Any civ'ers?

[The_Worlds_finest]

Civ5 comes out in a little over 7 days. Anybody here play?

[xellos88330]

I used to play quite a bit. It got a bit mundane, but this new one definitely has my interest.

[scampers]

Been playing Civ since Civ 2. I still remembering making my parents upgrade our PC to 16MB of RAM just so I could see the heralds.

I've been giving myself a break from Civ 4 this month. Got Civ 5 on pre-order... can't wait. Though I'm a little afraid they've messed the game up with some key feature changes... we'll see.

[hater]

I play on and off. Really on and off, like 2 hours every 3 weeks. I hate the diplomacy part. I just kill off every other civ in the world.

but yeah, this civ 5 looks tight!

[DarkReign]

CivIV rules my gaming life as has every Civ since II.

CivV on preorder, counting the days until the 21st...

[4>0rings]

It's just getting too indepth now, way to slow. I was a huge fan since Civ 1 back in the day, infact I still have civ 1. Civ Revolution, while NOT close to being indepth was still fun and I could still play a game or 2 online and still have a life. Civ 5... jeebus, am I going to have to physically put food in my subjects mouth now?

I'll probably jump back onboard once they figure out the online part for the PC versions.

[xellos88330]

It's just getting too indepth now, way to slow. I was a huge fan since Civ 1 back in the day, infact I still have civ 1. Civ Revolution, while NOT close to being indepth was still fun and I could still play a game or 2 online and still have a life. Civ 5... jeebus, am I going to have to physically put food in my subjects mouth now?

I'll probably jump back onboard once they figure out the online part for the PC versions.

Supposedly with Civ 5 you aren't going to be micromanaging as much, the AI has been improved according to PC gamer.

[The_Worlds_finest]

From what Ive seen, the game no longer has in-depth menus, all the options are made directly from the playing screen. Its going to be a pretty damn good game. If anybody wants to get in on some multiplayer action get the game and lets get to it. Oh yeah and no more spear man killing tanks or helos.

[DarkReign]

Steam allows pre-loading as of now. Pre-loaded last night, ready to rock come the 21st.

[The_Worlds_finest]

What system are you running it on?

[DarkReign]

What system are you running it on?

My PC?

Or did you mean the specs of my PC?

When someone says "system", I think 360, PS3, Wii or PC. Call me ignorant.

[The_Worlds_finest]

what are your system specs for the computer? I am debating on upgrading to a quad core and better graphic card.

[DarkReign]

Intel(R) Core i7 CPU 965 Quad Core @ 3.20GHz (liquid cooled)
12GB DDR3 RAM
(4x) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
(2x) 256GB SSD Hard drives Raid0
Vista 64bit

[ElNono]

Intel(R) Core i7 CPU 965 Quad Core @ 3.20GHz (liquid cooled)
12GB DDR3 RAM
(4x) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
(2x) 256GB SSD Hard drives Raid0
Vista 64bit

Does that thing come turbo-charged?



















(just kidding... had to bring up that classic 'my cousin vinny' line)

[DarkReign]

Does that thing come turbo-charged?

(just kidding... had to bring up that classic 'my cousin vinny' line)

No, but it has positraction.

[The_Worlds_finest]

Skylark with two youts?
Nice machine Darkreign. I am having to upgrade. My civ4 built machine is no match for the Civ5 requirements

[DarkReign]

Skylark with two youts?

A what?

A "yout"?

[The_Worlds_finest]

http://downloads.2kgames.com/civ5/site13/community/feature_manual/Civ_V_Manual_English_v1.0.pdf

The user manual for the game....enjoy.

[DarkReign]

Sweet

[resistanze]

Intel(R) Core i7 CPU 965 Quad Core @ 3.20GHz (liquid cooled)
12GB DDR3 RAM
(4x) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
(2x) 256GB SSD Hard drives Raid0
Vista 64bit

Show off. (:depressed)

[The_Worlds_finest]

The reviews are coming in
Everybody has it over 9

[DarkReign]

Show off. (:depressed)

He asked.

[4>0rings]

I miss dictionary thick manuals for games...

[resistanze]

He asked.

Wait...what? I didn't even realize the first time I browsed your rig that it's Quad SLI. Go to hell.

...What res do you typically run games on?

[DarkReign]

Wait...what? I didn't even realize the first time I browsed your rig that it's Quad SLI. Go to hell.

...What res do you typically run games on?

Crysis
1920 x 1200, 8x AA, 8x AF
60+ fps

All games I run at my monitor's native 1920 x 1200 resolution (16:10, I believe?).

When I really crank the AA and AF up (to 16x), there is still a noticeable drop in framerate. Oddly, older games push my rig harder than newer games.

Examples: GTA4 and Bully kill my rig, most likely because neither game is optimized to run on a PC, so I can only get those to 1920 x 1200 with everything else turned off, then Im good.

But new, PC-specific games kick ass.

[DarkReign]

I took a badass screenshot in Fallout3 in the TreeMan (or whatever) area that everyone worships with a flamethrower and I was extremely tempted to post that screenshot here, even I was impressed how fucking badass it looked.

[The Reckoning]

comes out today apparently. please post personal reviews.

[DarkReign]

Tell you when I get home. If I can, I am going to skate out of work a little early today.

[DarkReign]

Just about to fire it up for the first time.

[The Reckoning]

2 hours in with no update. seems like DarkReign likes it.

good to know :tu.

[The_Worlds_finest]

I hears its the shit

[scampers]

I was able to play for about an hour before I had to go to work today.

It is a damn sexy game. Damn sexy.

I definitely like the hex tiles much more than square tiles, and only being able to have one military unit on a tile requires one to put a little more thought into tactics and strategy.

Didn't get too far in the game but so far its great!

[The_Worlds_finest]

I just got done with a two hour stint.
4 player game with 6 city states, beginner.
I started on a continent with Montezuma, Sorry dude you or me.
I expanded until I found horses and then found a city-state with iron.
At first going into battle I was thinking, "Make a stack and go in the city" infact I was kind of lost due to the fact its not available anymore, and it felt as if I wasn't playing a civ game at all.

So I had to reevaluate my whole attack. I experimented and found an effective means.

Using an attack of 3 horsemen to 1 horse archer and multiple archers. I surrounded his first of 3 cities and rained a fiery hell unto his people. (I could have nixed the 1 horsemen and just used archers.)

The only defense he put up were his ass backwards warriors who were dealt with by my swordsmen(2 of 2). However I did lose both AND my alliance with the city state supplying the iron. I kinda panicked but my adviser stated that I had him out numbered and to crush him before he tried to sign a treaty. After his first city fell, we marched to his capital and attacked same manner. His defense was pretty worthless, took me 10 turns or so. Ive read the AI is pretty weak, I guess so. Next up the city state with my Iron.

[Cry Havoc]

4 player game with 6 city states, beginner.

the AI is pretty weak, I guess so.

You're doing it wrong.

[DarkReign]

Played until about 4am last night and only got to year 1500 (or so).

Totally different game that, IMO, the jury is kind of out on in some areas.

Like TWF mentioned, the hex map is far better, no question.

Combat is more like a game of chess, maybe even closer to a game like Rome whereby you need your infantry protecting your archers with horseman on the flanks. My army march was literally (imagine this being a hex field, so side-by-side units get staggered depending on which direction youre facing ie North/South vs East/West)....

H A G A H
P P P P P

H = Horseman
A = Archer
G = Great General
P = Pikeman

First thing to note, units in Civ5 are worth a helluva lot more than they were in Civ4. They cost more to build (a lot more) and when you lose one, you actually wince. That configuration I had up there took some time to put together (production-wise) and I have just rolled across my continent, conquering three Civs and one City State with literally, just that one army. Havent even lost a unit, mostly because the AI didnt expand enough to compete with my advancements. Bottom line: Combat is fucking awesome in Civ5. Its far more strategic and rewarding because position means a lot (terrain, flanking, proximity to Great General, etc). With that said, youre not going to beat Knights with Warriors (thats a good thing) but if you have enough Spearmen (less than Pikeman) on defensive tiles with Archers in the back on a hill, you stand a chance at winning if you play it smart and patient. Since I didnt pay attention to what difficulty setting I am on, I assume its beginner because Im walking through everything and its kind of boring.

BUT!

Its a nice way to learn the totally overhauled interface, great people effects, worker instructions, naval capabilities, etc, etc.

Everything is different. EVERYTHING.

Roads cost 1G in maintenance per tile, so the days of your empire having a road on every tile are gone (unless youre filthy, stinking rich beyond the wildest imagination...and even then its a complete waste of gold).

More to the point here, workers require a lot more micro management. Everything they do takes longer. I have buffs from wonders and social policies that speed workers construction rates and it still takes 6 turns to build a mine. 3 turns for a road, etc. Workers do have an "Automate" option, but I havent tried that yet because I do not like the AI's build patterns (maybe its better in Civ5? not sure yet, doubt it).

I never had an interest in naval advancements in any Civ game...until now. The units are extremely powerful, have super-long range for their attack and can move, like, 6-10 tiles in one turn. I have built a grand total of 3 Triremes that I absolutely murdered people with (then I upgraded them to Frigates when I teched far enough and the raping just got worse). Even the lowly Trireme can bombard cities and units and it only gets stronger and stronger from that point on.

Even better and IMO, so fucking cool, is that units do not need Transports/Galleys anymore to cross water tiles. Such an extremely welcome change that already, in my first game, expanding across the ocean is easier and more commonplace. You just direct your individual ground units to the first water tile and they turn into little boats with medium movement range, but zero defense or offense. Meaning, they need escorts unless you want your 180 hammer Knight getting pillaged by a simple Barbarian Galley. Most welcome change to the series that I can think of (mostly because I always played Continents and I would quickly counquer my own and it would take forever to build the necessary Galleys/Galleons/Transports for my army to even stand a chance on the other side of the world).

Next post will be about the things I am not quite sure about.

[DarkReign]

Onto the things I either dont like, or havent adjusted to or havent given enough of a chance.

The City screen is a mess. In past Civs, Alt+Clicking a unit meant that city would make that unit infinitely until told otherwise. Thats gone now, and really, maybe for the better since units are more expensive, time-consuming and resource-consuming (more on that in a bit).

In past Civs, Ctrl+clicking a unit/building automatically sent that to the front of the queue. In contrast, Shift+Clicking sent that item to the bottom. Neither of these methods work and I hate it. Everything must be manually sorted via the Queue menu and while the result is the same, the means to get there takes longer because there is no hotkey to execute the command.

Another thing about the City screen that is God-awful and completely un-intuitive is tile working. If you have played a Civ game, you know micromanaging what tiles your cities work is of extreme importance. It helps specialize cities, create GP farms, production cities and gold producers. While the ability to specialize is still there, it looks awful and so far, to me, is completely confusing. There is so much detail in the terrain, the yields and tile improvements, its easy to lose track of what tiles are being worked because the only indicator is a small, non-descript "Coin" above the tile to indicate thats being worked. Seeing as I am a freak about micromanagement in city screens, I find I am having an extremely hard time adjusting to this...and I hate it...a lot.

One good thing about the city screen, though, is the way Specialists work. Now, every time you construct a building that allows X specialists, on the right side that building will be listed and there will be X slots for Specialists that the building allows. It isnt too big of a deal because in previous Civs, you just keep hitting the plus sign next to the Scientist/Whatever icon until you ran out. But unless you were a pretty advanced player, you never knew what buildings/wonders allowed specific Specialists and how to tailor your game to get them. Not so anymore, so thats cool.

Now, something I am completely pissed off about.

No Vassal states. None, zero, nada. That fucking blows. Big balls. There was always something extremely rewarding about forcing an opponent to Capitulate to your rule, and even from a historic standpoint it was accurate and well documented that this was a very real, very well-used strategy. Apparently, it wasnt cool enough for Civ5 and I am bummed about it. Now, when you crush your enemies and march toward their capital/last city, they start engaging you diplomatically basically giving you everything they own in an attempt to stop you from erasing their people from the history of Earth. If they could capitulate, I would allow them to exist. Since they cannot, I burn them from the memory of time. Real bummed about the subtraction of this game-changing feature. I wont waste time here going over the ins-and-outs of how you could abuse a Vassal, but its safe to say it was a really cool element.

Mind you, I havent won my game yet (thats a formality, judging by the ease at which Ive progressed so far, and Ive even stumbled adjusting to the new gameplay and wasted lots of time familiarizing myself with the God-awful City screen), but its safe to say this game rocks your socks.

The combat alone makes the game...some huge percentage better. Way better, markedly better, more rewarding, more engaging, more intense, more, more, more. And since every Civ game will always find war, this change is awesome.

For the cosmetic aspects, Civ5 looks gorgeous. But I was disappointed to see that you cant zoom in your cities like previous Civs and see all the particular buildings that city has. In Civ4, you could zoom in and see the University and hear the bustle on the streets, the temple bells, etc. Wonders show up on on your cities in Civ5, but even those are underwhelming. Before, youd get a cool little CG cut scene when you completed a Wonder, now in Civ5, you dont. You get a poorly voiced-over quote with a picture...total letdown. But overall, the animation of units, combat, movement, etc. look great.

The diplomatic screens are pretty cool, too. Im sure youve heard that the other leaders are animated and voiced in their native tongues, which is a nice touch...especially when theyre pissed! lol. But diplomacy has been limited in a sense to a bare bones approach, where I felt the Diplo screens and options from Civ4 were more robust in what could be demanded/traded.

Oh, I forgot three very important changes. Extremely important, actually...its pretty bad I got this far and havent mentioned them yet.

Happiness: Is no longer city-specific, its Civ specific. You have a global happiness indicator that changes globally even when one city builds a happiness building. So, if you have a -2 Unhappy population, have one city build a Coliseum (+3 Happy) and your entire civ's score is now +1 Happy. Makes managing this feature much easier, IMO. Welcome change, although I havent played on higher difficulties to determine the difficulty because since a Happy building affects your entire Civ, the production cost is through the roof for even the smallest Happiness buildings.

Resources: Roads are no longer needed to connect a resource to your Civ. So long as the resource is in one of your city's sphere of influence and it is "tapped", its yours. There are two categories of resources in Civ5. Luxury (spice, wine, cotton, etc) and Strategic (iron, coal, horses, etc). Luxury resources confer Happiness benefits but only for the first resource. In past Civs, one spice resource conferred +2 Happiness in every city that was connected to it. If you had six Spices, you had +12 happiness. Not anymore. After the first resource bonus, every subsequent resource is considered an extra to be traded. Welcome change as this encourages trading, even for an Isolationist like myself.

Strategic resources are finite and this has HUGE implications. When you discover and tap a source of iron, you have (5) Iron to be used on Units (Swordsmen, Catapults, Trebuchets, etc). Meaning, with that one resource, you will only be able to produce a total of (5) units that use that particular resource. Once you have reached that limit, that resource is toast and you have to find another or trade for another (good luck with that, youre going to overpay, unless youre in good with a City-State who has one). This changes the field of battle enormously, as every unit that needs a Strat resource (basically, every good unit does, Horses for Knights, Iron for Swordsmen, etc) is uber-powerful compared to a unit that does not use a resource. Another welcome layer of change to an impressive, overhauled combat system.

City Expansion: Firaxis scrapped the Culture bombs of Civ4. Culture still expands your individual cities borders, but its so fucking slow as to be almost useless. No, you have to buy your tiles and I guarantee this is where every player will be spending most of their money. Example: You plop a Settler down and only the immediate adjacent tiles are available to work, but you can purchase the expanding rings around each city for a hefty fee per tile. So expansion is a careful consideration depending on your civs resource need/wants, because a city can purchase tiles WELL BEYOND what that city can work, so in theory, one city's cultural borders can reach across an entire continent. In theory, not practice, as the cost of doing so would be...astronomical. Every resource inside your cultural borders is yours to tap and use, so this is also a new, welcome wrinkle to city planning and expansion. You dont need nearly as many cities as you did in previous games trying to reach that needed resource you so desperately want. Now you need money, a gameplan and hope your rivals dont beat you to it.

Wrap up next post.

[DarkReign]

Wrap up.

There arent any sliders in game and there is no religion whatsoever. You do not need worry about what % your Science slider is at, you need to construct buildings and allocate specialists to increase your output. Im in my first game, but so far, I like it.

Religion...meh, whatever. Dont get me wrong, I was a religion whore in Civ4. It was far too much (early) money to ignore, espcially with priests and Stonehenge kicking out a Prophet every 15 turns. But thats gone and maybe its because the game is new, I dont miss it...yet.

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster espionage is gone. Hated it in BtS, hated the idea, hated using it when I was forced to, hated the buildings, the effects, spies, everything about it. Every Civ4 game, I completely ignored Espionage and now it is gone. Good fucking riddance, die a horrible death and let some modder who laments your loss create a game that has it so I dont have to play it ever again...ever.

I have played about 10 hours and I am impressed. Extremely impressed. I know I am missing some elements (city-state relationships, etc) and wonder about other mechanics I havent seen in Civ5 (like tech trading, havent even seen the option in the Diplo screen), but all in all, its a sweet game.

If you have ever played Civilization, or a turn-based strategy game in general, you will not be disappointed. Well, well worth the money and I havent even touched on multiplayer or the mod community that has churned out excellent mods for years. Now those mods are available right from the main menu, they download and install in-game and you can fire them up with no hassle. I am not a mod player, but even I am interested in this feature.

Is this the pinnacle of turn-based Startegy games? No, there is ample room for improvement, especially with the interface (and the fucking City screen). But I'll chalk those complaints up to me not embracing change and I am confident time will alleviate these concerns.

Otherwise, this game is a mesh of Civilization4, CivRev, a little touch (very little) of Rome:TW and Final Fantasy Tactics. All in a beautiful package of infinte replay value.

Its 2010...Civilization4 was released in 2005. Ive logged the second most hours of my gaming life into Civ4 and I still play it 5 years after it came out.

I am quite confident that I will be stil be playing Civ5 in 2015 and thats about the highest compliment I can pay it.

Buy it. Support the developer and fucking buy it if you have any interest in this sort of game whatsoever.

[scampers]

I pretty much agree with everything DarkReign said about the game. There's some quirks and annoyances, but it's a damn fine game.

However, I do have one extra gripe. You can't raze city states?? Really??? I thought the city state concept was cool at first, but not being able to raze them really pisses me off. Especially when my capital is COMPLETELY surrounded by them. My only expansion option is to conquer one. And if they're in a stupid position... oh well. I'm stuck with them. I'm tempted to just turn city states off in my next game, which I don't really want to do because I -do- like dealing with them diplomatically. But there are times when their placement is completely rediculous (like when I was completely surrounded by them and had no room for my own expansion) and I'd rather just burn one to the ground.

You also can't raze capitals, which I'm ok with though it still seems a bit silly.

[The_Worlds_finest]

About 7 hours into my first game. The AI for beginner is idiotic, I havent been attacked by Siam once.
I think tommorow I will kill him off and win the game, to start another, I am blazing through the tech tree.

Couple gripes
Maybe I am not looking in the right unit or place but there is no Air recon. I have two bombers and there is no recon option. What type of bullshit is that?

select city>select building or unit to building> add to queue> repeat over and over and over. On the previous civs you could save a queue, come on wheres the love?

Kinda slow, I am still building walls and early early early buildings though its late game.

Please remove OLD OLD OLD units from the building menu.

Not sure if its that I am running on DX9, but i miss the round globe planet.

Sound track is pretty fucking weak compared to previous versions.

I am sure its going to be an even more outstanding game when the patchs start rolling out.


Speaking of mods; two have already been released, one removes 1upt rule. Why not just play civ4 then?

[symple19]

Haven't bought it yet because it will take over my life, something I can't have right now. Too much else going on.

Thanks DR for your review.

Will buy it in a few weeks

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Talk about a comprehensive review :lol

I'm definitely buying it. Have bought every Civ game since the first.

[DarkReign]

Thanks.

I screwed up though on one observation.

One city cannot buy tiles outside their sphere, only culture can expand beyond whats bought.

Its just that each city's sphere is pretty f-ing big, I hadnt reached my limit on any city until last night.

It was a bad assumption.

[The Reckoning]

i kind of like that idea of city spheres having to be worked according to market. if thats true, its alot like hinterlands irl. sounds like a cool addition.

[DarkReign]

Well, I dont have the fucking luxury of playing a game long before its release to tell accurate details.

The Great Artist? Yeah, his special talent is literally called "Culture Bomb".

[The Reckoning]

:lol

[DarkReign]

Got my ass kicked on Prince. Royally.

[DarkReign]

...and got my ass kicked again.

Apparently, on Prince, my rivals can afford extremely large armies, yet I cant afford to build fucking buildings, much less units that cost 3G per turn in upkeep.

Starting to reeeeeeally not like this game.

[The Reckoning]

lol

maybe you need to change your strategy from civ IV style to civ V. start a fresh mindset.

[scampers]

After playing quite a bit, I have to say I don't have as much fun with this game as I did with Civ 4. Cheiftan level is laughingly easy, as I am able to steamroll over any civilization I come across with no problems. There is definitely a signifcant difficulty hike (read: AI cheats more) on Prince level. The game goes from being extremely easy on one difficulty to extremely difficult on the next. Throughout all the levels, I am a little annoyed at how long it takes to build buildings.

Combat is definitely very fun, and by far the best part of the game and to be honest I have more fun hunting down barbarian camps than I do dealing with domestic issues in my civilization. I do like city sieges. It's nice to know your city can defend itself without a garrison.

I don't like how cultural borders work at all. I prefer Civ 4's system. It made it easier to give the appearance of actual country borders.

Diplomacy is dumbed down from Civ 4. The only thing I like about it are the leaders. Research agreements are a neat idea.

City states are annoying when set on the default #s. If you play on default on a standard sized map expect to be completely surrounded by unrazeable cities. City states are neat but not THAT important, and honestly any leader trait or social policy tree that gives bonuses to city state relations are worthless.

There are some really overpowered leader traits. I recently played the Germans, which has a trait that gives you a 50% chance to gain extra money and a brand new warrior unit every time you destroy a barbarian camp. Needless to say I had a dozen warriors before I founded my third city. I wiped away every civ on that continent quite easily and only had to actually build 2 units.

It's going to take some getting used to...

[The_Worlds_finest]

Much like the first release of civ4, civ5 needs to be tuned. All the makings for a great game are there though.

[DarkReign]

Much like the first release of civ4, civ5 needs to be tuned. All the makings for a great game are there though.

Agreed. Much like vanilla Civ4 wasnt nearly as good as expanded Warlords/BtS Civ4.

[DarkReign]

lol

maybe you need to change your strategy from civ IV style to civ V. start a fresh mindset.

...and youd be right.

I did switch my strat up. I usually turtle for the first age and come out guns blazing.

Instead of that, I decided I am going to make war and conquer everything I see.

Who knew that this strategy works flawlessly? It would seem Civ5 is far more geared toward war and that striving for cultural or scientific victory isnt really all that possible, what with the rest of the leaders eyeing you as weak and unprepared.

Anyway, Ive conquered my entire continent (4 Civs) and have just embarked onto the other continent in a full scale invasion (like 30 units). Im rolling mechanized infantry and artillery and the enemy is defending with War Elephants and Pikemen.

Yeah...

The only hope for the other Civs is that time runs out on me (its 1924-ish).

Thats on Prince, so I think I got this nut cracked. Make war, even if youre going for a non-military victory, you need to make war and win early.

Couple of notes in next post.

[DarkReign]

Civ5's games take A LOT longer than Civ4. To me, it seems there are far more turns, or is it that since you have to micromanage every unit (especially workers) that each turn just takes longer? Not sure, but my game on Prince/Continents/Large Map is taking two solid days of playing to get into the 20th century.

Fuck farms. Money is God, not growth, not culture, not science...Money. Dont build farms unless youre building one on Wheat. Every non-hill tile should be a Trading Post, period. Once I got over that and realized Growth in an expanding empire is not a good thing (each new citizen costs one Happiness).

You want one land Production city (most likely capital) and one Production city on water. Every other city should be for gold. I puppet every city I conquer so I cant control what they build, but they also dont count against any building requirements (wonders that require a Library in every city, for example, your puppets dont count for or against the total).

Make nice with Militaristic city-states, the free unit every 17 turns helps. This isnt crucial, but it helps, IMO. I have gone through the entire game without gifting any money to any city-state. Instead, I fulfill their missions, mostly clearing barbarians, defending them against invasion (i was preparing for war with the invaders anyway), connecting to their capital and hooking up resources they want. One of the city states is in love with me, like 190/60 (sixty being the max).

Anyway, amazing how much better a game gets when you start winning (lol). As it were, it feels like a very stripped down version of some better, future game. I am quite sure Firaxis will expand the game and make it far better than it is today.

...and I will be the sucker who buys that shit up immediately.

[TDMVPDPOY]

played this once, didnt get the hang of it...

speaking of the game, just like a sentence out of Iron Man 2...do you guys think we are at the limit of what mankind can achieve in the last 100yrs in terms of technology advancement and where mankind should be in the next 100yrs or beyond? whether its living in space or cures for deceases....seems like govt is holding alot of risky projects back dont you think?

[DarkReign]

Prince/Continents/Large Map

8 Civilizations including myself (Rome).

Domination victory in 1989. 1st in every Demo except Approval (36%). 6735 points - Ranked Augustus Ceasar (highest).

I eliminated every Civ on my continent, then invaded the other continent's weakest Civ out of 3. As I was wrapping up that bloodbath, the 2nd place Civ (greece) wardec'd me. Quick transition into defensive posture with my MechInfantry,Artillery and a General in 3 separate fronts (30-ish units) and waited while dumbass flew his masses into my line of death over and over and over and over....

I think I lost one unit, he lost upwards of 40. Cleared himself out and I went on offense, steamrolling through his cities, puppeting every single one. Didnt realize how huge his empire was, must have conquered 3 cities every two turns and took like 20 cities from him and he still had 20 more. Took all his core cities and capital, then pinched him off from the continent via a peninsular chokepoint and asked for peace (of course he agreed). Stationed two infantry and twoartillery in a key position in case Greece decided they had balls in the future.

Moved all my troops to the northern border, healed and built Forts in key positions for the oncoming war with the final Civ (Ottomans). He had already moved every unit he owned onto my border, he knew I was coming in the near future. I should have thanked him for that move, made my 12 artillery all the happier to crush all of them without having to move and send in the Mech's for cleanup of a bunch of weakened units.

Total rape-job. Took 5 of his core cities and pondered taking his whole damn empire, but its been a looooong game thats taken days to complete and I just wanted to win, baby. Took his capital for a Domination victory.

Next step, King difficulty.

[symple19]

DarkReign, you're awesome. Just got the game and will take your strategies into consideration.

Let's get it on!

[DarkReign]

My strat is simple.

Make war, lots of it, even if your plan is to win via non-Domination. Gold is God, make lots of it (ie no fucking farms). Chopping isnt nearly as effective in Civ5, so dont bother.

The absence of tech trading, after considering it and reading someone's take on the Civfanatics forum, is probably a good thing.

In Civ4, the AI leaders would always out-tech you and it wasnt because of their native bonus due to difficulty. It was because they would trade techs amongst themselves, without your knowledge and each Civ was different in their victory aspirations. For example, a game with India, Japan and Montezuma, if they were united under one religion, you had no fucking chance. India concentrated on culture techs, Japan and Montezuma on military techs (different paths though, Monty ruched to Catapults, Japan to Samurai). They would then trade amongst themselves their varying techs and all basically be equal in ability, which was far ahead of where you were.

The absence of the AI's ability to do this in Civ5 probably helps even the playing field immensely.

I still sort of struggle with city placement. I like to max my cultural borders, but since I am always a warmonger, I should consider placing my cities much closer.

[Cry Havoc]

My strat is simple.

Make war, lots of it, even if your plan is to win via non-Domination. Gold is God, make lots of it (ie no fucking farms). Chopping isnt nearly as effective in Civ5, so dont bother.

The absence of tech trading, after considering it and reading someone's take on the Civfanatics forum, is probably a good thing.

In Civ4, the AI leaders would always out-tech you and it wasnt because of their native bonus due to difficulty. It was because they would trade techs amongst themselves, without your knowledge and each Civ was different in their victory aspirations. For example, a game with India, Japan and Montezuma, if they were united under one religion, you had no fucking chance. India concentrated on culture techs, Japan and Montezuma on military techs (different paths though, Monty ruched to Catapults, Japan to Samurai). They would then trade amongst themselves their varying techs and all basically be equal in ability, which was far ahead of where you were.

The absence of the AI's ability to do this in Civ5 probably helps even the playing field immensely.

I still sort of struggle with city placement. I like to max my cultural borders, but since I am always a warmonger, I should consider placing my cities much closer.

This is an aspect that actually bothers me a little bit about the Civ series. It just seems to me that it's so geared toward war. I really enjoyed the overlay that they gave in Civ 4 that allowed you to take a city by cultural domination. I feel like anytime I am not actively engaging in war, I am handicapping my civilization, and that kind of bugs me. I realize that land/resources are essential to global domination, but some games I'd like to just sit back and make peace with a few other nations and then get tanks as they are just discovering gunpowder. But that's tough to do unless I'm at war.

[symple19]

I'm fucking pissed. Having the 60+ city crash that so many others seem to be having. Had put close to 30 hours into the game and taken over almost the entire continent.

Scanning over the various forums, there are far, far too many bugs/glitches associated with this (otherwise awesome) game.

Not gonna touch it again until 2k/Firaxis fixes this fucking shit!

Glad to know I'm basically a paying beta tester...

fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccc ccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

nothing more frustrating than putting all that time in and not being able to complete my game

[symple19]

My strat is simple.

Make war, lots of it, even if your plan is to win via non-Domination. Gold is God, make lots of it (ie no fucking farms). Chopping isnt nearly as effective in Civ5, so dont bother.

The absence of tech trading, after considering it and reading someone's take on the Civfanatics forum, is probably a good thing.

In Civ4, the AI leaders would always out-tech you and it wasnt because of their native bonus due to difficulty. It was because they would trade techs amongst themselves, without your knowledge and each Civ was different in their victory aspirations. For example, a game with India, Japan and Montezuma, if they were united under one religion, you had no fucking chance. India concentrated on culture techs, Japan and Montezuma on military techs (different paths though, Monty ruched to Catapults, Japan to Samurai). They would then trade amongst themselves their varying techs and all basically be equal in ability, which was far ahead of where you were.

The absence of the AI's ability to do this in Civ5 probably helps even the playing field immensely.

I still sort of struggle with city placement. I like to max my cultural borders, but since I am always a warmonger, I should consider placing my cities much closer.

any crashes DR?

[DarkReign]

I'm fucking pissed. Having the 60+ city crash that so many others seem to be having. Had put close to 30 hours into the game and taken over almost the entire continent.

Scanning over the various forums, there are far, far too many bugs/glitches associated with this (otherwise awesome) game.

Not gonna touch it again until 2k/Firaxis fixes this fucking shit!

Glad to know I'm basically a paying beta tester...

fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccc ccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

nothing more frustrating than putting all that time in and not being able to complete my game


any crashes DR?

No, but then again, Ive never reached 60 cities, either. That fucking sucks dude. I actually havent played the game since my last write-up, been doing other shit.

[Wild Cobra]

No, but it has positraction.
And 4-wheel drive!

[Wild Cobra]

No, but then again, Ive never reached 60 cities, either. That fucking sucks dude. I actually havent played the game since my last write-up, been doing other shit.
I have the original Civilization for my Amiga system. I think I bought Civilization II for my PC years ago, but never played it. From the start, it was enough different, I didn't want to take the time to learn it all over.

I actually thought about buying Civilization IV or V. I saw a complete packfor Civ IV for I think $35, and the Civ V was $40 if i recall right.

Anyway, now that I have a 1920 x 1200 monitor, it might be a cool game to take time and play.

[symple19]

Thing is, I only play huge/marathon games, so I almost always end up with that many cities. It really sucks.

On the plus side, once they get this fixed, it is easily the most epic, time-consuming Civ they've yet to make. I was having a blast up until I reached the point where it's nuked

[xellos88330]

I am liking civ 5 something fierce. I haven't run into any bugs yet.

A quick fix for the city cize thing is to play it on the harder difficulties. LOL!

[symple19]

It was on Prince, fuckface

[DarkReign]

I have the original Civilization for my Amiga system. I think I bought Civilization II for my PC years ago, but never played it. From the start, it was enough different, I didn't want to take the time to learn it all over.

I actually thought about buying Civilization IV or V. I saw a complete packfor Civ IV for I think $35, and the Civ V was $40 if i recall right.

Anyway, now that I have a 1920 x 1200 monitor, it might be a cool game to take time and play.

You should check it out, just know that there is a steep learning curve unless youve played other turn-based games before.

[Wild Cobra]

You should check it out, just know that there is a steep learning curve unless youve played other turn-based games before.
I've played the original Cid Meier Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates, Gunship, and Kennedy Approach. There was another that I liked where you built space stations in Low Earth Orbit for the C-64. I didn't see that one under his name looking for it, and forget the title. I just never took the time to learn Civ II, it looked like a radical change, and Civilization was a lot to keep up with.

[symple19]

good fucking news, looks like 2K is getting ready to release it's first big patch, fixing many of the game-breaking bugs/crashes that have come close to making me go insane


10/14 UPDATE: More changes have been added to the list! Check them out below!

Also, many people have been asking for an ETA on when this patch will be released. I said I'd do what I can to get some sort of ETA and now I have it for you. However! I am about to do something I don't normally like to do: Give an ETA. Big emphasis on the E. So what I am about to tell you is the current estimation of when it will be available. This patch is not done with testing at the current time, and most everyone in software development has experienced the dreaded last minute showstopper bug that forces a delay. This could happen! So, with all of that in mind:
The patch will be available as early as next week.


UI
Fix for production prompt that sometimes appears with newly created puppet states that could stop the player from being able to end the turn.
Aircraft banner corrections – now when you rebase an aircraft, the number will move with it.
Resource icons now come up with Ctrl-R again, instead of sharing the same button with Build Roads.
Selecting a great general will no longer cause yield icons to appear.
Added option to disable auto-unit cycling.
Fix for full-screen game when running dual monitors. Previously, the curser could scroll off the “open” side, and not be able to scroll the map in that direction.
Misc additional fixes to mouse controls, and other interface issues.
Rounded out financial information in the Economic Overview screen. Details now provided on the amount of gold provided by each city, the cost of buildings in each city, etc.
Auto-populate save menu with save file name
Allow selection of other cities by hex from within the city screen
Added detailed trade route info to Economic Overview screen
Added new tab to the Economic Overview Screen: "Resources & Happiness." (new 10/14)
Added option to activate the mp score list in single player (for “always up” score similar to Civ IV.) (new 10/14)
The Annex/Puppet/Raze popup now indicates how much extra Unhappiness will be assumed with each action. (new 10/14)

MODDING
Category list now displays correctly
“Installed” panel now displays ALL versions of a mod but prevents the user from enabling multiple versions. (new 10/14)

GAMEPLAY
Workers - Added option to force workers to ignore manually made improvements (so they don’t change what you decide was best for a plot).
Workers - Fixed bug where number of turns to complete were incorrect in build action button tool-tip.
Economy - Fixed bug where players could disband a single unit, and not see the economic return until disbanding 1 more.
Economy – Increased city wealth setting to 25%
Economy – Multiple fixes to the way trade-routes are tabulated and recognized.
Economy - Can now sell Buildings in a city (to help lower maintenance for obsolete buildings later in the game).
Trade – Found and corrected a Trade problem that could cause your Resource inventory to multiply.
City States - Fixed a bug where you could not gift aircraft to city states.
Military - Medic promotion now only provides healing bonus for adjacent units.
Military – Fix for Minuteman movement.
Military – Correct promotions for “archer-like” units (horse archers, chariots).
Military - Embarked units will no longer slow enemy land units
Military - Improved unit cycling logic. Camera will jump around much less.
Balance - Engineers +1 hammer

AI
Military – Better handling of unit need (navy vs land, etc.) .
Military - AI will tend to build ships to deal with blockaded cities more often
Military – Corrected an issue hampering movement of AI armies, especially when in close proximity to enemy forces
Diplomacy – AI will be more reluctant to offer or accept open border agreements with more powerful opponents.
Diplomacy – Fix for never ending deals (peace, research agreements, etc).
City – City specialization and city focus improvements.
City - Cities that are Avoiding Growth will not grow while that option is selected
Workers – Priority of trading posts reduced, and rebalanced priorities on other improvements
Workers – Improved the path-finding mechanic when building route-to roads improved, including a large performance increase when evaluating road-pathing.
City - Make sure Puppets don't construct buildings that require Resources. (new 10/14)
City - Add a Puppet city strategy that turns off training buildings and emphasizes gold. (new 10/14)

MULTIPLAYER
Exploit – Fix for gifting unit exploit
Chat – Color-coding, sound alerts, etc., added for in-game chat system, including a larger window.
Deals – Additional deal validation put in place to verify deals before they are committed

MISC
Research treaties that end because you declare war will no longer grant the free tech
Save/Load – Fix for corrupted saves being experienced by some players in late-game.
Map - Huge map crash-during-load fix that were reported on some specific systems.
Map – Terrain caching fix that could cause problems for certain video cards (the “glowing red orbs” seen on the map are an indicator of this).
Map – Fix for the low res terrain that appears the first time the game is run (terrain tiles would not load in anything but low-res the first time you play on some computer configurations)
Strategic View – Crash fix for units rendering in background.
Strategic View – Fix for selecting units either standing on a city plot, or garrisoned in the city plot.
Eyefinity – Better handling of leader scenes when using Eyefinity displays.
Tutorials – Many tutorial tweaks and adjustments.
Multiple crash fixes.
Taller than wide map crash fix. (new 10/14)


Nice to see them addressing balance issues as well. Hopefully more fixes will follow soon

[symple19]

None of this makes me any less angry that this game came out as deplorably unpolished as it did.

[Cry Havoc]

None of this makes me any less angry that this game came out as deplorably unpolished as it did.

Eh, it's rare for a game to be released now that isn't in it's Beta stage still. Pretty sad, but true.

You also have to consider that games are much more complex now than they've ever been. Can you imagine the ridiculous coding necessary to even begin to balance a game like Civ? It's got to be a gargantuan undertaking, and they're going to slip up along the way.

[symple19]

Eh, it's rare for a game to be released now that isn't in it's Beta stage still. Pretty sad, but true.

You also have to consider that games are much more complex now than they've ever been. Can you imagine the ridiculous coding necessary to even begin to balance a game like Civ? It's got to be a gargantuan undertaking, and they're going to slip up along the way.

Absolutely true, although some do it much better than others... Blizzard and Bethesda, for instance

Man, I can't wait for Diablo 3 and Elder Scrolls V

[Cry Havoc]

Absolutely true, although some do it much better than others... Blizzard and Bethesda, for instance

Man, I can't wait for Diablo 3 and Elder Scrolls V

Starcraft 2 was considered almost broken until yesterday because of how underpowered Zerg were.

When Oblivion was released it was plagued by HORRIBLE mouse lag. And Fallout 3 sadly won't play on many 64 bit Windows 7 computers.

[symple19]

Starcraft 2 was considered almost broken until yesterday because of how underpowered Zerg were.

When Oblivion was released it was plagued by HORRIBLE mouse lag. And Fallout 3 sadly won't play on many 64 bit Windows 7 computers.

Haven't played starcraft 2, but an "underpowered" race is hardly game-breaking. That is a balance issue. The crashes and bugs are what is breaking CIV 5 presently.

Horrible mouse lag? really? seriously? :lmao New one on me. Remember asshole, I said, "Some do it better than others". Not, "some do it perfectly"

Windows 7 was not released (at least in anything other than a beta testing version, which I still don't think was out yet if memory serves) when Fallout3 came out, so that argument is retarded. Yes, there were some bugs, but nothing even approaching the scale of what is going on with CIV5.

You don't even fucking play CIV5 do you? why am I arguing with an EMO fuckstick? perhaps you should go listen to some instrumental versions of popular songs instead, and get the hell out of here until you actually play the game for which this thread was created. :rolleyes

[DarkReign]

I took a badass screenshot in Fallout3 in the TreeMan (or whatever) area that everyone worships with a flamethrower and I was extremely tempted to post that screenshot here, even I was impressed how fucking badass it looked.

Dont know why I thought of this.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k19/darkreign24/FO3.jpg

[DarkReign]

bah, nevermind, photobucket isnt allowing me to upload a 1920x1200 image. One more try.

[Wild Cobra]

You should check it out, just know that there is a steep learning curve unless youve played other turn-based games before.
I did buy CIV IV shortly after that posting. Figured out the strategy of the differing stuff pretty good I think. It doesn't like being played in 1920 x 1200 on my setup, but works.

What's the may map size for CIV V. I find the 80 x 52(?) more limiting that I would like. My god... it's so many years after the first CIV, and I don't think the map is any larger.

[DarkReign]

I did buy CIV IV shortly after that posting.

Civ4 or Civ5?


What's the may map size for CIV V.

I dont quite understand the question, but I usually play on the "Large" map setting (not sure what the grid is).

[Cry Havoc]

DR, and anyone else who's had time with it, now that you've played Civ V for a while, how does it compare? I have 4 and I'm considering upgrading. Is V a better game overall? Worth paying full price for over Civ 4?

Thanks ahead of time. :tu

[The_Worlds_finest]

It's fun but it buggy, I haven't played since the latest patches.
My cons, not as pretty as four, cut scenes for new wonders are gone. I like Len better for the voice over. The f'ing opening scene is lame as shit, probably the worst intro to any civ game ever.


Pros. Great war mechanics. U actually have to plan, no more stacks of shit. game play graphics are sick.

No air bases out side I'd ur land is stupid. Some other stuff that will be addressed in first add on
It's tons more fun when u can play in a group and talk shit, plot, and scheme, while slamming caffeine.

[Cry Havoc]

It's fun but it buggy, I haven't played since the latest patches.
My cons, not as pretty as four, cut scenes for new wonders are gone. I like Len better for the voice over. The f'ing opening scene is lame as shit, probably the worst intro to any civ game ever.


Pros. Great war mechanics. U actually have to plan, no more stacks of shit. game play graphics are sick.

No air bases out side I'd ur land is stupid. Some other stuff that will be addressed in first add on
It's tons more fun when u can play in a group and talk shit, plot, and scheme, while slamming caffeine.

The new way warfare works make it sound like it's worth picking up for that alone.

[DarkReign]

DR, and anyone else who's had time with it, now that you've played Civ V for a while, how does it compare? I have 4 and I'm considering upgrading. Is V a better game overall? Worth paying full price for over Civ 4?

Obvious comparison is obvious. 5 is a blend of Civ4 and CivRev.

Vanilla Civ5 blows Vanilla Civ4 out of the water in every possible way.

Vanilla Civ5 does not compare favorably to Fully Expanded Civ4 (Warlords+Beyond the Sword).

Civ5 is great, I play the hell out of it (you know this), but there are two key missing features like Vassal states and finely detailed diplomacy options that I sorely miss.

But the positives far outweigh negatives, IMO, with additions/modifications like Great People actually being...well, Great. That a streamlined economic system doesnt really allow you to expand beyond your means to afford it (in a way). That the AI can no longer swap techs behind the scenes creating this insurmountable gap between you and them unless you play the same game with some other AI (hated that in 4). Now people can enter into Research Agreements that award a random to each civ for a gold cost and waiting 30 turns. Best thing about it is that every Research Agreement is announced to the world (no subversion). The Cultural path is FAR better. Social Policies are the Whoop-Daddy no matter what your style of play is. City states took me awhile to warm up to, but theyre a nice addition in smaller doses than the defaults (large map = 18 City States (?), I turn that down to 10).

Less important aspects: The game looks 100x better in every aspect. The music and sound is varied, unique and appropriate for the moment (peace, golden age, war, imminent defeat). The leader animations are pretty fucking cool and its nice to hear them speak in their native tongue (Montezuma and Nebuchadnezzar are my fav's).

Earlier in the thread I went pretty far into the combat in Civ5. Needless to say it is the most defining difference between the two games and that difference is not good, its phenomenal. Actually have to use foresight to plan an offense/defense, strategy on exact goals of said campaign and what to do with what you conquered and tactics up the ass on a unit-to-unit level. Awesome addition and the best selling point for the game and its future, IMO.

Soooo, yes, I say its worth your purchase. If you liked Civ4, I would bet you will like Civ5 after some getting used to it. Just like 4, dont get all comfortable at lower difficulty levels because they do not indicate (nor teach) the game properly. Playing anything less than Prince/Monarch would make you think the AIs are dumb, combat is one-sided and the game was just too easy.


The new way warfare works make it sound like it's worth picking up for that alone.

It is, most assuredly. There is a certain amount of gratification you get from beating 5-1 odds in open war because youve properly teched and assembled your armies with a varied spectrum of soldiers.

[The Reckoning]

darkreign is awesome because everytime you ask him about Civ, he'll have a professional review analysis ready for you in less than a day. ill never read a corrupted gamespot or ign review ever again. ill ask DR.

[DarkReign]

darkreign is awesome because everytime you ask him about Civ, he'll have a professional review analysis ready for you in less than a day. ill never read a corrupted gamespot or ign review ever again. ill ask DR.

HA! Thanks. Its one of the few games I play endlessly and can speak off the top of my head about. Civ and Total War: Rome (didnt like Empire too much) are two games I have played for years and years.

Worst part: Ive never played multiplayer with either game. No interest in it, tbh.

Even worse part: Im not very good at either game. Or should I say, going to any dedicated fan forum for either game, you can bet that nearly 70% of the people there would tear me to shreds so quickly, they would think I was a noob.

[rickross]

It's fun but it buggy, I haven't played since the latest patches.
My cons, not as pretty as four, cut scenes for new wonders are gone. I like Len better for the voice over. The f'ing opening scene is lame as shit, probably the worst intro to any civ game ever.


Pros. Great war mechanics. U actually have to plan, no more stacks of shit. game play graphics are sick.

No air bases out side I'd ur land is stupid. Some other stuff that will be addressed in first add on
It's tons more fun when u can play in a group and talk shit, plot, and scheme, while slamming caffeine.

LOL not understanding stacks. Lol not understanding flanking. Lol in CIV 5 u never need 2 plan shit.

[rickross]

Obvious comparison is obvious. 5 is a blend of Civ4 and CivRev.

Vanilla Civ5 blows Vanilla Civ4 out of the water in every possible way.

Vanilla Civ5 does not compare favorably to Fully Expanded Civ4 (Warlords+Beyond the Sword).

Civ5 is great, I play the hell out of it (you know this), but there are two key missing features like Vassal states and finely detailed diplomacy options that I sorely miss.

But the positives far outweigh negatives, IMO, with additions/modifications like Great People actually being...well, Great. That a streamlined economic system doesnt really allow you to expand beyond your means to afford it (in a way). That the AI can no longer swap techs behind the scenes creating this insurmountable gap between you and them unless you play the same game with some other AI (hated that in 4). Now people can enter into Research Agreements that award a random to each civ for a gold cost and waiting 30 turns. Best thing about it is that every Research Agreement is announced to the world (no subversion). The Cultural path is FAR better. Social Policies are the Whoop-Daddy no matter what your style of play is. City states took me awhile to warm up to, but theyre a nice addition in smaller doses than the defaults (large map = 18 City States (?), I turn that down to 10).

Less important aspects: The game looks 100x better in every aspect. The music and sound is varied, unique and appropriate for the moment (peace, golden age, war, imminent defeat). The leader animations are pretty fucking cool and its nice to hear them speak in their native tongue (Montezuma and Nebuchadnezzar are my fav's).

Earlier in the thread I went pretty far into the combat in Civ5. Needless to say it is the most defining difference between the two games and that difference is not good, its phenomenal. Actually have to use foresight to plan an offense/defense, strategy on exact goals of said campaign and what to do with what you conquered and tactics up the ass on a unit-to-unit level. Awesome addition and the best selling point for the game and its future, IMO.

Soooo, yes, I say its worth your purchase. If you liked Civ4, I would bet you will like Civ5 after some getting used to it. Just like 4, dont get all comfortable at lower difficulty levels because they do not indicate (nor teach) the game properly. Playing anything less than Prince/Monarch would make you think the AIs are dumb, combat is one-sided and the game was just too easy.



It is, most assuredly. There is a certain amount of gratification you get from beating 5-1 odds in open war because youve properly teched and assembled your armies with a varied spectrum of soldiers.


Son actually your talkin bullshit.

Great people were far more useful in civ 4 (jus read a gp farm tactic in u shuld know wat im sayin) wit da exception of scientist, dat 6 science per turn is godly overpowered in CIV5. (check babylon renessaince in 800BC thread at civfanatics if u dont undastand)

You had da option of no tech brokerin so dont bitch bout reality. Countries swappin techs is as real as it gets, no civ fan would complain bout it.

Da cultural path is SHIT. Imagine playin rome and havin a bazzillion wonders and shit (like niggas did in real life) and not havin any chance cuz u got a shitload of cities and u gettin policies at ZERO speed. Cultural path is fubar and dere already 3-4 mods out dere workin round da clock to clean dis shit up.

Moreover social policies in civ4 were really smart and had synergies n shit wit da leaders. U could really have flexibility and change on da fly. You clearly lack da understanding of da game from watchu sayin bro.

City states is kool tho, but overpowered. (dat food is insane, shuld be toned down asap).

I wont talk ai since it equally sucks. Mods on 4 certainly solve dat, but as one would have guessed when civ 5 was deved niggas was bout da dough not bout community and as u can see great mods is very rare fo 5 (da real community stickin 2 da quality of 4).

I can almost assure you when dem longbows start fuckin up yo cannons u gon understand dat combat is umbalanced as shit and dat beyond da great ideea to use hexes combat is so boring, easy and not tactical dat it doesnt really matter.

Da overall complexity of da game has been seriously toned down to say da least.

Jus droppin dimes son. God bless.

[rickross]

oh and btw da game is easy as shit. In da first week there were deity wins... it took alotta time 4 a single deity win when civ4 was released. Dats statistics.

[Cry Havoc]

I haven't seriously played a Civ since II. I'm guessing I won't even know how to exploit Civ V's imbalances. Heh. Kind of scary though... games like this are so hard to make even so that players of all skill levels can enjoy it.

[rickross]

I haven't seriously played a Civ since II. I'm guessing I won't even know how to exploit Civ V's imbalances. Heh. Kind of scary though... games like this are so hard to make even so that players of all skill levels can enjoy it.

that's right. I would recommend civ 4 RFC (dat shit is bawss!).
For civ 5 be sure to mod it like dis:
- all balance mods
- economy mod
at the least. Im sayin dis cuz da game is clearly marketing great combat yet in da same time even on marathon you cant use a unit too much in its era because you are always techin too fast and buildin too slow => no sense wat so ever.

There's a stack mod for when u understand non stacking is not suitable for a game like civ (meta-tactically speaking). I would recommend that also.

Problem with mods is that they are hard to make and the best modders are still on 4. That and the game is much more harder to mod than civ4 where you had direct dll control.

[symple19]

Thanks to DR, I became aware of http://www.civfanatics.com/

If you have any problems there is most likely a thread that addresses it.

I've finally completed my first game (marathon/prince), after the fuckers patched and hotfixed it a bunch of times. It was only on a standard sized map though. I'm still afraid to try a Huge/marathon game. Every single one I tried previously crashed. Firaxis' rep (for me) has been damaged quite a bit. No reason I should've waited this long to enjoy the game.

If it was any other dev/game, I would have given up long ago.

[Cry Havoc]

IV or V, symple?

[symple19]

iv or v, symple?

v

[symple19]

Just play it at the simplest difficulty to start off. This will allow you to ease in since 5 is so radically different from all the rest, relatively speaking. It can also help to play your first few games with a teammate (to give yourself a bit of an advantage). As you become more proficient, you can start to ratchet up the difficulty little by little.

I would suggest referring liberally to the Civilopedia as you start out. Keep your steam client web browser up on the civfanatics forum and all your bases will be covered

Also, be prepared to be sucked in and yelled at by your fiance' for spending entirely too much time playing it, lol

My gf has threatened to uninstall it and steal the disc before...........

[DarkReign]

Great people were far more useful in civ 4 (jus read a gp farm tactic in u shuld know wat im sayin) wit da exception of scientist, dat 6 science per turn is godly overpowered in CIV5. (check babylon renessaince in 800BC thread at civfanatics if u dont undastand)

Maybe it is, I dont play online. Stated that right off the bat.

But GPs are more useful in 5, mainly because they can add to GA length. 2 GP farms and it isnt uncommon for me to be in almost a perpetual GA.


You had da option of no tech brokerin so dont bitch bout reality. Countries swappin techs is as real as it gets, no civ fan would complain bout it.

I dont fuck around with game settings too much, I dont like to trim out the shit I do not like, I work with the mechanics provided under the conditions set by the dev/mod.

Yes, you can turn off tech trading in 4, but why would I? That completely gimps the AI and turns a Monarch game into a Chieftan game with more units. That doesnt make sense to me.


Da cultural path is SHIT. Imagine playin rome and havin a bazzillion wonders and shit (like niggas did in real life) and not havin any chance cuz u got a shitload of cities and u gettin policies at ZERO speed. Cultural path is fubar and dere already 3-4 mods out dere workin round da clock to clean dis shit up.

Well, thats the point isnt it? Youre not going to win a cultural victory (Utopia) with 80 cities. Youre either a warmonger winning by the edge of the swrod or a peaceful Utopia of an all-inclusive nature and the envy of the world, you cannot be both.


Moreover social policies in civ4 were really smart and had synergies n shit wit da leaders. U could really have flexibility and change on da fly. You clearly lack da understanding of da game from watchu sayin bro.

Like which ones? Please enlighten me with your completely forced hood-speech, bro.

[Cry Havoc]

:lol at saying DR has a lack of understanding of Civ.

[rickross]

Maybe it is, I dont play online. Stated that right off the bat.

But GPs are more useful in 5, mainly because they can add to GA length. 2 GP farms and it isnt uncommon for me to be in almost a perpetual GA.

You don't get it do you? GP are useful because of corporations/religions not only for gold but for metagaming link passive domination. No great spy means absolutely no espionage in CIV5. It's funny dat 4 a nigga sayin he know GP farms he dont understand that with the small cities in civ 5 things can't work like with 2 wheat tiles in civ4. Blame it on weak improvements for basically giving too little for hooked up bonuses ( +3f vs +1f is huge). Small city = less specialists. How many cities do you see in civ5 get over 10 in few turns? not many, not many at all.

Golden ages in civ 5 are very powerful indeed but only if you're spawnin great artists (lower cap is 7 turns) but they can't compare them to teching wit all types of great people in 4. In 5 you can tech only wit great scientist which is bullocks cuz theology should be techable by great prophet, economics by great merchant and so on. That in itself provides a huge difference in favor of 4.

Furthermore great people are really useful in late games in 4 while in 5 they lose all usage beside scientist and engineer(3 turn ga? ga culture bomb=war waiting to happen?). Great general and one unit per hex is really dubious at best. And please dont say settling great people is an option cuz its reall not.



I dont fuck around with game settings too much, I dont like to trim out the shit I do not like, I work with the mechanics provided under the conditions set by the dev/mod.


I wasn't sayin you should turn it off, on the contrary i was saying that it is normal to see civs trading behind the back. Happens in real life. Furthermore, if you are the one out teching it's only normal, adversaries want to catch up. If in civ 4 you were outteched you'd get techs for shit like 10gp.

Moreover, your lack of knowledge on the game discarding espionage and corporation tactics. And btw tech trading != tech brokering != no tech trading.



Yes, you can turn off tech trading in 4, but why would I? That completely gimps the AI and turns a Monarch game into a Chieftan game with more units. That doesnt make sense to me.


this is just ignorant and proves complete lack of understanding. On monarch you'd have to cannonball oracle monarchy like and smart bulb to stay on par technologically. If you are that good you should have known that ai gpfarms too from prince. Moreover the ais in monarch have a tendency to attack different parts of the techtree so you can't go picking what you want.



Well, thats the point isnt it? Youre not going to win a cultural victory (Utopia) with 80 cities. Youre either a warmonger winning by the edge of the swrod or a peaceful Utopia of an all-inclusive nature and the envy of the world, you cannot be both.


Was Rome in 0 AD a cultural center of the world?.. all roads lead to rome and shit. Ofc it was. Was athenai an extremely cultural city in that period? Ofc it was. Were alexandria/thebes cultural monsters in that period, sure they were.

In civ 4 you could get a cultural victory with that, in civ 5 no chance cuz of cities like Lugudnum, Burdigalia, Valentia, Tarentum, Apuliia, etc. You think roman empire wasnt the greatest from a culturally standpoint in that period? CULTURE != nature. Culture = world influence in case you don't understand. You can impose culture with ease, see byzantine empire for example.

Sayin your either a warmonger or a utopia is shyte. What about expansionism? England 17 centuy reason why we speakin english not french world wide?.. that's surely culture. What about religious state like the arabs in medieval age (shitload of cities) followed by seljucks and turks? They cultarally influenced 1/3 of the globe back then. Or china? Do you know how many fuckin cites china has?

What about a techocracy from the future? Zounds of cities SF style. That's culture too.

I actually like overall culture idea, i think its great for metagaming but the idea of 30% more per city is FUBAR and irealistic as fuck while taking away versatility and game tactics. That a fuckup on all levels gameplay wise.


Nigga imma say one thang, wit dat mentality you prove you know shit bout this game. Stop bein an ignorant and learn from wat im sayin.

If you don't trust this or it seems to convoluted ask any veterans at civfanatics and you'll see the same results.



Like which ones? Please enlighten me with your completely forced hood-speech, bro.

-for starters nationhood with spiritual was crazy efficient. You could of gone from warmonger to peace loving in a second. This argument only fucks up the "you can be warmonger or this or utopia" nicely.
-slavery and hereditary rule enable you to
-aggressive/charismatic traits and any war social policy put pressure on the other army because of extra upgrades.
-You said you knew somethang about GA, than you should understand what a philosophical trait and pacifism social can do.
-Just givin examples.. there are so much more.

Furthermore your inability to understand that an empire in civ 4 has the ability to change and to adapt to the game by chaning social policies is mind boggling. Are you sure you know what you're talking about or not just trolling?. Do you understand that throught man's history each empire has had many good and bad periods and was ruled as such. You can't be a pure warmonger when you're outteched.. you;; get murdered as you can't be a pure utopia when you're cornered... changes man, that was the cream of the game... rulling real time, reacting to reality.
In CIV 5 you pick and you're set. Am empire ruled with civ 5 policies would be raped by one ruled with 4 policies because of pure versatility and adaptivity. Darwinism at its finest.

Son you gotta step yo game up... civ4 bout the changes and always thinkin and doin somethin... civ5 you play 2-3 games and they all da same... dat da difference, in case you don't see it u not worth da effort 4 me. GOD bless nigga.

[rickross]

:lol at saying DR has a lack of understanding of Civ.

:lol at backin it up and sendin dat nigga 2 da tree of woe.

[DarkReign]

Alright, pretty obvious youre a better player than me.

I concede.

[rickross]

Alright, pretty obvious youre a better player than me.

I concede.

You a legit poster. If only lakerfan was as such :lol
Imagine playin civ with ST posters, would be mad fun :
arabia - ghazi
DoK - jerusalem
many asian fans
many euro fans
us by default represented
Dat shit would be wild .. any allegiance would have nil value .. if you'd play 2-3 games such as these with forumers from civfanatics you'd get blacklisted asap... da good ol days of collage. DAYUM gettin older is not fun, no mo time for civ :depressed

[DarkReign]

Honestly, I never claimed to be an expert at any Civ.

Ive never been able to break the Monarch barrier and even then I routinely lose.

I scoured civfanatics a long time ago to learn more about Civ strats and tbh, its too much to learn. So I just enjoy the game(s) for what they are. I think I can speak effectively to the differences between 4 and 5, but I have always made two things clear...

1) I am not very good. Playing at Monarch level is noob-level and I dont win very often.
2) I do not play online and have no will to.

But I understand what youre saying about the social differences between 4 and 5....and youre right. You can hot-switch your entire empire in 4 from a warmonger to a cultural dynamo whereas in 5 the moment you pick, youre locked in for the rest of the game.

I treat the two games as different experiences. Is fully expanded 4 better than 5? Yes, undoubtedly. But to me theyre just different games all together. I like the new combat and have not experienced the Longbows/Cannon overpowered aspects you have, thats for sure.

But your understanding of the various methods of play are more on par with the civfanatics, and thats just beyond me...and I kind of prefer it that way. Civilization4 is a game I could never master, I never excelled at it and I enjoy it more because of that. I dont know if I am going to win or lose until almost mid-game....before then, its a toss up and thats why I keep playing.

[Cry Havoc]

Honestly, I never claimed to be an expert at any Civ.

Ive never been able to break the Monarch barrier and even then I routinely lose.

I scoured civfanatics a long time ago to learn more about Civ strats and tbh, its too much to learn. So I just enjoy the game(s) for what they are. I think I can speak effectively to the differences between 4 and 5, but I have always made two things clear...

1) I am not very good. Playing at Monarch level is noob-level and I dont win very often.
2) I do not play online and have no will to.

But I understand what youre saying about the social differences between 4 and 5....and youre right. You can hot-switch your entire empire in 4 from a warmonger to a cultural dynamo whereas in 5 the moment you pick, youre locked in for the rest of the game.

I treat the two games as different experiences. Is fully expanded 4 better than 5? Yes, undoubtedly. But to me theyre just different games all together. I like the new combat and have not experienced the Longbows/Cannon overpowered aspects you have, thats for sure.

But your understanding of the various methods of play are more on par with the civfanatics, and thats just beyond me...and I kind of prefer it that way. Civilization4 is a game I could never master, I never excelled at it and I enjoy it more because of that. I dont know if I am going to win or lose until almost mid-game....before then, its a toss up and thats why I keep playing.

The difference between you and rickross, IMO, is that you are fundamentally different players. You play Civ because it's an enjoyable experience and you want to build a Civilization and command armies, etc. You want the theater and the suspension of disbelief.

Rickross would beat you, but it's because he's researched it to the point that he knows every potential game breaking strategy and tactic possible to exploit the imbalances that currently exist in Civ V. They are two equally valid ways to play the game. You play for the experience, he plays to be as good as possible.

To be honest, I'm never going to be that great at the Civ games. I don't have the time to really invest in learning the nuances that make every city as productive as possible, etc. If I want to game competitively, I'll go play Starcraft II (amazing to see that game developing into a real eSport in the US) or Bad Company 2. Civ is something I play because I love the concept of developing a nation into a world power. I'll never strive to beat it on the highest level unless my natural ability takes me there, as opposed to SCII where I will research and watch tactics online to become better and refine my gameplay.

[The Reckoning]

i used to be that way with Rome...id research and try out military maneuvers that would completely stump the AI, but would no way work in real life. id have battles where id kill/rout 5,000 and lose maybe 2 people to friendly fire on expert difficulty. id even play until i conquered every province on the map.

thats when it got boring as fuck to me. i remember putting the disc into the computer for the first time not knowing what was going to happen. every campaign would blow my mind, especially when id try something different like abandoning all my cities and creating a horde :lol
(actually works perfectly to pull all greek troops from asia minor and syracuse to own macedon. rome or carthage would march into syracuse, but since theres hardly any resistance theyd declare peace).

when i began to be serious about the game and tried to be as dominant and efficient as possible, it felt more like a job. thats when i stopped playing. the best times i had playing that game was when i first started, and id be really drunk/stoned and watch all my elephants plow through formations in awe. i didnt freak when they died either. i thought it was awesome. later on it got to the point where id be pissed to lose a single elephant because they cost so much denarii.

[hater]

Bump

DarkReign is my kind of guy. I have dusted off my Civ 4 Warlords and was playing heavily. Crazy that a 6 year old game still being incredibly fun.

Finally can kick ass in Noble level. (after reading some tips) Keep in mind I play high as shit most of the time and only take 5 secs per move.

I can see Civ 5 is still $50 to buy which means it is been selling well. Will get into it eventually but still having too much fun with Civ 4

[Cry Havoc]

Bump

DarkReign is my kind of guy. I have dusted off my Civ 4 Warlords and was playing heavily. Crazy that a 6 year old game still being incredibly fun.

Finally can kick ass in Noble level. (after reading some tips) Keep in mind I play high as shit most of the time and only take 5 secs per move.

I can see Civ 5 is still $50 to buy which means it is been selling well. Will get into it eventually but still having too much fun with Civ 4

Any tips you'd like to share? I play 4 on my laptop because it runs so much better than 5.

[Vici]

Y'all should check out Supreme Ruler Cold War.

[hater]

Any tips you'd like to share? I play 4 on my laptop because it runs so much better than 5.

well I'm pretty rookie but let's see.
- read the guides here, it helped me a lot http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/introductory_courses. Civ is a game you actually have to study for. I didn't know about Great People, culture bombs and shrines till last week :lol
- AI sucks at combat, so that's you main advantage, use it
- use your traits to your advantage. http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/synergy.php
- make other civs go to war with each other
- get at least 2 friend civs
- only build what you need. Don't waste
- get religions, form shrines, make money off it

I can probably win at Prince if I play sober and take my time. Once I win at Monarch I will retire to Civ 5. long way to go...

[DarkReign]

rickross ended up being very correct about Civ5, fwiw.

I dominate at Civ5 at every level except Deity.

[The_Worlds_finest]

The expansion is pretty freaking good. It only took $80 to finally get a game that is playable and entertaining.

[Cry Havoc]

The expansion is pretty freaking good. It only took $80 to finally get a game that is playable and entertaining.

Yeah but that'll go on sale, and it's a game you can sink thousands of hours into.

[The Reckoning]

imo i'm clearing prince fairly easily but don't really feel inclined to up the difficulty


except when i thought i could throw modern infantry at cities with over 100 defense....completely wiped my military...but i play culture/currency playstyle so i can purchase atleast a new unit every turn. you really have to think tactical...

as far as the game itself goes, it's all about how you research tech to what tiles you have and stick with your resource and civilization strengths. i kind of hated in civ 4 how you could take a one way tech path and just trade for everything else. now you have to play an overall game at least into the 20th century. i do notice that most civs won't rush to build wonders anymore, so it's fairly easy to build most of them and then use whatever currency you have to purchase regular structures. but it's nice that civs actually have personality and playstyles. the AI is much better. except city-states can be retarded, especially when they're at war.