Civilization V

[Hermiod]

Coming this Autumn.

Screenshots here.

We can also reveal that Civ V (or "Civvy" if you like) puts you back in the role of a world leader, guiding one of 18 civilisations from the dawn of man to the space age, and that you will be doing war, diplomacy, research and reality TV in between. Most of those.

You will also pit your wits against some of the greatest and most notorious leaders of this or any age, although full details are still to be announced.

We do know, however, that City States will present a new diplomatic battleground, and that you will continue to manage relationships with other leaders by bribing them, trading and kicking their heads off.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I plan to make the most out of my remaining 6 months of social activity.

 

[StolenThunder]

I'll probably end up picking it up. I enjoyed Civ IV, though I only play it occasionally and treat it as a sandbox.

I'm trying to decide if that article is tongue in cheek though. I'm fairly sure I could have written that description!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Looks very.... hexy.

 

[Holdfast]

You know, I've never really properly played Civilisation. I mean, sure, I've dipped into it a bit in the past, but never properly tried to learn it. I might just try out Civ5 when it comes out, see what all the fuss is about.

 

[TheGodBen]

I hope it comes out on September 1 because my master's thesis is due August 31, that way my long, frustrating, sleepless nights can be replaced with... long, frustrating, sleepless nights.

 

[Davros]

I have played every Civ so far so I'll probably get this one as well. But I'll wait until the gold edition comes out so I can get the expansions as well.

 

[Kelthaz]

I have played every Civ so far so I'll probably get this one as well. But I'll wait until the gold edition comes out so I can get the expansions as well.

That would be the best strategy. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to hold out that long.

 

[SG-17]

From what info was posted on Apolyton about it, Civ5 seems to be much more like Civ3 than Civ4, which is awesome.

- 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.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showpost.php?p=5753192&postcount=23
Problem is I will most likely need to get a new computer, and I start college this Fall.

CivFanatics is probably going to be the foremost source of info because Sid Meier has been known to post there occasionally.

 

[Davros]

I have played every Civ so far so I'll probably get this one as well. But I'll wait until the gold edition comes out so I can get the expansions as well.

That would be the best strategy. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to hold out that long.

I'm still having fun with Civ IV so I'll get by.

 

[TheGodBen]

Cheers for the list, SG-17.

- Switch from squares to hexagons changing the way the game plays. More room for maneuvers and more tactical options.

Technically there will be less since you can only move in 6 direction as opposed to 8, but the more I contemplate a hex board the more I like it.

- Changes to combat. More depth in combat, no more stacking of units. This will lead to bigger focus on terrain.

Excellent! Unit stacking was very dull, all you needed was 5 or 6 bombardiers, 3 or 4 defensive units and a shitload of offensive units and you could destroy an empire. I wouldn't have minded unit stacks if they had implemented them the way they were in the Call to Power games, back when stack composition was extremely important, but in Civ 4 it came down to who had the bigger stack almost all the time.

- Reintroduction of Bombardment, now archers and siege equipment can shoot over melee units.

Good, good, I enjoyed that in Civ 3.

- Better diplomatic AI.

I'll believe it when I play it and Montezuma doesn't attack me completely at random. Better diplomatic AI has been promised since Civ 2, but they still act like vicious six-year olds.

- More diplomatic options between players.

Good good, I'm a builder so more diplomacy options is always a plus in my book.

- Less "cheating" AI.

Once again, they keep promising this, but the AI always resorts to cheating in the final product, especially at higher difficult levels.

- Religion is not a factor anymore.

That's a pity, I rather liked it. I was hoping that they'd flesh it out and make the religions more unique, cutting it entirely seems like a step back. Or more likely, they're holding it back for an expansion.

- 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.

Seems odd when applied to horses, but it is vaguely understandable when it comes to resources like oil.

- 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.

Sounds good, I always wanted them to do something like this rather than the mindless barbarians we have now.

- Civics are out, now there is something called "Social Policies".

I liked civics, but I'll wait and see how this social policy thing works before judging the change. So long as they don't move back to the rigidity of government types.

- Some victory conditions changed. For example in Conquest you only have to capture all the other capitals. Eliminates boring mop up phase.

Very interesting, I can't wait to see how this will play out. Usually, once you take their capital they're already defeated.

There's no mention of the one thing I loath about Civ 4: the AI spamming cities all over the place, especially annoying when they sneak around your empire and place a lone city cut off from their empire and demand open borders to reach it. Hopefully there will be enough city states in the game to prevent things like that from happening.

Overall, I'm looking forward to it. I just hope that my PC can handle it without any major upgrades.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Well i for one, want this game.

 

[Lindley]

Are they keeping espionage? I found that a bit of a mixed bag in Civ 4. On the one hand, I appreciated the return of the ability to foment revolt in enemy cities; on the other, I never seemed to keep up with anyone else in espionage points.

 

[Canadave]

Anyone else think the hex-system makes CivV look like a massive, massive game of Settlers of Catan?

Regardless, looking forwards to this. I suck at Civ, but that doesn't mean I don't love playing it.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

They need to bring back Nimoy.

 

[Canadave]

^ I love his narration in Civ4. It makes everything just a tiny bit more dramatic. Not to mention logical.

 

[CTM]

From what info was posted on Apolyton about it, Civ5 seems to be much more like Civ3 than Civ4, which is awesome.

- Changes to combat. More depth in combat, no more stacking of units. This will lead to bigger focus on terrain.

You just made my day! Hi. I'm CTM and I'm a CIV addict... however the stacking of units has royally pissed me off forever. In the real world you cannot have a functionally infinite number of units on the same terrain. The deployment of armies has always been about having space to maneuver - something that CIV has not done well with to date. That is the one big change I have been wishing for since my first game.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Sounds intriguing. I never got into Civ 4, bought it for my father, who didn't like it (he still plays Civ3). I didn't like the graphics, but I didn't play it that much, though. I was gonna load it on my current computer, but he lost one of the discs.

I'm not sure Civ3 can be topped. It had a few good and bad quirks.

Limited horses seems silly. Resources could be exhausted in civ 3, so it's not new. Horses never were, though, because they can be raised.

Stacking was somewhat acceptable in past games because of the scale of the world, there should've been a limit though. 2 or 3 Infantry units occupying a space is one thing...30 is something else.

 

[Lor'Vela]

Awesome! I've only ever played Civ IV, but I find it hugely addicting. I'm sure Civ V would be just as good.

^ I love his narration in Civ4. It makes everything just a tiny bit more dramatic. Not to mention logical.

Best feature of the game, IMO.

Beep, beep, beep, beep...

 

[Chaos Descending]

- Switch from squares to hexagons changing the way the game plays. More room for maneuvers and more tactical options.

Technically there will be less since you can only move in 6 direction as opposed to 8, but the more I contemplate a hex board the more I like it.

Forgive me for being obtuse, but how do you get eight degrees of freedom from squares?