Impressions so far from new gameplay videos

[Ikael]

I am overwhelmed with information. And joy.

People thinking that this is just a new coat of paint over civilization 5 are in for a huge surprise. While the very core of the game remains the same (hexes, 1UPT, food making cities grow, trade routes, etc), the small changes add up to an entirely different, far richer and deep gameplay style than previous games:

- Terrain actually makes a difference
- Micromanaging makes a difference
- Civilizations are flavourful and far more differenciated than ever
- Change to the rules of movement completely changes combat
- Different culture & tech trees makes for a higher degree of civ specialization
- Religion is now an end into itself rather than a means to an end
- Expansion mechanics are turned upside down
- The change for workers to insta-builders opens up thousand of new strategies
- Unique great persons & wonder terrain conditions makes for greater replayability

In short, civilization 6 is poised to surpass civ 5 and probably 4 too. This game is going to be truthy special, mark my words. Will probably have far better scores in metacritic at launch than any other vanilla civ iteration, too.

 

[apocalypse105]

Concerns about early diplomacy.. Seems like civ 5 Vanilla where the Ai will try to rush you with warriors in the early game. There was allways war there wasnt a solution to avoid it..

it was more a annoyance because the Ai couldnt capture cities with them but hay can you blame them it are warriors to early rushes

Olso those agenda's of AI work bad its pretty easy to upset a neighbour even if you are not trying to upset them and be peacefull. And they will declare war because of it. Remember the "you are winning the game the same way they are" modifier in civ 5 well its back but now they get angry if you have a low military or a extra luxury they dont have or if you get a great person or built a wonder yep..

In the lets play of america by BAStartGaming you see england declaring war for no reason. She even says she is happy because we share the same continent. and likes us but you are still at war

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhweGQrVyKo&list=PLhJDYadvu5RNLnSetIx17V9yVnfVs40as&index=1

Like the new civics and other changes but have concerns about diplomacy they try to make the Ai act more human or historical but is that the right choise.. Olso the lack of diplomacy modifiers is pretty awefull.

 

[jsciv69]

The terrain actually looks impressive with the right resolution. I like the lenses concept which shows a settler the ideal spots to build a city. One interesting thing of note is ths scouts. In previous game I was reluctant to build them because they were so easy to kill. Now in Civ VI not only do they seem faster but damn tough to take out. I like that so much is going on even at the beginning of the games. In Civ V it seemed no matter how mad I got another Civ the AI would not declare war on me. Now in VI they have surprise declarations. Makes things exciting. And I like the unit embarkation system that brings back plans for better amphibious planning. Overall it looks like Civ VI will be quite a hit.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

I feel like terrain will have huge impact on how your game is going to play out. If you start without mountains your are likely to not be great at tech. If you start near a natural wonder you may become the most faithful civilization. If you start near the coast your are likely to become a major trade power.

 

[rastak]

I'm really fired up and like all the new systems. My only concerns at this point are lack of polish and bugs. AI has done some goofy things too.

Example I saw on the forum: England thanking someone for capturing London.

I was starting to get worried but then Ed said this build is already a month old so really there is about 12-13 weeks of coding before they lock it down for release.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

My only concerns at this point are lack of polish and bugs.

That is why they have not released the game yet

 

[Thormodr]

Looks pretty good, so far. Lots of nice little touches. For example, the City State of Toronto has a little maple leaf beside it.

 

[nunor]

I'm... a bit disappointed at how the diplomacy screen works - or, more precisely, how leaders' animations are not continuous. You meet the leader, they have their introductory animation, screen fades to black and then they return in a completely different pose. They come to tell you they don't like you, they have their pissed off animation, the screen fades to black and then they return in a completely different pose.
It's weird, it's a bit jarring, and it's something that none of the previous games ever did...

Yup, that's a big turn off.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Lots of nice little touches.

I agree. It makes me curious as to how many man-hours are being put into this as opposed to BE or previous civs.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

I agree. It makes me curious as to how many man-hours are being put into this as opposed to BE or previous civs.

Hard to say. One advantage they have is they are basically trying to make a refined Civ V instead of building everything up from the ground like they basically did with Civ V. This mean they got a good idea from the start of how everything going to work, remove or change the stuff that we did not like but keep the stuff we felt was working well more or less unchanged.

 

[Atlas627]

Unless someone actually in the industry, I assume that aesthetics features are often left as the last thing to get added in because.. well they don't change the gameplay that much.

Depends. Usually the end is bugfixes, entirely. Artists have nothing left to do, so they usually start making art for expansions, sequels, or other projects. If there are none of those things at the moment...that's where DLC comes from.

It isn't too complex. Basically, any 'rough' terrain costs 2 MP. Crossing a river, navigating a forest, etc. is all 'rough' but a bridge or a road will make it easy (the better the road the less MP).

Rivers aren't the same as the others. It seems as though they require full movement, whatever that may be. We even see horsemen not able to cross unless they start their turn next to it.

Yes, indeed, but I haven't seen them saying those short phrases yet. But I have seen a denouce screen, and no. There is not even a lip sync.

Right. But they had it in V, so I expect them to have something like that here. They may not; I wouldn't mind.

 

[Thormodr]

I also enjoyed the criticism of Civilization 5. Lots of, "This is way better in Civ VI!" or "This was a really poor feature of Civilization 5 and I'm glad it's gone."

Coming from reviewers that really enjoyed Civilization 5, this is very encouraging. The honesty is refreshing.

 

[Gali]

Most people who enjoyed civ 5 enjoyed Ed Beach's version of Civ 5. Vanilla was mostly disliked while people like GK and BNW. I first started enjoying it in the March patch which was when the first update after he took over. Now he has all the lessons from Civ 5 and the ability to put his mechanics into the,more flexible, game engine at the start. He's taking the good from civ 5 that too many people on this forum refuse to acknowledge exists and civ 4 to make a great game.

Impressed so far. Main concern now is how moddable it is. If it is moddable movement rules and other little stuff can be changed. It will also allow the community to fix the AI like it did with civ 4. The new barbarians do look like a threat though and removal of city defense forces an active military defense.

 

[rastak]

Most people who enjoyed civ 5 enjoyed Ed Beach's version of Civ 5. Vanilla was mostly disliked while people like GK and BNW. I first started enjoying it in the March patch which was when the first update after he took over. Now he has all the lessons from Civ 5 and the ability to put his mechanics into the,more flexible, game engine at the start. He's taking the good from civ 5 that too many people on this forum refuse to acknowledge exists and civ 4 to make a great game.

Impressed so far. Main concern now is how moddable it is. If it is moddable movement rules and other little stuff can be changed. It will also allow the community to fix the AI like it did with civ 4. The new barbarians do look like a threat though and removal of city defense forces an active military defense.

Those two expansions seemed to be the biggest game changers of any Civ expansions for previous versions it seemed to me.

 

[Lucius_]

Just started to get around to watching some of the LPer's videos. Let me just say, it really annoys the crap out of me when these folks just give wrong information. Like Quill18 when he's settling a city and he's talking about the green as being good spots to settle, comparing that to the suggestions from CiV. Hey Quill, it's not a suggestion from Firaxis on where to settle, it's an indicator of how much starting housing the city will have, which depends on the color of the tile.

 

[rastak]

Just started to get around to watching some of the LPer's videos. Let me just say, it really annoys the crap out of me when these folks just give wrong information. Like Quill18 when he's settling a city and he's talking about the green as being good spots to settle, comparing that to the suggestions from CiV. Hey Quill, it's not a suggestion from Firaxis on where to settle, it's an indicator of how much starting housing the city will have, which depends on the color of the tile.

Try BAStart's video. He mentioned his city wouldn't fire because of a bug. I'm sure he never built a wall.

 

[Deggial]

I am really hugely impressed about how thoughtfully they analyzed Civ5's pros and cons and designed the new game accordingly. One (of many) excamples of this is the new 'continents' concept, which makes Pangea maps balanced for civs with continental bonuses. Great solution! (It will have to be seen, though, how tedious it will be to use the related lense while fighting at the edge of continents on one landmass.)

One thing bothers me, though: While it is a good idea to make (early) strategic resources like iron more important again, I am worried that entire technologies might be rendered useless, if the related resource is missing due to bad luck.
I am still in favour of a tech-tree, where weaker (and also less potent in respect to special abilities) "alternative units" are available to substitute the ressource-using "elite" variants.

The old Civ5 concept mentioned in the signature seems to be still valid (at least in parts).

 

[kaspergm]

I think the game overall looks very promising, but there are a few sore points that stands out to me.

The fact that units don't have any special purposes (in the build shown) is a real downer. For instance: Catapult doesn't have any bonus against cities, it's just a ranged unit. Spearmen don't have a bonus against mounted units. That may be an early build issue, because info on that subject seemed somewhat conflicting, but as it stands, that's a real downer.

The thing that concerns me most is the Eureka/Inspiration system. Most of them seem FAR too easy to earn. Like: Kill three barbarian units. Conquer a barbarian camp. Recruit a Great Scientist/Engineer/Artist/whatever. Grow your empire to 6 population. Mine a resource. Farm a resource. I like the idea that the game will reward you for going out of your way to pursue a certain game style, or that the game will promote you in a certain direction given your starting conditions. But that's not what we see here imo. This just looks like a bland gotta-catch-them-all game, where you'll be able to get Eurekas/Inspirations for most of the techs/civics by doing things you'd do automatically anyway. And in worst case, it might result in a game where you do things in the same order every time to maximize your Eurekas.

Also ... is it just me, or does it seem like you'll want to beeline Political Philosophy EVERY SINGLE GAME?

 

[Erudain]

I've noticed in some of the vids...Sean Bean voices some of the techs and some weird hang-over voice does the rest.....what? they killed Sean Bean halfway throught the recording?

 

[HanNorwood]

Well to be fair, borders aren't typically rounded, they change shape when they're beside a river/coast, but most real life borders are actually straight lines, it's Civ 5 that rounded those edges.

I'm indifferent, but I do despise is the minimap. First of all, I like my political maps where you don't see a civ's territory on water tiles on minimaps like in Civ 3 and 5. Hated minimaps in Civ 4.

And second of all, unrevealed territory should be darker tone because in all the videos I could not tell apart what was revealed and what wasn't.

I was saying that during the livestream, glad I'm not the only one who thought so.