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

[dusematic]

Or you could, you know, not use that exploit.

That's like someone complaining about running the clock out in a game of Madden.  It's only an "exploit" in that it's an effective strategy that is completely permissible and even encouraged by the game rules. 

Meh, they're talking about the game in a single player context. It isn't like it is hard to set yourself some extra rules to not use against the AI, nothing is at stake.

Or they could just, you know, fix their shitty game.

[Maledict]

Yeah, because no other version of civ had easily exploitable weaknesses that the AI couldn't use to completely overpower them outside of the higher difficulties.

It's not like they had to alter slavery / chopping in civ 4 repeatedly because human players could abuse it and the AI didn't.

Seriously, we get you hate it, but this constant whining about a game you dislike is really dumb. Move on for fucks sake. If you don't like the game then just don't play it and don't read the thread, instead of posting like an obsessed jilted ex all the time?

[dusematic]

You are the ones who are the ball-lickers. 

[Paelos]

You are the ones who are the ball-lickers. 

NO U!

[CmdrSlack]

Arguing with douchematic in this thread is like the Groundhog-Sand economics debates in politics. Halas.

[dusematic]

Arguing with douchematic in this thread is like the Groundhog-Sand economics debates in politics. Halas.

At least I've secured my place in history.

[Teleku]

So did Hitler.

Oh yeah, the goodwin.

[Kail]

So did Hitler.

Who's that?  I've never heard of him.  Is he, like, one of those Mayan leaders that nobody ever uses, or something?

[Soulflame]

Hitler fought Paul Hogan for Helen Keller's hand in marriage.

[Murgos]

Hitler fought Paul Hogan for Helen Keller's hand in marriage.

Totally one of Tarantino's best films.

[naum]

Three Moves Ahead podcast with Brian Reynolds and Soren Johnson

Zynga’s Brian Reynolds makes Planetfall on Three Moves Ahead and, along with Soren, Troy, and Rob, founds a discussion of Alpha Centauri. He explains what went wrong with the “Civ in space” idea, and the role of the game’s fiction. He and Soren talk about how Alpha Centauri changed the Civilization series, and take a look at some of its strange features, like the design workshop and climate change. Brian reveals he used the cast album of Les Miserables for inspiration as he wrote for the game, and Troy immediately proposes marriage.

/le awesome, made me want to fire up AC

[Paelos]

So are these people ever going to realize they would make a bajillion dollars if they put out an updated version of SMAC?

[naum]

So are these people ever going to realize they would make a bajillion dollars if they put out an updated version of SMAC?

Toward the end of the podcast, they talk about SMAC2…

…Brian Reynolds says it would be like 1/100 (EA) * 1/100 (Firaxis - need EA & Firaxis both to agree to project) * 1/100 (Zynga?, Reynolds company), plus Reynolds said if he had the 50-100M to splurge on such a project, might change AC around to a shooter RPG like Mass Effect, set in the AC world.

Soren Johnson commented that there was a period where he could have championed SMAC2 and got EA to go along, but he would feel funny designing in Brian's world. Also, that such ventures have like 1/4 favorable outcome, where fans will be pleased -- giving LotR as an example -- how many other movies tried & failed.

[Sky]

Brian Reynolds makes me sad. Such a waste of incredible TBS talent. Colonization/Civ II/SMAC are really the best things "Sid" "created".

[Margalis]

You only need 50-100 million dollars if you are trying to turn it into a AAA FPS in the first place. If you simply want to make a sequel to SMAC you need maybe $5 million.

[Ashamanchill]

Update the graphics, change around what some of the techs are named and do, make some new improvements/Wonders, maybe a few leaders or two*, and watch as all the fans disgruntled by the sack of shit that was Civ 5 flock over to give you what is in their wallets.

No one is saying it will be a blockbuster, but it will sell.

*You know, standard fare for any civ sequel.

[Stormwaltz]

Three Moves Ahead podcast with Brian Reynolds and Soren Johnson

At one point Brian praised the writing in Mass Effect which made me go . Spending all my time in college modding Civ2 made me realize, "Hey, I bet someone gets paid to do this... maybe I should try that as a career."

[naum]

Three Moves Ahead podcast with Brian Reynolds and Soren Johnson

At one point Brian praised the writing in Mass Effect which made me go . Spending all my time in college modding Civ2 made me realize, "Hey, I bet someone gets paid to do this... maybe I should try that as a career."

That was interesting part of the show, where Reynolds talked about all the writing he had to do, how it was a different age of game design, that now, that job is the province of "professional" writers who will leap at the chance to be part of. Unlike in the 90s, when such a notion would a far fetched neckbeard notion.

[Reg]

So why is Reynollds working at Zynga? Are they actually doing worthwhile games or something?

[naum]

So why is Reynollds working at Zynga? Are they actually doing worthwhile games or something?

You don't like The Pioneer Trail?

[Hutch]

$o why i$ Reynolld$ working at Zynga? Are they actually doing worthwhile game$ or $omething?

[Reg]

That really is sad. Hopefully, he's just saving up money to start his own studio.

[Merusk]

Ah, to be young and idealistic again.

No, for most wealth trumps wants until you reach the plateau of Gates, Jobs, Branson et al.

[Count Nerfedalot]

So why is Reynollds working at Zynga? Are they actually doing worthwhile games or something?

plus Reynolds said if he had the 50-100M to splurge on such a project, might change AC around to a shooter RPG like Mass Effect, set in the AC world.

Because he has no interest in making any more games even remotely resembling his past work that made him famous (other than for whoring out the brand recognition)?

These game designer "gods" gamers worship have some serious feet of clay issues.

Face it, Sid hasn't made anything decent since before Alpha Centauri, which was itself the result of Brian fixing and improving a lot of broken stuff from Civ that Sid was either unwilling or unable to fix or improve.  And since achieving rockstar status thanks to AC, Brian has shown no interest in improving on his own or anyone else's work, preferring to do his own new thing and achieving what exactly?

There are very few (funded) game desginers interested in making newer/better/prettier versions of past "hits" that might sell a couple hundred thousand copies, at best.  And few of those that are have the talent and resources to succeed, and very few if any of that extremely small set are interesed in turn based strategy.

Everyone with the option to do so is chasing after Blizzard's moneyhats, and failing miserably due to trying to shortcut the whole process Blizzard followed to create those successes.  And everyone else is simply chasing after a paycheck, and those are all being written by guys chasing after the moneyhats.

[Mrbloodworth]

Picked this up over the sale. I really like they took a great number of cues from Civ:Revolution. The only thing I am sad about is no movement/combat animations in multi-player. I cant even guess as to why this was removed.

[Musashi]

The animations just take too long.  Nobody played with animations on in multi-player Civ4 either.  There may be an option somewhere to turn them back on, though I wouldn't recommend doing so in a public game, as you will get verbally flogged.

[Mrbloodworth]

I don't play public games. Take to long is a cop out, Civ 5 has "same time" turns. There is sadly no option to turn them on. Whats a nuke with no mushroom cloud?   They also worked just fine in Civ:Revolution.

[WayAbvPar]

I saw there was a patch recently that focused on at least partially unfucking multiplayer. Anyone try it yet?

[Mrbloodworth]

I saw there was a patch recently that focused on at least partially unfucking multiplayer. Anyone try it yet?

I think I picked it up after that patch, and have played one game so far multi-player. It was quite stable, and in 3 hours we did not get dropped or have any slow down. Other than that, I'm not familiar with the issues before the patch to give contrast.

[El Gallo]

Face it, Sid hasn't made anything decent since before Alpha Centauri, which was itself the result of Brian fixing and improving a lot of broken stuff from Civ that Sid was either unwilling or unable to fix or improve.

Civ IV is the best single-player computer game ever made.  If you disagree, your opinion is wrong.

[naum]

Face it, Sid hasn't made anything decent since before Alpha Centauri, which was itself the result of Brian fixing and improving a lot of broken stuff from Civ that Sid was either unwilling or unable to fix or improve.

Civ IV is the best single-player computer game ever made.  If you disagree, your opinion is wrong.

Don't know about "best ever" but patches after a year it definitely became a great game (religion implementation, IMV, was cowardly and uninteresting). Reading this makes me sad for Civ V again, and maybe hopeful -- maybe it's been patched into better shape, but somehow, I doubt it, as the latest incantation underwent a kenotic emptying of all Civ soul.

[Mrbloodworth]

kenotic emptying of all Civ soul.

Do not agree.  But I enjoyed the streamlining of CIV:Revolution. To me, it was a more honest refinement to original civ than others that just became bloated.

[Azazel]

I picked this up off Gamers Gate a couple weeks ago. Played it twice in the last week. Both times it crashed on me, on what I assume were Diplomatic screens. Glad I didn't pay much, but I'm still pissed off about it.

[Ingmar]

Face it, Sid hasn't made anything decent since before Alpha Centauri, which was itself the result of Brian fixing and improving a lot of broken stuff from Civ that Sid was either unwilling or unable to fix or improve.

Civ IV is the best single-player computer game ever made.  If you disagree, your opinion is wrong.

Alpha Centauri is a better Civ than Civ, even Civ 4. You cannot argue with this.

[El Gallo]

AC was a great game, but it was just too easy.  Easier than Civ2, even without the faction abilities, and without cheese (e.g. infinite population booms, farming native mind worms, using any of the expansion pack factions).  The core mechanics (happiness v minerals) and the AI were just like Civ 1-2, you could do the exact same basic strategy in AC as you did in Civ 1-2.  As a result, since I'd played the shit out of Civ I, it didn't take long to get to the point where it was almost impossible to lose an AC game, which was my same experience with Civ2.  When I tried the same old Civ 1 tactics in Civ 4, I got my ass handed to me over and over.  The genius of Civ4, imho, is that it felt like Civ but (mostly) broke city spam strategies, made you specialize towns, vastly improved the AI and did a number of other things which combined to make it both fun and quite hard.  I've still never beaten it at the max level, and I've played the everloving shit out of it (just like 1, 2, and AC). I freely admit that I am a complete freak about these games though.