Preview from Jeuxvideo (in French, 5 August) with 26 new screenshots

SniperRabbit posted a few screenshots in Arioch's thread that made me suspect he's a beta tester. While this may still be the case, the source appeared to be a preview on the French gamer site Jeuxvideo.fr. Dated 5 August, but I guess Civfantics aren't following the French gamer sites with the same vigour as they do the English gamer sites

Most of the article is about basic concepts like the hex grid and all that. They feel the naval units are maybe too powerful now with their inland bombardment capabilities, and especially so on archipellargo maps. Though with that much water, I'd say it's not strange that naval units are powerful. They commend how realistic it feels to set up a convoy of weak transports with naval units to protect them.

Summary: We could talk for hours Civilization 5, but after only a few games, it is already clear that the developers really wanted to give a maximum number of tools to the player so that it does not feel powerless. As such, it appears that diplomacy has been the subject of special attention and players will enjoy seeing it really is possible to negotiate with the AI. AI actually varies its offerings based on what we submit.

The real gem of this preview is their screenshot cache with 26 new screenshots. They clearly made those themselves from gameplay.

The screenshots include: a bomber in flight, a great scientist in the field, a description of the bonus a City State brings when he becomes an Ally, a gold mine, a gorgeous picture of finding Mt. Fuji in the mist, Machu Picchu as Wonder on a mountain near a city (suggesting that having a mountain near your city is a prerequisite), some more ancient ruins.

The diplo screen shows that trade for stratetic resources lasts 30 turns, while peace lasts 10 turns.

Is it now allowed to post more than 15 screenshots?
Maybe Azazzel should post some more interesting ones...

Check out the benefit Helsinki (Maritime) grants to its ally: +2 food in capital, +1 everywhere else; all resources they collect.

That is pretty significant.

So there are more world wonders than we thought? I think Macchu Picchu hadn't be confirmed as a wonder.

Is it me or those screenshots are prettier that everything we saw until now ? The 15-screen limit is perhaps lifted for more recent builds of the game (supposely prettier) ?

I love these screens. Even trading posts look (more or less) adequate, which is unexpected.

Has someone already seen that more than 24 city-states can be chosen? And more than 12 civs? We had hints for this, but good to se it confirmed again!



I still don't like the look of trading posts and hope someone changes them to villages again in a Mod! Also, around the lumber mills is only a small ring of forest left, which ain't pretty either.

Don't get me wrong, the overall look is awesome, it just seems some improvements cover a too huge part of the hex, optimized to be recognized easily. When I am used to the different improvements after a game or two, I hope a mod focusing on aesthetics and seemless landscape is already available...

Wasn't Wu Zetian dressed far more revealingly in the animation that was taken away from the civ5 website?

Lillefix said:

Wasn't Wu Zetian dressed far more revealingly in the animation that was taken away from the civ5 website?

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The female leaders are portrayed quite realistically (except they have good teeth and such stuff ) so it wouldn't fit. I wouldn't mind more idealized leaders, but it's good they stick with a style and don't try any weird compromise.

Caeserportugal said:

So there are more world wonders than we thought? I think Macchu Picchu hadn't be confirmed as a wonder.

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It's a confirmed wonder (as per the confirmed features thread), but we hadn't yet seen how it is shown on the map. Really nice and realistic how it shows atop a nearby mountain, too.

I wonder if that means you need a near by mountain to build it or if it naturally defaulted to a Mountain in the cities territory, ether way is good by me.

I'm in no way beta tester, I'm just as clever as I can get. Thanks, Mercade, for posting this ! I didn't do it myself because I think it's better to have all info in a single place. Now, if someone can understand the stock exchange effect it would be perfect.

About macchu pichu, it really seems like you need a mountain next or in the range of the city. I will not be surprised if it is the former.

snipperrabbit!! said:

I'm in no way beta tester, I'm just as clever as I can get. Thanks, Mercade, for posting this ! I didn't do it myself because I think it's better to have all info in a single place. Now, if someone can understand the stock exchange effect it would be perfect.

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Seems to me that if you have a Stock Exchange in your city, the gold output of that city is increased with +25%.

Mercade said:

Seems to me that if you have a Stock Exchange in your city, the gold output of that city is increased with +25%.

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Is the stock exchange a normal building or a national wonder?

a building as far as we can tell

Well, but where is the maintenance cost. I thought it was displayed right under the construction cost. If there is no maintenance cost, I think it must be said so clearly and the effect must be mentioned in a distinct area. Right now, it's very confusing and I'm waiting to jump to conclusion.

I would guess that buildings that give + don't have a maintenance cost? To avoid harsh decisions? Just a wild guess.

snipperrabbit!! said:

Well, but where is the maintenance cost. I thought it was displayed right under the construction cost. If there is no maintenance cost, I think it must be said so clearly and the effect must be mentioned in a distinct area. Right now, it's very confusing and I'm waiting to jump to conclusion.

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My interpretation is that a building that generates gold won't cost maintenance at the same time. Doing +25% - 2 gold is unnecessarily complex and I'd expect the +25% to be a net effect. I seem to recall that there were other screenshots of buildings that don't have maintenance either. Where are Azazell's screenshots where you need them.

DarkMaster said:

I would guess that buildings that give + don't have a maintenance cost? To avoid harsh decisions? Just a wild guess.

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It was said what all buildings have 1-5 maintainance cost. Technically you could make you bank cost more than it cost to maintain

It's also possible that at the difficulty level being played that there was no maintenance cost.

Man...I know that graphics shouldn't matter, and normally they don't to me, but I love how the world is starting to look less and less like just a board game on the computer and more like a tangible world where you can carve out your own territory and rule. Everything just keeps looking more realistic, and while that doesn't really add anything to the gameplay it really adds to my suspension of disbelief and overall enjoyment of the game.