The Civ V expansion nears - time to jump back in?

[Jim]

Would love to get in, but doubt I'll be able to find a consistent meeting time...sigh. I also need ot get the add-on, not sure how much that changes gameplay compared to basic Civ 5...in terms of learning curve.

We'd certainly love to have you! Tell you what... can you think of any times during a typical week that might work as a regular meet-up time? Even if it's just half an hour, that would be worth mentioning. Maybe our schedules won't match, but you never know.

Come to think of it, if you'd want to play some practice games at a time convenient to you, I'd love to play some one vs. one multi player games which have a much different feel than single player games. You could move up your learning curve without worry too much about anything.

[Mike Dunn]

I might have time this afternoon while watching NFL playoffs if anyone wants to try. I have little clue what I'm doing and no idea how to set up an MP game.

[John]

I might have time this afternoon while watching NFL playoffs if anyone wants to try. I have little clue what I'm doing and no idea how to set up an MP game.

Are there others who would like to meet for a Civ V game this afternoon?

[John]

Mike and I got in 50 turns this afternoon, and it was quite a lot of fun. I totally crushed him! Okay, that is a lie, but allow me to believe it... I need the ego boost.

I was telling Mike that a game with more players is actually a little easier because you can form alliances. In a small game, you're totally exposed and total war with your opponent is pretty much the only option. If you're intimidated by the idea of facing a larger group of competitors, don't sweat it. The game actually opens up when more people are playing.

I'm going to leave it to one of you to organize a new PEBACiv game. If the demand and organization is there, I would be happy to join you.

[Mike Dunn]

Thanks John for taking an hour or so to show me the ropes on CivV MP. Unfortunately I think its not for me. Its too fast paced, too much like an RTS. I wish the timer could be slowed down, or at least have a mutual pause. I faced one point where I had a settler in my only city, but for some reason I couldn't move him. Not sure what was up with that, and I ended up wasting entire turn durations just trying to get him to move. I was picking techs completely at random because there was so little time to choose. Same for civics and productions choices. I realize more experienced players don't need that time to decide or figure out basic movements, but I did, so I found it just, well, stressful.

Maybe if I devote myself to learning single player, I will come back to MP when I'm better at the game. But for now, its too frantic and overwhelming.

But again -- thanks for letting me get a taste of it!

[Jim]

Sorry I missed that game Mike! Just hadn't gotten on the forums.

I think there is a way to slow down the timer. I remember my first multi-player game, I was spending most of my turns just figuring out how to do things. The turn usually ended before I was finished. Sometime I'd be willing to play a snail-paced game where you could ask questions and take your time learning.

[Mike Dunn]

Thanks Jim, I shouldn't write it off after just one try (especially since the game was gifted to me). So I would be up for trying again with a slowed-down timer if possible.

Part of my problem honestly was that I'd had a beer before John and I played so that by the time we were near the hour mark I really had to go... and there's no way to pause . How do others who've played Civ V MP deal with a bathroom break?

[Jim]

The turn timer increases with each turn to accommodate the complexity as civilizations grow. I just wait for a turn where I don't need to make a lot of moves and then step away from the game. Once I learned how to play multi-player, there are usually many turns where I simply waiting for others and the computer to respond. It wasn't that way when I first started. Usually the timer was up before I was ready when I was learning.

[John]

I should note that the turn timer is optional. We have always used it, but if we all made a gentleman's agreement to keep play moving, perhaps we could do without.

I should also note that turn timers would not be used if we played a turn-based game via GMR. The flip side is that GMR Civilization V games would take much longer to complete.

[John]

Revisiting the Design of Civ 5

I almost put this in the crowdfunding thread because it's just as much a plug for Jon Shafer's At the Gates. But in this blog post, Shafer provides a very candid assessment of what went right and wrong with Cilivzation V, the game that he himself designed. It's a long post, but well worth your time, and it may even convince you to back At the Gates, which has already been plugged by Mike. Here's a taste of what Shafer has to say:

My original goal was for the AI leaders to act human. But humans are ambiguous, moody and sometimes just plain crazy. This can be interesting when you’re dealing with actual, real humans, but I learned the important lesson that when you’re simulating one with a computer there’s no way to make this fun. Any attempt to do so just turns into random, unproductive noise.

I came to realize that while diplomacy is a unique challenge, it’s ultimately still just a gameplay system just like any other. Regardless of whether your enjoyment is derived from roleplaying or simply a game’s core mechanics, if your opponents’ goals and behavior aren’t clear then you’ll have absolutely no idea what’s going on or what to do.

In Civ 5, you might have been lifelong allies with a leader, but once you enter the late-game he has no qualms backstabbing you in order to win. With this being the case, what’s the point of investing in relationships at all?

By no means should AI leaders be completely predictable. However, they do need a clear rhyme and reason behind their actions. The computer opponents in Civ 5 were completely enslaved to their gameplay situation, and as a result they appeared random and very little of their personalities shone through.

They were all crazy, and in the exact same way. In the months after the game was released I modified their behavior to be more predictable, but it was too late to completely change course. The biggest takeaway from this is that the only thing which matters in a game is the experience inside the player’s head. It doesn’t matter what your intentions are or what’s going on under the hood if the end result just isn’t fun.

[John]

Announcing Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World is the second expansion pack for Civilization V - the critically acclaimed 2010 PC Game of the Year. This new expansion provides enhanced depth and replayability through the introduction of international trade and a focus on culture and diplomacy. Your influence around the world will be impacted by creating Great Works, choosing an ideology for your people and proposing global resolutions in the World Congress. As you move through the ages of history you will make critical decisions that will impact your relationship with other civilizations.

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World also introduces nine new civilizations, eight new wonders, two new scenarios, four new gameplay systems and dozens of new units, buildings and improvements offering an expanded variety of ways to build the most powerful empire in the world.

Civilization V: Brave New World is due this summer. Accompanying this news is an interview with Firaxis lead programmer Ed Beach and senior producer Dennis Shirk, who talked with gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun about what to expect from this new expansion:

Firaxis Talk Us Through Civilization V’s Brave New World

Overall what we wanted the focus for this expansion to be was to look at that back half of the game from when you get into the twentieth century, and then you push on to one of the four different types of victories that are supported in Civilisation V, and we wanted to ramp up the tension and excitement level in that part of the game. So there are two things that we did: one was that we looked at the conflicts of the twentieth century. We already had a concept we just started to introduce in Civ V a little bit about different ideologies, where we had a freedom policy tree, an order policy tree, and an autocracy policy tree, and we wanted to bring that to the fore and really make civilisations make a commitment to one of those three different types of ideologies.

So when you reach the modern era you have to look around the world, see who’s going with which of the ideologies, who’s your friend, what type of victory you want to pursue, which ideologies might help you get there. You’ve got to make a key decision at that part of the game, are you going to be a freedom Civ, are you maybe going to take the workers of your country and try to unite them and get behind order and push towards victory that way? So there’s a big decision point there, big political and diplomatic blocks form around that, and that’s sort of where the tension towards the end of the game revolves.

...what we’ve basically done is before you just generated culture, you built lots of buildings, you filled up your tech trees. Now the culture yield itself is actually a defence for your civilisation, the amount of culture you’re pushing out. When you get to around a third of the way through the game, you’re going to start generating great people: great artists, great writers, great musicians, and they’re going to be able to create a great work of art or a great work of music in the game, and we actually have, in your cultural buildings now, we have slots for these, so one of your great artists might create ‘Starry Night’ and you put that in one of your museums.

That piece of work now is creating tourism, and it’s an actual yield, and you’re staring to build up tourism. Later on when archaeology comes online, you’re going to be running around on a second phase of exploration and discovery in the world when archaeology comes up because there’s now all these digs around the world that are actually reflections of stuff that happened earlier in the game where a battle might have taken place, where a barbarian camp was. You can extract artefacts from these sites and also put them in your museums.

Some of your wonders now have different great work spots, they create tourism. So you’re now creating tourism in parallel with creating culture, and that’s going to directly go head to head with other people’s culture, and you can get bonuses,. In other words if you have open borders with another civilisation, that creates a boost for your tourism. If you’ve got trade routes to that other civilisation, more boosts to your tourism. So it’s an ongoing battle that really becomes dynamic late in the game, because late in the game when you have a lot of tourism being pumped out, other civilisations might have to take notice and start creating more culture to defend against it, because their culture’s now being overwhelmed by your pushing tourism, it’s a dynamic way to play that game.

There are certainly some interesting ideas being touted here. The early game trade routes, which rely on units that can be attacked by barbarians and other civilizations, sounds like it could be fun. Before, this trade was automatic in the form of gold provided to cities built on coastlines; now, you must set up these trade routes yourself.

I'm particularly keen on the new "archeology" system that tracks the location of discovered ruins and ancient battles. Later in the game, an archeologist can "discover" these ancient sites, dig up an artifact, and display it in your museum, thus boosting your tourism. It's a nice connection to the early portion of the game, which is always my favorite part.

Finally, the new World Congress has the potential to be intriguing. I love the concept of the "game of diplomacy," and this new feature promises that you'll be able to horse-trade for votes of measures like sanctioning rogue nations and limiting worldwide resource usage. Color me skeptical, though; I've never seen this kind of feature implemented well in a game before.

My big disappointment is that nothing is mentioned about improving the poor performance of the multiplayer portion of the game. There is so much potential there, yet so little attention has been devoted to that area. I was really hoping that a new expansion would tackle the myriad of necessary improvements. Maybe it will - we haven't yet seen the list of enhancements and bug fixes - but it's disheartening that it's not mentioned right up front.

I don't know that I'm blow away but what I'm reading here. It sounds like a collection of nice additions, but nothing terribly groundbreaking. I'm sure the game will come out at a pretty hefty price point. Unless I hear something about multiplayer improvements, I might want to wait for a deep discount before taking the plunge. What about you?

[John]

Great deal on full Civilization V pack

Green Man Gaming, a highly reputable retailer that I have dealt with several times in the past, is offering an amazing deal on the full Civilization V game pack. This bundle, which activates on Steam, includes not only the base Civilization V game but absolutely everything that has subsequently been released for it. Here are the pack's full contents:

• Sid Meier's Civilization® V
• Sid Meier's Civilization V - Gods and Kings
• Sid Meier's Civilization V - Brave New World
• Sid Meier’s Civilization® V: Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar II)
• Civilization and Scenario Pack: Polynesia
• Civilization and Scenario Pack: Denmark - The Vikings
• Civilization V - Civilization and Scenario Pack: Korea
• Double Civilization and Scenario Pack: Spain and Inca
• Civilization V: Cradle of Civilization - Mediterranean
• Civilization V: Cradle of Civilization - Asia
• Civilization V: Cradle of Civilization - Americas
• Civilization V: Cradle of Civilization - Mesopotamia
• Civilization V: Explorer’s Map Pack
• Wonders of the Ancient World DLC pack

Until Friday, Sept. 13, the price is $27.19. But wait! Order now and get this free set of Ginsu knives... errr, wait, I mean order now and use this voucher code - GMG20-8MUTY-M21VN - and get an additional 20% off. That takes the total price to a ridiculous $21.75. Heck, the base game and both of its expansions are each $30 on Steam right now, and those don't include all the bonus DLC!

So is this worth it? What about if you already have the base game; should you pick up the pack for the expansions and the DLC? I have the full package myself and I have spent a few nights recently playing Brave New World, the most recent expansion. My take is that while the DLC is not worth much, the expansions - and Brave New World in particular[/i] - have turned Civilization V into the best iteration of the series. Rather than adding complexity, the new features - highlighted by religion and espionage in Gods and Kings; and caravans, archaeology, and tourism in Brave New World - feel like natural extensions that make playing the game not only easier but more enjoyable. They integrate so smoothly into gameplay that you wonder how you could have played without them.

Reviews for Brave New World have been particularly glowing. It has an outstanding aggregate rating of 85.6% on GameRankings.com, and an equally outstanding 85 out of 100 score on Metacritic. Here are a sampling of individual reviews:

• Space Sector's Brave New World review
• Space Sector's Brave New World review
• Kotaku's Brave New World review

Toss in the fact that the base game received a number of patches that have really improved stability and game mechanics and you have a package well worth purchasing. I recommend taking the plunge even if you have just the base game. Actually, at this price, I recommend you buying even if you own Gods and Kings but lack Brave New World and the DLCs.

I'm enjoying my late-night Brave New World sessions a ton, but I imagine I'd enjoy them more with company. If you own Brave New World (or if you're about to purchase it through this special offer) and would like to join a new PEBACiv group, please let me know here. I'd certainly be up for being stomped by y'all.

[John]

Get Civilization V FREE by voting for the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards

CVG.com and Green Man Gaming have teamed up for an unbeatable offer. Register an account on CVG.com and cast your votes for the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards. For your trouble, you'll be rewarded with a free key for your choice of Civilization V or Mafia II. Both games register on Steam, so if you already have Steam, there is no need to install any new software to take advantage of this deal.

Now you stragglers who haven't yet purchased Civilization V have absolutely no excuse not to jump on board! Just make sure to get your votes in by October 20. Then enjoy your free new game!

[Mike Dunn]

Announcing Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World

This is now on sale on Steam for $7.50.