Civilization V Announced For This Fall 326
sopssa writes "2K Games announced today that they will be releasing Civilization V in the fall. For the first time in the series, the square tiles will be changed to hexes, which 2K Games says provides 'deeper strategy' and 'more realistic gameplay.' Civilization V will also include a new graphics engine, new combat system including ranged bombardment, multiplayer and good support for the modding community. 'Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team. Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series,' Sid Meier said. In addition to Civilization V, the Facebook-based Civilization Network will also be released during 2010."
SO EXCITED!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Some of our best LANs were had with Civilization 4...hell, I played through Mirror's Edge start to finish in between turns during an extended Civ 4 LAN weekend.
Crazy insanely excited about this. The screenshots look awesome.
Re: (Score:2)
Lately I've been mucking around with the FreeCiv beta... looks like I'll only have about 6-9 months between release of FreeCiv and Civ5. I guess I'd better get all my home projects done this spring and summer.
Re: (Score:2)
Moddability = Success (Score:5, Insightful)
Before you mod me down; I know, I mod for Civilization 4.t [civfanatics.com]
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure how much I agree with that...I think its staying power will depend on how moddable it is, but I don't think that will matter at first. It took a couple of years before I started looking into the Civ4 modding scene as a way to extend the life of the game.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've wondered why CivIII, Civ4 (and AC) never got console ports, like CivI and CivII did. Thy're turn based and not that all graphically intensive and PS2's/PS3's have USB ports so they could even throw in a traditional control scheme in addition to a DualShock oriented one.
Re: (Score:2)
I've wondered why CivIII, Civ4 (and AC) never got console ports, like CivI and CivII did. Thy're turn based and not that all graphically intensive and PS2's/PS3's have USB ports so they could even throw in a traditional control scheme in addition to a DualShock oriented one.
Civ IV got a console port, was called Civilization Revolution [wikipedia.org]. Mind you, it was beyond dumbed down. Graphics have nothing to do with the port of strategy games like Civilization to a console, it's more of an audience problem. It has more than two buttons to press, it doesn't have shiny ultra realistic 3D graphics and it's ... 'complex'.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, this [stephanebura.com] is a dumbed down version of civilization. CivRev was just a multiplayer game that could potentially finish in under a lifetime.
Re:Moddability = Success (Score:4, Insightful)
Civ IV got a console port, was called Civilization Revolution [wikipedia.org]. Mind you, it was beyond dumbed down. Graphics have nothing to do with the port of strategy games like Civilization to a console, it's more of an audience problem. It has more than two buttons to press, it doesn't have shiny ultra realistic 3D graphics and it's ... 'complex'.
PC gamers really go out of their way to try to make a bad name for themselves. If they're not being elitists about their choice of platform, they're criticizing developers, either for not putting out a better PC version than consoles, or for not putting out a PC version. Come to think of it, they seem to spend far more time being general assholes talking about games than actually playing games. Get a hobby people!
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't call Civ:Rev for the DS my greatest Civ experience, but being able to bang out a few turns no matter where I go has been awesome. It's also been great when we have a bunch of people over that don't want to/can't bring their gaming PCs over.
Bunch of nerds lounging on couches and bean bag chairs + multiplayer Civ Rev DS = awesome
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Moddability = Success (Score:4, Informative)
Sales figures. Called NPD because they are released by the NPD group [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
True, but I think comparing MW2 (a game which has, lets face it, a small amount of content and variety) and Civ4 (a game which, when first shipped, had a rather large amount of variety and content.) I fully understand what you are saying, but provided the base game is varied enough and big enough, it should be fine for a little while.
Still, I agree with you that it needs to be moddable to have staying power.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know, I've been playing the official releases, in fact I'm still playing them. The things I like best are the slow pace and the lack of social aspect and competition (I play vs the computer, never won on the 2 highest levels btw). Slow pace because I'm getting older, I guess, FPSes don't relax me anymore. Lack of social aspects because, frankly, between Counterstrike and WoW, I'm fed up with with 15-25 yo who need attention by the bucket, be it positive or negative, and will go to any length to get
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I was planning on having a life this fall. So much for planning.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Truly we are doomed.
On the list of things that eat hours and hours of my life without me realising it, Civilization and Settlers of Catan are high up the list... and now Sid shows me these screenshots, where Civ suddenly has ominously hexagonal tiles...
Mac (Score:5, Insightful)
Please, please, follow the example of Blizzard and release a Mac version at the same time, or even on the same media. I don't want to wait a year or more for the Mac version to come out!
Re:Mac (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
this!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
what's wrong with installing Windows via Boot Camp?
Re: (Score:2)
Um, because I am continually working and checking email, RSS, twitter, publishing a blog and doing various other things? It takes a couple seconds to cmd-tab out of the game and do some work and then go back in. Rebooting every 15 minutes ain't going to cut it.
Re:Mac (Score:4, Funny)
Well, you'll be pleased to note that Windows is perfectly capable of twitter.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Right, so if I just run Windows full time, problem solved! Wait a minute...
Re: (Score:2)
not only does Windows run all the software, but Civ4 runs in a window and not as a full screen making it easy to minimize
Re:Mac (Score:4, Funny)
what's wrong with installing Windows via Boot Camp?
Paying money to install malware on your computer.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Brings back memories... (Score:5, Insightful)
It was 1995 and I was in the computer lab playing Civ II. I was just starting to get the hang of it when my wife-to-be popped in to see if I wanted to go down to the Commons for lunch. I wasn't hungry, so I passed. I played myself into a corner, and decided to start a new game. Just as it was getting rolling, my girlfriend popped in again and asked if I wanted to go to dinner.
I looked in amazement at the game in front of me and realized that it had eaten 6 hours of my life without my realizing it.
I had never before enjoyed a computer game as much, and have likewise never since.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think that sucks, I was up until 1 a.m. this morning, repeatedly playing "just one more turn" on Civ 3.
At my age, I can't any longer chalk it up to youthful indiscretion. That came is simply crack, and the later at night, the worse.
Re:Brings back memories... (Score:5, Funny)
Oof, I hope they didn't run into each other.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember I was doing C++ in a small company back in 95 and the topic of games came up. A guy I was working next to wrote something on a piece of paper and carefully handed to me. He looked me in the eye and said in an ominous whisper, "This is the most addictive game I have ever played. Just remember, I warned you!" On the paper of course was "Civilization II". I think I deleted it off my hard drive about 6 times, and always got reinstalled. Was so distressed / relieved when the CD got too scratched to p
Re:Brings back memories... (Score:4, Interesting)
I had never before enjoyed a computer game as much, and have likewise never since.
There was one other game like that.
"UFO: Enemy Unknown" (aka: "X-COM: UFO Defense").
After the final battle, look around with read, hurting eyes... um, what day is this?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You and the guy who was up until 1 am playing... bunch of noobs. When you see the sun rise and you realize it's not the first sunrise during that gaming session... THEN you've had the true Civ experience.
Ah, out exploring in Civ I with your phalanx and stumbling across the massive irrigated fields of the Babylonians just to the north. Or nuking Australia.
It wasn't very nice of the bible to steal the intro though.
Re: (Score:2)
For sure. I used to play AC with a friend about every week or so. Damn thing kept crashing (and as far as we could tell, reloading a multiplayer saved turned it into a single player game) but this is the greatest testament to the game: we kept trying even though it always crashed before we got to the end.
To Firaxis (Score:5, Interesting)
The Civ games are awesome & all, but I *really* want to see a sequel / remake of Alpha Centauri / Alien Crossfire!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure if they could really improve on the story though, so perhaps they ought to just stick to a HD/newer engine remake. If they did anything that involved changing or expanding the tech tree they better either leave the old voice overs in or record all new ones. Alpha Centauri was the only Civ type game where you ever felt like a real story was being told, and the quotes from the various leaders were the biggest part of it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you ever tried Planetfall for Civ4?
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252829 [civfanatics.com]
I just got BtS recently & haven't had time to check it out yet.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Odd, I play SMAX @ 1280x768 & 32-bit color on Windows XP. The game says the units won't animate right, but I've never noticed a difference.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Colors didn't look too good on an old-fashioned CRT either. Still one of the greatest games ever made, though.
Re:To Firaxis (Score:4, Informative)
I saw Sid Meier speak at MAGfest earlier this year on the issue; EA owns the rights to it, not Mr. Meier, and a new one won't be developed without their consent. He was remarkably closemouthed about the issue beyond that.
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
To console you, have an Alpha Centari fanpatch to fix some of those longstanding bugs: http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7152 [civgaming.net]
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the info, that sucks.
Already using that patch, BTW.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, Yes, and more Yes.
That being said, Civ III put a bad taste in my mouth, and I have barely touched Civ IV.
Civ II was a bit broken with how powerful wonders of the world were. But some of the victory conditions in Civ III were far too easy. Corruption was an absolute pain. Layering cities on top of each other doesn't work for me, but the CPU was no problems with it.
I don't want an AI that cheats. I want complex, balanced, dynamic play against a fair, but difficult CPU.
Can Civ V do any better than FreeCiv
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The AI cheats in SMAX above either citizen or librarian difficulty. May want to try GalCiv 2 for a non-cheating AI in a 4x game.
Civ 4 is pretty damn fun with both expansions installed.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Could someone take the existing FreeCiv engine, which supports Civ 1, Civ 2, and FreeCiv modes, and implement an Alpha Centauri mode?
It wouldn't be a small task by any means, but I'd love to see a modern playable clone.
Re: (Score:2)
The terraforming & unit design would be the hardest things to add, I'm thinking.
Re: (Score:2)
Looks like somebody started on something similar years & years ago.
http://freecivac.sf.net/ [sf.net]
Re: (Score:2)
The tectonic payloads would be more fun.
But I liked sleeping.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Eventually.
After just one more turn...
Have to delete browsing history... (Score:5, Funny)
This is by the far the worst thing my wife could find in my browsing history...
More realistic? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, as opposed to the 8 they had before. I don't get it either.
Re: (Score:2)
It will be more realistic because my entire world is really made up of hexes and I can only move in one of six directions?
From the screen shots, the graphics look more realistic than previous versions.
As for real life; I tend to only move forward with an occasional 0.5 second strafe to avoid an obstacle. But seriously, (good) games are about mechanics that introduce "fun"; simulations are about modeling life.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Re:More realistic? (Score:4, Informative)
Hex maps allow the world to really be a sphere, as opposed to a flat map.
Hmm, no. Look at a football (soccer) ball : There are pentagons to make it spherical.
The advantage of hexes is that all adjacent tiles represent the same travel distance, while with squares, diagonals represent greater distances.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's impossible to cover a sphere with hexes. Try it; I spent hours back in 8th grade trying to prove the topologists wrong. Not as many hours as I spent trying to trisect an angle with a compass and straightedge, though.
The benefit of hexes on a map is that moving to any adjacent hex is the SAME distance. On a square grid, four adjacent squares are at a distance of 1 unit, and four at a distance of Sqrt(2) units. That's why on a square map, you could travel somewhere moving diagonally up half the way,
Re: (Score:3)
Moving in six directions instead of eight is better than having sqrt(2) = 1, which is what a grid gives you.
Re:More realistic? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Another advantage is in combat; forming defensive or offensive lines will work better as t
Re: (Score:2)
New Engine it seems (Score:3, Insightful)
A new engine concerns me... a bit. Although my favorite game in the series is Civ4, it did have some growing pains with the new 3D engine. Hex is a welcome addition if used properly, and who knows what other tweaks they have in store.
One feature I'd love is (and maybe it exists) being able to have someone host the game, and then call in when your ready to make your turn. Basically a dedicated server you can come and go (password protected or something like that)
Bad news for my sleeping patterns and forgoing having any sort of life this fall...
Re:New Engine it seems (Score:4, Insightful)
CIV4 had play by email, which is better than a dedicated server (in this one way anyway) since no machine had to stay up all the time.
Re:New Engine it seems (Score:4, Informative)
Civ4 has this feature. It's called PitBoss. It's a dedicated server, basically. And, it has turn timers, drop in/out gameplay, as well as a SMTP to email people when it's their turn.
Re: (Score:2)
I knew about the email thing, but PitBoss.. hmmm I'll have to check into this. Thanks for the tip!
Hexes will be hard (Score:5, Insightful)
And is it just me, or did the fact that the old city-radius shape didn't tile perfectly actually add another layer of strategy to the game? Did you want to place your cities close together to maximize usage the tiles within your territory but forcing cities to compete with each other over resources, or space your cities out so that each city got as many resources as possible even though that would mean some areas in between wouldn't be exploited at all?
With the hex-based tiles it should be possible to perfectly tile your cities so that all tiles are being exploited but none are being overlapped, unless they decide to do something really strange with the radius shape. (Possible conflicts with unbuildable terrain aside of course.)
Re: (Score:2)
>>I know it will result in a much more natural city-radius, but adapting to the new tile shape will be hard at first. After almost two decades of playing Civ games (both the main line and the various spin-offs) i've got that "5x5 with the corners cut off" plus shape imprinted in my mind at some basic level.
I agree... the notion of hexes is really painful to me. And I play with hexes in some of my tabletop games, too.
The "fat plus" is one of those sacred cows of the Civ franchise, I don't think they sh
Never was too good at it... (Score:2)
I have many fond memories of playing Civilization, but most don't involve playing it without cheating. I was never too good at it and so would always wind up giving myself "unlimited money" via a cheat. (There was a funds limit, but when you can refill it at any time, it is effectively unlimited.) I would then develop Diplomacy as quickly as possible and counter all offensives with Diplomats. My diplomats would buy out enemy troops and cities, eventually leaving them with just their home city (immune to
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget the fun this time! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have loved many of the old versions of Civ, spending far too many hours playing them. Heck, learning how to hack the original Civ was a siginifant contributing factoring to me choosing IT over business.
All that being said, the last version turned into the green eco-facist game from hell. Any game that extended too long became one giant environmental nag session. Didn't matter how 'green' you were, someone else was polluting and everything quickly turned to waste with reasonable way to get restore things.
I'm not opposed to the pollution bit to some level, it's always been a part of the game, but it should never /become/ the game. The bottom line was that the fun got stripped away, because someone took their green preaching too far! The game wasn't fun to play, and I simply stopped playing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought most people wanted realism? ;) When was the last time real-world diplomacy included a stop-polluting-or-we'll-invade-your-ass clause?
Re:Don't forget the fun this time! (Score:4, Informative)
What version are you talking about? The last version to irritate us with pollutions was Civ 3. Civilization IV with health counters was quite reasonable and not annoying.
as much as I loved civ (Score:2)
As much as I loved the Civ games, once I played stuff like EU2 and others based on the same engine I just couldn't go back. Civ has an exploding degree of management, which I found woefully unnecessary. If I'm the guy in charge, when there is one city, ok I care about building the library, but if there are 50 cities, I care less about your library, and more about the focus of your city. Spore had the right concept, if appaling implementation, what defines a civilization changes through time, and the 'lev
Linux Version? (Score:4, Interesting)
Man, I hope there's a Linux version. Sadly, I'm not gonna hold my breath. Too many Linux (and now Mac: welcome to the club!) users are willing to trade freedom for a little temporary entertainment. *sigh*
Between StarCraft 2, Diablo III, and Civilization V not running on Linux, I'm saving a bundle of cash and a ton of time.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I haven't tried it, but the WINE Apps DB says Civ 4 works pretty well. Perhaps Civ 5 will also.
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Complete (Score:3, Insightful)
I've been really ambivalent about Civ IV, because of the "phone home" DRM.
I look on wikipedia [wikipedia.org], though, and find that they've had a DRM-free version available for several years now. I was an addict, and bought the DRM'd version anyway. I've resisted buying pretty much any current PC game in part because of the DRM. (My relatively recent system upgrade might play some part too... :) )
Y'know, I'm going to go reward them for the DRM-free version by buying it. And I'll be writing them as well: I'll buy Civ V if/when they release it DRM-free too.
A few questions: (Score:4, Funny)
Aaah. Civilization 1 and 2 were the best! :D
Fall 2010? Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear game and movie studio's of the northern hemisphere (and whoever else it may concern),
Please stop using seasons as indicators as to when things occur if they're not actually related to the season they happen in.
Yours Sincerely,
The Southern Hemisphere
P.S. Either that, or release Civ. 5 by May 2010
Re:Realism: (Score:5, Funny)
like giving away free laptops with webcams?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Will we next create false gods to rule over us? How proud we have become, and how blind."
- Sister Miriam Godwinson, We Must Dissent
Apparently we did, and not only did we not need to build "The Self-Aware Colony" to do it, it wasn't even a secret project. (In Civ V, I guess you get it for free if you play as the British or Americans.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm... every Civ has split strength into attack and defense, modified by terrain and promotions (even if CivI had only noob-veteran promotion status).
I think OP is looking for something a little more complex in terms of gameplay (e.g., tactical play).
To me, the great thing about Civ games is that tactics are not so important. It's a strategy game, not a tactics game. Though
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What I want in it (Score:5, Insightful)
I've got to say, my favorite of the Civ combat systems is still in Call To Power ("The Civ Game that Never Was"). Actually, that was my favorite of the games in a lot of ways... I've never really understood why no one else liked it. Multi-unit combat, ranged units affecting what happened between the non-ranged units, and good use of flying units.
Re:What I want in it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What I want in it (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe Civ IV solved this, didn't it?
In any case, depending on the tank, it is still theoretically possible...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Notebooks (Score:4, Insightful)
Game X didn't have DRM, so it's fairly safe to assume the same for Game X+1 even though they're being developed by different companies, and X+1 is being developed by a company owned by EA, whose DRM is notorious in the gaming world.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
even though they're being developed by different companies
Actually, Firaxis [firaxis.com] developed Civ 4 and is developing Civ 5.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Civ IV does have the option to disable animations. Apparently, you never looked...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The option to disable animations doesn't completely disable animations. It still takes time to pan and zoom between units, and units still animate movement, and it still takes time to zoom into cities and such.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There's a Civ4 mod called 'Planetfall' that you might be interested in if you already have Civ4.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=278 [civfanatics.com]