Study The Past - a series retrospective

[TheMarshmallowBear]

• Hexagonals
• Leaders speaking native language (Japan, Poland, China, shown off)
• Great Works and Archeology Arrive.
• Trade Agreement with England requested (lol)

 

[TreVor_ish]

I suspect England will be in CIV VII

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I suspect England will be in CIV VII

To trade or to invade?
*Anakin smirks*
To trade or to invade!?

 

[Potworny]

The hex map is an obvious feature to highlight, the leaders speaking a cosmetic, albeit significant from the standpoint of development and time spent on the diplomacy screen (which I'd like to be as robust as possible I guess?), and archeology and great works are very... specific when you only point out when you only pick three.

Also, Poland mentioned. Of all the civs which have showed up in these videos, this one's probably the only which isn't exactly a series regular.
So far we've seen America, Aztecs (I), Rome, China (II), France, Rome again (III), Aztecs again, Greece, India, Russia (IV), Greece again, Japan, Poland, China again, England (V).
I'm obviously going crazy but the first letters of each civ seem like over half of the list follow alphabetical order with some duplicates and misordered additions. I believe that the choice of civs included here is not at all random, and maybe at some point of the creation of the videos there was a list of civs to include that followed the alphabet, but the order was only kept to a small degree.

 

[AriochIV]

There were a lot of changes in Civ V, but the unstacking of units (together with hex maps) was by far the most consequential. That it's not even mentioned makes clear that these videos are marketing horse-hockey and have nothing to do with anything.

As if that wasn't obvious when we learned that the Civ II High Council "revolutionized diplomacy."

 

[Morningcalm]

I do think it's weird they didn't mention 1 unit per tile. That was the biggest mechanical change in Civ V by far.

 

[OzzyKP]

There were a lot of changes in Civ V, but the unstacking of units (together with hex maps) was by far the most consequential. That it's not even mentioned makes clear that these videos are marketing horse-hockey and have nothing to do with anything.

As if that wasn't obvious when we learned that the Civ II High Council "revolutionized diplomacy."

Can we have this comment pinned to the top of this thread?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Can we have this comment pinned to the top of this thread?

Can you let people enjoy a thing?

 

[OzzyKP]

Nooooo

 

[vorlon_mi]

Each of the first 6 games featured some sort of happiness mechanic. Civ1 had a little parade for "We love the king day," and Civ3 had little fireworks over individual cities when they were celebrating. I can't remember if Civ2 noted happiness for individual cities, but I do remember the council of advisors celebrating when you did well. Civ4 had both happiness and health per city, while Civ5 included global / civ-wide happiness. Civ6 moved to per-city amenities.

If we go with the hypothesis that the videos are highlighting elements that will be important in Civ7, then my argument is that happiness will be re-thought and re-implemented in a new way in Civ7. None of the videos have discussed taking care of your citizens.

Having said that, the videos are very short... less than 5 minutes each. They cannot contain all of the key attributes of each game that are important for Civ7. I like them, because they give a taste, a morsel, of each game for people who didn't play each one.

 

[The_J]

They directly put the video on youtube .

 

[Gorbles]

Hexes explicitly came with 1UPT, and the fact that everybody in the thread knows about 1UPT kinda proves the point of not needing to market something so obvious.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Social policy trees were not mentioned. That - along with 1UPT - was one of the two "big things" I was waiting to see if they said anything about. Nothing on either.

Hexes and leaders speaking their own language I expected to see mentioned, but I also expected City States and Natural Wonders to get a mention. Shocked that they didn't, but that Great Works and Archeology did. Both of those were expansion features, so they have them out of sequence on the timeline.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Each of the first 6 games featured some sort of happiness mechanic. Civ1 had a little parade for "We love the king day," and Civ3 had little fireworks over individual cities when they were celebrating. I can't remember if Civ2 noted happiness for individual cities, but I do remember the council of advisors celebrating when you did well. Civ4 had both happiness and health per city, while Civ5 included global / civ-wide happiness. Civ6 moved to per-city amenities.

If we go with the hypothesis that the videos are highlighting elements that will be important in Civ7, then my argument is that happiness will be re-thought and re-implemented in a new way in Civ7. None of the videos have discussed taking care of your citizens.

Having said that, the videos are very short... less than 5 minutes each. They cannot contain all of the key attributes of each game that are important for Civ7. I like them, because they give a taste, a morsel, of each game for people who didn't play each one.

The video for Civ 6 isn't out yet. They may yet highlight the shift to Amenities on that video.

 

[Naeshar]

If they keep to four-five points for Civ6 video as well, I doubt that would cover amenities or happiness in any way.
Between "Cities Unstacked", "Civic and Technology Tree Split", "Loyalty and Governors", "Armies and Armadas" and certainly some visual perk of "Jerseys" or "Music per Era" there is little space for Happiness.

I can't remember if Civ2 noted happiness for individual cities, but I do remember the council of advisors celebrating when you did well.

Civ2 also has We love the King/Queen/President Day with at least half population ecstatic.

I expected to see more from Civ5 video, but again these are short.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I'd like to point out that the Happiness, over the course of 3, 4, 5, and 6 has never been the same.

3 had local happiness (with Luxurys adding to it)
4 was similiar, but also had Health involved
5 was more global
6 replaced that with Amenities and Housing which was a bit like the Happiness/Health system from 4.

I wouldn't be surprised they are just simply going to change it again.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

There were a lot of changes in Civ V, but the unstacking of units (together with hex maps) was by far the most consequential. That it's not even mentioned makes clear that these videos are marketing horse-hockey and have nothing to do with anything.

As if that wasn't obvious when we learned that the Civ II High Council "revolutionized diplomacy."

As much as we can not claim that these are hints, you cannot make the same claim that they aren't. Until we see actual gameplay footage from, 7, we're playing Schordinger's Civ here.

 

[King Flevance]

Civ I had that!

Really, the more I think about the Civ series (and bearing in mind I’ve only played I and III), the more I appreciate how truly groundbreaking and genre-defining the original game itself was.

Kind of, but I was actually referencing Espionage itself as a full separate feature to the game mostly with Civ 4. It was integrated into it's own form of currency produced by government buildings (courthouse, castle,etc.) that eventually you could invest in with your economy. This currency then was assigned to only 1 specific enemy per turn for both passive and active benefits and costs to your investment.

Though, to fair, I had forgotten about the diplomat in Civ 1 until you mentioned it. I haven't played Civ 1 since like 2003. I used to like to buy my opponent's armies away from them. This made me have to look back at Civ 2 again which I haven't played since about the same time. I never did use spies in it that I recall but sure enough it has both diplomats AND spies. But in these, you simply walk a unit to any civ and paid money for a choice of 3 options or something IIRC, but you are right that those mechanics are the same concept. But only as a solitary unit, not a full set of mechanics that utilizes a unit. I tend to use espionage (the currency) in Civ for the passive effects more than for spy units themselves. I would credit Civ 1 with the spy unit, but Civ 4 for espionage as a mechanic. I feel Civ 4's implementation is rather basic and even crude but I do like the general idea being added.

 

[Plotinus]

Well, anything’s better than the broken Civ III system!

 

[King Flevance]

I really liked Civ 3. I have liked them all. But 5 is my least favorite.

I also forgot to bring up Corperations .