Civilization V

[Amplifier]

Official Website
@ Wikipedia | @ Steam

Sid Meier's Civilization V is an upcoming turn-based strategy video game by Firaxis. In the game the player leads a civilization from prehistoric times into the future on a randomly-generated map, achieving one of a number of different victory conditions through research, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest. It is the latest game in the Civilization series, due for release on September 21, 2010 in North America, and September 24 internationally. The game will contain community, modding and multiplayer elements. Civilization V will feature an entirely new game engine scripted in Lua, as well as a hexagonal map instead of the square tiles of earlier games in the series. The combat system will also be overhauled, including allowing only one unit per tile and giving cities the ability to defend themselves. Many elements new to Civilization IV and its expansion packs will be removed or changed in the game, such as religion and espionage. In addition, the maps will contain a number of computer-controlled city-states as non-player characters that are available for trade, diplomacy and conquest. A civilization's borders will also expand more realistically, favoring more productive terrain, and the concept of roads will be changed.

Information: Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: 2K Games Platform: Windows Release date(s): NA - September 21, 2010 EU - September 24, 2010

Civilization: Leader: America George Washington Arabia Harun al-Rashid Aztec Montezuma Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar II China Wu Zetian Egypt Ramesses II England Elizabeth I French Napoleon Bonaparte Germany Otto von Bismarck Greece Alexander the Great India Mohandas Gandhi Iroquois Hiawatha Japan Oda Nobunaga Ottoman Suleiman Persia Darius Rome Augustus Caesar Russia Catherine the Great Siam Ramkhamhaeng Songhai Askia

Videos:

[Amplifier]

PC strategy fans love them some Civilization, but do they love it enough to spend double retail price for the game plus collector swag?

For $49.99 come September, you'll be able to get your hands on the normal retail version of Sid Meier's Civilization V. What do you get for $99.99? Why, a plethora of Civilization related goodies that may or may not look good on your mantle, depending on the style, configuration, and existence of your mantle.

The bulk of that $50 likely goes to the five metal figurines from Reaper Miniatures, based on units from the game. Each highly-detailed lump of metal is guaranteed to take up space somewhere in your home.

Next comes the 176-page hardbound art book, which will look lovely on my book case and is the primary reason I will likely shell out the extra $50 myself. What? I like video game art books.

Rounding out the special edition is a pair of soundtrack CDs and a "Behind-the-Scenes at Firaxis on Civilization V" DVD. I don't think I've peeked at a behind-the-scenes DVD in the history of behind-the-scenes DVDs being packed in games, and I don't see myself bucking that trend any time soon.

So is $50 a fair price to pay for a handful of metal figures and an art book?

Source: http://kotaku.com/5583378/civilization-v-develops-snazzy-100-edition

[Asmodai]

I could buy similar figures for $20 or less from other manufacturers, and I'd probably read the book once and set it aside. Can't see going for this myself.

[thatonezombie]

I gotta admit, the hexes excite me 

[Amplifier]

http://www.civilization5.com/#/community/podcasts

They've thrown up a new podcast (stream, download, and transcripts available):

Episode Five: All About the Engine
Elizabeth talks with part of the team who created the new engine for the game. As you are probably aware, building an engine from scratch is not an easy task.

It's almost here

[Amplifier]

 

[thatonezombie]

Hold it the fuck up. Is it true that Patrick Steward is narrating the game? Someone please confirm or deny (Even though I really want it confirmed  )

[Amplifier]

Voice Actor Revealed

Many of you have written and posted asking whether or not Civilization V will have narrated quotes when you discover a tech, like Civ 4 did.

Today I am happy to reveal that yes, it will! The technology quotes are narrated by the fantastic Morgan Sheppard. And as an exclusive gift to the community, here are a few samples:

Source: http://www.civilization5.com/#/community/feature_technology_quotes


System requirements posted:

Minimum System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
• Processor: Dual Core CPU
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
• DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
• Video: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
• DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c

Recommended System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
• Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
• DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
• Video: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
• DirectX®: DirectX® version 11

[thatonezombie]

Well okay, he did appear in some Star Trek films and is English. I was close 

[Amplifier]

Hey woah, no one told me there was going to be a demo for this bad boy. They reckon the demo will bring the Internet to its knees in early September.

Info: http://www.civilization5.com/#/community/demo


In case anyone missed it, Kotaku (among other sites), were able to play through a portion of Civ V already.

Article: http://kotaku.com/5602257/400-turns-of-civilization-v

[Amplifier]

The demo won't be out until September 21st, release day

I’ve gotten several requests for a formal Civilization V demo release date over the past couple weeks, and today I have the answer. The Civilization V playable demo release date is September 21st; the same day as the North American release date of the full game.

http://www.civilization5.com/#/community/demo_release_date

[Amplifier]

Have an official vid.


Soon! Here's hoping it lives up to the previous games, and isn't watered down tripe!

[Amplifier]

double posting with righteous fury

About a half-month back, I announced that Civilization V would come with a huge interactive PDF manual. Since then, many of you have written to me and posted on the forums explaining how happy you would be if we would release the PDF manual early so that you could peruse it while you wait for next Tuesday to creep ever-so-slowly closer.

Well, I can hardly resist an opportunity to help make this final week of waiting less painful, so I got the go-ahead to give you guys the manual early!

• English Manual
• French Manual
• Italian Manual
• German Manual
• Spanish Manual

Source: http://www.civilization5.com/#/community/feature_manual

[Malachite]

The battle system looks like a huge improvement and kind of reminds me of the most recent RotTK games.

Still, nothing has really been able to capture the feeling I had when I first played Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri all those years ago. These days, it's all about Paradox for me as far as this sort of history-spanning grand strategy stuff goes, so I'm not overly optimistic about this. I liked it when we could play as any civilisation and things felt open but Civ 3 and 4 just felt like graphical improvements with a few things like that removed. I'm pretty sure borders and a cultural victory condition were the only new additions. I'll wait for reviews before paying for it straight away this time.

[Yuna]

Anyone got their hands on the game ? I'm itching to play it.
After playing through Empire Total War this year and almost installing Civ 4 again, Civ 5 was announced so I decided to wait and I can't wait any longer. Since I don't live in US or Europe it will be either Steam or Torrent because actually ordering it will take too long.

By the reviews in metacritic, this appears to be really the best Civ game ever. For once, the units used in battle actually take space so we can't pile 20+ units in a single square, ranged units can attack pass units in the front, so there real strategy on it. (Not that the previous ones didn't just this time it's better).

[Amplifier]

I played through the demo on Steam earlier. Save for the hex-tiles, it's basically the same thing I've already played hundreds of hours in previous iterations. Not to say it was bad, but I'll stick to V2 instead.

[Forthisgift]

Latest patch notes to get the game ready for "Brave New World"

I'm most happy about the changes to multiplayer

Civ fans,

A new patch is on its way tomorrow. It should be dropping in around morning PDT. We'll update this thread when it's released. As always, here are the patch notes for your viewing pleasure. Lots of good fixes I'm sure you've been waiting for.

MULTIPLAYER
New Mode - Sequential - Similar to the way Single Player works, each player takes turns making their moves.
New Mode - Hybrid - turns are simultaneous as they've worked in the past, but when wars are declared, any players involved in the wars switch to sequential until the war is resolved. All other uninvolved players still play simultaneous.
New Mode - Pitboss - Your game can now run in a server mode, which allows players to connect, take their turn, disconnect, and come back later. Email notifications and steam notifications are built into the system. Once the system has received a healthy amount of feedback from the community, we will also include a stand-alone Pitboss server that does not require a steam account to run.
Added an "Observer" mode to watch a multiplayer game.
Added ability to play custom maps in multiplayer. Host and all players must place custom maps in the main games "maps" directory to be usable.
Added ability to kick a player in-game.
Added ability to save a game configuration from the Staging room, so players can keep various "favorite" game settings ready to go.
Reworked hot-join code to make hot-join much more reliable.
Reworked host migration to be more reliable.
Reworked lobby, added multiple improvements to the way games are setup, and added flexibility when loading a save, and all players are no longer available to play. Also added slot-type pull-downs so host can define the slot-type (like Open, Human Required, AI, and Closed).
Game will now auto-start when all humans have readied up.
Added hours/seconds label to turn timer edit box.
Tracked down and squashed many more causes of out-of-syncs and connection issues, as well as other general bugs.
Additional polish, notifications for kicks, disconnects, reconnects, host changes, multiple UI and tooltip additions and improvements, etc.


GAMEPLAY
Fixed an issue that caused workers building improvements to constantly "wake up" when hostile units were not close by.
Hun Battering Ram promotions which allows only city attacks are now lost upon upgrade.
Fix an issue where the plot under a city would not be worked after trading/gifting it.
Crabs should no longer spawn in lakes.
Many additional subtle updates to tool-tips, and information exposed to players.


IN-GAME ART/SOUNDS
New Forest and Jungle art for all terrain types.
New Road and Railroad art.
Touched up color on various terrain pieces, as well as some of the texture transitions.
Fix Rock of Gibralter national wonder so that it's surrounding terrain displays properly (there may still be rare cases where this can still occur).
Reduced texture sized on many models in-game (buildings, improvements, some leaders, etc.).
Added missing "Selection" sound entries for some base game units.


AI
Military: More aggressive AI city attacks.
Military: Refine larger unit formations, and adjust the AI to use these against City-States if appropriate.
Military: Make Great Generals more aware of danger nearby.
Military: The AI will now prioritize capturing original capitals and cities that were originally theirs.


UI
UI will now change based on the DLL that is active (base game, Gods and Kings, or Brave New World).
New Declare War Pop-up that includes an overview of all connected events (like trades that will be cancelled, City-State allies, etc.)
New Single-Player leaderboards for main game, scenarios, DLC, and mods. To add leaderboards to a mod, add the "SupportsLeaderboards" property to its mod properties.
Added a pop-up that tells the user that the game data is changing when DLC/Scenarios are activated/deactivated.
Maintenance-free units are now properly tracked in the Economic Overview.
Planes and Nukes are now considered Military Units in the Unit overview.
Fixed issues with the city Garrison ring not displaying correctly.
Natural Wonders that create Happiness will now display the yield properly in the plot tool-tip.
Fix some issues that would cause the terrain yield icons to be incorrect, or sometimes missing.
Religion: Fixed a bug where unknown civs would be revealed (via Icon) in the Religion Overview.
Add in a player option called "Quick Selection Advance" which will have the auto-unit-selection advance to the next unit without waiting for the animation to complete.
When the active player's turn starts, make sure all their city range strike icons are correct.
Multiple general fixes and improvements to touch-screen functionality.
Replay graphs are now much more accurate.
Planes and Nukes are now considered military units in the overview.
Fixed a bug in which units were not properly sorted by name in the military overview.
Correct some issues that would cause unit icons to disappear.
Multiple subtle UI improvements throughout the game.


MODS AND STEAM WORKSHOP
Fixed an issue that would cause some mods to download over and over from Steam Workshop.
Changed the way the mod database is built so that the mod library is managed correctly.
Fixed an issue with World Builder which could cause it not to launch properly on some users computers.