Civilization 5

Rev Hellfire

How we laughed...

GRMA

Lads I've played a stupid amount of Civ 3 (still my fave) and 4, is 5 a major improvement or is it just more of the same cept looks fancier?

Blitzkrieger

You can find what we think of it in this thread....

ShaneU

Mega patch out now

Change list – Civ V Balance Patch
Updated: November 1
10.0.2.13

FIXED BUGS
- Mod Browser - The "Get Mods" button is now hidden if the user has disabled the steam overlay.
Civilizations and Traits
- Ottoman naval upkeep is now fixed. Save games that were started before the fix will not be corrected.
- German UA and Oligarchy social policy now work together correctly.
City States
- Mercantile CS now only get a unique luxury for their first city (and not the cities they conquer). Unique luxury is removed upon capture (players can no longer get it by taking over a CS). Unique luxury is given back upon liberation.
- Prevent double counting of resources when an improvement is gifted to a minor civ, then the minor civ techs up to activate the improvement.
Diplomacy
- Research Agreement code was previously giving double-credit to research "overflows" (i.e. when you finished a tech and the extra research was being applied to the following tech). Now the credit toward a RA will be based on Science earned that turn.
- Corrected an issue that caused the AI to attempt coups too often, when chances of success were too low. Also implemented a new factor: Attempting a coup in a location where there is no defending spy (the current ally does not have a spy there) is >=2x as likely to work as it would if there was a spy there.
- Resurrecting a player will have both sides forget any denouncing that happened before resurrected.
- Don't treat player as a deal breaker just for going to war with a player again.
Exploits
- Do not let a player earn the 2 free techs from the Rationalism Finisher twice. Also removed the +1 Science from Libraries from that finisher.
- If you intentionally starve your city by reassigning all your citizens to be unemployed, you won't end up with more citizens than you have population.
Religion
- Fix Found Religion screen so you can't find out about civs you haven't met by mousing over the religion icons.
- Correct "Peace Loving" belief so it doesn't negate other happiness benefits from religion.
- Rebuild religious pressure in case it was corrupted in older save games.
- Clarify Interfaith Dialog so it mentions that Prophets earn you science too (not just missionaries).


Scenarios
- Removed notifications that appear at the beginning of the Fall of Rome and Mongol scenarios about lacking the proper strategic resources.


AI
- Dutch now will build farms before polders are available.
- Do not allow Carthaginian units to spawn on mountains.
- Do not allow Carthaginian Workers to end turns on mountains.
- AI will now build more workboats and will improve oil plots in the water.
- Automated workers that don't have anything to do will not consume all their movement.
- Allow rush built units to trigger the operation they were built for to proceed into Gather Units phase.
- Fixed an issue where automated workers evaluated danger incorrectly and consequently behaved incorrectly.
- Fixed an issue where citizen management focus on Production (and possibly others) could lead to starvation.
- Clicking on an unemployed citizen to set them back to work does not "unlock" locked citizen assignment.
- The logic to recommend Artist improvement placement now does not count plots where improvements can't be placed, e.g. oases.
- Add additional sanity checks for deceptive attacks. Previously, if an AI was choosing to deceptively attack, they would not check to determine if it was a good idea or not the moment before launching, which could result in “dumb” attacks.


Units
- Fix unit de-selection so the mini-map indicator clears.
- Better “Next Unit” selection. Previously, the camera would jump great distances to select the next unit that needs orders, when a closer unit was available.
- Unit cycling improvement: when a unit is promoted, do NOT cycle immediately off that unit.
- Change minimum area size for all naval units to 10 (from 20). That allows them to be built in the same cities as harbors, seaports (and great admirals) -- i.e. on any body of water not considered to be a "lake"
- Fix advanced promotions for melee naval ships.
- Restore missing Cover 2 promotion entries so it is available to units again.
- Fix a hang if a (melee) unit advanced across the world wrap seam after a combat.
- Correct Great Admiral AI placement bug that prevented it from selecting a valid coastal city of yours.
- Unit list now re-sorts itself correctly when a unit is promoted.
- Subs are no longer visible (all the time) in Hot Seat mode.
- Don't give GG points from Barbarian ranged attacks.
- Helicopters now take damage when ending their turn over mountains.
- Interception promotions now help the right unit (had previously been reversed).
- Evasion promotion helps the right unit (had previously been reversed).
- Two top-of-screen messages added to explain what is going on with intercepts (one for if the attacking air unit is eliminated, and another if he is just damaged).
- Fixed a unit movement issue that broke melee attacking from more than one hex away.
- Janissary heals 50 instead of 100 when killing enemy units.
- Supply promotion now heals 15 HP outside friendly territory; matching text (was 25 HP).
- Added a check to make sure that after a city is disbanded (ex. razed), the units remaining on the plot are allowed to be there. If not (ex. naval units), then they are moved to the nearest valid plot.
- Fix for barbarians that would not move the turn after they spawned.
- Have Great Engineer pick both the wonder and the city it needs to be built in (the bug was that the AI could repeatedly try to build a wonder in a city that it couldn't).
- Make sure Caravels and Destroyers always have the Withdraw before Melee promotion, even if you don't own DLC02.
- Barbarians should now spawn in their camp if it is empty of combat units instead of beside it.


Optimization
- Many performance improvements, particularly in the renderer.
- Pathfinder fixes and optimization.
Text Bugs
- Fixed several text bugs.


Misc
- Fixed rare crashes that could occur depending on hardware.
- Only the “alive” civilization capitals are tested for majority religion in "We are family" achievement.
- Added missing Polish Dawn of Man audio.
- Advisors: Messages concerning your people being unhappy/livid now display correctly (a bug was causing this to fire at the wrong time).
- Economic Overview: Don't list diplomacy values as an expense and an income at the same time.
- Fix auto-scrolling between turns. If a user was scrolling when a turn ended, or when combat ended, it would occasionally get “stuck” and continue scrolling.
- Fix unit de-selection so the mini-map indicator clears.


BALANCE
- Reduced Happiness a bit from Mercantile City States. You no longer get +1 bonus happiness going from Friends to Allies (since you already get the luxuries then). And eliminated the +1 Happiness entering Industrial era.
- Ballistics now requires Railroads. This will force the AI to get railroads before getting too deep in the tree.
- Pillaging tiles now awards +25 hit points to the pillaging unit.
- Tweaks to culture border growth:
o Should get coastal resource tiles a bit sooner.
o Should mildly steer towards tiles that are near unclaimed resources.
o Should get resource tiles in rings 4 and 5 a bit sooner.
- Austrian UA balance changes:
o Increase the cost of a City-State by at least the amount of gold you will get from scrapping their units.
o Must be ally for 5 turns before you can undergo a diplomatic marriage with a City-State.
o "Yoink!" achievement is now: "As Austria, acquire a City-State with 15 or more units through Diplomatic Marriage."


Religion
- Pilgrimage belief now gives +2 Faith per foreign city following this religion.
- Follower and Pantheon beliefs provide Local Happiness; Founder beliefs provide Global Happiness
- Faith output per city is now listed in the economic overview - general information panel. Note: Faith output per city is hidden if religion is disabled.
- AI: Buy Missionaries in city with Great Mosque as TOP priority (even over Holy City if different).
- Tall/Wide Religion Balance Change: Add Grand Temple (National Wonder).


Diplomacy & Espionage
- New peace deals. Now 9 AI levels instead of the previous 5 (so one new level added between each of the earlier ones). Peace levels are now:
o 0: White Peace (give up nothing)
o 1: Armistice (1/2 gold, 1/2 of max GPT)
o 2: Settlement (all gold, max GPT)
o 3: Back-down (all luxuries, all gold, max GPT, open borders)
o 4: Submission (all resources, all gold, max GPT, open borders)
o 5: Surrender (one city)
o 6: Cession (1/4 city value, 1/2 gold)
o 7: Capitulation (1/3 city value, all gold)
o 8: Unconditional Surrender (all but capital, all gold)
- Peace deal code now prioritizes both cities that are close to winner's capital AND cities that were originally built by winning player (previously it was distance only).
- Reduced espionage notification spam. Will only be notified of election and coup activities if you have met them and (have a spy in the city or are friends with them or have a relationship with them that is above the resting point.)
- Added ability to liberate cities that are not owned by their founders or originally owned by the player. The player will receive a diplomacy bonus with the liberated player for liberating up to three cities. This liberation is not part of the "recalled to life" resurrection of a once annihilated civ. This functionality only runs if the city liberated is owned by a player that is alive. There are two ways to lose the diplomatic liberation bonus are:
1. Declare war on someone you have liberated cities for. You have to be the first player declaring war. This does not count defensive pacts or someone you liberated declaring war on you.
2. Capturing a city from someone you liberated. This case comes into play if A liberated a city of C's, then A & B have a defensive pact, C declares war on A & B, then A captures a city of C's. C will forget that A liberated any of their cities.
- The AI will now liberate cities and resurrect players. There are notifications when the AI resurrects players and cities. An AI will resurrect another (non-human) player when they are trying to win a diplomatic victory. An AI will return a city if the original owner of the city has a defensive pact with the player and they are both at war with the previous owner of the city, or, the AI and the original owner have a declaration of friendship and the AI is going for a diplomatic victory.
- Diplomacy: Peace treaty duration scales with game speed.
o Quick: 10 turns
o Normal: 10 turns
o Epic: 15 turns
o Marathon: 30 turns
- Diplomacy: Declaration of Friendships/Denouncements now scale with game speed.
o Quick: 50
o Normal: 50
o Epic: 75
o Marathon: 150
- Changed diplomatic globals:
o The opinion thresholds (unforgivable/enemy/competitor/favorable/friend/ally) have been pushed farther apart. They were initally 50/30/10, now 80/40/15.
o Diplomatic intrigue bonuses have been lowered by 1/2, from 20 to 10.
o "Asked Stop Spying" penalty dropped from 20 to 10.
o There are a number of changes to the duration of city-state interaction penalties, greatly reducing their duration.
- Diplomacy overview improvements. Now displays "your open borders/embassy", "their open borders/embassy", "shared open borders/embassy"
- With making deals, AIs will notify you when they're not willing to give enough on their side to make the deal work. This addresses some issues where you ask an AI to propose a deal and they say "we can't make a deal" and then you propose a lop-sided deal and they accept it. They will say "we aren't willing to give you enough to make this a fair trade."
- Other civs won't warn about expansion unless the player has founded a city in the last 10 turns.
- "We attacked your protected City-State" statements are now triggered by damage done (ex. killing a unit) rather than simply being at war. As a result, the statement should no longer be triggered by a quick succession of DoWs (such as those done automatically by a CS changing allies).
- The AI will no longer ask other players to join in a war when they are already involved in at least one.

Units
- Unit Balance Changes:
o Drop Ironclad to 45 combat strength (from 50).
o Remove +33% vs. Cities from Battleships.
o Drop Gatling Guns to 30 Combat and Ranged Strength.
o Make sure Air Ambush 2 and Air Targeting 2 work for fighters and bombers.
o Carriers now get naval melee promotions instead of naval ranged.
o Prize Ships Balance Change: 50% chance of converting ships with equal intrinsic combat strengths. Scales up and down (between 28% and 80%) based on relative intrinsic combat strengths of the two ships. Conversion chance if you do sink the opponent is shown in blue text on combat preview window.
o AI attackers will now pillage.
- Promotion balance change: make the +200% vs. Cities promotion go away on upgrade.
- Promotions: Push back Air Logistics promotion for Fighters and Bombers so it requires Bombardment 3 (not 2) or Air Siege 3 (not 2).


AI
- If the AI is able to build the UN, but would not win based on the current vote breakdown, have the AI refrain from constructing it unless conditions change.
- AI adjustments to Wonder build priorities.
- Tactical AI Improvement: Spend more gold on defense. AI will now spend gold at their cities where tactical dominance is EVEN (before it had to be enemy-dominated). AI will now also spend money on naval and air units for defense in such cites (before it was only land units and defensive buildings).
- Changes to AI settling:
o Expand the ring search.
o Flatten the value of rings a bit so that tiles in the further rings are worth a bit more.
o Make the default preferred spacing further for players not going for extreme expansion.
o Lower the value of tiles a bit so that the AI is a bit pickier about settlements.
o AI will try to reclaim lost settlers and builders.
o AI will no longer wait forever for a settler escort.
o Minor tweak to settlement location.
o More aggressive offshore expansion.
- Do not give priority to bonus resources in rings 4 and 5 when deciding next tile to grow towards.
- Tweak to AI settle to reduce bonus of tiles in rings 4 and 5 if already owned.
- Small change to make Haile Selassie less keen to expand wide.
- AI will now consider annexing cities it has conquered.
- The AI will not consider annexing if it is trying to win a culture victory or their empire is currently unhappy.
- Increased happiness flavor for circus to match Colosseum.
- Tactical/Homeland AI Improvement: Do not heal if under enemy ranged fire (that is making you lose more HP per turn than you can heal).
- Allow AI to capture civilians more than 4 hexes from their cities.
- Have AI build its units for sneak attack at a slightly higher priority if at high difficulty levels.
- Have AI weight Biology a bit stronger especially if liking tanks and airplanes (unlocks oil).
- AI tweaks to help coastal based civs:
o Change to settlement (cities beyond the first also prefer coast).
o Buildings that help coastal Civs have flavors adjusted (they didn't take some rules changes into account).
o Do not force high Naval civs to build a large navy (15+ ships) in the first 100 turns.
o Make Dido deceptive (as historical).
- Tweaks to allow cities to make better use of extra tiles from previous change:
o On average on extra worker or two will be built.
o Slightly less prioritization of connecting up luxuries (still the highest priority).
o Allow one tile islands to be settled (if they have a resource on them).
o Slightly more prioritization of production tiles.
o Builders will emphasize the capital so that it will always be a nicely developed city.
- City Governor AI:
o Prevent focused city AIs from starving as much.
o Make a wonder that has already been started in this city a higher priority.
o Lower the value of food for the governor when you have a large surplus.


POLISH
- UI
- Add in a UI overlay that shows which AI is processing its turn.
- In the detailed view of a mod in the mods browser, additional required mods will display their title if it has been provided instead of the ID of the mod.
- Add an “Exit to Main Menu” button to the player change screen in Hotseat.
- Added "Restart Game" option to game menu. This option lets you restart the game and generate a new map using your current pregame settings. It's only available at Turn 0.
- Advanced settings are now persisted across multiple single player games.
o NOTE: This feature can be disabled by setting "PersistAdvancedSettings = 0" in Config.ini
- The top panel now displays the month of the year if the game speed is so slow that it actually matters.
- Messages about a player losing their capital and regaining it are now included in the replay log.
- Messages about a player being resurrected are now included in the replay log.
- Fixed an issue causing the replay graphs to be corrupted when a player was resurrected.
- Display currently active mods in the single player screen.
- Add a separate graphics option for enabling/disabling the GPU texture decode.
- Fractal added to the map short list and random map types.
- Garrison ring properly disappears when unit moves out of city.
- Resource icon stacking. At lower resolutions, the resource icons clip into the date display along the top. We now hide the part of the list that clips if it’s too long, and instead, the player can mouse-over the list to see all the resources.
- Better timing for pop-ups (finding ruins, etc.).
- Auto unit selection improvements:
o On load, only cycle to the next unit if the currently selected unit is not ready for selection.
o Swap the direction that the CycleRight and CycleLeft buttons move the selection in the cycle list.
o When closing the city screen. Re-select the last unit that was selected.
o If the player has auto-unit-cycling off, don't auto-select the unit that is blocking the end turn.
- Further refinement to pop-up reordering. Pop-ups should now "feel" correct each turn (in the right order, at the right time).
- Don't prompt the player when removing fallout. Just do it. The prompt incorrectly referred to the action as removing an “improvement”.
- Switch a number of Great Merchants to Great Admirals. Add Great General: Hannibal and Great Merchant: Jakob Fugger.
- Optimized overlay system (culture borders, etc.). This system is now making half the draw calls that it did before.
- Flavored all the civs for anti-air and air-carrier.
- Add a combat weapon parameter that allows for a projectile that is not going to do any damage to have a "miss" radius. The helps spread out projectiles when there are a lot of attackers, but only one or two targets.
- Modding: Fix the hard-coded length of the promotions boolean array.
- Modding: Provide a way for Lua to query if the UI is in "Touch Screen" mode UI.IsTouchScreenEnabled().


WIN8 AND ULTRABOOK
- Many performance optimizations specifically targeted to Ultrabooks with Intel Core processors with HD Graphics.
- New launcher button for Windows 8 Intel touch-enabled version.
- Touch/Gesture Support:
o New “gesture” menu button on main menu, and when you bring up the main menu in-game.
o New sliders to control zoom and momentum speed in Options menu.
o Single finger tap for all UI buttons.
o Single finger drag for scroll bars or two fingers together swiping to scroll menus by gesture.
o Single-finger touch and drag to see tool-tips (terrain, UI, etc.).
o Pinch and expand finger for camera zoom.
o Two fingers dragging together moves map.
o Three finger tap is “escape” (from other menus, or to bring up Main Menu).
o Unit Control:
+ Single-finger tap to select unit, and then drag to issue a movement order, or...
+ Double-tap to enter “movement mode”.
+ Once in movement mode, single-tap on destination to issue an order, or touch and drag to preview movement path.

I am thinking of getting a new laptop - an update recognising Windows 8 is reassuring.

cherryghost

Deleted User wrote: »

I am thinking of getting a new laptop - an update recognising Windows 8 is reassuring.

It works fine.



Also, new patch is awesome. Game is much more balanced now. Lot of multiplayer issues ironed out also.

Manach

Re new patch, there seem to be a number of issues with it relating to crashes. I've had a few and Steam forums report numerous others.

BlitzKrieg

grabbed gods and kings cheap in the steam sale. Was weird going back after not playing in a long time, decided to do a random game and ended up as the dutch on continent map with a lvl 4 difficulty.

Didnt think it be much different until it was announced that persia had unlocked the manhatten project in 1864...


WTF???

turned out persia had landed on a continent with only 2 other civs that they quickly squashed, while me as the poor dutch was in a pissing contest over a landmass half the size with the british, germans and attilla the hun. It was ridiculous how far ahead persia had gotten. They had ten times the army size of their nearest opponent. And they had the wealth to buy the loyalty of every nation state.

In the end I was forced to do a suicide push into their continent, over the great wall of china and on to their capitol to knock them out of the race for victory.

Manach

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Didnt think it be much different until it was announced that persia had unlocked the manhatten project in 1864...

Finally definite proof of the Iranian nuclear program.

TheChrisD

Ah gotta love a runaway AI every now and then.

Dcully

Started playing Civ 5 again this morning, 5 hours later i had to pull myself away from it.
Does Gods and Kings add much to the gameplay in general of the core game?
Im not overly fussed about more nations and leaders etc.

Blowfish

Dcully wrote: »

Started playing Civ 5 again this morning, 5 hours later i had to pull myself away from it.
Does Gods and Kings add much to the gameplay in general of the core game?
Im not overly fussed about more nations and leaders etc.

Religion can have some nice bonuses early on, though fades out in the later stages.

For me though the expansion was worth it much more for the balancing aspect and AI improvements than the gameplay features.

RoyalMarine

Hey guys, been a while since I played this, probably the best part of a year...

has there been any major development to prevent late game slow down?

grizzly

RoyalMarine wrote: »

Hey guys, been a while since I played this, probably the best part of a year...

has there been any major development to prevent late game slow down?

From what I've experienced times are not very much improved in the later game. Having a fast CPU helps, along with keeping the player numbers down.

Aquilard

Fairly new to civilization series, do you need a high spec laptop to be able to play civ 5??? Want to know before I go and buy it and end up driving myself insane if it does not work.

cherryghost

Aquilard wrote: »

Fairly new to civilization series, do you need a high spec laptop to be able to play civ 5??? Want to know before I go and buy it and end up driving myself insane if it does not work.

It requires at least an i3 and Intel HD3000 (not the 1st gen Intel HD) just for low settings.

If you can't run it, Civilization IV is a better game in my opinion.

Aquilard

Have been playing civilization 4 a good bit and its great. I have i3 but not sure if my Intel HD is first generation or not? do you think its worth it if can only play on low settings?

cherryghost

What's your laptop model? Eg Acer Aspire 5742 etc

Aquilard

A Dell N5040

quarryman

Nice one lads, now I need to go install this again.

cherryghost

Aquilard wrote: »

A Dell N5040

It's more than likely a standard Intel HD in that. Probably not the best for Civ V. I actually have a laptop around with Intel HD on it so I can test it out and get back to you.

Aquilard

That would be awesome thank you! only if you have the time though no worries.

cherryghost

Sorry for the late reply. It runs on low settings but quite poorly. I reckon best not invest in it. You can get the demo on Steam if you want to try it out anyway.

cherryghost

Apparently Civilization: One World was spotted an expansion in the Steam executable library. Wonder what it may bring?

TheChrisD

Heh, I remember discussing this a little while back in an episode of Polycast

Ultimately, I feel it might bring back stuff from Civ 4 BtS like corporations and permanent alliances.

Rev Hellfire

Dear god let it have advanced starts...

Manach

Rev Hellfire wrote: »

Dear god let it have advanced starts...

What, you don't like scramble for suitable sites at the start

ShaneU

2K Announces Sid Meier’s Civilization® V: Brave New World Expansion Pack
Second massive expansion for critically acclaimed Civilization V features new gameplay systems, strategies, scenarios and more

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2K and Firaxis Games announced today that Sid Meier's Civilization® V: Brave New World, the second expansion pack for the award-winning Civilization V, is currently in development and will be released this summer for Windows-based PC and brought to the Mac® by Aspyr Media. Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World brings a massive amount of new gameplay to the Civilization V experience, providing gamers with even more rewarding ways to achieve world domination.

.“Civilization V: Brave New World continues the strong tradition of ambitious expansion packs that fans have come to expect from the Civilization franchise,” said Sarah Anderson, senior vice president of marketing for 2K. “Brave New World is destined to continue the strong Civilization lineage that already includes massive expansions such as Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword and Civilization V: Gods & Kings.”

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Brave New World provides new depth and replayability through the introduction of international trade and a focus on culture and diplomacy. The player’s influence around the world will be impacted by creating a number of Great Works across a variety of crafts, choosing an ideology for their civilization, and proposing global resolutions in the new World Congress. As players move through the ages of history, they will make critical decisions that influence relationships with all civilizations in the game world.

“After adding a number of great new features to Civilization V with the Gods & Kings expansion, the team continued to search for ways to create even more exciting gameplay through new systems and features,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development for Firaxis Games. “We’re happy to bring our fans another ambitious expansion that will provide hours and hours of new Civilization experiences.

Key features include:

•New Civilizations, Units and Buildings: The expansion features nine new civilizations, each with unique traits, units, buildings and all-new leaders, including Casimir III of Poland.
•New Culture Victory: Spread your culture across the globe, dominating all other cultures. Create masterpieces with Great Artists, Writers, and Musicians that are placed in key buildings across your empire, like Museums, Opera Houses and even the Great Library. Use Archaeologists to investigate sites of ancient battles and city ruins for priceless cultural artifacts. Become the first civilization with a majority influence in all other civilizations to achieve a Culture Victory, becoming the envy of the world.
•World Congress: The importance of diplomacy is intensified and city-state alliances are more important than ever. Change the diplomatic landscape through a new World Congress that votes on critical issues like implementing trade sanctions against rogue nations, limiting resource usage, designating host cities for the World Games and the use of nuclear weapons. Game-changing resolutions, vote trading, intrigue, and a new lead into the Diplomatic Victory ensures that the end of the game will be more dynamic than ever before.
•International Trade Routes: Build your cities into hubs of international trade by land and sea, creating great wealth and prosperity for your people, while also spreading religion, cultural influence, and science. The number of trade routes increases through the advancement of economics and technologies, the creation of wonders and the unique abilities of your civilization. Will you connect to a closer city for a lower payoff and a safer route, choose a longer route with more risk for the bigger payoff, or perhaps point your trade route inward, sending vitally important food and production to the far corners of your own empire?
•New Wonders: Eight new Wonders are introduced, including the Parthenon, Broadway, the Uffizi, and more.
•New Game Scenarios: Two new scenarios let gamers fight the “War Between the States” and embark on the epic Scramble for Africa. Fight the American Civil War from either the Union or Confederate side, as you focus on the critical action in the Eastern theatre of operations between the capital cities of Richmond and Washington. In “Scramble for Africa”, the great colonial powers of the world are racing to explore the Dark Continent and extend their reach into its interior. Search for great natural wonders in the heart of Africa, as you explore a dynamically-generated continent each time you play.

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Brave New World is not yet rated by the ESRB and will be available for Windows-based PC and Mac this summer. For more information on Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Brave New World, please visit www.civilization.com or become a fan on Facebook.

TheChrisD

I guess that culture will now work like it did in Civ 4, allowing tile/city flipping?

pixelburp

There's a decent interview with Firaxis on Rock Paper Shotgun, that goes into more detail about the expansion, including how culture, tourism & ideologies will work; the archaeological digs of pasts battles & events sound really interesting:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/15/civilization-v-brave-new-world-preview/

ShaneU

pixelburp wrote: »

There's a decent interview with Firaxis on Rock Paper Shotgun, that goes into more detail about the expansion, including how culture, tourism & ideologies will work; the archaeological digs of pasts battles & events sound really interesting:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/15/civilization-v-brave-new-world-preview/

"Later on when archaeology comes online, you’re going to be running around on a second phase of exploration and discovery in the world when archaeology comes up because there’s now all these digs around the world that are actually reflections of stuff that happened earlier in the game where a battle might have taken place, where a barbarian camp was. You can extract artifacts from these sites and also put them in your museums." Sounds Great. I still miss building my Palace from Civ IV....or was it III?

pixelburp

The announcement of the DLC prompted me to start playing this again: seems to me like Civ5 has become majorly unstable since the last time I played - anyone else experiencing constant CTDs in between turns?

Korvanica

I have had this game since october and only started playing yesterday. Excellent game.

Played for ages and then, the workers constantly stopping working seriously started to piss me off. Is this a bug? or a "feature"? After some googling I see loads of people reorting the same issue. (Mainly when workers are working on a captured tile.)

pixelburp wrote: »

The announcement of the DLC prompted me to start playing this again: seems to me like Civ5 has become majorly unstable since the last time I played - anyone else experiencing constant CTDs in between turns?

No CTDs for me, game was super stable. Maybe update your drivers if needed & verify the gamefiles ?

pixelburp

Korvanica wrote: »

No CTDs for me, game was super stable. Maybe update your drivers if needed & verify the gamefiles ?

Ah 'update your drivers', the gaming equivalent of 'turn it off and on again' :P Yes, all is healthy and current with my PC; it looks like it happens most often during the calculations of some AIs moves. It's very much random, though I did note it happened at the same point during one turn, even if I loaded an old save & played back up to that point.

Quite frustrating as I'd otherwise got back into the game and enjoyed it immensely; though I'm still a little irritated that the game only feels complete with the Gods & Kings expansion (if you haven't already, it's worth getting). I'm currently playing as Ehtiopia, trying to maintain / survive with a (intentional) 2/3 city civilization.

cherryghost

Anyone interested in a fast game online? As in... FAST, you have to know what you're doing.

pixelburp

Haha, wow; would you believe I didn't even realise there was a multiplayer component? I've just been playing single-player, and clicking into map-setup in the menu by rote. Is multiplayer actually any good?

ShaneU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrsXw3Zukk0

Xcom units coming to Civ 5

cherryghost

pixelburp wrote: »

Haha, wow; would you believe I didn't even realise there was a multiplayer component? I've just been playing single-player, and clicking into map-setup in the menu by rote. Is multiplayer actually any good?

I personally love multiplayer. Difficulty is stepped up a notch and then some. You really have to know what you're doing though or else you could time out during turns without doing anything. Most matches online are advanced starts so the games run on for about 2 hours max.

I play mostly by email though, if you're interested in playing Civ V or indeed IV, by email you should check out www.darkkeep.com.

nesf

pixelburp wrote: »

Haha, wow; would you believe I didn't even realise there was a multiplayer component? I've just been playing single-player, and clicking into map-setup in the menu by rote. Is multiplayer actually any good?

I haven't played Civ V multiplayer but a key problem with the AI (and AIs in general) is that they're pretty sucky at playing a wargame against a decently skilled human on a hex grid. Playing against other humans would make this aspect of the game fascinating.

Some updates on the Brave New World expansion taken from here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=490854

Release Date North America - 9th July, Rest of World - 12th July

New Civilizations (5/9 in Expansion revealed)

Assyria
- Leader - Ashurbanipal
- Capital - Assur
- Unique Ability - Treasures of Ninevah; Steal one Tech from each captured city (only once per city)
- Uniqe Unit - Siege Tower; Catapult replacement;attacking bonuses against cities to nearby friendly units
- Unique Building - Royal Library; Library replacement;The Royal Library gives a research bonus and extra XP to combat units if their masterpiece slot is filled.

Brazil
- Leader - Pedro II
- Capital - Rio de Janerio
- Unique Ability - Carnival; Replace Golden Ages; +50% production of Great Person points (for Artist, Musician, and Writer); x2 tourism
- Unique Unit - Brazilian Expeditionary Force; Generates more progress towards Golden Age, the Carnival for Brazil (x2 if in enemy territory).
- Unique Tile Improvement - Brazilian Wood Camp; Requires Jungle; +1 Gold per turn; +1 Culture after Acoustics

Morocco???

Poland
- Leader - Casimir III
- Capital - Warsaw
- Unique Ability - Solidarity; receive a free Social Policy when they advance into each new era
- Unique Unit - Winged Hussar; Lancer replacement; forces other units to withdraw
- Unique Building - Ducal Stable; Stable replacement; 15% Production; 15xp for Mounted Units; +1 Gold and Production on Pastures

Portugal

- Leader - Maria I
- Capital - Lisbon
- Unique Ability - Mare Clausum; Resource diversity grants twice as much Gold for Portugal in International Trade Routes
- Unique Unit - Nau; Replaces the Caravel; Can sell exotic good for Gold and XP (can be used only once; Faster than the Caravel
- Unique Tile Improvement - Feitoria; Built in City States; Allows you to take a copy of their Luxury? resources; you get two is you are allied with the City State

Zulu

- Leader - Shaka
- Capital -
- Unique Ability - reduction of 50% of maintenance costs for his melee units and a 25% boost to experience gained via combat for all his military units
- Unique Unit - Impi; Replaces Pikeman; Can undertake a ranged attack before entering into a melee combat
- Unique Building - Ikanda; Replaces Barracks; provides new upgrades, such as bonus to flanking & vs. gunpowder units


Confirmed as not being Civs

- Bulgaria - Sofia is a City State
- Israel - Jerusalem is a City State
- Kongo -M'banza-Kongo is a City State
- Olmec - La Venta is a City State
- Pueblo - Was planning to be a Civ but was removed due to concerns from the Pueblo about the use of Popé as leader (maybe just the leader but most likely the whole Civ)
- Serbia/Yugoslavia - Belgrade is a City State
- Sumer - Ur is a City State
- Swahili - Zanzibar is a City State

Old Civilizations that have been changed

France

- Leader - Napoleon
- Capital - Paris
- Unique Ability - City of Light; Great work theaming bonuses are doubled in their capital (Paris)
- Unique Unit - (presumably still the Musketeer)
- Unique Tile Improvement - Château? (it seam that the Foreign Legion has been moved to the Freedom Ideology and has been replaced with a Château like improvement)

New Wonders (6/8 in Expansion revealed)

- Borobudur
- Broadway
- Globe Theater
- The Motherland Calls
- The Parthenon
- Uffizi Museum


New Non-Unique Buildings

- Airport; gives a city a tourism boost; used to airlift troops
- Caravansary - Trade/Gold focused
- Hotel; gives a tourism boost

New Non-Unique Units

- Axeman Unit (Possibly Barbarian or maybe a new UU)
- Archaeologists; Available after the construction of an University; Can turn the Antiquities Site into Either an Artifact for your Museums or set up a memorial that generates culture
- Bazooka; Unlocked with Nuclear Fusion?
- Caravan (Trade Unit); Unlocked by Animal Husbandry; Range 10 Tiles; Is Automated; Has no line of sight
- Cargo Ship (Trade Unit); Unlocked by Sailing; Range 45 Tiles; 2x more Gold than Land Routes; Is Automated; Has no line of sight
- Great Artist; Can Create a Great Work (Art); its Second Ability can create a Golden Age
- Great Musician; Can create a Great Work (Music); its Second Ability is to go on a Concert Tour boasting your Tourism in that civ
- Great Writer; Can Create a Great Work (Literature); its Second Ability is to create a Political Treatise an internal culture bomb
- XCom Squad; can be dropped 40 tiles away

New Technologies

- Internet

New Non-Unique Terrain Improvements


- Antiquities Site; Created in locations of key activity from the start of the game, Barbarian Camps, Destroyed cities etc; You could acquire items from other civs causing diplomatic consequences if not returned


World Congress and Diplomacy

The World Congress/ The United Nations

- Unlocked by the first person to met all the Civilizations on the map when you have researched (or built the reviews are not clear on this) the Printing Press
- The Founding Civ. becomes the Host of the World Congress with some bonuses
- City States will send delegates
- In each session of the WC only two proposals will be voted on
- There will be a couple of turns between the announcement of the session and the vote to allow some wheeling and dealing to occur to influence the vote in which you can bribe other players to vote for or against the current resolution
- The amount of delegates a Civ gets to send increases per Era
- at some point the World Congress gets changed to The United Nations
- Resolutions can be appealed

World Congress/ The United Nations Resolutions

- World leaders; Diplomatic Victory; Needs a two-thirds majority
- Elect a Chairman; a new chairman is elected; the Civ who is the chairman gets twice the amount of delegates
- City-state Trading Ban; city-state X is banned having trading routes with anyone else
- Civilization Trade embargo; no one can have trade routes with Civilization X
- Ban Luxury; players no longer receive happiness from Luxury X
- Unit Tax; A Unit Maintenance Tax on each player's standing army
- Scholar's Circle; members research technologies 20% faster if someone else already has researched the technology
- World Fair; Every Civ contributes to this project for a couple of turns. The 3 main contributors get a bonus
- World Games; Every Civ contributes to this project for a couple of turns. The 3 main contributors get a bonus
- International Space Station; Every Civ contributes to this project for a couple of turns. The 3 main contributors get a bonus
- Cultural Heritage Site; Every World Wonder gets +3 Culture
- Natural Heritage sites; Each worked natural wonder yields +5 culture
- Nuclear Containment; No more nuclear bombs can be built; does not effect any already built
- World Religion; The civ which has the most cities of religion X gets 2 additional votes and this religion spreads faster and the holy city generates plus 50% tourism
- World ideology; +2 seats in the Congress for civilizations who follow ideology X
- Arts funding; Great Artists, Writers & Musicians receive 33% Bonus; Great Scientist, Engineers & receive 33% Penalty
- Science Funding; The opposite of arts funding
- Historic Monuments; Each Great Persons Monument yields +2 culture, Historical monuments yield +4 culture (if worked) (all fromGamersglobal.de)

Trade Routes

- Separate Land and Sea Routes (you start the game with 1 each)
- Limited (the number possibly effected by Wonders/Buildings/ Social Policies/ Civ Unique Ability)
- The greater the distance the better the rewards
- The greater the disparity in resources between the two cities the more gold a route will be worth
- International Trade Routes (Gold, Science, Religion, Tourism)
- Domestic Trade Routes; Food With Granary; Production with Workshop; The starting city does not lose the production/food from their own city
- The maximum distance of Trade Routes can be increased by Wonders & Technologies
- Created by units such as the Caravan and can be destroyed by Barbarians or at war Civs but you may be able to control them to move them out of danger
- Trade Routes last 30 Turns

Tourism and Great Works

Tourism

- Tourism is an actual yield (like culture or religion) that is created in the game
- Tourism is first created by Great Artist/Musician/Writer who can create (named) masterpieces which are then placed in slots created in cultural buildings and some wonders
- Tourism is secondly created by Archaeologists investigating former battle grounds and finding artifacts which can be turned into great works for your museums
- Certain Wonders may also create Tourism
- You receive a 25% bonus to Tourism with another civ when you have open boarders with them
- You can receive up to a 25% tourism bonus if you share religions
- You can receive a 25% bonus if you have a trade Route with the Civ

Great Works

- Great Works are created by Great Artists, Great Musicians and Great Writers
- Great Works can be combined and here are certain (unannounced) themes that when combined can create bonus tourism
- Great Works can be stolen
- Great Works Can be moved from City to City and from Building to Building
- Great Works can be traded

Buildable Great Works

- Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of Artists Mother (Whistler's Mother) by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (Great Artist)
- Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy by Yan Liben (Great Artist)
- Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger (Great Artist)
- In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg (Great Musician)
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare (Great Writer)
- Sri Shanmukaha Subramania Swami by Raja Ravi Varma (Great Artist)
- Starry Night by Van Gogh (Great Artist)
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Great Writer)
- The Mona Lisa by Da Vinci (Great Artist)
- Tower of Babel by Pieter Breugel the Elder (Great Artist)
- View of Toledo by El Greco (Great Artist)
- Water Lilies by Claude Monet (Great Artist)

Cultural Pressure

- Tourism can be used to increase cultural pressure
- Cultural pressure can be used to force/persuade another player to change to your ideology
- The Culture you previously generated in Civ, will be used as defense against other Civ's Cultural pressure

Social Policies and Ideologies

Ideologies
- The Autocracy, Freedom and Order social policy trees are now the three main ideologies
- Unlocked in Modern Age or once you have built 3 factories; at which point you must chose an ideology
- There will be diplomatic benefits/penalties for those of the same or different ideology
- Can be changed (though this is not generally advised) but you will have a period of Anarchy
- There will be 15(or 16 there is some conflicting info on this) different policies in each Ideology with three different levels, you will have to unlock a certain amount of level one and two policies before level three unlocks
- The first person to unlock an ideology get 2 free policies

Autocracy Ideology

- Kamikaze; Allows all aerial units to sacrifice themselves to deal massive damage.
- Gunship Diplomacy; yields +6 influence boost each turn with city states of which you could demand tribute
- Total War; yields a 25% production bonus for military units, which gain additional 15 XP right from the start

Freedom Ideology

- Voluntary army; yields 6 free "Foreign Legion" Units right away (no maintenance)
- Space Procurement Measure; 3-tier policy; you may buy spaceship parts for gold, instead of producing them
- You receive a bonus from building Radio Towers (this may be an opener or one of the Policies)

Order Ideology

- Young Pioneers; +1 local happiness for workshops, factories and all kinds of plants
- Double Agents; Spies double up their chance for defending against enemy agents
- Iron Curtain; free courthouse in conquered cities


Social Policies

- Two new trees Exploration and Aesthetics

Piety Social Policy Tree

-By finishing the piety social policy tree you can chose on of the reformation flavors for your religion

City States

- New City States - Bratislava (Cultural), M'banza-Kongo, Panama City (Maritime), Riga (Maritime), Sofia (Militaristic), Ur (Maritime)

Religion

Religions

- Christianity has been split into Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy

Religious Flavors

- added reformation options available if you finish the Piety policy tree

Potential Reformation Buffs

- purchase science buildings w/faith
- missionaries can convert adjacent barbarians

Espionage

- a new spy called a diplomat; placed in an apposing civ's capital; they can not be killed like a spy; can reveal intrigue; can reveal how a civ will vote in the World Congress; Can be used to help influence the vote of the World Congress by opening up a new dialogue between you and the other civ

Victory

Culture Victory

- This is tied to your cultural pressure that you make from tourism
- you need to have more Tourism than the other Civilization has Culture
- At 10% Tourism to Culture you will have an Exotic Culture; 30% Familiar Culture; 50% Popular Culture and at 100% Influential.
- If you have Influential Culture with all Civs you win the Cultural victory

Changes from Civ 5

Map Tile Changes

- No Gold in Coast and River Tiles

Building Changes

- Amphitheater; +1 Culture; 1 Literature Great Work Slot
- Market; +25% gold; +1 gold; Trade routes other players make in a city with a market will generate +2 gold for the city owner and the trade route owner gains +1 gold for that trade route.
- Museum; +1 Culture; 2 Art or Artifact Great Work Slots
- Opera House; +1 Culture; 1 Music Great Work Slot
- Palace; 1 Art or Artifact Slot

Wonder Changes

- Louvre - 4 Art or Artifact Great Work Slots; 2 artworks and 2 artifacts from different eras and different nationalities each to gain the theme-bonus
- The Colossus - No longer seams to give +1 gold to ocean/sea tiles
- United Nations - As the world congress system automatically turns into the United Nations at some point in the game, the United Nations Wonder may have been removed or at least heavily modified

Inclusions form God and Kings

-Brave New World will include many of Gods and Kings' underlying systems for players who didn't buy the first expansion - Shack News
-From Screenshots we can assume this means Espionage, Religion and 100hps for units

Multiplayer

- Firaxis was able to have a full team work on the BNW multiplayer to fix bugs and create new modes
- New Observer mode
- Simultaneous Turn Mode
- Hybrid Turn Mode; Simultaneous turns until combat occurs then switches to normal turn based turns
- Pitboss will be included in BNW

Scenarios

American Civil War

- The Civil War scenario focuses on the key conflict in the Eastern Theater where the Union and Confederate capitals were both at risk.
- It will have unique units, tile yields and Tech Tree

Scramble for Africa

- The Scramble for Africa scenario is set in late 19th Century Africa, just as the European powers were taking an interest in the Dark Continent.
- three groups of nations, North African, Sub-Saharan African and European all with different winning conditions
- The interior of Africa is randomly generated each game.
- the winner will be based of a victory point system after 100 turns

pixelburp

I found a decent 25 minute gameplay walkthrough of the new components. I gotta be honest, the Archaeology system & Culture refinements look very exciting & surprisingly complex. God knows the medium-late game needs improving & this looks like it'll achieve that

Roll on July

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMO79ylKga0

sulc84

Have no luck in this game.Any tips ?

johnmcdnl

It's down to €9.99 on Steam for the gold edition this weekend.

Manach

Tourism -eh?
Nothing that pulls me to buy the expansion until a steam sale. But new Civs look interesting, especially the wolfen Assyrians.

pixelburp

Manach wrote: »

Tourism -eh?
Nothing that pulls me to buy the expansion until a steam sale. But new Civs look interesting, especially the wolfen Assyrians.

Well the point made is that in the late-game, the map is generally completely discovered and if you're not playing Conquest, the game can shudder to a halt into a boring grind towards Culture/Science/Diplomacy victories. Especially as there are no more Culture buildings after a certain point in the Tech Tree, the game becomes very pointless

When you think about it, the movement of peoples across the world for pursuit of leisure, and the re-discovery of ancient sites does tie into our modern living. I like the idea that a map starts generating new resources, based on previous conflicts, and that you can start to 'mine' those resources, place them in Cultural buildings etc.

I like the changes to the Trade system; the fact your trade routes are now physical entities, moving across the map & require protection and monitoring. Ditto the fact you can now channel resources between cities - verrrry useful if you wish to speed up production of an important Wonder.

Manach

I take the point about end-game, but usually I'm trying to keep enough city states en-bloc to vote with me in UN or watching for sneak attacks on the homeland (from my last game, who knew the Swedes were so treachereous). Offhand from early games with trade routes I was not overly impressed with them and perhaps more attention could be payed to fineseseing the AI intelligence especially when it considering their geo-political locations and not just military strength when starting wars.

danniemcq

johnmcdnl wrote: »

It's down to €9.99 on Steam for the gold edition this weekend.

Had planned to get and play this yesterday but due to server overloads it was after the grand buy the time the game was paid for and downloaded.

It was really odd though I looked out the window 2 mins after starting and it was dark and 2 in the morning. I must have gone through some tear in the fabric of space and time again. Seems to happen quite a lot with this game.

Must update Direct X and see if that makes any difference

sulc84 wrote: »

Have no luck in this game.Any tips ?

BASIC TIPS -

Don't buy anything at the start. Keep your gold. It comes in very handy for upgrading troops allowing you to have a small but highly trained army quite quickly. It’s also amazing how quick (especially at the start) how a good profit quickly disappears with maintenance costs and road building (although road building does eventually pay for itself)

Try and build your Capital City on the coast. It improves trade routes and as your capital usually produces quicker you can start sending ships out to get the coast mapped (so you can quickly send troops to any ruins you see) and allow you to send out the ocean faring ships to find new lands.

Do not start a war unless you have at least 10-15 happiness, every time I take over a city I expect to lose around 12 happiness. If you dip into negative happiness your troops aren't as effective, your production goes to crap and all expansion comes to a grinding halt.

Trade luxury resources with as many as you can.

If a civ is taking over a city state let them. If it’s handy for you then invade it (whenever you declare war on that civ) If it’s kinda useless with no extra resources that you need liberate them and you have a friend for life (or 30 turns ya know!) Only take them over yourself if you need something rare that they have.

A solid defense is MUCH better than a war at the start, let your enemy civs attack each other and you. If you have your army set up right (archers or upgraded in City, Warriors trained in rough warfare on surrounding hills and forests while open fighters are on the plains) like I said earlier upgrading these units will give them a huge advantage if you have a lower number of troops)

Look for a mod called infoaddict (there is a vanilla and a gods and kings one) it gives you more info on other civs (better than your own advisors allowing you to better judge your opponents like when other civs ask you to declare war on someone)

Oh and early on give yourself honor (I think) the third policy for the bonus against barbarians!

danniemcq

Geez i forgot how much fun and addictive this game is, (I only play domination victory btw)

Home from work and waked the dog so I thought ah one or two more moves see how my war with Egypt was going....

started destroying them, taking cities left right and center but getting fairly stretched to my main supply cities then Germany decide to be all German and launch an all out attack from their small base at the top of my area.

Can't afford a 2 front war so negotiate peace with Egypt, don't take as many cities as i may have if i negotiated better or carried on but got 2 big ones so was happy enough.

Spend the next few hours mopping up the German invasion force as they travel across the sea. Submarines are having a field day. Anything that enters the water sinks below. Then they start nuking. Thankfully most of my cities have bomb shelters so loss is minimal but its a major blow to production and even with 20+ workers it took quite a long time to clean up properly. Wipe out the small German area north of me and eventually take the fight to German shores. Troops were sacrificed for the greater good and for every one of mine i lost they lost 3. Production of Stealth bombers became a priority and one of their coastal cities is just within range and is bombarded (and for sh*ts and giggles a forward unit about to die was sent to "see" Berlin so a nuke could be dropped on them).

All through this i see that Egypt has slowly started putting some troops on the border. So to be safe all cities on that side now produce nukes and Giant Death Robots (I have lots of Uranium, cities with it nearby are always my target when at war) and sent a sub to keep an eye on their fleet.

Come midnight last night (6 hours after my one or 2 turns) I am about to take my first German city and have a fairly decent armada traveling just behind to hold on and secure the area and Egypt declare war again. I laugh it off thinking puny Egyptians have they not seen my Gian….. oh they have them too… check the infoaddict mod and they have an army now that is bigger than mine. I really should have taken more off them in our last war so now I have a choice.

Do I continue against Germany and grab another city? Berlin is within range of my nukes and my army of workers will help with the clean up or do I negotiate for cities through peace and concentrate on the Egyptians.

Probably gonna wait a turn or 2 and see how the tide of battle is swinging. I have nukes to launch at them ready to go and a few GDR to come in and mop up whatever is left.

Really not looking forward to my eventual war with Ethiopia though, their military is quite a lot bigger than mine.

Frankie5Angels

Right, screw Civ V anyway! I only started playing it at 6pm yesterday (after a quick tutorial from about 2-3) and I was still at it at 3am this morning.:pac:

Very new obviously, but I do have a few questions:

1. Is there a way to select your Empire? I got the Polynesian one, and my capital is Honolulu. I wouldn't mind being able to start with someone else though.

2. Is it a bit easy? I've been building up my army and I've just started walloping cities. Now I've built my first catapults and I can only imagine I'll rip them up now. Or, is the design to build you up so you can take a fall?

3. Any tips for making money? I've been building up markets, workshops in the cities and on the outskirts i've been building what i can in terms of plantations, farms, quarries etc. I have a nice bit of wedge now, just wondering how one might keep the flow coming in as I'm sure there'll be darker days ahead!

4. Any way to have a map of the actual world? As in Europe, Americas etc? While I'm enjoying it, I do find having Honolulu a few miles from Budapest, Paris and Amsterdam a bit...well, annoying!

Lastly, Napoleon is a dead man. I was pummelling a city in a war for him, had it down to the last but couldn't figure out how to finish it out. He had a sh*tty little bunch of warriors who just jumped in from two squares away and all of a sudden the place has a blue ring around it.:o Shnakey!

danniemcq

Frankie5Angels wrote: »

Right, screw Civ V anyway! I only started playing it at 6pm yesterday (after a quick tutorial from about 2-3) and I was still at it at 3am this morning.:pac:

ah a quick game then

Very new obviously, but I do have a few questions:

1. Is there a way to select your Empire? I got the Polynesian one, and my capital is Honolulu. I wouldn't mind being able to start with someone else though.

yip when you are at the start game selection, you can choose what empire you want, afaik it’s the top option. there is also advanced options that are selectable from that menu

2. Is it a bit easy? I've been building up my army and I've just started walloping cities. Now I've built my first catapults and I can only imagine I'll rip them up now. Or, is the design to build you up so you can take a fall?

could be difficulty setting, or it could be that they have a terrible army or just got invaded vy someone else. I never played the tutorial but does the game continue after you end the tutorial. you could be on an easy setting and that would also be why you never got a empire selection at the start too

3. Any tips for making money? I've been building up markets, workshops in the cities and on the outskirts i've been building what i can in terms of plantations, farms, quarries etc. I have a nice bit of wedge now, just wondering how one might keep the flow coming in as I'm sure there'll be darker days ahead!

don't buy anything unless you need it urgently. Build roads and then focus on commerce as a culture thing. and always look for culture unlocks dealing with money. your army costs money so a small number of highly trained troops costs less and can be more effective that a scattering of old ones

4. Any way to have a map of the actual world? As in Europe, Americas etc? While I'm enjoying it, I do find having Honolulu a few miles from Budapest, Paris and Amsterdam a bit...well, annoying!

yup again I think the tutorial doesn't let you choose but its there in the game setup. think its called earth or something easy like that. There are heaps and heaps of options in the advanced too

Lastly, Napoleon is a dead man. I was pummelling a city in a war for him, had it down to the last but couldn't figure out how to finish it out. He had a sh*tty little bunch of warriors who just jumped in from two squares away and all of a sudden the place has a blue ring around it.:o Shnakey!"

yeah but you can do that to him too, I've gotten a few cities that way! Ranged troops cannot capture cities you need melee troops