The (failed) VIP group (Gamescom, again)

[beestar]

Thanks for the nice responses .

There are some things more to mention, which i forgot before:
- Every national wonder has a building prerequisite, and this building has to be in every city. The national college needs a library in every city, ironworks needs a forge in every city, etc.

Man, that's demanding. In Civ4 you could run some low-hammer cities that were worthwhile because of food, specialists, and trade routes. Building forges everywhere under that model for would be tough.

Can I build Forges in all my cities, the construct the Ironworks, and then settle more cities? Will Ironworks be disabled until those new cities get Forges as well?

 

[stealth_nsk]

Man, that's demanding. In Civ4 you could run some low-hammer cities that were worthwhile because of food, specialists, and trade routes. Building forges everywhere under that model for would be tough.

Can I build Forges in all my cities, the construct the Ironworks, and then settle more cities? Will Ironworks be disabled until those new cities get Forges as well?

You could buy it with money. And sell it with money after building the wonder
Another question - I understand what you need these buildings in all cities ti start building the wonder, but do you need them to finish it?

 

[Semmel]

A March build to present the game for players, at his date?
Just what kind of marketing move is this, I wonder...?

Its a build with verry little bugs. Thats why they used it. They probably put a lot of efford to remove all bugs/crash reasons for this press build. If they wanted a newer build. they would have to debug that build. Which is maybe too much work if you are in your final stages of the beta phase where you debug your game on a very tight schedule with 100h/week or more workload. I wouldn't be worried about that.

 

[V. Soma]

Its a build with verry little bugs. Thats why they used it. They probably put a lot of efford to remove all bugs/crash reasons for this press build. If they wanted a newer build. they would have to debug that build. Which is maybe too much work if you are in your final stages of the beta phase where you debug your game on a very tight schedule with 100h/week or more workload. I wouldn't be worried about that.

Alright at least we'll have something new at release date

 

[Semmel]

On the diplomacy discussion: I feel like having an overview on major diplo-events would be very helpful. As Psyringe said, you cant remember everything in long real-time games. But I am against showing diplo modifiers like in Civ4 because they are some way of cheat-information the AI naturally cant have about the human player. The alternative would be to create your own ingame "personalty" like you have 10 diplo points to set and "can declare war on pleased" costs 4 or something like that. Than the game calculates your game-characters diplo modifiers towards the AI and than you cant declare war on civs that have you are friendly to. But thats rather ridicules..

 

[Gre_Magus]

I think the overview of events would be a great feature, and certainly something that you could have the adviser show.

 

[EmperorFool]

I'm not at all worried they showed off a build from the end of March. First, as said, you get a more stable product. It's one they've had plenty of time to test with many different people and systems. They won't have to worry about crashing at the show or in the hands of reviewers. The more time they waste making sure a more recent version is stable for the show, the less time they can spend adding new features.

Second, they want the release to be something special with some surprises. Better to have people say, "Wow, this is so much better than what I saw last month," than, "This looks just like what I expected; what did you do all month?!"

As for all of the "problems" discussed, these are merely "opportunities" for us modders!

 

[Dearmad]

To the people so blessed with playing the game preview: ANY SIGN of an end-of-game REPLAY function? You know where your history is shown? Any at all??

Oh boy oh boy I'm making my Battle of Hastings Post!!! (1066th post lol!)

 

[The_J]

@logs+diplomacy: I have to agree with everything what has been said .
We need a summary, and don't want to have to write down our own log with pen + paper.

The_J - have you had chance to test out "mutually exclusive" social policies? If you pick piety, is rationalism forever locked, or can you unlock rationalism at the expense of re-locking piety?

Could not test it, because 1 of these "mutually exclusive" social policies requieres a higher era, and didn't have the time to play so long .

Man, that's demanding. In Civ4 you could run some low-hammer cities that were worthwhile because of food, specialists, and trade routes. Building forges everywhere under that model for would be tough.

Can I build Forges in all my cities, the construct the Ironworks, and then settle more cities? Will Ironworks be disabled until those new cities get Forges as well?

[...]
Another question - I understand what you need these buildings in all cities ti start building the wonder, but do you need them to finish it?

I haven't tested it, but from what i saw i would say that you need the required buildings to be built in all the cities you have, until the national wonder is built itself.
So afterwards you can probably settle more, but not until it's finished.

That would also fit to the small empires we've seen in the screenshots.

As for all of the "problems" discussed, these are merely "opportunities" for us modders!

Not when no one buys the game, because it's crap .

Just kidding, Civ V will be a great game, i'm sure.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

The J, do you remember the three-four first thesholds for social policies ?

 

[The_J]

No, completly not, sorry .


Another point: trineas has mentioned in the german forum, that the date of a folder does not indicate, when the installation was last time updated by steam, so the build we've seen could easily be newer.

 

[EmperorFool]

Yes, best would have been to check the date of the DLL or EXE. No matter, we'll find out in 30 days.

 

[Le Sage]

Thanks for the review, The J. Wish I could have been there.

But what do I hear? No overview of who's at war with whom? What kind of bad idea is that? Isn't there a foreign advisor screen or something?

That is completely weird and does need to change. It's like Britain not knowing that the Soviet Union is also at War with Germany during World War Two or something. I hope there will be a good, helpful foreign advisor screen in the end product!

 

[ShaqFu]

Its a build with verry little bugs. Thats why they used it. They probably put a lot of efford to remove all bugs/crash reasons for this press build. If they wanted a newer build. they would have to debug that build. Which is maybe too much work if you are in your final stages of the beta phase where you debug your game on a very tight schedule with 100h/week or more workload. I wouldn't be worried about that.

If I'm not mistaken, the first public demo of Civ5 was at PAX East in late March, so it makes sense that they're using the same stable-yet-incomplete version since then. They probably put together a passable demo version back in March to show off, so the developers don't have to worry about introducing bugs right before a big show.

 

[Calouste]

- Fertilizer gives +1 food on tiles without fresh water
- An earlier tech gives +1 food on tiles with fresh water

We have seen riverside farms that give 5 food, so unless there is another effect that gives +1 food to fresh water farms, fertilizer would also work on fresh water farms (and why shouldn't it?)

- 2 wonders (Opera house and oracle, IIRC) give a free social policy

I was wondering what the Sydney Opera House would do, and it having an instant effect makes sense considering how late it is in the game. So you can now build an Opera House to declare Total War

 

[Ahriman]

So you can now build an Opera House to declare Total War

Well, if they're showing nonstop Riefenstahl...

Its not like culture has never been like this before.

 

[The_J]

Thanks for the review, The J. Wish I could have been there.

But what do I hear? No overview of who's at war with whom? What kind of bad idea is that? Isn't there a foreign advisor screen or something?

That is completely weird and does need to change. It's like Britain not knowing that the Soviet Union is also at War with Germany during World War Two or something. I hope there will be a good, helpful foreign advisor screen in the end product!

You're hearing right, there's no overview.
there's a list of all the other leaders, and if you're at war with them, and a list of city states with your influence, but nothing more.
If i'm right and didn't miss anything, then at the moment you have to note all the stuff, if a war/peace declaration happens, if something is cancelled, etc.

If I'm not mistaken, the first public demo of Civ5 was at PAX East in late March, so it makes sense that they're using the same stable-yet-incomplete version since then. They probably put together a passable demo version back in March to show off, so the developers don't have to worry about introducing bugs right before a big show.

My bad, i'll have to correct the OP in the next days: The date of the folder is not necessarily the date of the last update (has something to do with steam ).

We have seen riverside farms that give 5 food, so unless there is another effect that gives +1 food to fresh water farms, fertilizer would also work on fresh water farms (and why shouldn't it?)

It said especially, that fertilizer only has an affect on tiles (...uh, not sure, or only farms) without fresh water..
Didn't see any other effect, but i also haven't searched for it.

 

[evrett37]

Were you able to test the login/logout online/offline features of the steam parasite? Or mod loading protocols? As interesting as the various reviews of civ5 have been its seems that the doorway and foundation of the game client is being glossed over. I was just the other day dealing with not being able to play Starcraft 2 when the storm knocked out internet...

 

[ShaqFu]

If the diplomacy information is that limited that you can't keep track of warring civs, that should be the easiest thing to mod in. Put in a window that tracks wars, and there you go.

I'd still like to see more information on the Foreign Advisor, though; this is really the kind of thing she's supposed to be keeping track of.

I was just the other day dealing with not being able to play Starcraft 2 when the storm knocked out internet...

...which is a non-issue with Civ5 and Steam.
And after all your fire-eating on here about Steam, you bought Starcraft 2, a far more restrictive game? I'll see you in line midnight of the 21st, then.

 

[Ahriman]

Were you able to test the login/logout online/offline features of the steam parasite? Or mod loading protocols?

How many times do you have to be told that you can run Steam in offline mode, and that you can download and install mods from any fansite in the same manner as Civ4?

And did you seriously expect someone to start checking out mod installation for a game that isn't released yet, during a 1 hour hands-on demo at an expo?
What mod installation tools did Civ4 come with? None. [It could load a mod, but couldn't install one.]

And after all your fire-eating on here about Steam, you bought Starcraft 2, a far more restrictive game?

Precisely. The mind boggles.