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[Dommel]

Just bought the game in Belgium, Europe. Out two days early, rushed home to install it and get the message that the game cannot be unlocked until Friday (official release date).

You have got to be kidding me, do I really have to wait until friday to be able to play Civ 5 now? Is there no way around it?

 

[MrCompletely]

there's so much improved over Civ4, but it's also lacking a bit of the charm Civ4 brought with religion... I have mixed feelings about the omission of religion, i feel like it was tedious to manage at times, but it added such personality to the civs. I have to play more to figure it out.

Cities can attack.... what an awesome game changer. I can fend off barbarian invasions just long enough to pull in an exploring unit. Early game is much more enjoyable.

City States offer more opportunities than they might seem. Was close to Warsaw, and they were sitting on a gold deposit, my citizens demanded gold, Warsaw asked me to build a road to my capital... bam, We Love the King Day and Warsaw is an ally. Maintaining those relationships is tougher than I thought, your influence with city states decreases pretty rapidly.

 

[Hari Seldon]

City States offer more opportunities than they might seem. Was close to Warsaw, and they were sitting on a gold deposit, my citizens demanded gold, Warsaw asked me to build a road to my capital... bam, We Love the King Day and Warsaw is an ally. Maintaining those relationships is tougher than I thought, your influence with city states decreases pretty rapidly.

So if you build a road to a city state do you automatically establish a trade route and have their stuff join your resources? Or do you have to get a mission?

 

[SolsticeZero]

I'm.... I'm weak..... I just tapped into my food fund and bought this game.... Looks like I'm eating Ramen for the next few weeks!

 

[Lach]

Just bought the game in Belgium, Europe. Out two days early, rushed home to install it and get the message that the game cannot be unlocked until Friday (official release date).

You have got to be kidding me, do I really have to wait until friday to be able to play Civ 5 now? Is there no way around it?

That sucks I know (I'm waiting too). The store should have told you that the game only unlooks on Friday. I guess it's a tool the publisher uses to prevent (or at least disencourage) the retailers selling the games too early.

 

[AstroLad]

One thing I thought they would pay a bit more attention to was the tutorial. I barely remember Civ IV's but I think it was at least as good, if not better. I'd love for them to some day do a full-blown hour-long interactive tutorial that really gets you at least past the most basic stuff. Gives you info akin to what that guy at CivFanatics did with his great walkthrough of Civ IV.

Didn't they hire a lot of community people to work on this game? Sometimes I think companies should give props to the walkthrough/tutorial/guided tour people because they do some amazing stuff that could be a huge help to new players if integrated into the game and given the proper resources.

All that said is largely immaterial to me since I've been playing a bunch of IV and I already knew a lot of the mechanics just from following the media. Easily could have played this 48 hours straight.

 

[ghst]

 

[kyo_daikun]

Just bought the game in Belgium, Europe. Out two days early, rushed home to install it and get the message that the game cannot be unlocked until Friday (official release date).

You have got to be kidding me, do I really have to wait until friday to be able to play Civ 5 now? Is there no way around it?

Its a big slap in the face for PC gamers, why isn't a similar lock out introduced for console games?

Bloody embarassing...

 

[Hari Seldon]

:lol :lol :lol

 

[ZZMitch]

Thanks for the laugh indeed.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Its a big slap in the face for PC gamers, why isn't a similar lock out introduced for console games?

Bloody embarassing...

I'm guessing it has something to do with the retailers insisting on releasing the same day that the DD retailers unlock.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

I am not sure how to handle the Great People. With the Great Scientist I can discover a tech and start a golden age. In Civ IV you could build a science academy or add him to the city as a super specialist. But I can't find the options to do either of those things.

Similarly, with the Great Engineer you can hurry production or start a golden age... but when I hurried the production of a wonder once, with my next Great Engineer it wouldn't let me hurry a different wonder. I don't know what is going on.

With the Great Artist you can culture bomb or start a golden age... seems pretty limited use.

It seems like the Great People are severely nerfed this game unless I haven't figured something out yet.

Pretty sure you can also use them to construct things (Engineer - Manufactory, Merchant - Customs House, Scientist - Academy). From the manual:

Special Improvement
Each Great Person type can be expended to create a Special Improvement on a tile within your civilization’s borders. The Special Improvement’s effects depend upon which Great Person is creating it – a Great Artist’s Special Improvement generates culture, for example, while a Great Merchant’s generates cash.

A Special Improvement must be worked in order to have any effect. A Special Improvement can be pillaged and repaired like any other Improvement. If constructed atop a resource, the Special Improvement will not provide access to that resource.

Note that you have to move the Great Person out of the city and into your territory to construct a Special Improvement. See “Moving Great People” on page 102 for details.

 

[SolsticeZero]

I mean.... I... I've got nothing.... :lol :lol :lol

 

[archnemesis]

Got my European collector's edition a few days early, but apparently I'm not allowed to install it yet.

Edit: Now I feel a bit better. Only 1 day and 9 hours to go.

 

[Akia]

Man all the 1 star reviews on amazon are great.

"Civ 5 got steamrolled man, I'M RETURNING MY COPY."

haha, yeah right

 

[MrCompletely]

So if you build a road to a city state do you automatically establish a trade route and have their stuff join your resources? Or do you have to get a mission?

I think you establish a trade route and gain some gold each turn independent of your influence, but you don't get their resource unless you're allied, which is a difficult status to maintain. The game warns you when you're "losing your grasp" with the city state, and you have to either gift some gold or gift a unit to boost your influence. Of course, you could also conquer the city state if it's an important strategic resource. Then if you conquer, you can choose to burn the place to ground, annex it (which has a penalty to happiness, but allows you to control production), or create a 'puppet government' in which it acts like a normal city, but you don't control production.

So yeah, a lot of choices depending on your goals, and city states can be pretty important.

edit:
I was wrong about being able to raze a city state, they remain in the game for the duration as to keep the diplomatic victory balanced, city states get a UN vote.

 

[kyo_daikun]

I'm guessing it has something to do with the retailers insisting on releasing the same day that the DD retailers unlock.

Most retailers post their games early anyway (as a few people in this thread prove)

Anyone not desperate enough to preorder won't care about getting it early or just walking into the store and buying it, I do understand it all but its a major turn off to have a game in your hand that you have paid for and can't even play.

 

[52club]

Looking forward to patch 1.1 after multiple crashes yesterday.

 

[Sober]

Just played the demo twice now, gonna give it a few more spins with different leaders and approaches to victory (in 100 turns? I wish).

I'll probably pick it up tomorrow or something now. FUCK, my life is RUINED, again. :lol

At least it uses steamworks, so I can communicate with the outside world with the ingame browser.

 

[Dommel]

There's a way around it, use a trail (or one day US VPN for €1) and you can unlock the game through steam (set it to an US region).

You have to play in offline mode though on Steam until it unlocks Friday.

 

[Erasus]

Downloading the demo now. Only tried Civ IV a bit even though I am an avid PC gamer...

Wish me luck GAF.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Saw this bit posted elsewhere:

I know a lot has been made of the aggressive AI. But I think I found a way to tone it down: build a couple units and put them near the border with another civ. If they were thinking about turning on you, they'll rethink it now for sure. I've tested this twice, and the first time I just did it because I was going to roll Ghandi anyhow, but the 2nd time Alexander was getting ready to push my shit in, and I tried to build up a force to deter him. In both instances, they immediately re-upped open borders and set up other agreements. But the weird part is that my force was downright paltry compared to the technology they had at the time. Maybe it was a fluke, but... brinkmanship? In my civ?

 

[Kintaro]

Seriously. How is this game legal? It can't be legal to sell this. It's digital CRACK. Worse than the best MMOs. I started and I literally thought I had only played for a hour or two and it was the fucking MORNING.

 

[Chairhome]

Damn this thread. I was planning on holding off for a price drop since I have a few things I'm looking to buy in the next month or two (DR2, Castlevania, RB3, etc), but between this thread and the impressions on the Giant Bombcast, I'm leaning towards picking it up today, haha. I'd do the Kmart deal but its kinda far from where I live, so that coupon would go to waste unless I want to pick up KH BBS there, too (is the coupon useable right away?).

Anyway, I did sink some time into Civ IV. do I need to check out the tutorial, or should I just jump into a game when I get it?

 

[Totakeke]

I'm not finding city states as interesting as I thought they would be so far. It seems like a very binary or random gameplay mechanic. You can either go to befriend them or not with nothing in between, or you can wait for random quests to pop up, which isn't a fun gameplay element at all. And all you need to look at a number to determine your relationship and when to connect roads to them. I sure don't see how they justified taking random events away and then introducing random quests.

However the territorial aspect introduced by city states could be quite interesting, maybe Civ V is meant to be a more interesting and primarily a war game than its predecessors. That doesn't explain why multiplayer wasn't finished at launch though.

I know a lot has been made of the aggressive AI. But I think I found a way to tone it down: build a couple units and put them near the border with another civ. If they were thinking about turning on you, they'll rethink it now for sure. I've tested this twice, and the first time I just did it because I was going to roll Ghandi anyhow, but the 2nd time Alexander was getting ready to push my shit in, and I tried to build up a force to deter him. In both instances, they immediately re-upped open borders and set up other agreements. But the weird part is that my force was downright paltry compared to the technology they had at the time. Maybe it was a fluke, but... brinkmanship? In my civ?

I think I experienced this. Germany was taunting and being hostile to me, but then he gave in to my demands for gold, which could be because I had units near his capital that was just passing by.

Another thing is that the AI in this game doesn't mind settling far from their capital too. I had Germany going like ten spaces over to just put a city beside my capital to grab some resources, and other people have reported the same thing. Could be due to a low-medium difficulty AI.

Maybe the easier difficulties just has AI that is unpredictably dumb due to their AI implementation.

 

[Zzoram]

Seriously. How is this game legal? It can't be legal to sell this. It's digital CRACK. Worse than the best MMOs. I started and I literally thought I had only played for a hour or two and it was the fucking MORNING.

Civilization has always been like this. It's awesome :lol

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

[IMG ]http://i52.tinypic.com/vjiw7.jpg[/IMG]

/furiously clicks ACCEPT

 

[Sober]

I really hate how the only opportunity to rename a unit is during a promotion, unless there is some other way I haven't discovered.

I mean, I'm all for only naming units that get a promotion, but what about when I get to build warships but they come out without free xp? Sometimes I feel obsessive enough to want to name them all differently at the start!

Also, someone on CF already modded out 1UPT. :lol

 

[kyo_daikun]

Damn this thread. I was planning on holding off for a price drop since I have a few things I'm looking to buy in the next month or two (DR2, Castlevania, RB3, etc), but between this thread and the impressions on the Giant Bombcast, I'm leaning towards picking it up today, haha. I'd do the Kmart deal but its kinda far from where I live, so that coupon would go to waste unless I want to pick up KH BBS there, too (is the coupon useable right away?).

Trying to resist as well, just got an email from amazon saying my Dead rising is on its way to me... (played 30 minutes of kingdom hearts and stopped due to playing phantasy star portable 2)

 

[MrCompletely]

I'm not finding city states as interesting as I thought they would be so far. It seems like a very binary or random gameplay mechanic. You can either go to befriend them or not with nothing in between, or you can wait for random quests to pop up, which isn't a fun gameplay element at all. And all you need to look at a number to determine your relationship and when to connect roads to them. I sure don't see how they justified taking random events away and then introducing random quests.

I dont think they are as binary as you say, there's at least 4 levels of influence with a city state, angy, neutral, friendly, allied, and they all bring different penalties or benefits. Plus, as I was posting about earlier, there's strategic importance based on any resources in their territory. Maintaining a friendly or allied state can be challenging (based on my limited experience) There's also multiple categories of city states, such as militaristic, cultural, etc - I was gaining 4 culture on my capital through a city state. They can be a source of income through trading. It's also great having interactive entities or 'players' that are not striving to take over the world.

 

[Totakeke]

I dont think they are as binary as you say, there's at least 4 levels of influence with a city state, angy, neutral, friendly, allied, and they all bring different penalties or benefits. Plus, as I was posting about earlier, there's strategic importance based on any resources in their territory. Maintaining a friendly or allied state can be challenging (based on my limited experience) There's also multiple categories of city states, such as militaristic, cultural, etc - I was gaining 4 culture on my capital through a city state. They can be a source of income through trading. It's also great having interactive entities or 'players' that are not striving to take over the world.

They're still binary. It's obvious what benefits you will get and there's no ambiguity and no flexibility as to what you need to do to achieve a better standing with them. Well maybe it'll be more interesting when two or more civilizations all strive to influence a single city state.

 

[Zerokku]

Tried out the demo and I'm surprised, I'm really not feeling this title.

 

[pix]

Zerokku
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
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Reply | Quote

 

[owlbeak]

I'm.... I'm weak..... I just tapped into my food fund and bought this game.... Looks like I'm eating Ramen for the next few weeks!

:lol I looked into my food fund as well and only have $20 I could spare. !!

Might have to wait a few weeks to be able to buy this. *tear*

 

[Archie]

I sold my DS to fund this game. Best decision I've made in awhile. :3

I finished my first game on Warlord about an hour ago with a Napoleonic conquest victory. I'm thinking about giving Prince a whirl. How much harder is that difficulty?

 

[Seth C]

Tried out the demo and I'm surprised, I'm really not feeling this title.

Based on the demo, I'm with you. I really think limiting it to 100 turns is crippling it just a bit too much. Perhaps a 90 or 120 time limit would have been a bit better? As it is, I think the demo forces you to quit just before the fun starts, when the aim should be to stop you just after the fun starts.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

I sold my DS to fund this game. Best decision I've made in awhile. :3

3DS is coming soon enough as it is. You're just planning ahead!

 

[alanias]

Based on the demo, I'm with you. I really think limiting it to 100 turns is crippling it just a bit too much. Perhaps a 90 or 120 time limit would have been a bit better? As it is, I think the demo forces you to quit just before the fun starts, when the aim should be to stop you just after the fun starts.

Give it another whirl or two. I didn't feel it until I had restarted for the third time... it just took a while to click since it's so drastically different from the other Civ games.

 

[Totakeke]

Based on the demo, I'm with you. I really think limiting it to 100 turns is crippling it just a bit too much. Perhaps a 90 or 120 time limit would have been a bit better? As it is, I think the demo forces you to quit just before the fun starts, when the aim should be to stop you just after the fun starts.

It's also because that everything is considerably slowed down from civ4. It kinda feels like I'm playing what's supposed to be a marathon speed game in civ4 terms. The start of civ4 feels considerably more hectic. Improvements, buildings, units take so long to build, but then there's always instant rush buy using gold in civ5.

 

[megalowho]

Man that typeface is intoxicating. Anyone know if Firaxis has ever mentioned what font they used for Civ V's interface? Not sure if it's something readily available or if they created it specifically for the game.

 

[Seth C]

Give it another whirl or two. I didn't feel it until I had restarted for the third time... it just took a while to click since it's so drastically different from the other Civ games.

I played through 4 times last night. I have given it several whirls. Even in my last pay through, I felt like I was almost about to get to the fun stuff. The demo really shouldn't end until you get a taste of it...if they want to hook people.

And yes, as a poster above mentioned...this has a lot to do with the early game pacing being much closer, in many ways, than that of Civilization 4. Which is perfectly fun, but doesn't play well for the demo as it stands. 120 turns might be perfect.

 

[Sblargh]

One more day (and 8 fucking hours)... I... can't do it anymore, I'll break.
Btw, Mods by those über-modders at civfanatics already being announced over there.

Maybe after a month or so, when the mod community really kicks it, a thread for the mods would be a good idea?

 

[epmode]

It's also because that everything is considerably slowed down from civ4.

I see this as a positive, honestly. I always felt that everything was moving too quickly in a standard Civ 4 game.

 

[Dalauz]

I cant fucking wait for the boxed version here in Argentina. Steam version is damn expensive

 

[Totakeke]

I see this as a positive, honestly. I always felt that everything was moving too quickly in a standard Civ 4 game.

But you're still advancing through the ages at around the same rate as before, just that the things you can build in the same time has been reduced significantly. So if you feel that the tech pace was too fast in civ4 before things get obsolete, I think it's still the same in civ5... or even worse.

Not saying it's bad, and I can't tell with just the demo, but it's definitely not quite the same.

 

[Enosh]

tried the demo

meh

will stick to Total War, Civ isn't for me

 

[Animator]

Do you guys know if I can rename cities I captured or just created with a settler? I dont want "Memphis" in my BC egyptian empire.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

oops

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I'm extremely impressed and satisfied with this game. The first time I booted up the game it automatically had everything set to max settings, and the game is smooooth. It's crazy just how polished the game is.

Coming from Civilization IV, everything is very familiar, but different at the same time. I'm really digging how combat works. It's actually fun to get in wars now! The one thing I miss is how units don't talk when you click on them or give them orders anymore. It was cool how units of all of the different civilizations would speak in their own language in Civ IV and added a lot of personality in my opinion. I also find the 2D art to be kind of... well shitty. It's almost comic book-style and feels really out of place. Especially the ridiculous designs for Nobunaga and the Japanese units.

 

[epmode]

Do you guys know if I can rename cities I captured or just created with a settler? I dont want "Memphis" in my BC egyptian empire.

Why not? I like that name!