel the dig and stop that? I got a repeatable crash too. :angry:

Quote from: FunkMonk on July 14, 2013, 07:13:27 AM

Quote from: Korea on July 14, 2013, 12:59:54 AM
Really fucking hate the barbarian spawn rate in BNW. I can't focus on the liberty tree and improving my civ because I have to spend so much time destroying barbarians for the first 100 turns. It's just annoying.

It caught me by surprise in my first couple of test games. I actually like it. I usually never bothered hunting down barbarian camps and only built a skeletal early game army but now I'm finding it pretty fun to build up raiding parties and go barb hunting. I'm curious to see what Raging Barbarians plays like now.

Quote from: Syt on July 14, 2013, 10:26:59 AM
I've maxes Liberty, Commerce and Aesthetics,

Quotehave 11 cities (an unusually large number for me),

Quoteand 8 tenets in the Freedom ideology tree.

Quote from: Zanza on July 14, 2013, 11:31:25 AM

Quote from: Syt on July 14, 2013, 10:26:59 AM
I've maxes Liberty, Commerce and Aesthetics,

There seems to be less reason to max out the various SP trees now that they don't count for cultural victory anymore.

Quote

Quotehave 11 cities (an unusually large number for me),

What map size do you play on? I usually play standard these days and after 3-4 cities for each civilization, the whole map is full except for some spots for late game colonies.

Quote

Quoteand 8 tenets in the Freedom ideology tree.

I really like that system. One thing I couldn't tell was whether those tenets are exclusive like the religious ones or whether you can pick all of them even if another civ has already taken some.

Quote from: Syt on July 14, 2013, 10:14:21 AM

Quote from: garbon on July 14, 2013, 09:24:33 AM

Quote from: Syt on July 14, 2013, 06:49:22 AM
Yay - made it to 1888, when I ran into a repeatable crash. Turns out there's an issue with archeologists.  <_<

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12599496&posted=1#post12599496

Apparently, there can be issues when digging up something that doesn't belong to anyone, esp. when playing as America/Washington.

Hmm...does that mean I cancel the dig and stop that? I got a repeatable crash too. :angry:

Yeah, cancel the dig in no man's land and you should be fine. Wait till that area gets assimilated by some other culture, then it works. What civ were you playing as?

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 14, 2013, 09:57:00 AM
Now I'm sad I didn't buy it at 33% off :(

Quote from: Zanza on July 14, 2013, 02:55:23 PM
What difficulty level do you guys play?

Quote from: Korea on July 14, 2013, 11:09:43 AM
I just always hated the fighting part of Civ. I hate going to war. I just want to build up a big beautiful civilization. :( I

Quote from: DGuller on July 14, 2013, 07:50:42 PM
Is there an easy way to find archaeological artifacts (or any resource, for that matter)?  Surely turning on resource icons and scanning the map manually can't be the best solution?

Quote from: Darth Wagtaros on July 15, 2013, 07:42:42 AM
There should be an event for a global pandemic, and model its progress based on shipping routes, borders, etc.

Quote from: Solmyr on July 15, 2013, 05:23:34 AM

Quote from: DGuller on July 14, 2013, 07:50:42 PM
Is there an easy way to find archaeological artifacts (or any resource, for that matter)?  Surely turning on resource icons and scanning the map manually can't be the best solution?

What's wrong with resource icons? I always have them on.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 15, 2013, 10:36:09 AM
Yes & no. It includes the game play improvement but not the playable civilizations.

Most of what G&K change was adding religion. Religion is in BNW.

Quote from: Zanza on July 14, 2013, 02:55:23 PM
What difficulty level do you guys play?

Quote from: Berkut on July 15, 2013, 03:37:02 PM
I seem to recall hearing something about PBEM Civ V being on the horizon. Is that true?

QuoteCivilization V patch adding Pitboss mode
by Alice O'Connor, Jul 02, 2013 6:00am PDT
Related Topics – Sid Meier's Civilization V, Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings, 2K Games, PC, Firaxis
Almost three years after launch, Civilization V's promised Pitboss multiplayer mode is finally arriving today in a new patch. The update also brings an observer mode, support for custom maps in multiplayer, AI tweaks, new terrain art, bug fixes, and more, making everything spick-and-span for the launch of the Brave New World expansion next week.


Pitboss is, in the words of the patch notes, a mode "which allows players to connect, take their turn, disconnect, and come back later. Email notifications and steam notifications are built into the system." A more laid-back mode for people who don't want to sit and play a round for several hours straight, see.

At first Pitboss will require someone to act as server, but developer Firaxis plans to release a standalone server that doesn't require a Steam account, "once the system has received a healthy amount of feedback from the community"--ie it's ironed out bugs and niggles.

The patch brings loads of other fine changes, especially to multiplayer, so do check the notes. It's due out later today, and should update automatically through Steam.

Quote from: garbon on July 14, 2013, 08:23:57 PM

Quote from: Korea on July 14, 2013, 11:09:43 AM
I just always hated the fighting part of Civ. I hate going to war. I just want to build up a big beautiful civilization. :( I

What a girl.

Quote from: Korea on July 15, 2013, 09:54:29 PM

Quote from: garbon on July 14, 2013, 08:23:57 PM

Quote from: Korea on July 14, 2013, 11:09:43 AM
I just always hated the fighting part of Civ. I hate going to war. I just want to build up a big beautiful civilization. :( I

What a girl.

God damn my ovaries.

Quote from: KRonn on July 15, 2013, 10:43:25 AM

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 15, 2013, 10:36:09 AM
Yes & no. It includes the game play improvement but not the playable civilizations.

Most of what G&K change was adding religion. Religion is in BNW.

Thanks. I'll check out the new civs in each expansion and decide, or if G&K is now cheap enough I can get it first.

Quote from: garbon on July 15, 2013, 03:02:19 PM
Hmm, the option to liberate extinct Civs is kinda strange. Do they just have the tech they had when extinguished? After facing down an expansive Japan (who ate up the Celts and Dutch), I decided to release Amsterdam back to the Dutch.  To keep them in my orbit, I also setup a defensive pact with them. I'm glad I did as turns out they have renaissance tech (actually when released they were medieval but first notice when I got told them had made it to renaissance) while the other civs and I are in modern tech.

Kinda seems to lessen the utility of bringing a civ back as a thorn in the side of others.

Quote from: Viking on July 16, 2013, 07:58:56 PM
Has difficulty been upped any? Or is it just that I turned off the no pottery to ai mod? I'm falling further behind the a.i. than I am used to.

Quote from: DGuller on July 16, 2013, 09:37:12 PM

Quote from: Viking on July 16, 2013, 07:58:56 PM
Has difficulty been upped any? Or is it just that I turned off the no pottery to ai mod? I'm falling further behind the a.i. than I am used to.

No pottery to AI mod?  :huh:

Quote from: Viking on July 16, 2013, 10:03:22 PM
BTW, I am turning against the 1 unit per hex system they have now simply because the A.I. can't use it properly.

In the early game I can usually pull of the same effect with one warrior and one archer (e.g. taking a capital) that the a.i. needs 10 of each to do. I do this with tactics. The a.i., however, usually wastes most of it's units on the attack and the attack fails if the a.i. doesn't husband both it's ranged and melee units.

Quote from: DGuller on July 17, 2013, 02:48:37 AM

Quote from: Viking on July 16, 2013, 10:03:22 PM
BTW, I am turning against the 1 unit per hex system they have now simply because the A.I. can't use it properly.

In the early game I can usually pull of the same effect with one warrior and one archer (e.g. taking a capital) that the a.i. needs 10 of each to do. I do this with tactics. The a.i., however, usually wastes most of it's units on the attack and the attack fails if the a.i. doesn't husband both it's ranged and melee units.

How do you take a capital with one warrior and one archer?  :huh:  Do you play at a very slow setting, such that you can level up your archer to +3 range double attacker before he becomes utterly obsolete?

Quote from: Zanza on July 20, 2013, 10:32:36 AM
Playing marathon makes the game easier. The human player generally has a better tactical and strategic command over his units and as everything else slows down but units keep their speed, they become a more important component of the game and you can outsmart the AI on the battlefield easily.

Quote from: Zanza on July 20, 2013, 10:32:36 AM
Playing marathon makes the game easier. The human player generally has a better tactical and strategic command over his units and as everything else slows down but units keep their speed, they become a more important component of the game and you can outsmart the AI on the battlefield easily.

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 11:01:27 AM
What is everyone early-game strategy like?  I tend to wonder-whore early, and try build as many as I can, since they can be such effective force multipliers.  I now wonder whether I'm missing out on too many of the other necessary activities early in the game, since your capital tends to be constantly busy.

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 05:45:45 PM
Artemis?  :huh:

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 05:59:06 PM
I've never seen that wonder.  Is that from some kind of a mod?

Quote from: Viking on July 21, 2013, 06:16:20 PM

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 05:59:06 PM
I've never seen that wonder.  Is that from some kind of a mod?

http://www.dndjunkie.com/civilopedia/BUILDING_TEMPLE_ARTEMIS.aspx

eh, no... BNW and G&K both have it...

it's one of the original 7 wonders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 06:18:04 PM
Just discovered theming bonus, and how you can go about getting them.  It puts the "retarded uber micro" into "retarded uber micromanagement".

Quote from: Viking on July 21, 2013, 06:21:12 PM

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 06:18:04 PM
Just discovered theming bonus, and how you can go about getting them.  It puts the "retarded uber micro" into "retarded uber micromanagement".

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=501170

though... I'm not going to wait ... I'm gonna rush build that slot and get the artist into it.. if not.. some barbarian or revolter is going to take him

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 06:19:36 PM

Quote from: Viking on July 21, 2013, 06:16:20 PM

Quote from: DGuller on July 21, 2013, 05:59:06 PM
I've never seen that wonder.  Is that from some kind of a mod?

http://www.dndjunkie.com/civilopedia/BUILDING_TEMPLE_ARTEMIS.aspx

eh, no... BNW and G&K both have it...

it's one of the original 7 wonders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_the_Ancient_World

:huh: :hmm: I don't have it, my Civilopedia doesn't have an entry for it.  WTF?

Quote from: Solmyr on July 22, 2013, 05:29:56 AM
The theming bonuses are spelled out for you if you mouseover the +0 on each wonder or museum. It does require some extra fiddling with, but it is necessary if you want a cultural victory. Plus, you can swap great works with other civs to get what you need, if you are missing something.

Quote from: DGuller on July 20, 2013, 02:22:44 AM
In my game as Mongolia, my ultra high tourism output has put a lot of pressure on other countries to adopt the ideology of Freedom.  Citizens of Boston were so enamored with Mongolian culture that they revolted against America, and joined the Mongolian empire.  :hmm:

Quote from: DGuller on July 22, 2013, 07:43:05 AM

Quote from: Solmyr on July 22, 2013, 05:29:56 AM
The theming bonuses are spelled out for you if you mouseover the +0 on each wonder or museum. It does require some extra fiddling with, but it is necessary if you want a cultural victory. Plus, you can swap great works with other civs to get what you need, if you are missing something.

I knew all of that when I formed my opinion.  Problem is that every wonder has a theming scheme of its own.  Try juggling one wonder that requires same era, same civilization, with another that requires different eras, same civilization, with another that requires different eras with different civilization, with yet another that requires two great works of art and two artifacts.  It's orgasmic to figure out how you can complete the theming bonus of one while not breaking the bonus of another, or what work of art is better off traded.  :x  It's almost a completely unrelated detailed mini-game that feels out of place with with "complexity achieved with simple mechanics" philosophy that made Civ so addictive.

Quote from: Solmyr on July 22, 2013, 05:29:56 AM
The theming bonuses are spelled out for you if you mouseover the +0 on each wonder or museum. It does require some extra fiddling with, but it is necessary if you want a cultural victory.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 22, 2013, 06:30:59 PM
How tall?

Try it in a one city challenge?


I really need to try for a Conquest victory but I find war so stressfull.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 22, 2013, 08:00:13 PM
Wow That's tall. I think I only ever got to 30 once.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 22, 2013, 08:07:27 PM
I've never played India that's true. Right now I'm playing one has the US. First time Ever!

I usually pick Random & RNG loves Greece.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 22, 2013, 08:27:32 PM
Random Number Generator.

Stupid Archeology bug.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 23, 2013, 03:27:42 PM
I didn't know this was possible but Tyre conquered Sparta and now controls it.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 23, 2013, 09:22:46 PM
Never seen anyone mention that before.

Archipelago maps make for a boring game. Lots of boats tho.

Quote from: Solmyr on July 24, 2013, 07:45:45 AM
I'm having trouble avoiding a diplo victory every time. By the late game I have so much money that I easily control every city-state on the map, by the time the world leader vote comes around.

Last night I finally got my first new cultural victory, two turns before I would have gotten the diplo one.

Quote from: Grey Fox on July 24, 2013, 11:16:03 PM
As I said before, I am playing a game as Washington on an Archipelago map. I'm going for a cultural victory but with 50 turns left to go, it's readily apparent that I won't get influential in time. None the less I am bidding my time trying to get it anyway.

But! Out of the jaw of defeat comes Victory for, with 40 turns left, the Inca declare war on me. (Leading Civ at the time). My giant Battleship fleet then proceed to conquer their entire territory earning me a point victory.

Thank you, The Inca.

Quote from: DGuller on July 25, 2013, 07:10:57 AM
:hmm: Are you people beelining for the Internet?  Airports?  Do you assign specialists to be writers/musicians/etc.?

Quote from: Solmyr on July 28, 2013, 05:13:51 AM
I just realized the power of caravans transferring production. Using two to transfer prod to my capital in the current game, the capital can build a lot faster that way.

Quote from: Solmyr on July 28, 2013, 10:29:32 AM
I'm turning off diplo victory in my games for now. It's way too easy and you never win any other kind of victory if it's on.

Quote from: DGuller on July 28, 2013, 02:37:14 PM

Quote from: Solmyr on July 28, 2013, 10:29:32 AM
I'm turning off diplo victory in my games for now. It's way too easy and you never win any other kind of victory if it's on.

I just played a game on a large map (with 10/20 players), and diplomatic victory was not easy there.  Siam adopted Autocracy and basically co-opted all the city-states around them, with that cool bullying bonus autocracies get.  Between that and the large number of other civs, I really couldn't peel off enough votes to get me over the diplo win limit, I just couldn't get enough money to win over cit-states that were +500/60 for Siam.  I was in position to win the next round of voting, but before that could happen, my spaceship was launched.

Quote from: Solmyr on July 28, 2013, 03:29:13 PM

Quote from: DGuller on July 28, 2013, 02:37:14 PM

Quote from: Solmyr on July 28, 2013, 10:29:32 AM
I'm turning off diplo victory in my games for now. It's way too easy and you never win any other kind of victory if it's on.

I just played a game on a large map (with 10/20 players), and diplomatic victory was not easy there.  Siam adopted Autocracy and basically co-opted all the city-states around them, with that cool bullying bonus autocracies get.  Between that and the large number of other civs, I really couldn't peel off enough votes to get me over the diplo win limit, I just couldn't get enough money to win over cit-states that were +500/60 for Siam.  I was in position to win the next round of voting, but before that could happen, my spaceship was launched.

That's also a problem - either you win a diplo victory or someone else does. In particular, I find it hard to go for a spaceship, as the Atomic Era (and thus world leader voting) comes along well before you get all, or any, of the spaceship techs.

Quote from: DGuller on August 02, 2013, 11:52:56 AM
By canals you mean cities on a 1-tile wide stretch, or some actual canal improvement from one of those DLC packs I don't have?

Quote from: Viking on August 02, 2013, 01:35:58 PM

Quote from: DGuller on August 02, 2013, 11:52:56 AM
By canals you mean cities on a 1-tile wide stretch, or some actual canal improvement from one of those DLC packs I don't have?

Yes, a 1 tile wide spit of land between two bodies of water which can cause communication which didn't exist before.


Actually, I'd like to see cities have a port-side. I'd compensate for that loss by allowing stacking of ships in port. I'd like to see the use of great engineers to create canals as a special great person tile improvement - counts as a trading post only ships can pass through them like carthaginians can cross mountains. I'd also like to see a port tile improvement which would allow, when connected to a city within it's radius, the city to build naval buildings. And naval units built would appear at the port and that port would be used for naval trade. It just wouldn't have the unlimited stacking of the full port city. I can't mod either.

Quote from: DGuller on August 02, 2013, 03:37:21 PM
I also don't think unlimited ship stacking is a good idea.  You can park 10 battleships or missile cruisers in the city and delete any unit within a 4-tile radius.  At least planes with unlimited stacking take damage when they attack.

Quote from: DGuller on August 02, 2013, 03:20:09 PM
The last idea may be too unbalanced.  Why even build a city on the coast then and make it vulnerable to naval attack?

Quote from: Viking on August 03, 2013, 01:34:21 AM
Actually, the idea was that ships in port don't shoot. Period. They have to be at sea to shoot. Again, this is something that can't be modded.

QuoteBecause ships are already way overpowered compared to land units and need a nerf. Because in history no fleet ever took a city from an army.

QuoteI agree on it's own this would be waaaay OP, but this would have to happen as part of a larger re-balancing.

Quote from: DGuller on August 04, 2013, 11:36:32 AM

Quote from: Viking on August 03, 2013, 01:34:21 AM
Actually, the idea was that ships in port don't shoot. Period. They have to be at sea to shoot. Again, this is something that can't be modded.

Ships with double attacks can still pop out, shoot, and pop back in.  Not as automatic of a game changer, but still OP.

Quote from: DGuller on August 04, 2013, 11:36:32 AM

QuoteBecause ships are already way overpowered compared to land units and need a nerf. Because in history no fleet ever took a city from an army.

In history longbowmen didn't have the range of WWII-era artillery either, and academies weren't built in the middle of tundra.  Civ games are not history simulators, they're all about gameplay with historical flavor.

Quote from: DGuller on August 04, 2013, 11:36:32 AM

QuoteI agree on it's own this would be waaaay OP, but this would have to happen as part of a larger re-balancing.

Why is there a need to re-balance?  In my experience, unless the game is created by clueless developers that somehow shit out a diamond in the rough despite themselves, developers almost always have a much better handle on game balance than modders.  Modders always try to tinker with this and that, and almost always come out with something over-complicated with less playability.

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 12:17:42 AM
Why is tundra a bad place for great person improvements?  Tundra hill is just like any other hill, while flat tundra cannot be improved in any useful way.  Even a desert tile can give you two food late in the game, just like a water tile.

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 12:17:42 AM
Why is tundra a bad place for great person improvements?  Tundra hill is just like any other hill, while flat tundra cannot be improved in any useful way.  Even a desert tile can give you two food late in the game, just like a water tile.

Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on August 05, 2013, 02:33:39 AM

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 12:17:42 AM
Why is tundra a bad place for great person improvements?  Tundra hill is just like any other hill, while flat tundra cannot be improved in any useful way.  Even a desert tile can give you two food late in the game, just like a water tile.

flat tundra when bordering a river can be improved

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 07:34:12 AM

Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on August 05, 2013, 02:33:39 AM

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 12:17:42 AM
Why is tundra a bad place for great person improvements?  Tundra hill is just like any other hill, while flat tundra cannot be improved in any useful way.  Even a desert tile can give you two food late in the game, just like a water tile.

flat tundra when bordering a river can be improved

It rarely does border a river, though.

Quote from: Viking on August 05, 2013, 03:43:15 AM

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 12:17:42 AM
Why is tundra a bad place for great person improvements?  Tundra hill is just like any other hill, while flat tundra cannot be improved in any useful way.  Even a desert tile can give you two food late in the game, just like a water tile.

Because it's base production is 1 "stuff" rather than the normal 2 "stuff" (stuff being hammers and food). You can add a trading post to tundra and a farm where it has fresh water. Remember a tile which produces 2 food is merely feeding the farmer and maintaining the population. Even on ICS (going super wide) you shouldn't be stacking your cities in a way that they are going to need clear tundra to feed themselves. That doesn't mean don't have clear tundra in your radius, it just means that you should be counting tundra as useless terrain when placing cities.

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 07:37:24 AM

Quote from: Viking on August 05, 2013, 03:43:15 AM

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 12:17:42 AM
Why is tundra a bad place for great person improvements?  Tundra hill is just like any other hill, while flat tundra cannot be improved in any useful way.  Even a desert tile can give you two food late in the game, just like a water tile.

Because it's base production is 1 "stuff" rather than the normal 2 "stuff" (stuff being hammers and food). You can add a trading post to tundra and a farm where it has fresh water. Remember a tile which produces 2 food is merely feeding the farmer and maintaining the population. Even on ICS (going super wide) you shouldn't be stacking your cities in a way that they are going to need clear tundra to feed themselves. That doesn't mean don't have clear tundra in your radius, it just means that you should be counting tundra as useless terrain when placing cities.

I still don't understand.  I try to make use of every land tile available to me.  It seems like using academy instead of a mine on a tundra hill, while leaving flat tundra with a useless trading post, is a sub-optimal use of tiles.

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 07:59:18 AM
I view academy as a specialist tile of sorts.  It also costs a net of one food just like specialist under Freedom, but it gives me a shitload of science and a little culture.  Yes, it doesn't get the half unhappiness that a real specialists gets, but having 10 sciences in one tile is worth it.

Quote from: Viking on August 05, 2013, 08:05:16 AM

Quote from: DGuller on August 05, 2013, 07:59:18 AM
I view academy as a specialist tile of sorts.  It also costs a net of one food just like specialist under Freedom, but it gives me a shitload of science and a little culture.  Yes, it doesn't get the half unhappiness that a real specialists gets, but having 10 sciences in one tile is worth it.

I agree, but a 1 food, 8 science tile is worse than a 2 food, 8 science tile no matter how you look at it. Or, even better, slap it on a happiness resource tile and you get  both the resource and the science and the extra food/money/production without having to spend lots of population on it.

Quote from: KRonn on August 05, 2013, 10:20:08 AM
I'm playing a game as Rome and when Ideology kicked in I chose Order. Romans love Order apparently! That plus tenets and the happiness buildings and policies I already had jumped my happiness to the 60s up to 70.

I build many cities tall but still learning the game. Now I try and watch to not let too many cities get too large and affect happiness. As long as I have a good core of heavy producing cities for building Wonders, military units and the larger buildings, factories, etc, and the smaller cities can produce certain buildings for gold/culture/faith, or be productive enough to add some military and larger buildings, I'm happy. But still a novice at the game.

Quote from: mongers on August 05, 2013, 10:33:47 AM

Quote from: KRonn on August 05, 2013, 10:20:08 AM
I'm playing a game as Rome and when Ideology kicked in I chose Order. Romans love Order apparently! That plus tenets and the happiness buildings and policies I already had jumped my happiness to the 60s up to 70.

I build many cities tall but still learning the game. Now I try and watch to not let too many cities get too large and affect happiness. As long as I have a good core of heavy producing cities for building Wonders, military units and the larger buildings, factories, etc, and the smaller cities can produce certain buildings for gold/culture/faith, or be productive enough to add some military and larger buildings, I'm happy. But still a novice at the game.

Sounds good, I'll have to give this ago, though I didn't love the demo.

Quote from: Viking on August 05, 2013, 11:54:02 AM
all the ideologies have policies which give insane amounts of happiness. Basically, as soon as you get to ideology you should expect to have 40-60 spare happiness on a large map unless you go on a massive conquering spree. It's almost like escaping the malthusian trap. Up until you get an ideology happiness is the limit you must always confine yourself to, after the ideology the rules basically change.

Quote from: KRonn on August 05, 2013, 12:14:17 PM
At first when the game came out I was luke warm on it; it felt different or someting but I probably also wasn't into playing Civ so much.

Quote from: KRonn on August 05, 2013, 12:14:17 PMAlso I like the combat system, not that it's a huge innovation but one unit per hex means a lot less unit density, not having to build so many units where end game became a real chore for me in past Civ games.

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 05, 2013, 02:50:24 PM
Viking, DG, Kronn.

You guys need to attach a save game so I(we) can take a look at your set ups.

Quote from: Viking on August 05, 2013, 03:07:45 PM

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 05, 2013, 02:50:24 PM
Viking, DG, Kronn.

You guys need to attach a save game so I(we) can take a look at your set ups.

Random civ, Random size, Tectonics (mod map), Immortal, Monumental.

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 05, 2013, 04:24:32 PM
I've learned alot about Civ V by watching youtube videos.

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 05, 2013, 04:24:32 PM

Quote from: Viking on August 05, 2013, 03:07:45 PM

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 05, 2013, 02:50:24 PM
Viking, DG, Kronn.

You guys need to attach a save game so I(we) can take a look at your set ups.

Random civ, Random size, Tectonics (mod map), Immortal, Monumental.

That's not what I meant. You speak of all placements, I just want to see that in action to learn from it. I've learned alot about Civ V by watching youtube videos.

Quote from: Grey Fox on August 05, 2013, 02:50:24 PM
Viking, DG, Kronn.

You guys need to attach a save game so I(we) can take a look at your set ups.

Quote from: DGuller on August 11, 2013, 10:28:27 PM
Has anyone noticed that Civ V is leaking memory like a sieve?  I think it's Civ V anyway, I only notice it when I play Civ V.  I'm having multiple gigs of RAM go MIA, and none of the utility tools can find it.

Quote from: Razgovory on August 11, 2013, 10:30:56 PM

Quote from: DGuller on August 11, 2013, 10:28:27 PM
Has anyone noticed that Civ V is leaking memory like a sieve?  I think it's Civ V anyway, I only notice it when I play Civ V.  I'm having multiple gigs of RAM go MIA, and none of the utility tools can find it.

Put a bucket underneath your PC and then pour what's in it in to your PC at the end of the day.  Problem solved.

Quote from: KRonn on August 20, 2013, 12:29:01 PM
I'm playing BNW and had upgraded first with Gods and Kings then with BNW. I think I'm missing some Civs, like Korea which I don't see as an option. Just wondering if I'm missing something between the two updates?

Quote from: mongers on August 21, 2013, 03:51:18 PM

Quote from: KRonn on August 20, 2013, 12:29:01 PM
I'm playing BNW and had upgraded first with Gods and Kings then with BNW. I think I'm missing some Civs, like Korea which I don't see as an option. Just wondering if I'm missing something between the two updates?

I think I got all of the civs,because instead of getting the base game and then gods/kings, I bought the Game of the Year edition, that was a compilation of nearly all the then DLC and then I upgraded with gods/kings.

Quote from: KRonn on August 22, 2013, 12:41:51 PM

Quote from: mongers on August 21, 2013, 03:51:18 PM

Quote from: KRonn on August 20, 2013, 12:29:01 PM
I'm playing BNW and had upgraded first with Gods and Kings then with BNW. I think I'm missing some Civs, like Korea which I don't see as an option. Just wondering if I'm missing something between the two updates?

I think I got all of the civs,because instead of getting the base game and then gods/kings, I bought the Game of the Year edition, that was a compilation of nearly all the then DLC and then I upgraded with gods/kings.

Smart move. I wish I had done that, but still there's so much game without the DLCs. I can download them later though.

Quote from: mongers on August 24, 2013, 01:42:03 PM

Indeed, I've still not played half of the civs.

Which reminds me maybe i'll give it a spin latter and go for diplomatic or military victory ?

Quote from: Winkelried on October 09, 2013, 08:15:38 AM
Question for Viking (who seems to be the uncrowned king of Civ V around here) and others who have experience using mods:
What are the must-have mods for BNW? I'm playing my first serious game but it's unmodded. In my experience mods usually imporve the gaming experience a great deal. Suggestions would be appreciated.