Has CivV improved significantly since launch?

[miscemayl]

I bought CivV when it first launched but after playing it, my PC suddenly shutdown and smoke came out of the box.

Read around and saw threads of "game overcooking graphics card" etc etc and have been too scared to go back. Around the same time I read reviews/threads that complained that CivV was a step back from Civ4, the AI, the diplomacy, the science are all dumbed down from Civ IV.

That was at launch, which was a while ago.

I've been meaning to get back into the game (and hope my graphic card don't burn again) but just can't really feel the motivation - can't shake the negative comments out of my head.

I know there's been quite a lot of patches out since launch so I'm wondering if the regulars think the game has improved much since launch?

Has the AI improved?
Does it feel more like Civ (rather than CivRev)?
Does it still cook graphics card p)?

If you were going review Civ V now (compared to launch), what would you rate it and why?

This isn't a bait for flame thread, I genuinely want to know.

Thanks in advance!

 

[LostInTime]

Has the AI improved?

Don't expect too much of it. It's still a decent challenge, but it's nowhere near Civ4 AI yet. It'll get better in expansions I guess.

Does it feel more like Civ (rather than CivRev)?

Never played Rev, so dunno, but it's getting that Civ "feel" back more every patch.

Does it still cook graphics card ()?

Not mine at least

If you were going review Civ V now (compared to launch), what would you rate it and why?

I played like 3 games launch before getting annoyed and got back into the game and have played 30+ now after the latest patches. It's a much better game than it was at launch, I'm having fun again at least.

 

[Montov]

I would say civ is improved on all sides.
AI is improved in combat, but still isn't able to control civilians properly (Great Persons, workers, settlers).
I didn't have a lot of crashes (1 or 2 times) in the hundreds of hours I've played, so i'm not able to tell if those kind of problems are less frequent, but I've heard positive feedback from others.
Gameplay is improved fantastically. It is far more balanced, not just with some tweaks, but also with added content.

 

[shihuacao]

Has the AI improved?

Yes.

Does it feel more like Civ (rather than CivRev)?

It is not CIV and will never be.

Does it still cook graphics card p)?

Depends on your setup.

If you were going review Civ V now (compared to launch), what would you rate it and why?

8/10. It still has vast potential of being one of the greatest strategy game. I can see that ambition in every patch.

 

[Misterboy]

The AI is *much* better. It handles it's troops fairly well. Gone are the days of "why on earth did they move there??". It still has trouble with Great People as someone pointed out. I find Great Generals faffing about regularly, which is my main dissapointment. The AI is vastly superior to Civ IV, but it needs to be to handle the much more complicated system. But it'll never be "the same", and it will never be "perfect".

Civ 5 is definitely a Civ game. It's definitely in the line of Civs 1 through 4.

As for graphics cards... a word to the wise: My game has shown a pretty consistent tendency to crash the graphics driver when entering Leader Screens. I've seen many people complain of this. I haven't been able to verify if it's due to graphic card overheating, but it definitely could be, given the symptoms. I have a Geforce 460 and run everything at the highest settings.

My solution is to run the Leader Screens at "low" settings. I've then tweaked the INI file to enable non-"low" graphic settings in the Leader Screen. So I'm hoping after a while I'll narrow it down to the setting that's causing the problem. I spent weeks dicking around with 2K support in a vain attempt to get them to acknowledge the problem and, at the very least, report it to the Devs. In a word, they are incompetent I think their final solution for me was to run the game at 1024x768. With a Geforce 460. Idiots

All in all though, I'm enjoying Civ 5 far more than I enjoyed vanilla Civ 4. Keep in mind the new patch which will be out soon will once again change the game rather extensively.

Enjoy!

 

[Gali]

My computer can handle Civ 5 just fine, at least on the standard maps I play.

The AI is better but it is still a JOKE. Still suicides range units, still needs a tech and number advantage to even have the chance of being a threat. It has some idea of what a GG is now but still uses them stupidly on occasion.

For me at prince, and King, the only ai threats, and by that I mean a situation that will force me to actualy lose soldiers and waste hammers on replacements, is Great wall plus range units, they just pepper and you can't move or oligarchy cities. The only other time I lost substantial troops was against the Iroqouis who had full carpet of doom going and the great wall and just kamikazed me to death because I don't build enough ranged units, and couldn't move damaged units.

If I pay attention, which can be hard because combat is so dull beating on a 6 year old, and am not fighting through a choke point, its just sad. I conquered as Denmark a whole standard map and lost 2 units, one to a ship that popped out of the fog. I've had backstabs run into a CS ally and get CREAMED. I had one situation where my entire military was on one side of my empire, damaged and in the middle of a siege, and I got backstabbed. They didn't even manage to take the undefended size 4 city before my military wandered home and took everything they had.

I had one situation. 3 cities, no defensive buidings, 2 units, no iron or chivalry, 3 close civs gangpile me. Didnt even touch one of my cities. I just waited til Chivalry and stamped em to death. I made peace with one by accident and didn't realise it for 10 TURNS they were so little threat. Yeah its on prince, but in civ 4 in that situation with no defenses I'm dead unless maybe I whip and divert everything to defense. In Civ V ooh no warmonger points for DOW's this game.

Maybe the new code telling them to actually use spearman will fix that. That tells you something though that such basic code is coming at the time CIV 3 and 4 got expansions.

All that said, if you're a casual builder, its now an ok game. Its still shallow, and all the patches did is balance it out a bit. But terrain actually matters now, and buildings are useful. There's some diplomacy, but its mainly play the game the way the developer's want or the AI will take its ball and go home. All good relations are good for is money to spend on RA's to get free techs. Do what the AI wants so it'll give you money so you can abuse broken mechanics, yay for fun.

Its a very simple game that removed the micromanagement without adding enough decisions. Still it can be fun to build with less micro and no threat.

 

[apocalypse105]

Yes it is improved significant, even the AI combat.

but as long as they keep this good typ AI the diplomacy of this game will still be broken or even worse non existent.

Wich i thinx is important in this typ of game...

 

[MoonFlare]

Just a little. It's around 40% done. Still needs a lot of patching. At least 4-5 more patches for it to come out of "beta" version.

 

[sadsquid]

Definitely improved a lot since launch.

AI is better, but still not great...

It is definitely getting more of the CIV feel back. Balance is much better, and everything just seems more fun and interesting now.

There's still a heap left to improve though. But overall I'm happy with the progressive improvements and look forward to more patches and hopefully expansions.

 

[thadian]

Next patch coming soon, better to ask then.

also, the first release of the game was a very bad joke. but every patch has made it better but not what it could be. i would say for a "vanilla release" it is about 80% where it should be and i will miss getting food from tradition. it was much better and i will really miss it. but i can live with the change.

overall out of 5 stars, i would give it a 3.5 but hey, i thought of it as a 3.0 when it was first released. the next patch might make me think even better if it makes more strategies viable.

 

[Haig]

I got burned with Civ V's unbalance problems during release, now I LOVE it and after the next patch its gonna be even greater.
Since march patch turn times are faster.

I have the one-more-turn feeling, hardcore.

If you want to play with full graphic details it's still heavy on the system though.

 

[civnoob13]

The game has definitely improved, but I am nervous about the next patch. It could be great or it could completely destroy the game by making it impossible to have a happy empire. I am still very annoyed with how slow the game is, especially when compared to civ 4. You wouldn't think the coding is any more complex in civ 5 to civ 4, yet turn times can easily be 30 times longer right at the start of the game (from half a second to 15 seconds)

 

[McRoos]

It did improve, but there is still much left to improve.

Combat with the AI on King level still is a joke.
Micromanagement (Growth and health) were better in the old days (CIV 4).
Diplomacy is a laugh.

But then again, the fun is the ... one more turn part of the game and I don't know why.

 

[McLMan]

I played the game quite a bit at release. I didn't hate it but it didn't hold me. I'd play sporadically up until the last couple of patches and now I really enjoy the game and look forward to playing.

My graphics card falls in the middle of minimum and recommended and the game runs fine on medium settings. It does heat my card up more than any other games I play but not enough to cause me concern.

 

[gingerbill]

It's definetly alot better now . The changes to buildings and resources helped alot for me . And the AI is definetly better.

I look forward to a shake up of the leader skills and abilities

 

[_hero_]

It has improved a lot and I think the coming patch might be enough for me to become addicted, but we'll see.

 

[Sonereal]

It's improved greatly. The game, after this next patch, will finally have replay and hotseat.

 

[bryanw1995]

The AI is *much* better. It handles it's troops fairly well. Gone are the days of "why on earth did they move there??". It still has trouble with Great People as someone pointed out. I find Great Generals faffing about regularly, which is my main dissapointment. The AI is vastly superior to Civ IV, but it needs to be to handle the much more complicated system. But it'll never be "the same", and it will never be "perfect".

Civ 5 is definitely a Civ game. It's definitely in the line of Civs 1 through 4.

As for graphics cards... a word to the wise: My game has shown a pretty consistent tendency to crash the graphics driver when entering Leader Screens. I've seen many people complain of this. I haven't been able to verify if it's due to graphic card overheating, but it definitely could be, given the symptoms. I have a Geforce 460 and run everything at the highest settings.

My solution is to run the Leader Screens at "low" settings. I've then tweaked the INI file to enable non-"low" graphic settings in the Leader Screen. So I'm hoping after a while I'll narrow it down to the setting that's causing the problem. I spent weeks dicking around with 2K support in a vain attempt to get them to acknowledge the problem and, at the very least, report it to the Devs. In a word, they are incompetent I think their final solution for me was to run the game at 1024x768. With a Geforce 460. Idiots

All in all though, I'm enjoying Civ 5 far more than I enjoyed vanilla Civ 4. Keep in mind the new patch which will be out soon will once again change the game rather extensively.

Enjoy!

I also had tons and tons of game crashes during leader scenes, and I also dropped my leader scenes down to "low" quality to fix the issues. Literally played 30 games since then without a single crash at all. I also have a gtx 460, hmm...

@OP: game has improved a lot since the patch. In fact, it's improved enough that since the .275 patch I have only played one game of Balance Combined, whereas before I was playing 1/2 to 2/3 of my games with mods.

 

[Putmalk]

Just a little. It's around 40% done. Still needs a lot of patching. At least 4-5 more patches for it to come out of "beta" version.

Don't get your expectations up. This game probably gets one or two more major overhaul patches and then it goes to minor patching.

And if you think this game is 40% done right now, then you may as well just leave. Because no amount of patches will bring it up anything past 55%.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Don't care much if we're all still Beta testers, bring it on.
One lesson to be learned though - some or most people fear drastic change in gameplay or basic concepts.
Has it improved? Yes, definitely. The devs struggle was even epic; that's what they got for being sooooo dedicated to innovations.