News: Civ5 GOTM announcement

[AlanH]

Civ5 GOTM announcement

Greetings. The Game of the Month staff is proud to announce the plans for the upcoming Civilization V Game of the Month competition. You will certainly recognize the setup, although there will be some changes to the way GOTM will work for Civ5. The game itself has changed a bit, and we also want to adapt to the feedback provided by the community. The basic concept is preserved though: a starting save is provided at a given date, the game is played individually without reloads by all contestants, and the save is uploaded once the game is completed. This will allow comparability of games played, no matter the skill level of the participants, with the goal of improving the game play of the community as a whole, and hopefully generate a lot of fun. Awards are then given to the best players. The games will be announced on the GOTM site (http://gotm.civfanatics.net) together with all information necessary to participate in the contest. A Civ5 - Game of the Month forum will be used for all the discussions similar as for Civ3 and Civ4 GOTM (game announcements, spoilers, results, etc).

Training series

Once the game is released (and the staff has learned the basic routines), we will start hosting training games. This training series will run until we have a security mod (HOF/BUFFY) that enables us to run the proper competition. The purpose is for Civ5-fanatics to try out the new features, share experiences, and informally compare games in a friendly environment based on the no-reload concept. The staff will propose objectives related to the new features to allow a more focused discussion, and the games will be provided twice a month.

Competition

Once the submission website and the security mod are in place, we will start the actual competition. The award system will be designed once we understand the scoring mechanics of the game, and the players will have an important role in this process. We will use the experience from the training series to devise an award system that is fair and encourages players to perform at their best. We will also decide later if we will use adventurer/challenger saves depending, or if there are other ways to allow for a variety of playing skills.

Miscellaneous

Civ5 will use Steam, which has a built in update feature. The default setting is to update the game once a patch is available. This feature needs to be disabled by the user once the competition starts to prevent updating the game while playing Civ5 GOTM. The staff is concerned that this feature will result in accidentally prevent players to continue a game played halfway. We are also worried that the various DLC (Downloadable Content) may throw a spanner into the machinery. We will continue to monitor these issues and involve the Game of the Month community to hopefully find a satisfactory solution.

Head over to the Civ5 - Game of the Month forum to learn more!

 

[da_Vinci]

I assume steam eliminates the possibility of a dual install?

dV

 

[LowtherCastle]

In one sentence or less (layman's terms), what is steam?

 

[Erkon]

Steam is a system/client/application that enables you/your games/Civ5 to connect to the internet/game servers/news services.

 

[neilmeister]

You will not be able to play Civ5 unless you have unlocked it via the online server hosted by Valve. This system is called Steam.
You can download and install Civ5 right now, but you cant play it yet because the server will only allow you to unlock it on the 21st.

Your save is going to be hosted on the same servers, not on your PC. So if you have 2 PC's, then it doesn't matter which one you use, you will be playing the same game.

(More than 1 sentence I know, but its not simple!)

 

[Erkon]

...Your save is going to be hosted on the same servers, not on your PC. So if you have 2 PC's, then it doesn't matter which one you use, you will be playing the same game...

This feature (Steam Cloud) is optional (Added UI to disable Steam Cloud per-game and per-account). You can still play the game offline once you have enabled the game.

More info about Steam related to Civ5 can be found on page 5 of the Civ5 manual.

 

[neilmeister]

This feature (Steam Cloud) is optional (Added UI to disable Steam Cloud per-game and per-account). You can still play the game offline once you have enabled the game.
.

If this feature can be detected, then it could/should be enforced as a condition of the GOTM. Everyone who is part of the GOTM scene is obviously online. You could play Civ5 offline, but not a GOTM.

No more dual install issues. As someone who has played GOTM on my work computer (sometimes I don't have much to do ), I am wary that one day I will do something super-optimal (unlikely, I know) and be accused of cheating.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Will I be able to buy a copy of CIV5 at the store and play it, like any other program/game?

I like the idea of gotms being locked into the servier though--separate the men from the boyz...

 

[Erkon]

Will I be able to buy a copy of CIV5 at the store and play it, like any other program/game?...

Yes, you can buy a physical copy, install the game (while connected to Internet), then play either while connected or disconnected. This is how I plan to do it, since I have ordered the Special Edition with the figurines . The game utilizes the Steam features, such as downloadable content (DLC), installations of mods from an in game browser etc, so it will differ from Civ4 in that context. You will need to register the game if you use a physical copy, else it's quite straight forward I think.

This post explains the availability of the multitude of Civ5 variants (a bit daunting)

 

[Mitchum]

If this feature can be detected, then it could/should be enforced as a condition of the GOTM. Everyone who is part of the GOTM scene is obviously online. You could play Civ5 offline, but not a GOTM.

I don't think it would be fair to require people to be online to play. I travel a lot and playing on a plane is often the only time I can get several hours of uninterupted time. I would prefer that our HOF mod be able to detect reloading, whether offline or online, like it does today.

 

[Erkon]

I've posted a poll over at the Civ5 GOTM forum to ask you what leader you want to play in the first Training Series game. Please make your voice heard if you plan to participate.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Thank you for the detailed info, Erkon.

It looks like I will not be buying a copy of Civ 5.

I do not support the idea of an executable installation program requiring internet access.

We have already lost anonymity on the internet. Oh, sure, you and I don't know who each other are, but your anonymity is getting more and more scarce each day.

Do you browse web sites like this one, that use Google Analytics? Do you watch YouTube videos? Well, all of that info is linked together, since Google Analytics has your computer send out a little message to Google's 1e100.net servers every time that you hit up one of those web pages or videos. Then, if you have a Facebook account or a Gmail account where you've put in your real-life information, it's all linked together in a non-anonyous profile.

But, that's all free content. You pay the potentially future expensive price of loss of privacy for free content now. It's still not right and you're still getting ripped off in terms of the value of your personal data, but at least you're getting "paid" by the free content to which you have access.

What I won't do is pay money and have my computer's information tied to a software program installation--minimally our IP addresses but more likely all of our hardware specifications--also being uploaded somewhere. You know that it's only a matter of time before Valve and information-collectors like Google pair up, buying info on your purchases and computer hardware.

I am further distressed by this apparent business model of paying extra money for additional Civs or Map Packs. Typically, this content has been made available by modders, and we have a strong community of them here on this web site who have produced amazing things, including additional Civs, scenarios/maps, etc. If we start paying for these things, then the whole business model may shift.

Emphasis on fan-based modding in Civ 5 might be intentionally culled so that more sales of additional items can be made by the company. Or, it could be that we start to see a shift away from Expansion Packs and more towards a model of just buying your own "set" of Civs.

Even if those things don't come to pass, certainly, the GOTM cannot really use any of this additional "Downloadable Content," because not all players will have all such content, and requiring people to purchase additional content would go against the spirit of the GOTM. So, you'd never really get to use whatever additional "Downloadable Content" that you pay for in GOTM games. I'd rather see them throw such content into the main game or else wait for an Expansion Pack to release it, so that we all have access to it and can thus justify using it in our GOTM games.


I've also seen many stories of issues with Valve-based content, such as updates getting pushed to people even when they selected the option not to have their game automatically updated. We can certainly hope that these issues do not come to pass, but if they do, then they will affect players playing the GOTMs.

I like to have control over what does and does not get installed on my own personal machine. Although the Valve mentality that "users must have the latest and buggiest code at all times" works well for client-server based games, like multiplayer first-person shooter games, since you want everyone to be playing with the same codebase, it is the very fact that Valve was founded on and is dominated by these types of client-server games that buggy behaviour with the automatic updating, for a use case of not always updating the game like our GOTMs, is going to be a low priority for them to address.


I don't really want to start a debate here. If anything, I just wanted to show that not all Civ 4 players are necessarily going to drool over Civ 5 and that the Civ 4 community is going to continue to have members for a good long time. Others may have complaints about the gameplay or other aspects, while my issues deal mainly with the purchasing and activation model being used.


For those of you who do decide to play, I hope that you really enjoy the game! I also hope that you'll make the time to "come back" and keep playing Civ 4 XOTM games for quite some time to come.

 

[da_Vinci]

In one sentence or less (layman's terms), what is steam?

Either the best thing ever, or the worst, depending on which side of this argument you agree with ... http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=363630

This post explains the availability of the multitude of Civ5 variants (a bit daunting)

The 2K site http://www.civilization5.com/preorder/us/ clarifies a bit what is going on with the marketing, once you get that there are basic, deluxe, and special editions, as rows in a matrix with a series of bonuses for pre-order (mostly maps, sometimes extra civs) as columns.

Neilmeister seems to be refering to dual install as having civ on more than one machine, to play in more than one place. My questions was about dual install of two different patch versions on one PC (or more, I suppose) to be able to complete one game in the old versions while starting new ones in the new version. This was pretty important in SGOTM, pitboss and other long-running games. My sense is steam won't permit this?

dV

 

[pnp_dredd]

certainly, the GOTM cannot really use any of this additional "Downloadable Content," because not all players will have all such content, and requiring people to purchase additional content would go against the spirit of the GOTM.

Your concerns about privacy are valid, but this one point isn't.

We already do this for the WOTM and BOTM!

 

[Thrallia]

Either the best thing ever, or the worst, depending on which side of this argument you agree with ... http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=363630

The 2K site http://www.civilization5.com/preorder/us/ clarifies a bit what is going on with the marketing, once you get that there are basic, deluxe, and special editions, as rows in a matrix with a series of bonuses for pre-order (mostly maps, sometimes extra civs) as columns.

Neilmeister seems to be refering to dual install as having civ on more than one machine, to play in more than one place. My questions was about dual install of two different patch versions on one PC (or more, I suppose) to be able to complete one game in the old versions while starting new ones in the new version. This was pretty important in SGOTM, pitboss and other long-running games. My sense is steam won't permit this?

dV

That's correct, dV. Steam will only allow you to have the most up-to-date version of Civ5, if you have Steam set to online. This means that we may have issues with mid-game installs of updates. The likely solution will be to require Steam to be set in off-line mode while playing a GOTM to prevent this from happening. However, as most people are, we're still in the dark as to how that things will work, so not much is set in stone right now.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Okay, so I'd like to have an official announcement from GOTM staff whether we'll be able to play Civ5 offline and submit saves, the same way we've been doing it. I don't want Steam, Valve, or PipeDreams invading my privacy.

 

[leif erikson]

Okay, so I'd like to have an official announcement from GOTM staff whether we'll be able to play Civ5 offline and submit saves, the same way we've been doing it. I don't want Steam, Valve, or PipeDreams invading my privacy.

Yes, you can. It is our understanding that once you connect to STEAM and register the game, you can unplug your ethernet cable, or dial up telephone cable, and you can play the game. Of course, you'll have to reconnect the cable to submit the game...

We will know for sure once we get the game.

 

[Erkon]

Okay, so I'd like to have an official announcement from GOTM staff whether we'll be able to play Civ5 offline and submit saves, the same way we've been doing it. I don't want Steam, Valve, or PipeDreams invading my privacy.

LC, you'll get an official announcement once we know how Civ5 works with steam, how mods are distributed, how the security mod will work etc etc etc etc etc. That's one of the reasons we run the Training Series, right? We will certainly let the players have their say, but first we need to know what the alternatives are.

 

[Erkon]

Here is a thread for Manual Errata. Is anyone interested in a list of changes between Civ5 compared to Civ4? Then we could either compile one, or find a link to an existing thread.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Okay. I'll just wait.