Civilization 5 Rants Thread

[Jayman1000]

Overall verdict: Civ5 looks shiny at first but feels empty and boring after a little while. It makes me miss Civ4 but I can hardly imagine playing more of that game after so many years of it.

You should try the Realism Invictus mod for Civ4 BTS, if you haven't already that is. It's the most awesome and content-filled Civ4 BTS mod ever created, imo. Just want to let you know in case you have never heard of it

 

[Bhoy]

You should try the Realism Invictus mod for Civ4 BTS, if you haven't already that is. It's the most awesome and content-filled Civ4 BTS mod ever created, imo. Just want to let you know in case you have never heard of it

What's the performance like on big maps / late game?

I've struggled with some of the other mods even on an i7 machine - I don't think the game engine was built to cope with some of the bigger additions.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Firaxis,
Creator of an awesome game,
Why do you troll me so?

I had heard that CiV required heavy duty processing power. So I custom built a 2k rig with the most advanced hardware I could find specifically to play this amazing game.

Why is it then that it takes my new computer forever to finish a turn of play on a 2 year old game?

 

[Drakarska]

What's the performance like on big maps / late game?

I've struggled with some of the other mods even on an i7 machine - I don't think the game engine was built to cope with some of the bigger additions.

Depends on the number of civs you've selected bro. I'm currently playing the 31 AI civs map and am in the ME era. Turns are approx 30-45 sec wait time on my mid-range HP. Considering the content and overall size of the mod, this is an acceptle wait time. Late game wait times ( industrial and above) can avg about 1-1:30 min depending on number of civs, barbs, and small kingdoms left on the map. But considering that I play on the "realistic" setting, I don't see that as a major issue.
The overall mod and all of it's great content are well worth any long wait times I might incur. Btw, if any of your RI gods are in the house,

As for civ V's poor excuse to handle navy, I agree with brian. The current method of "embarking" speaks volumes of the designers total lack of understanding ( or even possibly caring?) of how vital a navy truely is to any kingdom. If I wanted cheese in a game, I'd order a pizza. And this aspect of the game is epically cheesy.

 

[Bhoy]

Depends on the number of civs you've selected bro. I'm currently playing the 31 AI civs map and am in the ME era. Turns are approx 30-45 sec wait time on my mid-range HP. Considering the content and overall size of the mod, this is an acceptle wait time. Late game wait times ( industrial and above) can avg about 1-1:30 min depending on number of civs, barbs, and small kingdoms left on the map. But considering that I play on the "realistic" setting, I don't see that as a major issue.
The overall mod and all of it's great content are well worth any long wait times I might incur. Btw, if any of your RI gods are in the house,

As for civ V's poor excuse to handle navy, I agree with brian. The current method of "embarking" speaks volumes of the designers total lack of understanding ( or even possibly caring?) of how vital a navy truely is to any kingdom. If I wanted cheese in a game, I'd order a pizza. And this aspect of the game is epically cheesy.

Years ago when I was playing Civ2 on a Playstation1 I would take such waits on the chin - now any more than about 10 seconds and I go nuts.

As I said some of the mods out there for BTS are great and interesting in early game, it's the late game slow down that breaks them - I just can't wait a minute per turn. I was kinda hoping Civ 5 would be a multi-core supporting version of Civ4 BTS with additional functionality and maybe some of the good aspects of the popular mods - it just turned out like a shell of a game, devoid of most of the things I love in Civ4 or even indeed Civ3.

I knew after about 10 hours of playing Civ5 that it was definitely a write-off and they couldn't fix it with patches or expansion packs. I have little confidence that Civ6 will be any better either - so a good mod that doesn't slow Civ4 to a halt is my only hope of mixing the game up over the next few years.

 

[Jayman1000]

... so a good mod that doesn't slow Civ4 to a halt is my only hope of mixing the game up over the next few years.

My hope also. Perhaps new and more powerful processors will solve the problem of long load times?

What's the performance like on big maps / late game?

I've struggled with some of the other mods even on an i7 machine - I don't think the game engine was built to cope with some of the bigger additions.

Im in the end of industrial age on the world map, realistic. I takes me about 1½ minutes per turn. I have 64Bit Win7 and 6GB ram, I7-cpu and amd 6970 fx card, but I am unfortunately beginning to experience MAF's, which I am sooo sad to see. I thougt I was safe from that with 64bit, but no..

 

[Bhoy]

My hope also. Perhaps new and more powerful processors will solve the problem of long load times?



Im in the end of industrial age on the world map, realistic. I takes me about 1½ minutes per turn. I have 64Bit Win7 and 6GB ram, I7-cpu and amd 6970 fx card, but I am unfortunately beginning to experience MAF's, which I am sooo sad to see. I thougt I was safe from that with 64bit, but no..

The problem we have is that new processor cores are not becoming massively more powerful as such, the likes of Intel are just adding more cores to each processor for multitasking and for new apps which can use more than a single core at once - I believe Civ4 is built to only ever use a single core, so it's unlikely that Moore's Law will help us.

 

[Drakarska]

My hope also. Perhaps new and more powerful processors will solve the problem of long load times?



Im in the end of industrial age on the world map, realistic. I takes me about 1½ minutes per turn. I have 64Bit Win7 and 6GB ram, I7-cpu and amd 6970 fx card, but I am unfortunately beginning to experience MAF's, which I am sooo sad to see. I thougt I was safe from that with 64bit, but no..

Interesting. I've never had any probs with MAF's while playing RI. As I said earlier, I have a mid-rng HP, so I expect some wait time. But that's a 1st oI've heard of MAF's on the RI mod. Did you check the forums and see if there was something that could be done?

 

[Drakarska]

Years ago when I was playing Civ2 on a Playstation1 I would take such waits on the chin - now any more than about 10 seconds and I go nuts.

As I said some of the mods out there for BTS are great and interesting in early game, it's the late game slow down that breaks them - I just can't wait a minute per turn. I was kinda hoping Civ 5 would be a multi-core supporting version of Civ4 BTS with additional functionality and maybe some of the good aspects of the popular mods - it just turned out like a shell of a game, devoid of most of the things I love in Civ4 or even indeed Civ3.

I knew after about 10 hours of playing Civ5 that it was definitely a write-off and they couldn't fix it with patches or expansion packs. I have little confidence that Civ6 will be any better either - so a good mod that doesn't slow Civ4 to a halt is my only hope of mixing the game up over the next few years.

lol, c'mon bro. your supposed to be the mighty grand poo bah of an epic empire. you can't wait 1 min? hell, it takes at least 2 min to summon the executioner

 

[gaiko]

eXplore the shallowness of the game
eXpand your mind to find new ways of cheesy play
eXploit the mechanics
eXterminate any fanboys you come across a forum or games convention

when (not if) you're bored to death wait for an expansion, rinse, repeat

 

[Bhoy]

lol, c'mon bro. your supposed to be the mighty grand poo bah of an epic empire. you can't wait 1 min? hell, it takes at least 2 min to summon the executioner

Nope, if I play a normal game of Civ4 BTS it takes around 24 hours of game play - and that's when the turn time is < 10 seconds. I can't slow that down, maybe if I was doing something else with my life, like writing a book, or working on a project, I may be able to take the occasional glance towards the game - but when I'm bored in my own company I do not want to take a minute for every slight click of a button - that would just be a bad experience.

 

[Drakarska]

Nope, if I play a normal game of Civ4 BTS it takes around 24 hours of game play - and that's when the turn time is < 10 seconds. I can't slow that down, maybe if I was doing something else with my life, like writing a book, or working on a project, I may be able to take the occasional glance towards the game - but when I'm bored in my own company I do not want to take a minute for every slight click of a button - that would just be a bad experience.

Fair enough. Tell ya what, next RI game I play, I'll set the speed for fast, then i'll let you know quick the turns are.

 

[scyt4l3]

I miss having religion matter for diplomacy, as it did in Civ4.

Wait a second... are you telling me that religion have no diplomatic impact whatsoever in Civ 5/G&K? This... as if needed, would speak volume about how lousy of a job they are doing to our beloved title.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Wait a second... are you telling me that religion have no diplomatic impact whatsoever in Civ 5/G&K? This... as if needed, would speak volume about how lousy of a job they are doing to our beloved title.

It does have an impact but it's more nuanced than the ham-fisted approach CIV took.

Just one example, civs will get peeved when you spread an unwanted religion into their cities. For more examples, poke around the G&K forum.

 

[Jayman1000]

Interesting. I've never had any probs with MAF's while playing RI. As I said earlier, I have a mid-rng HP, so I expect some wait time. But that's a 1st oI've heard of MAF's on the RI mod. Did you check the forums and see if there was something that could be done?

Yup I did, and read some more too. There seems in fact to be a number of other players also experiencing MAF's even with 64Bit systems. It wasnt clear why though. The solution I found was to reduce the graphics settings from the highest to middle. That reduced the Civ process on my computer from 2.4GB to 1.8GB, and also made the MAF's totally go away. Prior to that I still had more than 2GB free RAM free, so I don't think it had anything to do with not having enough. More like the civ process with 2.4GB was beginning to get to big.. somehow. Dont know why that is a problem when I got 64BIt

 

[Jayman1000]

Nope, if I play a normal game of Civ4 BTS it takes around 24 hours of game play - and that's when the turn time is < 10 seconds. I can't slow that down, maybe if I was doing something else with my life, like writing a book, or working on a project, I may be able to take the occasional glance towards the game - but when I'm bored in my own company I do not want to take a minute for every slight click of a button - that would just be a bad experience.

I can be months to complete a single game. I admit that I usually play ALOT around with the worldbuilder. However not with Realism Invictus, not yet at least, theres so much content, no need to throw in crazy stuff.

About those minute long wait on turns, I was consider getting The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as an ebook; to alt-tab out when pressing end turn, and just read a little for those 90-120 seconds

 

[Drakarska]

@ Bhoy; Unfortuneately, I don't think this is going to be the mod for you bro. I started a new game last night and the speed for rollercoaster ( x5 spd). Wait times from AE to CE was 15-20 sec. From ME to REN, avg speed was about 42 sec. IND and above.... well, we won't discuss that, because pretty much everyone was at war with at least somebody on the map.

Additionally, the game felt unbalanced. I was teching at an insane rate and still wasn"t ahead, and the AI civs, barbs and small kingdoms were just all over the place. While I have no problems playing on the norm or fast setting, for this particular mod, it's definitely not advisable.

 

[lollibast]

so i got G&K now (i know, i know, facepalm from all sides) and i just found another annoying thing:
hovering over an enemy unit to see combat estimation shows the unit's perks, but colored triangles don't mean a lot to me as long as i can't mouseover them because I only see that as long as i keep my mouse on the unit on the map

 

[scyt4l3]

Just stopping by to state that I just got aware of the facts that there is no conquest victory and that the domination victory is dependent of capitals. More over, you just can't raze capitals and city states. Even more over, some people are bashing those who would like the option of razing them arguing that it would not make sense...
Carthage anyone?
This game is so not worthy of the sequel title, they should have just changed the name for something like "Battlefield Civilizations".
BTW, I only played the vanilla game for 30 minutes when it came out. Since then, I lurk to see player's reactions and how the game evolve. The more I discover features of the game, the more I find it ********.

My humble opinion and another bash on this failure of a sequel.

 

[Thormodr]

Just stopping by to state that I just got aware of the facts that there is no conquest victory and that the domination victory is dependent of capitals. More over, you just can't raze capitals and city states. Even more over, some people are bashing those who would like the option of razing them arguing that it would not make sense...
Carthage anyone?
This game is so not worthy of the sequel title, they should have just changed the name for something like "Battlefield Civilizations".
BTW, I only played the vanilla game for 30 minutes when it came out. Since then, I lurk to see player's reactions and how the game evolve. The more I discover features of the game, the more I find it ********.

My humble opinion and another bash on this failure of a sequel.

Yeah, I discussed the razing part when the game first came out and argued that razing a capital was realistic. Carthage was the prime example I gave.

As for being an unworthy sequel, I agree 100%

Perhaps they will get things right in Civ 6.