What keeps you playing?

[acluewithout]

A tactical combat system superimposed on empire building in a historical setting with some pretty varied choices combined with a great forum.

If I could, I’d like that comment twice.

I’d also add “accessible”. Games like EUIV offer a similar game in many ways, if not a much more in-depth and flavourful game. But the learning curve is much steeper and it’s much harder to dip in and out of the game given it’s essentially RTS instead of turn based.

 

[adrifranchise]

The bolded parts sounds really interesting, and what I would want. How do you approach a given turn with this mindset? What is the long and short term goals that guide your play?

At first my goal is just expanding my empire. Getting a couple cities down and growing. After that it really is just me adapting to my surroundings. So as for an example, the game I am playing now I am using Gran Colombia and my neighbor is Khmer. He was starting to get annoying and spammed me with religious units while breaking a promise about settling too close so I eventually went to war twice with him and even in later years created my own religion and wiped his religion out of my empire through theological debate. I have no interest in a religious victory or a domination victory and who knows where the late game will take me. You'll see once you dont focus on a certain victory and just play how ever the game flows for you, the goals will come

 

[Horizons]

Good question. I had been enjoying trying to master winning on any random map with any random Civ at Emperor level, but the gameplay is just too cheesy and annoying now. I'll probably be permanently uninstalling Civ6 soon, as nothing in the Frontier Pass gets me excited. Will probably pass on Civ7 if it's going to be more of the same. The AI is just utterly awful - playing at Emperor is like submitting yourself to sadomasochistic torture. It just ain't fun!

 

[Aabraxan]

The random maps are a big part of it for me. I always enjoyed things like "Risk" and "Axis & Allies," but with the same maps, they kind of turned into the same games over and over. Having a new map for every game means that every game plays out differently. This is especially true because you can't see the whole map at the beginning, much less where all the resources are located.

 

[PhilBowles]

Almost purely the variety of random maps (and, on TSL maps, the variety in Civ arrangement and challenges of different starting positions) - the game tails off noticeably once the exploration phase is done. I liked the strategic element of older Civ games, but that's largely lacking in Civ VI and I prefer sandbox games to have a bit more of a sandbox or roleplaying structure, a la Crusader Kings II, that Civ by design isn't really able to accommodate.

Civ V did a reasonably good job on the roleplaying front with its more complex diplomacy and leader personalities, but that was actually one of the less popular aspects of the game in part because the AI was easily exploitable by min-max players and so sadly is a thing of the past. I can't get the satisfaction in Civ VI of seeing a familiar face like Nebuchadnezzar and expecting a certain behaviour pattern, establishing and navigating
relationship triangles, playing one civ off against another until they go to war and I happily open borders to both sides so they can wipe each other out, or the joy of my ally Catherine unexpectedly nuking a Babylonian city after I asked her to join my war.

 

[racha]

Many of the reasons listed by others. Additionally, I just can't get my head around the other similar games I've tried (Endless Leg-end, CK2, EU). I also enjoy stomping on leaders who either annoy me in their in-game version (*cough* Alexander *cough*) or ones I find distasteful in real life.

All of which is secondary to this: Hi. I'm Racha and I'm a Civaholic.

 

[Thormodr]

Good question. I had been enjoying trying to master winning on any random map with any random Civ at Emperor level, but the gameplay is just too cheesy and annoying now. I'll probably be permanently uninstalling Civ6 soon, as nothing in the Frontier Pass gets me excited. Will probably pass on Civ7 if it's going to be more of the same. The AI is just utterly awful - playing at Emperor is like submitting yourself to sadomasochistic torture. It just ain't fun!

I hope you can find a Civ game that can scratch that it. Perhaps Humankind will work for you?

 

[MrRadar]

Hah...
Some very good answers above.
And also possibility to turn this:

Spoiler :

into this:

Spoiler :

On top of building Oxford next to the GL, I also had an opportunity to saw my continent in two halves with a Panama Canal in a somewhat meaningful way. This is first time experience of such kind in 3500+ hours of playtime. Pure bliss, if you ask me

 

[agonistes]

A tactical combat system superimposed on empire building in a historical setting with some pretty varied choices combined with a great forum.

That is why I use to play. And strategic warfare too.

But these days the tactical combat is pretty one sided. And the strategic scene is mess. Jeez, the whole resource thing almost seems random .
The next civ itineration really needs to redo war from the ground up. Particularly now, with all of this new competition.

 

[Victoria]

That is why I use to play. And strategic warfare too.

I make a rule to avoid going over 200 grievances, makes it more politically challenged and sneaky.
“Look look, free city, undefended... I forward settled you”
Gets you a defensive tactics inspiration as well as sone decent grievances to conquer off.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I make a rule to avoid going over 200 grievances, makes it more politically challenged and sneaky.
“Look look, free city, undefended... I forward settled you”
Gets you a defensive tactics inspiration as well as sone decent grievances to conquer off.

Yeah I think grievances should be more severe when they get too high. Perhaps an embargo if your grievances are above a threshold (both trade routes and leader-to-leader trading).

 

[Elhoim]

Forget the numbers and the win conditions. Forget time to win and all that. Focus on what you'd want as someone living in that civilization. Is building a science district in the frozen hinterlands worth it? Hell no. Do the people deserve one? Hell yes! Does planting forests on every available tile actually do anything? No. Does it make your empire a natural paradise? fudge yeah. Same with dismantling lumberyards and such. Does it objectively hurt you? Sure. Does it make everything a much nicer place to live? Absolutely. Should you be running a card life serfdom? Hell yeah it's one of the best there is. Does it imply that your people are living miserable lives as peasant slaves? Ooof yeah, pick something else.

I played a game once where the only use I allowed of industrial districts was carbon recapture. Ended up the game with a carbon footprint of like -5000. Was there any point to it? No. Was the air CLEAN AS HECK. Yes.

Yeah, the thing is that when there's so little support for that kind of gameplay it becomes too much of "make believe" and eventually takes me out. My ideal game would be a "civ builder"*, in which there's no victory condition, but all the systems work together well instead of just being buckets for victory.

* With combat and everything, my main point is that it should be constructing and managing an empire, instead of a race to a victory.

 

[Victoria]

in which there's no victory condition, but all the systems work together well instead of just being buckets for victory.

Make your own victory condition up. 10 cities of size 30 is fun, done it a few times now, not that it is hard but is more about building.

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

The Mods that take the steps necessary to make the game much more interesting by adding stuff that should be in the game already. So many answers to the developer's quests are hiding in plain sight in the form of the most popular and many hidden gem mods.

 

[agonistes]

I make a rule to avoid going over 200 grievances, makes it more politically challenged and sneaky.
“Look look, free city, undefended... I forward settled you”
Gets you a defensive tactics inspiration as well as sone decent grievances to conquer off.

Yeah I think grievances should be more severe when they get too high. Perhaps an embargo if your grievances are above a threshold (both trade routes and leader-to-leader trading).

Going too high should *force* the ai to dow you. All of them. And it should be impossible to dow without grievances, unless a surprise war (which should put you near the forced war mark).