Civ V

[Saxif]

Hey Guys,

Due to business with work and the gf's family being down I am only just installing the game now!!  I intend to start putting some time into it tonight and will let you know how I do.  Has anyone else bought it?

Sax.

[Saxif]

Spent a few hours playing seems alright, maybe not as fluid as #4.  It also seems that pressing the end turn button twice only ends one turn which is wierd.  I am doing alright but building stuff seems slower because of the 2:1 ratio on ending turns.  I wanna play more, but dunno if it'll replace Civ IV!

Sax.

[Lasiien]

I have bought it but not had a chance to play yet. I think every iteration of Civ I've not immediately liked it and missed features etc from previous versions, so I'll try and give it a few playthroughs before making up my mind I think.

The general press reception has been good though. Generally they seem to say they've cut back on allot of features though (not necessarily 'dumbing down' but more removal of 'bloat' etc), the depth is apprently still there. Military units work very differently as well which is probably the biggest change and I'm keen to see if that works well or not.

[Saxif]

Yeah military units and the hexs are good, I always wanted it that way in previous incarnation.  The tech tree is smaller but they have made up for it with 8 civics with trees of variable size in each one.  Also City states help add a little complexity, attack or trade with them, when they are your friend you get some fairly hefty benfits.  Alot of the problems I have I think are down to lay out and not knowing my way round the various screens which make it feel clunkier than it is.  Unfortunately I feel crappy tonight so am in bed with a lemsip, so no Civ V today

Sax.

[Lasiien]

bleh colds sucketh

Am saving it pretty much for the weekend to start playing a game, looking forward to meeting Monty again

[Saxif]

If Civ Fanatics is to be believed it needs alot of patching, th 2K forums are less critical of the game.  As always the haters are more vocal that the lovers cos they are playing the game and not ranting on forums! 

Some patches are apparently already out.

Sax.

[Lasiien]

Civ IV also needed a ton of patches too though Think all games are released too early these days, even the consoles are starting to get much worse now they have the ability to patch over the internet etc.

[Saxif]

Yeah ... Lazy Devs ruining my game time!!

BURN EM, BURN EM ALL MOFO'S!!!!!!!!!1 <INCOHERENT RAGE STATEMENTS11111>

[Saxif]

Finished another session and still enjoying it so despite some flaws it has promise!

Some of the big differences apart from hexs and 1 military unit per tile and ranged combat are ...

• Global Happiness/Unhappiness - As happiness accrues you enter Golden Ages, so a small very happy empire will hit more GA than a big borderline one
• Global Culture - Culture unlocks social policies which I like alot and you need 5 full policy trees to build the Utopia project and win a Culture Victory

• Annex or Puppet states when you conquer - A annexed state adds more unhappiness than a puppet state but you have less/no control
• Great Generals act as a bonus to all units within 2 tiles (more general like)

• Roads cost gold to maintain but you don't need to link up resources
• Great People build stuff around cities now not inside them, don't know if they can be pillaged though, I built a manufactorium so one of the tiles around a city is highly productive

• We want a ...! - Cities and City States can issue declarations as to what they want, it is worth meeting their demands, nothing bad comes of not meeting them but good things happen if you do!
• City States - Befriending city states adds big bonuses but generally you need alot of gold to keep the friendship going

• You can buy extra tiles around cities rather than wait for border pops
• You can buy buildings rather than build them, this usually means you can't afford to bribe city states though ...

This is just a few of the more obvious things, there are lots of differences.  It does need some patching but I don't nit pick much so I haven't noticed anything game breaking.  Though I am frustrated I can't turn my anti aliasing on and the fact that when I hit end turn it sometimes takes me to units it forgot to remind me of so I have to deal with them and hit end turn again which slows it down ...

Sax.

[Lasiien]

Sounds good Sax, I should be trying it this w/e

[Saxif]

Come on Las, finished my first game now and I wanna compare notes your the only person I know with the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sax.

[xann]

Am gonna get this soon.

Also tried Civ4 again, but been having real problems with getting it going on windows 7 (64bit).

I hope Civ5 is more compatible.

[Lasiien]

Seems to run fine on my win7 Xan. Played a bit tonight (finally!) but still kinda getting to grips with the changes. It looks pretty at least

Like the way cities defend themselves, do you find a need to still garrison units? Totally lost in the tech tree also, I am almost automated in going for specific techs from Civ IV but doesn't seem they are so strong

Now, I have Alexander in my game...should I make friends or will he betray me? ...hmmmz (at least I haven't found Monty yet!!)

[Saxif]

Diplomacy seems to be the worst defined part of the game atm, I think you get negative diplo from saying that your not going to attack somoene and then going ahead and hitting then hard but there is no real indicator of diplomatic standing that I have seen.  I only played a Warlord game and I did station a few units on my border towns but I rolled the AI very easily so didn't get into any complex combat so at that level I would say no, just have a few roving defenders incase.

BTW, how do I check UAC is off on Vista?

Sax.

[Lasiien]

Yeah, I was looking for my status too like in Civ IV where you could see if you were positive or negative and why. Also I'm not sure about all this 'secret pact' business either !

You can view UAC status in control panel - system security - change user account control settings (top right)