Digitaltrends GDC article

[Rocktwig]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/civilization-5-gods-and-kings-preview/

Posted a couple of hours ago.

New info/bits and pieces:
- minimum 200 Faith required to spawn Great Prophet. "It’s a random occurrence after that, so you’ll just need to cross your fingers and… err… pray."
- Inquisitors appear "later in the game" and will "stamp out competing religions in one city or another".
- "Spies are a limited resource. You’ll get your first one when the Renaissance starts and then another one with each new era after that. You’ll also get one for building a national intelligence agency."
- "Spies assigned to a city-state can influence elections that are held every 12 turns, swaying the people more toward allegiance with your own civ. Alternatively, you can have a spy incite a coup with the goal of a total regime change."

 

[The_J]

Also new (I think):

A city-state quest can be [...] spreading one religion or another to their city

Oh, and will add the link to the list in a second.

 

[Rocktwig]

Thank you, The_J

 

[nokmirt]

Interesting about combat. I was having a feeling that battles would take the same amount of time. Even with the new changes. That seems to not be the case any longer. The good thing is that if you make a mistake and leave a catapult in front it may yet be able to be saved. This will certainly add tactical depth to combat. Upgrades and experience will be that much more important and useful for units. Hmmm

 

[Pouakai]

Also in said article (AriochIV mode, Activate!), apologies if anything below has been mentioned, I'm just combing the article for any new info

Pantheon Beliefs:
- The God of the Sea provides +1 production from fishing boats
- God of War provides faith whenever you win a battle within four tiles of a city tied to that belief system.

Religious spreading and units:
- Any cities within 10 hexes of the source — whether or not they’re part of your own civilization — will slowly convert over to the new faith.
- Missionary units allow for the spreading of religion
- Inquisitors, which appear later in the game, stamp out competing religions in one city or another.
- First Great Prophet requires a minimum of 200 faith
- Founder beliefs offer boosts as your religion spreads across the land
- Follower beliefs bring specific benefits to the cities that worship your gods, whether or not they’re part of your civ.
- One such follower belief boosts the fighting power of your civ’s troops whenever they’re close to a city that worships your religion.

Combat:
- A lone catapult, for example, could conceivably survive an enemy attack

Espionage:
- Recieve one spy from national intelligence agency (National Wonder)
- Spies are off-map units
- Recieve XP and Promotions
- Assigned to a city
- Intrigue system: "There’s also a new intrigue system in the game, which brings you a steady flow of random information. For example, your spy might bring word that “[leader X] is building up a naval force and plans to launch a sneak attack on another nation.” It could also be more specific: “[leader X] plans to declare war on [leader Y].”

Diplomacy:
- Reach out to potential targets and warn them in advance about war plans learnt via espionage
- The above causes a positive Diplo modifier with the targeted nation

 

[Monthar]

God of the Sea is a faith we hadn't seen before.

 

[AriochIV]

You can still bribe City-States. Just adding more quests won't fix a system that's fundamentally broken.

God of the Sea is a faith we hadn't seen before.

No, it was mentioned previously. And it's a Pantheon Belief. "Faith" is the name of the resource.

edit: The "National Intelligence Agency" sounds like a National Wonder. Which leads me to "wonder" if National Wonders are included in the total of 9 new Wonders. If so, we're already there (if Michelangelo's David is a Wonder).

 

[Louis XXIV]

I don't think gold payment is by itself a problem. If they make it so quests are far more efficient because the cost of alliances are too high, then bribing will be fine.

 

[Deggial]

Remember the 4 small bars beneath the city name that replace the single long bar we have at the present time?

-We know, that there can be 3 parallel quests at the same time in G&K
-From the latest pictures we know, that these small bars fill/decline just like the old, big one.

My guess:
These bars represent the fulfilled missions now.
As there are "only" three missions, the 4th bar should represent monetary gifts.
So, money is still useful when dealing with CS, but it's influence is outnumbered by fulfilled quests 3:1.

 

[dexters]

- Intrigue system: "There’s also a new intrigue system in the game, which brings you a steady flow of random information. For example, your spy might bring word that “[leader X] is building up a naval force and plans to launch a sneak attack on another nation.” It could also be more specific: “[leader X] plans to declare war on [leader Y].”

I'm a little concerned about this. How will the AI handle espionage against the human player?

I assume it will get random peeks at your forces? While our spies may be able to report that Civ X is building up a naval force to launch a sneak attack (to use the example in the article); a human player may simply build up forces and decide a target later.

Unless the partial information being related back is tied to the current 'war in 10 turns' arrangement, there's no way a human player can signal to the AI he/she is going to go to war, and furthermore, human players may just always decline such arrangements to befuddle the AI and go to war on their own once they see the AI do so. Alternatively there has to be more agreements than the current co-op war, like meeting specific army size targets, as a pre-requisite to co-op war, or simply a request to build your forces to X. Or agreements not to meddle in their wars. agreements that players will have to enter into to play the 'diplomatic intrigue' with very distinct benefits that the AI can then use in their espionage to get a signal on what we are up to.

There has to be incentives to agree to those co-op wars and related agreements instead of freelancing. Or rather disincentives to freelancing.

I'm concerned about this being a nice feature on paper but totally exploitable in practice.

 

[Pouakai]

Remember the 4 small bars beneath the city name that replace the single long bar we have at the present time?

-We know, that there can be 3 parallel quests at the same time in G&K
-From the latest pictures we know, that these small bars fill/decline just like the old, big one.

My guess:
These bars represent the fulfilled missions now.
As there are "only" three missions, the 4th bar should represent monetary gifts.
So, money is still useful when dealing with CS, but it's influence is outnumbered by fulfilled quests 3:1.

So then where do the CS elections fit in to this?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I think the Bars are nothing but a SINGLE bar for ALL the realtionship (Angry/Neutral/Friend/Ally)

Instead of one bar at time.

I think it's not more than just a simplified UI change, dont' think it's tied to anything at all. why should it?

 

[Deggial]

... there's no way a human player can signal to the AI he/she is going to go to war,...

As I proposed in this thread, there *are* ways to make this work!

Whether or not a player will like such a constraint, is another question. I think, it could be an interesting feature to be forced to plan your wars ahead.

 

[dexters]

As I proposed in this thread, there *are* ways to make this work!

Whether or not a player will like such a constraint, is another question. I think, it could be an interesting feature to be forced to plan your wars ahead.

Neat idea, but I'm not sure that will even be considered in the game.

After all the good drips of info, the recent news of no espionage support for multiplayer seems to confirm that espionage may not be functional against the human player which is worrisome. I hope that even if this is the case, the AI gets a completely different set of data from the human side for SP games so they still technically have use for their spies. My biggest concern is that it is a human only feature that is used to show-off the AI but something the game can't handle against the human player. Human only game features, especially something as big as espionage is something I've always railed against for a 4x game.

I hope that some thought goes into this.

Now I wish I had used my 1 question for the Ask Dennis Shirk Contest to ask them about that.

 

[snarzberry]

At least some of the features of espionage are human only, such as 'they are planning to attack civ X in 15 turns'.

 

[dexters]

At least some of the features of espionage are human only, such as 'they are planning to attack civ X in 15 turns'.

You know this for a fact?

 

[turingmachine]

You know this for a fact?

I think it was the PC Gamer article that said the intrigue part of espionage was turned off in MP.

 

[AriochIV]

Intrigue obviously won't work against a human player. They've already said that it will be disabled in multiplayer games.

I'm not worried about intrigue being "exploited" by the human player. The AI cheats plenty as it is.

 

[dexters]

Intrigue obviously won't work against a human player. They've already said that it will be disabled in multiplayer games.

I'm not worried about intrigue being "exploited" by the human player. The AI cheats plenty as it is.

Which cheats? I had suggested the AI get specific information cheats in lieu of intrigue not working, but perhaps you can itemize current cheats as well.

I'm not aware of any overt cheating outside of specific bonuses given to it and happiness bonuses.

 

[snarzberry]

You know this for a fact?

No, only assuming. Like you said in your earlier post, how could an AI spy report that I am planning to attack civ Y in ten turns? It seems to me that if we are going to get reports on upcoming AI behaviour that there will not be an analog that the AI spies have access to, how could there be? Yes, as you said, if there has been an agreement to DoW in ten turns then that might be learned by an AI spy. But I remember seeing the specific mention of planning war 15 turns in advance and that knowledge being learned by a spy. So that rules out the 'lets declare in ten turns' scenario, unless the rules for those agreements are going to be changed, which is possible. It looks to me like there is going to be some info on upcoming AI behaviour available from spies that is unique to the human. I could be wrong of course.