What is your favourite Civilization game?

[SS-18 ICBM]

BTS with some of BNW's mechanics (culture, Ideologies, Religions, Corporations given the GnK treatment, Unique Traits) and limited stacking would be the perfect main-series Civ game of all time.

 

[Lynnes]

Voted for Civ6.

I just love the new mechanics like districts, the graphics are gorgeous, and how they incorporated multiplayer and modding capabilities is just awesome!

 

[PurplyIcy]

Despite all its flaws, I gotta go with Civ 6. Beautiful music, good graphics/animations, and a way better city-building system (something I appreciate as a person who prefers peaceful victories lol). I only wish that it was less euro-centric... Some civs I really want are Persia, Ottoman, Mongols, maybe some S.E Asian civilisation. Hopefully exp. pack comes out soon.
Civ 5 BNW also looks nice but I never really got to buying it. Dammmn, so should've bought it during the Steam sale.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

What characterizes a tech tree as viable?

A setup where you have to make most of the decisions regarding how much to invest into researching, where optimal research is consistently variable, and it's scaled in a way where it doesn't trivialize other mechanics interacting with it (IE research rate vs unit movement speed). This is in contrast to a setup where the game makes most of the decisions for you, or presents false choices.

You might notice based on that criteria that I don't hold any of the civ tech trees in particularly high regard. Trades trivialized 4's, and 5's put so much cascading runaway on science + ezmode defense that you had false choice often. 6 isn't much better, given how districts and units interact in the game. The closest civ tech tree conceptually to what I consider something that viably adds to the game is actually Beyond Earth's design. The game was/is too much of a mess to really showcase it, but conceptually it's there. You have the tradeoff potential between good units or overall faction tech, variable optimal faction tech dependent on resources/diplomacy (if diplomacy mattered more), significant gameplay style variance depending on your choices.

 

[LDiCesare]

Voted for Civ6. (...) how they incorporated multiplayer and modding capabilities is just awesome!

Modding capability in Civ 6? Where? We're comparing to Civ IV and V. From the modability point of view, Civ VI is nowhere near release day Civ IV.

 

[DWilson]

All with all additional content to this point unless stated otherwise:

CiV -> CiVI -> CivBE -> CIV -> CivRev -> CivRev2 -> Colonization (IV) -> CivIII

Only included games I've played. Heavily influenced by starting with CivRev and CiV. Graphics presented a major problem for my experience of CIV, Colonization (IV), and CivIII.

 

[Lynnes]

Modding capability in Civ 6? Where? We're comparing to Civ IV and V. From the modability point of view, Civ VI is nowhere near release day Civ IV.

Mods in multiplayer and other gamemodes without restrictions, no more clumsy mod menu, seamless integration of (modded) scenarios, even for MP...
That's what I'm talking about.

And once the mod tools are out (which is just a matter of time), I'm sure there will be TONS of possibilities.

But please forgive me my optimism, I know that whining and ranting is the only accepted canon for most gamers today.

 

[Tabarnak]

4 has the most meaningful-to-outcome decisions per turn, and per real life time. Despite its questionable UI, it has the best UI in the series and the least amount of rote-tedium inputs. It has the strongest MP stability to this point, with fewer de-syncs and more players capable of playing in the same game.

Game itself was pretty stable for mp but Gamespy was a big mess making games freezing and stuff. So it was as much as unplayable as 5 but 5 includes steam which make reloads easier and faster. I principally hated 4 for his annoying war weariness(humans don't make peace so easily...) but it's still a great game. I personnally prefered 5 BTS so far(mp) but 6 is already pretty stable for mp games and future can only be better.

Most players like 4 because of the decent AI, because the AI understand stacking better than anything else

 

[sherbz]

Civ IV
Civ II
Civ V BNW
Civ III
Civ VI
Civ V (vanilla)

4 is best by a considerable distance in my opinion. I think if you married 4 with some ideas or concepts from 5 & 6 you would have a great title. The lacklustre/bad things in 4 were:

Broken apostilic palace
Some leader traits were a bit uneven (aggressive and protective needed buffing)
Uneven civic tree
Over exploitable tech trading
Early religions were a bit too powerful (in comparison to newer ones)

It was by far the best in warfare though. People didnt hate you for war mongering if they also hated your victim. Diplomacy actually made sense. And the economy was an interesting mix between specialists and cottages. You also had city health.

 

[Victoria]

I am not sure people have fully grasped 6 yet and it is certainly not fully developed.

It is interesting to look at the results of each vanilla version and see 6 way ahead but 6 has no 'complete' version to compete with so is at an advantage for a vanilla comparison and a disadvantage for an across the board comparison.

 

[LDiCesare]

Mods in multiplayer and other gamemodes without restrictions, no more clumsy mod menu, seamless integration of (modded) scenarios, even for MP...
That's what I'm talking about.

And once the mod tools are out (which is just a matter of time), I'm sure there will be TONS of possibilities.

But please forgive me my optimism, I know that whining and ranting is the only accepted canon for most gamers today.

Well, I modded map scripts, and CivIV is by far the best from this point of view. In terms of mod integration, my mod is available by just downloading the latest BtS patch so you don't even need any menu to get it. I think Civ VI will never be anywhere near that.
Mod tools are not out, and as far as I am concerned, Civ V mod tools were worse than Civ IV (no in game map editor, regenerate buttons). Civ VI zoom constraints are so strict that you can't even see the whole map without a lot of modding, making map script creation such a pain that I won't get near it anyday.
But yes, you can be optimist. I suggest voting for Civ VII on the list.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

Civ III, much of my love for this game is nostalgia.

 

[ArdentFire88]

I chose Civ IV Beyond the Sword because it has the Random Events (my second favorite Civ feature of all time only behind unstacked cities). They made the game SO much more realistic. Also BTS had tons of unique features of its time, such as the introduction of a well implemented espionage system. Commerce was also nice, as you can divide up your funding for different things using it. Really, there is nothing bad about Civ 4 BTS, it was great! (But there is one thing that Civ V didn't have that Civ games before had that flawed them...you know what I mean x37 Mechanized Infantry on that town tile with the x41 Mobile Artillery and x28 Modern Armors)

 

[Xyth]

1. Civ IV – Excellent foundation that lets you build almost anything upon it. Greatest game of all time in my opinion.
2. Civ III – My introduction to modding. I loved it but it had several flaws and an ugly UI.
   
3. Civ V – Took BNW + mods to become a good game. Very pretty, but built on a horribly flawed foundation. Too many mechanics that worked replaced by ones that didn't. Step backwards for modding too.
4. Civ II – The version I've played least but loved it whenever I got the chance.
5. Civ I – Where the magic began. Still have it on my Amiga 1200, but it isn't all that fun to replay.

I can't rank Civ VI yet. It's definitely more promising than Civ V, but it retains several critical flaws. Need to see how the expansions and modding capabilities evolve.

 

[CD7]

Sorry, but there is only one correct answer to this question.
I agree that naturally, an expansion pack is better than the original. So the Answer can only be Civ4 Warlords.
(And not BTS as most people think.)

Why?

Because (unlike in Rock/ Paper/ Scissors/ Lizard/ Spock), in reality, Spock trumps everything.

 

[Siptah]

For me it looks like this, most will disagree, of course:
1. Civ V BNW
2. Civ VI, although it will probably be in first place after expansions for me
(3. SMAC)
(4. Civ CTP 1 & 2)
6. Civ II
7. Civ III (with expansions)
8. Civ IV (with expansions) - I can't put my finger on it looking back, but it never hooked me as much as the others, not vanilla, not BtS. Whenever I tried to play it after I played V, it felt 'meh' after one or two games. The others benefit from nostalgia and I still enjoy them every now and then.
9. Beyond Earth

I can't remember civ I well enough, since I never played it in the last 20 years...

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Alpha Centauri.

AINEC

 

[Disgustipated]

This thread kind of makes me want to install and play Civ4 and Civ3 again (no need for Civ5 as I played it 3 months ago). I'd would do Civ2 but the lack of borders in that game is kind of annoying. It might truly be obsolete. I still enjoy civ6 every now and then but I really am waiting for AI improvements.