Alright boyz, here we go!!! Civ 5 first impressions & tips thread!

[Buccaneer]

Regarding game speed, I believe you take the speed you played Civ4 and go down one. In other words, Epic players like me should play Civ5 at Normal.

[Buccaneer]

SkipIntroVideo = 0

Making this change will produce a black screen for about 30 seconds with no activity before you get to the main menu.

[Buccaneer]

Glad to see Ben and the others here, sort of like a civvers support group.

One of the fears I had with Steam was them preventing me from playing. Once I had a message that it was too busy so I couldn't start up my SP game. That frightens me. I now have it in off-line mode so hopefully I won't see that again.

The other thing is downloading mods. Instead of users being able to control what and when mods are downloaded, we are now at the mercy of @%#$! Steam. Kael has provided one of my requested mods of having single-unit graphics but Steam is having problems allowing some to download it. I haven't checked this morning but I'll get into the game for real once I am able to do that.

[Cringer]

City-states got even better for me when earlier this morning I saw them all band together and declare war on America for being to aggressive towards them. Short time after I attacked one that I had two allied City-states wanting crushed, and I got a warning that the rest of the City-states were watching me to see if I kept attacking them (I had captured one early in the game already).

[JetsIn06]

Wow, I'm absolutely loving this game. I'm having one problem though.

I'm playing as America, and I started off on a continent with Rome and Greece. I took care of Greece quickly, and got into a few battles with Rome but eventually we shook hands and signed a peace treaty.

Now, the issue is, it's almost 200 turns later, and after Rome attacked my buddy city-state of Oslo, I wanted to kick their ass. But it wouldn't let me, saying I can't declare war until our peace treaty is over.

I went into the Diplomacy Overview and we do not have a peace treaty anymore. It must have expired at LEAST 150 turns or so ago.

Is this a bug, or am I missing something?

[the_meanstrosity]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Glad to see Ben and the others here, sort of like a civvers support group.

One of the fears I had with Steam was them preventing me from playing. Once I had a message that it was too busy so I couldn't start up my SP game. That frightens me. I now have it in off-line mode so hopefully I won't see that again.

The other thing is downloading mods. Instead of users being able to control what and when mods are downloaded, we are now at the mercy of @%#$! Steam. Kael has provided one of my requested mods of having single-unit graphics but Steam is having problems allowing some to download it. I haven't checked this morning but I'll get into the game for real once I am able to do that.

Bucc,

Can you download the mod from a third party site and then install it into the appropriate directory? I know TF2 and L4D allow that with maps.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by the_meanstrosity

Bucc,

Can you download the mod from a third party site and then install it into the appropriate directory? I know TF2 and L4D allow that with maps.

No, there are only two files in the database - both pre-made maps. Perhaps they are forcing some mods to only be accessible through Steam.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Cringer

City-states got even better for me when earlier this morning I saw them all band together and declare war on America for being to aggressive towards them. Short time after I attacked one that I had two allied City-states wanting crushed, and I got a warning that the rest of the City-states were watching me to see if I kept attacking them (I had captured one early in the game already).

Just as a note since someone mentioned City states were spammed in game if you go to advanced game options you can change almost anything even the weather on the map from hot to wet to cold. You can also change how many city states there are, resource seeding amount etc among many other variables before the map gets generated from there.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

Wow, I'm absolutely loving this game. I'm having one problem though.

I'm playing as America, and I started off on a continent with Rome and Greece. I took care of Greece quickly, and got into a few battles with Rome but eventually we shook hands and signed a peace treaty.

Now, the issue is, it's almost 200 turns later, and after Rome attacked my buddy city-state of Oslo, I wanted to kick their ass. But it wouldn't let me, saying I can't declare war until our peace treaty is over.

I went into the Diplomacy Overview and we do not have a peace treaty anymore. It must have expired at LEAST 150 turns or so ago.

Is this a bug, or am I missing something?

Thinking a bug..I'm playing as Germany and wanted to attack England with my new bud Japan but then I noticed England had armies on my land. I thought I had an open borders treaty with them but I didn't , it expired over 150 turns ago

[Ben E Lou]

I'm seeing a fair bit of talk about difficulty levels being too easy. I'm not sure what the default one is. Where should I start?

[Greyroofoo]

I would start at least one difficulty level above where you usually play.

[Schmidty]

I'm assuming that this has been discussed, but isn't there waaaaay too many city-states in the normal game setup?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I'm seeing a fair bit of talk about difficulty levels being too easy. I'm not sure what the default one is. Where should I start?

The default level of Chieftan is super easy. I'm now trying Prince but haven't had enough time to play it through yet. So far it is better, but still might be easy.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I'm assuming that this has been discussed, but isn't there waaaaay too many city-states in the normal game setup?

I actually like that aspect myself.

[Ben E Lou]

Hmmm....game is crashing when I try to play a random map custom game, huge map. Is there a known crash with certain kinds of larger maps or custom games or something? My PC should be able to handle pretty much anything (quad-core, 4GB RAM, etc. etc. etc.)

[Ben E Lou]

Maybe it's random maps. Worked fine with Continents and all same settings. I did dial down the graphics as well. (Had everything maxed out.) *shurg*

[Cringer]

Haven't read up on known problems at all. The only problem I have had so far is 10 minutes into my first game the graphics started going wacky on me and when I scrolled the screen there would be a million of everything, the game was still going though so I saved and shut it down. Started it back up and had it open for 9 hrs with no problem. Yesterday I had it happen twice in a row. They all three happened with different graphic settings. Things have been stable where i have them now, which actually isn"t the lowest I have had things set to. No idea...............

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I'm assuming that this has been discussed, but isn't there waaaaay too many city-states in the normal game setup?

Like I said earlier you can change to how ever many you wnat to apear in game. I had a standard map continents and turned it down to 8 from the 12 that was the default.

[PadresFan104]

Took a day off from work yesterday, and played for 10 hours, finishing (winning) my game in 2050 on the default (Chieftain) level. Yeah, I know it's for beginner's - but I wanted an easy go of it since I hadn't played a Civ game in a while. Surprisingly, it was still kinda challenging for a bit, so I obviously am on the low end of the Civ learning curve.

I played as America, and found myself on a large continent with Russia and the Aztecs. I was wary of the Aztecs and made it a point to build up my military in order to take care of them sooner rather than later. After taking 2 of their 3 cities I acquiesced to their call for peace. Big mistake. First of all, during my war with the Aztecs, Russia was expanding big time. Second, as soon as the war was over the Aztecs started re-expanding into lands I wanted, but hadn't secured.

As soon as the peace treaty was over, I decided to make a final push for the Aztec capital, but as luck would have it, the only way I could get to it was by going through Mother Russia's territory. The bitch Catherine wouldn't grant me access, but I was focused on wiping our the Aztecs. So I thought I would just quickly rush my troops through, wipe out the Aztecs, then apologize to Catherine.

My plan didn't work too well, as I was being besieged by Russia's overwhelming land forces before I reached the Aztec capital. And Catherine wasn't taking any of my pleas for peace. Said she needed to teach my war-mongering ass a lesson, or something like that. When the fighting finally ended, I had lost 2 cities.

I eventually took the tech lead and steamrolled over Russia around 1990 (they had conquered the Aztecs in the years prior), and every Russian 19th century unit that died at the wrong end of my mechanized infantry muzzles felt especially gratifying. Great animation for these sequences by the way. Love it when the sword-men rush the armored vehicles and start banging away in vain! Funny stuff...

I eventually won on points alone, but I think I could have won the UN Vote, if I had only known to pay-off the remaining city states. Lesson learned.

So I was engrossed for those 10 hours, which I think is a high complement to Civ 5, since I have owned every version of Civ, but have probably finished less than 15 games total. No crashes in 10 hours of gameplay, and the only bug I noticed was that one of my cities didn't have any "City Tile" graphics, although it worked just fine.

Can't wait to try a game at the next level up!

[SackAttack]

I'm curious if this POS computer could handle Civ 5 on the 'strategy' overlay view, although I have my doubts.

How do I turn that on?

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

I'm curious if this POS computer could handle Civ 5 on the 'strategy' overlay view, although I have my doubts.

How do I turn that on?

It is one of the buttons down there by the mini map.

[SackAttack]

I just got almost three times as far in strategy mode as I ever did in 'regular,' so apparently that doesn't tax the hardware nearly as much. I'd still be playing, 'cept I got a phone call that required me to use my browser and didn't wanna leave the game running in the background.

Hot diggity.

[CleBrownsfan]

Anyone get the "special edition" game on Steam? If so, could you tell me how to get the sound track?

[Buccaneer]

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v\Assets\DLC\DLC_Deluxe\Soundtrack

[CleBrownsfan]

Thanks Bucc

[ColtCrazy]

I'll definitely have to change my plans a little. I'm not a huge warmonger in the game. I play defensively and like to build up my cities production. I might assist others to keep the balance of power aligned, but mostly don't do a lot of wars until later in the game.

Can't do that now. Messed around far too long with some city-states and didn't build up fast enough. Watched Japan become a major power. I didn't roll over in a war with them, lost only one city, but after a 7 hour game, I wasn't where I usually am and that's a cool thing. AI is much better.

I'm playing on Epic, which is tedious early on, but I like being able to stay in an era for a very long time. I've seen some impressive early armies around.

[SackAttack]

spleen1015 is my new favorite poster.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

I'll definitely have to change my plans a little. I'm not a huge warmonger in the game. I play defensively and like to build up my cities production. I might assist others to keep the balance of power aligned, but mostly don't do a lot of wars until later in the game.

Can't do that now. Messed around far too long with some city-states and didn't build up fast enough. Watched Japan become a major power. I didn't roll over in a war with them, lost only one city, but after a 7 hour game, I wasn't where I usually am and that's a cool thing. AI is much better.

I'm playing on Epic, which is tedious early on, but I like being able to stay in an era for a very long time. I've seen some impressive early armies around.

This exactly mirrors the way I have played in the past and my thoughts on the new game. You can't just skate by ignoring the military side and buying people off through diplomacy to avoid going to war anymore. If you are weak and the AI can take advantage of it, they are going to. It's a bit unsettling at first but in terms of a challenging game, it's pretty awesome.

[Buccaneer]

rah's strategy on using City-States

Apolyton Civilization Site - CITY STATES, who's your buddy

[RainMaker]

I'm tempted to read that but think I'm going to have more fun figuring out strategies on my own. I was a big fan of going through forums and reading how people played and while it helped a lot, it also made me grow out of the game faster.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

spleen1015 is my new favorite poster.

Glad to help!

[spleen1015]

I am having a problem seeing how happiness is effected by certain things. For example, I was I believe at 2 and I built a new city. Then I went to 1 . In Civ 4, I had the ability to see that doing certain things would create unhappiness. Am I missing it here some where?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I am having a problem seeing how happiness is effected by certain things. For example, I was I believe at 2 and I built a new city. Then I went to 1 . In Civ 4, I had the ability to see that doing certain things would create unhappiness. Am I missing it here some where?

Building cities and population growth both drain from the happiness pool. I think it's one or two unhappiness for building a city and one for each new point of population, if memory serves.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I am having a problem seeing how happiness is effected by certain things. For example, I was I believe at 2 and I built a new city. Then I went to 1 . In Civ 4, I had the ability to see that doing certain things would create unhappiness. Am I missing it here some where?

Hover your mouse over the happy face and you get a detailed breakdown of what's providing both happiness and unhappiness.

Sack is correct, 2 unhappiness for each city and 1 for each population point in your Civ.

[henry296]

Here are some of my first impressions from my 1st game. Started on Warlord since I normally played Prince in Civ4. Standard sized continents map as Japan (random). I like it... up late that last 2 nights.

1. The AI expands slowly. I had about 5 cities and they only had 2. Still plenty of land for more.
2. I like city-states. I had one just to my north who I quickly allied who served as a cushion between my only AI rival.
3. Later another city-state asked for help on a 3rd so I tested the new combat system. With few units it was just a matter of wearing down their city which I dead.
4. I later got samuri and declared war on Siam my only AI rival. Between Samuri and Horseman and barely need to use ranged attack to wipe them out. However, now I have a happiness problem but I have Colosseum's and Circuses under construction which should help.
5. Just now waiting to discover the other civs.
6. I can launch the game from my desktop and Steam is not open in my taskbar.

So far, so good.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by henry296

1. The AI expands slowly. I had about 5 cities and they only had 2. Still plenty of land for more.

Rapid expansionism isn't as important as it was in previous Civ games. There's actually significant downsides to it. Your Civ will have to produce a lot more culture to get Social Policy points, maintenance on roads can add up, and the 2 unhappiness per city and 1 per population point can be a pain.

The upsides are still there, but I like how it's just as viable to win the game with 3-4 cities as it is with 9-10 now. Different routes to get there, but at least there is a route for a small civ to take to victory.

[henry296]

I seemed to be doing okay on the happiness front until I took over their 4 cities. I'll see how this large empire does.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Rapid expansionism isn't as important as it was in previous Civ games. There's actually significant downsides to it. Your Civ will have to produce a lot more culture to get Social Policy points, maintenance on roads can add up, and the 2 unhappiness per city and 1 per population point can be a pain.

The upsides are still there, but I like how it's just as viable to win the game with 3-4 cities as it is with 9-10 now. Different routes to get there, but at least there is a route for a small civ to take to victory.

I think even if you expand a lot in this game it will never really match previous versions. In Civ IV I would often go after the domination win, over 36% of world population and over 50% of land....something like that. The whole game became a race to expand as fast as possible many times.

I think this game makes it a touch more realistic. It is the 1700's AD and I don't have 30 cities, there is still a ton of space for everyone to expand.

[Big Fo]

Maritime city-states are very useful. I am allied with two of them, both give me +3 food in all of my cities at this tech level (and +5 food in the capital). That helps newer cities get to size 5-6 really quickly which is nice. Plus you can skip granaries and some of the other food boosting buildings and focus on the ones that increase production/happiness/culture.

[NevStar]

Played first game into early Industrial Era, but now my save is corrupted.

Load Game is disabled, I get a "Currently enabled mods are not compatible with this save game" message, but I don't have any mods downloaded.

Get the same problem with most autosaves, but one from 1300 AD works. But I don't want to lose about 100 turns. Guess I'll start over. Meh.

[Flasch186]

Im just about at the AD mark and the laptop is slowing down quite a bit. Guess ill turn down on the greed and lower most of my graphics settings

[Galaril]

Geez, played first game about 4 hours on standard map on the third level Chieftain I think with 10 city-states, ab undant resources and continents. I was America and quickly built three cities got them up and running and got them all linked with roads. I played peaceful not attacking anyone just so I could grow and that worked good until 1220 AD when damn Russia a real war monger that had been in a long 500 year long confrontation with German who we had sided with alittle attacked us. When she attacked she really brought. Russia attacked two of our cities including the capital with a couple units each and I had not seen it coming so I have very little combat units to battle them. I guess I will be firing up the war machine to deal with this threat. One question:We had just started sending out ships to navigate the oceans and found some new lands owned by France who we traded with. I am not sure if we immediately get those resources for our empire or if we have to get the ship back to one of our maritime cities for it to kick in?

[Ksyrup]

I can't wait to have some time to really play this. Been on the road and work/life in general, all I've really been able to do is make sure it works and play 5-10 turns just to see how tthings function.

I'll be on vacation the week of the 4th, though. Just in time for Jim to release a new FOF.

[MizzouRah]

FedEx, please deliver my copy today.

[CleBrownsfan]

Nice to have the weekend to really dig into a game. Can't wait!!

[Jughead Spock]

Picked it up tonight. Loaded, runs, that's as far as I've gotten. But this weekend is GONE.

[Ben E Lou]

Oh yeah: I am going to be at a client site over next weekend. I only have to work three hours on that Saturday, none on Sunday. My wife-God bless her wonderful soul-is letting me take her souped-up laptop with me so I can play Civ 5 in the evenings and over that weekend while I'm away.

[MizzouRah]

Mine has arrived!

Installed and played the first 2 tutorials.. going to be a nice Sunday night/early Monday morning.

[Vince, Pt. II]

So my first real crash happened today. Not really sure what it was related to. At the end of a turn right around the BC/AD switch. About to fire it back up to see where my recent auto-save put me.

Playing as France, and I'm really enjoying the culture bonus early on. I was placed on a small piece of a continent completely cut off from the rest by mountains, and I share my piece with a maritime city-state. I too am unused to the lack of expansionism that has been so prevalent in prior editions of Civ, so I quickly grabbed up the expansionist Civics and started expanding. Once I realized that you didn't need to expand quite so quickly, I had already popped out three cities and had a third settler on the way. I expanded across the channel near me to a small island that had nothing but another city-state on it, and I'll probably curb my expansion there.

It looks as if Japan and Arabia are jumping all over the Songhai on the other end of my continent, and they have convinced one of the city-states to jump with them. Arabia seems to be the stronger civ, but the Japanese have a solid 5 cities and a slightly better backbone of land to develop on. The Songhai are only two cities (one recently developed), so I expect them to get steamrolled pretty quickly.

I've decided to start girding myself up militarily - since I'm isolated I have a very weak military at the moment - but I find myself with access to only 2 units of Iron. Looking around, it seems that the only Iron available is WAY over on the other end of my continent, right by a city-state. Happily enough, that very same city-state started asking for The Colossus the very next turn. I churned up the production in one of my coastal cities and managed to knock out the Colossus in about 7 turns (Golden Age fortuitously timed as well). Completing the wonder garnered me about 40 reputation with the city-state, and a nice large gold donation after kicked me way up to 115/60 on the friendship meter, making the city-state my ally and giving me access to the 4 Iron resources that they have! Sadly, this is precisely where my game crashed, so I'll have to see how far back I'm going to have to go to get back up to speed.

I absolutely LOVE the strategy that the city-states have added into the game. Being able to acquire a strategic resource that I otherwise would not have access to simply by garnering favor with the AI - and it wasn't exactly a trivial amount of favor, 500 gold and building a wonder of the world - is incredible. I wonder how City-states work in multi-player? I mean, if I snag this city-state as an ally because of the Iron, I'm certain other civs would be interested in it as well. Can the city-state be allied with more than one civ? I can't wait to explore the game more

[tyketime]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Oh yeah: I am going to be at a client site over next weekend. I only have to work three hours on that Saturday, none on Sunday. My wife-God bless her wonderful soul-is letting me take her souped-up laptop with me so I can play Civ 5 in the evenings and over that weekend while I'm away.

Runs perfectly well on my desktop. Not so much on my "souped-up laptop". What kind of specs does your laptop have that allows it to run? Do you run it in DirectX v9 or v10/11?