Civilization V Coming This Fall

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wanderer27

Platinum Member
Aug 6, 2005
2,173
15
81
Then your understanding of Steam is somewhat limited.

You can backup your 'steamapps' folder to an external hdd or other partition OR you can use the in-application backup process for each individual game.

then in the case of nuclear holocaust upon the greater Seattle Washington metropolitan area or a format of your drive, you can restore & play your steam games without the servers being up..

I expected re-authentication/re-registration in a case like that, which wouldn't be possible without Server access.

You don't need Nuclear holocaust, but Seattle is surrounded by Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Baker (just for starters), which are all Volcanoes . . . it's also pretty much sitting on a Tectonic seam .
 

TehMac

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2006
9,976
3
71
And who exactly are people going to sue if they go out of business or go bankrupt?

The former owner who declared the dispersal of the studio--do you think the people who head the studios just dissolve into thin air?

The investors who pumped millions into 3D Realms sued the developers for failing to produce a product after those decades.

And that was a company who really got snuffed out.
 

wanderer27

Platinum Member
Aug 6, 2005
2,173
15
81
GM was losing billions every year for many years.

Valve is making money from every sale (40% of price AFAIK) - current estimates are that digital distribution is around 50% of gaming market and Steam have around 70% of DD market - thats shitload of money.

Also their only expense is for people, servers and bandwith. I wouldnt be surprised if Valve was able to buy entire EA with cash.


Commodore
Polaroid
Block Buster
Circuit City
CompUsa
AT&T (the original, not the reincarnation)
Enron

Just a few. All pretty good sized / fairly popular Companies.

My point is that no one knows what the future is going to do.

Maybe someone buys Steam and totally changes it. It's their Company then, they can do whatever they want.
Look at what happened to CompUsa - some Billionaire bought it, and now where is it?


Wow, we really got off topic here.
I was just posting a Link to let everyone know what's going on with the game (at least for now).
For me it's no-go, for others it's no issue.

Best too know before hand rather than getting it and finding out there's something you don't want to do.
 

Nintendesert

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2010
7,761
5
0
STEAM is just fine and that's the preferred future of DRM, that along with Impulse. Unless we use an actual service like STEAM/Impulse, we're going to get things like Ubisoft's DRM or the rootkits.

Steam also provides some amazing deals on games and offers a great way for me to repurchase products I've long since lost the disk to or lost the CD key to.

I just don't see how any of the paranoid resistance to using STEAM is warranted by a slew of "what ifs" since your dog getting and eating your CD/DVD is more likely than a damn volcano erupting.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,539
287
126
www.the-teh.com
Basically this all just boils down to a Steam/DRM issue, which has probably been hashed out on these forums so much that nobody even listens anymore . . . .

As far as missing out on Civ 5 - really, how much can they have changed?
Probably updated the graphics, tweaked the AI (I sure hope so), and added/removed some features.
Not all changes are necessarily good - I didn't really care for the addition of Religion, and that's supposedly been removed this incarnation.
Culture wasn't a big favorite when it came out either, but it's okay now I guess.

Yeah, I'd like to get the game and support the developers, but I'm just not willing to give up my rights to do so.

It's just not that important.[/QUOTE

Holly cow what didn't they change?

Hex terrain, one military unit per tile, no military in cities, ranged combat, 3 levels of AI control, no more religion, yes updated graphics, leaders speaking in their native tongue, basic military now moves two tiles at a time, cities spread out by 3 now instead of 2, city states, barbs have their own tech tree, you can trade items and land, advisers are back, no more espionage....
 

Sumguy

Golden Member
Jun 2, 2007
1,409
0
0
Looks like this will be awesome.

I actually started playing civ4 again this week, still as fun as ever. I enjoy playing on island maps (one per civ), creating basically a super-island from which I can raise massive armies, and wiping out other civs.

Things get interesting when I realize I don't have a particular resource on my island (do a basic check on map builder to make sure I'm not TOTALLY fucked). In the game I'm playing now, I have no copper.

Gonna have to find a source. Looks like Louis can "help" me with that :sneaky:
 

TehMac

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2006
9,976
3
71
Holly cow what didn't they change?

Hex terrain, one military unit per tile, no military in cities, ranged combat, 3 levels of AI control, no more religion, yes updated graphics, leaders speaking in their native tongue, basic military now moves two tiles at a time, cities spread out by 3 now instead of 2, city states, barbs have their own tech tree, you can trade items and land, advisers are back, no more espionage....

Hey guys, thanks for the recommendations, but finals are coming up and there's no way I'm going to get this game lol. I might get Civ 5 later, but even so...

What do you think of the changes to the new Civ?
 
May 16, 2000
13,522
0
0
STEAM is just fine and that's the preferred future of DRM, that along with Impulse. Unless we use an actual service like STEAM/Impulse, we're going to get things like Ubisoft's DRM or the rootkits.

Steam also provides some amazing deals on games and offers a great way for me to repurchase products I've long since lost the disk to or lost the CD key to.

I just don't see how any of the paranoid resistance to using STEAM is warranted by a slew of "what ifs" since your dog getting and eating your CD/DVD is more likely than a damn volcano erupting.

I'm 38, I still have games for my Odyssey II & Commodore 64 that were purchased new. As far as I know I've never lost a game or cd key. When I get a new piece of software, job #1 is imaging it to my server as a way to keep discs clean and usable. I don't need anyone babysitting them for me thanks.

I have all the friends I need, and don't use gaming for socialization beyond playing with the friends I already have.

If companies would quit paying overhead to other companies like Steam, prices would drop and we wouldn't need the sales and discounts offered by 3rd parties.

I don't install 'enhancer' or 'assistant' software on my systems. Ever. I don't let ANYTHING send or receive unless it's necessary as its primary purpose. No download managers, no updaters, no registrations, NOTHING. I keep my services to a draconian minimum.

What I'm getting at is, name 1 thing that Steam does for me that's in ANY way useful.

Now consider that I'm an anal conspiracy theorist when it comes to registering, tracking, etc. I am MASSIVELY involved in privacy and consumer rights issues.

As for worse options (securom, etc), as everyone knows there are hacks within a few days/weeks to completely strip out any forms of invasive DRM on installs.

Now tell me rather the positives of Steam outweigh the negatives for me.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
as much as I might not like steam, I'd blame game pirates before blaming the software companies.
 

Demo24

Diamond Member
Aug 5, 2004
8,356
9
81
Hey guys, thanks for the recommendations, but finals are coming up and there's no way I'm going to get this game lol. I might get Civ 5 later, but even so...

What do you think of the changes to the new Civ?


Uh, perhaps you missed it but Civ5 isn't out yet. It will be out in November. Civ4 has been out for a few years now.



I'm 38, I still have games for my Odyssey II & Commodore 64 that were purchased new. As far as I know I've never lost a game or cd key. When I get a new piece of software, job #1 is imaging it to my server as a way to keep discs clean and usable. I don't need anyone babysitting them for me thanks.

I have all the friends I need, and don't use gaming for socialization beyond playing with the friends I already have.

If companies would quit paying overhead to other companies like Steam, prices would drop and we wouldn't need the sales and discounts offered by 3rd parties.

I don't install 'enhancer' or 'assistant' software on my systems. Ever. I don't let ANYTHING send or receive unless it's necessary as its primary purpose. No download managers, no updaters, no registrations, NOTHING. I keep my services to a draconian minimum.

What I'm getting at is, name 1 thing that Steam does for me that's in ANY way useful.

Now consider that I'm an anal conspiracy theorist when it comes to registering, tracking, etc. I am MASSIVELY involved in privacy and consumer rights issues.

As for worse options (securom, etc), as everyone knows there are hacks within a few days/weeks to completely strip out any forms of invasive DRM on installs.

Now tell me rather the positives of Steam outweigh the negatives for me.


Well if your house catches fire, or a bad flood, or a tornado then boom all of your precious backups have just vanished. Want that game again? Well you have to buy it again. With steam I can download it whenever I want, to whatever computer I want, as many times as I want. And except for some rare times I've never had it NOT max my connection out downloading this stuff. I never have to drive down to the store, or order it online and wait, and if I want to go back I don't have to go fish the CD out somewhere. Then I don't have to worry about it not working, etc.

Also, I've yet to see Steam prices be on average higher than anywhere else. Often they run a lot of deals you won't find anywhere else. So to say that the cost of steam is significantly adding to costs is ridiculous.

Also they bring in a lot of Indie games that is harder to find in other places. They often price them appropriately and those games are very easy to search for.


You're obviously pretty paranoid about the internet, and probably other things in life, so this will never change your mind that it's all evil. But there are some positives for you.
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,539
287
126
www.the-teh.com
Hey guys, thanks for the recommendations, but finals are coming up and there's no way I'm going to get this game lol. I might get Civ 5 later, but even so...

What do you think of the changes to the new Civ?

Yeah as Demo said the game isn't out yet.

It's too hard to say how it will be in the end, but there's a lot of fundamental changes to gameplay from Civ IV to Civ V.
 

coloumb

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,069
0
81
Tried the Civ 4 demo - was fun. Took the $9.99 plunge to see what the full version is like [why do I have this feeling I won't see daylight for the next few years?]. Hopefully CIv 5 will have a demo.. :)
 

Infohawk

Lifer
Jan 12, 2002
17,844
1
0
People worried about Steam are taking this way too seriously. It's not like Steam is hooked up to your liver transplant or something. You pay $50 and you get to play a really fun game. In the event Steam were to go out of business 15 years from now, Steam would likely unlock all these games or their publishers would. In the event it becomes total abandonware, I'm confident a hacker would find a way to get it running on the ipad 5 of the future or whatever people will be using. In the event of a nuclear war you have better things to be concerned about, but if you are underground in your shelter during the great nuclear winter of 2025 I guess you spend your time cursing Steam, and we apologists, for not being able to play Civ 5. And if I am alive I'll at least be able to have fond memories of Civ 5 while I run from post-apocalyptic cannibals.
 

TehMac

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2006
9,976
3
71
People worried about Steam are taking this way too seriously. It's not like Steam is hooked up to your liver transplant or something. You pay $50 and you get to play a really fun game. In the event Steam were to go out of business 15 years from now, Steam would likely unlock all these games or their publishers would. In the event it becomes total abandonware, I'm confident a hacker would find a way to get it running on the ipad 5 of the future or whatever people will be using. In the event of a nuclear war you have better things to be concerned about, but if you are underground in your shelter during the great nuclear winter of 2025 I guess you spend your time cursing Steam, and we apologists, for not being able to play Civ 5. And if I am alive I'll at least be able to have fond memories of Civ 5 while I run from post-apocalyptic cannibals.

+1 for the lulz
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,569
3,762
126
just...one...more...turn...

It's not even that! Just 5 more turns till I take that city - oh now if I wait 2 more turns that wonder will be finished - well now I just have to get the resource