Who else thinks BNW is surprisingly good?

I'm absolutely loving it, it's great that there's so much to do and tinker with

Do you think the AI are loving the new systems and are doing well with them, just like you are?

I have to agree, this is an awesome expansion.

Finally Firaxis gave Civ5 a really interesting diplomacy and a really interesting endgame. Now we just need a little fix for the sometimes too passive early AI that in some cases seems to be sleeping in the early game, so that players can get the advantage of taking the most valuable land easily.

I absolutely love BNW so far. The only gripe is that the AI is still poor, and I know this won't change.

Fingers crossed that they hire an actual AI programmer for the development of Civ6.

Love it. The AI is much better now. It even launched a naval invasion of my city, somehow managing to cover its army using its navy. A human player would handle better, of course, but for it to even happen, and not be a disaster, is big progress.

I'm really impressed. Civ 5 felt pretty hollow to me when it was first released, because there just wasn't enough to do. Gods and Kings was a nice step in the right direction, but the changes to culture and trade in Brave New World hit it out of the ballpark.

The only thing I don't like is being so utterly dependent on foreign trade in the early game. It's hard to protect trade routes from swarms of barbarians when you have so little gold for military units.

JEELEN said:

Yes, CiV seems to be very ingenious in implementing patch by patch by expansion everything from Civ IV...

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And implemented them in much much better way than cIV did. Example: Religion, Espionage, World Congress resolutions, city flip... and the list goes on.

Jabarto said:

I'm really impressed. Civ 5 felt pretty hollow to me when it was first released, because there just wasn't enough to do. Gods and Kings was a nice step in the right direction, but the changes to culture and trade in Brave New World hit it out of the ballpark.

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This.

CiV has grown in some really impressive ways, and exploded in functionality with each expansion

I WOULD like an expansion of naval interactions though. It's gotten a bit better with things like the privateer and now, coastal trade routes being more important, but honestly, access to the coast or rivers was vital for a long time before faster methods of travel and irrigation were available, and naval power has been the cornerstone of a lot of nations.

If nothing else, just a colonization-esque scenario or support for that sort of thing so that sea power is more significant and blockades are economically viable would be interesting - as it stands, I don't see much use for boats other than covering embarked units and firing on coastal cities.

I reviewed Civ5 for the news site I work for, giving it 2 stars with the caveat it would get better, and probably end up the best iteration of the game - feeling justified now!

It's not as relaxing as Vanilla. Hate it.

lololol

srsly though even prince is hard now

at least on a huge map

I haven't gotten to play much since release but I'm really enjoying the game thus far.

BNW makes it feel like I'm actually building a Civilization rather simply playing a game. I always have a narrative in my head. Additionally, the new mechanics have made it so that you can't do totally unreal, cheesey, cheating mechanic starts like the old "4 City Tradition Opener." It was ingenious, but I don't feel like it was in the spirit of the game.

Now we have to have a little bit of everything as well to win, as in it feels like we don't only have to care about one particular stat.

Civ V:BNW feels very natural to me, and I love it for that. I think it did more for this game than G&K did.

I'm really enjoying BNW and the way the new mechanics have been dovetailed in - and they fit so well. I'm pleasantly surprised just how much I like the curating system with the great works and artefacts in order to get the theming bonuses.

I'm on the side of wanting a final expansion to completely round off the game and add some new content. Civ6 can wait as far as I'm concerned; I'd rather have more for this awesome version of the game.

I am a convert. Some may remember my acid resistance and fierce opposition to Shafer's Civ5 (vanilla), but now I have been converted. This simple yet powerful statement ought to mean something, because believe me, the last thing I am is a conformist.

Civilization 5 under Beach et all is finally worth of the franchise name.

BNW is really good with the new cultural works that can be made by great people and placed in cultural buildings. Tourism is also interesting along with the new world congress that allows other bonuses for civs.

sincerely, i am suprised with the new improvements of the game in BNW. The trade routes is a excelent add, commerce is more dinamic, actions diplomacy have more importance, religions have more influence, the game is more excitant.

I only see that some bugs in AI (overly peaceful in my opinion) needs fix.

Me and my wife love the expansion. The only complaint we have is that the MP AI is still broken. They can still not contact human players, making it a chore going through all AI every now and then and check them. Takes a lot of time!

PLEASE FIX THIS FIRAXIS.

Everything else with the expansion is fantastic.

Babri said:

And implemented them in much much better way than cIV did. Example: Religion, Espionage, World Congress resolutions, city flip... and the list goes on.

This.

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Civ V devoted whole expansions to themes Civ IV had as add-ons, so be fair. And if it hadn't been for Civ IV and the way it introduced the concepts, it's unlikely Firaxis would have thought to make the UN, and maybe even religion, a major game theme.

Having said that, I wouldn't say city-flipping is handled better - I miss tile-flipping. And although in concept Civ V's World Congress resolutions are better-designed and more varied, the AI seems to be quite some way behind Civ IV's in understanding how to use them.

I've preferred Civ V to Civ IV for some time, but I played Civ IV just before BNW hit for comparison. In some ways that highlighted a lot of the ways in which BNW changes feel "Civ IVish", particularly the more exploration-based early game and more varied viable tech paths and early building choices (and, less positively, the more passive and seemingly less individualistic AIs). However, Civ IV feels more polished and 'finished' than BNW - patches may change it, but while Civ V is now in essence a more complex game than Civ IV, AI weaknesses that seem more pronounced than in G&K, balance issues, and new concepts that seem great but underdeveloped make it feel less complete than G&K:

- Ideology's great, but I'm coming to dislike the predictability it gives end-game diplomacy and the fact that the end-game is rarely balanced - you have one culturally dominant civ that prompts everyone else to adopt its ideology, and only a couple of civs bucking the trend. I haven't yet seen a near-equal pairing of ideologies, Cold War-style, neither of which is obviously dominant. I'm starting to pine for a post-ideology Information Age that tones down the effects. It makes all prior and other forms of diplomacy almost irrelevant, up to and including dropping nukes on people's favourite city-states.

- The fact that on large maps with default settings you're going to run out of named artworks etc. says it all about how well thought-through tourism was. It's got novelty value for the theme bonuses, artifacts and watching the culture battle between civs unfold, but it turns out to be very limited and there's more interest to be had in the varied ways of preventing Wonderspammers from foisting their ideologies onto you than with actually playing the tourism game, which is very linear and lacking in diversity.

I'm amazed!

I've had a really bad case of "just one more turn" yesterday - I basically gamed from 8 in the morning to 2am .

After I got past the 'peaceful game start', the end game really kicked in. The AI may not be "human-good", but it improved ten fold. Especially in the navy department.

The end-game actually gives you something to do now and is far from boring. I think we finally got the game we should of gotten years ago ;-)

PhilBowles said:

And although in concept Civ V's World Congress resolutions are better-designed and more varied, the AI seems to be quite some way behind Civ IV's in understanding how to use them.

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I am not so sure about that; the AI has been using the resolutions very effectively against me, or trying to in some cases. When they failed to enforce something that would have crippled me, it was because of my active intervention to prevent it from happening. Every single time the AI tried a "real-politik" offensive against me, it was consistent with their obvious VC strategy, the environment, the political situation and the potential danger I was posing for the proponent of the resolution.

I am quite surprised about that; I expected far less, to be honest, with so many new, complex and interacting systems.