Give me 5 reasons you are playing Civ5 and not Civ4.

[ashendashin]

Well, prepare to be disappointed. I've seen the first 10 episodes and nothing happened. The Vox Populi mod adds nothing but useless crap to a very bad game and all because of the stupid 1 upt concept and its awful turn times.
I see way too many (small) numbers on the screen. Get rid of all those decimal numbers, use only integers. The AI still can't play the civ 5 game.
The game was bad, is bad and it will never be a good or decent game. It's a waste of time. Period.
(Btw, Marbozir has a monotonic voice which starts to irritate at some point, so watch those let's play vids at 1.5 or 2 speed, not normal. It saves time too.)

Well aren't you just a beacon of sunshine? Truly an excellent indepth analysis with indisputable critic! I'm sure the thousands that still play Civ 5 will be completely swayed by your words and the entire Vox Populi forum will fade away after realizing that the AI they've been playing against for so long has turned out to be completely incapable of playing decently after all these years of progress!

 

[vyyt]

@learner gamer: Yeah, Vox Populi addresses all your concerns. The new happiness system makes many different approaches viable and the AI is incredible making 1 UPT shine. I suggest lowering the difficulty you are used to from vanilla by 2-3 levels for the start.

The only bad thing about VP is that it makes the game so polished and well balanced that I doubt I will enjoy any future vanilla Civ.

 

[NebulousJaguar]

The visual aesthetics
hexagons
1UPT
Policies/Idealogies
the game mechanics overall, generally

 

[djimi888]

CityStates, Hexagons, Visual Aesthetics, 1UPT, MotherTongues, Religions/Policies/Ideologies, UniqueImprovements, Venice, ...

 

[eminer]

1) lost my Civ IV disks
2) when I found my Civ IV disks, couldn't get it to work with Windows 10
3) lost my Civ IV disks again
4) Civ V is the only game I have installed
5) too cheap to put any more money into Civ games
and bonus response:
6) I'm now too habituated to Civ V to switch
I never did like Civ V relative to Civ IV - wish I could get it up and running again.

 

[gimley_gunner]

1. On a Total War forum far far away somebody makes a post about whether they should play Civ 5 which is in their libray or get Civ 6... my brain starts ticking... I recomend that they should play Civ5 as they've already got it... my brain ticks abit more...
   
2. This reminds me I have Civ 5 and I haven't played it since a couple of years ago
   
3. The new patch for EU4 and Crusader Kings 2 hits on November 16th so any plans for a new campaign on either of those games is put on hold
4. err it's Civ
5. there is no point 5

 

[SYKOJAK]

#1: Hex tiles are more Grognard than square tiles, realistic too!
#2: Trade Route system is better than the Corperation system by far.
#3: The Civs are better represented in their abilities and their Unique Buildings/Units.
#4: 1 Unit per Tile is more strategical than Stacks of Doom.
#5: Better graphics in Civ 5 over Civ 4.

 

[intutama]

Ahh, the thousand years old discussion (actually 10 years but still).
Civ V has a ton of good things and is really nice to play but in the end 1UPT ruins it for me, because I find it a drag to move all the units one by one across the map. So I play once a year and then get sick of it. Since the AI can't deal with 1UPT it makes the game quite easy too as you can beat deity with just some upgraded bows or artillery and a knight. Since domination is such a pain in the ass while not being rewarding you have to go for slow victories which need something like 100-150 turns more where all you do is click next turn without needing to take any meaningful decisions.
Civ V is the game I play when I'm hungover or I just want to chill cause it's snowing outside.

Civ IV requires you to make meaningful decisions all the time and every game feels like a new challenge, whereas in Civ V you pretty know what you're going to until turn 100 before the map even appears. But yeah, Civ IV is looking old and doesn't have the polished look and feel of Civ V. As for the combat, you still have some tactical possibilities even with stacks (baiting the AI, kiting, targeting multiple cities etc.) and I see it more like a fight of your own efficiency at playing the game versus the AI raw advantages.

Why I would play CIV V:
I want to play a chill game that doesn't require much attention

Why I would play CIV IV:
I feel like staring at my screen for 6-9 hours trying to play the best I can.

 

[volbound1700]

I have both games. The benefits of Civ 5 are as follows:

1. I like the caravans/trade ships from Civ 5
2. Combat is a lot better. I hate losing 20 units trying to take a city of 3 units. (Siege weapons help in Civ 4 but you lose SW as well
3. Workers don't stop city pop growth
4. Additional Civs are great
5. City-States add a new layer although game is too focused sometimes on City-States
6. I like what they did with religions slightly better.

Both games could improve their ability to Mod the game (make it more user friendly)

Honestly, I still think Civ 2 is the best one in the series although it is dated now.

 

[Vahnstad]

pro:
- more nations / civs
- 1UPT
- hexes
- religion
- little to no experience with civ iv and vi isn't challenging enough (except on deity)
- city-states (though i don't like that the game encourages you to not conquer them at all) or that there is no vassalize system
- good performance (vi is a bit slower, partly because of the wide gameplay and more micromanagement)
- biases and geographical area's are a bit better than vi where everything is more messed up. You have more chances of finding large jungles and large deserts in Civ v. Also, the maps are more varied than where in VI continents is always very similar. Though they're sometimes a bit too weird in V.
- AI (compared to VI)

contra:
- don't like the graphics / art style
- happiness system
- wonders are better in civ vi
- natural wonders are better in civ vi, though nice that they were introduced in v
- no alternate leaders
- game does encourage you too much to play tall
- Builders and trader/roads mechanics are better in civ vi.

I think all three games have their weaknesses and their strengths.

 

[Sascha77]

I still like both games.

However:
1UPT - most of the time, anyway
Graphics and audio are nicer - but no Spock ..
Religious game is more fun in V - IV's religions are a bit too generic for my taste
new features like natural wonders and ranged combat

OTOH, V usually lacks truly scary/competent AI when it comes to warfare.

And while, generally speaking, V is more "accessible" than IV, I sometimes prefer the more complex experience IV offers in some areas. The whole commerce = science/culture/gold-mechanic feels a bit odd and borderline clunky when I go from V to IV - but it does give you a means of tuning your empire a bit more finely than you can in V.

 

[noto2]

I'm new to the series, but from all I've read, Civ4 is considered the best.
Give me your 5 reasons that you choose to play Civ5 over Civ4.

Civ 4 is indeed the best overall, although Civ 5 is still an amazing game. There really is only one reason why I still play Civ 5, and I almost never play it anymore either. I put about 2000 hours into Civ 4 and, as great as it is, I just can't play anymore. I've only put about 1000 hours into Civ 5 so if I get that Civ itch I'll pick up 5, not 4, because I feel like there are still a few things I haven't done in 5. I almost never play either anymore, though, and I just can't get into 6 for some reason...

 

[ryanmusante]

Only one. Because of that :
https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/community-patch-project.497/

I second that emotion!

 

[ThunderLizard2]

In my opinion one unit per tile blows away boring stacks of units.

IMHO 1UPT broke the Civ5 AI's ability to play competitively and this was never fixed in the released code and the mods only help so much.

Biggest reason I don't like playing Civ4 is the really dated graphics. It would be fantastic if they re-released Civ4 with updated graphics.

 

[morgenstern1]

I remember enjoying IV quite a bit, and it really took quite a while for V to grow on me, but now I feel completely addicted to V. Only now (almost a decade after V's release) am I discovering all these really cool things (community, the unbelieveably good mods for V, et. al.), and I'm still playing vanilla - I haven't even touched VP or any of the more comprehensive mods yet. With all the mods that add additional civilizations, it's like being a kid in a candy store -- I feel like I need to try (and win) with all of them.

Granted, I have not really looked into Civ IV mods, so it's not a balanced opinion. But at this point I don't know if I could go back to IV, I am too hooked on V.

 

[ryanmusante]

Granted, I have not really looked into Civ IV mods, so it's not a balanced opinion. But at this point I don't know if I could go back to IV, I am too hooked on V.

Try VP now. Yesterday a new release.

 

[catalin72]

Civ 4 is indeed the best overall, although Civ 5 is still an amazing game. There really is only one reason why I still play Civ 5, and I almost never play it anymore either. I put about 2000 hours into Civ 4 and, as great as it is, I just can't play anymore. I've only put about 1000 hours into Civ 5 so if I get that Civ itch I'll pick up 5, not 4, because I feel like there are still a few things I haven't done in 5. I almost never play either anymore, though, and I just can't get into 6 for some reason...

I agree,I still play Civ II in 2018,I like Civ II to V.Nobody about random events of Civ IV,a very nice thing from Civ series?
With 1UPT I agree with ThunderLizard2,AI can't make a good game,I don't have yet VP Mod too see the changes.Too,IMHO happiness problems in Civ V are exaggerated,so Civ IV stiil the best.

 

[Ravellion]

1: Aesthetics. I like the look and feel of Civ 5's UI a hell of a lot more, and it has the best leader screens of any civ to date.
2: 1 UPT isn't perfect, but it edges out enormous stacks of doom by a slight margin IMO. "Ah, the Ottomans are slamming their 150 unit stack of doom into my city with 10 protective Longbowmen. Time to get a cup of tea." I also distinctly remember commonly retreating away from captured cities so I could use my city attack troops again to wipe out AI armies which would move back into the city. Rather ridiculous, but the best play nonetheless. Hardly ever was there a battle in the open field, which broke immersion for me.
3: Truly unique civ abilities. With the Iroquois, you don't chop forests. With the Netherlands, you will trade away even that last luxury, with Spain you will really try and find Natural Wonders to settle etc
4: Modding. Sure, Civ 4 has some immense large scale complete overhaul mods, but I found them to be poorly balanced at best (Except RFC. That mod was epic, I must admit). I myself am not a big fan of vox populi, but I loved Acken's Minimalisitc Balance and am currently really enjoying JFDLC, which really reminds me of RFC, come to think of it. Also, Civ 4 mods did not play well with eachother. You want this and that mod to work together? You'll have to combine them yourself. Acken's even makes the AI handle 1UPT perfectly, which is scary.
5: Almost no silliness. Civ 5 has no bobble head doll leaders, no Caesar's salad, no Gilgamesh jamming his face into the camera everytime he does not like a deal, Immortals aren't chariots, Rome builds Legions, not Praetorians.

Honorable mentions:
6: tech trading. By the time you advance through the difficulty levels in Civ 4, the goal for the human player is to research the techs the AI does not prioritize researching instead of researching the tech you really want, so you can trade that tech for many others. This made the game stale to me, because it made the tech path the same every game. Though Civ 5 has that problem to a certain extent as well (National College, I am looking at you), this is solved by almost every mod that's out there.
7: City states. I love these!

Funnily enough, I prefer Civ 5 over Civ 6. With Civ 6, I yearn back for stacks of doom because the civ 6 AI is literally (and yes, I do mean literally) incapable of taking an enemy city if it has walls. The aesthetics also do not fit my tastes. The civ 6 leader screens are too comical for me, and though I wasn't too opposed to the bright colours and more abstract shapes on the map on release, I have grown to dislike them over time. Hardly no penalties for going wide, which Civ 3, 4 and 5 all had, is also something that puzzles and annoys me.

 

[TooManyIdeas]

1) Visuals are a lot prettier. No way around that. I'll second the idea of a Civ4 HD remake or something.

2) 1UPT. I think 3UPT would be better (I think there's a mod for that?), but it sure beats slamming tidal waves of 20 units into a city to watch them get murdered one by one by three archers.

3) Bit more boardgamey. Which is fine! I play Civ5 when I want a board game feel and Civ4 when I want a sandbox/Paradox Interactive feel.

4) Modding. I cannot begin to comprehend how Civ4 modding works, and with Civ5 it's as easy as finding something on the Steam Workshop and hitting a button.

5) More civilizations. The "Native American" civilization in Civ4 is just plain silly at best and even offensive at worst, and I just love all the Civs that never got to be big empires but have interesting histories in their own right regardless.

 

[orasis]

[CIV 6 has...] Hardly no penalties for going wide, which Civ 3, 4 and 5 all had, is also something that puzzles and annoys me.

Yes it does. The more cities you build the more expensive your infrastructure and districts become and since workers have been replaced with builders, settling more and more cities ties up your production queue with more of them and less important stuff which can make you fall behind rather quickly - Also, fresh water.

As for 3... penalty? Corruption was a death sentence...