Favorite Firaxis Quotes

Stretchy Man

Chieftain
Joined
Aug 30, 2010
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38
Here's a few:

Like most core aspects of Civilization, the fifth iteration in the series has taken AI to a new height. Elizabeth Tobey.

When you get to the top tier of difficult, the AI can be brutal – I know that I’m not the only one who has accused the computer of cheating when on an expert level. Tobey.

Civilization V as a whole, with Jon designing it, is a big call to them (fan community), to say, "Thank you. This is what you've been asking for. Dennis Shirk.

Sid will make sure it's all balanced, so it's not people spending all the money who'll win all the time. Marketing woman.

Sid is always playing the game and giving his input. He's just instrumental in everything we do. He can look at a game, play for five minutes, and automatically pinpoint if something's not quite going to work over a five-hour session. He's just really good at it, so I would say Sid's always got his hands pretty thoroughly in everything. Dennis Shirk.

He's our local wunderkind (child prodigy). He does amazing stuff, and is a huge fan of history. Shirk talking about Shafer.

We have a young designer like Jon who is excellent at everything he does, but even he needs help. Even Sid needs help sometimes. Shirk.

Jon Shafer had an incredibly daunting task, but from what we’ve seen so far from the press and the fans, he succeeded. Shirk.

The thing is, Civ V is a big sloppy kiss/love letter to our fan community. We want it to be for the hardcore. Shirk.

War is fun, and blowing stuff up is awesome, but Civilization is about building. War is still a part that equation, obviously, but other options make more sense now. Shirk.

We wanted to add depth to the combat system, but war isn't more advantageous as a tactic. If you like war, there's more depth for you there. We're trying to equalise as much as possible. It speaks to different people's playstyles. Some people only play it as a war game, some people only conquer. On the other extreme, you've got people who never fight at all. We need to cater to both these groups, and we need to balance those approaches. Shafer.

Now, aside from that, although we are removing religion as it was in Civilization IV, we're never removing something completely from the game, especially something that fans liked, and leaving an empty hole. There are other systems coming into play that we're not talking about yet that are going to make people very happy. Shirk.

If you're playing against Gandhi and he doesn't declare war randomly on you at some point, then we haven't done our job. Shirk.

:wow:
 
While I'm definately a civ 5 supporter.. these are pretty hilarious.

"Sid will make sure it's all balanced, so it's not people spending all the money who'll win all the time." :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
While I'm definately a civ 5 supporter.. these are pretty hilarious.

"Sid will make sure it's all balanced, so it's not people spending all the money who'll win all the time." :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Well, thank you Sid, great job you did there :lol: :lol: :lol:

If Firaxis launches as a 3€ DLC a "Let's play Civ V!" video by Sid Meyer, I'd definitely buy it. That could be the greatest Civ V experience ever.
 
If you're playing against Gandhi and he doesn't declare war randomly on you at some point, then we haven't done our job. Shirk.

I like the inverse of this:

If you're playing against Gandhi and he DOES declare war randomly on you at some point, then we HAVE done our job.

Good job, guys. You succeeded.
 
Please tell me you made all these up. Please... :scared:
 
The thing is, Civ V is a big sloppy kiss/love letter to our fan community. We want it to be for the hardcore.

Feels a lot more like a boot in the nuts.:eek:
 
Hilarious! This is actual proof the developers lied to our faces.
 
Thanks for this. Ever since Civ5 was released, I had this quote from a Firaxis employee stuck in my head, where he promised the AI would be far superior so that it does not require cheating and would scale with the difficulty level instead. Sadly I can't find it anymore. :(

But yeah, they basically fracked us with our pants on. :blush:
 
I'm just dumbfounded about the "it's not just war" statements.

Virtually EVERYTHING they 'streamlined' and eliminated was done at the expense of dovish builders.

I understand the problems people had with religion, but for the dovish builder, it was a critical part of gameplay for both diplomacy AND city management.

I understand - and actually agree - with a lot of the complaints about espionage, but it was yet another thing the dovish builder had at their disposal.

I understand the limitations of health, but for the dovish builder it was another something to do and to manage.

I DON'T understand the decision to globalize happiness and for the builder, it was a critical part of gameplay.

I DON'T understand the decision to eliminate government of some type - be it in the form of II style governments or multi-tiered civics, but it was an important part of gameplay for the dovish builder.

Even amongst those who like V -- I don't think I've ever seen a single comment from anyone that wouldn't agree that for the builder, the game is a lot less fun and there's a lot less to do.

Builder games in V are mind-numblingly boring and are 90% of the genesis of the "Next Turn boredom" complaints.

It boggles the mind... I don't know if it's basic ignorance of a Civ gameplay style or just outright wishful thinking and/or baldfaced marketing speak lying...

When people ask if I have any hope for V -- well... comments like this are what cause me to say NO.

I have ZERO confidence that the devs even recognize "Houston, we have a problem", much less how to go about solving it.

Civilization is about building? Not in V it isn't... it's about clicking Next turn a few hundred times. Tried to balance war vs. peace? Really? Seriously? Making all the AIs sociopaths did that? Or making non-war turns so boring you either quit or play as a warmonger accomplished that?

Just astounded...
 
Civilization V as a whole, with Jon designing it, is a big call to them (fan community), to say, "Thank you. This is what you've been asking for. Dennis Shirk.

Epic Fail.

The months before release, I was reading every preview I could find. I was refreshing CFC page like 10 times a day. This is not what I've been asking for, thank you. Now give me back my money, pls?

@Stretchy_Man: Thank you for this compilation. Perfect :bowdown:
 
The thing is, Civ V is a big sloppy kiss/love letter to our fan community. We want it to be for the hardcore. Shirk
It doesn't seem like this at all. Regardless of what you think about the game, an honest person has to admit that this game is exceedingly easy compared to previous versions.

Most of the hardcore Civ community were defeating this game on Deity after 48 hours.

I am not even remotely hardcore and I was beating it 2 difficulty levels higher than I ever achieved on Civ 4 after 1 week!
 
If you're playing against Gandhi and he doesn't declare war randomly on you at some point, then we haven't done our job. Shirk.

This is my favorite. It pretty much sums up their entire design of diplomacy in one sentence.
 
"If you're playing against Gandhi and he doesn't declare war randomly on you at some point, then we haven't done our job. Shirk."

I hadn't heard that one before and it puzzles me the most. I'd really like to know why they thought that was their job. Which developer of this game, which supposedly has AI with unique flavors and personalities, decided that their number one priority was making sure Gandhi would declare war on you for absolutely no reason? What, was this game actually intended to be one giant troll to civ players?

EDIT: I just had to look the quote up in context.

Jon did like [multiplatform console entry] Civilization Revolution. Instead of just subtle number variances and traits, Sid gave each Civ a unique flavor. When you were playing against Napoleon, you knew that he was building churches and cathedrals -- playing that cultural game. Jon wanted that same flavor.

We're not trying to keep people absolutely accurate. They're still going to do random things. We're still going to make them mad, and they're going to do things uncharacteristically, because that's part of what makes Civ fun. If you're playing against Gandhi and he doesn't declare war randomly on you at some point, then we haven't done our job.

ok, that sounds a bit better. The aim wasn't to make sure Gandhi declared war like a maniac, it was to be sure that it was possible for him to declare war at some point rather than behaving the exact same way in every game no matter what you did to him.
 
ok, that sounds a bit better. The aim wasn't to make sure Gandhi declared war like a maniac, it was to be sure that it was possible for him to declare war RANDOMLY at some point rather than behaving the exact same way in every game no matter what you did to him.

fixed.:D Even in context the use of the word randomly is perhaps the most important aspect and most telling as to what the AI does. Since randomly is not the same as with cause and its preceded by the line "They're still going to do random things"
 
I feel less like I got a big wet sloppy kiss, and more like I just got a cheap drunken groping from a complete tease. :blush: :lol:
 
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