As one of about a dozen friends at my college who were waiting fanatically for Civilization V, I can say that we're all pretty pleased with the result... but we've universally had two major concerns that we believe can be game-breaking. There are plenty of nitpicks here and there over minor things, but these two issues sometimes have gotten all of us to want to turn off the game and just go back to Civ IV for a while.
1. Happiness. Probably the biggest annoyance for all of us, as we just feel that we can't control anything related to it. Once the game's underway and we've begun to work and improve all our luxury tiles, the unhappiness begins to mount from population. I've had a few games now where I'm allied with 4 city-states all handing over luxuries and my populace is STILL livid. We all preferred the Civ IV model where if your happiness plummeted, it was generally your fault... and you could at least do something. When you're working everything, getting every city-state around to give you more, and every contacted civ is refusing to trade you their luxuries for short of everything you have, it gets unbearably frustrating. Even moreso when you've built all the happiness buildings your current technologies allow and the next one to come up isn't for another 3 or 4 techs.
2. Wartime diplomacy. Not necessarily as bad as the last point, but just as insanely annoying. My friends and I have had quite a few games now where even offering nearly everything we had was met with refusal in war. And this wasn't as some last-ditch effort to save ourselves, it was just a test after 300 years of Civ X attacking, usually making no dent in our own nations. It's simply illogical that the AI refuses to give up even for things like all your cities or all your resources when its attacks for the last 50 years have gotten nowhere. Even worse, though, is when you've conquered 3/4 of a neighboring civ, slaughtered their entire army, and are marching toward their last outpost... and they still refuse to accept peace unless YOU hand over everything you have to your name. Completely unacceptable system that really just ruins the experience.
As I said, though, these were the only two big complaints my friends and I have had so far. It's just a shame that these two aspects play such a critical role in the game that they can sometimes outshine the positives.
1. Happiness. Probably the biggest annoyance for all of us, as we just feel that we can't control anything related to it. Once the game's underway and we've begun to work and improve all our luxury tiles, the unhappiness begins to mount from population. I've had a few games now where I'm allied with 4 city-states all handing over luxuries and my populace is STILL livid. We all preferred the Civ IV model where if your happiness plummeted, it was generally your fault... and you could at least do something. When you're working everything, getting every city-state around to give you more, and every contacted civ is refusing to trade you their luxuries for short of everything you have, it gets unbearably frustrating. Even moreso when you've built all the happiness buildings your current technologies allow and the next one to come up isn't for another 3 or 4 techs.
2. Wartime diplomacy. Not necessarily as bad as the last point, but just as insanely annoying. My friends and I have had quite a few games now where even offering nearly everything we had was met with refusal in war. And this wasn't as some last-ditch effort to save ourselves, it was just a test after 300 years of Civ X attacking, usually making no dent in our own nations. It's simply illogical that the AI refuses to give up even for things like all your cities or all your resources when its attacks for the last 50 years have gotten nowhere. Even worse, though, is when you've conquered 3/4 of a neighboring civ, slaughtered their entire army, and are marching toward their last outpost... and they still refuse to accept peace unless YOU hand over everything you have to your name. Completely unacceptable system that really just ruins the experience.
As I said, though, these were the only two big complaints my friends and I have had so far. It's just a shame that these two aspects play such a critical role in the game that they can sometimes outshine the positives.
