So I was writing in another post commenting on another person's review, and I realized I was digressing more and more into things I'd wished for or things I'd hoped for out of Civ 5 after I saw it, and played it a bit. Upfront I want to say I think I like the game. I see a lot of promise in it, despite its obvious shortcomings, and I hold out a great deal of hope for it still...
I feel they put together a good engine using the Hex model, and they achieved their desires at making the game look and feel "organic". It is visually stunning, and I will be hard pressed to download new content offered by modders if it doesn't have a few good graphic designers helping out on the project. I feel, though I understand its controversial that the 1UPT system makes sense, given how they've developed the game to be more strategic, and how they've dealt with resources as compared to other Civ games. I do feel they've redesigned the game so that you are more focused on individual cities, and if you play it this way you will find yourself micromanaging in a fashion, and staying smaller in terms of land area doesn't always put you at a severe disadvantage. The greatest nations of Earth have not always been the biggest, often it's been an advantage of resources and specialization that has driven certain societies into the lead at various times, and geographic advantage too...
These are all strengths, but like many of you, as a vet of the series I find a fair number of weaknesses that I would like to see addressed. I realize that many of you are modding the game as we speak, in an effort to do just that. And many of the items on this list of mine have already been addressed, and this is promising.
But...
Social Policies -- This to me is a horrible system when compared against Civics if your goal is to make the game more organic and realistic. Civilizations are and often have been fluid creatures, and policies change to suit various circumstances. Even the United States, bastion of free market principles (at least until recently) and social mobility has dabbled from time to time with fascist like policies and socialist economic practices to deal with various issues and world events that have occurred. This idea that I choose from a mini-tech tree and this represents my society forever and ever, or even more so that I will ALWAYS move from Theocracy to Free Religion as a natural course, and never go back again seems absurd. I wanted to see Civics in Civ 4 expanded immensely, instead they've bottlenecked them made everyone I meet in my games "The Pious", including me. That part of it needs to go back to being fluid, it was already "organic".
Speed - I know economy mod addressed this, and I don't know how well because it doesn't currently work for me. But the game does build buildings far too slow. Period. I ALWAYS play on quick because anything else would me make have to live alone and have food delivered through a slot, not to mention bed sores and such...Buildings need to build at a more natural pace and make more sense TO build. Again I realize there are good modders out there making a lot of progress here, but this should have been considered by Devs and not have to be patched by unpaid, however talented, individuals spending their precious time.
Religion -- It needs to come back, maybe in another form, something more fluid would be awesome, that gives players more control over aspects of that religion and in that area maybe the Social Policies mechanic, in a heavily modded form, can be useful. But it was a very powerful principle in Civ 4 and it makes a lot of RL sense that it should be, considering that until the 19th or 20th century it was one of the major reasons wars were fought and did a ton to shape culture, and still does today. And somehow the idea that it can spread, with or without the influence of the State needs to find a way back with it. They did a lot to make Civ 5 LOOK realistic, now make it act that way...bringing us to...
The AI -- We all know it sucks. Period. It needs to be smart enough to take advantage of the system already there before they pile another 2 or 3 on top of it. It does a terrible job of making sense of the numbers and its own units for that matter. It turns out it can no longer brute force build units to overwhelm me, and so now it's at a complete loss for what to do with its time. It somehow needs to understand the game mechanics better, flawed as they may be or not, and make use of them in a sensible way. Much like diplomacy...
Diplomacy -- The cities states are nice, and now we have little ones, and Big Ones (the CPU players) that also happen to be able to build Wonders and expand. Aside from the bonuses from dealing with CSs, there isn't much difference. CPUs have pretty screens where Cathy can pretend so wants to jump my bones while begging me for Silk, but she's really just a big CS with boobs. Otherwise dumb as a rock and otherwise erratic, and there are just not enough choices. Lack of hard numbers is fine, I can deal with that, no +3s because I am her sign, and -3s because I eat beef is fine. I like a little mystery in it. But having a poor idea if she really likes me and why is not even something Obama has to deal with. We've got people working night and day to make sure he knows EXACTLY how Putin feels about him, and why. And tons of deals and ways to piss each other off, or calm each other down. Treaties and Trade compacts and the simple ability to GIFT stuff to people would be nice. I can throw money at CSs all day long for real gain, and you mean Cathy won't even take the Silk robe I got her unless she can offer me 15 herds of Horses in return?
City States -- If you are gonna bother, make them interesting. They all can be bought off, no matter what, and influenced with the same policies. Sure they throw out little side missions, go kill my neighbor, you know the guys in Red (barbs) or Oslo. They piss me off because they smell bad. And the cultural elite of your cities wants me to build what? Fine. Take it 15 more steps tho. I could create a mod with 150 new city states today, but all they are is names of cities I pick off Wiki. Or remember from Geography classes. Where are Economic CSs BTW? Doesn't it seem odd that everyone is either militaristic, maritime, or cultural. If I remember right Venice was pretty big into Banking. Fairly big player politically too. And awfully good at Spying...
Espionage -- Yes major players and small all spy on each other, even today. And with the weak system for diplomatic feedback this game sports, did we EVER need a way to know what the other guy is up to. It would be handy as hell, and doesn't need to be as mechanical as other Civ games. Just the simple abilities to steal, or influence, or infiltrate, or maybe even ASSASINATE would be real nice. Hell just being able to walk into someone else's backyard without permission would be kinda handy...
Land and Culture -- I get that they made culture Tech Points 2. But they still use it for land grabbing. So why is land grabbing from CPUs so impossible, or hell just buying it outright from them? Maybe as part of a peace treaty, or a simple snatch and grab? Why can't we swap cities anymore for that matter, and if you want to improve on prior products maybe just a few tracks of empty field, to end a war, or make friends...
I could go on and on, and already have. But this is my basic wish list. I lack the skills at this point myself to fix any of these things, myself. Given that I won't be spending nearly as much time actually playing Civ 5 as I did 4, I may actually take up modding.
Now let the anger begin...
I feel they put together a good engine using the Hex model, and they achieved their desires at making the game look and feel "organic". It is visually stunning, and I will be hard pressed to download new content offered by modders if it doesn't have a few good graphic designers helping out on the project. I feel, though I understand its controversial that the 1UPT system makes sense, given how they've developed the game to be more strategic, and how they've dealt with resources as compared to other Civ games. I do feel they've redesigned the game so that you are more focused on individual cities, and if you play it this way you will find yourself micromanaging in a fashion, and staying smaller in terms of land area doesn't always put you at a severe disadvantage. The greatest nations of Earth have not always been the biggest, often it's been an advantage of resources and specialization that has driven certain societies into the lead at various times, and geographic advantage too...
These are all strengths, but like many of you, as a vet of the series I find a fair number of weaknesses that I would like to see addressed. I realize that many of you are modding the game as we speak, in an effort to do just that. And many of the items on this list of mine have already been addressed, and this is promising.
But...
Social Policies -- This to me is a horrible system when compared against Civics if your goal is to make the game more organic and realistic. Civilizations are and often have been fluid creatures, and policies change to suit various circumstances. Even the United States, bastion of free market principles (at least until recently) and social mobility has dabbled from time to time with fascist like policies and socialist economic practices to deal with various issues and world events that have occurred. This idea that I choose from a mini-tech tree and this represents my society forever and ever, or even more so that I will ALWAYS move from Theocracy to Free Religion as a natural course, and never go back again seems absurd. I wanted to see Civics in Civ 4 expanded immensely, instead they've bottlenecked them made everyone I meet in my games "The Pious", including me. That part of it needs to go back to being fluid, it was already "organic".
Speed - I know economy mod addressed this, and I don't know how well because it doesn't currently work for me. But the game does build buildings far too slow. Period. I ALWAYS play on quick because anything else would me make have to live alone and have food delivered through a slot, not to mention bed sores and such...Buildings need to build at a more natural pace and make more sense TO build. Again I realize there are good modders out there making a lot of progress here, but this should have been considered by Devs and not have to be patched by unpaid, however talented, individuals spending their precious time.
Religion -- It needs to come back, maybe in another form, something more fluid would be awesome, that gives players more control over aspects of that religion and in that area maybe the Social Policies mechanic, in a heavily modded form, can be useful. But it was a very powerful principle in Civ 4 and it makes a lot of RL sense that it should be, considering that until the 19th or 20th century it was one of the major reasons wars were fought and did a ton to shape culture, and still does today. And somehow the idea that it can spread, with or without the influence of the State needs to find a way back with it. They did a lot to make Civ 5 LOOK realistic, now make it act that way...bringing us to...
The AI -- We all know it sucks. Period. It needs to be smart enough to take advantage of the system already there before they pile another 2 or 3 on top of it. It does a terrible job of making sense of the numbers and its own units for that matter. It turns out it can no longer brute force build units to overwhelm me, and so now it's at a complete loss for what to do with its time. It somehow needs to understand the game mechanics better, flawed as they may be or not, and make use of them in a sensible way. Much like diplomacy...
Diplomacy -- The cities states are nice, and now we have little ones, and Big Ones (the CPU players) that also happen to be able to build Wonders and expand. Aside from the bonuses from dealing with CSs, there isn't much difference. CPUs have pretty screens where Cathy can pretend so wants to jump my bones while begging me for Silk, but she's really just a big CS with boobs. Otherwise dumb as a rock and otherwise erratic, and there are just not enough choices. Lack of hard numbers is fine, I can deal with that, no +3s because I am her sign, and -3s because I eat beef is fine. I like a little mystery in it. But having a poor idea if she really likes me and why is not even something Obama has to deal with. We've got people working night and day to make sure he knows EXACTLY how Putin feels about him, and why. And tons of deals and ways to piss each other off, or calm each other down. Treaties and Trade compacts and the simple ability to GIFT stuff to people would be nice. I can throw money at CSs all day long for real gain, and you mean Cathy won't even take the Silk robe I got her unless she can offer me 15 herds of Horses in return?
City States -- If you are gonna bother, make them interesting. They all can be bought off, no matter what, and influenced with the same policies. Sure they throw out little side missions, go kill my neighbor, you know the guys in Red (barbs) or Oslo. They piss me off because they smell bad. And the cultural elite of your cities wants me to build what? Fine. Take it 15 more steps tho. I could create a mod with 150 new city states today, but all they are is names of cities I pick off Wiki. Or remember from Geography classes. Where are Economic CSs BTW? Doesn't it seem odd that everyone is either militaristic, maritime, or cultural. If I remember right Venice was pretty big into Banking. Fairly big player politically too. And awfully good at Spying...
Espionage -- Yes major players and small all spy on each other, even today. And with the weak system for diplomatic feedback this game sports, did we EVER need a way to know what the other guy is up to. It would be handy as hell, and doesn't need to be as mechanical as other Civ games. Just the simple abilities to steal, or influence, or infiltrate, or maybe even ASSASINATE would be real nice. Hell just being able to walk into someone else's backyard without permission would be kinda handy...
Land and Culture -- I get that they made culture Tech Points 2. But they still use it for land grabbing. So why is land grabbing from CPUs so impossible, or hell just buying it outright from them? Maybe as part of a peace treaty, or a simple snatch and grab? Why can't we swap cities anymore for that matter, and if you want to improve on prior products maybe just a few tracks of empty field, to end a war, or make friends...
I could go on and on, and already have. But this is my basic wish list. I lack the skills at this point myself to fix any of these things, myself. Given that I won't be spending nearly as much time actually playing Civ 5 as I did 4, I may actually take up modding.
Now let the anger begin...
