I am just wondering about some of the additions it seems like they did not add them to the original release since they had not worked them out properly and basically this expansion is Civ5 as it should have been released. One thing I do hope to happen is a better MO than what was released earlier.
They weren't left out due to a lack of time - their exclusion was a design decision.
PCG: What have you streamlined from previous games?
Jon: We made some changes with religion. Because diplomacy is one of our focuses with Civ V, planning what an AI leader is thinking, how he's going to win the game, that wasn't something that was meshing very well with the religion system. In Civ IV, the religions were primary factors of who liked whom and who disliked whom. And that wasn't meshing very well with what we wanted to do, so we decided to move on without the religion system. But that's mainly because we wanted diplomacy to have more depth and not be so predictable. We wanted to make sure that the AI leaders were taking into account the same things as the player was taking into account. A player might not care what religion you're running, but they might care quite a bit if you attack one of their friends.
Let's see if there's a couple good examples...
Dennis: Jon's point about stepping away from religion is a good one. We want people to remember that as these systems are taken away, in favour of new systems, we're never leaving gaping holes where people are going to be saying, 'Oh my god, they took out religion, what am I going to do now?'.
We're putting in new mechanics, especially with diplomacy, that are making the game an entirely new experience - especially with things like city states. City states are a new mechanism on the map. They're smaller, single city, weaker NPCs scattered throughout the map. They never really grow that much, but they're there to grease the wheels of diplomacy.
What I find most amusing about this is that diplomacy was one of the main focuses of Civ V?! I enjoy the game a lot, but like everyone else, find that diplomacy is one of its weakest spots.
at a minimum feature complete means the all of the features that the previous generation had
No, because Civ V is not merely the next step from civ 4 but it was a rework of the whole thing.
Go to the Kalypso Forums, we're still smarting about Tropico 4 being essentially and expansion pack to Tropico 3. You don't want that effect, you wanted a new game. Civ V delivered a fun new gaming experience.
i happen to like civilization i dont feel the need for a completely new civilization every time a new game comes out so i find barely change to be a good thing personallyAs much as I don't want to be a Civilization V apologist, the strictest interpretation of this is actually unsustainable across a five game series. You'd either have too much mechanical bloat *or* a game that barely changed.
i happen to like civilization i dont feel the need for a completely new civilization every time a new game comes out so i find barely change to be a good thing personally
this is one of the things that always bothers me about successful series instead of giving you what you love but better they give you xyz instead
i would rather someone else give us xyz with the series i love continuing to give me what i love
as for mechanical bloat if they are taking stuff out just to add it in expansions you are right back to that bloat again anyway arent you
I think the big issue here is that when we think of Civ 4 we are still thinking of Beyond the Sword, and comparing that to Civ 5
Obviously "should have been" is subjective, but: the content they're adding in G&K sounds like it would bring Civ5 closer to what I expected the initial release to be. We had to wait a couple years and pay another $30, that's all.
I wasn't particularly expecting espionage or religion at initial release. A lot of people were expecting a more polished product, but that's something rectified through (free) patches, not through a content-adding expansion. I think the issues of extra content/features and of a polished game are pretty separate.
i am still interested in having the game i enjoy updated to benefit from more current technology and to see things that might not have worked fixed or removed and new stuff addedThe release of Civ5 did not uninstall Civ4 from your PC.
except its not a fresh approach its holding things back and making you pay to add them back in later onEA Sports games simply "improve from the last one" and that's generally seen as a waste of money.
There are diminishing returns from just adding new features to an established game. Taking a fresh approach is generally more rewarding (when done right) both for the developers and the fans.