Once more unto the breach dear friends...

KingMackem

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 30, 2010
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Durham, England
I recently got a new gaming PC and decided to test it out by running a Civ 5 vanilla game (huge map, marathon speed, deity). It's probably the 1st game of Civ 5 I've played in ca.4 years, for one reason or another. Hoping to finish it tonight via a diplomatic victory although it could also be science.

Played as the English as, despite not really liking their ability/units, I wanted the achievement. Started out on a strip of land comparable to the Caucasus (i.e. inland sea to the west and the east) on a large continent randomly generated (so much for my special ability!).

Decided to focus on gold and science and before I knew it I'd bought the alliance of all culture and maritime city states and was rounding the corner to the modern age whilst my closest competitor was still in the renaissance.

I was playing a very peacey, peacey game and decided to align myself with the most powerful clique (Rome, Germany, Iroquois, China, and India) and I succumbed to their every whim, be it demands for gold or declarations of war against the alternative main clique (America, Japan, France, and Siam).

However, my endeavours in diplomacy took a major turn at the beginning of my renaissance when Rome decided to backstab me with a denouncement shortly followed by war. This led to the other leaders in my clique turning against me. Suddenly I was isolated in a hostile world of dastardly, backstabbing toe-rags and long-term enemies. Through time, this has forced me to annihilate both Rome and the Iroquois, becoming a dominant military force.

I suppose my point is this, diplomacy was never one of the strongest points of Civ 5 (and there are many good points) and it was one of the reasons I decided to stop playing. In the early game it did help but at a point I began to just ignore everyone else, not needing research agreements, gold, or help in wars.

I never did buy any expansions and I was wondering if they have made a big difference to diplomacy. What are peoples' opinions? This is probably the biggest stumbling block to me when playing Civ 5 as I really like to submerge myself in the RPG nature of the game and feel a part of a global community.

TLDR: To what extent have the expansions improved diplomacy in Civ 5? Are they worth buying?
 
Expansions add a lot more things to manage (Religion, Routes, COngress) that makes it worthwhile.

And shamelessly plugging Gazebo's Communtiy Balance Patch also improves diplomacy and acts as a third expansion pack.
 
Hey, glad to here you decided to give Civ 5 another shot. I purchased all the Expansions and DLC as they rolled out. An I have to say both Expansions did wonders for the Diplomacy. Obviously we all here are very picky an having my education based on foreign diplomacy I see many ways the final iteration could be improved upon. Yet as it stands, Diplomacy is so much more robust in the final Expansion.

I would strongly suggest picking up the DLC and both Expansions to really get the full effect of Civ 5. Especially since the Expansions did some much needed tweaks to the AI's original goofy way of screwing the player over or ignoring the fact there were alliances in place. Also as Bear said, the community balance mod really fleshes it out further!
 
To echo the above, buy the expansions for the added gameplay. The improved diplomacy is pretty minor, but to stay on topic, Jon Shafer gave a pretty damning indictment of vanilla diplomacy.

The computer opponents in Civ 5 were completely enslaved to their gameplay situation, and as a result they appeared random and very little of their personalities shone through. They were all crazy, and in the exact same way.

I like diplomacy with BNW. The AIs are much less arbitrary, and Ideology choices in the late game are the predominant indicator of friendship status. So I find that more predictable and immersive.
 
Thanks for the prompt responses people - it's really appreciated!

By the sounds of it, it's definitely worth picking up the expansion, although I'm now flat broke for the month (expensive gaming PC!) and will need to wait until payday.

Think I'll try out that mod by Gazebo tonight once I've finished off my game. I like mods but I heard that Steam doesn't recognise them for achievements... which is nothing short of a crying shame as I'm a bit of an achievement chaser!
 
To echo the above, buy the expansions for the added gameplay. The improved diplomacy is pretty minor, but to stay on topic, Jon Shafer gave a pretty damning indictment of vanilla diplomacy.

Thanks for the link to this article. That is a surprisingly forthright breakdown of strengths and weaknesses in civ V from the main developer himself. That was a good read.
 
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