Old timer's, what are your thoughts so far?

[Manifold]

After the very good and easy mod able Civ4 I was very unhappy with Civ5 because except of the hex fields it is a great step back.

What I have seen so far from Civ6 the start could be and also must be better then Civ5.
I like some new stuff and graphics of Civ6 very much although they some are pretty ahistorical. The new system of districts sounds interesting to me. That trading becomes more important is also a good trend. The comeback of multi leader per Civ is to be welcomed.

But I also sure that some game designers which make the decisions have watched to much Pollock paintings or heard too much Indian drums during sleep. Otherwise I can´t explain to me how someone could get the idea that the Sumerians take donkeys into battle, the Scythian have settlements with Russian names, Saladin is famous for his construction projects, Genghis Khan is not one of the 20 most exciting leader in world history, a Civ could get the tech Book printing without the tech writing, Railways ....

Railways have been forgotten RAILWAYS Was not the name of the Game SID MEIER´S Civilization?


In my opinion so far,
Civ1 was the best part of course. The only goal was to conquer the world and if you were late the endgame was epochal.
Civ2 was a major step what the mod ability affected.
Civ3 was very nice with the exception of game graphics.
Civ4 was very near to Civ1 that means nearly perfect.
Civ5 could just be worse after but the hex fields are a good trend but that means that the AI also have to use it better then it did. Furthermore with this part a lot of simplifications appear like the Omission of transport ships and local happiness. That means less micromanaged and at the same time less depth of the game.
This trend now goes on. The next cancellation would be the worker/builder totally. This was already one aspect of the Civ3 opponent Call of Power, I did not like this in Call of Power. I loved my workers and my stolen too.

Civ6 seems to look good and has some interesting new game mechanics but otherwise if I think about playing a Civ game, I will not think about build some holiday resorts or apostles or even museums. I want to build Kheshigs, stealth bomber and UAV and RAILWAYS of course.

Ultimately most of the stuff I am missing will be sold in dlc and expansion. Because no one would buy an expansion or dlc about tourism and religion victory!

 

[wiggawuu]

How can anyone be excited after Beyond earth? lol jk

 

[fay902]

How can anyone be excited after Beyond earth? lol jk

Beyond Earth was the peak of the Civ series, it's all down-hill from here.

 

[lindsay40k]

Here's a few thoughts:

Do we have proper pathfinding this time, or does the introduction of Corps and Armies just mean that when I'm sending a force long distances, the unit at the front I have to manually move because the pathfinding starts with the one at the back will have +17 strength? When I'm sorting out traffic jams, will I be allowed to move units individually and end my turn without having to tell every unit that it has no further orders?

Any word on whether the interface will remember how you play, or will turn one always consist of click settler > click make city > click show queue > click add to queue > click opening builds > click citizen management > esc > click change info panel > click research info > click tech panel > click open technology tree > click opening techs > enter? Will I even have to do all this when loading a saved game in which I set up the UI already? (Even though the map remembers its settings, well at least when the yield symbols don't all disappear on an entire continent on a game that's had six flipping years of updates)

Will the 'load saved games' screen be listed by last modified by default, or will I have to click 'don't put a dozen ancient Catherine de Medici saves at the top' to get to the save that by all logic I'm most likely to actually want to load? Will turn-by-turn saves be listed in actual order of recency, or will the past half hour be out of order?

When I'm using Spaces on macOS, will switching to out and in of the Civ 6 screen between turns bring up a black screen with a Civ pointer that I have to bring up Mission Control to get out the way so I can play?

Will there be dozens of "achievements" for staging unlikely reenactments, and for playing the game badly without any expansions?

 

[ProMeTheus112]

will I be allowed to move units individually and end my turn without having to tell every unit that it has no further orders?

uh yes I hope this too o_o along with no mandatory auto cycling of units

 

[Verenti]

This is aimed at guys who have been playing Civ since waaaay back in the day. I find veteran commentary always really spot on. Are you excited again or has the civ5 format killed it for you?

btw, I've been playing since civ 2. I was on this forum or the apolyton.net one way back in the day. I couldn't remember my account to save my life. I figured I'd jump on board again.

Cheers.

I've been playing since Civ I.

I'm optimistic. Ed Beech was the man who was the lead on Brave New World, which saved Civ 5 from being a complete train wreck (and actually made it a fairly decent game). It looks like it's taken a lot of steps to recapture the nature of the game, which peaked with Civ 4. Civ 4 was another game that understood what was great about both early titles, but borrowed a lot of ideas from Alpha Centauri. It cemented that base of core concepts and built upon it. Unlike Civ 5 (at launch) which threw them all out without any reasonable idea of what to replace them with (cough: governments). I'm hoping that Civ 6 will be another "Civ 4" and strengthen the foundation first and build its new ideas upon that foundation. It seems to be exactly that.

To me, Civ 5 was a strategy game that was afraid of alienating people by being smart. It looks like Civ 6 isn't afraid to be as smart as it is, while finding other avenues for creating accessibility.

 

[wiggawuu]

Civ 6 is def the most complete civ game ever released. As great as that is, will it be enough to keep civ fresh? We shall see. I think for players who have never played anything before civ 5, this will seem like a master piece to them. aka civ reddit..lolol

 

[malekithau]

Otherwise I can´t explain to me how someone could get the idea that the Sumerians take donkeys into battle,

I read to here and then stopped. The Sumerians had battle carts drawn by asses. It's a historical fact.

As far as the topic goes - I'm excited about the game and can't wait to play. It looks to have a lot more decision making built in. The interplay of adjacency bonuses especially will lead to a lot of hard decisions.

 

[narmox]

As far as the topic goes - I'm excited about the game and can't wait to play. It looks to have a lot more decision making built in. The interplay of adjacency bonuses especially will lead to a lot of hard decisions.

At first it'll lead to a lot of facepalms, when decisions you made lightly come back and bite you when newer districts or buildings become available! Then, slowly, we will learn to make all those hard and fun decisions early on..

 

[Manifold]

I read to here and then stopped. The Sumerians had battle carts drawn by asses. It's a historical fact.

No, definitively not in battle like the animation of the unit shows, like African wood elephants before. You have already read exactly what others write if you want to talk about facts to get those ideas I repeat myself someone need ignorance (same like don´t read to the end), missing knowledge and great imagination. If the Sumerians take donkeys into battle one time it was also the last time. But for teens that may be cool stuff and good discussion material for the schoolyard.

 

[Zhahz]

Very excited for Civ 6 - can't freakin' wait.

Been gaming for decades, been playing civ for decades.

I thought Civ 5 was best in series and played it over 1800 hours.

Finally uninstalled 5 a couple days ago to say good bye and get ready for 6.

Civ 6 looks better than 5 just based on too much youtube and dev play viewing.

 

[Gaskes]

Having looked at the info to date I was looking forward to playing this new game, I tried BE but got bored. Unfortunately I have just found the unofficial mods for V and like what I have found - so I will wait another 12 months or so before playing VI.

 

[Hyronymus]

Housing has been done before....they just have it a new name (and apparently fooled you by it). In Civ 2 there were hard-caps (can't grow beyond 6 without an aqueduct, for example). Civ 4 still, as usual, had the most elegant system: health. The nice thing about health was how granular it was. It affected your growth and you could allow it to do so, or you could prioritise dealing with it. Both were legitimate options, depending on the circumstance. Civ 5 ripped out the granular for the concrete, the nuanced for the blunt. Civ 6 looks better, but the simplistic housing cap and it's impact on growth is in the Civ 5 mould.

Maybe you are right for Civ2 with the hard caps but health is a whole different ballgame in my opinion: even with the "new housing" you can add health as a viable and understandable variable. Still looking forward to housing though, "fooled" or not.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Been playing since Civ II, back in the late 90s. Was about 13. I've tried Civ I, but I couldn't get into it after playing the later ones first.

I thought each game was an improvement on the last. V was dicey for a while, but they saved it with a couple of A+ expansions.

It seems like VI isn't going to need expansions to make it good, it seems like a complete package in itself. So that's exciting.

As of now I'm trying to get all of my work for the week done so I'll have as much of the weekend as possible to play.

 

[Toulouse]

Yeah, I've been playing since 2001 and Civ 3. Loved Soren's Civ 4 and was hyped for 5. However, the shoddy state of 5 at release and the pre-order DLC left me disillusioned, certainly in terms of playing day one or being an early adopter, I bought the expansions and made my peace with 5.

Now sadly the cartoony visuals of Civ 6 have pushed my playing interest in this one to next year and a Steam sale. If it's universally acknowledged as a great Civ, I probably would change my mind and get into it in a month or two. But the visuals serve as a warning that Firaxis' new direction may not be mine.

 

[Captain Pugwash]

I started with Civ 2 Test of Time way back when graphics were 640x480 VGA on a 15" screen. I was late to the franchise and bought that game cheap. Best money I ever spent on a game. Played it endlessly. I still remember the excitement of the music on the start-up screens and the maps being gradually revealed as you played. I am the micro-management type and it would take me a week or more for each SP game.

Of course I bought Civ 3 but was disappointed with it although I still played it a lot.

When Civ 4 came out I discovered my hardware wasn't up to the job. So I bought a new computer just to play Civ 4. Never regretted it. Played endlessly again. There was no other computer game which was so immersing and I loved it. Finally, having played so much I began to feel that the game was forcing me to play it in a certain way. I didn't like this because I want a game where even the developers don't know how it should be played. With lots of complexity and strategic decisions to be made. So that I can try different ways to play and see how they work out. I don't know if this is even possible in game development because the devs always felt they had to solve problems like spearmen being able to kill tanks or rocketry being discovered in the 14th century. I never cared about those but wanted the freedom. I only play as long as there is something new to try. The Civilization franchise has done a great job over the years in providing this. Unequalled in my opinion.

Then came Civ 5 and you had to run it from Steam and so many reports on here said it had been "dumbed down". Exactly the opposite of what I wanted. So faced with buying a new machine to run it, I never did buy Civ 5.

Yes, I am still interested in Civ 6. I want to see where they are going with it. Will it have many ways to play as I always wanted ?
Since I am a long way down my journey with this franchise, I wont be buying a new computer to play Civ 6 although I am pretty sure my current laptop, only 3 years old, will not have enough graphics grunt for the job. However, I expect I will buy Civ 6 eventually when I have another reason to upgrade my hardware. It may depend on what you guys post on this forum about your experiences with it.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Otherwise I can´t explain to me how someone could get the idea that the Sumerians take donkeys into battle

Uh, chariots driven by onagers seem to be commonly displayed. While I'm not an expert in the Ancient Sumerians, I see it displayed in a lot of secondary sources (particularly the Osprey Books).

 

[mogilan]

I have played CIV since 1992 and started from CIV 1 of course. I loved it and must admit that I figured out how to play it without any manual (yes, I had a pirate copy and there was no internet that day where I could look for any guides).

Played CIV5 and didn't like it. And I don't believe CIV6 will be any good.

The problem is that CIVs are following this trend of simplifying in computer games industry. You can think its good because it eliminates micromanagement etc. But in the result you lose a lot of commitment you can gain when you manually switch buttons, move units, think thoroughly about every decision etc. I will use comparison with cooking. You can prepare your pizza manually - yes, it will be much more time consuming but finally it will taste better and you will get a lot of satisfaction. Or you can buy frozen one and just put it into Microwave. Simpler solution but much less engaging and satisfying.

 

[AinEiken]

I played since Civ 1. Stumbled over that game back in the days. Was the end of my outdoor time that year.
I'm as optimistic for Civ VI as I was when Civ IV was published.

The problem is that CIVs are following this trend of simplifying in computer games industry. (...)

En contraire. Comparing the complexity of Civ VI vanilla to Civ IV vanilla is clearly a win for Civ VI. There simply are many more concepts in the new spin-off then was in the base game of Civ IV. Civ IV was an okay-Civ till the release of the 2nd Expansion. Then it became legendary.

 

[jozef57]

i played all versions since civ 11. the only i did not rea;y like was the basic version of 5 it took 2 addons to make that a good civ game for me. they said they wanted to make civ 6 a more complete game on launch , i hope that to be true, although there be no world congress. seen most play vids on YT i hope for the best.. but as aways patches and chances will be nececary.. lets just wait and see. i preordered in may lol.. hope it will e worth it.. civ 4 latast adoon still best ever i think.. i played all version 2000Hr plus with 5 i cam to just under a 1000th that says it all