Civilization 5 Rants Thread

The Soren vid was excellent...it should be compulsory viewing for Civ VI designers.

Still haven't bought V, keep checking back to get a glimmer of hope, but found none yet. Says a lot, when all the old names are basically completely absent from the V threads, apart from to say how poor it is. I've probably just about given up by now on it..........

Faults?

Just too many core game mechanics, that will never ever work in a game with the size and scope of Civ; tactical combat on a strategy map, at the heart of things. Other aspects that I find bewildering :- On a planet where the face of civilization, was influenced so greatly at all points by international (literally between nations) trade, where it fuelled wars and shaped diplomacy, it was just decided to remove it!!?? A diplomacy system where relationships are entirely pointless, as the second you're BFF see's you're a little weaker than him, he's stabbing you in the back?
It really seems to have been designed by folks who imo, have no idea what the series is all about.

In that Soren vid, he commented, that 95% of Civ games are SINGLE PLAYER. Unfortunately, Civ V was designed by, and for people who fall in the other 5%.
 
whole game is a fail and most of it is Shafers fault, worst part is he thinks it is a good game. they really could have put someone else in charge, someone more experience than that moron. but most of the civ5 problem is squarely on his shoulders. I know that the company forced them to release it before it was ready but it is the LEAD DESIGNER job to make sure that is ready by the release date. and all problems with the game are not the individual members fault it is his job to make sure they are doing their job.
 
whole game is a fail and most of it is Shafers fault, worst part is he thinks it is a good game. they really could have put someone else in charge, someone more experience than that moron. but most of the civ5 problem is squarely on his shoulders. I know that the company forced them to release it before it was ready but it is the LEAD DESIGNER job to make sure that is ready by the release date. and all problems with the game are not the individual members fault it is his job to make sure they are doing their job.

Wrong. The worst thing is that paying customers still think that it is a good game. Those are the ones that in the end will be responsible for the eventual downfall of a fantastic series.
 
Another wonderful Civilization 5 horror story. :lol:

Such an awful, awful game. :sad:

We shall have to wait and see on Jon Shafer. I have Elemental and since it was such a debacle, I get the next two "expansions" for free. Jon Shafer is working with Derek Paxton (aka Kael) on Elemental: Fallen Enchantress. We'll see what comes out of that. I think Jon Shafer is working mostly on the campaign. So we'll see how good that is when it comes out. (Some time in the fall I believe)

Supposedly, Jon Shafer will be designing his own game for Stardock in the future. Then, I think we'll get a definitive answer on how good his skills are.

Meanwhile, I'm fooling around with the demo for Pride of Nations. It's pretty fun and it's certainly deep and complex. No casual, mass market crap here. ;)

And no <snip> Steam. In fact, no DRM <snip>.

They know what quality and depth mean, and they remain true to it. I remember buying my first Paradox game when I still was living in the 4th world, and believe me, originals are really hard to get there... I bought EU the original from Amazon, and they shipped it to a POB in Miami, from where it flew to the 4th world... all that when Paradox was unknown to the world. I still cherish my original CD of EU, as it introduced me to a wonderful universe of strategy, and to a great developer that does not forget its hardcore base on which its success was build... :goodjob: PI

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Europa Universalis was a marvel of depth, clearly a labor of love. I have a hard time understanding how they could make money from it otherwise.

Not all Paradox releases were as well crafted, though. Is this "Pride of Nations" looking good to you all? Is it a direct descendent of the EU series?
 
In that Soren vid, he commented, that 95% of Civ games are SINGLE PLAYER. Unfortunately, Civ V was designed by, and for people who fall in the other 5%.
Multiplayer? :confused: Didn't they mega-fail on creating the multiplayer side of the game, and then refuse to bother doing anything about it for months while they concentrated on all the other things wrong with the basic game? I'm not sure if multiplayer has even been fixed up yet.

Aside from this though, I agree with you. That video is really good. I guess it shows as much as anything that you really need to spend a LOT of time and have a LOT of passion to craft a truly great game.
 
Europa Universalis was a marvel of depth, clearly a labor of love. I have a hard time understanding how they could make money from it otherwise.

Not all Paradox releases were as well crafted, though. Is this "Pride of Nations" looking good to you all? Is it a direct descendent of the EU series?

Still is... did you try EU3 with all the expansions? A masterpiece. Something the idol of CivFanatics, Shafer the inquestionable, will never understand...
 
Multiplayer? :confused: Didn't they mega-fail on creating the multiplayer side of the game, and then refuse to bother doing anything about it for months while they concentrated on all the other things wrong with the basic game? I'm not sure if multiplayer has even been fixed up yet.

Aside from this though, I agree with you. That video is really good. I guess it shows as much as anything that you really need to spend a LOT of time and have a LOT of passion to craft a truly great game.

I actually meant for folks who want to play Single Player games AS a pseudo Multi Player experience, but didn't explain it very well ;)
 
Still is... did you try EU3 with all the expansions? A masterpiece. Something the idol of CivFanatics, Shafer the inquestionable, will never understand...

I've played all the EU series to death. And I mean, obsessively. :) (gee, what a shock, someone on a game forum has OCD issues.)

The problem though, is that Paradox proved they can also screw the pooch with some of their other games - in odd ways, sometimes user interface clunkiness, sometimes stability, sometimes seemingly not actually finishing the game before shipping it. So, I'd prefer an unbiased account of how any of their new releases compare.
 
whole game is a fail and most of it is Shafers fault, worst part is he thinks it is a good game.

Wrong. The worst thing is that paying customers still think that it is a good game. Those are the ones that in the end will be responsible for the eventual downfall of a fantastic series.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Try reading some posts in general about how awesome this game is and be amazed at how differently they must see the world. To me it's baffling.

It's even more amazing that all criticisms of this terrible game have to be shoved into an epicly long "rant" thread so the game's supporters don't have to critically examine their own beliefs concerning how terrible this game really is.

It's a pretty abyssmal thing to destroy such a once great franchise.
 
It's even more amazing that all criticisms of this terrible game have to be shoved into an epicly long "rant" thread so the game's supporters don't have to critically examine their own beliefs concerning how terrible this game really is.

Oh no, we wouldn't want that! All the Civ V Fanboys would have to 'think' about their beliefs. OMG! :rolleyes:

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I can understand if someone says that they've never played a Civilization game before and aided by that, they think Civilization V is awesome. Fine with me. <edited this a number of times> My point that I'm trying to make is that if someone was new to Civilization or strategy in general, I could understand if they said they like/love/don't mind etc Civ V because they have no prior experience with the series. But for the folks that have played the prior games and still like Civ V, I really do wonder why. I know that there would be many reasons but it still makes me wonder what they saw in the prior versions to now actually like/enjoy Civ V.

If you have been "brought up" on Civilization, like I have (yeah, I'm getting old but I don't care what you think if you're going to be critical), then I think Civ V will or would leave a bad taste in your mouth. After all, the games industry is going in a different direction to people like me now - those that enjoy games with depth really are missing out today. Not in all games but the pendulum is swinging every day further towards casual gamers and I can't help but think that the true strategy game is dying (or maybe has died already), much like the "study" flight simulators and other types of games as well. Sad days, really.

As for the forums and this particular thread, if I gave my opinion about how this thread has been handled, I'd probably cop a ban. :mischief: It demonstrates to me that CivFanatics has also changed too over the past 10 years.
 
Oh no, we wouldn't want that! All the Civ V Fanboys would have to 'think' about their beliefs. OMG! :rolleyes:

I can understand if someone says that they've never played a Civilization game before and aided by that, they think Civilization V is awesome. Fine with me. <edited this a number of times> My point that I'm trying to make is that if someone was new to Civilization or strategy in general, I could understand if they said they like/love/don't mind etc Civ V because they have no prior experience with the series. But for the folks that have played the prior games and still like Civ V, I really do wonder why. I know that there would be many reasons but it still makes me wonder what they saw in the prior versions to now actually like/enjoy Civ V.

If you have been "brought up" on Civilization, like I have (yeah, I'm getting old but I don't care what you think if you're going to be critical), then I think Civ V will or would leave a bad taste in your mouth. After all, the games industry is going in a different direction to people like me now - those that enjoy games with depth really are missing out today. Not in all games but the pendulum is swinging every day further towards casual gamers and I can't help but think that the true strategy game is dying (or maybe has died already), much like the "study" flight simulators and other types of games as well. Sad days, really.

As for the forums and this particular thread, if I gave my opinion about how this thread has been handled, I'd probably cop a ban. :mischief: It demonstrates to me that CivFanatics has also changed too over the past 10 years.

I would love to see a serious market analysis of the demographics related to some games and some TV shows... I wouldn't be surprised to see in such analysis a very strong correlation between the audience of "Real Housewives of Dumb County" and the players of some streamlined games...

Moderator Action: Please do not make attacks on posters that disagree with you.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
 
I would love to see a serious market analysis of the demographics related to some games and some TV shows... I wouldn't be surprised to see in such analysis a very strong correlation between the audience of "Real Housewives of Dumb County" and the players of some streamlined games...

Not to mention the ones that watch the "mainstream" news instead of getting their news off the Internet. :)

Moderator Action: Please do not make attacks on those that you disagree with.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
 
The Soren vid was excellent...it should be compulsory viewing for Civ VI designers.

Still haven't bought V, keep checking back to get a glimmer of hope, but found none yet. Says a lot, when all the old names are basically completely absent from the V threads, apart from to say how poor it is. I've probably just about given up by now on it..........

Faults?

Just too many core game mechanics, that will never ever work in a game with the size and scope of Civ; tactical combat on a strategy map, at the heart of things. Other aspects that I find bewildering :- On a planet where the face of civilization, was influenced so greatly at all points by international (literally between nations) trade, where it fuelled wars and shaped diplomacy, it was just decided to remove it!!?? A diplomacy system where relationships are entirely pointless, as the second you're BFF see's you're a little weaker than him, he's stabbing you in the back?
It really seems to have been designed by folks who imo, have no idea what the series is all about.

In that Soren vid, he commented, that 95% of Civ games are SINGLE PLAYER. Unfortunately, Civ V was designed by, and for people who fall in the other 5%.

It is really is utterly amazing and mind boggling. 95% of the players play single player and yet they designed a diplomacy system that is supposed to replicate a multiplayer experience??? (Brain dead AI of course but it is trying to play like a human.) Worst of all, multiplayer itself is horribly done and is barely playable. Whiskey tango foxtrot! :eek:
 
Europa Universalis was a marvel of depth, clearly a labor of love. I have a hard time understanding how they could make money from it otherwise.

Not all Paradox releases were as well crafted, though. Is this "Pride of Nations" looking good to you all? Is it a direct descendent of the EU series?

Distantly related actually. :)

Philippe Thibaut, who founded AGEOD, actually was the designer of the original Europa Universalis. This is a guy who really has a finger on the pulse of gamers.

AGEOD was acquired by Paradox Interactive in December 2009 and is now known as Paradox France.

Firaxis could learn a lot from how this company operates. Unfortunately, Firaxis has been screwed over by the millstone that is 2K Games. :sad:
 
I can understand if someone says that they've never played a Civilization game before and aided by that, they think Civilization V is awesome. Fine with me. <edited this a number of times> My point that I'm trying to make is that if someone was new to Civilization or strategy in general, I could understand if they said they like/love/don't mind etc Civ V because they have no prior experience with the series. But for the folks that have played the prior games and still like Civ V, I really do wonder why.
Yeah, I can concede that. Newbies to Civ wouldn't know any better. They'd have no way of knowing that civ5 actually isn't a part of the Civilization series.
 
Yeah, I can concede that. Newbies to Civ wouldn't know any better. They'd have no way of knowing that civ5 actually isn't a part of the Civilization series.

Just because you don't like the game, and that it has a few features left out but some new ones in, doesn't exclude it from the series. It's still civ, you still have the strategies, you still have the cities, you still have the civilizations.

I'm okay with you not liking the game, but any way you put it, it's civ. If you showed me the game before I had bought it and with the title removed, I'd know it was civ because it looked like Civ IV.
 
Just because you don't like the game, and that it has a few features left out but some new ones in, doesn't exclude it from the series. It's still civ, you still have the strategies, you still have the cities, you still have the civilizations.

I'm okay with you not liking the game, but any way you put it, it's civ. If you showed me the game before I had bought it and with the title removed, I'd know it was civ because it looked like Civ IV.

It's actually more beneficial to the Civilization series to consider civ5 a seperate entity. If you consider civ5 to be part of the Civilization series, then civ5 ruined it.

Either way, it doesn't change the fact that civ5 is a boring, dull, and easy game with terrible design and AI.
 
Just because you don't like the game, and that it has a few features left out but some new ones in, doesn't exclude it from the series. It's still civ, you still have the strategies, you still have the cities, you still have the civilizations.

I'm okay with you not liking the game, but any way you put it, it's civ. If you showed me the game before I had bought it and with the title removed, I'd know it was civ because it looked like Civ IV.

I disagree that it looks like civ IV, but I agree that it could look like a civ game ;) but so does civ rev, and I think that most fans doesnt look at civ rev as part of the series (sequels), nor does civworld take a place as civ 6 just because it looks like a civ.
 
It's actually more beneficial to the Civilization series to consider civ5 a seperate entity. If you consider civ5 to be part of the Civilization series, then civ5 ruined it.

Either way, it doesn't change the fact that civ5 is a boring, dull, and easy game with terrible design and AI.

Ruined it for you, maybe. But it probably brought more people in than it lost, and has been very profitable. There's a ton of veterans like me that say it's better than the previous one. Given that the DLCs and patches are churning out, plus a new version of civ in a new platform, I'd say the franchise isn't dead yet.
 
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