civ 6 changes

[elonin]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. Have played civ 2 call to power, civ 3 (no expansions), and civ 4 (also no expansions). I'm debating between buying civ 5 with expansions or civ 6 (wouldn't be able to afford the expansion). What exactly is the difference between 5 with expansion and 6 without?

Also, is there anything that workers can do that don't expend charges?

 

[kryat]

Workers can repair without spending a charge.

The biggest change in 6 was the expulsion of many city improvement buildings and wonders to tiles outside of the city center. Now every wonder must be built outside of he city center with some sort of terrain requirement (I.e., the Lighthouse of Alexandria must be built on a coast tile adjacent to a harbor, a new district). The majority of city improvements now belong in respective districts that provide yields on their own, with varying strength depending on their adjacencies. Civ 6 is very interested in a tile adjacency game that has not really existed in previous installations.

Combat is in 6 is resolved by difference in absolute rather than relative strength difference (as in 5) (which sounds small, but really makes keeping up with the most advanced units much more important). In the late game, similar units can be combined into stronger one tile units called corps, armies, fleets, and armadas. There are also fewer units in an upgrade line in 6, with about one upgrade every other era.

Social policies are now swappable powers that go into slots that belong to your government type, rather than permanent commitments. You are never locked down to a social policy for the rest of the game in 6, but you may only have fewer active at a given turn)

Many technologies that belonged to the common science based tech tree in previous games were moved to a separate culture based civics tree, giving culture focused civs a chance to advance without needing to hard into science. These upgrade government and social policies faster.

Civ 6 does not feature a diplomatic victory seen in previous games. City state (minor civs introduced in 5) relationships are governed by investing a new currency of envoys into each city state, earned in a few different ways, but never through gold. Each city state has a unique bonus granted to the lead investor. Additionally, city states provide an increasing yield to the player based on number of envoys sent regardless of whether or not they are the city state’s ally and lead investor.

And there’s a religion victory now.

There’s some other small changes, but these are probably the most important differences.

 

[elonin]

Thanks for the post Kryat. Sounds as though civ has moved in a large manner into city specialization. I'll admit to a hesitation since city placement can really foul things up. In general i'm wondering if there is enough improvement to justify paying new game prices over 5+expansion.

 

[Simo]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. Have played civ 2 call to power, civ 3 (no expansions), and civ 4 (also no expansions). I'm debating between buying civ 5 with expansions or civ 6 (wouldn't be able to afford the expansion). What exactly is the difference between 5 with expansion and 6 without?

Also, is there anything that workers can do that don't expend charges?

G'day Elonin, I would go Civ 5 with expansions over vanilla Civ 6. Following on from the versions you have played you will be very disapointed in vanilla Civ 6 (and to most extent Civ 5 but at least you have expansions to improve). The vanilla CIv 6 features as interesting as they sound are broken and the game is not complete (i.e. the AI cannot use the district feature, cannot use planes ((literally will not use an airforce at all)) and navies.

If you are to invest at least CIv 5 with expansions is semi challenging but be completely ready to accept that the AI cannot handle 1 UPT which is biggest single crippling feature to the AI that changes the game from the versions you know and play. Civ 4 is by far the better game if only for the fact that the AI can and will compete in war. If I were you I would invest in the expansions of Civ 4 as it is a far superior game despite its age (fan boys will tell you im wrong because of all the cool features of 6 but if the features do not work they are not features). FOr the record I am a Civ 1 to 6 vet including the call to powers, which I enjoyed.

 

[Victoria]

Thanks for the post Kryat. Sounds as though civ has moved in a large manner into city specialization. I'll admit to a hesitation since city placement can really foul things up. In general i'm wondering if there is enough improvement to justify paying new game prices over 5+expansion.

While I am a 6 convert in your case I would go for V... and from what people say the vox populi expansion makes the AI more challenging... much more so that VI. I would only buy 6 if I early like immersive games, it’s much richer in that regard. If nothing else, playing V at least gives another POV before going VI.

 

[elonin]

I have civ 4 and enjoy it though haven't played it much. Sounds like the consensus is 5. And yes I am aware it will be a culture shock from the "xxXxx" building style of 3.

 

[kryat]

I disagree with Simo’s assessment on AI, but the 1UPT debate has been better explored in other threads. To me, 1UPT has made combat more interesting than death balls.

The AI in 6 is fine. Militarily, it can competently take cities. It knows how to smartly take advantage of new features in most cases, but admittedly it does make some strange decisions from time to time. Honestly though, it’s not any worse than in past installations. The AI in 5 rarely trotted out aircraft either. Some people see the past through rose lenses.

I would say Vanilla 6 is comparable to 5 with all expansions, though with less variety in civs (You’re only getting 20, not 50). With R&F and all the single expansions, 6 is every bit as good as 5 for most of the game. The late game in 6 can get a little boring because it lacks the World Congress seen in 5, but even that feature was really less exciting than many make it out to be. Was the option of banning crabs really a game-changing feature?

 

[elonin]

Don't think i had ever seen the AI trot out air, though that is likely due to the difficulty i played at. Most of the time i was either so far ahead that i had nukes vs muskets.

 

[RealHuhn]

The next steam summer sale begins on June 21st, most likely.
I don't know whether civ games go on sale often or not but if you can wait, it's worth a shot?! Maybe you can get Civ 6 vanilla and the R&F expansion for a good prize. I'd recommend that combo over Civ 5. Civ 5 punishes expansion beyond a couple of cities way too much. It really limits the way you can play the game. Many players don't seem to have a problem with this though. It's definitely an addicting game with lots of features. I just prefer the core design of Civ 6.

Have you already watched a few let's plays on youtube? That's what I would do.

 

[RohirrimElf]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. Have played civ 2 call to power, civ 3 (no expansions), and civ 4 (also no expansions). I'm debating between buying civ 5 with expansions or civ 6 (wouldn't be able to afford the expansion). What exactly is the difference between 5 with expansion and 6 without?

Also, is there anything that workers can do that don't expend charges?

Since you have not played civ 5 and are short on cash i would go for civ 5 now on a sale. And save up for when civ 6 second expansion hits (should be more then half a year). Civ 5 with vox populi mod is the best civ experience right now. Far longer in development and intelligent AI. The graphics style is very pleasing and you could play on bigger maps with your pc. (Even disregarding the volume of your wallet i would still go for civ 5. this could change when second expansion hits but this is far off at this point)

(Civ 4 complete with the right mods is still an amazing game do. Grab it on sale gog for next to nothing)

 

[UWHabs]

The next steam summer sale begins on June 21st, most likely.
I don't know whether civ games go on sale often or not but if you can wait, it's worth a shot?! Maybe you can get Civ 6 vanilla and the R&F expansion for a good prize. I'd recommend that combo over Civ 5. Civ 5 punishes expansion beyond a couple of cities way too much. It really limits the way you can play the game. Many players don't seem to have a problem with this though. It's definitely an addicting game with lots of features. I just prefer the core design of Civ 6.

Have you already watched a few let's plays on youtube? That's what I would do.

I'd expect at least the base game to be ~40% off in the steam summer sale. Not sure if R+F will be discounted then, but wouldn't shock me to see civ 5 discounted as well. For anyone who can't afford to buy both, probably waiting at least until the next sale, and then comparing the prices then makes the most sense. Personally I'm much more of a fan of VI than V - I just think it's more interesting to plan out your cities, and go that way, but I do agree there are parts of it that still feel limiting and definitely feels like it still needs a big balance pass, despite being a few years old. I do think getting the 6 expansion is worth it if it comes on sale - eras and loyalty add enough other interesting features to the game that are nice bonuses.

But obviously it depends on price. Civ 6 is not really "worth" the 80$ (CAD for me) that it costs, in that it's been on sale before and will be on sale again that you can get it at a big discount within a few weeks if you wait. But at the same time, it should be really cheap to buy like a civ5 complete pack right now as well.

 

[lordofcivs]

I will recommend 6 over 5. For me, Civilization 5 was a boring game that completely lost me as Sid Meier's fan. Note that I had played Civilization II, , Call 2 Power, Call 2 Power 2, Civilization III (all expansions), Civilization IV (all expansions). And Civilization V (Beyond Sword) did not provide me the same fun I used to have in the series in past. That became the reason why I didn't bothered to even test Civilization VI earlier. After its expansion 'Rise & Fall', I tested it and enjoyed it. And now playing it, I'm once again back to the series.

I'm not sure about vanilla Civilization VI, but Rise & Fall expansion is great. If you can manage to get it, that would be really good. If you can wait till summer sale on steam, that would be better. I think they would have the pack of original + expansion of Civilization at better price.

 

[Siddorm]

I would recommend Civ 5 over 6, simply because the Vox Populi mod is so good.