GamesCom Impression

[King Jason]

Also improvements beeing less important, like resources only giving +1 hammer or +2 commerce...

No bonus or increase is ever less important unless it's relative to another bonus that you can build which is greater. +1 as opposed to a +3 from civ4 makes it no less optimal to insure that all of your tiles are improved and worked improved at all times.

Further, as civ5 has show us completely differing levels of scale in all things that we're used to, especially economically... we can't really compare a +1 in civ5 to a +3 in civ4... For all we know, the values could be equal when considering things such as costs.

 

[Txurce]

No bonus or increase is ever less important unless it's relative to another bonus that you can build which is greater. +1 as opposed to a +3 from civ4 makes it no less optimal to insure that all of your tiles are improved and worked improved at all times.

Further, as civ5 has show us completely differing levels of scale in all things that we're used to, especially economically... we can't really compare a +1 in civ5 to a +3 in civ4... For all we know, the values could be equal when considering things such as costs.

Exactly... just like needing more resources in Civ5 to field an army doesn't mean the warmongering aspect of the game is weaker.

 

[Sciguy001]

Thanks for this awesome preview

 

[Seven05]

Thnaks for the interesting read, and my condolences to you for getting a taste of the forbidden fruit and now having to wait like the rest of us

 

[Forty-Two]

Great read. I'm really excited about the civlopeida, I loved reading that in Civ 4.

 

[Venereus]

He told me something along the lines of: "You have settled to close to our borders, I don't like it". To which I could either respond by promising not to do it again or say that I don't care about his opinion.

I chose the I will never do it again option but he still broke our pact of friendship one turn later. Unfortunately the booth was so loud (thanks Mafia II trailer) that you couldn't even hear the voice acting of the leaders through the earphones. I think that made it hard to gauge the opinion they had of you.

Not hearing the spoken dialogue shouldn't matter, since the default is the leader's original language, and you can change them all independently of the text. If it's not in the written dialogue, it must be irrelevant (for gameplay, there's immersion and whatnot). Based on this and other previews, the hidden diplomacy seems to be a real mess.

 

[Centurio]

Thank you for this lovely article. While it is always nice to hear optimistic previews from the general gaming media, it is far more reassuring to hear a Civilization series veteran speak well of this new title. Hopefully, I'll be able to enjoy it just as much (though probably more because I will get to play sitting in a chair in a quiet room, rather than standing in a noisy Gamescom area.)

 

[bjbrains]

Not hearing the spoken dialogue shouldn't matter, since the default is the leader's original language, and you can change them all independently of the text. If it's not in the written dialogue, it must be irrelevant (for gameplay, there's immersion and whatnot). Based on this and other previews, the hidden diplomacy seems to be a real mess.

We've only seen one preview say that. Alexander's behavior makes sense really: You settle too close so he thinks of you as a threat. You agree to respect boundaries in the future so he doesn't go after you, but he's not going to keep a pact of friendship because of your actions.

 

[Venereus]

We've only seen one preview say that. Alexander's behavior makes sense really: You settle too close so he thinks of you as a threat. You agree to respect boundaries in the future so he doesn't go after you, but he's not going to keep a pact of friendship because of your actions.

Still, if I need to hear the leaders, it's bad design. Many play civ while listening to something else (like your wife telling you to lay off the comp, go upstairs and ****ing **** her!).

 

[Twahn]

RATIONALISM just gives you tech everywhere, one policy gives you +1 tech for every two citizens in every town that has a trade route to your Capital.

LOL! You made my heart stop when I first read this. Until I figured out you meant beakers... I was picturing a never-ending stream of "new tech discovered" popups...

 

[Ahriman]

Unfortunately the booth was so loud (thanks Mafia II trailer) that you couldn't even hear the voice acting of the leaders through the earphones. I think that made it hard to gauge the opinion they had of you.

Ugh. Hate, hate, hate. This kind of info needs to be readily apparent. You shouldn't have to rely on body language and voice acting of an animation!

Many play civ while listening to something else (like your wife telling you to lay off the comp, go upstairs and ****ing **** her!).

Well, in that case you should probably stop playing... at least for now. Come back in an hour.

 

[Venereus]

Well, in that case you should probably stop playing... at least for now. Come back in an hour.

"But, honey. I'm pwning the aztecs here, and you know how much I hate leaving wars unfinished (and how I hate that Monty guy...)"

 

[Zhahz]

The more and more I hear about the changes and new stuff, the more I like it.

 

[Some guy]

I'm just talking from a personal perspective, everyone should have the legal right to sit down at any time.

No they shouldn't... You're not "forced" to play "their" game.

 

[Polobo]

This is correct. Optics is researched quite quickly though. Much quicker than in Civ IV.

Yes they can, and Archers can shoot at Triremes as well.

Its kinda interesting that there is a combat naval unit (Triremes w/ Sailing) before you can field transport naval units (embarked w/ Optics)...though in some ways it seems to make sense since it is more difficult to get a full land unit on a boat, in addition to the boat crew, than just the crew and some ordinance.

BTW, optics is a Classical age technology which comes immedately after sailing and without any other pre-requisites. It could be, if desired, your 3rd technology researched (Pottery -> Sailing -> Optics). Add in mining and archery and you can put together a pretty decent naval invasion force fairly quickly since you'd probably only need a few triremes to guard the 6-8 warriors and archers (which would usually entail another 3-4 galleys to be produced as well)

 

[Buccaneer]

Finally got around to reading the reviews - very nice writeup, capturing the essence of playing Civ5.

Science just seemed to happen without me having anything to do with it.

This I do not like at all. It's like the original EU where you had no idea where your stuff comes and what effect it had on anything. I know some civers don't have the patience for micro-management but like in previous versions, they should have the option of
"letting things run" as well as "how much do I have and where".

 

[bjbrains]

Finally got around to reading the reviews - very nice writeup, capturing the essence of playing Civ5.



This I do not like at all. It's like the original EU where you had no idea where your stuff comes and what effect it had on anything. I know some civers don't have the patience for micro-management but like in previous versions, they should have the option of
"letting things run" as well as "how much do I have and where".

There are definitely ways to influence science output. Remember that base science comes from population, so maximize food output if you want more science early. You also can build libraries/run scientist specialists for the early game. Later, rationalism obviously allows you more methods of science gathering, as do other buildings, and research treaties.

 

[Lyoncet]

From what I understand, you won't see much change in how you go about researching things in the transition from CIV to CiV. In CIV it was either "set the slider to keep me around 0 income (usually ignoring culture and espionage)" or binary research, which was pretty tedious. You'll still be doing roughly the same things to boost your research, but without a slider that typically really just sat there without contributing to the game in any meaningful way.

The only real exceptions to the slider being more-or-less just there were espionage (not in the game), combating war weariness (handled quite differently now it seems), winning culture (again, handled way differently) and turning off research so you can rush-buy until you win (way to abusable for my tastes, and probably those of the designers). So I'm not going to miss the science slider.

Also worth noting that if you have an economic deficit and no money in the bank, you lose research at a rate of 1:1. So again, similar functionality, lower tedium.

 

[Buccaneer]

Will we be able to add up all of the science output? Will we know how much a building (for example) will to that total?

Lyoncet, I will miss the slider as I typically micromanaged that on many turns. That is, adjusting my cash flow while maximizing research. For example, mid to late game I can lower the percentage by 30% and still get the same completion; going down 40% would add a turn; and going down only 20% would "waste" money. Without such adjustments, how could I manage this in Civ5? That may be tedious to some, but to others, it is the essence of playing strategy games.

 

[Ituralde]

Will we be able to add up all of the science output? Will we know how much a building (for example) will to that total?

I'm also someone who enjoys micro-management. In my typical Civ IV game I would check my cities constantly to rearrange the worked tiles between cities, adjust my science slider to run a few turns in deficit and so on.

Don't get my review impressions wrong. The things you mentioned are all shown in the game. I just plain did not get around to looking at them. Even though it would have been as easy to do as just hovering my mouse cursor above the beaker count in the top row, I just plain forgot to do it. What does that say about me or the game?

I don't know exactly, but for me playing the game at a booth for some hours is way different to sitting down with it at home. You are overwhelmed by all the new stuff and want to take in as much as possible while at the booth, so I often did not take the time to look into some things deeper. I more or less picked my technologies at random, which I never do in my Civ IV games, because I was more interested in doing something with my existing techs than discovering new ones.

So while the slider es gone you can still tune your empire depending on putting emphasis on growth, building libraries for extra beakers and putting scientists in said library. This would change your science output quite quickly. It was already quick enough for me so I saw no need to change anything. I was playing on one of the lower difficulties though and some nations advanced to the Classical age before I did.