Civilization V

[donkey33]

Re: Civilization V

Yep.

How powerful are the giant death robots. Arabia had an army three times the size of mine. Just massive and with open borders, they were littered all through my territory.

I had three giant death robots. They had none. For fun I just declared war to see what would happen. They took a few cities but then my death robots took over and wiped Arabia off the map just walking through the map, one attack on a city and it falls.

[Vast]

Re: Civilization V

Giant death robots, has to be the stupidest thing in a Civ game ever.

[utexas]

Re: Civilization V

Does increasing the difficulty improve the game at all? I haven't purchased it yet, still on the fence.

[donkey33]

Re: Civilization V

Does increasing the difficulty improve the game at all? I haven't purchased it yet, still on the fence.

I haven't tried that yet but I will shortly.

I'd imagine it wouldn't though. If it's like Civ IV, I've read the difference between difficulties is just the discount you get (easier levels) or the discount the CPU gets (harder levels).

Doubt it improves combat, relations, etc.

[plasticbeast]

Re: Civilization V

New patch is live on steam.

[plasticbeast]

Re: Civilization V

I haven't tried that yet but I will shortly.

I'd imagine it wouldn't though. If it's like Civ IV, I've read the difference between difficulties is just the discount you get (easier levels) or the discount the CPU gets (harder levels).

Doubt it improves combat, relations, etc.

On Prince a human player and the AIs are on even ground, no bonuses for either.

On each subsequent difficulty the bonuses for the AI are increased while the free "happy faces" you receive are less.

So on the highest difficulty the AI will start with say more warriors and a settler, have more free happy faces, and will also get a boost to production and science throughout the game.

So it will be more difficult but not because the AI gets smarter they will just have more stuff and be growing and producing at a faster rate than you... just like CIV 4.

[bcruise]

Re: Civilization V

Civ V for Mac on November 23: http://kotaku.com/5679955/mac-owners...r-thanksgiving

[MeanMrMustard]

Re: Civilization V

That's pretty quick. Usually the ports take a while.

[MeanMrMustard]

Re: Civilization V

A much, much better patch is on the way within the next week, and some DLC:

Greetings Civvers,

This stickied thread is where I am going to be posting information on the next big patch to Civilization V. It seemed that everyone was a big fan of the running patch notes I did before, so I will be doing it again, starting even earlier than before.

First up is news about what the primary direction of the next patch is going to be: AI and Diplomacy. This is not to say that these will be the only parts of the game under the microscope, but it will be the focus. We're constantly looking at feedback on all parts of the game though, so keep your reports and feedback coming!

I don't have any sort of ETA for the patch yet, but I will work on getting you one. Stay tuned to this thread for the most up-to-date information!

Update 11/10/2010: The first batch of changes are now available! Here they are:

Update 12/9/2010: Finally, the speculation can end! Today I have the patch release ETA. As you may have heard, we just announced that new DLC will be available to purchase on December 16. I can now confirm to you that the patch will be released before the DLC. The exact release date is still a tad flexible; it could be a couple days before the DLC, it could be an hour before the DLC. But hey, that's why they call it an Estimated Time of Arrival!

AI
Worker AI improvements.
Update to tactical AI pillaging code. Additionally, always check to make sure it’s not trying to pillage in an enemy dominance zone.
AI victory emphasis improvements (more efficient end-game when focusing on Science and Diplo victories).
AI should colonize other continents regularly.
AI will emphasize production of an Ocean going explorer unit when the time comes.
Adjust Napoleon to make him more likely to go for culture.
More aggressive second wave expansion (mostly off shore) after initial empire building and consolidation has occurred.
Optimization when finding routes (pathfinder improvement).
Multiple tweaks and bug fixes.
AI will now build ranged and mobile units more in line with the flavor settings.
Multiple defensive AI tweaks.
Never use ranged units to provide flanking bonuses. (Added 11/18)
Improve AI use of protected bombard attacks (melee in front, ranged in the rear). (Added 11/18)
Worker priority adjustments (prioritize pillaged tiles, etc.). (Added 11/18)
Further pathfinder optimization. (Added 11/18)
AI will be more aggressive about pursuing Diplo victory if they are wealthy. (Added 12/3)
AI more effective with building, moving, and using aircraft and anti-aircraft more effectively. (Added 12/3)
AI more likely to effectively use siege units in a city attack. (Added 12/3)
Better nuke targeting by AI. (Added 12/3)
Tactical AI Tuning: Reduce chance of AI civs making "suicide" attacks. (Added 12/3)
Multiple tweaks and bug fixes. (Added 12/3)

GAMEPLAY
Cities heal more quickly.
Only allow one upgrade per unit from a goody hut.
Science building track adjustments (cost, specialist slots, GP Points, etc). (Added 11/18)
Amount of damage caused during naval combat increased. (Added 11/18)
Melee horse units combat value lowered, and now receive a penalty when attacking cities. (Added 11/18)
Lowered bonuses received from Maritime city-states. (Added 11/18)
Removed maintenance from defensive buildings. (Added 11/18)
Multiple unit upgrade track adjustments. Most (but not all) units now have a full upgrade path from start to finish. (Added 11/18)
Open terrain penalty lowered. (Added 11/18)
Policies must be selected the turn they are earned. (Added 11/18)
Promotions must be selected the turn they are earned. If it’s as a result of combat, then the beginning of the next turn. (Added 11/18)
Increased city strength ramp-up based on technology. (Added 12/3)
Catapults and Trebuchets now weaker against units but stronger VS cities, and reduced effectiveness of Archers & Crossbowmen (and their UUs) VS cities. (Added 12/3)
Have culture cost for policies never go down (trading away cities to reduce culture cost exploit). (Added 12/3)
Reduced effects of Forbidden Palace and Meritocracy (Happiness per city). (Added 12/3)
Reduced points from Wonders & Cities, increased points for population. (Added 12/3)
Reduced culture needed for first plot acquisition. (Added 12/3)
New Building: Circus Maximus (National Wonder for happiness track). (Added 12/3)
New Building: National Treasury (National Wonder for economic track). (Added 12/3)
Unhappiness beyond a certain point breeds rebels within your empire, based on the number of cities a player has. (Added 12/3)
Reduced amount of food needed for cities to grow at larger sizes. (Added 12/3)
Tradition branch balance (Landed Elite and Monarchy improvements). (Added 12/3)
Liberty branch balance (Settler training bonus now only applies to capital). (Added 12/3)
Buildings can now no longer provide more Happiness than there is population in a city (wonders are excluded from this). (Added 12/3)
3 new additional Natural Wonders added to gameplay, with accompanying “rarity” code. (Added 12/3)
Multiple Tech Tree tweaks to address “slingshot” tech exploits. (Added 12/3)
Killing a barb inside a city-state's territory now gives a 5-turn buffer where there is no Influence intrusion penalty. (Added 12/3)
Reduced and balanced combat bonuses. (Added 12/3)

UI
Tweaked the single-player score list to hide the civs of unmet ai players.
Added game option to disable automated workers from removing features. (Added 11/18)
Additional updates to the Global Politics screen. (Added 12/3)
Added game option to disable turn-blocking promotions and policy choices. (Added 12/3)

DIPLO
AI's attitude towards you is now visible in the diplo screen and diplo drop-down.
Added info tooltip for an AI leader's mood. Lists things that are making an AI player happy/upset.
New diplo system: Declaration of Friendship (public declaration with diplomatic repercussions).
New diplo system: Denounce (public declaration with diplomatic repercussions).
New custom leader responses (Serious Expansion Warning, Aggressive Military, Luxury Exchange, Borders Exchange, Gift Request).
Additional AI attitude tool-tips for cases that were not already covered. (Added 12/3)

MODDING
Parent category counts now include counts of child categories.
Selecting/deselecting a category now automatically selects/deselects it's children and its parent.
Tweaked category name truncation to better fit names.
Hide categories w/ no children and a count of 0.
Added support for fallback languages (if mod is not translated, fall-back to English so text keys are not showing).
Support for mods that perform major restructuring of the tech tree including adding, deleting, and updating techs, buildings, and units. (Added 12/3)
Added GameEvents system for overriding Gameplay DLL specific functionality. (Added 12/3)
Fixed "Reload Landmark System" mod flag to now refresh landmarks defined in "ArtDefine_Landmarks". (Added 12/3)
Multiple SDK Updates (details to come with full patch notes). (Added 12/3)

MISC
Fixed save format which causes saves to increase the memory footprint of the game drastically when loading frequently over the course of the game.

[Vast]

Re: Civilization V

Sounds great thanks for posting.

[bcruise]

Re: Civilization V

Great news. A fix that gets the AI to expand off its own shores (and actually colonize the whole world) will be enough to get me playing this game again.

[MeanMrMustard]

Re: Civilization V

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this. The diplomacy adds look nice, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the AI will start exhibiting some semblance of intelligence when it comes to combat.

I don't think I've touched this game in two months.

[bcruise]

Re: Civilization V

Patch is out, at least on Steam. Don't have any impressions yet, and probably won't until later tonight (gotta go to work soon).

[Vast]

Re: Civilization V

Patch is out, at least on Steam. Don't have any impressions yet, and probably won't until later tonight (gotta go to work soon).

thanks man let me know how the patch is. Looking forward to impressions.

[bcruise]

Re: Civilization V

A few things I've noticed so far - (mind you, Civ is not a game where you're going to notice many patch improvements in the first few hours of playing):

- Love the transparent diplomacy, if for no other reason than seeing the logic behind why the AI does what it does. So far I haven't had any real surprises that seemed out of place. I was offered several trades and turned them down with no relations penalty, BUT when I signed a friendship pact with Suleiman and then declined to "help" him (gift him spices, to be exact), he got mad at me. I didn't see an option to turn the diplomacy breakdown off, but it's presented in a tooltip mouseover that can be easily avoided if you wish to be blissfully unaware of what the CPU thinks of you.

- The cooperation pact and secrecy pact have been renamed, "Friendship pact" and "Public denouncement". Public denoncement is the notable one here, as it was never really well explained what it does pre-patch. It's spelled out in a tooltip this time - Angers the target leader, but may boost relations with their enemies.

- Not sure if this was a patch thing but I saw my first early war (that I didn't start ) - Ramses and the Siam guy (really long name), declared on turn 88 of a standard length game, around 880 BC. It was a short war - I don't think it lasted any longer than the minimum 10 turns. But it was good to see that happen nonetheless.

I'm playing around with the SDK's autoplay feature right now to see if the AI will settle on another continent - it's a Terra map so the New World is wide open.

Edit: good news and bad news on this point....I am seeing the AI attempt overseas colonization as it has taken a few islands in the middle of the ocean and turned them into cities. That does mean that they're definitely out exploring. But I haven't seen anything on the mainland yet - in a Terra-type map, the New World is still uncivilized. Kinda disappointing, but there is one thing I haven't considerd yet - the game length. Perhaps on E-word or marathon speed, the available land in the home continent will be claimed faster, prompting quicker overseas exploration. Just a thought anyway...but I'm glad to see the AI is at least trying.

Edit #2: YES!!! It took until into the 1900's but Japan did manage to throw down a city on the mainland. It CAN be done!