New Q&A

[Eagle Pursuit]

I suspect that if any more were changed, then they want to keep it as a surprise for launch day.

 

[PhilBowles]

I find most of what this reveals about BNW disappointing, sadly.

The French changes are the largest, but there are others as well. For example, Arabia now has caravans with extended range and its trade routes spread the home city’s religion twice as effectively. We’ve also updated India’s Mughal Fort so the gold it used to earn after Flight was researched (for tourism at that location) has now been replaced with actual Brave New World-style Tourism.

Okay, except the bolded bit, which sounds brilliantly characterful and an interesting idea gamewise (love indirect effects from trade routes). But all they're doing for India is fiddling slightly with a UB that in all likelihood still won't be used?

Also, it's not clear whether this is the usual "reveal" of "a bit more info on something we've already told you" (in this case that Arabia and India are being changed), or whether this really is our lot - that the other civs aren't being changed at all. The Arabian change suggests that "less drastic than France" can still be a pretty drastic change.

Other than the culture victory, what else does tourism influence?

Tourism is specifically the means to the culture victory, but it also has a large impact on Ideological pressure (Freedom, Order, or Autocracy). This pressure can cause unhappiness in other civs that are following a different Ideology, and given enough unhappiness, can even cause that civ to switch to your Ideology. If an Ideology switch does not solve their unhappiness issues, than their cities will flip to a nearby power (probably the one exerting the most Ideological pressure on them).

So basically nothing we don't know, and I still feel this is poor design. More importantly perhaps, I never cared much one way or another about city flipping (which was very rare unless you went for culture victory or the other city was newly-established in later game stages), but I do want tile flipping back, which can produce useful resources and is more dynamic (and, well, is just downright fun). We know the mechanics can handle this (there's a mod for it), but it sounds as though tile-flipping still won't be back in the main game.

How strongly will the choice of an ideology affect the relations between the civilizations? Can ancient great friends become huge enemies only because a different ideology?

It probably won’t help your relationship if you’re a different Ideology from an old ally, especially towards the end of the game when you’re getting close to victory. At that point, you’ll most likely be doing things (intentionally or otherwise) that will annoy the other Civ, and having a different Ideology will just exacerbate the situation. But it’s also possible that you may have the same Ideology as your old friend, especially if you two have had a long and mutually profitable relationship, or are building upon similar strengths. The effects of your choice will only be minimal at first, but can grow to cause rifts as the eras pass. Finally, note that AI civs do look at the Ideology choices made by their allies before making a selection for themselves. So it’s possible an old ally might follow you into one of the three Ideologies.

It reads as though this translates as "not much", and that the modifier probably doesn't do much more than it does now. This may turn out to be like religious effects on diplomacy, which proved in practice to be less relevant to most games than expected.

There may be situations in which I would like to prevent trade routes to be established from another civ, e.g. because I don't want them to spread their religion into our lands. How can that be done?

You can’t really shut down another Civ’s trade routes unless you’re at war, so there’s always the possibility that some religious pressure may be exerted on you. If you’re worried about it, you can always send Missionaries or a Great Prophet to the originating Civ and spread your own religion back, but be prepared for the diplomatic consequences if you do.

This just seems badly thought-out. Do you at least need open borders to trade with another civ, so that they can't open a trade route with your cities without open borders?

The binding resolutions that the World Congress passes affect the rules of the game, and they include the Diplomatic Victory, so they’re extremely strong. Banning a luxury resource, establishing a cooperative international project with rewards for the contributors, changing the law of trade – these can cripple or boost a Civ in powerful ways. Additionally, while the sessions start out at a slow pace, the sessions will grow shorter and shorter as you progress through the game.

Nothing we didn't know, but I still don't see anyone but Indonesia being much affected by a trade embargo - past a certain point no one else will be able to trade their luxuries anyway, because someone will always have a copy.

Would you please tell us some more details on the new world wonders? And what effect changes will be made to the existing ones?

Some of the existing Wonders (like the Great Library and the Louvre) were changed to allow the addition of Great Work slots for the new Culture system. Other Wonders are now only available if you adopt certain Social Policies. There are Wonders associated with the new Ideologies now, as well. For example, adopting the Freedom Ideology lets you build the Statue of Liberty. As for the new Wonders, Broadway will give the player a free Great Musician, and 3 slots for Great Works of Music.

They really seem to be trying hard to answer questions we already know the answers to.

What new natural wonders or resources will there be and will we see changes to the existing ones?

We’ll give you a teaser for the new Natural Wonders: King Solomon’s Mines provide +6 hammers. Most of the other Natural Wonder bonuses remain the same.

A lot of us dislike the fantasy natural wonders already in the game, why add another particularly when there are so many options for real ones? Will King Solomon's Mines interact somehow with the archaeology mechanic?

What changes will there be to the existing religion tenets?

There have been a handful of changes to some of these. One of the changes that I can think of off the top of my head is Religious Art, which gives the Hermitage +5 Culture and +5 Tourism.

Something we didn't know for a change. Shame it's something we also don't care about.

What about the future of Civilization V? Ed Beach said he would never run out of ideas for this game. So will we see another addon or DLC in the future?

Who can say? We’re always thinking of ways the game can be changed and trying them out in Civ V.

They could do worse than looking to some of the mods for inspiration, I've found while playing recently. The emigration system in particular - used by the mod of the same name - is interesting.

How does the Indonesian trait exactly work? Will their luxury resources be unique, like the ones of mercantile city states?

Every time the Indonesians settle a city on a new continent, they get a unique luxury resource. This can happen up to three times. The three unique luxury resources are Pepper, Cloves, and Nutmeg. These luxury resources cannot be razed or destroyed, and Indonesia gets two of each resource. Yes, this is similar to the mercantile city-state resources like Porcelain.

Didn't they answer exactly this one last time? They must know about the question here regarding whether the first city gets the bonus - couldn't they have clarified that?

Much like the game engine has improved, we’ve continued to keep improving the AI. We’ve seen that many players have had to step down their starting difficulty level, which we take as an indication the AI is playing the game better. Some of our improvements include decisions the AI makes with its gold particularly in the early-game, and Naval AI work that delivers roaming fleets that now correctly coordinate attack and move as one.

I've seen past progress on this front already. I'm not sure how well the AI uses its gold, but it certainly spends it - I often now lack a partner with enough funds for a research agreement, and I see fewer obsolete units so it appears to actively upgrade. Naval AI may need some work, but it can already coordinate and move fairly well.

I think remaining weak areas to target that are more important are such things as embarkation/disembarking (particularly around enemy ranged units), teaching the AI to specialise city production and how to generate Great People, and tactical play that allows it to preserve and promote units (rather than just using the heal effect). Part of the reason the AI loses against humans in battle is not that it can't use its units tactically, but that its units lack effective promotions that humans can exploit.

Which details would you like to keep secret the most?

Apparently all the ones they aren't revealing as they dodge questions...

 

[migalhone]

"You can’t really shut down another Civ’s trade routes unless you’re at war, so there’s always the possibility that some religious pressure may be exerted on you. If you’re worried about it, you can always send Missionaries or a Great Prophet to the originating Civ and spread your own religion back, but be prepared for the diplomatic consequences if you do."

I would REALLY enjoy that BNW had a diplomatic option for the player to chastize the AI for spreading his religion into his territory. Because nothing leads me to believe this was fixed, i'm going the pessimist route and assume that it will remain the thing: AI's can get angry with me for spreading my religion on their cities, but if they do the same to me, there's no diplomatic backlash for them. (Besides war, but that's not the point here...)

 

[EnterDOT]

"You can’t really shut down another Civ’s trade routes unless you’re at war, so there’s always the possibility that some religious pressure may be exerted on you. If you’re worried about it, you can always send Missionaries or a Great Prophet to the originating Civ and spread your own religion back, but be prepared for the diplomatic consequences if you do."

I would REALLY enjoy that BNW had a diplomatic option for the player to chastize the AI for spreading his religion into his territory. Because nothing leads me to believe this was fixed, i'm going the pessimist route and assume that it will remain the thing: AI's can get angry with me for spreading my religion on their cities, but if they do the same to me, there's no diplomatic backlash for them. (Besides war, but that's not the point here...)

Actually there is an option to ask the AI to stop sending prophets and missionaries.

 

[Makavcio]

^ After AI conducts a hostile evangelic mission, you acquire an option to demand its cessation. It's on the same screen where you can find demands not to settle anywhere near or cease espionage. It's pretty much as effective as the pair of options mentioned above

 

[Tinker]

That only happens after they have sent a prophet or missionary, though, which is frustrating - when you see a prophet beelining your city that you don't want converted, you can't pre-emptively ask the AI not to do it.

 

[PhilBowles]

That only happens after they have sent a prophet or missionary, though, which is frustrating - when you see a prophet beelining your city that you don't want converted, you can't pre-emptively ask the AI not to do it.

The AI can't ask you not to do it until you've used the missionary/prophet either. It's triggered by a city actually being converted (which is why the AI will never ask you to stop spreading religion if you spam missionaries for Interfaith Dialogue and a careful to avoid your religion becoming the majority one in its cities).

 

[GIR]

lol - so no changes for the german trait(s)? (source: Episode 20 of Beyond the Monument)