Sid Meier's Civilization VI announced!

[Camikaze]

Link to video.

The game is set for release on October 21, 2016.

A Take-Two Interactive press release notes:

“Sid Meier’s Civilization games hold a reputation for defining the 4X gaming genre for the past 25 years,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “We can’t think of a better way to celebrate the silver anniversary of our longest-running franchise than launching the eagerly anticipated Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, which will provide the most detailed, beautiful and complete experience ever featured in a Civilization game.”

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI sets another milestone in the Civilization franchise, which has sold-in over 34 million units worldwide and changed the gaming landscape by bringing the strategy genre to unparalleled heights. In Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, cities will physically expand across the map to create new, deep strategic layers, active research in technology and culture will unlock new potential ways to play; and the large variety of leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical character traits as players race to achieve victory however they choose to play.

“Sid Meier’s Civilization VI builds on the firm foundation of the Civilization franchise, and we’ve added many exciting new elements,” said Ed Beach, lead designer at Firaxis Games. “The visual presentation of the game is inspired by the maps and tools of the Age of Exploration, and we’ve made several key gameplay changes such as expansive cities and active research that makes Sid Meier’s Civilization VI an entirely unique experience while remaining true to what makes the Civilization series so special.”​

Details from the Civ6 Steam page:

Originally created by legendary game designer Sid Meier, Civilization is a turn-based strategy game in which you attempt to build an empire to stand the test of time. Become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age. Wage war, conduct diplomacy, advance your culture, and go head-to-head with history’s greatest leaders as you attempt to build the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

Civilization VI offers new ways to engage with your world: cities now physically expand across the map, active research in technology and culture unlocks new potential, and competing leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical traits as you race for one of five ways to achieve victory in the game.

• EXPANSIVE EMPIRES:
  See the marvels of your empire spread across the map like never before. Each city spans multiple tiles so you can custom build your cities to take full advantage of the local terrain.
• ACTIVE RESEARCH:
  Unlock boosts that speed your civilization’s progress through history. To advance more quickly, use your units to actively explore, develop your environment, and discover new cultures.
• DYNAMIC DIPLOMACY:
  Interactions with other civilizations change over the course of the game, from primitive first interactions where conflict is a fact of life, to late game alliances and negotiations.
• COMBINED ARMS:
  Expanding on the “one unit per tile” design, support units can now be embedded with other units, like anti-tank support with infantry, or a warrior with settlers. Similar units can also be combined to form powerful “Corps” units.
• ENHANCED MULTIPLAYER:
  In addition to traditional multiplayer modes, cooperate and compete with your friends in a wide variety of situations all designed to be easily completed in a single session.
• A CIV FOR ALL PLAYERS:
  Civilization VI provides veteran players new ways to build and tune their civilization for the greatest chance of success. New tutorial systems introduce new players to the underlying concepts so they can easily get started.

Spoiler Screenshot 1 :

Spoiler Screenshot 2 :

Spoiler Screenshot 3 :

 

[Gokudo01]

Folks why are you so fast here ?

Delete my post then

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The art looks kind of mobile gamey, but otherwise I am so excited!

 

[janboruta]

Worldmap looks underwhelming so far. Will be monitoring though, looking forward to seeing UI elements and unit/civ/leader icons and so forth.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

So it's still one unit per tile but you can embed units inside each other for various effects. Seems interesting.

 

[WiseGreen]

I ain't ready for this. I still have so many games I want to have in CiV!

 

[inthesomeday]

Haven't had a chance to watch the video, currently in class with a stick in the mud teach, next period. The feature list looks

 

[TPangolin]

Worldmap looks underwhelming so far. Will be monitoring though, looking forward to seeing UI elements and unit/civ/leader icons and so forth.

Yep! Let's not forget what the Civ V announcement graphics looked like as well:

Spoiler :

Things can still absolutely change. Like with many movie trailers, the CGI in the finished product looks altered for a better end result (take Jurassic World for example).

That being said I am absolutely going to miss some of the realism, and I hope that it is brought back in a sense too. On another note, I hope the camera is not fixed in this position!

 

[SupremacyKing2]

• EXPANSIVE EMPIRES:
  See the marvels of your empire spread across the map like never before. Each city spans multiple tiles so you can custom build your cities to take full advantage of the local terrain.
• ACTIVE RESEARCH:
  Unlock boosts that speed your civilization’s progress through history. To advance more quickly, use your units to actively explore, develop your environment, and discover new cultures.
• DYNAMIC DIPLOMACY:
  Interactions with other civilizations change over the course of the game, from primitive first interactions where conflict is a fact of life, to late game alliances and negotiations.
• COMBINED ARMS:
  Expanding on the “one unit per tile” design, support units can now be embedded with other units, like anti-tank support with infantry, or a warrior with settlers. Similar units can also be combined to form powerful “Corps” units.

• 
  
  These new features look fantastic. I am hoping the screenshots are just early alpha. They look super cartoony, like a mobile game. Civ6 better not be a mobile game. I am hoping the final graphics look more serious and adult, like a real high end PC game.

 

[Bondarik]

Not impressed at all with the graphical style; some room left for excitement improvement.

 

[Haig]

I love the graphics, really crisp and clear. Actually Civ IV too is very cartoony, Civ V was more realistic.

P.S. Camikaze arent you part of the "Frankenstein" Test team? Or do I remember wrong.

 

[Cerilis]

The concept looks awesome, but I have to admit, I'm also not that happy with that comic-like, mobile game-style graphics. D: Bad memories appear.

 

[XplosiveLun]

I'm not opposing cartoon style though realistic is more suitable for Civ. However, the graphics looks very neat. Sometimes, you just can't distinguish between plain hill and plain in Civ5. So it should be a large improvement on presentation.

 

[Gbest]

More details here https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/05/11/civilization-vi-details/

 

[radster_X]

Perhaps a little cartoony, but I love the graphics for those wonders! So crisp!
And besides, if the gameplay's good, I'll easily sink another 1000 hours into it.

 

[Kin]

Looks great. Can't wait. I have loved them all.

I assume it will be for the PC.

 

[TPangolin]

Here's something I've compiled from multiple articles"

Additional Mechanic Info (as gathered from articles)

Cities

- Instead of taking up a single tile, cities can now expand across multiple tiles
- Everything is now placed on the map, blowing the cities apart. All of the upgrades that you build are now spread across the landscape in the area of control of each city.
- Each City is now comprised of districts
- There are a total of twelve district types
- Cities can still control up to 36 hexes but the number of improvements that they’ll need to work the land has been reduced, with districts moving in to fill the gaps.
- Wonders now also exist on the map, each taking up their own tile.
- Wonders have terrain requirements - (e.g Pyramids needing a desert or Stonehenge needing a flat grassland)

---

Science

- Every tech on the tree has an associated activity in the rest of the game that will “boost” the research, providing a substantial boost to its progress even if the player hasn’t reached it on the tech tree yet. For instance, founding a coastal city or building ships will accelerate related nautical technologies
- For example, the masonry boost requires stone blocks and quarries. You can research that tech by hand without access to stone, but if you can find a quarry site and get one up and going, you unlock the tech boost and that gives you half of the research points needed for masonry

---

Combat and Diplomacy

- Diplomacy will be overhauled but Firaxis aren’t ready to talk about the specifics of that just yet
- Diplomacy begins very informally, with the sending of gifts, basic trading and declarations of war. Eventually becomes formalised and more complex as embassies and their ambassadors spread across the world.
- There will be more than one way to declare war.
- Support units can now be embedded with other units, like anti-tank support with infantry, or a warrior with settlers. (These are units that are more sensibly depicted as special equipment embedded with a larger unit rather than standalone figures on the map.)
- Similar units can also be combined to form powerful “Corps” units.
- Units can now be organised into a formation, which means they’ll always move together rather than having to be shuffled across the map one at a time.
- Formations can be applied to large collections of military units or civilian units and their escorts.

---

AI and Other Mechanics

- Religion, Archaeology, Trade Routes are confirmed to be in the base game
- AI is said to have been improved
- Every AI leader in the game now has a set of agendas – personality quirks that inform how they approach the game
- AI characters will change over the course of a game, based largely on how you interact with them.

---

Engine

- Civ VI will be running on a brand new engine
- Civ VI will be far more moddable because of said engine (TPang's note: I've heard that one before :/)
- New Multiplayer modes intended to be completed within a single session of a few hours.

 

[Camikaze]

I love the graphics, really crisp and clear. Actually Civ IV too is very cartoony, Civ V was more realistic.

P.S. Camikaze arent you part of the "Frankenstein" Test team? Or do I remember wrong.

It is public knowledge that I have been in the game credits as part of the Frankenstein team for all Firaxis Civ release since Gods & King. However, I could not confirm nor deny the continued existence of any such team, or my place on it.

 

[inthesomeday]

These pictures show us hexagon maps, map features like hills, plains, and resources, all are still in the game.

They show us unique civilizations (looks like Japan, Rome, and India so far are confirmable) are still in the game, as well as unique units (I see samurai, possibly a Legion).

They show us religion, wonders, and improvements are still in the game, as well as mechanics centered around city building.

These all seem obvious but they're nice to know for sure.

As to the graphics, obviously it looks pretty bad but also the developers are probably still cleaning up the display. However, the lack of filters showing things like the hex grid, the resource icons, yields, city names, etc also make me think these pictures are probably showing the map at its barest. Adding in all the other things normally adds grit to the graphics, like in cIV when turning on geographic view or whatever removed all units, city names, and FoW from the map. I'm sure the finished product will look fine, and that doesn't even matter, what's more important are the core game mechanics.
All the bulleted changes in the OP are definitely positive IMO. The active research seems the best, and combined arms plus expansive empires hints they were listening to the community at least a little bit.

I am very much looking forward to research and diplomacy overhauls. They seem well designed, the research is something to improve realism and gameplay I've considered many times. Imagine meeting a jungle empire that's better at yielding hammers off of jungles because that's how their civ has been shaped; it'll improve gameplay by making it so certain things don't cripple your civ and the improvement to realism is quite obvious. As to diplomacy, I think the development of politics over time is in terms of realism one of the most lacking things in civ; the idea that you have organized luxury trade from 4000 BC but can't have a personal alliance or some kind of complex alliance system in 1800 is rather disenheartening. I hope trade is included in the diplomacy overhaul.

I don't know how I feel about the districts in cities and the general city overhaul, that'll be very interesting surely but it could go downhill without the right approach. However I love the wonder overhaul, it should drastically improve the specialization of civs and should hopefully prevent wonder spamming or crossing your fingers on the turnover.

Some lacking information is how civs will operate here; eg, tall vs. wide. Hopefully there'll be a nomad option but maybe that's getting my hopes too high.

 

[Barathor]

It looks fantastic!

Civ VI will be running on a brand new engine

That's great to hear! I assume it'll finally be 64 bit?