Civilization V, how is it now?

[paperfist]

Some people think when the AI decides it can't win the way it was planning to it will go suicide mode and just try to damage everyone else.

When the game first came out on through it's patching people posted screen shots of the AI rage quiting lol. If an AI felt it couldn't win anymore it would basically offer you everything and go away.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=382251

 

[JoshGuru7]

Pros:
-Graphics are cartoonyish so they never seem dated.
-AI is predictable and consistent. Play at a difficulty matching your ability and you will always be challenged.
-Great game balance mechanics (resources,happiness,health,strategic,culture,sliders,religion,espionage,great people,corporations,trade,world & national wonders,civics)
-Mechanics offer varying rewards, player is not punished for making tradeoffs (e.g. no building maintenance, civics can be switched freely and give different benefits but almost no negatives,etc)

Even this list is pretty subjective (which opinions have a right to be).

I personally would not list graphics as a selling point for Civ IV, especially when compared to the other newer competitors in the TBS genre.

The AI is terrible in all these sorts of games and "predictable" is not a selling point. Diplomacy in Civ 4 is so centered around religion that you know exactly what to expect at every point from your opponent, even on the highest levels.

I don't quite understand your last point as constraints in gaming are not inherently bad. Rules and limitations set the framework that we have to operate in and they tend to encourage strategy. Unit and building maintenance is a constraint just like not having infinite health in a FPS game - it encourages you to do things a little more strategically courtesy of some added difficulty.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

When the game first came out on through it's patching people posted screen shots of the AI rage quiting lol. If an AI felt it couldn't win anymore it would basically offer you everything and go away.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=382251

While often a little over generous in their concessions, at least they can see the writing on the wall. In Civ 4 you would kick an AI's ass and he wouldn't give you an inch in the peace negotiations.

 

[Samick]

I haven't played Civilization IV and other older versions. I have just played Civilization V. It's good game for people that did not play any older versions I think. Because for them it's something new.

 

[gregoryvg]

I've played CIV II, IV and V. I like CIV V the best.

 

[drizek]

While often a little over generous in their concessions, at least they can see the writing on the wall. In Civ 4 you would kick an AI's ass and he wouldn't give you an inch in the peace negotiations.

Ya, that was always very annoying. I never really figured out how to make peace with someone in Civ IV without bribing them, even if I was clearly dominating them. I don't think I've ever been able to request successfully that htey hand over one of their cities.

I like Civ V, but I really really regret paying sticker for it. I bought it at the same time I bought Civ IV, and I think I've spent about equal amounts of time playing both of them. I could have easily just waited until now to get Civ V for $10.

 

[minmaster]

i tried to play a game yesterday hearing the game was patched and the game was going pretty good until all the countries i was trading luxury resources with suddenly didn't want to trade anymore and i suddenly dropped to like -28 happiness. i was researching flight at that point and put in a lot of time, but there was just no way i was going to try claw my way back from a -28 happiness. and there really wasn't any way to, because i had every happiness building possible at that point and adopted the right policies. the game went from tolerable to being unplayable in just few turns.

 

[QuantumPion]

Ya, that was always very annoying. I never really figured out how to make peace with someone in Civ IV without bribing them, even if I was clearly dominating them. I don't think I've ever been able to request successfully that htey hand over one of their cities.

The mechanic is called war success. Every unit you kill, city you take, or nuke that you launch gives you war success. Every unit you lose gives the enemy war success. So even if you kill his units and take a couple cities, and still have lots of units left, it may seem like you are dominating him. But if you lost a lot of units in the process his war success might actually be higher. They don't take into account relative army strength, just how many units you've actually killed vs lost.

If your war success is higher than his, he will accept a cease fire, depending on the civ. E.g. Ghandi will broker peace right away buy Ghengis Khan requires a higher war success. In order to capitulate anyone though, you must have a really high war success, meaning taking most of their cities and killing all of their units.

 

[nageov3t]

so, I just started playing Civ 5 again... idk if it's the patch or if it's always been like this, but goddamn the AI is annoying.

even with domination victory turned off, they war incessantly.

I recently did an 8-civ game on continents... it was me (India), Russia, England, Mongolia, and Japan on one continent and Persia (I think), Germany, and China on the other.

by the renaissance era, China and Germany destroyed Persia while on the other continent, England/Russia/Japan all ganged up on Mongolia, after which Japan took out England and then engaged in 500 years of war with Russia before finally killing them in the industrial era.

both Russia/Japan declared war on me at various points, but purely defensive wars are pretty easy to win (wipe out invading army, counter-attack by invading one of their cities once all their units are destroyed, and then make peace, regifting the city back to them)... I'm sure I was next on Japan's hitlist, but Russia kept them occupied for most of the game, allowing me to complete my culture victory in quiet (and with almost every hex of my border with Japan occupied by a unit)

every single game has been playing out like that, with only 2-3 Civ's left by the modern era unless I play on an archipelago map.

edit: and once I started building the Utopia Project, of course, China (the only Civ who was friendly with me in the first place) immediately went from Friendly to Guarded.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

lol... you basically somehow got in a game with (almost) ALL war civs. Russia and England can go either way, but both tend to be very agressive. I have almost no experience with Persia though.

edit: and once I started building the Utopia Project, of course, China (the only Civ who was friendly with me in the first place) immediately went from Friendly to Guarded.

this is how it is supposed to go when you're about to win.

 

[M0RPH]

I've been playing Civ V lately. The game is very addictive. The diplomacy AI is this game really hasn't progressed much since older Civ games, though. It's nearly impossible to ally with the AI civs, they will turn on you in an instant without any good reason. You will frequently get ganged up on. A civ could be on the verge of being destroyed by another and I try to ally with them to help them and they will refuse.

Also made the mistake of using the continents map in one game. I ended up conquering all the civs on my continent, and another civ had conquered everyone on the other continent. It would have been a grand showdown, but getting your troops over to the other continent is just way too hard, a huge clickfest trying to cross each individual unit across the ocean. Finally I gave up and just quit the game, now I only play maps with a single large continent.

 

[PowerYoga]

Didn't really have a problem landing a big force on one city and then expanding out from there. In fact it was fun using the destroyers and navy to bombard their cities.

But all the civs tend to declare war on you sooner or later. Even India (peaceful???) declared war on me for no reason. When the civs declare war I just tend to destroy their whole empire because there's no way they'll give you a peaceful outcome anyways...

 

[nageov3t]

sometimes I wonder if maybe I just expect too much from the AI.

in my last game, for example... Japan invaded 3 of Russia's cities that happened to be on my border. when Japan declared war on me a few turns later, they were my obvious target since they were poorly defended. I conquered them and got a favorable peace settlement with Japan, but was then left with 3 cities I didn't need/want.

so I gifted them back to Russia, which you'd think would give me a huge diplomacy boost, but Russia never left "guarded" with me.

 

[sigurros81]

I played a game, 3 hours in, I was mostly a peaceful nation with minimal military units used mainly to defend against barbarians. Without warning, the French declared war on me and all of a sudden they have units in my borders. The annoying thing is that there was no indication that anyone wanted to wage war on me. I was peaceful and traded my resources with everyone.

 

[Regs]

Even the map editor is shite.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I haven't played Civilization IV and other older versions. I have just played Civilization V. It's good game for people that did not play any older versions I think. Because for them it's something they haven't played a much better version of already that didn't bilk them with microtransactions.

Fixed.

 

[Lotheron]

I haven't played Civ5 since I bought it and played one game. I never got into it. Every time I see this thread I think that I should at least try another game since it's patched.

 

[StinkyPinky]

The retarded diplomacy ruins this game for me. Almost every time they refuse to my (very generous) peace terms despite me routing their entire army and capturing most of their cities. They basically just go into suicide mode and fight until the end.

 

[sigurros81]

I feel like the only way to win in this game is be a warmonger with massive units to defend yourself against the crazy AIs. No matter how peaceful and friendly you are, some random AI will wage war on you out of the ordinary.

 

[nageov3t]

I feel like the only way to win in this game is be a warmonger with massive units to defend yourself against the crazy AIs. No matter how peaceful and friendly you are, some random AI will wage war on you out of the ordinary.

being allies with 1-2 warrior city states is usually good enough for me, though.

they gift me units, I set them up in defensive positions, and upgrade them whenever possible.

 

[M0RPH]

The retarded diplomacy ruins this game for me. Almost every time they refuse to my (very generous) peace terms despite me routing their entire army and capturing most of their cities. They basically just go into suicide mode and fight until the end.

In my experience, Civ V at least, certain civs will go down fighting and never try saving themselves with a peace offer. Arabs are one, and I figured the devs did that on purpose, since they are fanatics that would rather go down as martyrs than surrender. Another was the Japanese.

Other civs, when they are being routed, will try to save themselves by making a peace offering and giving you pretty much everything they have, including most of their cities. They will keep just one city usually, and I usually take the offer since it's easier than having to take them all by force. You can always go back and finish off their remaining city after the peace treaty expires.

I feel like the only way to win in this game is be a warmonger with massive units to defend yourself against the crazy AIs. No matter how peaceful and friendly you are, some random AI will wage war on you out of the ordinary.

This is pretty much it. I've tried the peaceful route. I've tried being a nice guy. You will pretty much get f*cked in the end every time. One time me and Spain were routing everyone else. I thought we were great friends and figured we would just share the continent in peace, at least for a while. Out of nowhere the bitch turns on me, invades me and starts nuking my cities. I thought I had such a great civ in that game, but I let my guard down and was just focusing on building non-military things. Big mistake.

 

[Pandora's Box]

everytime i try to play a multiplayer game with a couple friends the game will go to a loading screen randomly and half the time when it comes back to the game the fog of war is messed up. like i could send a unit into the fog of war and the fog of war would not disapear. has happened when we have had a lan game and also has happeend when playing over the internet.

 

[minmaster]

i really wish they made the game not so dependent on city states. even if you turn off city states, so many game mechanics are related to it (civics, civ traits, etc) that you feel like it shouldn't be turned off. but they're so damn annoying that i can't stand them.

how are you all able to handle city states and their annoying messages every freakin turn?

 

[Pandora's Box]

i really wish they made the game not so dependent on city states. even if you turn off city states, so many game mechanics are related to it (civics, civ traits, etc) that you feel like it shouldn't be turned off. but they're so damn annoying that i can't stand them.

how are you all able to handle city states and their annoying messages every freakin turn?

i turn them off. its soo annoying to have to deal with them every turn.

 

[M0RPH]

i really wish they made the game not so dependent on city states. even if you turn off city states, so many game mechanics are related to it (civics, civ traits, etc) that you feel like it shouldn't be turned off. but they're so damn annoying that i can't stand them.

how are you all able to handle city states and their annoying messages every freakin turn?

I agree that all their messages are annoying, but I put up with it just because like you said they are an integral part of the game. But I always use the advanced settings to turn down the number of city states, that way there's still some there but not as many.