Civilization 6

mahoganygas

Just announced.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/11/11640726/civilization-6-vi-announcement-release-date

One more turn.

Gbear

If Sean Bean is the narrator they'll get back half of the 4000000 brownie points they lost for censoring La Liberté guidant le peuple's breats.:rolleyes:

Zillah

On one hand, 5 was great, and they have Surface of the Sun as the theme tune, which is also exciting.

On the other, Beyond Earth was completely unenjoyable muck and there isn't a single hint of gameplay in this trailer, so, meh.

mahoganygas

I can't believe Civ V is now six years old.

Gbear

As per this article, they're hitting a lot of the right notes many in the community have been calling out for in some of the features they've teased - districts, like in Endless Legend, limited stacking to fix the blandness of combat tactics as well as apparently starting off with most of the features they'd introduced by BNW, albeit perhaps not as comprehensively.

They've confirmed trade routes (which I think should be binned, personally, in favour of more organic civ-civ connections that automatically generate trade rather than trade units), religion, espionnage, tourism and archaeology.
That presumably confirms the existence of Faith and Culture in mostly recognisable formats.

I'm most of all interested in some changes they've discussed about the tech tree.
The tech web was a good move in BE but ultimately it's just learning stuff in an order. Slightly more flexible but you just passively do it all the same.
Now they're talking about how your civ's situation will influence your tech - eg. having a city next to the sea will increase the rate of learning nautical tech.
Perhaps warring a lot will increase the speed of military tech and there's room for great people, wonders (natural and man-made), buildings and the other terrain around you to have similar impacts.

The lead designer on this is the guy responsible for BNW and G+K so he knows his ****.

Content-wise Civ5 was pretty complete. Once they deliver the bulk of that along with the iterations on the old systems of tech, city management and combat and some solid work done to improve the performance late game I'd be happy enough with that.

Zillah

mahoganygas wrote: »

I can't believe Civ V is now six years old.

Holy shit.

Zillah

Gbear wrote: »

The tech web was a good move in BE but ultimately it's just learning stuff in an order.

Are you kidding?
https://i.imgur.com/NpKUq6D.jpg

That thing is an abortion. I hated it with a passion.

Now they're talking about how your civ's situation will influence your tech - eg. having a city next to the sea will increase the rate of learning nautical tech.

This and most of what else you've said sounds encouraging though.

Glad to see the announcement is a reasonable distance away. Pretty sick of the hype train starting 20 months before a game comes out.

ShaneU

New art style is awful, looks cheap.

sirboby

ShaneU wrote: »

New art style is awful, looks cheap.

Im not sure what i think of it yet

Damnit, there's 2017 - 2020 wasted, so

J Mysterio

Those screenshots are awful. Very 'kiddy' and almost looks like an android game.

degrassinoel

looks like the sims and age of empires

The_Valeyard

Not a fan of screenshots.



Bring back the advisors council and Elvis!!!!!

Shiminay

I kinda like the look of it if I'm honest - there's no accounting for taste :P It's clean and bright and I think if you're looking at it for hours on end (and we will) I think you'll be glad it's clear and quick to see things at a glance.

Goodshape

Screenshots look pretty nice to me. Colourful, nothing wrong with that, and detailed and clear. Looks alive.

Very much like the sound of an iteration on five, rather than a rethink or re-engineering. And hopefully (sounds like it does for the most part) that includes aspects from Civ 5's expansions too. That was a good game but it took a few of those expansions to really earn it's keep.

Also that October release date is lovely. On the early Christmas present list it goes!

Washington Irving

Never had an issue finding info or telling units/resources/improvements apart in Civ V with icons on.

Would much rather they stick with the realistic style than go with this 'cleaner', cartoony thing. Looks a cheap (and polished) F2P mobile game in my eyes.


Feel like Civ V has only recently become the game he could/should have been from the start. The community patch has breathed a completely new lease of life into it along with Brave New World. Can see myself staying with it for a few years yet unless VI turns out to be something special from release.

Zillah

I too felt it wasn't really all that it could be until the expansions. Religion really added a fun element to the game.

What does the community patch do?

Washington Irving

Zillah wrote: »

I too felt it wasn't really all that it could be until the expansions. Religion really added a fun element to the game.

What does the community patch do?

In short, a lot. Completely overhauls certain aspects, balances the overpowered resources, pantheons, wonders. Probably easier to list what is still the same. Helps the game run smoother too.

Civ Fanatics have a whole dedicated subforum

Reddit review from last year, some stuff has been added since but all the key stuff is there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/35ijhj/community_balance_patch_super_review/


http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=528034

J Mysterio

Interesting, fairly detailed article on IGN. Excited now!

Cities.

Among many changes, Beach highlights two that he believes will make the biggest difference. The first is what he calls “Unstacking the cities,” a reference to the way Civilization 5 flattened out the “Stack of Doom” armies that ruled Civilization 1 through 4 and limited each tile to having just one military unit on it at a time. “All of the sudden the military side of the game got much more interesting,” he observes. “There’s all sort of tactical complexity that was unlocked by putting the units out on the map.” So for Civilization 6 Beach’s team has applied the same concept to cities, which in all previous games have always existed on a single tile, cramming every building into that space.
Instead, Firaxis has created the concept of 12 different types of color-coded Districts (five or six of which will be available from the beginning) that exist on their own tiles on the map, outside the city center and will house specific building types. “A science district, which we’ve called a campus, once constructed will allow you to put a library and a university and a research lab out on that tile. And now your city is sort of specialized toward being a really good science city,” says Beach.

To that end, there’s also a Military Encampment District that you can build to house military buildings, but it also can be fortified with walls and gain a ranged strike – doubling your city’s defensive power. Being outside the city walls gives it other tactical advantages as well, adds Shirk. “An enemy can’t just come in and siege your city, because you’ll be cranking out units at their back. It’s a nice side effect.”

AI.

Firaxis is also starting from a better place with the AI, which had some issues when we first played Civilization 5’s busier one-unit-per-tile combat. “We started with all the know-how and a lot of the lessons learned of what worked and what didn’t,” says Beach. “There’s a lot we learned about player expectation, for how an AI should behave and which moves the AI might have failed to make early on in Civ 5 that players were anticipating. You know like, players always like that if you could capture one of their civilians, they expect to see that happen.” In other words, this AI already knows the tricks Civ 5 had to learn over time.

...

the diplomatic game has also been reworked. “In Civ 5, different civilizations felt very different when you were playing as them, but when they were AI opponents they felt very similar in that they had the same way they go about playing the game. You didn’t have to react as strongly as we would’ve liked to the fact that, wow, Ghengis is next to me, or one of these leaders who might have a crazy idea about what might be a nice thing to do in the Civilization world. We had Gandhi and a few other people that definitely have some quirks to them, but not as far as we wanted,” says Beach.

And finally.

Firaxis played coy about the end-game tweaks they’re working on, but Beach did confirm there will be an entirely new victory condition, and one of the traditional victory conditions has been radically reworked to change the way you go about achieving it. “We’ve definitely looked at that and shaken it up.”

TheChrisD

The new "cartoony" look is really putting me off this iteration, it reminds me too much of the god-awful Civ Rev.

That's not to mention the fact they've jacked the base price up to €60, and are trying to sell a season pass? I hope that pricing strategy is all 2K's doing and not Firaxis', cos I doubt Firaxis really want to gouge their player base like that.

Xenji

TheChrisD wrote: »

The new "cartoony" look is really putting me off this iteration, it reminds me too much of the god-awful Civ Rev.

That's not to mention the fact they've jacked the base price up to €60, and are trying to sell a season pass? I hope that pricing strategy is all 2K's doing and not Firaxis', cos I doubt Firaxis really want to gouge their player base like that.

More like Take-Two's idea I would say, the season pass does not really bother me, I bought the four Civilization and Scenario Packs last time around.

Gbear

TheChrisD wrote: »

That's not to mention the fact they've jacked the base price up to €60, and are trying to sell a season pass? I hope that pricing strategy is all 2K's doing and not Firaxis', cos I doubt Firaxis really want to gouge their player base like that.

I don't think poor value for money is something you can level at Civ.

There was plenty of DLC and stuff last time around but given how long they support it and how much game time it gives you I'd happily fork out 150+ over the course of it's lifetime.

Shiminay

I'll be waiting till there's a total "All the DLC" release even if that takes 2 years. I'm too far past the point of caring that much to be bothered with buying a game piecemeal.

ED E

How many of ye bothered with Beyond Earth? I'm still playing C5 via GMR now, don't expect to feel the urge to give that up for another year or two yet.

The_Valeyard

ED E wrote: »

How many of ye bothered with Beyond Earth? I'm still playing C5 via GMR now, don't expect to feel the urge to give that up for another year or two yet.

I really enjoyed it. May buy expansion later.

Currently dipping in and out of civ5 with future tech mod, which adds new ages, cities and building style, more tech tree and new units.

J Mysterio

ED E wrote: »

How many of ye bothered with Beyond Earth? I'm still playing C5 via GMR now, don't expect to feel the urge to give that up for another year or two yet.

I bought it. Tried to give it a fair go but it was really terrible. I've been a massive CIV fan for years too. Very dissapointing.

I like all the new features that they are talking about for 6. Concerned with the screenshots though.

Zillah

J Mysterio wrote: »

I bought it. Tried to give it a fair go but it was really terrible. I've been a massive CIV fan for years too. Very dissapointing.

Exact same. I finish one and a half games and it was just bad. The Civs are bland as anything (seriously, they basically drew a box around areas on Earth and called them factions: there's the ambiguous Asian lads and the ambiguous European lads and the ambiguous Russian lads - no flavour whatsoever).

The aliens are the most generic and phoned-in space aliens I've seen in any scifi (game, book, movie, or TV). The tech web is a bloated, illegible nightmare. The wonders are boring, most seemed forgettable and unimportant.

It compares poorly with everything that made Civ or Alpha Centauri good. It plays like a knock-off Civ game made by lesser developers.

Shiminay

I think it's a testament to Civ V when you see the bigger YouTube strategy people like Quill18 still playing that and doing almost nothing beyond what I'm sure was promotional partnership content for Beyond Earth. It's my highest played/most hours game on Steam for a reason

rsh118

Reading what the devs are saying will be in from day one, I'm quietly hopeful!

Gonzovision

A few thoughts from Quill18 after playing the first 60 turns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qzC5cUQcFk

J Mysterio

....aaand Part 2

Looks pretty similar to 5. And I was one of those who hated 5 and still love 4. So I can't say I'm too excited but I'm interested to see how it has changed.

Kiith

I didn't think it was possible for anyone to hate Civ 5.

Well, maybe hate it in a "I've spent 4 hours on my last turn before going to bed" kind of way, but not any other way :P

J Mysterio

The graphics/ style looks much better in video then it first appeared it would be in screenshots.

Shiminay

I knew straight away that people would be a lot more forgiving on the graphics now that they've seen them in action I still really like the look. Folding in the districts idea from other games is a decent idea. Looks like Wonders have to be build in one now, which might put the kybosh on my capital having 10 World Wonders in future

J Mysterio

Feck that! Wonder City I will call it.

Dcully

All this civ talk has me wanting to play civ v again, bought it but only played one or two skirmish matches before getting distracted by other games.
Is the vanilla game worth playing still?

Shiminay

If you don't Gods & Kings and Brave New World, I'd strongly urge you to consider it. Then get Info Addict (on Steam Workshop) and the Enhanced User Interface (a download that the game treats as DLC) and you've got a great game. Add to that the additional mods like new civs, new ages (Age of Enlightment) or the Community Balance Mod which changes the game in a big way (and seemingly to cater for the tastes of Civ 4 players).

Zillah

Kiith wrote: »

I didn't think it was possible for anyone to hate Civ 5.

A bunch of my friends hated 5 when it came out. I think it was mostly loyalty to 4, though, and shock from the big changes that happened.

I think the videos of 6 look encouraging. UI is super slick, looks aren't nearly as cartoonish as it first seems, really like the sprawling city idea.

The_Valeyard

Wonder will Gandhi be back to his warlike genocidal behaviour.

Dcully

Shiminay wrote: »

If you don't Gods & Kings and Brave New World, I'd strongly urge you to consider it. Then get Info Addict (on Steam Workshop) and the Enhanced User Interface (a download that the game treats as DLC) and you've got a great game. Add to that the additional mods like new civs, new ages (Age of Enlightment) or the Community Balance Mod which changes the game in a big way (and seemingly to cater for the tastes of Civ 4 players).

Thanks mate, although I'm not seeing enhanced user interface in the workshop.

Shiminay

it's not a workshop mod, it's separate: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=512263

Dave_The_Sheep

I can't thank what Shiminay says enough. Civ 5 is as deep a game as you could want, but you do need BNW and G&K. The Enhanced UI and the Infoaddict mod only make it easier for you to get at information to determine your strategy, but they're fantastic additions.

Civ 5 with all the expansions is one of the best games for balance, fine-tuning and replayability out there. There are various tiers of Civs (different for multi-and-single-player) in terms of their unique units/buildings/abilities but you can win with any of them. Hundreds if not thousands of hours of gameplay easily.

Kiith

Kiith wrote: »

I didn't think it was possible for anyone to hate Civ 5.

Well, maybe hate it in a "I've spent 4 hours on my last turn before going to bed" kind of way, but not any other way :P

Heh.

There's quite a few people who still prefer 4. I still play Realism Invictus in fits and starts, would turn to it before 5 anytime. Even vanilla Beyond The Sword. 5 was/is considered a much more casual and dumbed-down successor to 4 by a lot of long-time civ fans. Including myself.

5 does look a lot better though.

The pessimist in me predicts 6 will be very similar to 5. 5 was a massive success for Firaxis and 2K.

BlitzKrieg

Sean Bean Narrated video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgUy4Wt0Ads

Seems roads are now part in parcel with traders.

Zillah

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Sean Bean Narrated video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgUy4Wt0Ads

Seems roads are now part in parcel with traders.

After all the indie/bedroom/early-access stuff going on with VR right now it's really nice to see some proper triple-A development. Sean Bean; 12 minute walkthrough!

Goodshape

Looks really good and, hopefully not just smoke and mirrors, very well polished already.

I wonder if there will be any VR support for this. Looking over your kingdom and the world with a headset sounds like it'd be great... all the text and menus might be at issue though. None of the headsets can really handle small text yet.

sirboby

I love the new road system, great idea

Wossack

fuggin hype! looks brilliant

rip normal sleep pattern

BlitzKrieg

sirboby wrote: »

I love the new road system, great idea

only issue is how to use them for war too?

I can easily imagine someone refusing to trade with any other player simply because they dont want to give them a route to quickly push their armies through their territory.

I know historically the romans built roads as much for their armies as for their trade. So perhaps we will see an option for certain military units to build roads and railways as well? Perhaps a support/supply unit that can build a road or railway from a city to a military unit out in the open and then be consumed.

Again historically it would fit, the US army during world war 2 pretty much lived on its well oiled and much more efficient supply corps compared to the other armies during normandy.

It might be nice to see such units in civilisation.

TheChrisD

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

So perhaps we will see an option for certain military units to build roads and railways as well?

I recall reading in a write-up on some website that there will be a "military engineer" or some such unit in the midgame whose purpose is to build player-specific roads.