Gods and kings community verdict

[Bisqit]

Your post contradicts itself.

Espionage could be ignored in CIV BTS? Really?! Did you ever play even at Monarch! You lose the game if you ignore it, plain and simple.

Then you say that you like how religion was "in your face", which contradicts how much you liked that the Espionage (according to you at least) wasn't. And nobody ever stated it was going to be a defining diplomatic factor. It's neither realistic, nor would it make sense - why do the exact same thing that IV did? There is much more to diplomacy than religion and, like I already said before, very few wars, if any, have been started entirely on the basis of religion.

I agree that V tried to change too much, which amounted to a badly balanced content-poor game at launch, but I thought we were talking about the expansion pack here? And saying they add things back is pretty wrong, both religion and espionage have nothing to do with their iterations in IV.

And finally, they didn't make CIV.5 because that's not how you do a proper sequel. If I want to play CIV, I play CIV, every new Civilization game should actually change and innovate instead of piling on top of features that already in exist in the previous game. Not to mention that with BTS CIV was already a convoluted mess in some regards, with many needlessly complicated and boring systems. And plenty of choices that didn't actually matter.

Overall from your post I am getting the feeling you just want CIV and nothing else. And to be honest, I am very glad Firaxis didn't go down that route. While CiV wasn't exactly the game it was supposed to be, I would still take it over a CIV with a 5 slapped on the box, thank you very much. We already have enough such franchises in the industry.

it doesnt contradict itself, they are two separate opinions about two separate things. Yes i love that the religious aspect is in your face. I however like that corporations and espionage can be run in the background. Sure you have to invest in it somewhat but for the most part you can get by with just the passive bonuses. They also did strip things out then re add them back in with the expansion. Religion was in vanilla civ 4 that was initially taken out. Espionage came in the last expansion that was removed. You mark my words, they will more than likely make another expansion and add in some features that were in previous games. Why would u take out good features. Im simply saying that civilization 5 should have and could have improved the formula rather than change the game so dramatixally. I dont get what your arguing with me for. I do like civ5 as if ive stated many times but it is not as good as previous versions of the game which, to a hardcore fan, is sad to see such a drift from the tried and true formula.

 

[Billy Rubin]

Let's not forget the biased nature of forums - most people posting here are long-time civ IV players and may regard it as the epitome of all civs, as everyone who didn't like it due to it bringing close to no innovation over previous civs along with reduced mod-friendliness (i.e. people like me) were completely alienated by civ IV.

Granted, I never played BTS because civ IV was so shockingly lacking any gameplay inovation over civ III at release and was so graphically unpleasant (Always felt the urge to zoom out further without the viewing angle changing and absolutely loathed the Wii-like play-school style, big-headed slender-shouldered figures the entire game had), I never touched it again after the disappointment vanilla was.

Is Civ V perfect? Certainly not - the AI is just as terrible as it was in all predecessors, but it got rid off some of the worst game mechanics the series had for ages (SoDs etc...).

I doubt if they can bring Civ V back to ther level CIV I-III were at their respective times and my best guess is it will take Civ VI to accomplish that, but I could never seriously go back - maybe some civ I-III for nostalgia, but other than that - no.

 

[EMT]

Espionage could be ignored in CIV BTS? Really?! Did you ever play even at Monarch! You lose the game if you ignore it, plain and simple.

To be fair, I'm a monarch player and I ignore espionage in every single one of my games. Rarely do I bother at all, even when I get a Great Spy or two.

 

[PhilBowles]

I was going to write the exact same thing with one small exception. Most people want choices, even illusionary choices. It might not matter in the end of the day, it might have no influence on the outcome of the game, but having a choice, any choice, still creates an illusion of depth.

Oh indeed, I completely agree. I also appreciate that this is the big selling point Civ IV has for many people; it's been said several times that people "feel" more as though they're playing a nation with many of the micromanagement aspects of Civ IV, and ultimately what's the point of a game concept like Civilization if it doesn't get that across?

By contrast my feeling with Civ IV is that the civs themselves were too generic, and I could feel I was playing a nation but never that I was playing the Khmer or the Greeks, or that Diplomatic AI 1 was really Joao II of Portugal and Diplomatic AI 2 was Pericles the Athenian statesman. The big sell of Civ V for me is that the game goes overboard on giving exactly that "sense of place", even if it's at the expense of some of the feel of being lord and master of all you survey. And yes, if you look into it or know the basics the characters aren't very true to life (Askia Mohammed was not noted as a great warmonger, and Bismarck is remembered as a statesman and great unifier rather than a belligerent converter of barbarians), but I can at least get a feel for who they are and the states they belong to.

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm starting to get burned out on the expansion now. I just started 2 games which I will not finish. My main beef right now is the time between turns. It makes marathon games unplayable for me at least. I'll try a normal speed game right now to see how that goes. I was also going for culture win and didn't take the liberty tree. OMG how long it took my workers to build improvements without that 25% worker increase buff. I couldn't stand it. Like 20 turns to build a trading post.

If there is any way to increase time in between turns, please let me know.

Another major complaint is it takes too long to "fill up" the world. Tiles are acquired at such a slow pace (unless you take the first SP tree which is inferior to liberty in nearly every way). Unless you are going for culture win, the map has many blanks spots on it.

I know people will say gameplay> realism. But it bothers me there are blank spots on the map in like the 20th century. Civ4 was too easy to pop borders, and Civ5 is too hard imho.

 

[Calouste]

I'm starting to get burned out on the expansion now. I just started 2 games which I will not finish. My main beef right now is the time between turns. It makes marathon games unplayable for me at least. I'll try a normal speed game right now to see how that goes. I was also going for culture win and didn't take the liberty tree. OMG how long it took my workers to build improvements without that 25% worker increase buff. I couldn't stand it. Like 20 turns to build a trading post.

If there is any way to increase time in between turns, please let me know.

Another major complaint is it takes too long to "fill up" the world. Tiles are acquired at such a slow pace (unless you take the first SP tree which is inferior to liberty in nearly every way). Unless you are going for culture win, the map has many blanks spots on it.

I know people will say gameplay> realism. But it bothers me there are blank spots on the map in like the 20th century. Civ4 was too easy to pop borders, and Civ5 is too hard imho.

Historically, there are places that on Earth that are conductive to human habitation, but weren't settled in a significant degree until about 1890ish: the Pacific Northwest of America, most of Australia outside the south east, Patagonia.

 

[zomg]

LOVE CIV 5!!!!

I really enjoyed civ4, but civ 5 is so much better. 1 UPT mixing tactical/strategic elements, Happiness simplifying the less glamorous side of civ (pollution/sickness/etc), hp on units, city states, graphics update, no need for transports (AI ACTUALLY ATTACKS OVER WATER - HUGE)... its just all win.

Always have a game on the go.