Civilization 5 Raves Thread

Apologies for the double post, but I couldn't pin down what it is I like about this version of the game so much when I wrote the post earlier.

In the UK, the widely accepted view about the Industrial Revolution's origin was that in the 18 century British inventiveness and science was the best in the world. Fairly jingoistic and populistic - but there you go.

IN the last twenty years there been a reassessment by historians. In truth, many of the inventions that took off in Britain at that time, were actually invented on the continent. The current view amongst historians specialising in the era is that access to resources was behind the rapid British development. It was at the time unique amongst the nations of Europe in having an extremely large supply of easily available coal (the coal was either on the surface or very close to the surface). It was cheap. So the industrialists had an easy and cheap power source. Only Belgium had anything equivalent.

Jump ahead a couple of hundred years and France after the war (due to it's lack of coal) decided to implement a policy of nuclear power station building. Currently 50 percent of it's electricity is generated through nuclear power stations. This has given it certain advantages when trying to meet Kyoto and EU carbon emmission requirements.

This pattern is repeated throughout history. It's not just about technology. It's also all about resources. The iron ore in Japan was not high quality (don't ask me for details). The iron that went into the steel of the samurai swords was all sourced from other countries.

What I think I like most about V is that resources and control of resources really counts. The game isn't just about science. Controlling the iron resource on a continent can completely change a game. Coal, aluminum, similarly. Just linking your empire to one single resource is not enough. It's about how much you can tap into. This is for me the main game changing feature of V which keeps me coming back for more.

1UPT is righteous but it pales next to my pleasure at resource control.

I am enamored with this game. With the exception of the lack of stacks of death and espionage it plays very much like Civ3 and I love that.

I didn't really enjoy Civ4 but I played the crap out of Civilization Revolution and the unit promotions are a nice feature. The one thing I don't like is the embarkation and lack of transport ships, but nevertheless it is a small gripe.

Greasy Dave said:

I just love the game. It's easily my favourite Civ, and I've played the lot. I keep playing and playing.

Diplomacy sucks - true.
Diplomatic victory sucks too.
Many, many other things don't.

Click to expand...

For me, every version of Civ has stuff I really like and stuff that's annoying as hell. Civ V is no different in that respect. But the look and feel of the game make it the best Civ for me. And yesh, diplomacy sucks. Hopefully it's improved in Gods and Kings.

I love:

1) No stacks of death - they were silly and hard to visualize on a PC (hard enough on a table playing Squad Leader when you could reach out and check out the stack manually). Love the single unit (mostly) per hex and the way combined arms plays out now.

2) Hex movement - about time they got rid of those silly diagonals.

3) Clean and intuitive UI - I can actually see what is going on in my cities much more clearly (your mileage may vary).

4) It looks stunning. Yes, looks aren't everything but they don't hurt either.

5) I have a PC that can run it now

6) Streamlining is not dumbing down - there is still a lot 'under the hood'.

7) Lots of new players - who can ease themselves into the game a lot more readily - previous Civs were increasingly diminishing returns for the non-cognoscenti.

8) Gods & Kings arrives in the mail tomorrow.

9) Mods are getting better by the day.

10) Lists with 10 things in them which is 2 x V and I am having twice as much fun with V as I ever had with 1-IV combined.

5 Pages on Raves
126 on Raves
I wonder what people think of civ 5

!?! Did you mean rants?

Jerman said:

5 Pages on Raves
126 on Raves
I wonder what people think of civ 5

Click to expand...

There's only one thread for rants, so all the hatred for the game is condensed into one very long thread. And in general, people who hates a game are more outspoken than someone who loves a game. I certainly don't feel an urge to proclaim exactly why I love to play CiV.

While I also have a lot of criticisms, things I do love about Civ V include:

• Religious customization. Wish it were more powerful and influential, but still feels more customizable and less one dimensional than the old religious system.
  
• Ditto for policies vs. civics (both the pro and the con reasoning above apply here as well.)
  
• Hex grid instead of squares + no unit stacking + city defense + specialized ranged units = a much more tactical feel (if not always more tactical control and precision.)
  
• Renegotiating previously held deals.
  
• The graphics, obviously (although I miss the more bump mapped, curvaceous art direction of Civ IV.)
  
• War feels a lot more satisfying over all.
  
• Very stable on a clean install of Windows 7 64-bit, at least on my machine.
  
• It is fun, if not exactly what I was hoping for, which is important.

Sorry I meant rants Derp.

Jerman said:

5 Pages on Raves
126 on Raves
I wonder what people think of civ 5

Click to expand...

Many of the posts in the rant thread are made by same group of posters over and over again, it is more like an open discussion group or you could say it is like an intervention for civ5 held with a same group of posters.

Greasy Dave said:

IN the last twenty years there been a reassessment by historians. In truth, many of the inventions that took off in Britain at that time, were actually invented on the continent. The current view amongst historians specialising in the era is that access to resources was behind the rapid British development. It was at the time unique amongst the nations of Europe in having an extremely large supply of easily available coal (the coal was either on the surface or very close to the surface). It was cheap. So the industrialists had an easy and cheap power source. Only Belgium had anything equivalent.

Jump ahead a couple of hundred years and France after the war (due to it's lack of coal) decided to implement a policy of nuclear power station building. Currently 50 percent of it's electricity is generated through nuclear power stations. This has given it certain advantages when trying to meet Kyoto and EU carbon emmission requirements.

Click to expand...

Find it interesting that Germany is shutting down its nuke plants and replacing them with --- wait for it -- coal fired plants...

http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opini...-down-nuclear-power-plants-is-sheer-madness/1

it seems i am the only one who likes civ5's diplo and AI behavior much much more than of civ4

I have been very critical of Civ V and I do believe that it is the weakest entry on the series, but that does not prevent it from having some really great ideas worth of being carried on for future games:

- Hexes + 1UPT. The gold bearer of civilization combat systems. Just add a minor tweaks here and there in order to allow some form of limited stacking, and we are all set.

- Cities being able to defend theirselves *thumbs up*

- Embarked units. Do not listen to haters clamoring for "realism", it is a great idea. Embarking specific units are just a redundant system and a waste of micromanaging

- Even if the whole merging of culture mechanics and goverments never quite got there, I do think that the whole mechanics social policies and culture as something that you build upon it is spot on and should be further explored

- Natural wonders makes exploration a joy, and adds quite a lot of variety to terrain

- Civilization-specific bonuses and special abilities gives the game a lot of flavour and replayability

- 3 radious cities: YES. I love to build megalopolis

- Natural bordier growth, coupled with hex buying makes tile adquisition a more organic and interesting process

- Religions being unique, with no two religions being the same is great, really

The first civ I tried was 3, a good few years ago. I instantly was engrossed and spent hundreds of hours building empires. I eagerly anticipated part 4 coming out, and did get some enjoyment when it did. Nothing like the fun I had with 3 though. But I am really enjoying civ 5 now and I get totally immersed again. There are obviously faults, such as the traffic jam situation when attacking cities (due to the 1upt), but overall I think it is an immense game. One thing I do miss is the look of fury on other leaders' faces when I declare war on them.

With the resurgence of the Rants thread lately, it seemed appropriate to revive this thread. Civilization V has come a long, long, long, long, way since vanilla release. I know I enjoyed the game when it released, but now I can't imagine playing with 10 hp units, no religion, no trade routes, no functional diplomacy, no World Congress.... pretty much the only sour note has been Espionage, and Firaxis redeemed that a bit with the Diplomat mechanic.

It's almost as if the vanilla release was Civilization 4.5, and we're only now playing the completed game.

In civilization 5 bnw I've had more than 1000 hours of game play and i have done multiplayer too. I skipped civilization 5 and bought civilization gold which had both gods and kings, all DLCs and it was before brave new world. Eventually I bought brave new world, but gods and kings looked fake to me because I had gone to Hawaii for a week and Polynesia was one of the DLCs. Brave new world came out and all its patches did too. After that Beyond earth came out and I got to use it during that free week firaxis had, it was great.