Civilization 6 Announced

[vex]

Finally picked this up today with the new patch:


The Summer 2017 update for Civilization VI is available now for PC players and coming soon for Mac and Linux. There’s one new feature, in particular, that a number of you have been asking for: A restart button to regenerate the map using your current game settings, and the ability to save game configuration settings for future games. In addition, there are balance changes to District costs, some civ-specific adjustments, and a warning when your cities can bombard nearby enemy units.

A complete list of the changes is below:

[NEW]

Nubia
Civ Unique Ability: +50% Production toward Ranged units. All Ranged units earn promotions 50% faster. Mines over strategic resources are +1 Production. Mines over bonus and luxury resources are +2 Gold.
Queen Amanitore Unique Ability: Kandake of Meroë - +20% Production on all districts rising to +40% if the city contains a Nubian Pyramid adjacent to the City Center.
Pitati Archer: Replaces the Archer. Stronger than the Archer with +1 Movement.
Nubian Pyramid: Improvement. +1 Faith. Receives additional yields from adjacent districts. +1 Food if adjacent to a city center. For all other districts that award adjacency bonuses: +1 of the appropriate yield if that district is adjacent. Desert, Desert Hills, Floodplains.
Jebel Barkal Wonder
Unlocked at Iron Working. Awards 2 free Iron and +4 Faith to Cities within 6 tiles.
‘Gifts of the Nile’ Scenario
The Nile River is the life-blood of not one ancient civilization, but two: Egypt and Nubia. Although these neighbors and trade partners shared a common river valley and supreme deity (Amun) they were often in direct competition if not outright war. In this head-to-head competitive scenario, you will take the role of one of these powers to see who can truly become the most worthy disciple of the great god Amun by being the first player to create 7 Temples in his honor.
Added Restart button to regenerate the map
Added the saving of game setup configurations to reuse when starting future games


[GENERAL BALANCE CHANGES]
Reduced the cost of the Aqueduct by 30%, and Sewers by 50%
Reduced cost of all other districts by 10%
Increased the discount for districts you have less of from 25% to 40%
Increased costs of district buildings by 10% (except Aerodrome buildings), and increased per settler cost bump by 50%
Reduced cost of all spies by 25%
The Hanging Gardens now provides +2 Housing in city it is built
Walls now provide Tourism, and do not have Maintenance
Battering Ram and Siege Tower now upgrade to the Medic support unit, and no longer are functional against a city with Urban Defenses
Gave St George an additional Charge
Updated Monarchy's Medieval Wall bonus to: "+50% Production toward defensive buildings. +1 Housing for each level of wall."
Proselytizer Apostle Promotion only evicts 75% of existing pressure of other religions, not 100%.
Press Gangs will now unlock with Exploration and Native Conquest with Colonialism.
Increased Anti-Air strength values by 5 across the board. Increased Destroyer AA strength to match other units of the same era.
Balance Change to Archer (cost +10) and Maryannu Chariot Archer (cost -20, combat +2, ranged strength +2)
Increased cost to repair city outer defenses
Moved “Urban Defenses” from Civil Engineering to Steel


[CIV & LEADER SPECIFIC BALANCE CHANGES]
Norway
Thunderbolt of the North gains +50% production of naval melee units
Stave Church gains +1 Production for all Coastal resources in the city

Spain
Treasure Fleet civ ability has its gold for intercontinental trade boosted from +4 to +6.
Mission: increase from +1 Science to +2 Science if next to a Campus.

Scythia’s heal down from 50 to 30.
Kongo: 50% more Great People points rather than double.
Greece: Award an envoy whenever they complete an Acropolis.
France: Catherine’s Flying Squadron now awards a free Spy when the extra capacity is earned at Castles. All spies start as Agents with a free promotion.


[MAP GENERATION]
Aluminum may now appear on Plains
Increased Lake generation
Updated Bonus and Strategic Sea resource generation
Fixed river generation on Inland Sea maps


[UI ENHANCEMENTS]
Combat Preview UI has received multiple improvements
The Civilopedia now shows the number of spies/envoys granted by a civic
Multi-turn unit movement paths shown when unit reselected
Add Relationships tab to city state Intel Reports which displays that city state's at war status with other civs and city states
A popup box is now used to modify deal item values
Added leader dialog for Gifts and Demands
Scenarios no longer display extraneous UI screens
Reports now displays great works, adjacency, and districts information
Trade Route chooser automatically selects previously completed trade route
Additional improvements to the Trade Route chooser
Added a turn blocker notification when city ranged attack is available
Tech and Civic Boosts now additionally appear in the notification panel above the turn advancer.
A Toggle Strategic View keybinding has been added


[DIPLOMACY ENHANCEMENTS]
Added tooltips explaining why you can or cannot declare each kind of war or undertake another diplomatic action.
“Are you sure you want to denounce?” confirmation added
Liberation changes:
- Liberating cities can now occur even if you got the city in a deal (peace deals are the most common case of this).
- A case where the Persian player didn't see "(cede)" or "(return)" besides cities on the peace deal screen has been fixed.
- When you liberate a city-state your military units are only kicked back from the first ring of hexes around the city; you aren't ejected from their territory entirely.


[AI TUNING]
Improved AI ability to move great works around to get theming
AI will now better handle air attacks
- Bombers will attack Districts, Improvements, and then Units in that preference
- Fighters will prefer to attack other air units
Improved desire to pillage cities
Improved city planning with regard to adjacency bonuses
During city attacks, concentrate unit attacks on more threatening units rather than spreading out
Fixed a bug that resulted in the AI overestimating the value of demand tribute
Adjust AI acceptance of embassies to be a bit more like what they already do for delegations
Specifically, they probably will reject it if they're unfriendly, will accept at neutral unless they have any other reason against it (close balance) and will generally accept it at friendly unless they have a strong reason against.
In evaluating deals, the AI will mark elements that are unacceptable at any price, and expose that to the player
Improve ability to utilize city-states, beyond just suzerainty
As a player approaches victory, AI will become less friendly and more aggressive


[MULTIPLAYER]
Improved stability after receiving a multiplayer join error
Fixed unnecessary host migration when exiting a LAN game
Fixed an occasional hang during wars in dynamic turn mode
Miscellaneous UI fixes and stability improvements


[BUG FIXES]
Fixed an issue where plot tooltips would show when we didn’t want them to
Fixed multiple issues with Air combat
City Banners were not reacting to population changed events
Barbarian camp art will now update as the game progresses into later eras
Fixed an issue where pillaged improvements lost their pantheon bonuses forever
District repair costs now computed properly based on both game speed and start era. Will always be 25% of the cost of creating a new district of that type.
Correct Alexander’s “To the World’s End” healing ability so it only triggers if the city has a COMPLETED wonder in it.
Wonders should always be repairable after they have been hit by a nuclear blast
Fixed issues with Reports screen totals not adding correctly
Additional bug fixes.


[MISC]
Added new visualization for desert mountains


http://steamcommunity.com/games/2890...85663556011619

[nilodor]

That 50% increase to settler cost will be a bit of a doozy

[CrescentMoonie]

$40.19 on Steam this weekend.

[this is a sign]

Didn't feel too different than Civ 5 to me. I'll give it another try with the new patch though!

[frnk55]

Originally Posted by this is a sign

Didn't feel too different than Civ 5 to me. I'll give it another try with the new patch though!

Really? I'm waiting for it to get that civ 5 feel to it before sinking hours into it.

[Edward64]

Might jump back in and give Stellaris a break.

[vex]

Two days in for me and I'm still trying to adjust to these damn graphics.

[Ben E Lou]

Fall update is on the way.

https://civilization.com/news/entrie...ll-2017-update

[jeff061]

Played a game for the first time yesterday. Was still a breeze. I've given up hope the ai is ever going to be remotely competitive this edition, but you never know.

[Ben E Lou]

The Fall Update has been released.

[NEW]

• Khmer
  • Civ Unique Ability: Grand Barays - Farms provide +2 Food if adjacent to an Aqueduct. +3 Faith and +1 Amenity to each city with an Aqueduct.
  • Jayavarman VII Unique Ability: Monasteries of the King - Holy Sites provide +2 Food and +1 Housing if placed on a river. Holy Sites provide a culture bomb.
  • Domrey: Unlocks with Military Engineering technology. Unique Medieval era siege unit. Can move and shoot in the same turn and exerts zone of control.
  • Prasat: Same yield as Temple. Missionaries purchased in this city receive the Martyr promotion. +1 Relic slot.
• Indonesia
  • Civ Unique Ability: Great Nusantara - Minor Adjacency for Coastal tiles to Holy Site, Campus, Industrial Zone, and Theater Square. +1 Amenity to each Entertainment Complex adjacent to a coastal tile.
  • Gitarja Unique Ability: Exalted Goddess of the Three Worlds - Naval units can be purchased with Faith. Religious units pay no movement to embark or disembark. +2 Faith to City Centers that are adjacent to Coast.
  • Jong: Replaces Frigate. Unlocks with Mercenaries civic. +1 Movement. All units in formation inherit movement speed. +5 to combat when in a formation.
  • Kampung: Unique improvement placed on Coastal tiles that are adjacent to a sea resource. +1 Housing. +1 Production. +1 Food for each adjacent Fishing Boat. More Housing, Production, and Tourism as you advance through the game.
• Angkor Wat Wonder
  • +1 Population in all Current Cities when built. +1 Housing in all cities. Must be built adjacent to an Aqueduct district.
• Ha Long Bay Natural Wonder
  • Two tile natural wonder that can be found on coastal terrain and provides +3 Food, +1 Production, and +1 Culture. +15 Combat Strength when defending in this tile.
• ‘Path to Nirvana’ Scenario
  • The lands around the Indian Ocean flourish with many religions and many people. Heaven has chosen you to bring the light to all these lands. Is your faith up to the challenge? Can you convince the people of Southeast Asia to follow your religion? In this 50 turn scenario, compete to have the most followers of your religion, the most faith per turn, and the most foreign cities following your religion.

[RELIGION UPDATE]

• Overhauled “Religion Lens”
• All religious units move on their own layer (similar to Trade Units and Spies)
• Switched to unique unit flag backing for religious units
• Display religion (if applicable) for a unit to be purchased with Faith
• Added the ‘Condemn Heretic’ unit action to allow military units to eliminate religious units in their tile, similar to pillaging a trade route
• Added Religion indicators to unit flags
• Religious units now exert Zone of Control and receive Flank and Support bonuses in religious combat
• Added two new Pantheons, two new Founder Beliefs, two new Follower Beliefs, two new Enhancer Beliefs, and two new Worship Beliefs (with new buildings)
  • Follower Belief “Warrior Monks” unlocks the new Warrior Monk unit, a medieval land combat unit with its own promotion tree that is purchased with Faith
• Added the Guru religious support unit, which can heal nearby religious units
• Improved long-term usefulness of Missionaries by giving their spread religion ability 10% eviction of all other religions
• Gave nine existing leaders the LOW_RELIGIOUS_PREFERENCE trait so they are unlikely to push hard for a religion, making it easier for players to get one on high difficulties
• Added Unit Action tooltip to show you how many followers you’ll have in a city after you spread religion there
• Adding religious pressure to both ends of a trade route:
  • Destination city gets 1 pressure per turn of the origin city's majority religion (if it has one). This is the same amount as if that city was close by.
  • Origin city gets 0.5 pressure per turn of the destination city's majority religion (if it has one)
• Added 8 new Relics

[UI ENHANCEMENTS]

• Updated Diplomacy screens to improve readability and usability
• Trade Overview: Available Routes tab will now show all possible routes between two cities regardless if the origin city has a trader located at it
• New medallion style art for Great People
• Capital icons now appear on city banners in espionage chooser menu
• Rest & Repair actions inform you if you can’t heal due to a missing Strategic Resource
• Changed sort order for gossip so most recent messages are shown first
• Ensure plot tooltips show up after mousing over 2D icons in same plot
• Trade route chooser now sorts routes when filtered by a yield
• Lots of changes to make assorted UI screens more moddable/extensible

[AI TUNING]

• Improved AI’s naval gameplay, including protection and healing of naval units, building a proper navy, and assaulting coastal cities
• AI will attempt to re-convert its holy cities
• AI will no longer commit to battles they cannot win
• Improve AI city and district placement
• Improved AI’s valuation of great works
• Improved Scout’s drive to explore Tribal Villages
• Improved siege attacks
• Adjusted religious strategies, preventing large hordes of units going to the same, distant city
• New AI support for Religious Heal and Condemn Heretic actions
• Improve AI use of Inquisitors
• Money Grubber agenda is no longer as sensitive to fluctuations in income

[MULTIPLAYER]

• Ongoing stability improvements

[BALANCE CHANGES]

• Removed some of the least useful Gossip messages to improve signal to noise:
  • Buildings constructed if from 2 eras earlier than the constructing player's current era
  • Civic cultivated if from 1 era earlier than developing player's current era
  • Influenced city-state if not tied or higher than all other players
  • Land unit promoted if only to Level 2
  • Naval unit promoted if only to Level 2
  • Policy slotted if unlocked from a Civic that is 2 eras earlier than slotting player's current era
  • Tech researched if from 1 era earlier than researching player's current era
• Move +1 embark speed from Cartography to Square Rigging
• Allow friendly or allied spies to escape just before a nuke is detonated on a city they are in. All other spies are still killed.
• Add Guilds as a prereq for Humanism so you have Theater Square before Museums
• Change the Civic prereqs between Industrial and Modern so Zoo is required before Stadiums
• Religious Idols Pantheon belief is now +2 Faith per mine instead of +1
• Persian Immortal unit now behaves primarily as a melee unit with a ranged attack ability

[BUG FIXES]

• AI will now recruit Great People when they take control of a human's game in MP
• Fixed an issue where AI would trade invalid items
• Fixed issues where AI appears to refuse their own deal proposals
• Corrected an error that made the AI very unlikely to agree to alliances
• Added missing description text for Broadway (+20% Culture for the city)
• Fixed Colonial Taxes to be the listed 25% boost
• Fix player being able to make peace with city states while at war with the suzerain
• Pillaged districts no longer provide adjacency yields and they drop adjacent Appeal
• Fixed the Hanging Gardens not granting Appeal
• Archery tech boost earned by a Slinger on defense
• Unique districts don’t count twice for Mathematics tech boost
• Fix Housing from Monarchy to properly be +1 for each level of Wall
• Culture Bombs can no longer steal National Park tiles
• Conquering a city with a spaceport under sabotage no longer redirects that mission at yourself
• Captured spies are immediately returned when a player is defeated
• Gold costs of delegations is correct at all game speeds
• Properly compute foreign followers of a religion for beliefs that use this stat. Followers from cities that didn’t have this religion as a majority were not counted previously
• Embarked combat units can no longer capture enemy embarked civilians
• Additional bug fixes

[MISC]

• Changed Jakarta City-State to Bandar Brunei
• Added Motion Blur to leaders

[Jughead Spock]

Have a 50% off the Digital Deluxe version - so $40 for the game + all DLC (and fluff). Sounds like a good time to finally take the plunge? Shaping up nicely with the updates?

[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by Jughead Spock

Have a 50% off the Digital Deluxe version - so $40 for the game + all DLC (and fluff). Sounds like a good time to finally take the plunge? Shaping up nicely with the updates?

Where did you get that coupon? Might consider that as an option if it is available to the public.

[RainMaker]

I got one too. They just added it to my Steam inventory for some reason.

New update is nice. Enjoy the changes to religion and the new civs. Still needs some work in areas but much better than where it was.

[Jughead Spock]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I got one too. They just added it to my Steam inventory for some reason.

New update is nice. Enjoy the changes to religion and the new civs. Still needs some work in areas but much better than where it was.

Same. I didn't even know it was there, just happened to open my inventory one day.

Torn even more now with the Halloween sale cranking. Loved III/IV/V, but hearing there's not a ton of difference with VI. And I've not hardly scratched the surface of everything V has.

[jeff061]

Districts change a lot up with the game, as does the boost and social systems. I just had more of a challenge with v. I also thought v was a better looking(still hate vi's cartoon style) with a significantly better user interface.

I was and still am quite surprised at how awful the interface is in vi after v almost perfected it. Massive step back.

[nilodor]

First Expansion announced

https://civilization.com/news/entrie...-rise-and-fall

I’m Anton Strenger, Lead Designer for Civilization VI: Rise and Fall, and today we’re revealing some of the big changes coming with this huge Civilization VI expansion. The biggest, over-arching goal: dynamic empires. Civilizations will rise and fall through the course of the game (as you probably figured out from the title). Borders will ebb and flow. Cities will change their loyalties.

As a secondary goal, Civilization VI: Rise and Fall includes more storytelling elements – Historic Moments – that highlight the interesting turning points in your civilizations. These events happen every time you play, making playthroughs unique, while also giving them meaning in the mechanics.

GOLDEN – AND DARK – AGES ARE COMING

Golden and Dark Ages are among the new events that can shift the course of your game’s history. They are significant, but temporary, changes to a civilization that last for an Era. They will open up new opportunities for players to change their strategies, and change the state of the game between the player and their rivals. Having a Golden Age affords huge bonuses to Loyalty and other game systems, but makes earning future Golden Ages slightly more difficult.

Having a Dark Age hurts Loyalty in your cities and makes you vulnerable, but gives you an opportunity to earn a future Golden Age more easily. It also allows the use of special Dark Age policies and opens the door for an even more powerful Heroic Age. Think of it this way: While a Golden Age provides one Dedication bonus (a powerful Golden Age effect), being in a Heroic Age lets the player earn three Dedication bonuses (making it sort of a “triple” Golden Age).

In the Civilization VI base game, we have the idea of a “player era” – how far a player has advanced on their tech or civics tree. In this expansion, systems are very much tied to the idea of the “game era,” which is determined by individual player advancement and a few other behind-the-scenes adjustments. Think of these game eras like chapters in a book. Each has its own arc, and its own small ending, but leaves you wanting to discover the rest of the story by continuing to the next chapter. When you enter a new game era you may earn a Golden Age or a Dark Age. Which one you get is determined by your Era Score in the previous game era, a score that is increased by fulfilling certain objectives.

So while your neighbor may have been in a Golden Age last era, they may enter a Dark Age this era, opening up an opportunity for you to change your strategy. The key effect of Golden and Dark Ages: they change the Loyalty of a player’s cities. As Ages change and weak spots are exposed in empires, cities can declare independence and even change hands to new owners.



EARNING LOYALTY

The stakes of the new Loyalty system are huge because, at the extremes, it can flip control of entire cities to different players without military force. Low Loyalty in a city puts it at risk of rebelling and becoming a Free City. That, in turn, makes it a juicy target for other players looking to expand their own empire. Keeping your cities loyal not only keeps it on your side, but also emanates its Loyalty as a kind of “peer pressure” to other cities nearby. You could even sway cities from other civilizations to join you.

In previous Civilization games, there were ways to “Culture Flip” another player’s city without military intervention. We felt it was time to reexamine this non-militaristic way to change borders, and expand territory.

Loyalty also changes the landscape and strategy around the map as the game continues. What could have been an unchanging border between two civilizations in the base game becomes a contentious battleground of loyalties in the expansion, especially when Golden Ages or Dark Ages are involved.

Golden Ages and Dark Ages are a kind of loyalty bomb. In the best-case scenarios, triggering a Golden Age makes all of your citizens a little bit more loyal. Also, other cities nearby see the appeal of that civilization and may waver in their Loyalty to their current owner. The quickest and most direct way to boost Loyalty, though, is to send a Governor to the city.

GOVERNORS RULE

In previous versions of Civilization, “governor” often referred to the AI behavior you could set for a city to act on your behalf. In this expansion, though, they are the opposite. Sending a Governor to a city is a way for the player to make an active decision about the development of one of their cities, and grow in a specific direction. Much like how districts operate in the base game, Governors are a way to specialize your cities. The difference: Governors have their own set of unique powerful bonuses and can move between controlled cities.

During a game, players can earn up to seven Governors. Each Governor has a different skill tree of promotions. We bent a lot of existing game rules to give them the power to make a difference in your cities.

Here’s how it works: You earn points (Governor Titles) through gameplay. Then you must choose whether to spend those points on appointing a new Governor or promoting an existing one. How you choose to manage your Governors will impact your overall strategy. Go wide by covering more cities, or go tall by promoting only a few powerful governors.

As for the Governors themselves, they have unique personalities – even before you start choosing which ones to upgrade. Some thrive in taking an already established city to the next level, building Wonders and powering up trade routes. Others are more suited to new cities that are constructing their first districts and claiming their first bits of land. One can be a savior during a city siege, and can make or break a city’s defense against a powerful attacking army. Though normally Governors can only work in your own cities, there is one that can be assigned to city-states, affecting the Envoys you have there. That said, none of the Governors are easily distilled into a single function.



ENHANCING YOUR ALLIANCES

Alliances within Civilization VI already offered a lot, but this expansion adds more nuance. Alliances in the base game often boiled down to a sort of guarantee that the other player would not interfere with your strategy by attacking you, but only rarely did it offer tangible benefits. So for Civilization: Rise and Fall we added more tangible incentives to Alliances. We’re encouraging players to band together for mutual benefit rather than merely non-interference. We’re also giving players more active and flavorful choices to make. Alliances now have a type – Research, Military, Economic, Cultural, or Religious – that determines their benefits. Moreover, as the Alliance continues, the Alliance itself levels up and unlocks more powerful bonuses. This encourages players to think in the long term and to invest in diplomacy.

Let me give you an example of how an Alliance can evolve over time, specifically a Research Alliance. At Level 1, both allies receive Science bonuses to their Trade Routes. But as the Alliance develops, powerful and unique effects come into play. At Level 2, both allies still receive their Science bonuses, but also receive 1 Tech Boost at a regular interval. Level 3 is all of the above, plus bonus Science when researching the same Technology, or a Technology your ally had already researched. These alliances are powerful enough that players are restricted to just one Alliance of each type at a time. But you and your Alliance partner can agree to change the type of your Alliance later in the game.

EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

Emergencies are new with Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. Most Emergencies get triggered when one player gets a significant lead or advantage in an area. Converting a Holy City to a different religion, or using a nuclear weapon, for example. When triggered, the game determines which other players can join in an Emergency against the target and each player can choose to join or pass. Joining can give permanent benefits, but only if the players are able to complete an Emergency-specific objective against the target in time, otherwise the target gets a benefit instead.

They are a sort of checks-and-balances system. You see, there is a delicate balance to strike – making the game more dynamic and also ensuring it stays fair for players who have developed a strong lead. We’re adding challenges to players who’d get so far ahead of others that the game stagnated towards victory for them. We also did not want to artificially rubberband them down. Emergencies become a great way to attack this game-pacing problem. It also reveals the dynamic world stage for players that have more isolationist play styles. As Emergencies come up, they can be involved with them one way or another.

RETELLING YOUR HISTORY

Fans of Civilization know that each game plays out in its own way, with its own unique story. With Civilization VI: Rise and Fall, we are bringing that story into the spotlight by adding more ways to track the progress of a player’s civilization than ever before.

So as players progress in Civilization: Rise and Fall, they earn Historic Moments. These are mini-achievements for doing cool things in the world (and there are over 100 of them in the game right now). They include things like circumnavigating the world, training your unique unit, founding a religion, and building districts with high adjacency bonuses. Many grant an even bigger bonus if you’re the “world’s first” civilization to make the achievement. These Historic Moments, taken together, form a story for your game with unique details tailored to your empire.

Historic Moments are represented two ways. First, they increase your Era Score, helping you achieve a Golden Age. Second, they are added to your Timeline, which is a place in the UI that displays all your accomplishments in a game. This Timeline has tons of custom illustrations for each different moment, and is a very cool representation of your empire’s history during your unique game. On a more practical note, it is also a useful way to remind yourself of what you have been up to if you return to a saved game after a few days away. Ultimately, the Timeline is a way to illustrate your story.



NEW CIVILIZATIONS, NEW LEADERS

People often ask how we select new leaders and civilizations to include in expansions – and we have nine new leaders and eight new civilizations which will be revealed over the coming weeks with Civilization: Rise and Fall. Well, it is a collaborative process that involves the whole team from art and design to production and even our legal department. We also ask ourselves some core questions as we select potential leaders:

“Is this region of the world represented?”
“Is this time in history represented?”
“Is this represented/revered in previous Civilization games or totally new?”
We strive to have a diverse and varied selection of leaders, and it is also very important to us to include female leaders. Women are often underrepresented in traditional historical accounts, and recent scholarship has revealed more and more the fascinating and powerful women that lived between the lines of history textbooks. We also look for leaders whose history makes them particularly well-suited for a bonus related to new expansion systems.

As for balancing and trying to minimize power creep among those new leaders, we take a holistic look at the state of the game and how our leaders, new and old, stack up in it. Our QA department regularly gives us their evaluations of who is on top and who is on bottom, in their estimations of strength. We look at fan evaluations and rankings in this process, as well. We are not afraid to go back to leaders we have already finalized and rework their bonus entirely – so keep telling us what you think about leaders. We are always listening.

This is just the start of what’s coming in Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. We have lots more to share before this expansion releases on February 8, 2018 that we can’t wait to tell you about – starting with all the new leaders and civilizations you’ll get to rule.

Follow the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #OneMoreTurn, and be sure to follow the Civilization franchise on social media to keep up to date with the latest news and information on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

[Ben E Lou]

"On a more practical note, it is also a useful way to remind yourself of what you have been up to if you return to a saved game after a few days away. Ultimately, the Timeline is a way to illustrate your story"<---really like this

[Honolulu_Blue]

I really hope that this expansion gives Civ VI more life.

I have tried to play the game about a half dozen times and each and every time it's felt dull and empty. Once I leave a game, I have rarely had a desire to go back to it.

I am not sure if it's something particular about Civ VI or if it's just that I have played so much Civ over the last 10 years - Civ IV and V - that the game just doesn't do it for me anymore.

I really hope it's the former and that this, and potentially other expansions, can fix it.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I really hope that this expansion gives Civ VI more life.

I have tried to play the game about a half dozen times and each and every time it's felt dull and empty. I once I leave a game, I have rarely had a desire to go back to it.

I am not sure if it's something particular about Civ VI or, it's just that I have played so much Civ over the last 10 years - Civ IV and V - that the game just doesn't do it for me anymore.

I really hope it's the former and that this, and potentially other expansions, can fix it.

Yes sir. Played it maybe 10 times after it first came out. Haven't touched it since last Christmas.

[bhlloy]

Most of that seems like it is designed to make the game more equal and less runaway victories that kill interest in games early, but I think they have a very fine line between doing that and railroading. The golden and dark ages sound pretty dumb and forced. Can’t say I’m massively impressed with any of it.

[Coffee Warlord]

Cautious optimism. I hope cities just don't randomly flip back and forth completely out of your control.

[Edward64]

Stellaris and XCom have taken up most of my time but I do like Civ 6.

The last quarter (?) of the game tends to drag on (but hey, Stellaris is much worse) but think the first half is pretty decent. I hated the version that had the stack-of-doom (Civ 4?) and could never get into that.

Looking forward to the wealth of new features!

Its amazing (and scary) to think that I've been playing Civilization since the first version.

[Scarecrow]

Civ VI now available on iPad for FREE!!

[AlexB]

If by “free” the article means £30 on offer, or £60 normally, that headline is entirely accurate

[rjolley]

Couldn't find the video game deal thread, so I'll post this here. If you haven't picked up Civ VI yet, Humble Bundle's February game of the month is Civ VI. You can get with 2 DLCs for $12, with more games released at the beginning of February.

Usually, the selection of games is pretty underwhelming for me, but $12 for ~10 games is not a bad deal.

[dolfin]

I'll also throw this out there. Rise and Fall expansion is 18% off at Green Man Gaming if you're signed in, and the SAVE15 coupon code stacks in cart, making it $20.90.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by dolfin

I'll also throw this out there. Rise and Fall expansion is 18% off at Green Man Gaming if you're signed in, and the SAVE15 coupon code stacks in cart, making it $20.90.

Thanks!

[NobodyHere]

Well that's $21 gone from my wallet

[Thomkal]

Quill19 got his hands on a preview copy of the CIV 6 expansion:

Civilization VI: Rise and Fall! -- Poundmaker of the Cree! -- Part 1 - YouTube

[Ben E Lou]

New patch released in advance of Rise and Fall.

Base Game Patch Notes

ENHANCEMENTS

• Rework start position algorithm to spread major powers evenly across the map first and then insert city-states in the margins. Results in improved distances between Civilizations and better quality for major civ start positions.
• Add notification about production salvaged from a Wonder. Make sure that production is credited.

BALANCE CHANGES

• Diplomatic actions now scale with game speed.
• Government Policies that increase production on Melee class units now include Anti-Cavalry class units.
• Change tech boost for Steel to add a soft prerequisite that hints you probably want Ironclads before Destroyers.
• Barbarian difficulty has been updated to scale with each difficulty level. (Warlord, Prince, King etc...)
• Healing plunder reward from Farms reduced from 100 to 50.
• ‘Sack’ government policy has been removed and its effects have been added to the ‘Raid’ policy.
• Naval combat changes – Bombard land units are now more effective against naval units, Ranged land units are less effective against naval units.
• Pillage rewards are now displayed in the tooltip of the Pillage action button.
• Boost number of random Apostle Promotions from 2 to 3.
• Reduce Science per population from 0.7 down to 0.5.
• Great Admirals and Great Generals have a combat bonus and a movement bonus, they no longer stack.
• Gold and Faith rewards from Tribal Villages now scale with Game Speed.

GENERAL BUG FIXES

• Apostles could run out of random promotions to choose from.
• If a spy is traveling to a city that changes hands, abort travel and return them to your capital.
• Warrior Monks now benefit from Great Generals and can earn the Spear of Fionn promotion.
• Abundant resource will spawn sea luxuries.
• Units levied from a city-state will now retain any promotions earned while controlled by a player.
• Fixed several issues with obsolete units appearing in the production menu for a city.
• Fortified units will now properly ‘wake up’ after being attacked.
• Fortified or Sleeping units that have been expelled from a city will now properly ‘wake up’.
• Support units can now be levied from City-States.
• Fixed a bug preventing Ranged Cavalry class units from receiving the combat bonus from the Spear of Fionn ability.
• Fixed an issue with embarked units not being able to heal in friendly territory.
• Properly abort all spy missions if a city changes hands.
• Fixed an issue that caused zone of control UI to show between religious units of the same player.
• Properly update siege status of a city when units die, are deleted, etc.
• Don’t award a Spread Religion charge to Gurus from the Mosque.
• Make sure losing Kandy as an ally doesn’t interfere with the Reliquaries belief.

AI

• Fixed an issue that was causing the AI to send multiple spies on the same mission.
• AI will look at graphic change on spaceports, and can target their spies to spaceports that are performing their science victory projects.
• Improved opportunity cost considerations for district placement.
• Improve ability to place / use aqueducts.
• AI knows to move builders back into their territory if they get caught outside.
• AI will not complain about stealth units it can’t see being too close to its border.
• AI is much less likely to trade its cities away as part of a peace deal.
• Improved resource trading, AI considers luxury resources it is currently importing.
• Improved new city placement, also fixed issues where the settler would try to travel through hostile territory to get an escort.
• AI prefers garrisoning ranged units over melee.
• If the AI can capture, or significantly damage, a target city, it may ignore hostile units nearby to do that.
• Fixed coordinating ranged attacks.

MULTIPLAYER

• Changing default Resources option to Standard for multiplayer. There is a map generation issue where setting Resources to Abundant and StartPosition to Balanced results in civ starting positions being too close together.
• Players could not ready up when dirty from another match.
• Improved stability when players connect to or disconnect from launching games.
• Pausing the game could desync multiplayer games.
• Missing official content icon was not working in the multiplayer lobby.
• Improved stability when game host leaves game in multiplayer.
• Made sure you can’t declare war on a Teammate.

CIV-SPECIFIC BUG FIXES

• Properly credit Kongo with 1 Culture, 1 Tourism if multiple works from the same artist are in the Palace.
• Don’t give the Hansa bonuses for adjacent Antiquity Sites/Shipwrecks.
• Allow India to train Warrior Monks if 1 follower of that religion is in the city.
• Fix Arabia’s unique ability so only FOREIGN cities following their religion that add Science.
• If the Kongo captures a city-state, don’t let them grab a Holy Site.

USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS

• Show turns until Anarchy clears.
• Show turns until Friendship lapses.
• Defeated notification indicates whether a city-state or full civ was eliminated.
• Remove warmonger information on the Keep City dialog if city received in a trade.
• Only allow religious units to Rest/Repair on tiles where they are close enough to a Holy Site to actually heal.
• Do not hide Casus Belli sub-menu if a denouncement has not occurred (so the reason that war can't be declared is clearer to the player).
• Show turns until Denouncement clears.
• Correct timing of Culture Victory imminent message.
• Add notification if an enemy spy escaped your police.
• Emphasized several notifications indicating negative effects on the player.
• Civilopedia bug fixes and improvements.
• Trade Route panel bug fixes and improvements.
• Corrected an Issue where incorrect team numbers were displayed.
• Add whether or not an original capital was conquered or not to the associated gossip message.
• Show requirements for each Casus Belli when that option is grayed out.
• Fixed map pin corruption when deleting and adding map pins.
• Version mismatched games are colored differently in multiplayer lobby.
• If multiple players are affected by a nuclear attack, the Declare War warning dialog will now appropriately list all players involved.
• Always show the player’s own cities first in the list of trade route destinations.

ART

• New Barbarian Scout skin.
• Animation fix for Gorgo.

WRITING

• Various text updates and bug fixes.

[molson]

Somehow I never jumped from 4 to 5. I still break out 4 every couple of months. If I finally wanted to jump ahead, would it be better to go to 5, or all the way to 6?

[RainMaker]

I'd probably just say go with 6. They're similar in a lot of ways but I think adding districts in 6 is a big plus.

[nilodor]

Rise and Fall review up at polygon:
Civilization 6: Rise and Fall review - Polygon

Hoping this goes on sale before the mac release date, likely in early april.

[RainMaker]

Green Man Gaming has the expansion for $30 plus a 20% code you can add. $24 for the game with the expansion is pretty cheap.

[nilodor]

Sweet thanks!

Kotaku also has a review up
https://kotaku.com/civilization-vi-r...iew-1822751643

[MizzouRah]

I've played Civ VI the total of 6 hours but I picked up the RaF expansion tonight and will dig into it tomorrow on my day off.

[Edward64]

I bought it with the 20% GMG discount and installed it.

Will start playing with it tomorrow but think will wait for the first patch before really digging into it.

[RainMaker]

It's a nice upgrade. AI is much better at warfare. They will make you pay for not keeping a defense. Digging some of the new civs too.

[Thomkal]

Steam having a play for free weekend on Civ 6 starting today. Been hesitant to try the new game, but might give this a try.

[Ben E Lou]

So the announcement mentioned that you could earn "governor points" to upgrade Governors. They didn't bother to include that said points come from a whole new District and set of buildings. Nice!

[Ben E Lou]

I played for a couple of hours this evening. It definitely feels like an entirely different experience. I was planning on epic speed so I don’t have a feel yet for overall difficulty, but the AI does seem improved, and between the patch and the expansion, there’s a lot that’s different/new.

[NobodyHere]

Is it just me or were city defenses nerfed?

[kcchief19]

Maybe. I'm in an "emergency" right now trying to liberate Hong Kong from France and I'm doing a fare amount of damage with two frigates. But I' think it might be the garrison strength swinging. It showed as 89 when I showed up, then dropped to 69 and then 59 before I even attacked.

I'm digging the expansion. There is a definite price to pay for having a spread out empire and settling too close to other Civs or on other continents. Trying to steal free cities is pretty fun too.

I have encountered a bug with free cities, however. I had a Greek city go free and both myself and and another Civ were trying to capture by force. The other Civ got there first but my units stayed in the territory and couldn't move without starting a war. I managed to negotiate open border so they could move, but I have one bombard that is stuck and cannot move for some reason.

[Edward64]

Just finished a marathon/huge game with Pericles.

Won it with a Religion victory in 1929 over 11 remaining countries. I was also leading substantially with Culture but could never even get close to winning (have to read up on the tips & tricks for Culture).

Decided to continue playing a little bit more to fight it out with a country leading in Science.

Overall, I enjoyed the different strategies needed with Religion.

[Ben E Lou]

New update is out...


ADDITIONS

• Joint Wars/Third Party War Update
  • Players can now ask other players or AI to join wars they are already in.
  • Trade screen allows Casus Belli to be chosen when declaring a Joint War.
  • Joint War now requires one party to have denounced the enemy for 5 turns.
  • Leader screen makes it clear that war declaration is part of a joint war.
• Adding 12 new Historic Moments, focused on mid to late game.
  • First Shipwreck Excavated (+2 Era score)
  • World's First Shipwreck Excavated (+3 Era score)
  • First Aerodrome Fully Developed with all buildings (+3 Era score)
  • First Encampment Fully Developed with all buildings (+3 Era score)
  • First Entertainment Complex Fully Developed with all buildings (+3 Era score)
  • First Water Park Fully Developed with all buildings (+3 Era score)
  • First City with 25 Population (+1 Era score)
  • World's First City with 25 Population (+2 Era score)
  • First Seaside Resort (+2 Era score)
  • World's First Seaside Resort (+3 Era score)
  • National Park Founded (+3 Era score)
  • World's First National Park Founded (+4 Era score)
• Game Summary Screen
  • Added 3 new graphs for Rise and Fall games; Era Score, Total Governors, and Total Governor Titles.

BALANCE

• Governors:
  • Pingala's Librarian ability now provides +15% Science and Culture in the city (was +20%).
  • Governor Magnus Groundbreaker ability reduced from +100% to +50%.
• Government Balance Pass – Rise & Fall
  • Communism: Bonus Production per population from .4 to .6. Overall Production bonus from 10% to 15%.
  • Democracy: Production per district from 2 to 1.
  • Fascism: Combat Strength from 4 to 5. Bonus unit production from 20% to 50%.
• Government Balance Pass – Base Game
  • Fascism: Combat Strength from 4 to 5.
• Policy Rebalance:
  • Military Research gives +2 Science from Military Academies, Seaports, and Renaissance Walls (was +1 and did not include Renaissance Walls).
  • Public Transport gives 100 Gold per Appeal when replacing a Farm with a Neighborhood (was 50).
  • Ecommerce gives +2 Production and +5 Gold for all your Trade Routes (was +5 and +10 but only for international Trade Routes).
• Civ Balance:
  • Victoria’s Pax Britannica ability now additionally awards a free melee class unit when constructing a Royal Navy Dockyard in a city founded on a foreign continent.
  • Lautaro's unique ability Swift Hawk has been updated to have an additional effect: Pillaging an enemy city plot now causes that city to lose 5 loyalty
  • Rebalancing Seondeok's Hwarang ability. Governors established in a city provide +3% Culture and Science for each Promotion they have earned, including their first (was +10% Culture and Science for any Governor regardless of Promotions).

• • Norwegian Berserker - Production cost reduced from 180 to 160. Combat Strength buff when attacking increased from +7 to +10. Combat Strength de-buff when defending reduced from -7 to -5.
  • Japanese Samurai – Production cost reduced from 180 to 160. Combat Strength increased from 45 to 48.
  • Georgian Khevsur – Production cost reduced from 180 to 160. Combat Strength increased from 40 to 45.

• Eras:
  • Made it so when somebody wins the game in the Information Era, it reset all players to be in a Normal Age and take away all Dedication bonuses. This puts everyone on a level playing field for "One More Turn" mode. (If somebody wins in an earlier era, continue the progression of eras and Ages as normal.)
  • Rebalancing Era Score of historic moments related to late game city projects:
    • Manhattan Project and Operation Ivy now worth 2 (was 1)
    • Satellite launch, Moon landing, and first Mars component are now worth 4 if world first and 2 otherwise (was 1 in both cases)
  • Monasticism dark policy now provides +75% Science in cities with Holy Sites (was +100%).
• Map Generation:
  • Made Turtles Luxury Resource more common.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Religion can now affect the Loyalty of a city. For players who founded a religion, cities get +3 Loyalty for following that religion, but -3 Loyalty per turn if following another player's religion.
  • Updated Foreign Ministry (Government building): Unit combat bonus now applies to City-State units even when they are not levied.
  • Number of envoys received from Liberating City-States is boosted as you progress through the game.
  • Commandos’ Melee unit promotion now grants +1 movement

MODDABILITY UPDATES

• Governors and Governor Promotions now use 'Promotion Sets' which allows more than one governor type to be associated with a promotion and vice versa

BUG FIXES

• Only show the "Capital Lost" when a player loses their original capital city (was also showing when a player lost their new capital city that also happened to be the original capital city of a different player).
• Fixed for Priority Target highlighting invalid hexes.
• Districts that cannot be repaired because the player is missing their pre-requisite Tech or Civic (ex. in a conquered city) will now say this in the city production UI.
• For Great People that activate over luxury resources, a tile with a district belonging to another player is no longer treated as a valid activation tile (and it will not end up highlighted)
• Frederick Barbarossa's UA no longer gives a combat bonus against Free Cities.
• Liberating a city will now make that city immune against your Loyalty pressure, as was the design intent.
• Correctly display when a Wonder needs an adjacent district. Clarified that the adjacent district requirement also must be a district owned by this city.
• Fixed the combined arms boost by changing it to be “Have 3 Armies or Armadas.”
• Fixed Victoria's Pax Britannica ability in the base game.
• Enforced that cities cannot be founded on tiles with districts. It was possible before with the relaxed minimum city distance present in island situations.
• Fixed an edge case where the historic moments for creating a Trading Post in another civ could be repeated and exploited
• Made it so Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi only heals land units.
• Fixed Bugs related to expelling units out of a City's or Civilization's borders when applicable. Units should no longer be expelled from a Free City when it flips due to Loyalty unless the city flips to a major civ and rules require it.
• Fixed an issue with not counting armadas and Fleets for the Triple Seven achievement.
• Ensure proper display of National Parks after a save is loaded.
• Don't show Paradrop unit action if unit cannot move.
• Fixed a bug preventing the Hetairoi Great General bonus from being applied when in the same hex as a general.
• Fixed a bug preventing the Persian Immortal from using melee as its default attack.
• Fixed a bug where Renaissance walls and Georgian unique walls were not being affected by the Limes Policy.
• Addressed audio issues with large and mod-expanded map sizes

TEXT FIXES

• Corrected the bonus text for the Zoning Commissioner Governor promotion (it said 30% but it is actually 20 %.)
• Updated Rise and Fall Agenda descriptions to include what that leader dislikes.
• Clarified Kilwa's description to show that it increases the type bonus from city states instead of the yield.
• Removed a redundant font icon in the name of a city-state quest.
• Updated Civilopedia text for Anarchy, since Anarchy does not affect Era Score.
• Clarified text for Georgia's Unique Ability.
• Clarified text for first sea/air unit Historic Moments.
• Added information to technology descriptions about what resources are unlocked for harvesting (some were missing).
• Document that Patron Saint Governor Promotion also helps Warrior Monks.
• Removed "doubling" and "tripling" in description of effects for tourism. Use +100% or +200% instead.
• Added Housing info to Polder description
• Fixed the Fascism combat bonus description being incorrect in base game.
• Updated wording for Religious Alliance to indicate that it refers to cities dominated by the player's religion.
• Changed some text that was incorrectly referring to "Identity" instead of "Loyalty.”

GRAPHIC FIXES

• Reduced the amount of snow on the Arena building so that it doesn't blow out as much at night.
• Don't play Paradrop animation if the destination tile is not visible to the current observer.

AI

• AI respects and uses new rules for joint wars and third party wars
• AI evaluates joint and third party wars based on the chosen casus belli, and applies casus belli to its own offers
• In trading cities, AI considers resources and great works it will gain or lose in the deal
• As part of a city attack, will not pillage a separate city’s districts
• AI will prioritize a city over units if it can capture or nearly capture the city
• Fixed issues with AI strategies, including yield priorities and era strategies (as reported on community forums, thanks!).
• Fixed government bonus analysis problem. AI will no longer focus entirely on monarchy.
• Fixed issues regarding embarking units near enemy warships, evaluation now takes proper account of that.
• AI can modify a deal with just gold when asked what would you give.
• Germany (or anyone favoring minor civ war) won't care about their relationship to a minor civ suzerain unless it's them.
• Give Greece and Pericles some preferences for culture and envoys.
• Fix round off problem that was giving low threat values in duel maps (or with only 2 Civs left).
• Free cities units that are not involved in attacking other units will stay within their own territory.
• Improved city defense unit management.

MULTIPLAYER

• Auto End Turn is now disabled for the remainder of a player's turn if they unready their turn.
• Fixed multiplayer stall related to players disconnecting while the host was loading into a game.
• Fixed zombie connection issue that was preventing some players from joining multiplayer games after a previous join.
• Players should not be able to unready their turns after their turn timer elapses.
• Dead civilizations are no longer selectable after loading a save in multiplayer.
• Multiplayer quick saves now go in the proper save folder for the current game mode.
• Fixed default multiplayer handicap for third player in the Jadwiga's Legacy scenario.

UI

• Changes to the way Governor Title notifications are handled.
  • The Governor Title notifications turn blocking no longer requires players to use the Governor Title to be dismissed.
  • Appoint Governor Notification will not appear if the player does not yet have a city to assign one.
• Updated the window style of the Dedication screen and Era Rollover screen, emphasizing Era / Age types.
• Added food needed for population growth in City Details Panel.
• Made sure we only show the Emergency row and tab if there are emergencies involving both the selected player and the local player.
• Fixed an issue where players could have duplicate city names, all names have to be unique now.
• Espionage mission history for failed missions will now show loot information if provided in the mission info
• Tech Tree - Ensure we update the live data for a tech when it's boosted.

[Thomkal]

Well not often does PC Gamer cover America's Got Talent, but it's not very often that an act performs a song which should be very familiar...


https://www.pcgamer.com/full-choral-...ffer-pcgamertw

[Thomkal]

Civ 6 on sale for next 12 hours or so at Green Man Gaming, 70% off-Rise and Fall DLC also on sale, not as much off though:


Summer Sale 2018 | Green Man Gaming

[NobodyHere]

So long $40

[Eaglesfan27]

Also, it was announced recently that Civ 6 will be coming to the Nintendo Switch... very intriguing.

[RainMaker]

Full features list:

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS: Volcanoes, storms (blizzards, sand storms, tornados, hurricanes), climate change, floods, and droughts.

POWER AND CONSUMABLE RESOURCES: Strategic resources play an additional role in Gathering Storm. These resources are now consumed in power plants to generate electricity for your cities. Initially you’ll be powering your most advanced buildings by burning carbon-based resources like Coal and Oil, but renewable energy sources also unlock as you progress to current-day technologies. Your choices about resource usage will directly affect the world’s temperature and can cause melting ice caps and rising sea levels.

ENGINEERING PROJECTS: Shape the world around your empire to overcome unfavorable land conditions by making improvements like canals, dams, tunnels and railroads. When settling cities, consider the flood risk to coastal lowland areas, but keep in mind that in the late-game, new technologies like Flood Barriers can be used to protect these tiles.

WORLD CONGRESS: Make your voice heard among the other leaders of the world. Earn Diplomatic Favor through Alliances, influencing city-states, competing in World Games, and more. Use Diplomatic Favor to extract promises from other leaders, vote on Resolutions, call a Special Session to address an emergency, and increase the weight of your votes in your quest to achieve the new Diplomatic Victory.

21st CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES & CIVICS: A new era has been added to the Technology and Civics trees. Combat new environmental effects with speculative ideas such as relocating your population out to seasteads and developing technologies to recapture carbon emissions.

NEW LEADERS AND CIVS: Nine new leaders from eight new civilizations are introduced. Each brings unique bonuses and gameplay, as well as a total of nine unique units, four unique buildings, three unique improvements, two unique districts and one unique governor.

NEW SCENARIOS: The Black Death & War Machine

MORE NEW CONTENT: Seven new world wonders, seven natural wonders, 18 new units, 15 new improvements, 9 new buildings, 5 new districts, 2 new city sets, 9 new techs and 10 new civics have been added.

IMPROVED GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS: The Espionage system has been enhanced with new options, the Culture and Science Victories have been updated, new Historic Moments have been added, and additional improvements have been made to other existing systems.

Civilization VI: Gathering Storm will launch for Windows PC on February 14, 2019.