Pax East 2012: Civ V: Gods & Kings Changes the Game

[Blade_125]

From when I first got Civ iV, and the for the following 5 years, there was never a time that I did not have a game on the go. It was such a highly addictive game.

I got Civ V shortly after it came out. There were a lot of interesting things that I liked about the game, but in the end, I lost interest. It did not have that addictive quality. I still play it on occation, but usually when I want something to occupy me while there are commercials on when watching sports.

That said, this sounds like a very good improvement for the game, adn I will likely get it. I hope it lives up to the reviews.

 

[Havegun]

Looks awesome!

Is that last picture Haile Selassie?

Sure looks like it, coupled with Addis Ababa clearly flying the Lion of Judah. Yay Ethiopia!
Austria's a little meh, on the other hand.

And it looks like the CN Tower is wonder.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

So does this expansion pack mean that the game won't be as shit anymore?

I didn't much care for the game myself either. To me it was like one of those amphibious prehistoric fish, a bastard child of evolutionary theory that was neither at home in the water or on land. Caught, cooked and served up in yesterday's newspaper with a nice serve of chips and a lemon wedge.

Not to say that a lot of people did like the game, I just felt that it wasn't quite there yet and as such it didn't capture my attention like previous Civilisation titles.

Captcha : partly to blame

It sees right into the depths of my soul! I am partly to blame, come back to me Civilisation like you once were before the tattoos and the short-cropped haircut and I'll treat you right this time! You know they don't love you like I do! None of them can!

I've changed! Please, baby, come back to me!

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Expansion packs like this will mean that I am more than likely to end up purchasing the original Civ V (+ EPs). The more key concerns of mine they address (e.g. lack of religion was one of the biggies), the more I'm inclined.

 

[MBaskerville]

Can't wait for spies that's one thing I missed on release. Religion I'd rather not have in game to be honest but I'll probably just set it to free religion or whatever.

 

[Quesa]

And yes, Shirk said the AI also got an overhaul along with a streamlining of the code so there will be less slowdown in the late game. Whether that promise follows through is yet to be seen.

Yeah, I realize you haven't gotten to see any evidence of anything on that front, just wailing at the moon. I've been seeing all this 'The nuanced AI will offer you fine tea and crumpets for weather forecasts' stuff with no mention of 'Now the AI will recognize that a rank 10 archer in an inaccessible location renders that front completely closed and won't throw its entire armed forces into the jaws of death for no gain. At Deity.' I love Firaxis but fixing the major flaws in the AI shouldn't require an expansion.

I never used to warmonger, I'd always try to tech and culture with just enough military not to get the global war declaration until I could get off planet, but in Civ V it's hard to overlook that as long as I get one or two archers maxed promotions (or, I don't know, just play England or China) I can still win the game if every nation declares war simultaneously.

I guess it's silly to whine about naval city conquest, getting a couple of ships of the line or destroyers to completely flatten three cities simultaneously and then waiting 20 turns to get land units there to take the cities might be a little unrealistic.. but actually having to protect the transports without stacked escorts actually made it less viable. Now there's little incentive to ever send a land unit into a water tile in the late game, especially once you have airports.

 

[The Reverend]

Has there been a release date given? Or just a vague "summer" one?

 

[RandV80]

Yeah it's about time they got us a real expansion pack, all the little DLC things don't really add anything to the game.

And if they're going to make it so a group of warriors can't take a walled city without a catapult, they better improve the tactical AI or it will hardly be an improvement at all since that was about the only way they could capture your cities. I get the impression with the Civ V AI that they did a lot of work at the design level then built according to spec, but did very little practical testing and implementation. AI of course is real tricky to do, but sometimes the best method of design is 'watch how the humans do it and code the AI to mimic that'. They didn't seem to do this in Civ V.

 

[The Reverend]

Yeah it's about time they got us a real expansion pack, all the little DLC things don't really add anything to the game.

And if they're going to make it so a group of warriors can't take a walled city without a catapult, they better improve the tactical AI or it will hardly be an improvement at all since that was about the only way they could capture your cities. I get the impression with the Civ V AI that they did a lot of work at the design level then built according to spec, but did very little practical testing and implementation. AI of course is real tricky to do, but sometimes the best method of design is 'watch how the humans do it and code the AI to mimic that'. They didn't seem to do this in Civ V.

I dunno, if the AI decided to build 20 stealth bombers I'd get worried. The AI themselves cant ever counter that I've found.

 

[Gentleman Adventurer]

Looks awesome!

Is that last picture Haile Selassie?

Sure looks like it, coupled with Addis Ababa clearly flying the Lion of Judah. Yay Ethiopia!
Austria's a little meh, on the other hand.

And it looks like the CN Tower is wonder.

I read somewhere that they were adding nine new civs. So we have Ethiopia, Austria-Hungary, the Celts, the Huns, and Carthage (I think). So that leaves four unknown.

Also, I dig the new World War One era units.

 

[guitarsniper]

Pretty excited for this. Prepared to have waaaaaaay more of my time sucked away.

 

[Elyxard]

Can't wait for it. I liked Civ V, but losing all of those smaller details in the switch over kinda hurt the addictive qualities of the game. I especially missed the interesting ways you could use religion as a tool of diplomacy, added a fun way to win games without involving combat. That's probably the problem with vanilla Civ V, not enough to do in a non-combat oriented playthrough. This will fix that I hope.

 

[isometry]

Remake Alpha Centauri

Check out the planetfall mod for Civ 4 [http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252829]. It's an enhancement + remake of SMAC, and uses all the sounds and voices from the original, as well as custom unit graphics and terrain.

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

Oh this makes me happy, deep deep down in the little boy part of my psyche that longs for nothing but complete and utter dominion over all known creation, because it has the utter gall to be taller than he his.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Remake Alpha Centauri

A - f*cking - men.

you could not be righter

 

[Tsaba]

I should probably express my excitement for one of my favorite games ever..... I shall do so.

Spoiler

 

[Saviordd1]

I am sooooo into this expansion already.

But can they fix the no stacking thing? Please?

 

[Faerillis]

When Civilization V hit, I think I managed to chalk up eighty hours of game time, which bled away without much notice.

This expansion seems very interesting, and I'll have to keep a keen eye trained on it's progress.

In reality, if there are enough new civilizations I'll probably get straight back into it - trying to role play as the leader of each was half the appeal to me.

It would amuse me, especially with the addition of religion and it appearing to be more fleshed out, if Firaxis introduced Hitler as a leader. Although I imagine someone will provide a mod for him with appropriate 'perks' and such.

Fairly certain that mod already exists, anne frankly I don't see them ever adding Hitler to Civ5 (especially since 1 Civ, 1 Leader) or any further titles, because it would be controversial as hell.

Sounds awesome.

Civ V changed a LOT, but there was quite a bit that was pretty weak. Mainly the diplomacy system. Hopefully this expansion gives it an overhaul so it can be more than an IM system Civs use to say they denounce you.

They've addressed diplomacy in quite a few articles and videos and the future is bright my friend. Diplomatic Debuffs like 'You Settled Near Us' now fade through the game, and believing you're trying to win the same way they are is completely removed. Early game (Ancient-Renaissance) Religion plays a massive role in Diplomacy, but loses importance over time, at which point the choice between Order, Autocracy, and Freedom become critical diplomatic elements. Moreover spies can play a big role in diplomacy, both in City-State, and Civ-to-Civ relations.