Why is Civilopedia so useless?

[Horserush]

This is hilarious and sad, so sad. I was also looking for info on rail movement and other BASIC stuff and tried looking in the civilopedia, and there was nothing. Looked in the pdf manual and got more information out of that (even though it's probably wrong).

 

[pazmacats]

writing a civilopedia needs translations in 125 languages. this doesn't come for free. this game is published to make money. it made money. no need to spend any more money on it until the start of the "WE WILL FIX IT"-hype (which they will wait with until next year if they are smart)

 

[vincentz]

beta testing cost money. no reason to beta test. human programmers cost money. lets use monkeys instead.....

 

[jayjay77]

A sad development, this pretty much sums up the whole ciV experience

 

[jtb1127]

beta testing cost money. no reason to beta test. human programmers cost money. lets use monkeys instead.....

Yeah that sums of up every problem with civ v and even explains just how greedy 2k is.

 

[Horserush]

Yeah that sums of up every problem with civ v and even explains just how greedy 2k is.

Well if they're greedy why don't they make a quality game? They will get a lot more customers if their games are polished and you know, actually work.

 

[sketch162000]

Well if they're greedy why don't they make a quality game? They will get a lot more customers if their games are polished and you know, actually work.

Capitalist mentality. Maximize profits while cutting expenses. Decent games cost money. If they can make a hefty profit without spending the money to make a decent game, they will.

On topic, the Civilopedia is despicable. The fact that they haven't tried even tried to fix it and we're what...three patches in?

I'm seriously considering just skipping Civ VI (if they even make it) now out of pure spite and on principle.

 

[jtb1127]

Capitalist mentality. Maximize profits while cutting expenses. Decent games cost money. If they can make a hefty profit without spending the money to make a decent game, they will.

On topic, the Civilopedia is despicable. The fact that they haven't tried even tried to fix it and we're what...three patches in?

I'm seriously considering just skipping Civ VI (if they even make it) now out of pure spite and on principle.

I know and you forgot to mention the DLCs

 

[magnus333]

The civilopedia is probably vague because things were changing every other day in development and it didn't make sense to make hundreds of edits.

If any of you want to help instead of just complaining, if you put together a list of every entry that needs clarification I'm sure the devs will see it and eventually take care of it, as they have been doing through the patches.

 

[Schalke 04]

according to 2kGreg's post in the new patch-note-thread, they want to adjust the Civilopedia together with the new patch (coming "in February"). I guess this counts at least for the new upcoming changes, but hopefully for the other poorly documented entries as well..

 

[Horserush]

Adjust probably just means they will put in more useless information for the blank entries. I seriously doubt they will actually try to throw in useful stuff like oh, keyboard commands and modifier information.

 

[jtb1127]

Well if they're greedy why don't they make a quality game? They will get a lot more customers if their games are polished and you know, actually work.

Because a quality game is too expensive to make. A game that isn't quality can be cheaper but also make the same amount of money from initial purchases and then tagging on DLC that the game should have came with in the first place.

 

[bruntfca]

Because a quality game is too expensive to make. A game that isn't quality can be cheaper but also make the same amount of money from initial purchases and then tagging on DLC that the game should have came with in the first place.

The flaw in what I call the "it's only capitalism argument", is that you can only sell a crappy product once.

As a shareholder one would expect a steady stream of income over the years from the *Civ Franchise*. However what Firaxis have done is more or less killed their own franchise, this is not good for business and not good for future discounted cash flows, reflected in the share price.

It's obvious that Civ 5 failed due to an inexperienced or incompetent producer and poor project management.

In contrast look at the Call of Duty Franchise, people may hate on Activision, but they turn out a reasonably bug free product, that *the target audience enjoys* year after year. They obviously care about the franchise, since they know it generates future income for them.

 

[Rusty Edge]

The civilopedia is probably vague because things were changing every other day in development and it didn't make sense to make hundreds of edits.

If any of you want to help instead of just complaining, if you put together a list of every entry that needs clarification I'm sure the devs will see it and eventually take care of it, as they have been doing through the patches.

I 'm guessing that we still don't have a civilopedia yet for the same reason they haven't released the source code to make the game "the most modable CIV ever"- The game isn't "stable" ( I use the term "finished," call it whatever you like ).

So- you're right, if they wait they can do it once. I've read an estimate of SEP for a source code release, so maybe we have that long to compile Civilopedia gaps for them.

 

[lschnarch]

I 'm guessing that we still don't have a civilopedia yet for the same reason they haven't released the source code to make the game "the most modable CIV ever"- The game isn't "stable" ( I use the term "finished," call it whatever you like ).

So- you're right, if they wait they can do it once. I've read an estimate of SEP for a source code release, so maybe we have that long to compile Civilopedia gaps for them.

Source:

Hi, I'm Brian Wade, lead programmer. Well Civilopedia is really the best source of documentation for the game. It pretty much has the up to date rules and values of everything because it's pulling the data straight from the same places that the game itself is pulling it. So if it says that a unit is strength 75, well it's strength 75. Manuals - printed manuals and such – get out of date very quickly with changes and the Civilopedia doesn't.

In the game which must not be named, this was already working.

The problem of the "Civilopedia" is not changing values, it is developer's incompetency.

 

[pazmacats]

Well if they're greedy why don't they make a quality game? They will get a lot more customers if their games are polished and you know, actually work.

Because the market does not demand quality games.

There are LOTS of brands (e.g. games that have a famous name) that come with the same problems year after year. The whole industry is not concerned with innovation/gameplay or quality. 95% of all the people involved in the production process seem to be mainly interested in generating as much hype as possible. (It'd be funny to count the words of the design documents of Civ5 and compare the number to the amount of words of the interviews. Were people making up features while performing interviews?!)

Turn based strategy is a segment that is nearly dead. There aren't many alternatives worth speaking of. That means no competition and that means 2K and Firaxis can get away with a product like Civ5. GalCiv is boring, Elemental: WoM is a disaster, the total war games are more useful as a way of benchmarking graphic cards and everything else is too old to be played (MoO2)

The expansion will generate some more hype. People will eventually lower their standards and get used to the gameplay. Expansion 2 will add a whole new bunch of features again so people will go ZOMG, I can't wait to be allowed to PREORDER-RIGHT-NOW! again.

The civilopedia is not fixed because it is not important to fix it. The relevant group of customers doesn't like to read anyway. You don't make money by selling games to people who like to read.

PS: There seem to be SOME (a few) people around who care about gameplay and innovation. Sometimes I think everyone else leeches from their efforts. Civ used to be one of those games. And hope will make us wait for Civ6.

 

[Horserush]

Valve comes to mind when I think innovation and quality gaming.

It'd be funny to count the words of the design documents of Civ5 and compare the number to the amount of words of the interviews. Were people making up features while performing interviews?!

Someone should do this, but I doubt the design documents exist. It would probably be some guys notes written out on a bar napkin

 

[ryan1266]

You receive a 50% production boost for every city connected to your capitol by railroads/harbor (once you have researched railroads)
Railroads also cost 2gpt to maintain, harbors only cost 3gpt, so if you can, use harbors instead

Do you get the production boost with harbors? (sorry if this was already asked, I didn't read the whole thread)

 

[Harald]

Do you get the production boost with harbors? (sorry if this was already asked, I didn't read the whole thread)

Technically you still get the bonus from railroad but since harbors connect to each other as if connected by railroad(at least after you have discovered railroad). So it's possible to just build harbors to connect coastal cities to each other for the 3 GPT instead of paying 2 gpt per tile for railroads.

 

[jtb1127]

Technically you still get the bonus from railroad but since harbors connect to each other as if connected by railroad(at least after you have discovered railroad). So it's possible to just build harbors to connect coastal cities to each other for the 3 GPT instead of paying 2 gpt per tile for railroads.

I've been wondering about this. I guess your more useful than civilopedia.