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Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

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Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#151

Post by manyxcxi »

pimeys wrote: post #143
manyxcxi wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I like 5, in all the ways that it's different- but I always feel like 5 has a long expanse of seemingly meaningless turns until all of a sudden things get good. Then it will have another long lull between interesting events. Maybe in a way, the team finally got their model of Civilization true to real life? :)

The Brave New World expansion really fixed this. With the world congress, trading and collecting art, there are no more meaningless turns in the game. Definitely try it out.

I bought all the expansions in a Steam sale (I think it was like $5 or $15 for all of them, couldn't press buy fast enough). You're definitely right about BNW having a lot more to do between turns. I kind of forgot that World Congress was part of the expansion- I can't remember playing Civ 5 without it. It's one of my favorite parts of the game, though I do wish it was a little easier or possible to get other civs to form a voting bloc.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#152

Post by fennecfoxen »

jhanschoo wrote: post #50
kinghajj wrote: post #39

Nobody else has mentioned this, but something Civ has taught me is how to appreciate realpolitik. Nothing makes it more clear than when you catch yourself having thoughts like: - "Washington spawned too close for comfort; they're a threat to my peoples' long term security. Annihilate them first." - "Hmm, the Mayans have some strategically valuable territory..." - "Hey, the Persians are way back in the Renaissance, wh…

If you're interested in realpolitik in games, I'd like to recommend the excellent Crusader Kings II game and its DLC. You play as a feudal ruler, and find your character plotting murders, marrying off daughters, and conspiring for claims to titles.

> You play as a feudal ruler

More specifically, that means that you have other rulers under you who may be providing the bulk of your armies... rulers who may have designs on your throne, and their own allies. And even if they're theoretically loyal to you, your son may be at risk of being stabbed by a brother-in-law with designs on your kingdom - leaving your daughter in a very delicate situation only a few steps away from Game Over. Perhaps that will mean it's time to replace your wife and try for a new heir (good luck with the papal divorce politics, better have some poison ready in case that doesn't work).

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#153

Post by sevensor »

chadzawistowski wrote: post #37
brandnewlow wrote: post #16

I've played 1-5 extensively and Civ III is the most fun by far. Anyone know how I can get Civ III on a Mac? It's been "not available" here forever: http://www.aspyr.com/games/sid-meiers-civilization-iii-compl... I've tried playing the Windows version via Parallels but it fails out during load.

I have gotten it to run in Wine before, after struggles with `lsans.fot`.

This is how I play Civ 3, and it works great except that it hangs on exit. Fine by me.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#154

Post by listic »

chongli wrote: post #52
foobarian wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worth mentioning Master of Magic. It's Civilization I with spells.

Yes! And get the Caster of Magic fan-made patch[0]. It fixes a ton of bugs and rebalances the game in some dramatic ways. The author has had to severely tone down the bonuses the AI gets at higher difficulty levels and it still feels way more difficult than the original game! I've got several of my friends hooked on this new version, we just can't seem to get enough! [0] http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?…

From the description, it's a pretty severe revamp of the game. Do you think it is justified? Also, I wonder, how did he go about improving the AI: it's a closed source game, after all.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#155

Post by jharger »

zem wrote: post #42
mattzito wrote: post #24

I started playing civilization when I was 12 or 13 (Civilization 1), and still, to this day, the closest thing I have to meditation is playing Civ V. I travel a decent amount, and one of my great joys is being on a plane without wifi but with inseat power (Civ V on the mac is a ridiculous power hog), and knowing that I've got X hours of civilization to play with no one to bother me. My strategy isn't great, I have ev…

not sure if it's just because I'm older and less into gaming, but civ5 seems markedly less fun as a game than civ1 and civ2 were. I just couldn't get into it, and I used to spend entire nights on the older games.

I feel the same way, and have been playing Civ since about 92.

One of the reasons (I think) that Civ 5 is not quite as much fun is the fact that the City no longer really has that sense of individuality.

In previous versions, the City was IT. Each one had its own production, trade, corruption, waste, polution, etc. It had personality! If a particular city had trouble, it could shut down or become extremely inefficient at production. The new game doesn't have this, only the aggregate of anything matters.

For me the game lost a bit of its personality, and that's why I like the older ones better.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#156

Post by moomin »

vacri wrote: post #51
bryanlarsen wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess, II was the first you played? Everybody has a special attachment to the first one they got addicted too. In my opinion II was the worst of the five. It was basically the same as the first with more of everything. More techs, more unit types et cetera. Didn't really add anything to the game except make it longer. It meant you couldn't finish a game in a single sitting which really lessened the appeal to m…

In my opinion, each civ built on the last, until 5 plummeted the interest factor. Played 1 first.

Same, I've played a lot of 1,2 and 3, but 4 was ridiculously deep and well balanced. Never got past Prince.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#157

Post by fennecfoxen »

zem wrote: post #42
mattzito wrote: post #24

I started playing civilization when I was 12 or 13 (Civilization 1), and still, to this day, the closest thing I have to meditation is playing Civ V. I travel a decent amount, and one of my great joys is being on a plane without wifi but with inseat power (Civ V on the mac is a ridiculous power hog), and knowing that I've got X hours of civilization to play with no one to bother me. My strategy isn't great, I have ev…

not sure if it's just because I'm older and less into gaming, but civ5 seems markedly less fun as a game than civ1 and civ2 were. I just couldn't get into it, and I used to spend entire nights on the older games.

You know what I miss? Civilization: Call to Power. Its balance was always a little wobbly, but I liked dragging my civilization into the Diamond Age, building cities in space, bombarding the enemy from orbit and taking out their capitol with nanites.

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#158

Post by fennecfoxen »

jjxw wrote: post #80
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is remarkable how the win-or-lose outcome of the game changes the player's mindset. In the normal course of real events, I probably would never kill billions of people, but if I have 60% of the world population and I need 64% to win the game, it actually makes perfect sense to just nuke everybody, to bring down the denominator.

Better hope that if / when general intelligence AI arrives that there are isn't anything which optimizes for "bringing down the denominator" of the human population.

I'm confident that there will be plenty of AIs built which would like to optimize for that. (Why you would imagine them to be attached to systems capable of doing anything about it is another matter, though...)

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#159

Post by sevensor »

chongli wrote: post #52
foobarian wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worth mentioning Master of Magic. It's Civilization I with spells.

Yes! And get the Caster of Magic fan-made patch[0]. It fixes a ton of bugs and rebalances the game in some dramatic ways. The author has had to severely tone down the bonuses the AI gets at higher difficulty levels and it still feels way more difficult than the original game! I've got several of my friends hooked on this new version, we just can't seem to get enough! [0] http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?…

Thank you for this! I love MoM but I'm constantly saddened by the crashing bugs, the units with negative hit points, and so on. I'll have to try it out!

Re: Civilization: 25 years, 33M copies sold, 1B hours played, and 66 versions

#160

Post by xlm1717 »

manyxcxi wrote: post #151
pimeys wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Brave New World expansion really fixed this. With the world congress, trading and collecting art, there are no more meaningless turns in the game. Definitely try it out.

I bought all the expansions in a Steam sale (I think it was like $5 or $15 for all of them, couldn't press buy fast enough). You're definitely right about BNW having a lot more to do between turns. I kind of forgot that World Congress was part of the expansion- I can't remember playing Civ 5 without it. It's one of my favorite parts of the game, though I do wish it was a little easier or possible to get other civs to…

It's not that difficult. You just need to have something another civ wants, and trade them for their vote on an issue. Also, you can form your own voting bloc by allying city-states.
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