Civilization V- Might actually be good now. Stay tuned.

[Kail]

I'd also point out that if you're playing multiplayer, each player has to own their own separate copy of the DLC in order for anyone of the others to use it, as far as I know, which makes it rare to see the civ packs and stuff.  I still have civs I haven't played because of this.

_{edit: minor correction}

[calapine]

I think the most common assessment (here and elsewhere) was: If you like the base game it greatly adds to it, making it a lot deeper. If you think Civ V is a failure it wont change enough to win you over.

I have it and would say it is (close too) Beyond the Sword awesome.

[Brolan]

I got Gods + Kings during the Steam sale last weekend.  I noticed the game is now harder.  One reason is the AI is now cheating it's ass off. 

On Prince difficulty and a random setup I ended up on a very small continent with just one AI and a few city-states.  Even though he was on garbage land he managed to out grow my carefully managed cites, build a huge army, and beat me on the tech tree.  No way with only three cities.

[Xanthippe]

Civ AI has always cheated. The harder the difficulty, the more it cheats.

[Shannow]

Anything ever fix the performance problems with this game? Never finished because in the late game it ground to a halt with everyone moving around and stuff. Never seen a game do a number on my PC like Civ V did.

[Brolan]

I've never seen it this obvious before.  I've gotten crushed in two of the three games I've started, and running a distant second in the third one.  I thought it was just bad luck before this last game.  I'll have to dial back the difficulty factor.  It sucks when the only way the AI can compete is to cheat.

[Xanthippe]

Oh, yes, I lost a stack of battleships to a trireme in Civ (the first one) on Emperor level. The AI cheated more the harder the level.

[Brolan]

Anything ever fix the performance problems with this game? Never finished because in the late game it ground to a halt with everyone moving around and stuff. Never seen a game do a number on my PC like Civ V did.

Turns can take a while at the end of a game with a lot of units, but it has never ground to a halt for me.  Running 4G of memory and AMD Phenom II x4 980 3.70G.

[Goumindong]

Civ AI has always cheated. The harder the difficulty, the more it cheats.

Every strategy game AI has always cheated. There just isn't any other way to do "good" AI in games because there isn't enough processing power to create a brain to play fucking Civ 5.

To people complaining about this: Seriously think about a strategy game for a second with an AI and tell me you could create something that could challenge a human, which is able to learn over multiple games, with an AI that isn't able to do so. What do you do once the human figures out the AI's general strategy path and develops a counter strategy? Just hope they won't use it?

[Maledict]

I got Gods + Kings during the Steam sale last weekend.  I noticed the game is now harder.  One reason is the AI is now cheating it's ass off.  

On Prince difficulty and a random setup I ended up on a very small continent with just one AI and a few city-states.  Even though he was on garbage land he managed to out grow my carefully managed cites, build a huge army, and beat me on the tech tree.  No way with only three cities.

The bonuses on Prince difficulty are actually fairly minor.

It is possible with Civ 5 even in a really crappy starting area to do fantastically well using certain strategies, and some of those the AI is very good with. In particular the speedy tradition starts can be leveraged to have a *large* advantage with only 3 / 4 cities, and the AI will happily go down that path with certain leaders.

EDIT : Just looked at the AI bonus table and actually the AI on Prince basically gets no bonuses at all. The only advantages I can see are that it pays a little less support on units than human players and upgrades units at a slightly cheaper cost. That's it - no bonuses to happiness, growth, production or anything according to the XML files.

Re. the question on performance  performance is vastly improved now. They've done a lot of optimisation and it works a hell of a lot better than it used to, especially around turn times which are a lot shorter.

[Brolan]

I got Gods + Kings during the Steam sale last weekend.  I noticed the game is now harder.  One reason is the AI is now cheating it's ass off.  

On Prince difficulty and a random setup I ended up on a very small continent with just one AI and a few city-states.  Even though he was on garbage land he managed to out grow my carefully managed cites, build a huge army, and beat me on the tech tree.  No way with only three cities.

The bonuses on Prince difficulty are actually fairly minor.

It is possible with Civ 5 even in a really crappy starting area to do fantastically well using certain strategies, and some of those the AI is very good with. In particular the speedy tradition starts can be leveraged to have a *large* advantage with only 3 / 4 cities, and the AI will happily go down that path with certain leaders.

EDIT : Just looked at the AI bonus table and actually the AI on Prince basically gets no bonuses at all. The only advantages I can see are that it pays a little less support on units than human players and upgrades units at a slightly cheaper cost. That's it - no bonuses to happiness, growth, production or anything according to the XML files.

Re. the question on performance  performance is vastly improved now. They've done a lot of optimisation and it works a hell of a lot better than it used to, especially around turn times which are a lot shorter.

Hmm, the civilization I was competing with was Austria.   Is this one of the AIs you were talking about?

[Maledict]

Austria can be a complete monster of a civ because they take over City states completely without unrest or anything. If one of those 3 cities was a city state then I would expect them to be well ahead of you.

Generally though Austria tends to play a medium game from my experience - they build a small ish empire then expand through city states rather than massive sprawling empires.

Thing is though - if you use the right strategy you can be *miles* ahead of the AI with just 3 cities on Prince difficulty, so there's no reason the AI can't be as well. It's one of the things I like about civ 5, its not all about huge numbers of cities, and there are different ways to build up your empire tall versus wide.

[Brolan]

Thanks for the info.  I was able to google the strategy I think you mean.  I'll give it a try this evening.

[Maledict]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=468487

Is the thread covering the "Tradition 4 city" start - that's probably the one you tracked down but just in case!

In some respects this is actually slightly harder on the lower strategies because the AI wont have all that gold to trade for for luxuries, but it's still extremely doable and should see you far ahead of them on Prince difficulty fairly early on.

[tazelbain]

Played the hell out of this over the holidays. Lost 5 pounds forgetting to eat.

[naum]

Played the hell out of this over the holidays. Lost 5 pounds forgetting to eat.

I gave this another look over the weekend too, and finally, after what, 2+ years and nearly a year since G+K expansion, it has gripped me enough to play a game beyond initial dozen or so turns. Between the expansion and patch polishing, there seems to be an enjoyable enough game here after all.

[Merusk]

Meanwhile I always enjoyed the base game, but picked-up G&K on Steam sale.  Religion is nice but still seems pointless.  I guess I haven't min/ maxed it enough quite yet.  The system itself is what the religion system should have always been, not about assigning specific traits to a religion and tying it to any historic tech, but letting the players choose.  Very good direction there.

I like the new units, though at times it does become a "Oh fuck me, I have to upgrade my army AGAIN?" bitchfest.   I also wish they'd go back to the system where you could upgrade to the latest unit with one summary cost instead of having to incrementally upgrade that swordsman you forgot about over the next 7 turns.

The spying system is as annoying as ever.  I like that they have names and ranks now and you can denounce other civs when they're caught, though.  Really let me put the screws on that damned Alexander on the national stage.

It's really taken a nice turn and I feel bad that Kael was hired by starcock because we'll never see a mod for this far superior engine.

[tazelbain]

I am quite enjoying religion...

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Bird

The bow of Bird's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of Bird, and that of an Angry Bird, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of Bird upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an Angry Bird. When the great and Angry Bird hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will Bird call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that Bird, who is now Angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

[Soulflame]

I absolutely hated Espionage in Civ IV.  My spies seemed ineffectual, and the enemy spies unerringly sabotaged or stole tech.

[Ingmar]

Expansion ahoy:

http://www.civilization5.com/bravenewworld/

New Culture Victory: Spread your culture across the globe, dominate all other cultures. Create masterpieces with Great Artists, Writers and Musicians that are placed in key buildings across your empire like Museums, Opera Houses, and even the Great Library. Use Archaeologists to investigate sites of ancient battles and city ruins for priceless cultural artifacts. Become the first civilization with a majority influence in all other civilizations to achieve a Culture Victory, becoming the envy of the world.

New Policies and Ideologies: Enter the Industrial Age and choose the ideology of your people: Freedom, Order, or Autocracy. Each ideology grants access to increasingly powerful abilities, and serves the different victory conditions in unique ways. The choices you make will impact your relationships with other civilizations for the rest of the game.

World Congress: The importance of diplomacy is intensified and city-state alliances are more important than ever. Change the diplomatic landscape through a new World Congress that votes on critical issues like implementing trade sanctions against rogue nations, limiting resource usage, designating host cities for the World Games, and the use of nuclear weapons. Game-changing resolutions, vote trading, intrigue and a new lead-in to the Diplomatic Victory ensures that the end of the game will be more dynamic than ever before.

International Trade Routes: Build your cities into hubs of international trade by land and sea, creating great wealth and prosperity for your people, while also spreading religion, cultural influence, and science. The number of trade routes increases through the advancement of economics and technologies, the creation of wonders, and the unique abilities of your civilization. Will you connect to a closer city for a lower payoff and a safer route, choose a longer route with more risk for the bigger payoff, or perhaps point your trade route inward, sending vitally important food and production to the far corners of your own empire?

New Civilizations, Units and Buildings: Nine new leaders and civilizations are introduced, including Casimir of Poland, each with their unique traits, units and buildings.

New Wonders: This expansion set introduces eight new Wonders including the Parthenon, Broadway, the Globe Theater, and the Uffizi.

Two New Scenarios:

-   American Civil War: Fight the "War Between the States" from either the Union or Confederate side as you focus on the critical Easter theatre of operations between the capital cities of Richmond and Washington.

-   Scramble for Africa: The great colonial powers of the world are scrambling to explore the Dark Continent and extend their reach into its interior. Search for the great natural wonders of the heart of Africa as you explore a dynamically-generated continent each time you play.

And a preview:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/15/civilization-v-brave-new-world-preview/

[Bunk]

I'm optimistic. I've been playing it a lot lately since I got Gods and Kings.

[Ingmar]

It's a really good game now, yes, and if they can do for the late game with this what they did for the early game with G&K it will be even better.

[Malakili]

Looks pretty good.  I'll probably pick it up.

[Tannhauser]

I've been playing a lot of Civ V lately, so this is very good news!  I'm most interested in the new culture rules and the ACW scenario.  The archaeology addition sounds very good as well.

[MrHat]

So this has been out a while:

Any amazing mods ala Fall from Heaven floating around now?

[Sky]

Best bet would be to lurk here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=418

[Tannhauser]

So this has been out a while:

Any amazing mods ala Fall from Heaven floating around now?

There is a Forgotten Realms mod that is pretty good.  Also a couple of GoT mods, but none are very comprehensive.

AFAIK, there is no 'game changing' mod yet for it like FFH.

[Khaldun]

I started playing this again with Gods and Monsters and I agree: it's actually a good game now. Plays different than Civ IV but it's fun.

[tazelbain]

I got fed up with this military stuff too much mico.

[Shannow]

Are they really charging 30 bucks for Gods and Kings? I like Civ 5, and would pay for DLC that would make it better but 30 bucks?!

[Malakili]

Are they really charging 30 bucks for Gods and Kings? I like Civ 5, and would pay for DLC that would make it better but 30 bucks?!

Isn't that about what you'd expect for an expansion?  That being said, I'm sure you can get it for half of that or less if you wait for another steam sale.

[Njal]

Any improvement in the AI?

[Tannhauser]

Yes.  They will actually build navies and fight you on land and sea.  My last Babylon science victory was a bit close as two adjacent nations invaded and came close to destroying my space ship. As they fled into the heavens they looked down at the fall of the 3000 year old Babylonian civilization.

 In another game, the Russians had the only (!) source of uranium, on a coast hex and had The Bomb built and ready and were winning a science victory.  I launched a desperate invasion and, as my battleships and carriers pounded the coast, my marines got ashore and wiped out the mine.  Nuclear war and Russian victory was averted.

Another trick the AI is fond of is, playing on King, of starting you beside an aggressive Civ, like the Aztecs.  They stay 'Friendly' up until they launch a massive attack.  If you neglected your army you will probably lose your capital at least.

The AI isn't a demonic genius at war, but yes it's improved.

[Cheddar]

Fuckers.  All this chatter made me snag a copy on way home (Civ 5 gold has both core and expansion).

[Tannhauser]

Let us know how you fare, good or bad.  I split time playing this and Civ IV.  IV when I want 'crunch' and V when I want an 'elegant board game' feel.  I've been playing Civ games since II and I do like now how V handles growth with the Happiness value.  Keep your empire happy and it generates a Golden Age which is, if I'm not mistaken, a 20% growth/production increase.  I also like how no wonders go obsolete.  Stonehenge (+4 Faith) took a bit of a nerf, but it is effective the entire game for instance. 

Not a big fan of Spying, but it's useful for Diplomacy wins (which are the hardest wins for me).  Religion is really well integrated but it tails off after the Renaissance (historical?).

Culture wins are a bit boring but are getting addressed in the xpac hopefully.  That's the first kind of win I'll be going for first.