Alright boyz, here we go!!! Civ 5 first impressions & tips thread!

[twothree]

I think archipelago is the easiest maps to play because the AI never builds a sufficient Navy. They hang on to outdated units far too long and you can storm through them gaining valuable experience.

I just recently purchase Civ V along with all the DLC including G&K. My first and hopefully only game purchased through "Steam". I also had to buy a new video card and power supply.

I agree that an archipelago map is easy, at least at Prince difficulty. In my current, and very first, game of Civ V using a random start I got a large archipelago map. With a random pick of the Incan Empire, I have only built one military unit after 250 turns (last in military units of 10 nations). I am first in population and technology, that other nations keep stealing. I have six cities across two islands and maintain a small positive happiness, and currently generate about 225 gold, 100 culture, and 40 faith per turn.

The game has been a little boring the last 50 turns, but my spy has indicated that Rome is getting ready to attack someone. It might be interesting if I finally have to build some defense. Next game, I will have to jump to King difficulty.

[SackAttack]

I just recently purchase Civ V along with all the DLC including G&K. My first and hopefully only game purchased through "Steam".

Oh, you poor bastard. You really think you're going to be able to resist the biannual sales? :D

[RainMaker]

I just recently purchase Civ V along with all the DLC including G&K. My first and hopefully only game purchased through "Steam". I also had to buy a new video card and power supply.

I agree that an archipelago map is easy, at least at Prince difficulty. In my current, and very first, game of Civ V using a random start I got a large archipelago map. With a random pick of the Incan Empire, I have only built one military unit after 250 turns (last in military units of 10 nations). I am first in population and technology, that other nations keep stealing. I have six cities across two islands and maintain a small positive happiness, and currently generate about 225 gold, 100 culture, and 40 faith per turn.

The game has been a little boring the last 50 turns, but my spy has indicated that Rome is getting ready to attack someone. It might be interesting if I finally have to build some defense. Next game, I will have to jump to King difficulty.

Yeah, Prince is fairly easy. King is a step up and you'll have to keep an eye on other civs much more. It also seems to depend a lot on who you have in your game and where they are. Alexander will go to war with me relentlessly over nothing. Seems like there is more war mongering on higher levels too.

[Big Fo]

I don't really like how the difficulty levels work for this game.

Since I hadn't played Civ V in so long before Gods and Kings came out, I did the fair level (Prince) at first and that was too easy. The AI gets slight advantages on King and I won a few games on that level. Once I was able to finish games with double the score of the second place AI civilization, I started playing on Emperor.

This was a lot more competitive and although I managed to win a Science Victory, I only had the third place score when I did so. It was a mostly peaceful game, perhaps playing on a map with a lot of islands had something to do with this. There were a few naval wars but I never invaded anyone nor was I invaded myself.

But the problem I have with the difficulty levels is that they affect the earlier part of the game more than the endgame, and the earlier part is what is more difficult even at the fair level. On Emperor the AIs get two free techs and a scout that the human doesn't and this can take quite awhile to catch up to since research is slower early in the game. The combat AI is far from great in this game but the imbalance between what a human and AI can do in warfare is less early in the game, when units are less capable, there are fewer options, and conditions are more favorable to defenders. Once the game advances to the point where ranged units can shoot three hexes away and air power becomes a factor the combat AI is really handicapped and a player with similar gold, hammers, beakers, etc. has a big edge.

I think it'd work better if the AI got fewer bonuses at the beginning of the game but their research, gold, and production got more of a boost as the game advances through the ages. Like if you could play on Prince through the Classical Age, King through the Industrial Age, and then on Emperor from that point on. Or something like that at least.

[gstelmack]

Is MultiplayerRobot down for anyone else? We're trying to start a game, and when signing in on the site we get:

The conversion of a datetime2 data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value.
The statement has been terminated.

Not sure if I need to try a different browser, or if they have a server issue. No note on the main page of the site.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Is MultiplayerRobot down for anyone else? We're trying to start a game, and when signing in on the site we get:

The conversion of a datetime2 data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range value.
The statement has been terminated.

Not sure if I need to try a different browser, or if they have a server issue. No note on the main page of the site.

We have a current game going. I'm able to log on just fine as of a couple minutes ago.

I logged into Steam on Firefox just fine as well.

[gstelmack]

I can sign into Steam fine, just not through multiplayerrobot.com. Ah well.

[WVUFAN]

What browser are you using?

[gstelmack]

What browser are you using?

Tried IE9 and Firefox, but it's working this morning.

[Buccaneer]

For what it's worth, huge G&K patch coming this Fall:

BUG FIXES
General
Mod Browser - The "Get Mods" button is now hidden if the user has disabled the steam overlay.
Civilizations and Traits
Ottoman naval upkeep is now fixed. Save games that were started before the fix will not be corrected.
German UA and Oligarchy social policy now work together correctly.
City States
Mercantile CS now only get a unique luxury for their first city (and not the cities they conquer). Unique luxury is removed upon capture (players can no longer get it by taking over a CS). Unique luxury is given back upon liberation.
Prevent double counting of resources when an improvement is gifted to a minor civ, then the minor civ techs up to activate the improvement.
Diplomacy
Research Agreement code was previously giving double-credit to research "overflows" (i.e. when you finished a tech and the extra research was being applied to the following tech). Now the credit toward a RA will be based on Science earned that turn.
Corrected an issue that caused the AI to attempt coups too often, when chances of success were too low. Also implemented a new factor: Attempting a coup in a location where there is no defending spy (the current ally does not have a spy there) is >=2x as likely to work as it would if there was a spy there.
Resurrecting a player will have both sides forget any denouncing that happened before resurrected.
Don't treat player as a deal breaker just for going to war with a player again.
Exploits
Do not let a player earn the 2 free techs from the Rationalism Finisher twice. Also removed the +1 Science from Libraries from that finisher.
If you intentionally starve your city by reassigning all your citizens to be unemployed, you won't end up with more citizens than you have population.
Religion
Fix Found Religion screen so you can't find out about civs you haven't met by mousing over the religion icons.
Correct "Peace Loving" belief so it doesn't negate other happiness benefits from religion.
Rebuild religious pressure in case it was corrupted in older save games.
Clarify Interfaith Dialog so it mentions that Prophets earn you science too (not just missionaries).
Scenarios
Removed notifications that appear at the beginning of the Fall of Rome and Mongol scenarios about lacking the proper strategic resources.
AI
Dutch now will build farms before polders are available.
Do not allow Carthaginian units to spawn on mountains.
Do not allow Carthaginian Workers to end turns on mountains.
AI will now build more workboats and will improve oil plots in the water.
Automated workers that don't have anything to do will not consume all their movement.
Allow rush built units to trigger the operation they were built for to proceed into Gather Units phase.
Fixed an issue where automated workers evaluated danger incorrectly and consequently behaved incorrectly.
Fixed an issue where citizen management focus on Production (and possibly others) could lead to starvation.
Clicking on an unemployed citizen to set them back to work does not "unlock" locked citizen assignment.
The logic to recommend Artist improvement placement now does not count plots where improvements can't be placed, e.g. oases.
Units
Fix unit de-selection so the mini-map indicator clears.
Better “Next Unit” selection. Previously, the camera would jump great distances to select the next unit that needs orders, when a closer unit was available.
Unit cycling improvement: when a unit is promoted, do NOT cycle immediately off that unit.
Change minimum area size for all naval units to 10 (from 20). That allows them to be built in the same cities as harbors, seaports (and great admirals) -- i.e. on any body of water not considered to be a "lake"
Fix advanced promotions for melee naval ships.
Restore missing Cover 2 promotion entries so it is available to units again.
Fix a hang if a (melee) unit advanced across the world wrap seam after a combat.
Correct Great Admiral AI placement bug that prevented it from selecting a valid coastal city of yours.
Unit list now re-sorts itself correctly when a unit is promoted.
Subs are no longer visible (all the time) in Hot Seat mode.
Don't give GG points from Barbarian ranged attacks.
Helicopters now take damage when ending their turn over mountains.
Interception promotions now help the right unit (had previously been reversed).
Evasion promotion helps the right unit (had previously been reversed).
Two top-of-screen messages added to explain what is going on with intercepts (one for if the attacking air unit is eliminated, and another if he is just damaged).
Fixed a unit movement issue that broke melee attacking from more than one hex away.
Janissary heals 50 instead of 100 when killing enemy units.
Supply promotion now heals 15 HP outside friendly territory; matching text (was 25 HP).
Added a check to make sure that after a city is disbanded (ex. razed), the units remaining on the plot are allowed to be there. If not (ex. naval units), then they are moved to the nearest valid plot.
Fix for barbarians that would not move the turn after they spawned.
Have Great Engineer pick both the wonder and the city it needs to be built in (the bug was that the AI could repeatedly try to build a wonder in a city that it couldn't).
Optimization
Many performance improvements, particularly in the renderer.
Pathfinder fixes and optimization.
Text Bugs
Fixed several text bugs.
Misc
Fixed rare crashes that could occur depending on hardware.
Only the “alive” civilization capitals are tested for majority religion in "We are family" achievement.
Added missing Polish Dawn of Man audio.
Advisors: Messages concerning your people being unhappy/livid now display correctly (a bug was causing this to fire at the wrong time).
Economic Overview: Don't list diplomacy values as an expense and an income at the same time.
Fix auto-scrolling between turns. If a user was scrolling when a turn ended, or when combat ended, it would occasionally get “stuck” and continue scrolling.
Fix unit de-selection so the mini-map indicator clears.

BALANCE CHANGES
General
Reduced Happiness a bit from Mercantile City States. You no longer get +1 bonus happiness going from Friends to Allies (since you already get the luxuries then). And eliminated the +1 Happiness entering Industrial era.
Ballistics now requires Railroads. This will force the AI to get railroads before getting too deep in the tree.
Pillaging tiles now awards +25 hit points to the pillaging unit.
Tweaks to culture border growth:
Should get coastal resource tiles a bit sooner.
Should mildly steer towards tiles that are near unclaimed resources.
Should get resource tiles in rings 4 and 5 a bit sooner.
Austrian UA balance changes:
Increase the cost of a City-State by at least the amount of gold you will get from scrapping their units.
Must be ally for 5 turns before you can undergo a diplomatic marriage with a City-State.
"Yoink!" achievement is now: "As Austria, acquire a City-State with 15 or more units through Diplomatic Marriage."
Religion
Pilgrimage belief now gives +2 Faith per foreign city following this religion.
Follower and Pantheon beliefs provide Local Happiness; Founder beliefs provide Global Happiness
Faith output per city is now listed in the economic overview - general information panel. Note: Faith output per city is hidden if religion is disabled.
AI: Buy Missionaries in city with Great Mosque as TOP priority (even over Holy City if different).
Tall/Wide Religion Balance Change: Add Grand Temple (National Wonder).
Diplomacy & Espionage
New peace deals. Now 9 AI levels instead of the previous 5 (so one new level added between each of the earlier ones). Peace levels are now:
0: White Peace (give up nothing)
1: Armistice (1/2 gold, 1/2 of max GPT)
2: Settlement (all gold, max GPT)
3: Back-down (all luxuries, all gold, max GPT, open borders)
4: Submission (all resources, all gold, max GPT, open borders)
5: Surrender (one city)
6: Cession (1/4 city value, 1/2 gold)
7: Capitulation (1/3 city value, all gold)
8: Unconditional Surrender (all but capital, all gold)
Peace deal code now prioritizes both cities that are close to winner's capital AND cities that were originally built by winning player (previously it was distance only).
Reduced espionage notification spam. Will only be notified of election and coup activities if you have met them and (have a spy in the city or are friends with them or have a relationship with them that is above the resting point.)
Added ability to liberate cities that are not owned by their founders or originally owned by the player. The player will receive a diplomacy bonus with the liberated player for liberating up to three cities. This liberation is not part of the "recalled to life" resurrection of a once annihilated civ. This functionality only runs if the city liberated is owned by a player that is alive. There are two ways to lose the diplomatic liberation bonus are:
Declare war on someone you have liberated cities for. You have to be the first player declaring war. This does not count defensive pacts or someone you liberated declaring war on you.
Capturing a city from someone you liberated. This case comes into play if A liberated a city of C's, then A & B have a defensive pact, C declares war on A & B, then A captures a city of C's. C will forget that A liberated any of their cities.
The AI will now liberate cities and resurrect players. There are notifications when the AI resurrects players and cities. An AI will resurrect another (non-human) player when they are trying to win a diplomatic victory. An AI will return a city if the original owner of the city has a defensive pact with the player and they are both at war with the previous owner of the city, or, the AI and the original owner have a declaration of friendship and the AI is going for a diplomatic victory.
Diplomacy: Peace treaty duration scales with game speed.
Quick: 10 turns
Normal: 10 turns
Epic: 15 turns
Marathon: 30 turns
Diplomacy: Declaration of Friendships/Denouncements now scale with game speed.
Quick: 50
Normal: 50
Epic: 75
Marathon: 150
Changed diplomatic globals:
The opinion thresholds (unforgivable/enemy/competitor/favorable/friend/ally) have been pushed farther apart. They were initally 50/30/10, now 80/40/15.
Diplomatic intrigue bonuses have been lowered by 1/2, from 20 to 10.
"Asked Stop Spying" penalty dropped from 20 to 10.
There are a number of changes to the duration of city-state interaction penalties, greatly reducing their duration.
Diplomacy overview improvements. Now displays "your open borders/embassy", "their open borders/embassy", "shared open borders/embassy"
With making deals, AIs will notify you when they're not willing to give enough on their side to make the deal work. This addresses some issues where you ask an AI to propose a deal and they say "we can't make a deal" and then you propose a lop-sided deal and they accept it. They will say "we aren't willing to give you enough to make this a fair trade."
Other civs won't warn about expansion unless the player has founded a city in the last 10 turns.
"We attacked your protected City-State" statements are now triggered by damage done (ex. killing a unit) rather than simply being at war. As a result, the statement should no longer be triggered by a quick succession of DoWs (such as those done automatically by a CS changing allies).
The AI will no longer ask other players to join in a war when they are already involved in at least one.
Units
Unit Balance Changes:
Drop Ironclad to 45 combat strength (from 50).
Remove +33% vs. Cities from Battleships.
Drop Gatling Guns to 30 Combat and Ranged Strength.
Make sure Air Ambush 2 and Air Targeting 2 work for fighters and bombers.
Carriers now get naval melee promotions instead of naval ranged.
Prize Ships Balance Change: 50% chance of converting ships with equal intrinsic combat strengths. Scales up and down (between 28% and 80%) based on relative intrinsic combat strengths of the two ships. Conversion chance if you do sink the opponent is shown in blue text on combat preview window.
AI attackers will now pillage.
Promotion balance change: make the +200% vs. Cities promotion go away on upgrade.
Promotions: Push back Air Logistics promotion for Fighters and Bombers so it requires Bombardment 3 (not 2) or Air Siege 3 (not 2).
AI
AI adjustments to Wonder build priorities.
Tactical AI Improvement: Spend more gold on defense. AI will now spend gold at their cities where tactical dominance is EVEN (before it had to be enemy-dominated). AI will now also spend money on naval and air units for defense in such cites (before it was only land units and defensive buildings).
Changes to AI settling:
Expand the ring search.
Flatten the value of rings a bit so that tiles in the further rings are worth a bit more.
Make the default preferred spacing further for players not going for extreme expansion.
Lower the value of tiles a bit so that the AI is a bit pickier about settlements.
AI will try to reclaim lost settlers and builders.
AI will no longer wait forever for a settler escort.
Minor tweak to settlement location.
More aggressive offshore expansion.
Do not give priority to bonus resources in rings 4 and 5 when deciding next tile to grow towards.
Tweak to AI settle to reduce bonus of tiles in rings 4 and 5 if already owned.
Small change to make Haile Selassie less keen to expand wide.
AI will now consider annexing cities it has conquered.
The AI will not consider annexing if it is trying to win a culture victory or their empire is currently unhappy.
Increased happiness flavor for circus to match Colosseum.
Tactical/Homeland AI Improvement: Do not heal if under enemy ranged fire (that is making you lose more HP per turn than you can heal).
Allow AI to capture civilians more than 4 hexes from their cities.
Have AI build its units for sneak attack at a slightly higher priority if at high difficulty levels.
Have AI weight Biology a bit stronger especially if liking tanks and airplanes (unlocks oil).
AI tweaks to help coastal based civs:
Change to settlement (cities beyond the first also prefer coast).
Buildings that help coastal Civs have flavors adjusted (they didn't take some rules changes into account).
Do not force high Naval civs to build a large navy (15+ ships) in the first 100 turns.
Make Dido deceptive (as historical).
Tweaks to allow cities to make better use of extra tiles from previous change:
On average on extra worker or two will be built.
Slightly less prioritization of connecting up luxuries (still the highest priority).
Allow one tile islands to be settled (if they have a resource on them).
Slightly more prioritization of production tiles.
Builders will emphasize the capital so that it will always be a nicely developed city.
City Governor AI:
Prevent focused city AIs from starving as much.
Make a wonder that has already been started in this city a higher priority.
Lower the value of food for the governor when you have a large surplus.

POLISH
UI
Add in a UI overlay that shows which AI is processing its turn.
In the detailed view of a mod in the mods browser, additional required mods will display their title if it has been provided instead of the ID of the mod.
Add an “Exit to Main Menu” button to the player change screen in Hotseat.
Added "Restart Game" option to game menu. This option lets you restart the game and generate a new map using your current pregame settings. It's only available at Turn 0.
Advanced settings are now persisted across multiple single player games.
NOTE: This feature can be disabled by setting "PersistAdvancedSettings = 0" in Config.ini
The top panel now displays the month of the year if the game speed is so slow that it actually matters.
Messages about a player losing their capital and regaining it are now included in the replay log.
Messages about a player being resurrected are now included in the replay log.
Fixed an issue causing the replay graphs to be corrupted when a player was resurrected.
Display currently active mods in the single player screen.
Add a separate graphics option for enabling/disabling the GPU texture decode.
Fractal added to the map short list and random map types.
Garrison ring properly disappears when unit moves out of city.
Resource icon stacking. At lower resolutions, the resource icons clip into the date display along the top. We now hide the part of the list that clips if it�'s too long, and instead, the player can mouse-over the list to see all the resources.
Better timing for pop-ups (finding ruins, etc.).
Auto unit selection improvements:
On load, only cycle to the next unit if the currently selected unit is not ready for selection.
Swap the direction that the CycleRight and CycleLeft buttons move the selection in the cycle list.
When closing the city screen. Re-select the last unit that was selected.
If the player has auto-unit-cycling off, don't auto-select the unit that is blocking the end turn.
Further refinement to pop-up reordering. Pop-ups should now "feel" correct each turn (in the right order, at the right time).
Don't prompt the player when removing fallout. Just do it. The prompt incorrectly referred to the action as removing an “improvement”.
General
Switch a number of Great Merchants to Great Admirals. Add Great General: Hannibal and Great Merchant: Jakob Fugger.
Optimized overlay system (culture borders, etc.). This system is now making half the draw calls that it did before.
Flavored all the civs for anti-air and air-carrier.
Modding: Fix the hard-coded length of the promotions boolean array.
Modding: Provide a way for Lua to query if the UI is in "Touch Screen" mode UI.IsTouchScreenEnabled().

[RainMaker]

Lot of changes but nothing game changing. Still enjoying the game a lot.

[Schmidty]

Lot of changes but nothing game changing. Still enjoying the game a lot.

+1

I play Civ5 daily.

[kcchief19]

God this game is addicting. I actually didn't play much after i first got the game when it came out because I bought it to play the Windows version on my Mac, but had so many lags and issues I set it aside. A while back I realized I had access to Mac version through my Steam account, and reconnected.

Just had one of those dynasty-worthy epics. I was playing as Siam and simply proceeding without identifying a clear win scenario. I was doing well culturally, and was heading in that direction. Montezuma attacked me for no reason whatsoever, and I after I blunted his initial attack I launched a counterstrike and forced him to give me his gold (6,500). A little while later The Huns came along and wanted to attack Montezuma, so I finished the job. I started taking off from there.

Then Greece finished the UN and won the preliminary vote 14-6. I was the six, picking up America and France along with my four allies. What happened next was a perfect storm ...

I had just earned a great merchant so I set him off to win an ally from Greece. I had a source of dyes on an island near me, and a bunch of city states wanted dyes, so I bought a settler and sent him there. A lot of allies also wanted gold connected, so I made a lopsided deal with America to get their gold. At the same time, a couple of city-states were awed by my cultural and religion scores. On the last turn, I threw some money at any city state alliance I could buy for less than 500 gold.

Final UN vote was 13-11 in my favor. Never had a UN vote flip that dramatically in 10 turns before. On the same turn, Alexander declared war on me. Too little, too late.

[Buccaneer]

Nice work!

[nilodor]

Patch is out!
Fall patch is out - Civilization Fanatics' Forums (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=479298)

[Fidatelo]

I've been really getting into this game over the past couple months. I've got an online game going with 4 friends that is super fun. It's taken us 45 days to get through the first 100 turns, so I expect we will finish sometime in the spring. The emails are so fun, though. "How are you build a city near my borders! *rattles sabres*". Great times :)

[twothree]

Oh, you poor bastard. You really think you're going to be able to resist the biannual sales? :D

I guess you were right. I didn't even make it to five months before making my second "Steam" purchase. I picked up X-Com this weekend. I would have bought them elsewhere if that was an option. At least I purchased both Civ V and X-Com from Amazon and not direct from "Steam".

[Honolulu_Blue]

I guess you were right. I didn't even make it to five months before making my second "Steam" purchase. I picked up X-Com this weekend. I would have bought them elsewhere if that was an option. At least I purchased both Civ V and X-Com from Amazon and not direct from "Steam".

Steam is awesome. Best thing to happen to PC gaming in a long while.

While I do buy games elsewhere at times - Desura, Origins, Amazon, GOG, Direct Download - I much prefer to get my games from Steam directly and consider it a bit of a barrier (though a low one) when a game is not on Steam. For example, I don't own any Blizzard products released in the last 10 years or so (Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, etc.) primarily because they are not available on Steam.

Having a PC and refusing to use Steam is like owning a HD tv and refusing to watch programs in HD.

[SackAttack]

I guess you were right. I didn't even make it to five months before making my second "Steam" purchase. I picked up X-Com this weekend. I would have bought them elsewhere if that was an option. At least I purchased both Civ V and X-Com from Amazon and not direct from "Steam".

Not sure I understand your distinction between giving Valve your sale or Amazon.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Steam is awesome. Best thing to happen to PC gaming in a long while.

While I do buy games elsewhere at times - Desura, Origins, Amazon, GOG, Direct Download - I much prefer to get my games from Steam directly and consider it a bit of a barrier (though a low one) when a game is not on Steam. For example, I don't own any Blizzard products released in the last 10 years or so (Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, etc.) primarily because they are not available on Steam.

Having a PC and refusing to use Steam is like owning a HD tv and refusing to watch programs in HD.

Totally agree with this. I love gaming on my PC and will buy new computers regularly to play games solely because of the ease of use that Steam provides. I had little to no interest in PC gaming before I started using Steam. Now it's pretty much all I use on the PC.

[Mota]

I upgraded my new computer and rebooted my OS from scratch. All I had to do was copy over my Steam directory to my new computer and BOOM it all worked.

My Gamersgate, Direct2Drive and disc based games all had to be reinstalled manually, it was a huge pain in the butt. So yeah I'll pass on sales on smaller digital services and wait to buy it on Steam if at all possible.

[Ryan S]

For anyone who has not bought it yet, Gods & Kings is on offer at Green Man Gaming for just over $3 using the code GMG30-DPLIM-DN831

Link is on the front page, and should be active until 12pm GMT (7am ET) on Monday.

http://www.greenmangaming.com/

[FrogMan]

I bought Civ V in the Summer sale and had started a game but only played it for maybe a couple hours back then. One interesting event has made me get back to it and I'm loving it.

I decided to offer it to my 15yo son for Christmas. See, he's really into the Call of Duty series of games but it disturbs my wife quite a bit that he kills people for fun in those games. He's really a non violent kid, just a gamer, but mom really isn't. Anyway, I thought that even though he'd never shown any interest for the Civ series that he might like it and it'd be a bit more positive type of gaming that he could mix in with his online deathmatch kind of games. Well, so far he seems to be loving it. He played one long game that he kept telling me back which civ did what and which civ he took over and such and such. So much so that it has made me pick back up my game and I'm discovering the subtleties of it...

I didn't wait for the indecent coupon from GMG but I picked up Gods & Kings a couple days ago went it dropped to 7.49 on steam and I just picked up the upgrade to GOTY for $5. So for $20 each, we both have Civ V GOTY with Gods & Kings and we're both loving it. Might try to get a multiplayer game going with him some day :)

ok, back to your regular programming. ;)

FM

[Ben E Lou]

This is still unplayable for me because of speed, and I'm wondering if it's because I never play Civ on anything but the largest maps available, or something else. I just ran a quick test.

CIV 4: Huge map, 18 civs, top-tier graphics: The first few turns process too fast for me to capture accurately with the stopwatch on my phone, less than a second each.

CIV 5: Huge map, 12 civs, BOTTOM-tier graphics: The first few turns took 12-14 seconds to process each.

My rig is a year and a half old quad-core that was close to the top of the line when I bought it, so a nice machine. Does anyone know of anything that I can do (fewer civs? smaller maps?) to speed it up? If the answer is "both..you gotta play with 6 civs and on medium maps" then I might as well just give up, I guess. :(

[RainMaker]

Hmmmm, smaller maps and less civs will definitely speed things up. I think the map size is the biggest factor. The huge maps can get real tough on my rig too and I've got a nice setup. I usually just play standard size.

Would Large be bad for you? It's 10 civs and still a pretty big map.

[RainMaker]

Also try turning Terrain Shadow Quality off in the video settings. This had a bigger difference for me than any other video setting (which I barely noticed on the others being changed). And the leader scene quality to low seems to help a bit.

I started playing with Quick Combat on too. The animations got old after awhile and it seems to speed up all the turns quite a bit and I didn't miss them at all. This is a bigger fix late in the game though.

[Buccaneer]

I believe the expansion reduced turn times substantially, or at least the first post-patch. I have read those playing on large or huge maps being very pleased (it was tough pre-G&K). On standard, I get about 5 seconds at most beyond the first turn. Late game takes longer but not like before.

[Ben E Lou]

I posted the same thing over at the 2K forums and a guy suggested turning off HD paging. I don't even know what that is, but I'll give it a shot. ;)

[Ben E Lou]

Hmmmm....that's not an option that I see. Anyone know how to do that?

[Buccaneer]

I believe it's in the ini file. This was the solution when they released final vanilla patch last summer. Are you still playing vanilla?

[Buccaneer]

In my games/civ5, the civ5.ini file should have a line: gamecore threading. If its enabled (1), set it to 0.

[Ben E Lou]

No. G&K.

I'll look for that file.

[Ben E Lou]

I have config.ini, but not Civ5.ini...

[Buccaneer]

I am not on my pc but if you see that line in that ini file, that would be the one.

[gstelmack]

Config.ini has two:

; Enables the game core to run in a separate thread
EnableGameCoreThreading = 1
; Set the game core thread to use the Job Manager, or its own dedicated thread
GameCoreThreadingUsesJobManager = 0

[Ben E Lou]

So wait, Buc said set it to 0, and you're saying set it to 1. Can we verify which one it is?

[Buccaneer]

The opposite of what you have now. :)

When I get, I'll paste the pertinent post from the help forum.

[gstelmack]

So wait, Buc said set it to 0, and you're saying set it to 1.

I didn't say that, I just posted what was in my file so there were some specifics being discussed...

[cuervo72]

Oh yeah - I forgot about that too when you were asking me earlier, Ben (yes hi, I'm cuervo and I'm a Civ addict...). I did edit that in my .ini file, and have had much better results (delay in response was horrible before that).

[britrock88]

Hope I remember this discussion when I get home from work.

[Buccaneer]

Go to My Document/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/ and open config.ini in notepad. Look for the line EnableGameCoreThreading = 1 and change it to EnableGameCoreThreading = 0. Save and restart the game.

[britrock88]

Danke.

[gstelmack]

So, do we need to kick off a new Giant Multiplayer Robot game?

[britrock88]

I have G&K now, so I could take part!

[spleen1015]

I'd play if one started up.

[WVUFAN]

Started a new game of Giant Multiplayer Robot:

Steam Community (http://multiplayerrobot.com/Game/Join/2815?token=f6233f2d-f5b9-44d2-a08e-3ff4a6726231)

[WVUFAN]

Each link is for one player only. Send me a PM or post here, and I'll send you one. Note you have to have Gods and Kings.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

We actually plan on finishing this one? I was all alone at the end (not that this is an unusual position for me).

[gstelmack]

We've had a work one going for 6 months, so I've got a track record of sticking around.

[spleen1015]

I'll stick around as long as everyone else does.

[spleen1015]

Each link is for one player only. Send me a PM or post here, and I'll send you one. Note you have to have Gods and Kings.

Hook a brother up!

[WVUFAN]

Hook a brother up!

Steam Community (http://multiplayerrobot.com/Game/Join/2815?token=4a1502d1-613b-452f-9058-56096fadacc7)

[WVUFAN]

We actually plan on finishing this one? I was all alone at the end (not that this is an unusual position for me).

Here's a invite for you if you're interested, MBBF:

http://multiplayerrobot.com/Game/Join/2815?token=71173439-4e44-4431-b6ba-b0a1ac0b1b23

[mckerney]

The next Civ expansion will be named One World, no details out besides that.

[WVUFAN]

4 of 6 slots already taken.

[britrock88]

I'd jump in.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Here's a invite for you if you're interested, MBBF:

Steam Community (http://multiplayerrobot.com/Game/Join/2815?token=71173439-4e44-4431-b6ba-b0a1ac0b1b23)

I'm in.

[Big Fo]

Civ IV went from decent to great after its second expansion pack. Maybe this will be true for Civ V as well.

[WVUFAN]

I'd jump in.
Steam Community (http://multiplayerrobot.com/Game/Join/2815?token=01998df0-a198-4786-856f-361ef0776a38)

[WVUFAN]

I got a few people who want France. If everyone would post here what civ they want or change it on GMR.

[britrock88]

Pardon my newness. I'm in GMR, and have installed the desktop client; what do I do next?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I got a few people who want France. If everyone would post here what civ they want or change it on GMR.

Toss me in something else. Random if that's an option.

[WVUFAN]

Toss me in something else. Random if that's an option.

It is. You're Limelicker, right?


Pardon my newness. I'm in GMR, and have installed the desktop client; what do I do next?

If you haven't already (and there's still an open slot, so I don't think you have, click the link I sent you. That should secure you a slot. After that, I can start the game in Civ, and the app will notify you when it's your turn, as well as automatically download the save file for you to play. When you're done, the app should send the save file to the next player automatically as well.

It's very, VERY useful, and something I would encourage everyone in the game to download if they haven't already.

[gstelmack]

I am America.

[spleen1015]

It is. You're Limelicker, right?



If you haven't already (and there's still an open slot, so I don't think you have, click the link I sent you. That should secure you a slot. After that, I can start the game in Civ, and the app will notify you when it's your turn, as well as automatically download the save file for you to play. When you're done, the app should send the save file to the next player automatically as well.

It's very, VERY useful, and something I would encourage everyone in the game to download if they haven't already.

So, I assume we haven't started yet right? The Robot website will tell me when it is my turn, yeah?

[gstelmack]

Robot tells you, it can e-mail you, and the desktop app (HIGHLY recommended) will pop up. Game has not started yet.

[spleen1015]

Thansk for the heads up on the app.

[WVUFAN]

Need to fill one more slot, and once that's done, we'll start. If Brit takes the final slot, we'll start this evening.

[gstelmack]

Also remember that if you will be gone for a few days, please set "vacation" mode so the game doesn't stop for a week.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yes, I'm limelicker.

[britrock88]

In. I think we're ready to roll now.

[WVUFAN]

The game is afoot!!

Here's the order of players:

Me(Eroy486), playing China.
Dunhere(AlanT), playing Egypt
GRCurmugeon(GStelmack), playing America
Spleen1015, playing France
Limelicker(MBBF), playing ??? (random)
Britrock88, playing the Aztecs

Settings are Small Continents Map, Turn Timer on, Quick Combat on(for those on slower CPU's), 8 City States.

I've taken my turn. AlanT is up. As usual, I'm in a horrible opening position, and I fully expect to be killed soon, just like the PitBoss days. :)

I've set a 24 hour timer per player for taking their turn. As GStelmack suggested, make sure if you're going away for a period of time to set yourself as Vacation. Note if you are skipped on your turn 4 times, the GMR will remove you from the game.

[gstelmack]

Posted a comment to the game as well, but this morning there was a 30 second in-game turn timer active. That needs to go.

[WVUFAN]

I agree. Trying to figure out how to do that now.

[WVUFAN]

As far as I can tell, we would have to restart the game from scratch. We're only 2 turns in, so this is the best course of action.

Restarting with the same civs (except for the one who had random), this time without the doggone turn timer.

[WVUFAN]

Had to restart the game. Thankfully, we're only 2 turns in, so it's not so bad. The annoying turn timer that I stupidly put into the game has been turned off.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Had to restart the game. Thankfully, we're only 2 turns in, so it's not so bad. The annoying turn timer that I stupidly put into the game has been turned off.

Damn it. I liked my desert in the middle of nowhere location. :)

[britrock88]

Wondered why I had lost my city. Okay, hopping back into the game now.

[gstelmack]

Did we lose spleen and need a replacement already?

[spleen1015]

Oh fuck.

I am sorry guys. I was sick on Thursday and Friday, sleeping all day. My daughter had basketball games all weekend as well and I totally forgot about the game.

I'm very sorry about being lame. I will get back to it when I get home tonight.

[britrock88]

Sorry I missed a turn or two, folks. I've been wrestling with my computer for a few days, and I forgot that GMR doesn't boot on startup.

[Alan T]

What is up with the turn timer? Was supposed to be my turn like 19 hours ago. Was hoping to take my turn in case that I lost power or something, but it looks like it is just stuck?

[britrock88]

Or better yet, where's WVU Fan?

[gstelmack]

Looks like he just surrendered. At least this way the game goes on...

[gstelmack]

We actually plan on finishing this one? I was all alone at the end (not that this is an unusual position for me).

Sigh. I'm still in it for the long haul, even if it's just two of us and a bunch of AIs.

[spleen1015]

Did something happen to our game? I just went to see if it was my turn and the game no longer shows up in GMR for me.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Did something happen to our game? I just went to see if it was my turn and the game no longer shows up in GMR for me.

I received a message saying you had resigned.

[britrock88]

Makes me wonder if I'm getting skipped again. I suppose I should be more proactive about opening up GMR and checking the game's status, rather than trusting that it'll pop up from the system tray when it should to notify me.

[gstelmack]

I keep GMR open on my desktop, and I have it sending e-mails to an account I'm on all the time.

[spleen1015]

Sorry for being lame guys.

[britrock88]

Hmm... GMR is freezing when I try to submit my turn. I'll restart the computer here in a bit and try it again.

[Alan T]

I am away from my computer traveling for work for a week, so I turned on vacation mode in GMR so you all won't have to wait for my turns to be skipped.

[gstelmack]

Hmm... GMR is freezing when I try to submit my turn. I'll restart the computer here in a bit and try it again.

As a backup plan you can always try the website in the future.

[britrock88]

As a backup plan you can always try the website in the future.

Good to know; I'll check that out should this recur.

[Alan T]

Back in town, so turned off vacation mode. (At least for this week, looks like I have to travel the following two weeks for work though)

[britrock88]

GMR's asking for my authentication key...

[Blackadar]

New expansion incoming!

<a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/15/civilization-v-brave-new-world-preview/#more-145899">RPS has a great interview already</a>

2K Announces Sid Meier’s Civilization® V: Brave New World Expansion Pack
Second massive expansion for critically acclaimed Civilization V features new gameplay systems, strategies, scenarios and more

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2K and Firaxis Games announced today that Sid Meier's Civilization® V: Brave New World, the second expansion pack for the award-winning Civilization V, is currently in development and will be released this summer for Windows-based PC and brought to the Mac® by Aspyr Media. Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World brings a massive amount of new gameplay to the Civilization V experience, providing gamers with even more rewarding ways to achieve world domination.

“Brave New World is destined to continue the strong Civilization lineage that already includes massive expansions such as Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword and Civilization V: Gods & Kings.”

.“Civilization V: Brave New World continues the strong tradition of ambitious expansion packs that fans have come to expect from the Civilization franchise,” said Sarah Anderson, senior vice president of marketing for 2K. “Brave New World is destined to continue the strong Civilization lineage that already includes massive expansions such as Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword and Civilization V: Gods & Kings.”

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Brave New World provides new depth and replayability through the introduction of international trade and a focus on culture and diplomacy. The player’s influence around the world will be impacted by creating a number of Great Works across a variety of crafts, choosing an ideology for their civilization, and proposing global resolutions in the new World Congress. As players move through the ages of history, they will make critical decisions that influence relationships with all civilizations in the game world.

“After adding a number of great new features to Civilization V with the Gods & Kings expansion, the team continued to search for ways to create even more exciting gameplay through new systems and features,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development for Firaxis Games. “We’re happy to bring our fans another ambitious expansion that will provide hours and hours of new Civilization experiences.

Key features include:

•New Civilizations, Units and Buildings: The expansion features nine new civilizations, each with unique traits, units, buildings and all-new leaders, including Casimir III of Poland.
•New Culture Victory: Spread your culture across the globe, dominating all other cultures. Create masterpieces with Great Artists, Writers, and Musicians that are placed in key buildings across your empire, like Museums, Opera Houses and even the Great Library. Use Archaeologists to investigate sites of ancient battles and city ruins for priceless cultural artifacts. Become the first civilization with a majority influence in all other civilizations to achieve a Culture Victory, becoming the envy of the world.
•World Congress: The importance of diplomacy is intensified and city-state alliances are more important than ever. Change the diplomatic landscape through a new World Congress that votes on critical issues like implementing trade sanctions against rogue nations, limiting resource usage, designating host cities for the World Games and the use of nuclear weapons. Game-changing resolutions, vote trading, intrigue, and a new lead into the Diplomatic Victory ensures that the end of the game will be more dynamic than ever before.
•International Trade Routes: Build your cities into hubs of international trade by land and sea, creating great wealth and prosperity for your people, while also spreading religion, cultural influence, and science. The number of trade routes increases through the advancement of economics and technologies, the creation of wonders and the unique abilities of your civilization. Will you connect to a closer city for a lower payoff and a safer route, choose a longer route with more risk for the bigger payoff, or perhaps point your trade route inward, sending vitally important food and production to the far corners of your own empire?
•New Wonders: Eight new Wonders are introduced, including the Parthenon, Broadway, the Uffizi, and more.
•New Game Scenarios: Two new scenarios let gamers fight the “War Between the States” and embark on the epic Scramble for Africa. Fight the American Civil War from either the Union or Confederate side, as you focus on the critical action in the Eastern theatre of operations between the capital cities of Richmond and Washington. In “Scramble for Africa”, the great colonial powers of the world are racing to explore the Dark Continent and extend their reach into its interior. Search for great natural wonders in the heart of Africa, as you explore a dynamically-generated continent each time you play.

[cuervo72]

Sweet! Was just reading the speculation thread on what the new civs might be yesterday. Was much debate over Poland. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

And then we have Uncle Sid, demonstrating to other developers of legacy games (cough, SimCity), how you property develop and test a game and make sure that you focus on what the customer wants in the game.

Thank you, Sid. Day one purchase.

[Buccaneer]

We've been debated about the rumored expansion pack for a while now at cfc, ever since someone saw some steam folders with the name "one world". I'm glad it wasn't just our wishful thinking.

[bhlloy]

Thank God - if there was one thing this game was crying out for, it was King Casimir III of Poland

Seriously, I'm geeked about this. Gods and kings is an incredible expansion, don't expect anything less from this one

[cuervo72]

Ok, Bucc: why no Zulu?

(and am I alone in thinking Morocco/Moors is being undersold as a possible civ?)

[Passacaglia]

Only if you can rename them to Moops.

[Buccaneer]

Cuervo, it has to do with the number of ranters and screamers saying that Zulu has to be in the game. No they don't and they never offered much civ- wise in the series, just tradition.

I agree about morocco, that would nice. However I've shied away from getting involved in civ speculation since much of it was based on stupid nationalism.

I think BNW is going to be great, dovetailing nicely with g&k's emphasis on early-mid game. As long as the make World Congress a minor role and not lame like civ4's UN.

[bhlloy]

If we are talking about new civs to add I hope they consider Maori - partly because that would be cool and partly because I enjoy playing TSL and having an oceanic civ would greatly help with balance

[Buccaneer]

bhlloy, they ready did some time ago. The civ is Polynesia and its unique unit is Maori.

[bhlloy]

Is that a DLC? If its standard in G&K I have no idea how I've missed it for this long

[Buccaneer]

Yes, I believe all of the previous DLC civs were included in G&K (except for Korea?).

[bhlloy]

I have Korea but not Polynesia. Weird

[kcchief19]

I don't think the Polynesia, Denmark and Korea DLC were included in G&K. I purchased those on a Steam holiday sale six months after I purchased G&K.

Very exciting. I'm glad to see this is focusing on late-game play. I get not wanting to make the end game too silly, but right now after your reach a certain point in the game, the winner is all but determined. Sometimes the last 50-100 turns or even more are just inevitable button pushing to the conclusion.

[cuervo72]

I think they came in the GOTY edition. Well, not Korea - that was only offered standalone. But Danes, Polynesia, Spain, etc.

[Jughead Spock]

Polynesia unit is Moai, as in statue, not Maori. Maori would be cool.

Can't wait for this expansion.

[cuervo72]

No, their UU is the Maori Warrior. They can also build Moai statues as an improvement that gives culture on coastal tiles.

Maori warrior (Civ5) - Civilization (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Maori_warrior_%28Civ5%29)
Moai (Civ5) - Civilization (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Moai_%28Civ5%29)

[Jughead Spock]

http://preaprez.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/6a00d8341bf80c53ef015390e305b6970b-320wi.jpg?w=600

[kcchief19]

I think people are probably over thinking the speculation on new civilizations with BNW. There are nine new civs; we know one will be Poland. We know the U.S. Civil War will be a scenario, so don't you have to have an American/Lincoln and Confederate/Davis civ? There's the Scramble for Africa, so would make sense that we need a Belgian civ.

But will the other civs be duplicates like in Civ IV? Possibly tied to the Scramble for Africa scenario using existing civs with alternate leaders? Or will there be nine new distinct civs plus alternates?

Finally had time to read the RPS interview ... so glad to hear that the end game is the focus. In most ways G&K was a whole new game, and BNW sounds like it has even more dramatic changes. Very exciting.

[cuervo72]

The scenario would have to have one, but aren't there other scenario civs that aren't in the main game? (I've not played any, but clicking on the Polynesian one shows a number of civ icons that are a spin off of the main one).

[gstelmack]

And the FOFC game is stuck on britrock. Not that it matters much, we were down to just the 3 of us. Sigh.

[britrock88]

Oh, sorry about that! I forget that GMR doesn't load on startup. I'll get to that tonight.

[kcchief19]

Some of the new civilizations have leaked out for Brave New World: Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Zulu and Assyria. Of the other four Civs, rumors are Morocco, Sioux, Inuit, Cuba and Belgium. Some city-states are being promoted to capitals, so the confirmed by screenshot additions are: Ur, Dubai, Riga and Panama City.

Glad to see Portugal -- that has seemed like a missing Civ from the beginning.

Really can't wait for July 9. I still hit Civ 5 from time to time to try a Civ I haven't done well with and new maps, but by the time I get to the 1900s I begin to lose interest. Really hope the improvements in the end game work well.

[britrock88]

And the FOFC game is stuck on britrock. Not that it matters much, we were down to just the 3 of us. Sigh.

And I think Alan T's been on vacation mode for quite a while now... :/

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Day one. Really excited for this....

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Brave New World | Official Site | 2K (http://www.civilization5.com/bravenewworld/)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HrpTNs7pxps" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Butter]

Anyone care to give someone who just now bought Gods & Kings the short version about how best to use religion and espionage? It seemed like just all of a sudden one day I got a spy and a prophet, but not sure how best to use all the buildings and units that the religion especially seems to provide. Best to use faith to buy missionaries? What buildings can you buy with faith? What are spies best used for? I'm like 1 game in right now, and it's still a little confusing.

[cartman]

I really haven't found a whole lot of use for religions in the game. It seems the amount of work needed to nurture it isn't worth the effort.

Spies are useful to either keep in your capital to help stop spying by other countries, or you can send them to more advanced countries to steal their technology. Spies will also tell you if another country is plotting an invasion.

[Buccaneer]

I agree with cartman on religion. It offers diminishing returns and while I think it's important to get an early pantheon (folklore or fertility), the beliefs I choose are the ones more internal and does not depend upon spread. I much rather use faith to buy units or great persons, not missionaries et al (except to gain influence with city-states).

If I can steal 2-5 techs in a game with spies, then I'm happy.

[Bobble]

I really haven't found a whole lot of use for religions in the game. It seems the amount of work needed to nurture it isn't worth the effort.

Spies are useful to either keep in your capital to help stop spying by other countries, or you can send them to more advanced countries to steal their technology. Spies will also tell you if another country is plotting an invasion.

You can also send them to City-States to have them "rig and election" and gain influence.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New video from the expansion.....

<iframe id="viddler-2a422a98" src="//www.viddler.com/embed/2a422a98/?f=1&offset=0&autoplay=0&secret=103158446&disablebranding=0&view_secret=103158446" width="545" height="349" frameborder="0" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>

[RainMaker]

I can't wait for this expansion.

[Ryan S]

The new Civ 5 expansion is available for preorder at Green Man Gaming with 10% off, and if you use the following code you get another 25% reduction.

GMG25-GDSAK-7FPWQ

http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/gb/en/pc/games/strategy/sid-meiers-civilization-v-brave-new-world/

EDIT - It looks like the link to the US version is http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/gb/en/pc/games/strategy/sid-meiers-civilization-v-brave-new-world-na/

Can someone in the US check and confirm?

[Vince, Pt. II]

I agree with cartman on religion. It offers diminishing returns and while I think it's important to get an early pantheon (folklore or fertility), the beliefs I choose are the ones more internal and does not depend upon spread. I much rather use faith to buy units or great persons, not missionaries et al (except to gain influence with city-states).

If I can steal 2-5 techs in a game with spies, then I'm happy.

I've been really enjoying the combination of +1 gold per 4 followers and the "religion spreads faster (even faster after Printing Press)". If I can get my religion going early, a few great prophets/missionaries sent to establish a presence on another continent/island and I'm swimming in money.

[SackAttack]

I've been really enjoying the combination of +1 gold per 4 followers and the "religion spreads faster (even faster after Printing Press). If I can get my religion going early, a few great prophets/missionaries sent to establish a presence on another continent/island and I'm swimming in money.

I typically go for a religion as soon as I can just because the more civs who beat you to it, the harder it is to found a new one after that, and there are just too many benefits to religion even if you keep it within your own borders to let that go.

I'm a sucker for the religion perks that grant production bonuses. :-D

[Thomkal]

Steam is also having a Civ 5 free to play weekend, starting today, and has -75% off all pre-Brave New World items. (and 10% off Brave New World)

[SackAttack]

Steam is also having a Civ 5 free to play weekend, starting today, and has -75% off all pre-Brave New World items. (and 10% off Brave New World)

Yeah, the 10% off is universal among retailers that are doing preorders. Amazon, Steam, Gamefly, Newegg, GreenManGaming...

GMG has the extra 25% off voucher, as Ryan pointed out. Only drawback is you don't get the Steam key to activate your purchase until release day, as opposed to Steam where you'll be able to preload in advance.

[mckerney]

http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/strategy/sid-meiers-civilization-v-brave-new-world-na/
Civ V: Brave New World for $20.25 using voucher code GMG25-GDSAK-7FPWQ

[saldana]

just went to a website to watch some of the trailers and the release date was listed as June 9th...almost hurt myself running up the stairs to get my wallet

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Getting excited. Plan on a big night session late Monday night when the new expansion unlocks. Preparing to get sucked back in for another few hundred hours of gameplay.

[frnk55]

I too am excited for the release. God do I ever hate when games aren't released on weekends. Now I'll have to wait till next week to get some serious game play in.

[Vince, Pt. II]

My band's got two shows next weekend, and both are two-set jobs. I have yet to play a full second set on the bass, so I have a lot of learning to do. Will probably have to wait to get in on the Brave New World action. :(

[Bigsmooth]

It would have been so great if they had released the game today! Does it come out Monday night or early Monday?

[Buccaneer]

Yeah, it's going to be huge; so many new mechanics.

[RainMaker]

It would have been so great if they had released the game today! Does it come out Monday night or early Monday?

Yeah, I'd have love to marathon that thing through the holiday weekend.

[SackAttack]

It would have been so great if they had released the game today! Does it come out Monday night or early Monday?

Guessing you mean 'early Tuesday,' not Monday, and it probably depends on your time zone. My guess is midnight Pacific on the 9th.

Those who ordered through GreenManGaming for the discount will probably not be able to preload because keys won't be available until the game is released, so fair warning there.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Guessing you mean 'early Tuesday,' not Monday, and it probably depends on your time zone. My guess is midnight Pacific on the 9th.

Those who ordered through GreenManGaming for the discount will probably not be able to preload because keys won't be available until the game is released, so fair warning there.

I know the Steam releases unlock for me here at 11:00 PM CDT.

[kcchief19]

Those who ordered through GreenManGaming for the discount will probably not be able to preload because keys won't be available until the game is released, so fair warning there.
This was my first GMG purchase. Any idea when keys are released? Do they email you or do you have to login to get it?

[SackAttack]

This was my first GMG purchase. Any idea when keys are released? Do they email you or do you have to login to get it?

https://www.greenmangaming.com/user/account/#games

Log in and go there, and you should see 'Steam games.' You click that, and when the key is available, it should be there.

[SackAttack]

I know the Steam releases unlock for me here at 11:00 PM CDT.

Midnight eastern, then.

[Ryan S]

This was my first GMG purchase. Any idea when keys are released? Do they email you or do you have to login to get it?

The last time I preordered from GMG I got the keys a few days before release.

The one thing I would be concerned about is that GMG is a British site, and the EU release date is Friday.

[SackAttack]

The last time I preordered from GMG I got the keys a few days before release.

The one thing I would be concerned about is that GMG is a British site, and the EU release date is Friday.

...I think I'd cry.

OTOH, if they give you the keys a few days before release, maybe that means Tuesday after all?

[SackAttack]

OTOH GMG's page for BNW *does* say the release date is July 9, so...

[cartman]

Here's an IGN hands-on review of how late game mechanics have changed for the better.

Civilization V: Brave New World Review - IGN (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/08/civilization-v-brave-new-world-review)

[britrock88]

Who gets to the late game, anyway? :P

[kcchief19]

Who gets to the late game, anyway? :P
I would if it were more compelling. I'm generally always looking for a challenge, so I tend to play on the biggest map my computer can handle at the highest level I can compete at. I've increasingly found that by the late 20th century, the game is either won or lost and there's no point to continue. Usually the game becomes mired down once flight is discovered and it's just one war after another. I'd love for the late game to be meaningful.

[SackAttack]

Hrm. I just saw in the help database where GMG distributed their keys for Mortal Kombat last week at UTC 2:00 on July 3. That'd be, um, 2 and a half hours from now if distribution time is the same for BNW.

There's no mention of Brave New World in the help database, though, so who knows.

[Buccaneer]

I wouldn't trust any reviews from IGN. Here's a video review from someone who knows how to play Civ

Civilization 5: Brave New World REVIEW! - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFCKEAOjt_s)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Civilization V: Brave New World review | PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/review/civilization-v-brave-new-world-review/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like preload time is 11:00 PM CDT for me with release time being midnight.

[MizzouRah]

I'm not sure I can stay up that late night.. but I'm going to try. :)

[Buccaneer]

I'll get around to playing something this weekend but in the meantime, I am looking forward to reading the civilopedia, watching tutorial and let's play videos and seeing people's hyped-up expectations hit reality. ;)

[SackAttack]

There's a preorder doodad on GMG that says "out 9th July," even. C'mon, guys. Key, please. :D

[kcchief19]

I normally wouldn't care when I got my key, but since it looks like I may be up at release time, I'd like to have what I paid for. I only went through GMG for the extra discount ... guess I may now know only buy things through GMG that I don't care about. They are cutting this way too close.

[SackAttack]

+1

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I normally wouldn't care when I got my key, but since it looks like I may be up at release time, I'd like to have what I paid for. I only went through GMG for the extra discount ... guess I may now know only buy things through GMG that I don't care about. They are cutting this way too close.

Yeah, I bought through Steam just to make sure I got it. Not only that, but I usually don't buy many Day One releases, but I'm more than happy to give Sid Meier $10 extra just to show him some support and get it on time through Steam. I don't do that for many developers, but I'd do it for Sid in a heartbeat. Feel like I'm paying it forward. That guy has brought me more quality gaming hours in my lifetime than any other developer.

[kcchief19]

Yeah, I bought through Steam just to make sure I got it. Not only that, but I usually don't buy many Day One releases, but I'm more than happy to give Sid Meier $10 extra just to show him some support and get it on time through Steam. I don't do that for many developers, but I'd do it for Sid in a heartbeat. Feel like I'm paying it forward. That guy has brought me more quality gaming hours in my lifetime than any other developer.
Agreed. I even loved SimGolf! Not the crappy 1996 version, but the awesome 2002 version.

I should have gone the Steam route ... first and probably last GMG purchase. I don't buy a lot of games anyway so it's no loss for them. My budget-mindedness won out this time, but getting what I want when I want it will win out next time.

[mckerney]

Agreed. I even loved SimGolf! Not the crappy 1996 version, but the awesome 2002 version.

I should have gone the Steam route ... first and probably last GMG purchase. I don't buy a lot of games anyway so it's no loss for them. My budget-mindedness won out this time, but getting what I want when I want it will win out next time.

GMG is great if you want to save 20-30% on a preorder, not so much if you want to play the game right away.

[RainMaker]

So how does it work with Steam on expansion packs? Does it just automatically update the title? Will I see it downloading? I purchased it but I don't see it listed anywhere. I must have gone through this with Gods and Kings but don't remember how it updated.

[SackAttack]

So how does it work with Steam on expansion packs? Does it just automatically update the title? Will I see it downloading? I purchased it but I don't see it listed anywhere. I must have gone through this with Gods and Kings but don't remember how it updated.

I bought G&K retail and it just downloaded the stuff (and appended to the main EXE apparently; Civ IV, Beyond The Sword seems to be its own thing, but not Civ V and G&K).

This is my first digital purchase of a Civspansion.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

So how does it work with Steam on expansion packs? Does it just automatically update the title? Will I see it downloading? I purchased it but I don't see it listed anywhere. I must have gone through this with Gods and Kings but don't remember how it updated.

It just pops up and starts downloading. Nothing yet, but I'll keep looking back every three minutes. :)

[cartman]

Hmmm, running into an issue on Steam. Saw that BNW was unlocked, so I launched Civ V. In the DLC section, Brave New World Expansion Pack is there, but unchecked. I check the circle, but the check isn't sticking.

[Buccaneer]

You may have to restart Steam a few times (for those waiting for it). It took me about 3 after before it kicked in. Download is less than 1gb so it should go pretty fast.

[cartman]

It downloaded, so I'm doing a verify integrity of the local game cache.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Downloading now.

[RainMaker]

Downloading here now too. Have to close and restart it from what I saw.

[cartman]

There we go. Verifying the cache fixed it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Performing setup. 33 steps?????

[Buccaneer]

Download took 9 minutes. Getting to step 14 took 17 minutes so far. Lol.

[cartman]

These new trade routes are going to take some getting used to. It says I can establish trade routes, but I don't seem to be able to build a trade unit yet.

edit: ah, have to research Animal Husbandry first

[SackAttack]

/waits patiently for GMG to get its shit together

Their rep on the forum was claiming it'd be in by an hour before release.

[cartman]

Only 50 turns into a first game as Venice. The trade routes still aren't making sense, and that is the biggest new thing I've seen so far. For Policies, there are several new trees, but it will be a while until they are unlocked for me.

[kcchief19]

Only 50 turns into a first game as Venice. The trade routes still aren't making sense, and that is the biggest new thing I've seen so far. For Policies, there are several new trees, but it will be a while until they are unlocked for me.
Venice sounds like a fun challenge but a difficult one out of the box. Interesting to hear how it works.

[cartman]

Venice sounds like a fun challenge but a difficult one out of the box. Interesting to hear how it works.

It is almost like a One City Challenge, except you can make City-States into puppets with Merchants of Venice. Just did that to one City-State.

[cartman]

Barbarians seem to be "smarter" in this version. They will do better with healing, as well as upgrading their units.

[kcchief19]

Appears Gamersgate buyers are also code-less, so it's plaguing other retailers than just GMG. Is it a 2K problem, Steam trying to assert dominance, or incompetence?

Steam and GMG forums are in full meltdown mode.

[cartman]

Ok, if I don't stop now, I'll be up until 6am. :) The changes are subtle, but intriguing. It is going to take a while to soak it all in.

[SackAttack]

My code came in about 2 and a half hours ago, FYI. If you ordered from GMG, check your email; my account still doesn't have a code associated with it, but I got an email including it.

[kcchief19]

I got my code in my email a little before 4am CT. It doesn't show up in GMG unless I click download.

[MizzouRah]

I left my pc on last night.. it's all loaded up and ready to go.

Will kick off a game tonight after soccer practice.

[SackAttack]

I'm going back to bed for a few (if I had known GMG would be four hours late, I'd have gone to bed earlier), but I fucked around with BNW for about half an hour.

I...think the Shoshone are going to be my new favorite Civ to play.

[SackAttack]

Also, per a press email I just got from 2K Games:

*Civilization V: Brave New World requires Civilization V to play and includes all gameplay content added in Civilization V: Gods & Kings except for the nine Civilizations and three scenarios that were included in Gods & Kings.

If you have vanilla Civ V and not Gods & Kings, you can skip straight to Brave New World unless you want the extra civs and scenarios (and pick up BNW in a Steam sale or something to get those civs cheap).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Fell asleep last night while playing the game. Did make it in a ways. Really like the changes to some of the victory conditions and how you achieve them. Gives you more options on how to win, which it didn't feel like it was quite as open before with G&K.

Playing some more now. Nothing like the one more turn influenza.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

dola

It does feel like it's a bit harder to keep the civ happy. Going to have to play through a bit more to see if it's just this game or if things were adjusted slightly in the new expansion.

[kcchief19]

My first game is the opposite. I'm swimming in happiness, and that's usually a weakness of mine.

What's a bitch is defending trade routes. I've built three trade routes and had a barbarian pillage them within three turns each time. You have to eradicate barbarians to have trade routes.

[Buccaneer]

Following every step of pre-release there were two major changes for those playing straight up strategy: removing the three gold exploits and changing the victory conditions to something less cheesy or boring. Now if they can dial back happiness and policies so we don't get so much of them, that will to decision making.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Still trying to figure out the trade route stuff. My bank account is suffering right now.

[Icy]

Damn, Steam release in Spain is in two days, hate this stuff about zones with Steam, first i had to pay it in Euros, paying a 30% more than in $, than i need to wait two more days :/

[SackAttack]

Still trying to figure out the trade route stuff. My bank account is suffering right now.

It looks like you have to have a prospective partner (intra- or extra-civ) within a particular distance of the origination point or you can't assign the caravan to the route.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Following every step of pre-release there were two major changes for those playing straight up strategy: removing the three gold exploits and changing the victory conditions to something less cheesy or boring. Now if they can dial back happiness and policies so we don't get so much of them, that will to decision making.

Goes to show you how differently I play these games than lots of folks. I don't even know of one, much less three, gold exploit.

I tend to play on "king" difficulty level and it's usually a toss-up as to whether I win. I really enjoy the game and have put over 190 hours into it (according to Steam), but I think I'm a bit more casual about how I play.

[kcchief19]

Still trying to figure out the trade route stuff. My bank account is suffering right now.
My fear is that it would be overly complicated, and it some ways it is. There a few too many caveats on when and who you can connect to and how many trade routes you can have.

My bigger pain is great artists. I had a great writer, but I only had a great artist slot. Sigh.

[kcchief19]

I'm going back to bed for a few (if I had known GMG would be four hours late, I'd have gone to bed earlier), but I fucked around with BNW for about half an hour.

I...think the Shoshone are going to be my new favorite Civ to play.
The Shoshone are evil bastards. I was friendly with them, then the asked me to join them in a war against the Aztecs. The Aztecs were on my eastern border and more powerful militarily than me, so I didn't really want to mess with them at the time.

Few turns later, I have a massive Shoshone army marching up my ass. They declare war even though there appeared to be no reason -- they didn't covet anything I wanted and they weren't ticked about anything. I had a diplomat in their capital, and he never saw this coming.

After they took my capital they offered me peace asking for two of my cities in return. I counter offered an unconditional peace and they took it. I've never seen the AI take a peace counter offer before. Nice.

Playing with the Shoshone next game. Can't beat them, join them.

[Thomkal]

Some of the Yogscast gang take on Brave New World-one as the aforementioned Shoshone-another as France, and the third as Venice who makes some rather unfortunate decisions :)

Civ 5: Brave New World - Part 1 - Gotta have Faith - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdne_tz9c0)

[cartman]

It seems that if you want trade routes, you have to focus your military on barbarians. Forget about trying any kind of conquest.

[Coffee Warlord]

1 - Happiness seems much harder to come by.
2 - I'm thus far underwhelmed by trade routes.
3 - I think it's kinda neat that certain wonders can only be built if you pick a certain social policy.
4 - It's extremely minor, but I like the fact that iron is revealed with bronze working, instead of iron working.
5 - Those Egyptian sons of bitches are going down tonight. Got a map that started me on a good sized island with just me and Egypt. There can be only one.

[cartman]

Once you get the barbarians taken care of, trade routes are pretty lucrative. It seems that they also keep down random wars from breaking out, since being in a war cancels any trade routes you might have with that Civ.

I'm into the 1900s with my initial Venetian experiment. We seem to be holding our own. It will be interesting to see how the late game changes affect things from here on out.

[SackAttack]

It seems that if you want trade routes, you have to focus your military on barbarians. Forget about trying any kind of conquest.

Or else keep your trade routes short.

1 - Happiness seems much harder to come by.

I haven't noticed that yet, but that's probably because of the Shoshone city sprawl on foundation (and I place my cities near luxury resources, so...)

2 - I'm thus far underwhelmed by trade routes.

I think for me it's a matter of not quite understanding how one earns them. I played a game last night where I had cities within the appropriate distance of three civs and two city states and I only had two trade routes available to me.

3 - I think it's kinda neat that certain wonders can only be built if you pick a certain social policy.

Yep, although I confess I don't quite understand how they decided which civs to pair with which policy tree. Liberty + Pyramids?

4 - It's extremely minor, but I like the fact that iron is revealed with bronze working, instead of iron working.

Yeah, the tech tree seems to have changed, and for that reason alone I'm regretting having gotten the digital edition instead of buying it at Best Buy. Yes, I'd have had to download the game anyway, but new tech tree dammit.

Certain dependencies have changed, both for researching techs and for the reward for those techs. Hell, some wonders have changed. Terracotta Army doubled my military size last night. That caught me off guard.

[kcchief19]

The iron with bronze actually works for me. It makes more sense to me to discover the resource, mine it, then research the uses. I think it was too much of AI advantage to simultaneously discover the resource and the units.

I do agree trade routes are a bit underwhelming thus far. Maybe will make more sense when I understand them more. If you're fortunate enough to get in a scenario without barbarian disruptions, they are a gold machine. If barbarians keep screwing with you, you are hosed.

Playing my second round with Shoshone ... they are fun. The larger cities off the get go are fantastic advantage. Your cities just grow like crazy. The Pathfinder unit is awesome as well, it's basically a scout that fights like a warrior.

I'm entering the 1800s now, we just had our first World Congress vote. Not really pleased with how that's implemented so far. There were two measures up for vote, but I could only pledge my delegate once. You have to have more than 1 delegate to vote on both measures.

On the vote, I voted no against banning incense because I had incense, and the measure failed by wide margin. The vote to ban gold was 5-5, and if I had voted to ban gold, it would have hurt my opponents.

I'm really perplexed about happiness. I'm having a much easier time maintaining happiness than usual. I had one minor bout of unhappiness with Shoshone, but that was because I'm on an archipelago map and there were no other Civs in my area I could reach without crossing oceans. Once I met other civs and could trade, it was all good.

I was a bit surprised by the changes in how unhappiness affects your production and military. It's incremental now instead of absolute, so there's a penalty for even the slightest unhappiness.

Having fun so far, but waiting to see what the game is like once I get the 20th century.

[finketr]

Some of the Yogscast gang take on Brave New World-one as the aforementioned Shoshone-another as France, and the third as Venice who makes some rather unfortunate decisions :)

Civ 5: Brave New World - Part 1 - Gotta have Faith - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdne_tz9c0)

those guys crack me up with some of their minecraft videos, too

[Qwikshot]

Shoshone are definately interesting...I had an interesting thing occur at the start of my game...Right before I settled my first city, I noticed a settler unit a little north of me, it was the city state Yerevan. I guess at the start of the game, City-States have a settler unit. I managed to capture it and Yerevan did not exist further in the game.

[Coffee Warlord]

Has anyone else noted a bit of a decrease in performance as well? I expect the game to be sluggish in the later game (I play ginormous maps), but it seems to me that the usual bouts of lags and slowness are rearing their heads earlier.

On the flipside, my computer is starting to get a little long in the tooth, and is due for one of the dreaded 'big' upgrades - so it could be me.

[Bisbo]

Has anyone else noted a bit of a decrease in performance as well? I expect the game to be sluggish in the later game (I play ginormous maps), but it seems to me that the usual bouts of lags and slowness are rearing their heads earlier.

On the flipside, my computer is starting to get a little long in the tooth, and is due for one of the dreaded 'big' upgrades - so it could be me.

Yes, I've noticed the same thing, but my rig is about three years old.

[cartman]

I've noticed a bit of slowdown compared to G&Ks as well , and I'm on a beast of a desktop.

[kcchief19]

Mine is a little slow but wasn't sure if that was due to the map or the fact that I've been multitasking a lot lately and haven't rebooted recently.

[nilodor]

Mine is slower as well, but it was this way when GaK came out, then the first patch really helped it along. I expect that it will be addressed in the first couple of patches for BNW as well.

Also I'm really digging (pun intended) the new route to culture win. I just hit archeology and I have no idea if I will be able to pull it off. I'm not sure if to win my tourism has to outstrip there culture on a 1:1 basis. If so, I'm in a huge hole and it's going to be tough to get there without some bloodshed.

[kcchief19]

So far I'm generally giving the changes a thumbs up. After getting thoroughly whipped in my first game, I stepped down from Immortal to Emperor level to acclimate myself more.

In my second game with the Shoshone, it looks like a race between me and Germany with Ethiopia lurking. I use random maps, and got an archipelago map that has limited some of the wars. I have two large land masses all to myself with one city state, then there is a third land mass with two of my cities, two Arabian cities and one German city. I think if world war ever breaks out, it will be there. Germany and I are not getting along right now.

Trade routes seem over rated. They generate a crap load of gold so you have to develop them, and they are integral to developing city state relationships. But after a while they seem to just to be one of those tasks you have to do.

The World Congress is pretty cool. Ethiopia keeps trying to shove their religion as the world religion. When I got a chance to offer a resolution, I offered up the World's Fair and won it. The reward is ridonkulous. You basically get a free social policy, a golden age and I believe double culture for 25 turns.

I also kind of like the new social policies and ideologies. There are some very powerful rewards in ideologies. On the bright side is that it's no longer just a race to five policies to win. On the downside, a culture in is going to be difficulty on a big map. I'm absolutely dominating the world in tourism in this current game, and the only civ I'm close to influencing is France, and Germany will have them conquered pretty soon.

So far, I give the changes a thumbs up. Now let's see if it gets too monotonous.

[kcchief19]

Nifty notification just came in ... The people of The Zulus have risen up and forced their leader to adopt the Order Ideology. Interesting. They were listed as being in resistance on the Culture Victory screen. They were the only other civilization that adopted Autocracy just like me.

Now Ethiopia has a Civil Resistance, and they are the only other Civ besides my not to have Order as their ideology. Is the Order Spring coming to The Shoshone next? My people are the second-happiest in the world (90 happiness) and I'm easily the most influential culture. Hope I'm not next.

[Bigsmooth]

Best thing about the caravans/cargo ship's so far is the ability to ship food and hammers to a new city. I've got 4 cities with 20+ pop and just placed a fifth for some aluminum. The new city is rising fast which is pretty cool.

[Thomkal]

I haven't played Civ 5 multiplayer, but this might be an easier way for those of you who do:

Civilization 5's online match-ups made easier with Giant Multiplayer Robot | Mods, News | PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/17/civilization-5s-online-match-ups-made-easier-with-giant-multiplayer-robot/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=emp)

[kcchief19]

One annoying flaw remains on the last turn of the game. I was in a nip and tuck battle with Germany for the game score lead. In the last couple of votes for world leader I had over 40 votes heading into the turn, only to have enough coups launched against my allies to take me down short of 40.

Late in the game I began running into a gold crunch, and Germany passed me in the game score. So I launched an attack against Germany hoping to take a city or two and pumped my gold into city states. I made one tactical error, deciding to liberate an Arabian puppet city I recaptured from Germany, which Arabia lost again a couple of moves later. I also started my attack late -- if I had one more turn, Munich would have fallen to me.

But I had bumped up to 46 world leader votes, and old suffered three coups leading up to the vote in turn 500 ... only for the vote to never take place. Game over. I would have won the game with 40 votes, but Germany had the higher game score. I don't know why the game still tells you there will be a world leader vote on turn 500 if it never takes place.

[Bigsmooth]

Just wrapped up a game on King that I was absolutely dominating in culture and science. Had a game score about 400 higher than the next civ. I thought I was cruising to an easy victory and wasn't really paying attention to City States as it's such a pain in the arse. Needless to say Alexander became allied to all 20 City States and won via Diplomacy in about 1950 despite being about 800 behind on game score. Lesson learned I suppose.

[Buccaneer]

BNW is making people pay more attention to a lot of things. My current Immortal game is playing like Deity+; just struggling on a challenging map, except for gold.

[Flasch186]

I just got all of the addons and BNW and I loaded it up today. It did a very big DL before starting and then when it did I started the game using the windows 8 configuration since thats what the startup recommended. Well in game Im constantly crashing. So much so that its unplayable. Any suggestions??

[Tigercat]

I get crashing on the windows 8 mode on my gaming laptop as well. I just play it on the best non-windows 8 version and it runs with no problems. But I personally don't care about not having touch screenesque controls.

[Flasch186]

Ok, I dont even have a touch screen so I only picked it because it was recommended....

I just tried the DX 10/11 version and it didnt make it past the loading screen before a CTD

Wow and DX9 looks terrible. argh

[Mike Lowe]

Is the latest expansion worth getting?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Is the latest expansion worth getting?

Absolutely. Adds a lot more to the game. World Congress/UN is much more important and the religions/culture parts of the game become more useful and relevant than they were before.

[nilodor]

Is the latest expansion worth getting?

100% agree with Mizzou. The new expansion helps create a complete experience that was lacking after G&K. It's a big jump in my opinion.

[SackAttack]

BNW is incredible.

[Buccaneer]

BNW is incredible, as long as you go for anything other than Diplomacy Victory (which is extremely easy). I've only had a chance to play a few long games and playing at Immortal, the other victories (esp. Cultural) are challenging as long as you don't roll all passive AI opponents.

[SackAttack]

Speaking of BNW, Amazon has it for $14.99 right now (you get a Steam code for redemption) : Amazon.com: Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World [Online Game Code]: Video Games (http://www.amazon.com/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-Brave-Online/dp/B00CYOHL48/ref=dsv_bl_pop)

If you don't have any Civ V, you can get Civ V Complete + the BNW expansion for $29.99: Amazon.com: CIV V COMPLETE GOLD [Online Game Code]: Video Games (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ELJROFA/ref=amb_link_382651142_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=1Q58JQ14D0T8WK83G4ST&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1608978062&pf_rd_i=B00CYOHL48)

[Thomkal]

Speaking of BNW, Amazon has it for $14.99 right now (you get a Steam code for redemption) : Amazon.com: Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World [Online Game Code]: Video Games (http://www.amazon.com/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-Brave-Online/dp/B00CYOHL48/ref=dsv_bl_pop)

If you don't have any Civ V, you can get Civ V Complete + the BNW expansion for $29.99: Amazon.com: CIV V COMPLETE GOLD [Online Game Code]: Video Games (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ELJROFA/ref=amb_link_382651142_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=1Q58JQ14D0T8WK83G4ST&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1608978062&pf_rd_i=B00CYOHL48)


Thanks Sack (or should that be Curse you Sack?)-been waiting on a good deal on Brave New World. :)

[SackAttack]

I accept thanks and curses equally. :cool:

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

$12 for Brave New World.

Newegg.com - Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World [Online Game Code] (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=JK8u2BT-EeOLr2pDFXlv0Q0_u2Sh3_kuO_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16832205069&cm_sp=)

[Qwikshot]

Playing CIV with BNW is dangerous to my free time. I played Venice last weekend and never had so much fun (I liked the Shoshone as well) but it is such a time consumer when I have so much else to do...too addicting.

[Buccaneer]

Yep, given my usual meticulous style of play, BNW games are taking even longer - into the 30 hour range - but enjoy every minute of it. Been playing a science-centric game on immortal all weekend because I really wanted to learn how to focus on food and growth to get high bpt. Now if I can get the last techs and build the parts before my long-time nemesis, Greece, wins diplomacy. I've done well in Civ5 against most opponents but I really love/hate having Greece in my game, they are one of the few good AI opponents. My first BNW game was with the Shoshone and liked them a lot; I will try Venice sometime as well.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yep, given my usual meticulous style of play, BNW games are taking even longer - into the 30 hour range - but enjoy every minute of it. Been playing a science-centric game on immortal all weekend because I really wanted to learn how to focus on food and growth to get high bpt. Now if I can get the last techs and build the parts before my long-time nemesis, Greece, wins diplomacy. I've done well in Civ5 against most opponents but I really love/hate having Greece in my game, they are one of the few good AI opponents. My first BNW game was with the Shoshone and liked them a lot; I will try Venice sometime as well.

I don't know how some of you manage to play the game at that level. I have a blast with the game, but usually play at the middle level or one above and find it to be plenty difficult for me. I'm obviously not very good at the game. :)

[Buccaneer]

Practice and lots of studying, like anything else you want to get good at. While BNW is much more involved (having to pay attention to everything constantly), deity and immortal do play easier at times if you have a majority of passive AI opponents.

[JPhillips]

I don't know how some of you manage to play the game at that level. I have a blast with the game, but usually play at the middle level or one above and find it to be plenty difficult for me. I'm obviously not very good at the game. :)

+1

[Butter]

Yeah, I'm with Stupids. I can't play at Immortal or Deity at all. I can barely manage to win on Prince difficulty most of the time.

[Fidatelo]

+3

[RainMaker]

Diety is kind of silly and if I ever reached a point where I needed to play on it to be competitive, I'd quit. At that point the AI is cheating so hard that you have to utilize as many exploits as possible to defeat them. It ceases to be a strategy game at that point and more about who knows what cheats to use and when.

[RainMaker]

And while I love the game, I do wish more effort went into the AI. It's improved and they've eliminated some of the more well-known exploits, but they still do some dumb things that I think could improve the game dramatically and increase difficulty without having to resort to cheats.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Diety is kind of silly and if I ever reached a point where I needed to play on it to be competitive, I'd quit. At that point the AI is cheating so hard that you have to utilize as many exploits as possible to defeat them. It ceases to be a strategy game at that point and more about who knows what cheats to use and when.

I have intentionally steered clear of any Civ communities for this reason. As frustrating as the game can be at times because I feel I've never fully mastered it, I still enjoy my struggles trying to figure out ways to win as opposed to finding ways to micromanage the game and feel like I'm working more on manipulating the game.

[Honolulu_Blue]

While I have already logged 230+ hours or so on Civ V and, very likely, multiples of that on Civ IV, I am by no means an expert. I have mastered "prince" level, but my record on "king" is spotty at best.

I would never call my playing style meticulous. Every once in a while I venture into the Civ communities, but I never really understand all of their exploits and methods. I'm fine with that. I still love the game and enjoy playing it.

[kcchief19]

I have tried Immortal level but never played Deity. Emperor gives me the most challenge I can handle. My win rate is low on Emperor, but I'd rather get my ass kicked 90 percent of the time than pile up less satisfying wins.

I'm like MBBF, I sometimes research rudimentary strategies for how to play with a specific Civ I've never used before, but I've never looked up cheats and exploits.

[Buccaneer]

I will give you an idea of what a good science strategy would be that has nothing to do with "cheats and exploits". Growth is the key to science which is the key to everything. Are you getting Education (which has universities that allow you to run your first two science specialists) researched by turn 120 (roughly) and getting 250 bpt shortly after that? Are you getting Scientific Theory (public schools) by turn 170 and Plastics (research labs) by 220?

To do all this, are you quickly growing your cities so you have 3 cities size 7-8 (with National College) by turn 80-95? Or are you not settling good food sites or are you wasting time building early wonders apart from Pyramids or Oracle? Are you only choosing Tradition or Liberty and not both (except for openers)? I hope you are not wasting time with Honor or Piety in the early game.

It doesn't matter if you are going for space, cultural or domination - getting and increasing the tech lead by mid-game is critical so you have the first shot at key wonders or military superiority or to the ending techs. That's what the higher levels demand and it all starts with growth.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I will give you an idea of what a good science strategy would be that has nothing to do with "cheats and exploits". Growth is the key to science which is the key to everything. Are you getting Education (which has universities that allow you to run your first two science specialists) researched by turn 120 (roughly) and getting 250 bpt shortly after that? Are you getting Scientific Theory (public schools) by turn 170 and Plastics (research labs) by 220?

To do all this, are you quickly growing your cities so you have 3 cities size 7-8 (with National College) by turn 80-95? Or are you not settling good food sites or are you wasting time building early wonders apart from Pyramids or Oracle? Are you only choosing Tradition or Liberty and not both (except for openers)? I hope you are not wasting time with Honor or Piety in the early game.

It doesn't matter if you are going for space, cultural or domination - getting and increasing the tech lead by mid-game is critical so you have the first shot at key wonders or military superiority or to the ending techs. That's what the higher levels demand and it all starts with growth.

Yeah, I must suck. :)

Do you use the new caravans to enhance that growth or are you just very focused on finding food-rich locations? I tend to look for locations that are focused on resources/luxuries regardless of food, but maybe that's not the best idea. I do tend to have slower growth than most civs.

[lighthousekeeper]

Are you getting Education (which has universities that allow you to run your first two science specialists) researched by turn 120 (roughly) and getting 250 bpt shortly after that? Are you getting Scientific Theory (public schools) by turn 170 and Plastics (research labs) by 220?

To do all this, are you quickly growing your cities so you have 3 cities size 7-8 (with National College) by turn 80-95? Or are you not settling good food sites or are you wasting time building early wonders apart from Pyramids or Oracle? Are you only choosing Tradition or Liberty and not both (except for openers)? I hope you are not wasting time with Honor or Piety in the early game.

It doesn't matter if you are going for space, cultural or domination - getting and increasing the tech lead by mid-game is critical so you have the first shot at key wonders or military superiority or to the ending techs. That's what the higher levels demand and it all starts with growth.

blegh - sounds like the recipe on how to make playing a game not fun anymore.

[Buccaneer]

Those are good questions. Up through G&K, I would settle sites depending on the number of luxuries in the 2nd and 3rd rings. But in BNW, I learned that food sites (rivers, grass, cows, wheats) are more important.

As far as your first or two caravans, some do send food to the 2nd or 3rd cities to help them grow quickly. Alternatively, if you don't have the big gold luxuries, it may be better to send the caravans off to trade. One of the advantages of doing that early is that you can pick up an additional 3-6 science, which is huge in the early game.

[Buccaneer]

The fun is in the challenge because there are tons of variables and conditions that you have react to. But that's why there are easy levels, :)

[albionmoonlight]

Stupid question. In BNW, if I send a caravan to one of my cities, and it says that it will send 4 food. Does that transfer the food from one to the other, or does it create 4 food out of nothing?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

As far as your first or two caravans, some do send food to the 2nd or 3rd cities to help them grow quickly. Alternatively, if you don't have the big gold luxuries, it may be better to send the caravans off to trade. One of the advantages of doing that early is that you can pick up an additional 3-6 science, which is huge in the early game.

Yeah, this is the part I'm having a hard time balancing right now. I get along pretty quickly and then suddenly hit a wall with gold or unhappiness issues. Last night, I was Baducca (sp?). Got piety early and really focused a lot on faith. Was able to buy a couple of buildings with faith for my cities really quickly (think it was padogas and mosques). I went to war to take over a weak Ottoman civ and had some real issues because I started the war with only around 12 happiness. Had a big civ, (8 cities by turn 160 or so) but was really struggling to keep happiness above zero.

[Buccaneer]

Here's an example of a challenge that's fun. In my current game, which I have been working at a lot since Friday, I'm trying to get the last few techs to quickly build the last two parts. Then there is Greece, who has always given me trouble in civ5, trying hard to win diplomacy. World leader votes are coming up every 20 turns and twice before, they have had a commanding lead in delegates. In addition keeping my tech rate high (around 850), I also have amass lots of gold during those 20 turns so I do not lose. I've done it twice but not sure about the third time, going to be a tight race. All this with 3 cities, two which are relatively small.

[Buccaneer]

Albion, out of nothing as long as you have required buildings (granary, workshop).