[PC] Civilization 5: !#@#!@ Impressions Incoming! Brave New World!

[CeeKay]

it's gonna put a hex on you 

[Turtle]

Interesting...

To be honest, I'm glad for the change to hexes, the old square tiles let to weird situations.

And, if they have some kind of pitboss server like Civ4, I'm in.  Heck, I'd pay for official pitboss servers.  Partly why I want Elemental so much.

[ScubaV]

For "an astonishing new engine built from the ground-up for this flagship edition of the Civilization franchise" it sure looks almost exactly like Civ4 except for the hexes.  That said, I'll still be interested in checking this out when it nears release.

[baelthazar]

If Civ IV = Crack, then Civ V = Crack... with hexes.

[Nth Power]

Loved Civ IV.  Hexes sound good. 

[marcusjm]

Who said hex based games were dead . Can't wait.

[Huw the Poo]

To me, Civ IV was ruined because of the presentation.  Civ V looks much better, so I'm in.

[Gratch]

To me, Civ IV was ruined because of the presentation.  Civ V looks much better, so I'm in.

Huh?   

Looks exactly the same to me, other than the switch to hexes.

[Huw the Poo]

Huh?   

Looks exactly the same to me, other than the switch to hexes.

It's been a long time since I played Civ IV so perhaps I'm not remembering correctly, but I thought it looked a lot more cartoony than these Civ V screenshots.  And there's the lack of hexes too.

[Gratch]

Huh?   

Looks exactly the same to me, other than the switch to hexes.

It's been a long time since I played Civ IV so perhaps I'm not remembering correctly, but I thought it looked a lot more cartoony than these Civ V screenshots.  And there's the lack of hexes too.

Maybe you're thinking of Civilization:  Revolution

[Harkonis]

you confuse huw!

[CeeKay]

huw's confused?

[Turtle]

Civ 4 was pretty cartoony guys, not as much as Revolution, but it was way more stylized than what we're seeing in Civ 5 screenshots so far.

[Caine]

either way, it was digital crack.  i'll love me some civ v if there's more to it than what's in civ iv + bts + mods. 

[Huw the Poo]

Civ 4 was pretty cartoony guys, not as much as Revolution, but it was way more stylized than what we're seeing in Civ 5 screenshots so far.

Ha!  See!  Turtle is the keeper of my sanity.

[EddieA]

I know they're just early screenshots, but they look incredibly generic.  I loved the look of Civ4 - mostly realistic, but with plenty of personality.  The Civ games (except perhaps 3) have always been somewhat whimsical and goofy (Elvis, Madonna, and Sid Meier advisors in the first game, etc), so I hope that's not changing now.

[marcusjm]

As long as it retains the great the game mechanics I don't care too much about the looks. The grid can be turned off anyway if it is too intrusive.

Game of the Month is what counts .

[Sadan01]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showpost.php?p=5753192&postcount=23

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

City States sound like Vassels in BtS however instead of being an Empire that folds to you or another AI, it's just a city.
Limited resources sounds kinda interesting but a vast departure from every other version of Civ prior.
Social Policies sound remarkably like Civics  
As I played on higher difficulty levels in Civ4 and loved warmonging, just capturing enemy capitals for the conquest victory is a nice change, imo. There were many times when trying to win via conquest you'd come across a huge stack (or stacks) of enemies that weren't based in the capital. I'm sure the AI will now protect the capital at all costs.
No religion is an interesting change. I thought it spiced up a lot of games in Civ4 and having the option to turn religion off was always an option for your games anyway.
As long as they make Civ5 as mod-friendly as Civ4, then I'm happy. Some of the mods people have created for Civ4 are just brilliant and have extended the life of Civ4 immeasurably.
I'm sure there'll be much more info in the coming months. Any new Civ is good news.

[Isgrimnur]

Resources sounds like a bad change.  The map is going to havve to be lousy with resources that fund units.  Can yo uimagine trying to field a cavalry/chariot army with the current density of horses in Civ 4 if each required one horse square?

[wonderpug]

Resources sounds like a bad change.  The map is going to havve to be lousy with resources that fund units.  Can yo uimagine trying to field a cavalry/chariot army with the current density of horses in Civ 4 if each required one horse square?

No stacking of units, so I'd imagine a "cavalry/chariot" army is a lot smaller than what you're used to.  And even if a single hex has a single horse, they may end up having two or three horse hexes clustered together for all we know.

I'm all for fewer units that are individually more meaningful.  I hate the end-game when I have a bazillion different guys and can never remember what I was intending to do with each one when I load a saved game.

On that note, I'm again praying for some way to make sports commentator style notes and annotations on the screen, like arrows and text so that my savegames aren't little mysteries to be solved when reopened.

[CeeKay]

the debut trailer, with Captain Anderson introing.

[Turtle]

Hm.. the change to hexes also makes each space connect with only 6 other spaces, reducing the amount of gang up a units faces.

I also hope they completely revise the upgrade system, allowing older experienced units to be turned into more current unit with experience.  Past games you could do this, bu there were pre-defined paths and often times it wasn't worth the time, especially if the unit was distant to a city.  I think of it like a regiment of renown that passes down its heritage through the decades or centuries even if the way it fights changes drastically.

[wonderpug]

My biggest hope is for competent governors.  I want to be able to move into a higher and higher level of command as the scope of the game gets bigger and bigger (while still being able to directly micromanage when I wish).

[MonkeyFinger]

the debut trailer, with Captain Anderson introing.

Nice, all famous quotes from famous peoples from what I could recall of my schooling. 

Nehru, Bismark, McArthur, Mao, etc...

[Canuck]

Wow I had no idea they were actual quotations.  Pretty lousy video otherwise.  I want to see gameplay dammit!

[CeeKay]

Wow I had no idea they were actual quotations.  Pretty lousy video otherwise.  I want to see gameplay dammit!

you mean units going from hex to hex or the ultra secret 3d mode that requires 2 5850's to run?

[Sadan01]

Further details posted here: http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/107/1075587p1.html

Excerpt:

Strategic resources are handled differently. There the quantity is very important. One iron deposit, for instance, will only grant you the right to build and maintain, say, five iron-based units. You can't build any more than that until one of those units dies (or is disbanded) or you get access to more iron. You will be allowed to keep those units in the field if your resource is pillaged, but there's an additional maintenance burden and you won't be able to replace them if they're lost.

Borders are also handled a bit differently. Instead of just dropping a big culture bomb at certain thresholds, a city's territory will keep better pace with population and grow one tile at a time. Now when you get a new tile, you'll probably have no other choice but to work it. It's still based on culture, and you can drop some cash to speed things up, but culture growth will be more relevant over the long term in Civ V. You also won't pick the tiles individually. Instead the game will weight growth towards "good" tiles like grassland or wheat and away from "bad" tiles like forests and mountains. It makes sense that culture would tend to spread quickest where people can settle and make a living, but we're not sure yet what impact this has on production-focused cities that need lots of mines and forests.

[Sadan01]

And more information in the following threads:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=355764
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=355763
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=355773

There is more information in those threads than what is posted below.

About 50 persons are currently working on the game, which has been in development for over two years, but is now reaching the final phases.

City states:
These are small, AI-controlled civilizations. They never grow big and doesn´t desire to win. The player must choose if he is to be friendly, indifferent or hostile towards a city state. The attitude you has towards a particular city state will have a big effect on diplomacy. If for example your units is approaching a city state that have friendly relations with another civilization, he will warn you, and if you ignore them, there will be consequences.

Barbarians:
The barbarians originate from a barbarian city and will get more advanced units later in the game. You need to wipe out all barbarian cities to get rid of the barbarian hordes.

City expansion:
Borders does no longer expand in large areas, but one hex at a time. Remote hexes like marshes, forests and mountains will be harder to acquire.

Economy:
You can invest money in your neighboring hexagons, for example trying to acquire an important resource before your opponent.

Research:
You can also sign a research-deal with another civilization. This way, both civs will cooperate to reach the new technology and both will gain it when the discovery is made. This was included to encourage cooperation between civilizations.

Diplomacy:
The civilizations will have an all-new advanced AI. All opponents will have fixed characteristics. Based on this unique personality, every AI-player will have their own agenda, which the AI will use to plan how to best play to win the game. But there will also be a certain randomness to avoid having the AI be too easy to predict.

Tech trading is abolished.

Alliances give special boni (per example the possibility for a quicker research of a technology)

Cut-out of religions as known in Civ 4 confirmed

Cities can grow bigger than in former versions of the civ series as they there are 3 tiles for a city in every direction to be worked on.

New troops must leave a city at once, as there is only one unit per tile

Distance fighters (archers, artillery and so on) can shoot over the front units, lakes and other tiles

One philosophy is to form front lines for battles far away from the cities.

Leaders/Civs
German leader: Otto von Bismark
China leader: Wu Zeitein/Zetein
American leader: Washington
Japanese leader: Oba Nobunaga
Arabian leader: Harun al-Rashid
Other confirmed leaders mentioned in the article (Genghis Khan, Caesar, Napoleon, Gandhi)

Units
Basic military units move two tiles in combat instead of one.

Apologies for redundant information.

[wonderpug]

Love the idea of cooperative tech research instead of tech trading, and love the move to try and make combat not so tied to units inside cities.  The new border growth model sounds like it'll make for much more realistic and organic country shapes, especially with the move to hex tiles. Getting excited about this, but I'm anxious to hear about some 'revolutionary new ideas' for minimizing late game drudgery and housekeeping. 

[CeeKay]

some familiar looking screenshots 

[Eel Snave]

some familiar looking screenshots 

Argh!  I know it's going to look pretty, I want to see the interface!  Ah well.

[CeeKay]

some familiar looking screenshots 

Argh!  I know it's going to look pretty, I want to see the interface!  Ah well.

what if there is no interface......

[CeeKay]

2K Games Announces New ‘Extreme Diplomacy’ Game Mode for Sid Meier’s Civilization® V

New combat mode enables world leaders to face off in a death match
April 1, 2010 – 2K Games announced today a new game mode in Sid Meier’s Civilization® V , the upcoming turn-based strategy game from Firaxis Games. Should normal diplomacy or military might fail to resolve conflicts between empires, Extreme Diplomacywould allow two world leaders to enter a death match and fight to the finish, using special attacks and finishing moves. Two world leaders enter; one world leader leaves. The victor will obtain complete control of the challenger’s world empire.

A deluxe edition of Sid Meier’s Civilization V will include an optional eight-button joystick to bring the classic fighting arcade game feel to these Extreme Diplomacybattles. Additionally, each world leader will have unique special attacks and finishing moves, including:

· George Washington’s Wooden Tooth Chomp Attack
· Otto von Bismarck’s Hurricane Helmet Spike Attack
· Cleopatra’s Phalanx of the Leopard Army
· Genghis Khan’s Arrow Shower from the Mongol Bow
· Julius Caesar’s Reverse Assassination

In addition to the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire, Extreme Diplomacygives Sid Meier’s Civilization V players yet another way to take over empires and conquer the world.

For more information on Sid Meier’s Civilization V for Windows PC, please visit www.civilization.com .

[Isgrimnur]

Nice...

[CeeKay]

it's going to be exclusive to Steam as it uses Steamworks.  whether or not other sites will still sell it hasn't been mentioned yet, but they do sell Empire Total War on Direct2Drive so it's possible.

[Caine]

it's going to be exclusive to Steam.

that's a pretty big coup for steam to pull off. Not sure I'm happy about it being only available digitally, but it will do nicely. 

[Huw the Poo]

it's going to be exclusive to Steam as it uses Steamworks.

For fuck's sake, not another one.  Oh well, no sale.

[CeeKay]

Not sure I'm happy about it being only available digitally, but it will do nicely. 

re-reading the announcement I'm not sure there won't be a retail release, but to play the game you have to go through Steam.

[Arkon]

Bah... Steam sucks...this may put me out on Civ 5.

[KePoW]

Huw/Arkon, how exactly does Steam suck?