Civilization 5

Maximilian

The faith mechanic has some nice combinations. I'm quite liking the ones that give you extra happiness for example. It compliments whatever playstyle or victory you are pursuing but if you pursue it at the expense of other things, you will lose out in the long run probably.

Wanders_fan

Debating buying Civ 5. Anyone got any advice for me? i have only played the watered down Civ that was on PS3. How long are games etc? Is there a steep learning curve?

Outkast_IRE

Wanders_fan wrote: »

Debating buying Civ 5. Anyone got any advice for me? i have only played the watered down Civ that was on PS3. How long are games etc? Is there a steep learning curve?

Games can be set to either take a lot of turns to finish or quicker games , its all up to you, personally i prefer a slightly longer game.

The learning curve isnt steep to get into the game really , and there are great online guides, but it could take a lot of game time to get very good at it , but there are about 7 levels of difficulty , and theres a tip advior etc.

But be aware anyone who gets into the game will tell you its a total time void you will spend hours playing it and not realise it

There is also a tutorial to get ya started in the game.

nesf

I gave in and bought it on Steam for 30. Should get my money's worth out of it though.

Manach

The large world earth map is engrossing. And I finally get a chance to send in the Spanish Inquisition to deal with some heretics. They did not expect that

SeantheMan

Wanders_fan wrote: »

Debating buying Civ 5. Anyone got any advice for me? i have only played the watered down Civ that was on PS3. How long are games etc? Is there a steep learning curve?

Fairly simple to learn I found.
And ye can start a small game that you can finish in 2 hours or so, or a huge game that can last ye a week or 2

nesf

First game finished on King. It's gotten somewhat harder, the AI is a lot better strategically than it used to be. Science victory for what its worth.

danniemcq

I never play anything other than Domination,

although the last 2 games i've played since i got the expansion that i have CRAZY amounts of money.

Current game i am making 800+ a turn and have 66000+ in the bank whereas the nearest enemy (rome) has 1500. can afford to buy a nuke for every Roman city on the map.

Also noticed my workers when they are on Auto sometimes juist stand there and do nothing despite heaps of empty unworked land in my area

Sephiroth_dude

how do you turn workers on auto?

danniemcq

select your worker you want to automate and then where the arrows on his selection (the 3 that point right like this >>>) and click it. It now reveals an extra menu where there is a cog that you click and they automatically do stuff like build farms, trading posts or mines.

It seems to kinda work on the basis of what the nearest city is focused on (gold means lots of trading posts for example so watch for food levels)

Also be carful early on or when money is tight as they often start building roads (and railways when unlocked) meaning costs shoot up although a lot of that is got back via trade route bonuses but they can bankrupt you (nearly caught me a few times)

The same >>> and automate command can be used on troops and ships which is handy for scouts or scout ships early in the game

Haven't played a civi game in years(Used to love the originals) just bought Civi 5 game of the year edition there it's on sale on Steam. Looking forward to trying it!

RoyalMarine

perhaps someone can help me here!

have civ5 through steam. i usually do a few tweaks in the xml file now and then.

Ive moved to mac osx lion, and for the life of me I cant find where the default files are located anymore.
I found them a few months back through a thread on one of the civ5 sites, but now I cant find it at all.

any help would be great!

koHd

RoyalMarine wrote: »

perhaps someone can help me here!

have civ5 through steam. i usually do a few tweaks in the xml file now and then.

Ive moved to mac osx lion, and for the life of me I cant find where the default files are located anymore.
I found them a few months back through a thread on one of the civ5 sites, but now I cant find it at all.

any help would be great!

Would a computer search for something like CIVILIZATION_AMERICA.xml not point you in the right direction?

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Haven't played a civi game in years(Used to love the originals) just bought Civi 5 game of the year edition there it's on sale on Steam. Looking forward to trying it!

Have to say glad I did the above the game is ****ing excellent. So addicting it's unreal....

tricolorbob1987

Hey, I am quite new to the game, was wondering do great generals do anything other than initiate golden ages and build the citadel? Like do they give a bonus in battle?

danniemcq

tricolorbob1987 wrote: »

Hey, I am quite new to the game, was wondering do great generals do anything other than initiate golden ages and build the citadel? Like do they give a bonus in battle?

They give troops in the same square, those next to them (and i think those next to those although not sure) a 15% combat bonus

TheChrisD

tricolorbob1987 wrote: »

Hey, I am quite new to the game, was wondering do great generals do anything other than initiate golden ages and build the citadel? Like do they give a bonus in battle?

Great Generals give a +15% combat bonus to all units within a two tile radius of them. As well, they can be expended to create a Citadel which is like an improved Fort with +100% defence for the unit in the tile and deals 3 damage to all enemy units ending their turn adjacent to the Citadel.

Two exceptions: for China, their Generals provide a 25% combat bonus; for Mongolia, they have a Khan instead which has 5 movement and also provides increased healing for all units adjacent to them.

In G&K, Great Generals can no longer be expended to start Golden Ages. Citadels deal 30 damage to adjacent enemy units, and now also act as a culture bomb, flipping all tiles surrounding the Citadel to your side.

tricolorbob1987

Thanks guys , Still getting used to the game :P

tricolorbob1987

Ok back again haha :P, One of my main problems always seems to be happiness, I build the happiness buildings, adopt the social policies that add happiness and I build mines on the gems and the plantations and all that, but the happiness level is always low or minus, any help or tips would be great thanks . Also when i capture a city I generally make them puppet cities.

Outkast_IRE

tricolorbob1987 wrote: »

Ok back again haha :P, One of my main problems always seems to be happiness, I build the happiness buildings, adopt the social policies that add happiness and I build mines on the gems and the plantations and all that, but the happiness level is always low or minus, any help or tips would be great thanks . Also when i capture a city I generally make them puppet cities.

Trading with other civs for additonal luxury goods is a quick way, i have faced the same problem as you , and the only way i turn it around is by making a concerted effort to build happiness buildings in each city along with trading for additonal luxury goods.

Also when adopting social policies dont just look for the quick fix, look at the long game i.e are you going to expand loads and have a huge empire if so there are certain policies that suit this game style and will help with happiness.

danniemcq

Gotta agree with this, always look at your other civs to try and get resources from them.

when you go into the trade and click luxury it only shows what you DON'T have which is handy.

I take the hit unless i have to when i take over a city as if its a puppet they never seem to build the colloseum or whatever it is that wipes out unhapppiness and for a large part of the start of the game i'm fighting to keep my head above water. Especially after taking over a number of cities. Again though if you go the puppet route you don't get the circuis or stadium or any others that boost happiness.

Also buy the love of a mercentile city state and they'll give you happiness (or rig and election there)

I think its the commerce policy that gives you extra happiness for every luxury resource you have

Blowfish

A couple of things to remember.

First off is that in the general case, every time your population increases by 1, your happiness goes down by 1. You can use this to 'juggle' your happiness and work out how long it'll approximately be before you'll hit zero happiness and adjust accordingly. Naturally that figure will be adjusted by policies etc. but keeping track of it is useful.

Another thing to remember is that outside of wonders, the max happiness in a city produced by your happiness buildings is capped to the size of the population. In other words, if you already have a circus and colosseum in a city of size 4, building a theatre would be pretty pointless if you have somewhere larger you can build it.

Don't forget to micro manage your cities. Not all cities need to be expanding all the time.

As a basic example, if your happiness is getting low and it'll be a while until you get some more, change the focus to avoid growth and instead move it to either production to speed up building happiness buildings or move it to gold so you can buy the buildings instead.

Added to that, if you have a happiness of 3, you are much better off letting that extra population go to a city with a high 'multiplier' for various resources, rather than underdeveloped cities. e.g. you'll much more benefit letting the 3 'extra' happiness/population be absorbed into a city with lots of science buildings which work based on population than into an underdeveloped border city.

As mentioned previously though, the most important part of happiness is planning ahead of time as to how your empire is going to develop and focussing any happiness bonus traits you pick up based on that. Picking up something that gives +1 happiness per city is pretty pointless if you only have 4 cities, but picking up -10% population happiness will be far far better and vice versa.

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Trading with other civs for additonal luxury goods is a quick way,

This actually isn't a great idea to rely on in the long run though as it's very cost ineffective. In fact, by far the best tactic is to sell every copy of luxuries you have and either buy buildings or bribe city states with the cash instead.

To demonstrate this, if you trade a second copy of a luxury you have with a luxury another civ has and keep renewing it every 30 turns (assuming standard speed), you'll end up with a total of +4 happiness for the entirety of the game.

If though, you sell that resource to them instead, you end up making 240gold every 30 turns which works out at ~21 exchanges over 690 turns or 5040 gold. This is enough to buy you 10 colloseums at 500 gold each, which is the equivalent of +20 happiness over the game.

Granted you probably wont get quite as many as 21 exchanges and may not get 240 gold each (if they are annoyed at you, you'll get 209), but either way you'll far outstrip what you get by just trading.

tricolorbob1987

Wow guys thanks , Think i get how to keep it up now, I didnt even know city states helped in that way as well haha.

Chloris

Even when I aim for anything else, I almost invariably get a Scientific Victory. Even when I try and lose, I get a Scientific Victory. I think they should let me be in charge of a real country, because even if I died twenty seconds later, it would probably somehow be a victory for science.

I'm just kidding, I got a Culture Victory one time after going to an art gallery that day. I think my interest during the moment I'm playing subconsciously influences everything that I do during the game. That probably means that I'm not a very good strategist. I rarely lose though, been playing Civ (well, Civ II and later IV) since I was a whippersnapper of eight. I absolutely love the new interface.

danniemcq

Chloris wrote: »

Even when I aim for anything else, I almost invariably get a Scientific Victory. Even when I try and lose, I get a Scientific Victory. I think they should let me be in charge of a real country, because even if I died twenty seconds later, it would probably somehow be a victory for science.

I'm just kidding, I got a Culture Victory one time after going to an art gallery that day. I think my interest during the moment I'm playing subconsciously influences everything that I do during the game. That probably means that I'm not a very good strategist. I rarely lose though, been playing Civ (well, Civ II and later IV) since I was a whippersnapper of eight. I absolutely love the new interface.

ahhhh a civ post after 3 in the morning... good times

if you choose a custom match or advanced settings when statring you can choose to only have a conquest victory or any of the other ways too or make it anything but scientific.

Just be sure to check that the tick boxes don't all untick when you change another setting

Blowfish

Chloris wrote: »

Even when I aim for anything else, I almost invariably get a Scientific Victory. Even when I try and lose, I get a Scientific Victory. I think they should let me be in charge of a real country, because even if I died twenty seconds later, it would probably somehow be a victory for science.

I tend to be the same. I think it's that I become too lazy to micromanage my armies once I become dominant. I mean I could build up and constantly refresh my army, manually drag them half way across the map, rearrange them into some sort of decent formation, swap out damaged units etc. or I could just fortify everything and blitz through the tech tree until I've won.

Chloris wrote: »

I'm just kidding, I got a Culture Victory one time after going to an art gallery that day. I think my interest during the moment I'm playing subconsciously influences everything that I do during the game.

Time to visit a military history museum?

Anyone

Only got this game recently in the Steam sale, bloody hell its addictive....one more turn,one more turn, boom 6 hours have passed.

Enjoying it a lot though, think I'll have to invest in the expansion!

Chloris

You're right, absolutely unbelievable. I play it on XBox but I too use Steam (Portal 2, unreal). They're so handy and their sales are excellent.

danniemcq wrote: »

ahhhh a civ post after 3 in the morning... good times

if you choose a custom match or advanced settings when statring you can choose to only have a conquest victory or any of the other ways too or make it anything but scientific.

Just be sure to check that the tick boxes don't all untick when you change another setting

That's excellent advice. Thanks very much. I'll be winning research, expansion, economic and government wins before long! Probably not military though, I suck balls at that...

Blowfish wrote: »

Time to visit a military history museum?

Lol, now I wish I'd played it after I visited Collins Barracks the other week! Daycent place actually, if you haven't been, you should go. I think that would have a different impact, because I don't really understand the ins and outs of warfare because I hate the idea of it so much... Silly of me to play a game like Civ with that dislike, I guess. But I played it long before I worked out why I have an aversion to war, so old habits never die, I guess!

Anyone

By the way, do the other Civs have fixed tactics? I recently upped the difficulty and started a few games and in both games the Germans attacked me. Wondering if its random, or is it something I should expect?

Blowfish

Anyone wrote: »

By the way, do the other Civs have fixed tactics? I recently upped the difficulty and started a few games and in both games the Germans attacked me. Wondering if its random, or is it something I should expect?

The leaders have their own 'personalities' which influence how they act and what they aim for, but they don't have fixed predetermined actions.

The personalities are usually similarish to what you'd imagine based on their attributes/traits. Bismark can be friendly, but likes war so will quite often suddenly denounce you and then declare war a short time later.

There's a full list of the personalities here if you are interested.