Is it still unplayable? - From an expert strategic player view

[calmon]

Is it still unplayable?

For me is a game playable when the AI can manage to defeat me and have some good routines to handle the different parts of the game like - ie for Civ V:

- tactical AI
- diplomatic AI
- AI have some global goal which he tries to reach
etc.

Well from all the tests i read and what i heard from different strategy players its was not playable on release.

Did patches changed it already or is there any plan when the AI fixed?

Thanks!

 

[IdleEnergy]

It was never unplayable.

You are buying into a myth perpetuated by whiners. The AI isn't perfect, but given a critical mass of resources it becomes formidable. Yes, it is weak in the early game before it has a large enough resource base.

No, the patches didn't fix any of the things you heard about. If you're going to call a perfectly playable game "unplayable" because you have to crank it up to king level and above, I guess that's your choice.

 

[Novem]

It's not unplayable. It's been playable and highly enjoyable to me from the moment it unlocked on my machine.

You are reading people's opinions, just like this post here. You will have to decide for yourself whether the game, in it's current state is good enough for you.

 

[calmon]

It was never unplayable.

This is interpretation and for me games which have a "strategy" focus needs either a good MP part or a real good and challenging AI.

So in my eyes a strategic game which lacks exactly this is unplayable.

 

[calmon]

I changed the topic so its more clear. I just mean the view of an expert strategy player and not so much from the city/country manager fraction.

 

[ohioastronomy]

It was never unplayable.

You are buying into a myth perpetuated by whiners. The AI isn't perfect, but given a critical mass of resources it becomes formidable. Yes, it is weak in the early game before it has a large enough resource base.

No, the patches didn't fix any of the things you heard about. If you're going to call a perfectly playable game "unplayable" because you have to crank it up to king level and above, I guess that's your choice.

If you understand the system a little bit the AI is very, very poor. In what sense is saying that "whining"? You may not want to hear criticism of the game, but calling people names doesn't convince.

At Emperor level and above the AI will compete effectively for Wonders and it can build a lot of military units.

At any level the AI cannot conduct a competent naval invasion, nor can it compete in tactics, nor does it engage in competent grand strategy. The following approach will therefore always work in the current game:

1) Clear out any AI players on the same land mass, or close to you, in the early game.

2) Pick your preferred victory condition, with conquest being by far the easiest, and win.

This was not true for the earlier versions that I spent time on close to release (1. 2, 4): in all cases you could get soundly thumped by the AI at the higher difficulty levels, and the strategies for beating them came out only later.

 

[zomg]

The whole "unplayable" thing is exaggeration and thus deemed whiney, even if he does attempt to redefine the word. I agree the AI needs a boost, I've put the game on hold, though I like it for the most part. But it is still "playable".

 

[Onionsoilder]

The game is playable, but it is extremely easy to beat. I've won on Deity twice now(in comparison, playing Emperor in Civ IV was a huge challenge).

 

[dannythefool]

The game is not unplayable. I'm enjoying it. But there are some issues...

Diplomacy is weird and we also don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Basically the AI behaves like a sociopath now.

Combat is... well. The AI doesn't understand it at all. But if it has the advantage in numbers, it can sometimes kill a unit or two...

 

[Mazer14]

Played through three games and now I'm going back to SC2 multi until they fix the AI. Saying its unplayable is a bit of a stretch but I almost feel that way too.

 

[Rellin]

AI is not terrible, you are just too good.

 

[Iberian]

If I get what you are asking then I would say these aren't the droids your looking for.

As it stands now this game will not give you a challenge in the strategy department. You won't be printing out hex maps and planning your invasion.

 

[aziantuntija]

I agree that the AI is not as good as it should be and unfortunately that is the BIGGEST obstacle when i am trying to enjoy this game, the other obstacle are the annoying bugs.


We can all agree that Firaxis has still some work to do with civ5.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

I am a lot more concerned about some of the game braking bugs like peace treaties that never expire rather then the bad AI at the moment.

Things like that should never have gotten passed the testing phase......

That said, I think Civ 5 will probably be a awesome game once it has been properly patched. And the future expansion packs will probably make it even better.

 

[solistus]

I've never played a 4X game where the AI could actually beat a player on even terms if the player studies the game enough to learn what mechanics to exploit against said AI. Civ 5's AI is still far from perfect, but the game is playable. I'd say the Civ 4 BTS AI was slightly better overall, but people haven't learned as many ridiculous abuse tricks yet in Civ 5, either.

IMO, if you think you will definitely want this game if and when the AI is up to par, you should consider getting it now and getting some playtime in. At the very least, I'm sure player mods will eventually make the AI at least as good as any competing title out there.

The game has its problems and it will probably be more polished in a few months after some official patches and/or major community modpacks, so there's an argument to be made for waiting until the likely holiday season price drops (I bet Steam will have an awesome sale for this title during its usual holiday sale).

 

[Janig]

yep ive eased through king and emperor difficulties. the ai is really limited right now. im about to try deity and im sure i'll win first time.

i agree with solistus that the game is worth playing simply to enjoy the mechanics, so i guess multiplayer could be really fun if youve got a good enough system

 

[jtwood]

You are buying into a myth perpetuated by whiners.

It's like you didn't want anyone to take the rest of your post seriously.

The people who have complaints shouldn't be talking down to those who are happy with the status quo.
Likewise, people who are happy with the status quo shouldn't bemoan those with unfulfilled expectations.

 

[jtwood]

The game has its problems and it will probably be more polished in a few months after some official patches and/or major community modpacks, so there's an argument to be made for waiting until the likely holiday season price drops (I bet Steam will have an awesome sale for this title during its usual holiday sale).

You know, I wasn't around for the Civ IV release because my machine was terribly antiquated even then. When I finally got it a couple years later, I loved it out of the box. This time, I'm able to get it as soon as it hits the shelves, and I am seriously displeased.

I think the lesson I'm going to personally take from this is that 2K/Firaxis/Whomever-owns-this-franchise won't be getting any more of my money on release day, since I obviously have greater expectations for my first-time experience than they do. In fact, I'd suggest this to other malcontents, as well. It will keep you from being frustrated, and it might just motivate the company to release better products in the future.

Plus it will keep us 'whiners' out of the forums, amirite?

 

[Tyrant Roger]

As a longtime Civ 1, 2, and 4 player I am perplexed by Civ 5. It appears to me to be a major step backward as a strategy game. For me one of the most annoying things is the interface. The graphics detract from the game experience because it is harder to distinguish one type of unit from another, the many buttons in Civ 4 that allowed you to check on production, units, diplomacy, religion, espionage, etc are largely gone, the strategic and tactical choices you must make are fewer and simpler, and so on.

I like the hex concept, ranged combat, and the one unit per hex may be an improvement, but for the rest ugh.

I am a bit burned out playing Civ 4, but right now I would rather do that than fiddle around with the current version of Civ 5.

 

[Biz_]

it's not the best AI, but you should be able to find a difficulty level that suits you... at least until you get good at the game

the thing is that on those higher levels it's really impossible to expand quickly if the AI has it in their plan to declare war on you