What is Firaxis up to? Civ VI looms in the horizon:

[PlutonianEmpire]

What is the RFC mod, besides the fact that these three letters are completely vertical on my mobile's backflip keyboard?

 

[caketastydelish]

Rheys and fall of civilization, available on the 'beyond the sword' expansion pack for Civ IV and also downloadable on this very site.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Of course. I knew of that mod, It just didn't occur to me to think that was the acronym for it.

 

[Ajidica]

Honestly RFC would have been better were it not for the fact that Civilizations collapse so easily. I obviously exaggerated when I said everyone likes RFC but it's probably the single most popular mod in the civ series, so I don't see why they are making no attempt to continue it.

I don't think it is the most popular. Looking at the CFC download database, FfHII is ranked first with 500K downloads while RFC is 10th with 92K. Now, the FfHII one has tracked all downloads -including the vanilla version- but still, that is almost five times more downloads than RFC.

Plus, the way Rhye structured the stability&spawn mechanic just isn't natural. Rather than relying on empire size, happiness, civic choices, and nationality like in Revolutions, RFC uses a set map to determine stability penalties for cities. If you place your city just one tile to the east, your empire will collapse due to it intersecting with another civs spawn map, flipping, and giving you a massive stability penalty.

It is indicative that almost all of the guides about RFC involve how to game the stability map. When the way to success is to game the system and fight against the mechanic to me indicates a poor game design. Now, the coding work is outstanding but it is quite dated when compared to what Revolutions does.

 

[caketastydelish]

Then boy have I been missing out. Please give me a link to where I can find revolutions.

 

[Ajidica]

What I use is RevDCM which integrates Revolutions with Dale's Combat Mod, Influence Driven War, BTS Unofficial Patch, BTS Better AI, and BUG- all of which can be turned on or off.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=262937
In the thread there are links to each individual mod component.

Note that there are no scripted events in Revolutions as opposed to RFC. Unfortunately, I have never played RFC-RAND so I can't say how it compares but since RFC-RAND uses the same stability mechanics as RFC I feel I will still have the same issues.

Also, modding Revolutions with a basic knowledge of Python is quite simple. I had a medieval mod in the works based off of Rev but it fell apart once I got involved with clubs in 2008.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Revolution's was such a fantastic mod. All my favorite CivIV games involved it.

EDIT: Still waiting on a proper port to Civ5. Gedemon's mod seems like a light version of it, nowhere near as detailed as the IV version.

 

[sophie]

I'd like a full fledged Pirates! sequel. Less dancing and more raping and plundering though.

Well then do I have a game for you:


Link to video.

 

[Lord Baal]

Just to make sure it's clear: I'm talking about games that are, so far as strategy goes, at least as good as Civ and generally better. By boardgames I mean things like Agricola, not Monopoly. Angry Birds is one of those "games" needing the quotes.

Most board games aren't single-player. It's also kind of difficult to play board games with a two-year old in the house. It's unfortunate, as I've always quite enjoyed board games. I also doubt I would be interested in a strategy game for the iPad, for the simple reason that I don't like using my iPad for gaming at all. If I play a game on the iPad, I'm trying to kill five minutes while I'm taking a dumpwaiting for a bus. That's not really conducive to the kind of detailed thinking required for even mediocre strategy games.

 

[Danielion]

Well then do I have a game for you:


Link to video.

With all due my respect for Ubisoft, but I never was a fan of their Assassin's Creed series. Admittedly, I've only played their first title. And while the storyline is good, the gameplay was repetitive, easy and boring.
My main criticism of AC4 is one of realism. How is it possible that Edward can handle the steering wheel with such ease in an era without powersteering and all? AC4 looks more promising than all other of their titles, though, but they don't have a buyer here.

 

[Tarquelne]

Most board games aren't single-player.

Several good ones on the iPad - the board game ports - have single player modes. Eclipse, for example, lets you play against AIs while Agricola has both AIs and a solitaire mode. Not as good as vs. people, but pretty-good and...

It's also kind of difficult to play board games with a two-year old in the house.

...Oh, I know. I KNOW.

It's unfortunate, as I've always quite enjoyed board games. I also doubt I would be interested in a strategy game for the iPad, for the simple reason that I don't like using my iPad for gaming at all.

I didn't either until the 2-year-old thing came up. Now I only see my poor, neglected PC about once a day. (Though my wife and I just got a couple of relatively quick-play, best-for-2-player games* to play after midnight if the goblin-boy has actually gone to sleep.)

I believe Apple runs several "iPhone Reeducation Camps" for gamers who don't find their i-device suitable for gamers. It hardly hurts at all.

*I'd forgotten that the size of the game tends to be inversely related to the size of the box.

 

[caketastydelish]

I hate to say this, but in all honesty the best thing to play on the iPad is chess against the computer.

 

[Tarquelne]

Revolution's was such a fantastic mod. All my favorite CivIV games involved it.

Quite. Rather quickly all my games were with Revolution, or FfHII. (Though I may have spent more time modding the Scions than playing either.)

EDIT: Still waiting on a proper port to Civ5. Gedemon's mod seems like a light version of it, nowhere near as detailed as the IV version.

I've been thinking of it as the one thing that might save Civ5 for me.

 

[Danielion]

Most board games aren't single-player. It's also kind of difficult to play board games with a two-year old in the house. It's unfortunate, as I've always quite enjoyed board games.

I have a similar problem. I lack friends who are open to boards games, so I'm never able to play Catan (unless it's a lame online version). But what can one do?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Well then do I have a game for you:


Link to video.

Game is worth it for the sightseeing alone. It does seem a little frantic but that may be down to the presenter trying to show as many features as possible.

 

[eduhum]

Hey, if someone is going to play Chess, go to Chess.com and make an account there. It's so much more gratifying to play against humans in contrast to the machines. The level there is super high, there are an awful lot of guides and reviews, there are right now 12000 players online, you can play via phone, etc.

I think Civ 6 should be more Total War-ish. I'm not saying of battle mode. I say that tiles should be A LOT smaller, and the terrain, more plausible.

 

[timtofly]

Then the units would be really big giants.

We are going to have to have super computers to add all the tiles needed to make it more "life" like.

 

[Lord Baal]

Hey, if someone is going to play Chess, go to Chess.com and make an account there. It's so much more gratifying to play against humans in contrast to the machines. The level there is super high, there are an awful lot of guides and reviews, there are right now 12000 players online, you can play via phone, etc.

I think Civ 6 should be more Total War-ish. I'm not saying of battle mode. I say that tiles should be A LOT smaller, and the terrain, more plausible.

I have the Chess.com app. I get bored pretty quickly of playing against random people on the internet. I had more than one idiot abandon the game when it became obvious I was winning. Not surrender, actually abandon the game. Such childish behaviour does not encourage me to return to that website. Not to mention the fact that their video-guides are incredibly glitchy.

 

[caketastydelish]

I have the Chess.com app. I get bored pretty quickly of playing against random people on the internet. I had more than one idiot abandon the game when it became obvious I was winning. Not surrender, actually abandon the game. Such childish behaviour does not encourage me to return to that website. Not to mention the fact that their video-guides are incredibly glitchy.

Plus everybody knows they can just cheat by getting a computer to play at the grandmaster level for them. Some people have a totally weird inferiority complex and pat themselves on the back by doing this.

I might get a chess.com account to play people I know IRL as well as people I've met on this site, but for my regular chess sessions I'm going to stick of the chess app on my iPad as well as Chessmaster 10th edition.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

With all due my respect for Ubisoft, but I never was a fan of their Assassin's Creed series. Admittedly, I've only played their first title. And while the storyline is good, the gameplay was repetitive, easy and boring.
My main criticism of AC4 is one of realism. How is it possible that Edward can handle the steering wheel with such ease in an era without powersteering and all? AC4 looks more promising than all other of their titles, though, but they don't have a buyer here.

All valid points, but there's a few things I'd like to add:

1. You're entirely correct about the storyline being the main draw in AC1. Also correct that it was repetitive. The repetition was pretty much thrown out the window in every other title though. That said, they're still pretty easy but I think the story saved it from boredom for me.

2. Because it's a game and games are always going to sacrifice realism.