March Patch Notes (formerly february)

[bryanw1995]

There must be at least 3 tiles between each city (not counting the cities themselves). This is one more tile than was required previously. It seems sort of insane at first, but I'd been forcing myself to play by the rule for the past week to see how it is, and it's actually not bad at all once you get used to it.

The most difficult thing about it is adjusting to it when planning your city locations, as I kept ending up accidentally planning for two cities an a space where I couldn't actually fit them (or one would prevent the other from getting a river spot or something like that).

I haven't finished a game yet with the patch, but I have to say that the 3 tiles between cities will probably be a pretty big hindrance to the AI. So many of their other changes have promoted "normal" empires that they might eventually go back to 2 tiles.

 

[Seek]

I have never seen an invisible road or an invisible river.

....but I guess that's the point >.>

I've only (not) seen the invisible rivers on custom map scripts, such as Tectonics in my sig. But I simply cannot bring myself to play with the bland vanilla maps any more, so they show up fairly often for me.

 

[Txurce]

what do people mean by "gamey?"

To me, in this case, that it reminds you that you're playing a game, due to the relative complexity of the rule resulting in the need to time SP's, builds and research.

 

[bryanw1995]

Actually, I don't know. Never built a lot of them before. But the patch notes said that solar and hydro plants couldn't be built without a factory, and in a game I was just playing, it let me build hydro plants without a factory. I was playing on a duel continents map just to check things out, and my little continent didn't have any coal, but had aluminum.

civ5 hydro plants were always +1 h per river tile.

 

[Arsenic Steel]

what do people mean by "gamey?"

Usually it means that some game mechanic is so apparent and not integrated into the game that it feels like you are playing the mechanic instead of playing what the game mechanic is supposed to be in-game.

 

[bryanw1995]

I dont like it. I get lots of maps where I have great city locations 2 tiles apart, either due to riverside / mountainside / non hill spots, or resources that would fall into the city radius.

The 3 tile spacing wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt for trying to settle cities in optimal spaces to build watermills, windmills and observatories.



How do you do this?

larger maps got a huge boost due to: 1 faster turn times, and 2. 3 tile city spacing. I think I might even try out a huge 16 civ/28 CS map tonight...

 

[Zyxpsilon]

RA's are fixed!

For the very first time in as i can't even remember how many games, the Tech i received from a deal with Siam was the most costly on my path to striking another before Major Civs runaway from a stack load of cities.
And, that is all - for today - folks.

 

[net55]

I've only (not) seen the invisible rivers on custom map scripts, such as Tectonics in my sig. But I simply cannot bring myself to play with the bland vanilla maps any more, so they show up fairly often for me.

I use custom maps too...the vanilla maps are crap.

 

[Mustakrakish]

Well I don't know all the changes they made in this patch, but damn...

Playing on terra, noble as Japan. Got a very good start, though in the middle of everyone. So can't really say much about diplo working properly as you can imagine... It's a mental asylum. Got myself quite an empire, 4 core & 5 puppets. Was first in score and tech.

Then there is Babylon who has only one, but giant arse city and still quite up in score.

Now the shocker. I couldn't take him down... With my number and tech superiority I couldn't take him down. I'm so used to lack of any competent resistance from AI by now, I was shocked. As I closed in on the city, Nebuchadnezzar placed two musketmen in front of the city and a cannon garrisoned in the city (later he built another one and placed it behind the two units beside the city). He then systematically managed one by one to kill or scare off (had to run away with 1 hp) my riflemen. I made 3 waves and all of them failed. In the first two wawes he killed my elite units with shitload of promotions. The last wave ended disastrously. With my elite forces gone, I had to replace them with "recruits". Not only he turned my forces running, but he then decided to go after them and destroyed all my siege! He then offered me gold for peace so I had to settle for it.

I blame the Great Wall for this disaster. It now works and it's unbelievably annoying. I can tell you that for sure. With no ability to maneuver and run I was beaten by some muskets and a cannon.

Then Russia got a tech lead with half as much cities as I have. Well that's a new one for me.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Necroing this reply a little bit, but hey.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=10266984#post10266984

Now, here's something really worth updating in the LeoPaRd thread!
Thanks... i've got me some DB slots last evening.

 

[jagdtigerciv]

It seems that both Tradition and Liberty tree are far more powerful than ever. The problem that arises is this: why not get both? It seems that these two "starting" trees have become equal if not better than later trees and not only that, they have synergies with one another. Landed Elite, for example, with +15% growth and +2 food in all cities is optimal for almost any build.

 

[bryanw1995]

You can watch for updates at civmodding.wordpress.com, and there's a beta up compatible with the patch. It's undergoing testing to squash possible bugs.

I agree the patches have done a lot of fantastic work balancing the game. There's still more to do but it's looking good. I've been working on additional leader balance lately in preparation for Firaxis's own plans there.

Now that balance work is mostly complete (at least what's possible with the existing modding tools) I've been shifting focus to enhancing the user interface like BUG did for Civ 4. There's been a lot of advancement with this in the "Civ V Unofficial Patch" part of the download.

please push them to include user interface enhancements in future patches!!

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Then Russia got a tech lead with half as much cities as I have. Well that's a new one for me.

-- Defensively yours, Nebu & soon, Cathy.
Please reply in our next encounters in the revamped Diplo-Screen - if you dare.

 

[bryanw1995]

Ok a tragedy has occurred: my work blocked this website! is there anyway to download discussions to a pdf or somethign I can save and email to myself at home so I can use it offline?

email them to your self at work!

 

[stripes]

Hmm..I got to make a research agreement at 2450BC? I wonder what we're researching..how to make a mud pie?

 

[lepruk86]

So finally played most of a full game...

LOVING the turn load-times the most. They have reduced from 30seconds (worst case for me) to about 10 seconds (on standard size with whole map revealed). Huge improvement and makes the game flow so much quicker.

Everything feels a bit more natural and I found my 4 city game to be much stronger than before. (I am not very good and couldn't pinpoint what change is making the most difference) - but overall things seem to be much better.

(also seeing more Iron on the map now... but that could just be random map generator messing with me a bit).

 

[cccv]

the handicapinfo.xml shows that workers and settlers are supposed to pop from settler difficulty only. Must be a bug, post a save in the bug reports forum if you can please.

Apparently I have no autosaves between turns 0 and 120 (WTH?), so that's a no go. Screw it, just assume I'm crazy. Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The turn time improvement is just fantastic. Rock stable so far too.

My #1 concern is the turn times - have they improved at all?

Absolutely. Especially late game.

Great to hear! Turn times and stability are at the top of my list of concerns.

As i wrote earlier, probably three pages ago - i smell a swift fix under the Radar or some call directly to GameSpy soon enough.
Just like when the 1024 Characters limit was blown to pieces in the Description Field.
Worst, the CityView Food basket is still filled to the rim... oh, well good'ol Copy/Paste, verify previous_new in WinMerge.
The usual Lack of attention towards the "Competition" that Modders really are to Devs.
Priorities are strange concepts.

Disappointing to hear.

MP is permanently shattered until players can move after pressing end turn (until everyone has done so of course). Although I'm very good at double-moving, it's anything BUT strategy or engaging.

Hmm, a reply to a pretty old post of mine. It's a shame to hear MP is still not pleasant.

 

[brxbrx]

Hmm..I got to make a research agreement at 2450BC? I wonder what we're researching..how to make a mud pie?

laxatives were invented much later

 

[Blue Oyster]

China's just woke up and these Internet proxies that they work with are rolling along the Fiberwires - as usual. And the US, well after the Football game is over why not stay up overnight as well.
Hijacking the Bandwidths by shear numbers! Or spreading spam, you do the math.

At 12 am Pacific, it's 4PM in Beijing.