Have You Ditched Civ VI and Returned to Civ V?

[Nagaraku]

Got VI for free on Epic. Enjoyed it lots but then I switched to Mac and Epic's Civ VI is not compatible for Mac.

So I bought Civ V on Steam on my Mac.

I guess I've ditched VI for now but gonna wait for the time I can pick up VI again.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

So I thought I’d chime in here and explain why I play Civ5 over the other iterations. I remember when Civ4 came out and it was pretty epic. I still think it’s probably the best version. It introduced religion to the game and a 3D map. It was a huge improvement over Civ3. Civ4 has the best mods in my opinion.

I remember what a let down Civ5 was when it came out. Not only did it have less content than 4 but the game mechanics were more streamlined. It felt more like a board game with 1UPT. After BNW was released I found the game more satisfying. Still has the best art style IMO.

Civ6 checked off many boxes for me. I had a long wish list that modders were able to fulfill in 4 and 5. But 6 had most everything I ever wanted. The developers were obviously paying attention to what the community had been asking for over the years. But……

I feel less immersed when I play 6. The art style is a big irritation for me. Historical strategy games are supposed look and feel real to a certain degree. Civ6 looks so much like a mobile game that it takes me out. The graphics are pretty but unsatisfactory.

The game play gets stale despite all of the content that it possesses. Another immersion killer is how districts and wonders take up so much space on the map. The 3D graphics feel like a requirement for buildings added by modders. This limits what modders can do.

I also don’t like how disconnected the civics tree is from the tech tree. This makes
historical progression feel unrealistic. I find the Golden Ages feel forced. The diplomacy and espionage is silly and unrealistic. All of these things begin to stack up and I lose interest quickly. I really want to like this game.

What I like about 6 is the dynamic map with weather events and the loyalty mechanism. City state diplomacy is better than 5. Combat makes more sense than Civ5. I like the housing system. But these things aren’t enough in my opinion.

So why Civ5 you ask? Immersion. The art style looks more real world. Civ5 is easier to mod. Because of it’s more simplistic design it allows for more creativity for modders. The lack of districts makes cities look more realistic relative to the scale of the map. You can actually believe the cities are loaded with wonders and buildings without actually seeing them. Diplomacy isn’t over the top. Civ5 lacks much of the silliness that’s in Civ6 which is a good thing. Civics are tied to eras instead of the disjointed system in Civ6. I don’t get bored in the late game unlike in Civ6. I’m sure there is more but you get the point. Hopefully the developers surprise us with Civ7 and create something epic.

 

[Kechenya]

I would return to Civ V if it wasn't so blatantly unstable now. Civ VI is nice, but it doesn't have anywhere near the cool amount of mods as Civ V does. Except now tons of Civ V mods have been broken since they last got touched 5 years ago, and now the game will crash far more on better hardwares than the crappy PCs I used to play on 5-10 years ago.

So in short: the worst of both worlds. Was hyped for Civ VI, but likes mods, Civ VI doesn't deliver so much on fun mods, so now I tried to return to Civ V, except now tons of mods are unsupported, driver issues killed the game, etc. and now the game crashes a lot and I can't enjoy it like I used to on those beefy gaming rigs like I dreamed of when I was younger. Just fun.

 

[SaxonBrawler]

If I could, I would ditch Civ V and go back to Civ III.

Civ III was simple, less graphic "bling" and just a more enjoyable game IMHO.

If anyone knows how, or if it's even possible to set up Civ V to play more like Civ V, I would be grateful to know how to do it.

I just posted this in hopes someone knows how -

Is it Possible to Set Up Civ-V to play like Civ-III...?

So I have just learned that I no longer have the ability to play Civ III due to a Win10 upgrade. As the Firaxis 2K support team advised me, they no longer support Civ III and can not offer a work around to the protection features built into the CD at start up. Despite spending hours trying to...

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[Patine]

If I could, I would ditch Civ V and go back to Civ III.

Civ III was simple, less graphic "bling" and just a more enjoyable game IMHO.

If anyone knows how, or if it's even possible to set up Civ V to play more like Civ V, I would be grateful to know how to do it.

I just posted this in hopes someone knows how -

Is it Possible to Set Up Civ-V to play like Civ-III...?

So I have just learned that I no longer have the ability to play Civ III due to a Win10 upgrade. As the Firaxis 2K support team advised me, they no longer support Civ III and can not offer a work around to the protection features built into the CD at start up. Despite spending hours trying to...

forums.civfanatics.com

I still also play Civ2. I tried to install Civ3 from my old CD-Roms a couple of months ago, and they made a ghastly sound in my optimal disk drive, grinded painfully through installation, and now my computer will not start or recognize the installed game.

I have, as I said above, never played Civ4 or Civ5, so Civ2 is the other iteration I really go back to.

 

[ThunderLizard2]

I still also play Civ2. I tried to install Civ3 from my old CD-Roms a couple of months ago, and they made a ghastly sound in my optimal disk drive, grinded painfully through installation, and now my computer will not start or recognize the installed game.

I have, as I said above, never played Civ4 or Civ5, so Civ2 is the other iteration I really go back to.

Try Civ IV BTS - the best of the series IMHO

 

[Patine]

Try Civ IV BTS - the best of the series IMHO

Civ2 with ToT and the ToTPP fan mod is the best for custom scenario making in my viewpoint. The Civ2 Scenario League, both here, and before it migrated here YEARS ago from Apolyton.net, is a stellar display of historical, modern, alternate history, science fiction, and mythological and fantasy scenarios that are quite astounding, and much more easily and readily produced than equivalents of later iterations, and with no need of programming or 3D graphic modelling skills.

 

[Horizons]

Civ6 is better than Civ5 in every conceivable way. What brings people back to Civ5? Going back to Civ4 I can kind of understand.

 

[KayAU]

Civ6 is better than Civ5 in every conceivable way. What brings people back to Civ5? Going back to Civ4 I can kind of understand.

You're entitled to your opinion of course, but "every conceivable way", really? How about:
* A World Congress where you can influence what is being voted on, as well as know exactly what you yourself are voting for?
* Less late game micromanagement?
* Ideologies?
* Cooperative projects?
* Having a bonus tree (Social Policies)?
* Systems being far more integrated, so that for instance, your actions in the World Congress affect diplomacy? Or cultural influence affecting support for your ideology?
* Better mod support?
* Having the Vox Populi complete overhaul, which improves and expands just about every aspect of the game while adding a host of new features?

I also personally find the art style much more pleasing, both the lovely art deco UI and the more realistic map style. The leader screens and wonder paintings are gorgeous too. And I prefer how religion works in Civ 5 over 6, as I find it much more natural and less micro heavy not to run apostles around shooting lightning bolts at other religious units.

In general, I think that Civ 6 is burdened with far too much tedious micromanagement, such as moving governors around, swapping out techs or civics so as not to waste research gained from eurekas and inspirations, and swapping policy cards in and out. The game has loads of features, but they never seem to be overhauled or refined after their first release, beyond a +1 here and a -2 there, and they are generally not integrated with each other. I guess new stuff is what sells expansions and DLC, as there has never been more content for a Civ game, but it largely just seems thrown in there, and the result is not necessarily a better game.

Note that I still would not say Civ 5 is better than 6 in "every conceivable way". I understand that people value different things, and have different tolerance levels for for example micromanagement. I personally think Civ 6 shines when it comes to how the civs themselves are designed, I enjoy district placement in the early game, I find the loyalty system to be good and something I miss when I play Civ 5, and the soundtrack is great. But overall, I like Civ 5 more, and Civ 5 with Vox Populi much more. Civ 6 for me is a game which had great potential from the start, but it wasn't improved by its expansions in the same way Civ 5 was.

 

[Emperorman1]

Hello guys, I didnt read all of the conversation, but those who would like to have a wide, balanced and more complex Civ V experience, should definetly check the Vox Populi Mod. Its still under very active development, and getting all the time better. Plus the devs there are super friendly. It has its own subforum here im CivFanatics

Cheers!

 

[Patine]

* A World Congress where you can influence what is being voted on, as well as know exactly what you yourself are voting for?

I never liked the concept of a World Congress, or the mechanic behind it, and I think I was turned on it, as a concept, as early as the Galactic Congress in MPS' MOO2, to be honest. Even if voting and nuances are corrected from other more heavy-handed and arbitrary portrayals, living in a RL where the UN and, previously, the League of Nations, turned out like they did, a functional World Congress always seems fantastic, Star Trek Federation, or Dystopian sci-fi - but one of the least realistic aspects of a core Civ game (outside the zombie, uber-disaster, and mystic society expansion for Civ6, at least, which I also was NOT a fan of).

 

[KayAU]

@Patine
I understand, although I enjoy it myself. From a gameplay perspective, it's another arena in which to seek and exert influence, aside from direct military might. Thematically, I agree it's not that realistic, but you could say that about many things in Civ. The world doesn't have an all-powerful World Congress, but it does have things like sanctions, soft power, regulatory bodies, and even cooperative projects to an extent. You could consider the World Congress a stand-in for a such things. Just about everything in civ is just a stand-in for a more complex real-world concept.

 

[Gorbles]

You're entitled to your opinion of course, but "every conceivable way", really?

Plenty of people effectively say the reverse and don't get this reversed at them We all have our favourites!

But this is the CiV subforum, so that tracks! It'd be interesting to see the results if the OP posted this in the Civ VI subforum.

Personally? Still Civ VI, sorry. I've never gone in massively for mods, in any version of Civ I've played (which is I, SMAC, V, BE and VI), so while "play this complete overhaul" might have appealed to me when I was younger, in my relatively young adulthood (I'm at that stage in my 30s where I'm too old to be young, but too young to be old ) . . . it simply doesn't appeal anymore. I was always into mods that enhanced the existing design of a game, more than ones that completely redesigned it. I'd never buy a game (especially when I was younger and a lot poorer) on the selling point of "mods could make it better". To that end, I had a great time with CiV (and sunk hundreds of hours into it), but it doesn't grab me anymore at all. Heck, I made a semi-popular mod for BE and I still can't go back to that game. I've tried! I will defend what that game tried to the death, but I can't go back from VI.

My one regret is I kinda skipped the IV generation. I was playing other games, other genres. I'll never know what it was like to experience that game in its own heyday. This isn't me knocking the game itself - to do a cheesy quote, IV has quite literally stood the test of time. But I never even had the chance to play it with that kind of context, because I simply didn't own it at that time.

 

[KayAU]

@Gorbles
I still think Civ V is better even without the mods, but that's just my personal preference, and it's a much closer call. I used to not care about mods several years ago, just wanting to play games as intended by the devs, and not bothering to fiddle around with "unofficial" content. However, the Fall from Heaven modpack for Civ IV changed my mind. For one thing, a complete overhaul modpack is a very different thing from installing individual mods. A good modpack can easily have the same level of cohesion and quality as the original game, and it's usually a single install. For Fall from Heaven, it transforms Civ IV into an excellent fantasy themed 4X with D&D elements. For Vox Populi, it is not quite a new game, but it gets you 1-2 expansions worth of new content, a complete rebalancing, and much improved AI. For my part, I'm glad I gave it a try, as it has been my main Civ game for years now.

I've played every Civ game since the first one, including Civ IV. It was indeed something special. The mood was set with the awe-inspiring theme song, and the gameplay was for the most part excellent. Although I was happy about most of the major changes made in Civ V, I have no problem understanding why some still hold Civ IV as their favorite.

 

[9gkj548hkm20vk79dj689bnj4]

Civ 5 is the more bare, vanilla ice cream version of the two but which functionally works better;
whereas Civ 6 is the more flashy of the two whose many new features may interest some but which don't gel for me.

I keep thinking about finishing a game in 6 (I've only done, maybe, a dozen?) and better exploring a certain feature, but the problem is always the same: the game is basically over halfway through.
Civ 5 Brave New World, at least, gave me something to look forward to with the World Congress, Ideologies, and the Culture Victory conditions, that were back-loaded onto the game.

I'd say just about the single thing which intrigues me about 6 is the districts, which gives some sense of city sprawl, and the idea that your city is dependent on the land around it i.e. adjacency bonuses. That's basically it. but I still hate how it's implemented; you really miss out if you don't plan your cities/districts eras in advance.

 

[Thormodr]

Civilization 5 is still the worst game in the series by a country mile.

Civ VI is so much better and Civ VII likely will blow it out of the water, as well.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Playing CivV primarily because I don't trust my laptop to run Civ6 (which I used to play on a shared gaming PC I can only sporadically access now) and secondarily because I wanted to test out and play with the many mods the Civ 5 Workshop is rich in.

Stuff I miss from Civ6:
- Being able to lock a non-military unit to a military one
- Being able to see where you can build a city and where you can't
- Districts
- Loyalty mechanic preventing civilizations from settling just anywhere
- Civics tree
- CULTURAL VARIATION (biggest peeve!)

Funnily, one thing I thought I would miss from Civ6 but actually don't is the changing time of the day; I don't even notice it, unless I actively think about it.

 

[Not_Brixter]

This poll is pointless. Ask the Civ5 subforum if they like Civ5 better than Civ6? What do you expect the results would be?

I play Civ6 now but I also previously played Civ5. I only ventured in the Civ5 subforum because I was bored. That's why I became aware of this poll.

You would get a different outcome if you posted this poll in the Civ6 subforum.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

This poll is pointless. Ask the Civ5 subforum if they like Civ5 better than Civ6? What do you expect the results would be?

I play Civ6 now but I also previously played Civ5. I only ventured in the Civ5 subforum because I was bored. That's why I became aware of this poll.

You would get a different outcome if you posted this poll in the Civ6 subforum.

No, not completely pointless. Asking someone who has left Civ5 for Civ6 will get you answers from someone who has played both games, and decided in favour of the former, and can get you insight that someone who has only either played Civ5 or Civ6 can't provide. I believe the implicit question OP is posing is: 'What aspects/features of Civilization V made you come back to it that were lacking or not as good in Civilization VI, a game that is supposed to be better and more polished than its predecessor?'. The answers can be informative and interesting; they can reveal what sort of a game Civ5 is compared to Civ6, which is helpful for someone who has only played one of the two, and wants to know whether he will enjoy the other. They can also show how some new game designs and mechanics aren't necessarily good just because they were introduced later.

Though I agree that if OP wants a fuller view of the picture, he will have to ask in the Civ6 forum why some (or more accurately, most) people find that game better than Civ5.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

@Iconian

Vox Populi is a comprehensive modpack which overhauls just about everything about Civ 5, while adding a bunch of new features. I am not going to list everything, but just to give you an idea of the scope, here are some of the changes:
* The AI is massively improved
* All Civ abilities are different
* All social policies are different
* All religious beliefs are different
* There's a local happiness system based on "needs"
* There's a bunch of new luxury resources
* There's a resource monopoly feature, giving each luxury a unique bonus when you get more than 50% of global supply
* Corporations are in the game
* Recon units gain experience for scouting, and have a promotion tree which can massively improve their mobility and vision
* ...in fact, all units have reworked, more comprehensive promotion trees

...and so on. It is really hard to do it justice, as while the game is still Civ 5 at its core, everything is reworked, and while there aren't any new civs, I would say there's still a couple of expansions worth of entirely new content in the form of systems, resources, units and wonders. It's brilliant, but be aware that it is generally also more complex than vanilla Civ 5, and there's a lot to learn. It might feel a bit overwhelming at first, and with the AI being a lot more competent, you should go down at least a couple of difficulty levels from what you're used to. I mostly play on Prince, which is not too hard when you know how VP works, but the AI will still generally keep up with you and challenge you. I usually don't start getting a tech lead until the late mid-game, and even then it's usually a small one.

To install it, check out this thread:

Community Patch - How To Install

Vox Populi: A Community Patch Project Newest Version: 4.20.1 (March 10, 2025) Introduction: Started in 2014, Vox Populi is a collaborative effort to improve Civilization V's AI and gameplay. Vox Populi is a collection of mods (see below) that are designed to work together seamlessly. The...

forums.civfanatics.com

It's mostly a matter of downloading and running the automated installer, launching the game, selecting mods, and making sure the VP mods are checked (numbered 1, 2, 3a, 4a and 4b), and clicking next. The numbering make it seem like something is missing, but this is just due to some packages being consolidated, as I understand it.

If your Steam library is not on C, you may run into an issue where the installer puts the files on the wrong drive, in which case you will get some error messages ("unable to load texture") while the game is loading. Fortunately, this is easily fixed by moving a folder, as described in this Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/civvoxpopuli/comments/9w2glr

Let me know if you need any help. I love Vox Populi, and wish more people would get to experience it.

I've been meaning to do this for a while... now that i have a gaming laptop, it's time to take the plunge.