So if she keeps the difficulty level down, she could expect to play a game of Civ V without being immediately beset by invaders? She’d have a little breathing room?
You can certainly set a game to play out that way. I’d say playing cheiftain and not ticking people off with your settlement choices will likely get her through much of the game without any wars waged against her (she’d have to fend off barbarians, and then maintain some military to avoid being seen as easy pickings).
Do not increase the number of civs from that suggested from the onset, however, as that will cause a more cramped experience and lead to more bones of contention.
Prince and below difficulty levels should be fine. It also helps to not play on cramped maps like inland sea as close borders tend to elevate hostilities. You can always turn off barbarians or make any map less cramped by reducing city states.
I just picked up Civ 5 for half price in the Steam sale. Have the AI issues (waging war diplomacy) largely been resolved since launch?
Define “resolved.” For a lot of folks, the issues never were that extreme. For others, they’ll never be resolved to their satisfaction. I think it’s safe to say that the patches since release have improved a lot of things that needed improving. For myself, the game is certainly a solid, playable, and enjoyable experience overall. YMMV.
Patches have definitely improved the game as a whole (including AI), but the AI still tends to denounce you for no perceived reason whatsoever other than sullying relations enough to eventually declare war. Maybe there is some underlying reason other than that, but the game sure doesn’t communicate what that might be like Civ IV does.
Well, more or less, can the AI wage war competently (using correct tactics and unit types that I understand were thrown into disarray by the 1upt system)? And how is the diplo game compared to Civ 4 now?
The tactical AI is noticeably better, but can it beat a human? No. I’ve seen it do intelligent things like realize it’s beaten on one front, retreat, and go around to another front, but that hardly makes up for all the stupid things it still does.
I don’t really mind the tactical AI in Civ V because I’m more of a builder anyway and I understand how challenging it is to make a halfway competent tactical AI (not really an excuse, I know). When you hit the King and above difficulty levels, the incompetence of the tactical AI is offset by sheer numbers, so it’s not like you’ll always be demolishing the AI when waging war.
As for diplomatic options, pretty much still barebones.
The AI can and will invade reasonably competently at King and higher. It’s not a great or even particularly good tactical commander, but it’ll have enough units at higher difficulties to make the fights interesting.
The diplo game is…fine. As others have said, it’s a lot more board gamey than IV, which is more sim-like. Overall I prefer IV’s diplo game as it has more interesting buttons to push, but V’s isn’t what I’d describe as bad.
And, of course, V has a whole ton of streamlining that I absolutely love, so that’s what I’m playing.
I haven’t player enough Civ V yet to make a definitive recommendation between IV and V, but I can confirm that they’re both a whole lot better than Civ III. If you go with Civ IV and want a more peaceful game, simply choose some less aggressive opponents when you set up the game.
As someone who plays that way (I’m a builder), I would agree that lower difficulty levels will do what’s needed to keep war down (or at least make it easier to manage). However, I just played a game on Prince with the newest patch and, for a big part of the game, had a “Friendly” neighbour repeatedly declaring war on me. I think it was the close confines of a small continent map that might have done it, because there was no other reason that I could see. Eventually he’d ask for peace and we’d go back to being “Friendly.” It was bizarre.
So, take into consideration the earlier comment that staying away from crowded maps will likely be a must even on lower difficulties.
All right, thanks guys. I think I’ll pick up Civ V tonight.
And so with my first game of Civ5 , I lost 6.6 hours of my life according to Steam.
Lost due to an opponents time victory! :(
The problem with the AI, Two Sheds, is that it’s not playing the game as it was designed. It doesn’t understand Civ 5’s tactical combat. So any human player who presumably does understand the tactical combat will beat it by simply taking advantage of the game’s rules. This is a huge problem as you learn the game and get better at it. And since the tactical combat is arguably a cornerstone of Civ 5’s design, this is a remarkable shortcoming for people to gloss over.
Also, the interface in Civ 5 is pretty bad, especially if you’re used to Civ IV. And it has a lot less content, partly because of the business model and partly because of the modding restrictions.
Dawn of Discovery, by the way, is a fantastic game. You should definitely get it for you and your girlfriend. I think I might say it’s the best city builder you can play.
-Tom
How is the Civ V interface “bad”? How is Civ IV’s better? Just curious.
The little panels in the corners of Civ 5 are limited and finicky. There’s no equivalent to the army management in Civ IV. Civ 5 needs more hotkeys. The lack of information in the diplomacy displays. By the way, can you still not see what civics another civ has chosen? Did they patch that?
I’d have to fire up the game or check my notes to give you more specifics, but I mostly hated the Civ 5 interface for being all about streamlining and making sure you can admire the graphics. Civ IV’s presentation is all about presenting information. The two games have a very different priority, one of which isn’t very becoming to a serious nerdyman strategy game.
-Tom
PeterK
5497
You can see how many policies a civ has in each tree. Is that what you mean, or did you want to see specifically which items they have chosen in that tree?
Question gents, how do I know what the victory conditions are ?
I lost my first game when 2050 hit and I wasn’t really sure why.
One of the Victory conditions is Time, which is whoever has the highest score in 2050, if no one else has won the game by then.
PeterK
5500
There is a menu option off of one of the buttons in the upper right corner where you can check the victory conditions and your current progress with each condition (and also your opponents’ progress). You can also choose which victory conditions to play with if you used the advanced game setup (by default all the victory conditions are used).
