Civilization 5

ubergreendragon · September 14, 2010, 08:12:13 PM

Civ 5 is due out in stores next week on the 21st . I for one am looking forward to it

how bout you

lugaru · September 14, 2010, 08:28:54 PM

Pre-ordered on steam. Honestly I cant wait, I've played a LOT of civilization in my days and some of the changes really suit my tastes (for example I never liked the giant stacks of units).

Losing religion does bother me a little though... while religion was not well done in CIV 4 it did lend a lot of flavor and was more berable once modded. As a source of culture it could work, but in Civ 4 you only got it as a money maker which was unfortunate. In a mod I had done the game had 3 starting religions too, preventing one civilization from hording most of them and also putting some more variety in the world.

Lastly I'm really interested in the way they re-did civics... I love civics but they where always a little off in my opinion. I would have loved "constitutions" instead... dicoveries allowing you to ban or encourage things to tweak your empire.

Podmark · September 14, 2010, 08:33:47 PM

I don't know if I'll get it right away, but I love Civ so I'll definitely get Civ5.

Xenolith · September 15, 2010, 01:24:33 AM

Really? Next week? I thought it was due out in Nov., which is why I bought Elemental. D'oh! I am really looking forward to Civ V.

Alaric · September 15, 2010, 04:19:30 AM

Much as I love the Civ series, I'll probably wait until the game and any expansions are out at a single fairly inexpensive price. That's what I did with Civ IV.

lugaru · September 15, 2010, 05:24:42 AM

Quote from: Alaric on September 15, 2010, 04:19:30 AM
Much as I love the Civ series, I'll probably wait until the game and any expansions are out at a single fairly inexpensive price. That's what I did with Civ IV.

Also it looks like they will do a lot of DLC and while it takes a while for expansions to be bundled in, DLC gets thrown in with the full game very quickly these days. Give it 6 months and you will have a "game of the year" edition with more civilizations or something like that for the original price or less if you catch steam on a good day.

Uncle Yuan · September 15, 2010, 11:11:55 AM

Quote from: lugaru on September 14, 2010, 08:28:54 PM
Pre-ordered on steam. Honestly I cant wait, I've played a LOT of civilization in my days and some of the changes really suit my tastes (for example I never liked the giant stacks of units).

Losing religion does bother me a little though... while religion was not well done in CIV 4 it did lend a lot of flavor and was more berable once modded. As a source of culture it could work, but in Civ 4 you only got it as a money maker which was unfortunate. In a mod I had done the game had 3 starting religions too, preventing one civilization from hording most of them and also putting some more variety in the world.

Lastly I'm really interested in the way they re-did civics... I love civics but they where always a little off in my opinion. I would have loved "constitutions" instead... dicoveries allowing you to ban or encourage things to tweak your empire.

I find this too funny - I'm playing a game now where my nearest neighbor was quite close and founded three religions while still confined to their capital city - so they all founded there. My special unit was an ancient era one and I chop rushed a stack and took them over. Then over the course of the game I founded two other religions giving me control of five religions on my own and have "vaticans" for four of them. As a result I've stayed in "Organized religion" for most of the game and am spamming missionaries like crazy. I'm running research at 90% and still making 500+ a turn. Broken? Yes. Fun? Absolutely. No idea how I'm going to win this game, though . . .

The Phantom Eyebrow · September 15, 2010, 06:43:49 PM

I never really played as much Civ4 as i did the previous versions - no idea why really as I still really like the games.
At this stage I think playing the long game and waiting for a GOTY edition sounds more appealing, but if this game generates collective hysteria amongst the great and the good here, then I might be tempted to go early.

Mr. Hamrick · September 16, 2010, 04:09:16 PM

After playing Civ4, it will probably be a while before I venture toward Civ5. I have to wait for the game to be ported to the Mac anyways. Nevertheless, I still remember the wait I had for all Civ4 and its expansions to all make it to the Mac and I am a bit disgruntled.

Podmark · September 16, 2010, 06:17:49 PM

Finally read through some of the Civ5 changes and there are some significant changes this time around. No tech trading will be a big change for me, and the new city combat will be interesting. Makes me more interested in the game but it could risk a 'they changed it now it sucks' situation.

JeyNyce · September 20, 2010, 12:52:24 PM

Civ 5 seems to be getting good reviews. I will probably get it, but I want to finish Civ 4 first. Is anybody picking up the collector's edition?

lugaru · September 21, 2010, 02:54:23 AM

I almost exclusively do digital downloads so I'm skipping the collectors edition. Got it all pre-loaded on Steam and I'm going to bed nice and early to see if it is unlocked tomorrow morning.

Uncle Yuan · September 21, 2010, 05:02:08 PM

My computer splits the specs, so I'm not sure if I'll be getting this now or in a few months after I get a new comp. I will be getting it though.

lugaru · September 22, 2010, 03:37:59 AM

Quote from: Uncle Yuan on September 21, 2010, 05:02:08 PM
My computer splits the specs, so I'm not sure if I'll be getting this now or in a few months after I get a new comp. I will be getting it though.

Well as I said above, many gamers have been recently rewarded for waiting a little, look at Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 and probably a bunch more. They come out, DLC comes out the same day or shortly after and in a few months it is all bundled in together in a nice package at the same price. I'm impatient and "need" to review the games so I dont wait (well, I didint with Fallout 3) but waiting will save you 10 to 40 bucks.

---------------------

And if you dudes wonder why I was all quiet today it is because I put in about 6 hours of aztec domination. My impressions:

- Gorgeus. Not just the quality of the graphics, but also the art deco inspired interfase. More than ever I know what is going on. Need to figure out if I can pin more data to my screen though, I like my stats.

- City states are a HUGE improvement, something I always wanted. You know... small civilizations that influence the game but are not necesarily contenders. They are hard to please and easy to conquer, but I'm glad they are there.

- Policies are better than civics. I always wanted a bit more variety and this delivers, and allows some flexibility.

- Controversy scrubbed: so far as I can tell slavery and religion are gone, for better AND for worse.

- In terms of Combat this is not Civilization.. it is something better. I always felt like I was playing risk and rolling really bad die rolls. Now I feel like all those years of war gaming are paying off, with a little strategy and planning I can accomplish a lot with 3 good units instead of the big stacks of lemings.

- Happiness is now global, which is good since it is no longer crippling my cities locally.

- Units take longer to build but are more useful. Buildings seem to take longer too, except for wonders. There are less technologies and they take a while too. It makes the game slower and with less rungs in the ladder but I'm still enjoying myself.

- "culture bombing" is a mechanic now, something you aim at your borders to expand them. And speaking of which, borders are vastly improved too. You can now grow through culture but also buy plots of land.

And my experience so far:

Playing as Moctezuma. Started out a little slow but I love that my warriors bring culture to my civilization by defeating opponents. The Jaguars rock but obviosly they fase out early in the game. I shared my continent with Grece, China and Arabia. Grece spent the early game making snide comments and was taken out by me and China. The Arabs alternated between being real nice (making pacts with me) and attacking me, but through some luck I hit several technology leaps in a row and had riflemen against much lesser technology. They fell too. Right now it is about the 1700's and I'm no longer super advanced for the time, and china has grown a little cold and distant. I traded some cities to separate our territory a little in case things go bad real fast. I'm looking forward to exploring the ocean, which I completely neglected so far.

Podmark · September 22, 2010, 03:47:19 AM

I just finished downloading the demo (also downloaded Steam for the first time). I was a little worried my laptop wouldn't be able to handle it because of my graphics chip, but the game is running fine on low settings. I only played about ten turns just to make sure it was running well so I'll have to play more to see if my computer keeps up.

As I've barely played it so I can only comment on two things:
1. the new interface threw me, but I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly.
2. I miss Nimoy

Going to play through the demo and assuming it runs well I'll have to decide whether to buy now or wait for a price drop or bundle.

Xenolith · September 22, 2010, 10:35:58 PM

I like the changes, Lugaru, but leaving out Religion seems weird. It seems like it should provide some benefit for keeping the people happy. Or do you mean they left out specific religions?

lugaru · September 23, 2010, 02:25:28 AM

Quote from: Xenolith on September 22, 2010, 10:35:58 PM
I like the changes, Lugaru, but leaving out Religion seems weird. It seems like it should provide some benefit for keeping the people happy. Or do you mean they left out specific religions?

Specific religions are out, which where fun and added a lot of flavor to each game.

As it stands now there is a piety branch that mostly boosts happiness and culture.

Oh btw, I won a domination game with the Aztecs, just had to capture every original capital in the world. 2 civilizations where wiped out for me, I wiped out another two myself leaving me with 3 capitals to capture in the end... which worked out real well.

The Troll · September 23, 2010, 02:09:09 PM

My guess is they intentionally left out religions so they could be added as an expansion.

lugaru · October 19, 2010, 08:22:33 PM

So anyone playing this?

I'm loving it although I cant wait to start using some cosmetic mods and some mods that enhance the kind of bland economy. Also war is now inevitable... other civilizations play with a constant poker face and will invade you if you are percieved as weak.

I've won a science, domination and culture victory... diplomatic looks like it might be a little complicated.

One last thing: I played a lan game and it is great for multiplayer, although you have to play a "fast" game, even the fast game takes all day.

Uncle Yuan · October 19, 2010, 11:43:23 PM

I just installed this last night (just got a new comp), and had the "Civlopedia crash" after about five minutes.

I will try it again soon running on DivX 9, which is supposed to fix the problem.

daerdevil · October 20, 2010, 04:57:04 PM

Still holding out on this one. I don't feel that I have the time to commit to playing Civ 5, so I might as well wait for a price drop or Special edition to come along. Plus, it'll give me time to replace my vintage '03 Dell. I'll have New Vegas to keep me company for awhile, anyway. So, Lugaru, what's the verdict? Is this version better than 4? I hated 3, but never felt comfortable with 4. It sounds like 5 is a bit of a reinventing the wheel, but your post from last month makes it sound nice.

captmorgan72 · October 21, 2010, 12:09:08 AM

I'm also loving Civ 5 but can't complete a long game. I ran into a bug that freezes my pc after about 500+ turns. Went on the boards and tons of people are also having this problem. Apparently the problem is with CvGameCoreDLLFinal Release.dll. It's faulting according to event viewer. A patch is on the way that will fix this bug along with tons of other things. I hope so, I really want to finish my game.

lugaru · October 21, 2010, 01:57:17 AM

Quote from: daerdevil on October 20, 2010, 04:57:04 PM
So, Lugaru, what's the verdict? Is this version better than 4? I hated 3, but never felt comfortable with 4. It sounds like 5 is a bit of a reinventing the wheel, but your post from last month makes it sound nice.

Is there a demo or a friends house where you can give it a Spin?

I have a hard time recomending it to oldschool players (I started with CIVILIZATION 2 but barely remember it) because it is its own new thing. My main issue is that I have a phobia when it comes to "luck" and the war game in older Civ games always felt like playing RISK... it came down to who had the tallest stack and who got lucky. Now I really feel in control of the battles, I feel like superior strategy and technology is more important than production and luck. That said if your foe shows up with a dozen war elefants your one or two tanks are probably still in trouble, and I'm not one of those "war historians" who can tell you the merits of a panzer vs a guy on an elefant wielding a spear. Also archers have better range than rifle men.

My other thing is that I put massive faith into the modding community... Civ 4 was completely open to rewriting and Civilization 5 has interface, unit, civilization and economy mods coming out in the first few weeks. I feel like most of my war, culture, economy, science and diplomatic pet peeves will be addressed by mods made by likeminded players.

Also it breaks my heart that some people purchased the game and cant play it... I know it is part of the pros and cons of PC gaming but this is a huge PC only flagship title which should maybe require balance checks, not crippling bug checks.

captmorgan72 · October 22, 2010, 03:01:18 AM

One feature I do miss is that the camera does not zoom in on the battles.

captmorgan72 · October 23, 2010, 07:10:55 PM

Installed the first patch that is suppose to fix all the crashes. Now the game is completely unplayable.

All pre-patch saves can't be loaded without a run time error. Any new game doesn't get pass 120 turns with out freezing. When I try to reload the game via auto-save, I get a run time error.

catwhowalksbyhimself · October 23, 2010, 11:03:38 PM

I find it interesting that Elemental got brutally savaged and attacked for crippling game bugs, which have already been fixed by about 9 different patches in only a little longer than it took to get one for Civ V, yet this game gets a pass by the same reviewers and gamers that have been brutally attacking the other game.

That being said, while I was planning on skipping this game, I have liked everything I've read about it so far, other than the bugs.

lugaru · October 24, 2010, 02:10:33 AM

Quote from: catwhowalksbyhimself on October 23, 2010, 11:03:38 PM
I find it interesting that Elemental got brutally savaged and attacked for crippling game bugs, which have already been fixed by about 9 different patches in only a little longer than it took to get one for Civ V, yet this game gets a pass by the same reviewers and gamers that have been brutally attacking the other game.

That being said, while I was planning on skipping this game, I have liked everything I've read about it so far, other than the bugs.

Yeah, I bought both games...

Everyone ran into the Elemental bugs but the team was HEROIC when it came to patching, seriosly like 7 patches in two weeks and each one pretty significant.

For Civ 5 only a portion of customers ran into bugs (I did not) but they have been a lot slower to respond.

I still have a soft spot for Stardock so I give the "prize" to them but I'm loving both games... hopefully later on I can get my friends to pick up copies for some LAN gaming.

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Civilization 5