Civilization V Preview
IGN journalists were able to visit the Firaxis office and be the first to look at the Civilization V preliminary alpha.
As you know, in the fall of 2010, this legendary God simulator will finally return to the PC platform after several lay down migrations on consoles in the Civilization Revolution series.
Fans who watched the development of Civilization Revolution expressed concern that the platformer reality would negatively affect your favorite game, making it simpler and dumber. Their fears were justified: concepts such as religion and espionage disappeared from the “Civilization” on consoles.
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But now you can forget about the fears. PC-based civilization V will be as multidimensional and challenging as it used to be. True, the influence of the Civilization Revolution interface is still felt very clearly. For example, the basic commands and messages are simplified and become much more concise.
Religion and espionage are also unlikely to return, but advisers return to the game, and their messages become much more serious and important than before.
The gameplay has become more logical: instead of continuously pressing “End Turn”, you can now periodically press “Choose production”.
The main change in the gameplay was a new limit on the number of units in the game square. Now it will be impossible to create an invincible "super-unite". Battles are taken out of the city limits, and cities can protect themselves, depending on the number of defense facilities, and it is not necessary to keep a garrison there.
Since there is a limit on the number of units in area, the battle should become more tactical. For example, in a narrow gorge a small group of archers will have an advantage over a large enemy army of medium-strength soldiers.
The military component will remain secondary. That is, even having the strongest army, but not paying attention to the rest, in the end it will be impossible to win the game, even playing against the computer. Moreover, AI is now working on four levels: tactical, operational, strategic and global. For example, a tactical AI will build a plan on how to capture the enemy capital (now this will be enough for a military victory). Global AI is aimed precisely at winning the whole game and stripping the junior level AI teams.
For example, in the test run of the Shanghai war against Rio de Janeiro, the exclusively militant Shanghai global AI immediately switched to the military regime and immediately ordered the tactical AI to send six troops. However, along the way, two of them were unexpectedly exterminated by the barbarians. After that, AI immediately began to revise the plans and assess whether he could defeat Rio with the remnants of forces or whether the troops should be recalled.
The four-level AI system will make the game much more difficult, especially given the fact that each of the 18 leaders has its own characteristic personal characteristics. Catherine the Great is striving for expansion, so the Russian Empire is capturing new territories. There are a lot of cities, but they are developing poorly and remain relatively small.
However, before starting a new game, the pattern characteristics of each leader change in a certain range in a random way. In addition, the characteristics may change depending on the landscape of the territory and the geopolitical position of the country on the map, which turned out to be generated this time.
The diplomacy regime has become fully three-dimensional, and the animated leaders each speak their own language, and each has its own unique place of negotiation (Napoleon on the battlefield, and Bismarck in the office).
Personnel leaders are worked out very carefully. All of them will declare war in different ways and admit defeat. For example, Caesar will notify you about the seizure of your civilization completely indifferent and phlegmatic.
Another innovation in Civ V is the scientific covenants among civilizations. Having concluded such an agreement, each side will receive an increase of 15% to the speed of its own scientific research for the next 20 moves. Luxury objects are now available from all over the country, which should stimulate trade. Both of these innovations should encourage players to develop civilization in a peaceful manner.
Strategic resources (like mines), on the contrary, become more limited. So, one iron mine gives you the right to equip and contain everything, for example, five iron units. New ones can be built only in case of loss of one of the old ones or if you find new mines.
More in Civ V introduced a very interesting concept of city-states. The highlight is that, in principle, they can be easily captured. But then you lose a lot of bonuses that such city-states willingly give to the civilization that they like the most. For example, cultural bonuses and luxuries - they are lost if you capture the city. It turns out that it is much more profitable to maintain their independence and try to win their loyalty. For example, protecting from barbarians and enemy armies. Maintaining loyalty requires some effort, but you can’t allow a neighboring independent city to become loyal to the enemy. This system really brings diplomacy to a new level of complexity, and this is indeed a historically accurate concept. We all know that many large-scale wars between large countries began after a conflict over some small territory - some useless Serbia, Palestine or the Falkland Islands.
The boundary system has also changed a bit. It has become more logically tied to the population, and the expansion is faster in profitable areas (fields, forests), and it stops in the mountains, for example.
Of course, IGN journalists did not forget to say a few words about graphics and sound. According to them, it has been considerably developed, so that now it is even possible to determine by the appearance of the forest in which part of the world it grows. The whole game has become more colorful and realistic. The sound is also detailed: if the unit was killed in the forest, but there will be a sound of breaking boughs, if in the sea, then gurgling water. In general, when you are in a particular square, you will hear the sounds of not only this square, but also - in the background - the sounds of the surrounding squares. That is, you can hear the sound of the surf, even if the sea is not on the screen, but it is near. Of course, each civilization has its own separate playlist of music. More precisely, two playlists - peaceful and military.
As you know, in the fall of 2010, this legendary God simulator will finally return to the PC platform after several lay down migrations on consoles in the Civilization Revolution series.
Fans who watched the development of Civilization Revolution expressed concern that the platformer reality would negatively affect your favorite game, making it simpler and dumber. Their fears were justified: concepts such as religion and espionage disappeared from the “Civilization” on consoles.
')
But now you can forget about the fears. PC-based civilization V will be as multidimensional and challenging as it used to be. True, the influence of the Civilization Revolution interface is still felt very clearly. For example, the basic commands and messages are simplified and become much more concise.
Religion and espionage are also unlikely to return, but advisers return to the game, and their messages become much more serious and important than before.
The gameplay has become more logical: instead of continuously pressing “End Turn”, you can now periodically press “Choose production”.
The main change in the gameplay was a new limit on the number of units in the game square. Now it will be impossible to create an invincible "super-unite". Battles are taken out of the city limits, and cities can protect themselves, depending on the number of defense facilities, and it is not necessary to keep a garrison there.
Since there is a limit on the number of units in area, the battle should become more tactical. For example, in a narrow gorge a small group of archers will have an advantage over a large enemy army of medium-strength soldiers.
The military component will remain secondary. That is, even having the strongest army, but not paying attention to the rest, in the end it will be impossible to win the game, even playing against the computer. Moreover, AI is now working on four levels: tactical, operational, strategic and global. For example, a tactical AI will build a plan on how to capture the enemy capital (now this will be enough for a military victory). Global AI is aimed precisely at winning the whole game and stripping the junior level AI teams.
For example, in the test run of the Shanghai war against Rio de Janeiro, the exclusively militant Shanghai global AI immediately switched to the military regime and immediately ordered the tactical AI to send six troops. However, along the way, two of them were unexpectedly exterminated by the barbarians. After that, AI immediately began to revise the plans and assess whether he could defeat Rio with the remnants of forces or whether the troops should be recalled.
The four-level AI system will make the game much more difficult, especially given the fact that each of the 18 leaders has its own characteristic personal characteristics. Catherine the Great is striving for expansion, so the Russian Empire is capturing new territories. There are a lot of cities, but they are developing poorly and remain relatively small.
However, before starting a new game, the pattern characteristics of each leader change in a certain range in a random way. In addition, the characteristics may change depending on the landscape of the territory and the geopolitical position of the country on the map, which turned out to be generated this time.
The diplomacy regime has become fully three-dimensional, and the animated leaders each speak their own language, and each has its own unique place of negotiation (Napoleon on the battlefield, and Bismarck in the office).
Personnel leaders are worked out very carefully. All of them will declare war in different ways and admit defeat. For example, Caesar will notify you about the seizure of your civilization completely indifferent and phlegmatic.
Another innovation in Civ V is the scientific covenants among civilizations. Having concluded such an agreement, each side will receive an increase of 15% to the speed of its own scientific research for the next 20 moves. Luxury objects are now available from all over the country, which should stimulate trade. Both of these innovations should encourage players to develop civilization in a peaceful manner.
Strategic resources (like mines), on the contrary, become more limited. So, one iron mine gives you the right to equip and contain everything, for example, five iron units. New ones can be built only in case of loss of one of the old ones or if you find new mines.
More in Civ V introduced a very interesting concept of city-states. The highlight is that, in principle, they can be easily captured. But then you lose a lot of bonuses that such city-states willingly give to the civilization that they like the most. For example, cultural bonuses and luxuries - they are lost if you capture the city. It turns out that it is much more profitable to maintain their independence and try to win their loyalty. For example, protecting from barbarians and enemy armies. Maintaining loyalty requires some effort, but you can’t allow a neighboring independent city to become loyal to the enemy. This system really brings diplomacy to a new level of complexity, and this is indeed a historically accurate concept. We all know that many large-scale wars between large countries began after a conflict over some small territory - some useless Serbia, Palestine or the Falkland Islands.
The boundary system has also changed a bit. It has become more logically tied to the population, and the expansion is faster in profitable areas (fields, forests), and it stops in the mountains, for example.
Of course, IGN journalists did not forget to say a few words about graphics and sound. According to them, it has been considerably developed, so that now it is even possible to determine by the appearance of the forest in which part of the world it grows. The whole game has become more colorful and realistic. The sound is also detailed: if the unit was killed in the forest, but there will be a sound of breaking boughs, if in the sea, then gurgling water. In general, when you are in a particular square, you will hear the sounds of not only this square, but also - in the background - the sounds of the surrounding squares. That is, you can hear the sound of the surf, even if the sea is not on the screen, but it is near. Of course, each civilization has its own separate playlist of music. More precisely, two playlists - peaceful and military.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/87164/
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