18 months later - how is Civ VI?

King of Spades

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Hi gang!

I got burned pretty badly when Civ V launched. As an avid Civ gamer since Civ II launched, I was in hype overdrive as the launch date of Civ V got closer and closer. I must have watched the 1 hour gameplay video that was released sometime before the launch more than 50 times.

Going from the finely refined Civ IV to what seemed like an unfinished Civ V, truly let me down. It took some time (and a lot of patches) before V turned good, though it never seemed to become as good or complete as IV. To me, it seemed like each patch released fixed what was broken, instead of improving what was already good.

Because of this, I’ve yet to buy Civ VI. But before I do, I turn to this forum of fanatics. So, how are Civ VI doing? Is it a great «finished» product, or are we going down the patchwork fix-what’s-broken road?
 
remember that 4 wasn't "finely refined" until the very final patch before they went on to other projects.

i like the new game. if you're of the mind though that everything has to be at its ultimate peak before you enjoy it, you'll probably be disappointed.
 
If you play against other players it might be good... but I've only had 1 game since release where the AI seemed to know what it was doing - that was a fun game. It is very much the same as civ5, but with the added effect that civ6 has fundamental design choices that makes it very "clicky". The promised "better modding" is also yet to come... so I dunno. It depends on how you play I guess.
 
There are quite a few good mechanical ideas and interactions hampered by beta UI (if I'm charitable), hidden rules, and still-questionable interaction between mechanics for winning vs mechanics for diplomacy. This breaks the AI strategically, and it's very poor tactically.

So you'll find it significantly easier than Civ 4 on high difficulties, and you'll spend several hours longer per playthrough solely from fighting the UI and turn rollover (the faster you play, the more you will notice this). MP stability/sync is still a persistent issue (and once a desync train starts, good luck finishing that game ever).

If these things don't bother you and you're interested in some new mechanical interactions you might enjoy it. Districts, loyalty, and policy cards offer considerations like Civ 4's civic choices, worker micromanagement, and culture. War isn't actually more tactical despite what people with no idea how to fight in Civ 4 claim, but it's also not significantly less and is very different, so you'll have some novel systems to play with. If you're the sort of player that spends 20 or more hours per game in civ 4 rather than 5 or less, maybe the broken UI won't be a dealbreaker for you, instead just annoying since you can't use it to discern all the rules.

If you're looking for a quality, polished game worthy of being considered a AAA title, look elsewhere. There's some stuff to enjoy here depending on your preferences though.
 
it's miles better than civ5 when it comes to empire building ( you are not punished for expanding! ) and city management ( district and tile improvement placement is interesting to plan out )

compared to civ4, the AI is terrible and 1upt is still an issue but at least there's an actual combat system rather than individual duels between units stacked together

all in all I find it quite enjoyable even in its current state, unlike civ5 which never quite clicked for me. it may not be as perfectly designed as civ4, but it's got enough good features to make me want to keep playing it
 
compared to civ4, the AI is terrible and 1upt is still an issue but at least there's an actual combat system rather than individual duels between units stacked together

Civ 4 had an actual combat system. In most cases, neither the AI nor the typical player used it. How is that different from Civ 6 though?

Moving a stack of units into enemy territory blind in Civ 4 vs anybody you could even call "decent" is abject suicide. Claiming it's "who has the bigger stack" is a gross misrepresentation of the reality of war in that game, sort of like saying all there is to war in Civ 6 is killing stuff with ranged units.
 
technically you're right, however civ4's combat always seemed like garbage to me even back in 2006, I can't help but compare it to call to power's and it's not a pretty comparison

civ6's system also has its flaws of course, with 1upt being a fundamental one, but I still find it somewhat enjoyable
 
Civ VI is pretty enjoyable. It’s a much better game than V was at release (particularly if you get R+F). The AI isn’t perfect, and it needs more polish, but for all it does for taking the series in a bit of a new direction, I’ve been mostly pleased. I’d recommend it.
 
I think Civ6 is a lot of really good idea all rolled into a package that doesn't really work yet. The AI is still subpar in many areas and the way to get the challenge is to artificially crank up the bonuses it gets. That sort of works, but it's not satisfying since you're competing against those bonuses, not the other Civs.
 
I think Civ6 is a lot of really good idea all rolled into a package that doesn't really work yet. The AI is still subpar in many areas and the way to get the challenge is to artificially crank up the bonuses it gets. That sort of works, but it's not satisfying since you're competing against those bonuses, not the other Civs.

And then there's the much lamented issue when you've overcome the nearby AI civs in the first fifty turns or so and you know you've already won the game. The loyalty system has done nothing to really change this.

4 had that too of course, but the tipping point comes much sooner in the game in VI.
 
Played civ 6 for about 600 hours. My feeling is that the game needs one more expansion. Like in 6-9 months. Not one that adds more content but optimises everything that is put in but could use more work. The game needs a lot of AI work done. Air and naval combat could use another overhaul. The AI could be more “suicidal” on the attack of cities and smarter on defense. Overall it needs more balance overall. the last 50/60 turns of most of my endgames is about pressing enter and sluggish turn times. A waste of time when not hunting for achievements. World builder and world congress would be excelent. But i’ll rather See a large overhaul on everything that is lacking.
 
My Civilization 4 games were so much more enjoyable for me once I had "Beyond the Sword". And I loved Civilization 5 so very deeply when I was playing with "Brave New World".

I feel Civilization 6 ever so desperately needs a Diplomatic or Economic victory for my games to be truly as enjoyable as I felt before, but I still very much love this game and enjoy playing! I see a lot of really good players are unhappy, which does make me feel sad on their behalf, but at least there are mods they can use to fix what they don't like. I'm so much hoping our last expansion will be all about how the late game works with diplomacy, and aircraft, and space, and global economy, and all those things. I really don't feel it's fair if I compare how I feel about Civilization 6 right now to how I felt about Civilizations 4 or 5 when they had those final parts of their games.
 
I don’t know it lacks a real soul to me. Sometimes I find it ok but most of time I just get a bit bored with it.

I’m not sure if they are losing track of what makes a good game and replacing it with realism.

I think if an AI declares a surprise war against you and you kick their arse then take a few cities it shouldn’t end your relationship with every civ for the rest of the game. Yes it’s realistic I suppose but is it enjoyable? Really?
 
I don’t know it lacks a real soul to me. Sometimes I find it ok but most of time I just get a bit bored with it.

I’m not sure if they are losing track of what makes a good game and replacing it with realism.

I think if an AI declares a surprise war against you and you kick their arse then take a few cities it shouldn’t end your relationship with every civ for the rest of the game. Yes it’s realistic I suppose but is it enjoyable? Really?

It’s not even realistic, history is full of examples of states taking cities and whole regions in war and then getting along swimmingly with other states after the war, including the ones who lost terrirory.

And it’s certainly not enjoyable. I find I just have to ignore the row of red faces up in the corner for most of the game, unless I set out to play a peaceful game, which is too boring for me really.
 
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Just looking up at those red faces makes me feel like I’m just playing on my own. Every game I start I just think I might as well kill them all from the beginning and not care because whatever I do they will ultimately hate me anyway. That’s not fun.
 
Eh, I am not an expert on the topic, but here is my opinion.

I think if you buy it today you will get at least a few weeks of enjoyment out of it simply because of new mechanics. The culture track thats similar to the tech track, the way terrain is more important than in previous Civ games, the way eurekas work, (if you get R+F) loyalty, dark ages and golden ages CAN be fun but it isn't so much for me.

After the shiny wears off you will realize that a lot of these mechanics don't really compliment each other. For me I am at the stage where playing Civ 6 feels empty because I don't get the feeling that the "Egyptian Empire" is the "Egyptian Empire" (immersion I suppose). Reasoning is the AI is simply bad at pretending to be an empire. Sure some could argue the AI is "good" at pretending to be a competing player (which I don't think anyone would really argue but I suppose the logic is there somewhere). All in all when I play Civ 6 the AI seems just wacky. Emergencies make it worse (here is magic money from the sky for no reason).

Also the late game is horrible. I actually enjoyed the late game in previous Civs, its fun to actually feel like your Empire is finally an Empire! In Civ 6 if you have passed the AI (tech wise, culture wise, military wise) in the early game it is simply impossible for the AI to pose a challenge anymore (let alone resemble an empire). EDIT: I forgot to mention that the AI is not able to effectively use aircraft which makes the late game worse.

I am more or less in the camp that thinks modders will be able to make Civ 6 excellent, but that is a while away.
 
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Hi gang!

I got burned pretty badly when Civ V launched. As an avid Civ gamer since Civ II launched, I was in hype overdrive as the launch date of Civ V got closer and closer. I must have watched the 1 hour gameplay video that was released sometime before the launch more than 50 times.

Going from the finely refined Civ IV to what seemed like an unfinished Civ V, truly let me down. It took some time (and a lot of patches) before V turned good, though it never seemed to become as good or complete as IV. To me, it seemed like each patch released fixed what was broken, instead of improving what was already good.

Because of this, I’ve yet to buy Civ VI. But before I do, I turn to this forum of fanatics. So, how are Civ VI doing? Is it a great «finished» product, or are we going down the patchwork fix-what’s-broken road?

If I were you, I would at least consider the following different sources of opinions:

1. Go and ask the same question in the Civ 4 forums.
2. You asked it here already, so collect answers.
3. Read the more valuable (best liked) reviews in Steam.
4. Avoid any mainstream media review.
5. Compare answers, giving weights as follows: 40% to 1., 40% to 2., and 20% to 3.
 
If I were you, I would at least consider the following different sources of opinions:

1. Go and ask the same question in the Civ 4 forums.
2. You asked it here already, so collect answers.
3. Read the more valuable (best liked) reviews in Steam.
4. Avoid any mainstream media review.
5. Compare answers, giving weights as follows: 40% to 1., 40% to 2., and 20% to 3.
"ignore all these reviews over here because of presumably political personal opinions held by me" is not the best advice to give, in my opinion.

@King of Spades

Read all the reviews. Steam, official, wherever. Only then can you make an accurate judgement.

Personally, I think Civ VI at the moment is worth the money - even the non-Rise & Fall version has received improvements in line with what has been fixed in R&F (mechanics and features added aside). So if you don't want to splurge on both, and the original (non-Deluxe) version is still available, that's something to consider.

The game launched with a fuller feature set than CiV and R&F has added in cultural (esque) weighting in the form of Eras (and other improvements).
 
I got burned pretty badly when Civ V launched.

I hear so many reports of how bad Civ V was at launch but I don't remember that...which is probably b'cos I didn't really get to play it until almost 2012 (cos I was very busy at work). By that time G&K might have been out.

I like Civ VI. There are a ton of improvements over Civ V. Also a ton of bugs & glitches. But TBH R&F is IMO Firaxis New Coke :mischief:
 
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Yeah but how much fun is it when you meet a civ, immediately send them a delegation then the next turn you see the red unhappy face. 99 percent of the time.
 
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