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

[calapine]

Is play by e-mail back in yet?  That is pretty much the only way Civ multiplayer works for me.  Otherwise it just takes way too much time where everyone needs to be there.

Not officially, no. But you can start a hotseat game and than mail the savegame back and forth. More effort, same result.

[Mrbloodworth]

Atleast half my played games have been multiplayer. It's good fun until you hit the 1800's (epic speed) or so, when turns take too long and the turn handover takes almost as long. There's something wonky with the network protocol in Civ 5, since even fairly low numbers of units (30 or so per player) can make the game "think" for tens of seconds between turns.

However, in my opinion single player turns also take too long at that point. 1950 onwards always feel like a slog rather than a climax.

There is a definite slowdown in the late game.

[Tannhauser]

We should have a f13 multiplayer game. We could declare the winner as the person with the high score by 1800 if you want to avoid mid/late game slog.

[Cheddar]

Anything but single city on higher settings is a bitch.  Can't seem to get a flow and keep up.

[Tarami]

There is a definite slowdown in the late game.

Yeah. I'm starting to believe it's essentially dumping the entire game state as if it were a save, then sends that save to the other players. It must be several megabytes of data since it takes, in computing terms, ages.

Oh. If you are the type of person that has friends, try playing co-op multiplayer against AI. Human player turns are simultaneous, so it's not actually slower than playing single player. And feel so more meaningful if you are allied and work together, help each other in wars, etc...

That's what I do, typically. I'm not an offensive player in strategy games. Defensive to a fault, rather. It's mostly a way to shoot the shit with friends whom have moved away.

Have to say Brave New World looks stonkin' great. Especially like that they're redoing social policies and sort of reintroducing governments. Social policies were terribly flavourless.

[MrHat]

Finally clicked with the Byzantine civ.  Took advantage of their bonus religion stat to give me the dominate religion on pangea type map.  Then used the +1 culture for every 5 citizens in a non-foreign city.  Was giving me ~100 culture a turn just from religion around 1850.  Still took till 1948 to finish just because the culture requirements get so high.

[HaemishM]

Yep, definitely got the "Just one more turn OH FUCK IT'S 3 AM!!!!" feel of the first one (the only one I've played). I started a game last night, got about an hour into it and realized I was UBERFUCKED. Ottomans totally came and took my shit. So it being only 12:30 AM on a holiday weekend, I started another game. Finally check the time and it's suddenly fucking 2:30 AM and where the fuck did that time go? And I STILL played it until 3 AM before I finally made myself stop.

It does seem a bit quicker paced than what I remember but it's fun.

[Tannhauser]

You can finish a game over a weekend.  Never finished as the Ottomans, their special rules suuuuuck.  I'm not playing until the xpac comes out.  I want to be fresh and I tend to burn out on this. Hmm lets see my total hours played...501.  I'll never know the joy of touching a woman again.

WORTH IT!   

[Llyse]

Was up until 6am due to multiplayer madness with a friend.

We only spoke on voice chat to swear at barbarians or backstabbing AI and each other for wonder sniping

[Teleku]

The anger I get at AI for wonder sniping is bad enough.  Between other people it could probably ruin friendships.

[Tannhauser]

Trade routes are fascinating.  I wonder if you can park privateers on them for auto-interception of trade ships?

[Sophismata]

The anger I get at AI for wonder sniping is bad enough.  Between other people it could probably ruin friendships.

yes

[Merusk]

Trade routes are fascinating.  I wonder if you can park privateers on them for auto-interception of trade ships?

It's the return of an old (And much missed by me) mechanic, so I'd hope so.  Or at the very least, let your fleet set-up blockades like we had previously.

[HaemishM]

Got into the 1900's with a playthrough as the Huns. Frogstomped the Ottomans out of the game (they started it!). Then spent the last 500 years in a perpetual war with the fucking Russians. Hey, fuck you and the horse you slept with Catherine the Great. She was my bestest buddy for like 300 years then turns into a mega bitch, starts a war with me then won't even bother to negotiate for peace. By the 1950's I'm still using 19th century military, have just discovered oil and am getting bombed by triplanes, bombers and artillery. I finally had to give up because it was pretty clearly unwinnable. I was trying for a technology victory but I didn't figure my capital was going to last another 100 years.

[Merusk]

It's been my experience that Catherine is like that once she has no more room to expand.  Her, the Huns, Rome and Hiawatha are all little bitches that go into all-out Warmode if they can't build more cities.   

They'll also capitulate pretty damn fast if you take one or two of their towns instead of things going the other way.  If I've got one of them in the game I ignore 'score' (which is weighted too heavily on # of cities) and make sure to keep my military at a point they can always kick theirs in the ass.

[Maledict]

You also ran into a flaw with the current tech tree that hopefully is fixed in BNW. Great War Bombsrs are too powerful and too easy to getto on the tech path, especially compared to the nearest AA unit. Once someone hits industrial you have to race for them just so that one player doesn't get air power and wipe you off the face of the earth whilst you can do nothing about it.

[Tannhauser]

With Hiawatha, it's not a question of if he attacks you but when.  Although, I stomped a mud hole in his ass and he became a stalwart ally.  Go figure.

Russia's special ability is really strong and she can be a fearsome mid-late game civ.

[Llyse]

Finished my game of Ethopia and Egypt against the world, my friend wasn't wonder sniping considering we were on the same team...

He was just doing so much better that any wonders I wanted to build he was smashing out... ah well...

Arabia or Spain... hmmm

[MrHat]

Fuck you guys.

I thought I had uninstalled this until July.

[Mithas]

10% off preoders for Brave New World and free to play this weekend:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/235580

[MrHat]

10% off preoders for Brave New World and free to play this weekend:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/235580

I had things to do.

EDIT: Does not include the expansions. Only lies.

[Teleku]

Can't wait to play as Poland!   

[Morat20]

Civ 5 gold appear to be roughly 12 bucks right now -- big sale. Might snag it.

[Sky]

$5 for the Gold upgrade works for me. If I get pulled into a game over the weekend I might snag the expansion, sounds decent.

About even odds I'll end up playing FFH2 by Sunday.

[HaemishM]

Civ 5 gold appear to be roughly 12 bucks right now -- big sale. Might snag it.

It's definitely worth it for $12 if that contains the Gods & Kings expansion. I got the original game for free with my X-Com preorder and the expansions and DLC I probably spent $12 or so to get all the good ones. It's totally been worth it. For whatever problems the game had on release, the expansion and DLC fixed it.

[Stormwaltz]

For whatever problems the game had on release, the expansion and DLC fixed it.

...except for one-unit-per-tile, which Jon Shafer (the lead designer) has admitted was a bad decision. 

[Mithas]

I still like it better than stacks of doom.

[Stormwaltz]

Combined Arms Stack Attack in Dale's Combat Mod was the best thing to happen to Civ4 next to FFH. I wish he hadn't nuked it off the internet.

[Ingmar]

For whatever problems the game had on release, the expansion and DLC fixed it.

...except for one-unit-per-tile, which Jon Shafer (the lead designer) has admitted was a bad decision. 

He's wrong. One unit per tile is the best improvement they made other than going to hexes.

[Maledict]

For whatever problems the game had on release, the expansion and DLC fixed it.

...except for one-unit-per-tile, which Jon Shafer (the lead designer) has admitted was a bad decision. 

Guy selling a new game criticises his old game? By the power of Peter Molyneux's beard say it isn't so!

One unit per tile is significantly better than stacks of doom, and the patch upgrades and then the expansion fixed the issues he is talking about - which happened after he left. I couldn't go back to stacks of doom now, its just not as fun.

[Morat20]

Civ 5 gold appear to be roughly 12 bucks right now -- big sale. Might snag it.

It's definitely worth it for $12 if that contains the Gods & Kings expansion. I got the original game for free with my X-Com preorder and the expansions and DLC I probably spent $12 or so to get all the good ones. It's totally been worth it. For whatever problems the game had on release, the expansion and DLC fixed it.

It has Gods and Kings and what appears to be every scenario pack and all those Cradles thingies. I missed Civ IV, I think.

[Pennilenko]

You can buy just the gold upgrade for $5 if you already own the title. Which includes the gods expansion, which they are selling stand alone for like $7.50. I dont understand this, but hey what ever.  I want the new expansion but I think I will wait until it goes on sale later on this year. I don't play this enough to be really missing out on the newest content.

[Sky]

I think limiting stacks to 10 units or something would've been a better compromise than trying to play one of those sliding picture puzzle mini games when trying to get units into place.

[HaemishM]

I think limiting stacks to 10 units or something would've been a better compromise than trying to play one of those sliding picture puzzle mini games when trying to get units into place.

I hadn't played Civ since the very first one almost 20 years ago, but I will say that the 1 unit per stack really is a hindrance when trying to siege a city. All too often I roll a cannon up to a city, run out of moves, then watch as the city bombards the cannon into extinction. The pathing kind of blows too. Still enjoy the game but there are some definite frustrations.

[Shannow]

The one thing that Civ has always lacked has been the military side of things. I know the game is not really designed to focus on that but this wargamer would love more complexity to that side of the game other than 'rush as many units as you can to the opponents city'