Study The Past - a series retrospective

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Not sure how much thought was put into these videos and consequently how much we should be reading into them... but nice that they are doing a retrospective at least.

You never know, and this is the only morsel of information we are recieveing.

Considering they *have* put easter eggs and tiny reveals before in videos, I see no reason why they woulnd't use the opportunity to get people talking.

I don't think these are accidents, especialyl when some more obvious choices have been omitted.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I don't think these are accidents,

There are no accidents. Every frame reveals something about the new game.

Study, people! It's in the title!

 

[Jeppetto]

There are no accidents. Every frame reveals something about the new game.

- Master Oogway

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Speculation on mechanics that we may - or may not - see highlighted for Civ 5:

• Hexagonal grid
• Leaders speaking in their native language
• Natural wonders
• City states (and puppet states?)
• Units take damage, gain experience/promotions and upgrade - doubtful any of these will be mentioned, but we'll see
• Unstacking the army (one unit per tile) - this is the big one! will they mention it or not?
• Social policies - another big one! will they highlight the policy trees?
• Ideologies - technically an expansion mechanic and a rework of the social policies, so I'd be surprised to see it specifically referenced
• Research agreements - they haven't highlighted tech trading, will they highlight research agreements?
• Global happiness - just kidding

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'm still waiting for the Civ IV video on YouTube in order to update the OP.

Edit: Never mind. It came up yesterday.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Social policies - another big one! will they highlight the policy trees?

I agree. A big turn-off for me (and I gather others) is the cards. If they show trees in 5 and then don't show cards in 6, that will almost certainly tell us something.

In fact, as a more general principle, that is part of how we should be analyzing these videos: playing them off against one another. They showed X in [Number]; they could have shown Y in [Other Number] but didn't , so it looks like they've learned Z about X vs Y.

(If my algebra makes sense.)

 

[Navelgazer]

I agree. A big turn-off for me (and I gather others) is the cards. If they show trees in 5 and then don't show cards in 6, that will almost certainly tell us something.

Interesting. I actually like the policy cards (though I accept that I might be in the minority on that one.) For me, they add to immersion rather than subtracting from it. Just, like, the idea that different governments will emphasize different elements of policy over others, while the policies themselves will change with the current circumstances, and that governments will be able to enforce more policies over time as they evolve, really clicks with me, and this felt like a fairly engaging and elegant way to translate that into game mechanics. Plus, it's one more thing that can make a civ run feel unique. I didn't dislike Civ V's policy trees, but they tended towards always prioritizing the same things after a while (again, for me) and I really felt like the policy cards were an improvement over that.

Not a make-or-break thing for me by any means, and I'd welcome an entirely revamped system, but just my 2¢.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Interesting. I actually like the policy cards (though I accept that I might be in the minority on that one.) For me, they add to immersion rather than subtracting from it. Just, like, the idea that different governments will emphasize different elements of policy over others, while the policies themselves will change with the current circumstances, and that governments will be able to enforce more policies over time as they evolve, really clicks with me, and this felt like a fairly engaging and elegant way to translate that into game mechanics. Plus, it's one more thing that can make a civ run feel unique. I didn't dislike Civ V's policy trees, but they tended towards always prioritizing the same things after a while (again, for me) and I really felt like the policy cards were an improvement over that.

Not a make-or-break thing for me by any means, and I'd welcome an entirely revamped system, but just my 2¢.

Personally, I like the policies, but I don't care for the presentation as cards. It's too gamey.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Interesting. I actually like the policy cards (though I accept that I might be in the minority on that one.) For me, they add to immersion rather than subtracting from it. Just, like, the idea that different governments will emphasize different elements of policy over others, while the policies themselves will change with the current circumstances, and that governments will be able to enforce more policies over time as they evolve, really clicks with me, and this felt like a fairly engaging and elegant way to translate that into game mechanics. Plus, it's one more thing that can make a civ run feel unique. I didn't dislike Civ V's policy trees, but they tended towards always prioritizing the same things after a while (again, for me) and I really felt like the policy cards were an improvement over that.

Not a make-or-break thing for me by any means, and I'd welcome an entirely revamped system, but just my 2¢.

I think the concept is cool, but the constant swapping out leans in too much into micro-management.

 

[Blake00]

I'm still waiting for the Civ IV video on YouTube in order to update the OP.

Edit: Never mind. It came up yesterday.

Ahh finally.. I was waiting too.. they still haven't put it on instagram and just skipped to the bonus civ4 stuff lol.. but at least we have the site we wanted now.

 

[Cooleatack]

Is the one for V not supposed to be out now? I thought they did one every Thursday

 

[GeneralZift]

I don't dislike the cards. I do dislike the way they were implemented.

In reality, a combination of Civ5 and Civ6 cultural systems would be great
(Note: I'm not super aware of Civ4 and other cultural systems)

What I mean is this: having policies that you can change on the fly is nice, because it provides more player freedom and ability to change strategy and player agency.
But: having the ability to change your entire government and every single law just because you researched one civic: is very unrealistic and a little stupid.
Also: being forced to keep switch policies to remain optimal is annoying.

Being rooted in particular culture trees, like Civ5, adds a lot of immersion, realism, and grounds your decision, makes it more important in the long run.
But: it's fair to say that there isn't too much agency if you end up in a tree that's less than optimal.
Also: due to the way the trees are set up, there are some policies that you will almost never enact.

So what I will say is this, there needs to be some kind of system that fits the middle ground - giving the player some amount of agency, but not too much.
Some level of immersion, some kind of restrictions applied, this forces the players to think hard about their decisions - but also some ability to be versatile.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Is the one for V not supposed to be out now? I thought they did one every Thursday

Apparently the social media intern couldn't get last week off, so they're out this week. (This is a guess.)

 

[ombak]

Maybe the longer time between retrospectives is meant to mirror the longer times we had to wait as the series grew... (just kidding).

 

[Gori the Grey]

They do have that little timeline at the bottom of the screen on every one of them.

 

[Cooleatack]

Apparently the social media intern couldn't get last week off, so they're out this week. (This is a guess.)

Maybe he had to play it for research and wanted to play just one more turn

 

[Leyrann]

Maybe he had to play it for research and wanted to play just one more turn

For Civ 5 out of all games?

I tried it just a few weeks ago on the basis of "I should get a refresher on the game I disparage so much" and didn't even manage to get more than a hundred turns in before I was just completely done with it. I genuinely don't understand how anyone could get lost in Civ 5 for an extended period of time. Those hundred turns were a freaking battle. Not a breeze like in any other Civ game I've played (that's all except 1 and 3).

 

[GeneralZift]

For Civ 5 out of all games?

I tried it just a few weeks ago on the basis of "I should get a refresher on the game I disparage so much" and didn't even manage to get more than a hundred turns in before I was just completely done with it. I genuinely don't understand how anyone could get lost in Civ 5 for an extended period of time. Those hundred turns were a freaking battle. Not a breeze like in any other Civ game I've played (that's all except 1 and 3).

Eh? Civ 5 is great...

 

[King Flevance]

Civ 4 also brought in:
- Civics for customizing government
- Espionage with spy units
- AI attitude modifiers that you could see and influence. (First game where AI didn't randomly dogpile the player)
- Promotions when units leveled up.

There is also more but they are minor like impassable mountains, new tile improvements, unlocking gameplay mechanics on the tech tree, etc. There is a lot of those. Nothing game changing really, but unique mechanics to previous versions nonetheless. Civ 4 was the first time they dared to actually venture away from Civ 1's base mechanics and seemed to rebuild the game from the ground up. So much so that it initially created fan backlash.

 

[Leyrann]

Eh? Civ 5 is great...

Yeah except for
-global happiness
---the penalty when it drops below zero
---arbitrary limitation per city
---'fill a bucket' golden ages
---extra penalty for cities
-increasing science and civic costs per city built
-national wonders that can only be built if you completely freeze your expansion until you've developed all your cities sufficiently
---oh yeah and as a bonus their production costs also scale per city
-connections to the capital grant gold, so surely building roads is a good idea to boost your finances, right? Nope, roads cost gold to maintain, screw you!
-building improvements is incredibly one-dimensional, as there is no competition for tiles at all, unlike in either Civ IV or Civ VI
-the social policy trees are wildly imbalanced in favor of 4-city gameplay and no expansion beyond that
-and I could keep going for another 15 minutes but if I were to do that I'd be late for an appointment, so I'll stop here.