Civilization V Announced

[TheUndeadKing]

Yep, it's official folks, and it's coming out this fall, apparently. The official website is up too, with some cool (if a bit familiar) High-Res screenshots.






Official Website:
http://www.civilization5.com/

[ThunderTitan]

Looks good.

[Kalah]

Ooh ...

[Banedon]

Very nice. I've never played the Civilization series at all (barring one terrible try with Colonization), so this might be a good place to start ... unless Diablo 3 / Starcraft 2 / Guild Wars 2 / Heroes of Newerth etc grab my attention first.

[Ethric]

But is it just same old same old, with better graphics and fewer features? If so we don't really need it.

Allright, "Unprecedented modding tools" might make it worthwhile anyway. If it's true. And it's not marred by inane DRM's etc.

[ThunderTitan]

Never did manage to get into Civ... always some other game luring me away before i could actually learn how to play... it kinda stings because my brother did learn it, and if he could it should be easy for me dammit...

But is it just same old same old, with better graphics and fewer features? If so we don't really need it.

Except the fewer features what's wrong with it?

[Kalah]

Civ4 is one of the best MP games I've played, but it was ruined by the fact that it eventually became unplayable over the Internet. Hotseat was fun.

[Metathron]

I played CivII a whole lot back in the day, and loved it to bits. I skipped III and IV never really grabbed me, so I'm indifferent towards this.

[TheUndeadKing]

I'd rank all Civ games as:

1. Civ II
2. Civ IV
3. Civ I
4. Civ III

[Lord13]

I loved Civ II, was a classic! Even now, after so many years
I have it installed and play a map every now and then. The
other parts never grabbed me, after few hours made me bored,
couldn't catch the feeling and gameplay of Civ II. But at computer
gaming a new part of Civ series is always an interesting new, can't
wait to try it, maybe can make the difference.

[Metathron]

Good post Lord13, I agree wholeheartedly.

I have especially fond memories of playing the custom "world" map, playing as either the Sioux, Americans or Aztecs and handpicking my opponents so that no one else would get one of these three races, enabling me to have the Americas all to myself while the other races squabbled over the huge mass that is Europe-Asia-Africa.

[Midas]

I remember Civ III, it showed just how long a Whole Civ game gets, by only letting you "play a Single game", no Campaigns, nuthin... well not until the expansions any ways...

[Zamolxis]

Civ is my all time favorite next to Heroes. Thanks TUK for the link. Some of the new features announce are very cool. I can say I've been waiting for them for quite a while (e.g.: archers shooting from 1 tile away), though somehow the previous games were so good, that it never really bothered me they weren't perfect. :p

Here's for everyone some extracts from computer magazines posted about the game on its forum:

Computer Bild Spile

- One new leader is known, "Wu Zeitan" probably for China
- All leaders played by AI shall orientate on their historical examples, eg Elisabeth II tries to rule the sea
- Wonders of the world will be in Civ V as well, eg hanging gardens which make your people happy (so obviously there will be a happiness system)
- Just one unit per hex! (the magazine makes no distinction between military and non military units)
- It is very important to use combined armies.
- Terrain becomes more important: hills increase sight for normal units and strength for artillery units
- Main goal is to make fights more interesting and to keep them away from the cities. Frontlines will be the new kind of fighting. If you breach a frontline you can go for the cities
- Old military units will be converted into new ones, depending on your technology. The article implies that this could happen automatically, however: it may very well be, that the article is just written poorly.
- No religion. Lead Designer John Shafer thinks that religion in Civ led to a situation where civs where diplomatically divided by religion. He wants to have alliances having a bigger influence than religions.
- Cities can grow bigger and have influence on 3 hexes instead of 2 tiles in any direction
- Culture is responsible for the growth of your boundaries. The "fat cross" of a city remains the same if you capture it. So no need for a new culture expansion when you conquer a city
- Allied Civs help you with your science, even if they research another tech
- Having a one city Civ as your ally shall provide more benefits than to conquer it
- Diplomacy shall give you more benefits, than just to conquer
- There will be no tech trading at all! Reason for this is to prevent backward civs to become militarily very strong over night (or over one turn )
- There could be a new trait, probably "traditional" Wrong info: "traditional" is not a new trait, it is one of the branches you can choose in the social policies
- A whole new concept: "social policies". this comes directly from John Shafer:
You can "plan" your Civ now. Similar to the tech tree (i guess) there will be a "Civilization tree". You can choose which part you want to go and get several bonusses by this. You can either go deep into one branch of the tree or you follow several branches.


Swedish PC Gamer

About Civ 5:

About 50 persons are currently working on the game, which has been in development for over two years, but is now reaching the final phases.

About Sid Meier:

PC Gamer talks a little with Sid Meier. He said: "It is always a challenge trying to find new ways to improve Civilization and at the same time keeping what made the game addictive and fun in the first place. It has always been our philosophy to listen to the players and follow what happens in the modding community and then merge them with our own ideas and even if we are working on console- and Facebook-versions of the Civilization-franchise so has always Civilization 5 been a return to the heart and soul of the franchise."

Hexagons:

The game has a new engine composed of a hexagons. Jon Shafer thinks this change is good, since it gives you lesser options of movement but each option is therefore more important. It also means that for example mountains and forests can have a more natural pattern.

Graphics:

The graphics will have a completely new style- Art-deco, inspired by games like Grim Fandango. It is designed by Russel Vaccaro. The environments, like forests and oceans, will be a lot more animated than in Civ 4.

Sound:

The game will have an advanced sound-engine, which will change sounds depending on if you are in the hills, the forests or on the ocean. It will also have a large soundtrack.

Panzer General:

The new hexagonal change is specifically useful in the new, improved combat system. Now you may only have a maximum of one unit in a hexagon. This includes the cities. Shafer says that Panzer General was the main inspiration for this change into a more tactical battlefield. The new system forces your units out of the cities and out into the terrain, forming natural frontlines and taking advantage of good defensive positions.

Bombardment:

Some units may attack other units more than one hex away, for example archers.

Terrain:

Hills give defensive advantages. Your units can see and shoot farther there.

Leaders:

You will now see leaders in full view. They alsp talk in their native language. Firaxis has resurrected the extinct language of quechua (used by Inca). However, all leaders will have their lines subtitled in English.

City states:

These are small, AI-controlled civilizations. They never grow big and doesn´t desire to win. The player must choose if he is to be friendly, indifferent or hostile towards a city state. The attitude you has towards a particular city state will have a big effect on diplomacy. If for example your units is approaching a city state that have friendly relations with another civilization, he will warn you, and if you ignore them, there will be consequences.

Barbarians:

The barbarians originate from a barbarian city and will get more advanced units later in the game. You need to wipe out all barbarian cities to get rid of the barbarian hordes.

City expansion:

Borders does no longer expand in large areas, but one hex at a time. Remote hexes like marshes, forests and mountains will be harder to acquire.

Economy:

You can invest money in your neighboring hexagons, for example trying to acquire an important resource before your opponent.

Research:

You can also sign a research-deal with another civilization. This way, both civs will cooperate to reach the new technology and both will gain it when the discovery is made. This was included to encourage cooperation between civilizations.

Diplomacy:

The civilizations will have an all-new advanced AI. All opponents will have fixed characteristics. Based on this unique personality, every AI-player will have their own agenda, which the AI will use to plan how to best play to win the game. But there will also be a certain randomness to avoid having the AI be too easy to predict.

Conclusions:

PC Gamer was impressed with what they saw. They think the new graphics was a real facelift for the franchise, and the interface is greatly improved. They also thought the soundtrack was brilliant. They conclude:

"Judging from the gameplay-sequences we saw, Civilization 5 will make no fan of the franchise disappointed."


GamePro

Leaders/Civs
- (Germany) German leader: Otto von Bismark
- (China) China leader: Wu Zeitein/Zetein (two spellings in the article; SHOULD be Wu Zetian) (Mao and other previous Chinese leaders are out)
- (America) American leader: Washington (Lincoln and FDR are out)
- (Japan) Japanese leader: Oba Nobunaga (Tokugawa is out)
- (Arabia) Arabian leader: Harun al-Rashid (Xerxes and Saladin are out)
- Other confirmed leaders mentioned in the article (Genghis Khan, Washington, Caesar, Napolean, Gandhi)

Looks like one leader per civ a la Civilization Revolution?

City-states
- City-states: Can provide gifts of gold, bonuses; only one city but borders can grow. Confirmed is Singapore.

Terrain
- Hills provide defensive and line-of-site advantages
- Attacks over rivers are affected
- Wounded units can hide in trees and recover

Units
- Basic military units move two tiles in combat instead of one.


PC Jeux

- Civ 5 is made for PC and, therefore, gameplay isn't lessened by any means.
- Some experience was gained from Revolution and it will enhance the accessibility and staging of the game.
- More clarity in the drawing of detroits, mountain passes and river tracks.
- An "African-type" continent doesn't have anything to do with a nordic-type or an asian type continent.
- Steep terrain will slow down your expansion.
- Elizabeth will favor maritime supremacy.
- Napoleon will build a BIG BIG -or a very huge- army.
- Bismarck will maximize the industrial output of his nation.
- Assimilation of a newly conquered city will make your "Overall Happiness" drop.
- The military unit upkeep is also tied to the "Overall Happiness" mechanism.
- No more "Spearmen defeated Tanks" since now an heavily damaged Tank will still be a hundred time more performing than an healthy Legion.[Off/HP]
- Limited next war at the end of the game.
- Religion, alongside with Ecology and Tyranny is a development model.
- Religion path => Polytheism - Monotheism - Theocracy
- Tyranny path => Despotism - Absolute Monarchy - Fascism
- Traditonal path
- Democratic path

[ThunderTitan]

- Civ 5 is made for PC and, therefore, gameplay isn't lessened by any means.

I'd like to see a game like Civ do well on a console... as if they could pay enough attention.