Looking to get into Civ

Hey all,

First time poster here. I'm looking to get into the Civ game but I wanted to ask for some advice of whether or not I should go with Civ IV + BtS or just go straight to Civ V? I'm asking because both are on sale and around the same price. My computer would be more than able handle Civ V and Civ IV.

I've heard Civ IV was more complete, less buggy since it's all been worked out. Civ V has been better with the recent patch but still buggy...lots of complaints on the AI.

So I don't know where to start so I thought I'd register here and ask some experts.

Thanks

Civ5 is excellent and I haven't come across any bugs since the latest patch. You should stay up to date with the latest release, it is brilliant.

I never played Civ4 as my previous computer didn't meet the specs, but I'm enjoying Civ 5 a lot, especially with the latest patch. The DLC civs are all interesting additions to the game as well - the Inca and Polynesia are two of my favorites that each give the game a different "feel."

I have yet to run into a bug other than one case of a display bug that turned some tiles purple but cleared up on loading a save. The AI can use some more work on tactics, but overall does a good job of providing a fun & challenging game; most of the complaints by detractors boil down to differing opinions on how the AI ought to work, which some posters unfortunately conflate with "broken" or "random." It's neither.

Windom said:

Hey all,

First time poster here. I'm looking to get into the Civ game but I wanted to ask for some advice of whether or not I should go with Civ IV + BtS or just go straight to Civ V? I'm asking because both are on sale and around the same price. My computer would be more than able handle Civ V and Civ IV.

I've heard Civ IV was more complete, less buggy since it's all been worked out. Civ V has been better with the recent patch but still buggy...lots of complaints on the AI.

So I don't know where to start so I thought I'd register here and ask some experts.

Thanks

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If you're new to the Civilization series, V would be a good starting point as it's been designed with the premise of bringing in new players to the fold. If you have a TBS background with games like Galactic Civilization, I'd recommend IV.

Civ5 is for casuals, Civ4 will make you a fanatic.
I've played Civ4 for about two years all the time and I still feel the urge to play every now and then.
I've played Civ5 for two months and I got bored to my teeth.

It's like comparing three course meal in a fine restaurant (Civ4) to a burger bought from a shack next to the train station (Civ5). And each of those have its devoted fans.

This is tricky, because both civ games have their pros/cons. Generally speaking, civ4 is more complicated and scales more aggressively with difficulty level, but the graphics aren't nearly as eye-catching. So if you play civ 4 first, you'll be happy with the graphical improvements of civ 5 but might be unhappy that there aren't as many things to do/build. However, if you play civ 5 first then you could be so turned off by the graphics of civ 4 that you never get into it at all. Kind of a lose/lose...

Guardian PL is typically quite negative on civ 5 btw, so take his advice with a grain of salt. Most longtime players now enjoy civ 5 after the past few patches as well as civ 4.

alot of the answer depends on the style of combat you like in tbs. Stacks vs 1upt. I prefer the more tactics based 1upt. However theres lots of room for improvement. Its no fftactics thats for sure.

mattavich said:

Civ5 is excellent and I haven't come across any bugs since the latest patch. You should stay up to date with the latest release, it is brilliant.

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I agree. Buy it on Steam for 50% today, 66% until 10th July. I'm getting that one more turn feeling back in my latest game as Denmark. But seriously bad like I had for Civ 3. Like when you can have a conversation with somebody for 30 minutes (whilst playing) and not even realise it when they ask you about it later. This could get dangerous.

Windom said:

Hey all,

First time poster here. I'm looking to get into the Civ game but I wanted to ask for some advice of whether or not I should go with Civ IV + BtS or just go straight to Civ V? I'm asking because both are on sale and around the same price. My computer would be more than able handle Civ V and Civ IV.

I've heard Civ IV was more complete, less buggy since it's all been worked out. Civ V has been better with the recent patch but still buggy...lots of complaints on the AI.

So I don't know where to start so I thought I'd register here and ask some experts.

Thanks

Click to expand...

It might be a good idea to post in the CIV IV forum as well to get additional perspectives on your potential purchase -as there is sure to be a bias here due to this being the CIV V forum. Honestly though, with the sales going on right now you might as well buy both.

Also Civ4 might be better if you have a lower end computer i.e. more than 1-2 years old. A lot of bad feeling comes from long turn times in Civ 5 if you don't have a compatible graphics card or not good driver software etc. I'm absolutely no expert on that but maybe somebody else can give more details. Civ5 is quite intensive on the PC for a glorified board game. I'm mostly not sure about the DivX statement as there is a DivX9 mode with more or less the same graphics but

I got into Civ4 BTS late because I couldn't run it on my Macbook so had to wait until I got access to a better computer. It's brilliant of course but I think it's too big for a beginner maybe. I played less than 100 hours probably and never really got hooked like on previous Civs. And believe me you can get hooked seriously. I can understand why the die hard Civ4 fans who saw it from the beginning and watched the expansions grow are so in favour of it. But Civ 5 will grow to be the same we all hope.

I actually first got into Civ last year around January 2010. My first civ experience was with Civ IV: BTS. It took me FOREVER to master the game. While I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, it took me some 100 hours of gameplay before I could win a game on the third difficulty level. There's stacks, great people, working tiles, religion, siege units... Even after well over 300 hours of gameplay, I still was getting destroyed by the fourth (I believe) difficult because the AI was creating great people at an insane (I thought) rate. That being said, I loved the game, and still do.

I upgraded to Civ V around December 2010. There are many, many improvements that this game brings over Civ IV. Without question, the biggest drawback to the game is the AI. They simply don't know how wage war. The only way I can lose in a war is if I'm WAY overpowered. Despite that drawback, I still find the game challenging and very fun. I'm not sure how easy it is to pick up and play the game, since I had a TON of Civ IV experience that helped to ease me into this game. But I truly believe that Civ V is the best way to go.

Civ V has gotten a ton of negative feedback from the "hardcore" Civ fans, and I'm sure you will see some of that here. The recent patches have done a great job of improving the game. There's still some work to be done, I think, but you will enjoy yourself, trust me.

Whatever you choose, be sure to use this forum and this site's resources, because you will have many questions as you progress through this addiction known as Civilization.

Thanks for all the reply Really appreciate it. I think I'm going to start with V since I really suck in these kind of games. I'll go with an easier learning curve and hopefully more upgrades/patches in the future will also fix/tweak a lot of stuff and end up being as good as IV. I like eye-candy so another reason to go with V. With IV, I have a feeling that I might be turned off with the difficulty as I really don't have that much time playing everyday.

Any idea on which DLC I should buy? I heard Babylon, Polynesia, Spain/Inca, Denmark is pretty good. How about Asia and others?

Brichals said:

I agree. Buy it on Steam for 50% today, 66% until 10th July. I'm getting that one more turn feeling back in my latest game as Denmark. But seriously bad like I had for Civ 3. Like when you can have a conversation with somebody for 30 minutes (whilst playing) and not even realise it when they ask you about it later. This could get dangerous.

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Where is this 66% off? I can only see 50% off from steam but still 24.99 =.= I missed that Gamersgate deal a couple of days ago and I'm royally pissed at myself

Windom said:

Thanks for all the reply Really appreciate it. I think I'm going to start with V since I really suck in these kind of games. I'll go with an easier learning curve and hopefully more upgrades/patches in the future will also fix/tweak a lot of stuff and end up being as good as IV. I like eye-candy so another reason to go with V. With IV, I have a feeling that I might be turned off with the difficulty as I really don't have that much time playing everyday.

Any idea on which DLC I should buy? I heard Babylon, Polynesia, Spain/Inca, Denmark is pretty good. How about Asia and others?



Where is this 66% off? I can only see 50% off from steam but still 24.99 =.= I missed that Gamersgate deal a couple of days ago and I'm royally pissed at myself

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Sorry its 33% off all other days, I kind of wrote it misleadingly.
So be sure to come and let us know how you're getting on with Civ5

Windom said:

Any idea on which DLC I should buy? I heard Babylon, Polynesia, Spain/Inca, Denmark is pretty good. How about Asia and others?

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It depends on your taste. Gameplay wise I can summarise the DLC civs :-

Babylon : They get boost to creation of Great Scientists & get one free with Writing. Useful for tearing tech tree apart. They also have a very strong defence earlier on due to their Unique unit & Building.
Polynesia : It is basically a naval power & can generate culture quickly with their unique improvement. They can sail the whole world before anyone. Really good for very early colonization.
Spain : A civ which gets bonuses for exploration (extra gold from discovering natural wonders). There Unique unit conquistador is awesome for exploration & colonization. A purely exploration & colonizing civ.
Inca : Well you must be knowing some facts about them. They start in hills, their units move faster in hill & the maintenace of roads is much cheaper. Their unique improvement produce a lot of food if built near mountains. Their UU suck. A good civ overall.
Denmark : Well speed is the essence. Their UUs are fast, their units embark faster & they can pillage lands more easily. A good civ if you want to conquer your neighbours quickly & pillage their territory.

I'd buy all Civ Packs, because they're all good

If you want so save money, just leave the Babylon one out, because it's the worst cost/value wise.

Don't buy the Crade of Civilization map packs, they're relatively bad cost/value wise. You could get similar maps for free at this page on in the mod section ingame.

If you want to have some variation in terms of maps, get the Explorer's map pack, but I don't think it's a must. If you want it, of course get the bundle with Denmark.

Thanks guys. I bit the bullet, bought Civ V on the Steam sale and bought all the DLC packs Couldn't resist...==;

It is installed and I'm going to give it a try tonight after work. Looking forward to it very much

Good decision. This way you can learn the game for a while and with future expansions it's likely that more depth and builder options, and other flavor elements like possibly a comprehensive religious system, will be added. Civ 4 vanilla is a far cry from BtS which is a fantastic, rewarding game. I really like civ 5 now, but I'm hoping and expecting it to be even better in a year or so. There's still a lot of testing, supplementing and balancing for us to get through seeing as the most recent patch has stopped tinkering with some elements that weren't working and has in many ways started afresh.

Windom said:

Thanks guys. I bit the bullet, bought Civ V on the Steam sale and bought all the DLC packs Couldn't resist...==;

It is installed and I'm going to give it a try tonight after work. Looking forward to it very much

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Have fun, I hope you like the game, I sure do.

I was all ready to answer your primary question about which version of Civ to buy when I came across this post, but I believe I'll reply anyway.

Civ IV and V are both very good games, you would have probably enjoyed them both. But they are very different games, which is why some around here prefer IV to V and vice versa. The thing is though, V is still "under construction" and there will be more changes coming. IV is set and no more changes are coming except for user created mods (which are damn good, by the way). Not sure which game environment you might have prefered.

So I played Civ V last night. Regret buying it because I just played 6 hours yesterday after work without knowing it!!! Time passed by so fast that I didn't realize it was past 12am

Anyways, I put all the settings to the highest one and graphics looked pretty amazing to me and ran very smooth. Played as Babylon with Huge Map settings we the most AI possible in Continents. Playing under Settler difficulty, the easiest one, to get a hang of the game and learning on the go. Played like 100+ turns yesterday and I quickly expanded to 2 cities in about 5 turns into the game and then added another beside a World Wonder in about turn 70-80. All my cities are connected by road and I've made a lot of friends with neighboring Civs, but Persia and Denmark giving me a hard time. Still figuring out how to play as I feel that I'm wasting too many turns doing nothing, not efficient at all.

Just wanted to give my first time experience and great game so far

get into city management, and mess around with moving your city population from working one tile to the next. That way you learn to balance your food - hammer - gold production in a city. On higher levels you HAVE to know how to do this, trust me on that.