What made the light bulb come on?

In the time I've played the Civ series there have been instances where I've discovered something in the game interface or something in a strategy or tip that has made the light bulb come on and really made a difference in my understanding of the game or was a big aid in sifting through information the game gives me to make decisions.

For instance, the mouse over. I didn't realize how many different places on different screens you can mouse over and get information. Something as simple as mousing over the diplomacy screen on "friendly" and seeing why a certain Civ was "friendly" toward me, or "guarded" or whatever the case may be.

I'd like to see what other people in this great forum considered as "light bulb" moment(s) when they discovered something "new" about the game for them. Thank you for your responses in advance.

black3car said:

I'd like to see what other people in this great forum considered as "light bulb" moment(s) when they discovered something "new" about the game for them. Thank you for your responses in advance.

Click to expand...

I'd never played any of the previous CiV games, so I had a number of misconceptions of what the game would be like, when I first started playing it long ago. I assumed it would be more like the real world where you could make actual friends and allies and depend on them down the ages, and that diplomacy and wars would be more nuanced and varied. I was rather quickly disabused of those assumptions, though. My light bulb was realizing everybody is programmed to hate on you and attack you as often and and as hard as possible, and nobody will ever really be your friend for very long, except on freak occasions. It is a combat simulator, not a civilization simulator. It is intended to try to force you go to war as much as possible, whether as the aggressor or defensively- as the game is almost entirely geared for that aspect of 'civilization'. But it does what it's intended for pretty well, and is definitely entertaining, so I'm not complaining.

Smokey,
you can defer actual war, I think by having a strong military - they only opportunistically attack if you are clearly weaker.

You are right though, the problem with AI civs being reliably friends is that the human can take a lot of advantage of that, it was the case back in earlier generations of civ.

Heretiv said:

You are right though, the problem with AI civs being reliably friends is that the human can take a lot of advantage of that, it was the case back in earlier generations of civ.

Click to expand...

This is so true... in previous civs we always got rid of the opposition, then turned on our allies. Now we can't do that. A definite improvement.

Smokeybear said:

I assumed it would be more like the real world where you could make actual friends and allies and depend on them down the ages, and that diplomacy and wars would be more nuanced and varied.

Click to expand...

And this is the world you live in? Where do I sign up?

Smokeybear said:

I'd never played any of the previous CiV games, so I had a number of misconceptions of what the game would be like, when I first started playing it long ago. I assumed it would be more like the real world where you could make actual friends and allies and depend on them down the ages, and that diplomacy and wars would be more nuanced and varied. I was rather quickly disabused of those assumptions, though. My light bulb was realizing everybody is programmed to hate on you and attack you as often and and as hard as possible, and nobody will ever really be your friend for very long, except on freak occasions. It is a combat simulator, not a civilization simulator. It is intended to try to force you go to war as much as possible, whether as the aggressor or defensively- as the game is almost entirely geared for that aspect of 'civilization'. But it does what it's intended for pretty well, and is definitely entertaining, so I'm not complaining.

Click to expand...

Those misconceptions were understandable even if you had played the previous games, or even heard much about them as in previous games you could make meaningful friends/alliances although they were almost as predictable as in this game in that who was or wasn't your friend was pretty easy to manipulate although i do much prefer that black and white version of diplomacy as you could make some real choices and effect the way the AI treated you rather than this black and white version as no matter what you do the AI will eventually hate you so the only real choice is do you milk them while you can or just destroy them straight away?

As i have mentioned many times before we have basically gone from one extreme to the other where as we need a middle ground.e.g. such as when the AI is not in a strong position it will at least try to make friends to better itself, not just show as friendly but it's obvious to see it's not as soon as you try to trade with it and it won't give you the friendly price.
At least allowing you to make minor demands when you obviously can just wipe them out without thinking.e.g. simply asking for open borders.
If it has a big enemy then it will suck up to another big civ in the hope of protection from it's enemy or making an alliance with lots of smaller civs.
Having such decisions will make it more human as it is now meant to be, not just making it out to win at all costs, even itself...Glory or death.

So many lightbulbs. The day I realized barbarians weren't healing like I could. The day I figured out that you could actually see what tiles your citizens were working, and change them! The day I figured out how science worked (ah, population--I get it now). The day I figured out why my archers couldn't take that zero health city. The day I learned (from watching my first LP) that you can and should do things with luxuries besides lux-for-lux trades (that one profoundly changed my approach to the game). When I figured out what a We Love the King Day does, and what specialists really do (GP spawns just seemed magical to me). When I learned about the (vanilla) GL => Philosophy => HS => Navigation slingshot (such fun playing England). Too many lightbulbs to list, really. Many were learned the hard way and others through these forums (which I discovered after about 10 months of "the hard way").

The lightbulb moment for me was concerning management of specialists. Up through immortal, I just sorta blundered through, and if a city happened to employ a specialist, so be it. Not any more. Post-lightbulb, there is a definite shift to maximize science specialists as soon as I get universities built.

Peng Qi said:

And this is the world you live in? Where do I sign up?

Click to expand...

The real world where Britain doesn't denounce the US and suddenly sneak attack Maine while we are trying to defend them from a common enemy. People who claim there are no real international friendships in the real world are just being too cute. Or ignorant.

Smokeybear said:

The real world where Britain doesn't denounce the US and suddenly sneak attack Maine while we are trying to defend them from a common enemy. People who claim there are no real international friendships in the real world are just being too cute. Or ignorant.

Click to expand...

Well the A.I. doesn't know you are defending it from a common enemy. It just sees that you have your military wading all over it's land.

Another lightbulb moment perhaps?

King_Course said:

Well the A.I. doesn't know you are defending it from a common enemy. It just sees that you have your military wading all over it's land.

Another lightbulb moment perhaps?

Click to expand...

The lightbulb that the AI is incredibly stupid, clueless, and programmed to be beligerant to the player by default, and the fact that you are given no way to communicate your actual intentions properly with them ingame, came on long ago.

Smokeybear said:

The real world where Britain doesn't denounce the US and suddenly sneak attack Maine while we are trying to defend them from a common enemy. People who claim there are no real international friendships in the real world are just being too cute. Or ignorant.

Click to expand...

I would not consider America and Britain to be friends. They pretend to be friends because at the current moment it is mutually beneficial.

Britain gave America it's independence in the 1780's. But by 1812 Britain attacked America again, to try to turn America back into a colony. (America was actually the one who declared war, but the British backed America into a corner and pretty much forced America to declare war).

The British also funded the Confederates during the American civil war to try to destroy America.

By the early 1900's America had become a major power and helped the British in WWI. But in the 1920's America was planning for a major war with the British Empire. America basically wanted to attack all of Britain's overseas possessions and destroy the British empire, and transform it into an American empire. The only reason why this war did not happen is because when Nazi Germany came around, America saw that as the biggest threat and decided to side with the British to defeat an enemy that was mutually dangerous to America and Britain.

Hovering over that red fist of a newly captured city tells how many turns of rebellion remaining. I think I learned that a few months after game release; must have totally forgotten it because it was a major 'Aha!' just several weeks ago.

black3car said:

In the time I've played the Civ series there have been instances where I've discovered something in the game interface or something in a strategy or tip that has made the light bulb come on and really made a difference in my understanding of the game or was a big aid in sifting through information the game gives me to make decisions.

Click to expand...

The important ones for me have all had to do with the streamlining of gameplay.

Although the animations for combat are visually appealing, I don't have a computer capable of rendering such animations at anything but the choppiest rate possible. Thus, Quick Combat was a godsend to speeding up gameplay.

However, the biggest one is playing in Strategic View, because the majority of the slow down from rendering is avoided. I know that the computer is still doing some heavy rendering in the background, however, because my laptop gets extremely hot, but it is still a vast improvement over playing in Normal View.

I second Pook, city management. Paying closer attention to it, and setting the specialists, in all my cities not just the biggest ones, made the biggest difference so far in my game.

I have been playing Civ 5 forever and I still come across lightbulb moments, I couldn't even pinpoint which ones are the biggest lightbulbs. I would honestly be surprised if I ever plateaued - there is always something you can do better. If there wasn't, I wouldn't be here on civfanatics

Smokeybear said:

I'd never played any of the previous CiV games, so I had a number of misconceptions of what the game would be like, when I first started playing it long ago. I assumed it would be more like the real world where you could make actual friends and allies and depend on them down the ages, and that diplomacy and wars would be more nuanced and varied. I was rather quickly disabused of those assumptions, though. My light bulb was realizing everybody is programmed to hate on you and attack you as often and and as hard as possible, and nobody will ever really be your friend for very long, except on freak occasions. It is a combat simulator, not a civilization simulator. It is intended to try to force you go to war as much as possible, whether as the aggressor or defensively- as the game is almost entirely geared for that aspect of 'civilization'. But it does what it's intended for pretty well, and is definitely entertaining, so I'm not complaining.

Click to expand...

The game goes on over a span of thousands of years . In real life your enemy today will be your friend in 300 yrs and vica versa . For instance England and America

I remember a HUGE lightbulb moment from Civ IV-
Wait, commerce and wealth are two different things? NOW I get it!

The purple tiles in city screen isn't a recommednation, it's a hint to where the tile will be next spread to!