Civilization VI - Rise and Fall Expansion Coming February 8

[Roughneck]

I'm not exactly sure what I'm remembering, but I recall a game that could've been Civ II or III or a similar empire game from that era that allowed you to name your civilization (and even yourself, for other leaders to address you as). It's a little surprising that it's 2016 and such a 20-year-old feature is missing.

You could do it in the first Civilization IIRC.


EDIT: No, apparently you couldn't. You could just pick your own name and cities. But there were definitely Civ games you could do this with.

 

[NyQuil]

Master of Orion allowed you to create a custom race with a certain number of points available that drew from all of the abilities of all of the races.

So it's not very difficult - especially if you're just picking a special unit and a civ ability.

As a Canadian, I don't really think that we've had much of a "civilization" to speak of so I don't really feel like I'm missing out.

 

[RandV]

They really should give the option of creating your own civilization, at least in single player. It wouldn't be that hard. You would give your civilization a name and then get to pick a list of bonuses and special units made for other civilizations. For example, you might create "Canada" and pick the English bonuses and the French special unit. It wouldn't feel as true as if a real Canada (with bonuses for maple syrup production and mountie special units) were in the game, but you'd be playing as the "Canadians" and that's good enough. Imagination is sufficient. I know that, if America weren't in the game, I'd be fine with other civilizations bonuses and special units (both of which I hardly pay much attention to), just long as I could name the civilization America and name my cities after American cities. That would be sufficient for me. There wouldn't need to be a leader screen because I wouldn't ever see it. The portrait in the upper-right corner could simply be a flag.

Yes with a small amount of effort you could setup your own Civ like that as a mod (though not at the moment for Civ VI), but it would certainly be much better if it was built right in. For other popular 4x games, just among ones I've played, Fallen Enchantress and Endless Legend both let you customize your nation right from the setup screen.

That's not really been a staple in Civ though, and eventually mods pick up the slack. Like in Civ V you can get a game going that has a massive custom Earth map with about 60 properly placed Civ's. Not that my PC has a hope of running that

 

[The Head Crusher]

You could do it in the first Civilization IIRC.


EDIT: No, apparently you couldn't. You could just pick your own name and cities. But there were definitely Civ games you could do this with.

Which version were you playing, I remember being able to do that. You just had to over write one of the other civs.

 

[The Head Crusher]

Yes with a small amount of effort you could setup your own Civ like that as a mod (though not at the moment for Civ VI), but it would certainly be much better if it was built right in. For other popular 4x games, just among ones I've played, Fallen Enchantress and Endless Legend both let you customize your nation right from the setup screen.

That's not really been a staple in Civ though, and eventually mods pick up the slack. Like in Civ V you can get a game going that has a massive custom Earth map with about 60 properly placed Civ's. Not that my PC has a hope of running that

I remember a really good Canadian mod for Civ 4 that I just to play alot. They had several special units (voyagers replace scouts, Mounties replaced cavalry, and Canada Corps replaced WW1 infantry) and several building and wonders (inukshuks, CN tower, CBC building/HNIC). Best of all they brough in the voice over for the units with several stereotypical Canadian (mostly eastern) saying.

 

[Saturated Fats]

Well, two weeks with the game, guys - thoughts?

 

[Dr John Carlson]

AI is a significant flaw.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Overall very good, and better than Civ V at launch.

But...not different or betterer enough to justify buying it over Civ V right now...in my opinion anyway.

AI is a significant flaw.

Also this.

 

[kingsholygrail]

The AI definitely needs to be less gung ho? No sooner than I built a city on the coast did Norway get upset with me for not having a big navy.

 

[misterchainsaw]

I'm still really liking it, but there are a couple cracks for sure. I haven't found my difficulty level yet - won twice via culture (once on warlord and once on prince) and once via science (on prince). Trying King on a Huge map with 12 civs this game and I just took the lead about 200 turns in when Brazil decided to attack me as India when we were both near the bottom in military strength. Just bought some units with faith and took like 4 cities. Going heavy religion in this game.

I feel like the end game has felt a little empty - although that's at least partially because I haven't had to mess with flight that much...none of my opponents in my previous games ever got a fighter or a bomber to come after me with.

 

[Commander Clueless]

The AI definitely needs to be less gung ho? No sooner than I built a city on the coast did Norway get upset with me for not having a big navy.

Yeah, they are a bit erratic.

I find it's nearly impossible to get a friendship going with another Civ. Whenever I make any progress, they either backstab me or denounce me because...reasons?

 

[Big McLargehuge]

The AI definitely needs to be less gung ho? No sooner than I built a city on the coast did Norway get upset with me for not having a big navy.

Norway usually doesn't wait that long with me...once declared war on my inland start before turn 20, before I had anything more complex than a scout and a monument.

The AI is seriously awful and I'm a bit disappointed there hasn't been a big patch to fix much of it yet. Once that gets fixed it's fantastic, mind you.

 

[Novacane]

Yeah, they are a bit erratic.

I find it's nearly impossible to get a friendship going with another Civ. Whenever I make any progress, they either backstab me or denounce me because...reasons?

Yeah, that's the most frustrating thing. I keep sending them gifts and suddenly they find something to denounce me for and now they hate me. They hate you for having more wonders than them, they hate you for defending your cities, they hate you for having no army, they hate you for settling one city so "close" to their 10 cities, they hate you for having a different government (basically punishes you for being ahead of everyone else). They hate you for existing basically. It's insanely annoying. I mean I probably suck at this game but come on. Someone has to find something they can work with...

 

[Osprey]

I think that it's just a problem with the default settings for the various difficulties. It should be relatively easy to tweak those, to lower aggressiveness at the middle difficulties (which I imagine that we and most people are playing on at the moment). What probably takes time, though, is playtesting. Hopefully, that's what they're doing now.

Yeah, that's the most frustrating thing. I keep sending them gifts and suddenly they find something to denounce me for and now they hate me. They hate you for having more wonders than them, they hate you for defending your cities, they hate you for having no army, they hate you for settling one city so "close" to their 10 cities, they hate you for having a different government (basically punishes you for being ahead of everyone else). They hate you for existing basically. It's insanely annoying. I mean I probably suck at this game but come on. Someone has to find something they can work with...

So, you're saying that it's like being the USA or Israel? So much for indulging in computer games to escape the real world

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I do like the computer is more aggressive in the early game, and it can apply to the user in some cases (does that City-State have an enviable location? There's no war mongering penalty for invading early on)...but it's just way too aggressive.

And then you throw in the hyper-aggressive barbarians having better weaponry and your game can be hopeless very quickly...but I haven't struggled with this since my first couple games. It does make you change the way you play the game...and not all of that is bad. Thanks to most Civ V games starting relatively peaceful I wouldn't touch military stuff for the first ~100 or so turns, and the result was that I'd generally get a head start on technology and culture that would remain throughout the game. You really can't do that here, and I like that. Expanding is requires a bit of a cost/benefit analysis, which I like compared to the pure land grab early games of past.

...but not at the expense of constantly having wars declared on you for utterly ridiculous reasons (see Norway declaring war on me simply for not being based on the coast, America declaring war on me once for 'settling too close' while on a completely different continent than them, Montezuma getting furious the second you discover a luxury, the numerous times civs with friendship agreements would just get bored and declare a surprise war, etc....it's all a bit absurd.

Fix that stuff and the only real complaint I have is that there's a general lack of late game units and techs/civics, which I expect will be the focus of an expansion pack.

 

[RandV]

I'm still really liking it, but there are a couple cracks for sure. I haven't found my difficulty level yet - won twice via culture (once on warlord and once on prince) and once via science (on prince). Trying King on a Huge map with 12 civs this game and I just took the lead about 200 turns in when Brazil decided to attack me as India when we were both near the bottom in military strength. Just bought some units with faith and took like 4 cities. Going heavy religion in this game.

I feel like the end game has felt a little empty - although that's at least partially because I haven't had to mess with flight that much...none of my opponents in my previous games ever got a fighter or a bomber to come after me with.

From what I've read elsewhere air power is pretty underwhelming here. You can bomb districts which is a nice touch, but apparently they don't do much damage to equal era or later units. Mechanized infantry is supposed to be particularly tough.

 

[RandV]

And unlike seemingly everyone else I haven't had a problem making friends in the game. You don't often get to choose, and sometimes you need to make in game adjustments to match (example - changing government type to match others), but playing on small maps I find I can usually get 2-3 friendships going and from there it's easy to maintain an alliance.

But anyways, mods are your friend here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/civ6-creation-customization.541/
No penalties for different governments (wish this one was just lower per era)
Fewer AI tantrums
Lower war monger penalties (haven't used this one myself)

Note that when I talk about being able to make friends above this was before I started playing with mods.

 

[dogbazinho]

Yeah, they are a bit erratic.

I find it's nearly impossible to get a friendship going with another Civ. Whenever I make any progress, they either backstab me or denounce me because...reasons?

Rome keeps getting pissed I don't expand enough. After stealing 3 settlers from another AI so way ahead of the curve in city numbers. I had 6 at the time and this was ... very early. I made my first friend this game. Monty of all people. Only because I didn't have a single luxury resource yet. I finally built on one and he instantly got pissed.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Rome keeps getting pissed I don't expand enough. After stealing 3 settlers from another AI so way ahead of the curve in city numbers. I had 6 at the time and this was ... very early. I made my first friend this game. Monty of all people. Only because I didn't have a single luxury resource yet. I finally built on one and he instantly got pissed.

Yep. Sounds about right.


Everyone is so jumpy and erratic....so in other words, it's a far too realistic representation of actual diplomacy.


Also, I keep finding France first in every game and Catherine is an absolute jerk.

 

[NyQuil]

Well, the issue is that if you're too strong, you're competition and they want to defeat you.

If you're too weak, then you're easy pickings and they want to defeat you.

 

[kmart]

i am at a 15-20 hour epic game, somehow i am tired of it... as monty i control basically the map, all i have to do is to bring my infantry from one continent to another and finish the job but it drags so much. also i dont want to quit because after 50 quitted games it starts to itch my honor. next game will be a higher difficulty for sure.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Everyone is so jumpy and erratic....so in other words, it's a far too realistic representation of actual diplomacy.


Also, I keep finding France first in every game and Catherine is an absolute jerk.

Nailed it

And I don't know what it is with Catherine de Medici, but I've had the same thing happen to me to the point where I actually chose my AI competition for my current game, just to shake things up a bit. I feel like I haven't had any interactions with Peter at all yet.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Nailed it

And I don't know what it is with Catherine de Medici, but I've had the same thing happen to me to the point where I actually chose my AI competition for my current game, just to shake things up a bit. I feel like I haven't had any interactions with Peter at all yet.

If its like Civ 4 + 5, there's a bias for certain leaders to be chosen even when you choose random.

 

[Oogie Boogie]

So Civ VI will be $20 off at GameStop during Black Friday. Hmmmmm.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Ok so the barbarians are better at combat than the actual AI is. Just won a King-difficulty cultural victory with Russia. Spent a lot of time at war but never was seriously challenged. Gorgo managed to kill one archer in like 300 AD but that was it. Barbarians on the other hand...killed probably a half dozen units, pillaged my land, actually sieged a city.

You know something's fishy when barbarians spawning out of the arctic wastes attack your city strategically and effectively with musketmen, crossbowman, and knights (all the most up to date units), and then Cleopatra attacks you ineptly with spearmen, warriors, archers and horseman...