Civilization 6 Announced

[Thomkal]

Civ 6 announced for mid-October. Quill18 has some screenshots and thoughts about it:

Civilization VI (yes...SIX!!!) -- Announcement and Screenshots! - YouTube

[cuervo72]

I was just wondering about this with my son last week (he picked Beyond Earth up for a while).

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Civ 6 announced for mid-October. Quill18 has some screenshots and thoughts about it:

Civilization VI (yes...SIX!!!) -- Announcement and Screenshots! - YouTube

Much more detail here.

Civilization 6 is coming in October, with big changes | Polygon

Enough detail that Civ6 deserves its own thread.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Much more detail here.

Civilization 6 is coming in October, with big changes | Polygon

Enough detail that Civ6 deserves its own thread.

He says that the "number one" problem the team has identified about Civ 5 is that players often settle on certain strategic paths, and they play the same way every time. For example, when I build cities, I'm almost always looking at Monument, Shrine, Granary, Library, Walls, Coliseum. I rarely change this formula, nor others theirs.

This is why Civ 6's cities are different. "It’s as big a change for the economic side of the game as unstacking the armies was with Civ 5," says Beach. "We want to throw different things at the player at different times and make them have to adapt."

A city's surrounding countryside will still be a maximum of 36 hexes, but they will now host buildings and improvements, beyond farms, mines, camps, etc. Beach calls these "districts."

"One district is a military encampment, where your barracks and stables and military academy and those types of buildings go," he says. "You can have a doubly defended city with two ranged strikes if you put up walls around your city and build an encampment. But the rule is, that encampment always has to be on the outskirts of your city. It cannot be next to the city center."

"A lot of other districts get bonuses for being near your city center," he adds. "We have 12 different districts and each of them has rules about how you place buildings, which our user interface helps you through. You’ll learn pretty quickly how all these layout decisions work and what’s going to be an optimal layout for your city."

This brings an element of SimCity planning to Civilization. Now that buildings require some sort of geographic condition in order to exist, each city becomes unique and an individual challenge. This also adds more complexity to combat.

"When you’re approaching an enemy city in a time of war, you can see how the city is specialized," says Beach. "You can decide that maybe you’re not strong enough to take the whole city, but you can go in and pillage a research campus or an industrial zone and knock out science and industry. That might be enough damage to make it worth going in and making that attack."

Although this is a significant change, it has its roots in previous Civ games. In Civ 5, certain structures can only be built in cities near specific geographic phenomena. For example, an observatory can only be built in a city bordering a mountain. Now though, you need to place the observatory on the mountain. Likewise, educational establishments like universities got a boost in Civ 5 for being near jungles and rainforests (lots of specimens to study). Now, those boosts require that the university is build in the jungle hex.

Kleenex pls k thx

[JonInMiddleGA]

It'll be interesting to see whether this works as expected. I don't see anything that's going to prevent players from still having a go-to routine, that's the nature of players, the occasional need to vary it slightly won't really change that IMO.

My other concern is that they're moving it in the direction of being overly complex, to the point of being convoluted about it. There was always, or at least for a long time, a certain enjoyable simplicity about the Civ series & I'd hate to see them lose that.

[jeff061]

Jumping on the graphics is the last thing I should be doing right now, but it looks like Clash of Clans or other mobile clones and the style is straight painful to look at. Hopefully will be able to look past that. The look and interface of Civ 5 was damn near perfect, to me.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm just going to forget that Beyond Earth ever existed. Day one as always.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

It'll be interesting to see whether this works as expected. I don't see anything that's going to prevent players from still having a go-to routine, that's the nature of players, the occasional need to vary it slightly won't really change that IMO.

My other concern is that they're moving it in the direction of being overly complex, to the point of being convoluted about it. There was always, or at least for a long time, a certain enjoyable simplicity about the Civ series & I'd hate to see them lose that.

Civ V was that point for me. Loved Civ IV, never could get into V

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Civ V was that point for me. Loved Civ IV, never could get into V

Interesting, for me Civ V is the pinnacle and for as much as I loved IV, I couldn't go back because of the unit stacks. I'm interested if the building stuff outside your city thing will make for more interesting tradeoffs basically driven by the fact that you won't be able to construct everything in a city (1 thing per tile). For example, if you want to have a city build all your wonders, it will be tough because you won't be able to build enough mines and farms to get that high of production to actually build all the wonders (not to mention they will block a production tile). There could be some interesting tradeoffs there.

[frnk55]

Oh my

[Thomkal]

thanks for moving and starting the thread

[ISiddiqui]

The whole "district" concept is making me drool. That is a fantastic addition to the game! Improvements don't just exist in the abstract, but you have to place them in your city square, taking advantage of geometry?! INCLUDING wonders (like Pyramids have to be in the desert) *drool*

And science being tied to geography as well? Awesome...

"For instance, let’s take the early game technology of masonry, which you use to establish walls and build the pyramids. What would make your people good at building with stone? The first thing they need to do is they have to find stone and establish a quarry. So that’s the quest for masonry: Establish a quarry and get it up and running. Once you’ve done that, we reward with this boost, which is 50 percent of the research cost for masonry.

"This tends to make certain portions of the tech tree open up and become much easier and faster for you to move through. If you’re settling on the coast and building up a little naval fleet, then all the technologies on that side of the tree will get boosted. They’ll only cost half as much as usual. You’ll move through that part of the tree very quickly.

"If you’re in the middle of a continent, on the other hand, and you haven’t even found the sea, but maybe you’re in the hills with lots of mineral resources, that part of the tree might open up very nicely for you. Once again, this is a case of your progression through the game being very much aligned with where you are in the world, what your map is like, and how you play to that map."

Amazing!

FTR, I couldn't get into Civ5 at all. I really, really liked Civ4.

[frnk55]

God I hope this doesn't turn into Simcity 5.

[RainMaker]

Civ V was great after all the expansions and fixes. Only real gripe was the warmonger penalty was kind of wonky.

Excited for VI but not sure what to think of the graphics.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by nilodor

Interesting, for me Civ V is the pinnacle and for as much as I loved IV, I couldn't go back because of the unit stacks. I'm interested if the building stuff outside your city thing will make for more interesting tradeoffs basically driven by the fact that you won't be able to construct everything in a city (1 thing per tile). For example, if you want to have a city build all your wonders, it will be tough because you won't be able to build enough mines and farms to get that high of production to actually build all the wonders (not to mention they will block a production tile). There could be some interesting tradeoffs there.

My issue with Civ5...much more than Civ4...was that I found myself doing the exact...same...victory path. This system--if properly implemented--sounds like something that I could really get behind as a remedy for that.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, absolutely no doubt I'd agree with that. Civ 5 was awesome but formulaic, and after beating a given difficulty level I really had no desire to go back and play again. Plus outside of a few really kickass traits (India anyone?) the leaders and countries were pretty generic.

I'm pretty massively excited about these proposed change for that reason. We'll see if they can implement it.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Jumping on the graphics is the last thing I should be doing right now, but it looks like Clash of Clans or other mobile clones and the style is straight painful to look at. Hopefully will be able to look past that. The look and interface of Civ 5 was damn near perfect, to me.

This post worried me a ton, especially because of how much I agree with the last sentence. Once I went and saw the screenshots, I was pleasantly surprised. I am not all-in with the graphics change, but it's not at all terrible.

[cuervo72]

Heh. So I ask my son if he's heard the news and he says yeah (like, of course), but he doesn't like the look of the graphics and says it's being built for the Unity engine so it is probably geared toward being multi-platform, so he's not going to play it.

He has strong gaming opinions.

[Shkspr]

So they're turning Civ into Warlock, basically.

[Buccaneer]

I stopped playing Civ5 two years ago and retired from the Civ series because I felt I did all that I could do (winning on Immortal every way on many different types of maps). I don't know if I'll come out of retirement for Civ6 but I will be interested in following the thoughts of long-time Civers here.

[JAG]

Looking forward to getting this in a few years (assuming reviews are good) once expansions and such are out and price has come down. I really enjoyed Civ IV + V, but it's tough to get the time to do a full engrossing game.

"For instance, let’s take the early game technology of masonry, which you use to establish walls and build the pyramids. What would make your people good at building with stone? The first thing they need to do is they have to find stone and establish a quarry. So that’s the quest for masonry: Establish a quarry and get it up and running. Once you’ve done that, we reward with this boost, which is 50 percent of the research cost for masonry.

"This tends to make certain portions of the tech tree open up and become much easier and faster for you to move through. If you’re settling on the coast and building up a little naval fleet, then all the technologies on that side of the tree will get boosted. They’ll only cost half as much as usual. You’ll move through that part of the tree very quickly.

"If you’re in the middle of a continent, on the other hand, and you haven’t even found the sea, but maybe you’re in the hills with lots of mineral resources, that part of the tree might open up very nicely for you. Once again, this is a case of your progression through the game being very much aligned with where you are in the world, what your map is like, and how you play to that map."

I'd be interested to see how the balance will work for that.

[Edward64]

I'm ready for the next iteration.

I've played every version since the first one and I certainly do not spend as much time on Civ as I did (less with each iteration, there is so many good games out there now) but there's a certain loyalty to Sid's legacy (including Pirates, F117, Railroad Tycoon etc.)

I'm sure I'll get my $59.99 worth.

[bulletsponge]

love the Civ series will get. sounds good. also i want a new Pirates! gam

[albionmoonlight]

Civ V took some getting used to, but now I think it is the best one by far.

I'm a wait-and-see game buyer. But this certainly seems different enough that, if they pull it off, it will feel like a very new game.

And, if they don't pull it off? Then I will keep playing Civ V and wait for Civ VII.

[jeff061]

I tend to agree this is giving off heavy cross platform vibes. This will be my first wait and see Civ ever.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by jeff061

I tend to agree this is giving off heavy cross platform vibes. This will be my first wait and see Civ ever.

There are things I liked about Civ Revolution, but I wouldn't want to see it as the backbone for a larger game.

[jeff061]

Let there be another Civ console game, I may buy it, I don't mean to sound elitist. I just don't want it to replace traditional Civ.

[Ben E Lou]

What gives it "cross platform" vibes, what does that mean, and why should I be worried about that?

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, it seems a bit too 'complex' (especially how cities now work) for console gaming.

[Ben E Lou]

Ahhhh....consoles. (I tend to forget that people use those. ) The first few bits in Wikipedia talked about cross-platform meaning "usable on both Windows and Mac" and I couldn't figure out why I should care about that. Am I correct in assuming that if it's usable on a console that means that it requires less processing/memory and therefore would be dumbed down and that's the reason for the hand-wringing here?

[Ben E Lou]

A bit more info at IGN today...

Three Ways Sid Meier's Civilization 6 Radically Reinvents Itself: City-Building, Science, and Diplomacy - IGN

[jeff061]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Ahhhh....consoles. (I tend to forget that people use those. ) The first few bits in Wikipedia talked about cross-platform meaning "usable on both Windows and Mac" and I couldn't figure out why I should care about that. Am I correct in assuming that if it's usable on a console that means that it requires less processing/memory and therefore would be dumbed down and that's the reason for the hand-wringing here?

That's my worry, with more of a focus on city than nation/world building and those awful looking graphics very reminiscent of Civ Revolution . I'm certainly jumping to conclusions though, may be nothing to worry about.

[MacroGuru]

And Tim over at Ctrl-alt-del summed the announcement up nicely

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by jeff061

That's my worry, with more of a focus on city than nation/world building and those awful looking graphics very reminiscent of Civ Revolution . I'm certainly jumping to conclusions though, may be nothing to worry about.

Those graphics are the zoomed in, super detail level that no one really plays on but are featured in announcements. And they aren't even that cartoonish for this type of game (remember Call to Power?).

[MizzouRah]

I think I'll wait on feedback/reviews - I mean it this time!

[kcchief19]

I still play Civ V quite a bit. I've tried to play Civ IV, but it feels so dated and clunky compared to Civ V it's just unplayable for me.

I think the gameplay changes they are talking about sound good. The graphics are scaring me. I'm hoping those are just sizzle-reel-game-porn shots, because they look awful from a game play standpoint. They look pretty but doesn't look fun to play.

Unless there is a game changer (must be online to play, reviews are horrible, etc.) it's still probably a day one purchase for me. Although Beyond Earth did burn me more than a little ...

[RainMaker]

The stacking in IV makes it unplayable to me now.

[RomaGoth]

I played the shit out of CIV 3....haven't played any since then. I did, however, buy both Civ4 and Civ5 on Steam last week.

Now, I just have to figure out where the time to play will come from. I mean, there is EHM, FOF, OOTP, CIV3/4/5, and numerous other games.

Oh, and I have a job, kids, and a wife.

[Thomkal]

Quill19 got to play the game a bit:

Civilization VI (Six!) - Pre-Release Gameplay Footage! - Part 1 of 2 - YouTube

part 2 link below the game play.

[nilodor]

First 60 turns from RPS
Civilization VI hands on preview | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[Thomkal]

Quill18 has a Let's play of the press pre-release going up:

Let's Play: Civilization VI (yes, 6!) - England - Part 1 [NYC Pre-Release Event] - YouTube

[Thomkal]

The Yogscast get their first look at Civ 6:

Civilization 6 - First Look! #1 - Breathtaking Appeal - YouTube

[cuervo72]

I don't like their fonts (too many different ones?). I really don't like how they use heavy lines on their tech "cards." Reminds me of Champions Online. Wasn't a fan then, not a fan now.

[Thomkal]

Press embargo for Civ6 ends tomorrow 10 am EST. Quill19 and I'm sure many others will be doing a Let's Play and probably a Livestream as well.

[nilodor]

I feel way too excited for this to come out.

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Press embargo for Civ6 ends tomorrow 10 am EST. Quill19 and I'm sure many others will be doing a Let's Play and probably a Livestream as well.

and me with nothing to do tomorrow, oh bother

[nilodor]

Looks like gmg has a vip saving of 22% on Civ 6 preorders right now

[cartman]

Ars Technica has their hands-on preview posted.

Civilization 6: The most in-depth Civ to date | Ars Technica

[ISiddiqui]

Oh man... the excitement is getting racheted up...

[NobodyHere]

I want the game but can't justify spending the $60.

So perhaps the next Steam summer sale I'll buy it.