Civ 5 Manual

[Joram]

I don't know why people keep saying it's dumbed down because it's not.  There are as many if not more choices to make than ever before.  They removed a couple elements that were exploitable like religion and tech trading (which many tended to turn off anyway) but that doesn't make it a 'simple' game by any means.  I cruised through a warlord level game to be sure but now am getting my butt handed to me on Prince (the no bonus level).  Civ V isn't revolutionary by any means but it a solid evolution of the series and if you were a fan of the series, you will like it.  There's a 100-turn demo which while only scratching the surface of the decision-making processes you have to make, does at elast give a good feel for the flow of the game.

[Yogi the Great]

[:(] I had the Total War series until Steam then stopped buying

[:(] I have Civ through IV now steam, will stop buying

Hopefully more traditional computer wargames, Matrix, HPS etc will never do this to us.

[:(] Or, are some right that someday we will have to deal with steam or something like it for any computer game? It will be a sad day for sure.

[Anthropoid]

. . . There's a 100-turn demo which while only scratching the surface . . .

And will not remove the requirement to patronize and network to Steam.

Given that navies, religion, and the exchange and diffusion of innovations and inventions are a sufficiently well-established aspect of actual history that these were modeled as mechanics requiring human decision-making in previous incarnations, I think it is safe to say that their removal constitutes rather major simplifications of the game series in Civ 5. The fact that they were not well-balanced, and/or exploitable in previous versions of the game are irrelevant.

Pushing the envelope means pushing the envelope, not chopping it down to 1/3 its original size and then holding it up to say "Oh look! Its open now!"

A good game in my opinion is one that advances the art form; not one that is simply fun, nor simply distracting, though those two are necessary elements to advancing the art form.

If we do not hold them to high expectations then we will not get better and better games over the years.

[Joram]

I think your nitpicking now, you've obviously made up your mind not to get it even though some of your notions seem off.  That's fine.  I'm not a Civ or Steam apologist so each to their own.  Enjoy not having Civ then. 

[Anthropoid]

As discerning computer game-slut, I reserve the right to pick nits and pre-emptively savor the enjoyment of not having certain games [:D]

[doomtrader]

I've been playing for half an hour today and it looks fun.

Anybody knows how to adjust budget and increase science funds? (probably that's in the manual, but who reads manuals).

[RedArgo]

I read the manual! But I don't have the game yet.

I could be wrong, but I don't think there are sliders anymore. You just get the points that produced by your buildings, people, ect. The only exception is if you run out of gold it will eat in to your science points.

[Zakhal]

If steam was the only thing on my plate life would be easy.

[Joram]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

As discerning computer game-slut, I reserve the right to pick nits and pre-emptively savor the enjoyment of not having certain games [:D]

Hehe, I'm the same way. [:)]

[ilovestrategy]

I love Steam. Been using it for years.  I love having my games update without touching a thing. And no looking for stupid serial numbers on the back of a jewel case that's lost back in a closet somewhere.  When payday comes I'll make my payment for Civ V and it'll download while I do something else like watch TV. Oh, and that's another thing. No more installing multiple disks.

The more I think about it the more I love using Steam.

[Barthheart]

There are no sliders. If you want more research you need to build more buildings for that... but that costs more in maintenance....

[Yogi the Great]

Well, we have been through this discussion now a number of times each time a game requires steam.

Some of us hate steam and won't buy a game that has it. I understand fully.

Some love steam and I have no problem with their opinion and decision to buy.

Just a thought, but I have the feeling that some of the people who love steam would still buy Civ V (or Total war or whatever) if it did not have steam. So my guess is that a company loses more sales by requiring steam then they gain from it. That may change over time, but I know when Empire Total War came out that it seemed like quite a few people who loved the series stopped buying the new releases and Civ V is going to go the same way. I suppose the next question is do they turn out ok because of less ability to "share" the game and losing sales that way? Do all of us steam haters eventually surrender as more and more games require it? I guess time will tell.

[Lützow]

Steam is the still the least problem with Civ 5.

Install Civ 4 along with Warlords and Beyond the Sword - and then compare it to the successor.

[Anthropoid]

Problems with Steam I have had in the past playing Half Life (might've been Half Life 2).

1. Try to uninstall Steam: it acts like malware.
2. Some years after the successor to the HL game I had on Steam came out (either 2 or 3) I went back to play the game some more and encountered an elevator bug (which was evidently quite common) which was a result of the confluence of "older" game, more recent Windows service packs, and no more support for the older game.

Despite the fact that I still had to use Steam to get the game going (IIRC), I could get ZERO help from Valve to fix the bug. Their policy was: it is an old game, a more recent version of the game is now being supported. Therefore they were unwilling/unable to provide any support for the predecessor game.

That was when I said: No more, a commitment I have stuck to so far.

So I what I gather from this is: the idea that Steam is supposed to be "better support" is illusory. It is piracy protection plain and simple, and quite likely has unproven necessity or effectiveness at achieving that goal, not to mention that it imposes on players. Add to that that, based on past experience that I do not expect Valve or anyone else to be support Civ5 via Steam five years from now . . . why would I agree to buy their product and subject myself to their networking hoops and loops based on their past demonstration of their lack of support and indeed, exploitative consumer policy?

I have heard other people complain about other things, including buggy/laggy performance, software conflicts and problems switching to other computers.

Perhaps these problems are less of an issue today, my last experience with Steam was like 5 or 10 years ago . . . however, I've heard other gamers who had problems with it more recently (specifically Empire Total Frustration taking hours on hours to DL).

[xaal70]

test

[LarryP]

Have you read the forums about Civ-V? The bad reports are really coming in now. Lockups galore among other issues. I played the 100 turn demo and it drove me back to Civ-IV with it's expansions. Been having an excellent time. Civ-V should be on sale by Christmas with some patches.

[Hard Sarge]

odd, has run great for me, no issues with game play (AI seems to cheat like a nasty dog !) (but that could be more I don't know what I am doing yet)

doing much better as a German then I was with the randoms leaders

[Cmdrcain]

ORIGINAL: hewwo

Actually, I wish matrix would give up their own archaic system and use something like steam or impulse.

BITE your HANDS!

Matrix is not archaic , matrix is far better because you do not have to log into some service
and go through hoops never mind it compromising your PC's security

Serial codes... any smart person would keep in a pocket memo...several... and keep one of them somewhere else... bank box.. ... allows one to still install games and patchs ...again backup the game install prg and all updates in multiple copys... on CD/Dvd's, backup HDD, backed up on other PC's HDD..

Where having to log into a service to INSTALL what you legally bought is absurd..

(Sides I am sure that any real pirates already can crack any steam game to install it...theres NO such thing as an absolute secure copy prot scheme all they do is burden legitimate users..)


Day Matrix issues games via a service like steam is day they loss me.

[Cmdrcain]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I'm not sure you could choose a nation leader anyway - you could choose a nation, but the leader was assigned to you from what I recall in Civ IV

No, you did have in instances different choices but the choices were tied to the nation so you could use queen elizabeth or a different british leader for instance.

Some nations may have only had one choice.

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: doomtrader

I've been playing for half an hour today and it looks fun.

Anybody knows how to adjust budget and increase science funds? (probably that's in the manual, but who reads manuals).

if I see it right, it is in the city screen, you can set what that city is trying to do, so, if you want some of your cities working only (mostly ?) on Science, you can set it that way

(not sure if I remember seeing science, I did see food, production, culture, gold and what not)