Civilization 5 Announced!

[mor2]

well it was a long shot that i could even make it run on this crappy laptop, thanks.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

Are there any artillery mods in Civ 4 that mimic the ones from 3. Tile bombardment of units is what I'm asking.

Yes, several. There are even some for archers to do the same.

Linky?

Edit: Name?

 

[Lord Drake]

Are there any artillery mods in Civ 4 that mimic the ones from 3. Tile bombardment of units is what I'm asking.

Yes, several. There are even some for archers to do the same.

Linky?

Edit: Name?

Here is one example, but there are more, most are just built into other mods.

 

[ealabor]

Damnit this thing still hasn't dropped in price.

Was hoping to pick it up with a 25 gift card on Amazon.

 

[Dryvus]

They're not getting any of the money I don't have until they put in some ****ING HOTSEAT FUNCTIONALITY.

 

[Almalexia]

My brother got it for me for Christmas!

...

Used.

...

So the registration key is registered to someone else's account.

 

[DanAngleland]

How did he get it used? Was it bought from a company, or did the owner give it to your brother directly? I hope your brother can get his money back or get it working for you.

Civ 5 is better now than at release, though I am not keen on some of the ways it does things (happiness is global rather than per city, so some cities can have no colosseums etc just so long as the overall happiness of your nation is positive; cities don't lose money or production from distance from capital, and luxuries don't need a connection from your capital, so building cities on the other side of the world is fine, which seems stupid; the computer builds as many cities as it can most of the time, regardless of usefulness; countries seem to denounce too often and for no apparent reason...there are quite a few bugbears). There is one thing that I think really needs looking at though; the research tree, or at least how it is opened up. Research agreements are good on one hand, as they allow rich but small nations to keep up in tech, but in a recent game I got mech infantry through a R.A. 1 turn before I finished researching riflemen. Riflemen have a strength of 25, compared to mech's 50. Allowing huge technology jumps like that shouldn't be allowed; I went from having a late medieval/renaissance military (roughly what my best rivals had as well) to being able to build a cutting edge twentieth century unit. It ruined the game for me, and so I quit that game, resolving to do fewer R.A.s, though of course my opponents do them.

 

[Almalexia]

How did he get it used? Was it bought from a company, or did the owner give it to your brother directly? I hope your brother can get his money back or get it working for you.

Amazon.

 

[Taimat396]

Global happiness is a good idea in theory, but it really should have been combined with city happiness. A colloseum in the next city over I can see bosting neighbouring cities happiness too, but if a city has **** all to itself?

 

[Archonsod]

Amazon.

Get in touch with Steam customer support and tell them it's saying the key is already in use. They're usually pretty good at passing the key to you if you can prove you own it (usually photo's of the box / receipt).

cities don't lose money or production from distance from capital

Connecting a city to the capital provides it with a boost in both production and income, so technically they do.

and luxuries don't need a connection from your capital

They do. If you harvest a luxury without a trading link to your capital it'll only apply benefits to the city working it. If you link the city to your capital, it applies the effect to all cities linked to the capital. The only exception is city demands, the idiots will quite happily hold a "We love the King Day" even though the small outpost which supplies the furs they crave is not actually shipping them anywhere. But then the idiots will happily celebrate even while you raze a city providing the resource. Personally, I think it's nice Civ V is finally modelling the utter stupidity of large groups of people.

the computer builds as many cities as it can most of the time, regardless of usefulness

It doesn't. The AI uses mutual defence rather than anything else to position it's cities. It's primary aim is to ensure every tile within it's borders can be attacked by at least one city. It does have certain things it will ignore this for and beeline (chokepoints and strategic resources mainly), but it will then attempt to backfill.

countries seem to denounce too often and for no apparent reason

No apparent or simply not visible to you? Denouncing a country gives a small relations boost with countries and city states which dislike the denounced nation. The AI will usually denounce to grab free city state loyalty points. It's also another way of saying "I'd like a co-operation pact against X, who's up for it?". One of the things they tried to do this time is force the AI to play the same diplomatic game as the player.

Allowing huge technology jumps like that shouldn't be allowed

It's not, in order to be given a tech from the concluding of an RA you must be able to research the tech yourself at the point the RA concludes. If it gave you mechanised infantry then you must have already had the pre-requisites researched (Electronics). Not sure about riflemen. You can get mechanised infantry before their non-mechanised counterpart because the electronics branch is separate from the replaceable parts branch. Not sure about gunpowder though

Global happiness is a good idea in theory, but it really should have been combined with city happiness. A colloseum in the next city over I can see bosting neighbouring cities happiness too, but if a city has **** all to itself?

The city suffers penalties to income, production and birth rate as long as happiness is below 0. It makes more sense in a way; if a city is built with no redeeming features whatsoever (like Milton Keynes) it doesn't tend to trigger the collapse of the country. People will happily travel or relocate for entertainment. It does tend to mean the city becomes rather an unpopular place to live though.

 

[Almalexia]

Amazon.

Get in touch with Steam customer support and tell them it's saying the key is already in use. They're usually pretty good at passing the key to you if you can prove you own it (usually photo's of the box / receipt).

My brother contacted them on Christmas day when we discovered the problem, but so far no dice. Not sure if he gave any pictures of the box, etc. though. 

 

[DanAngleland]

cities don't lose money or production from distance from capital

Connecting a city to the capital provides it with a boost in both production and income, so technically they do. I didn't know about the production boost. I should probably read the manual, but the last time I tried I had to give up (hate PDFs).

and luxuries don't need a connection from your capital

They do. If you harvest a luxury without a trading link to your capital it'll only apply benefits to the city working it. If you link the city to your capital, it applies the effect to all cities linked to the capital. The only exception is city demands, the idiots will quite happily hold a "We love the King Day" even though the small outpost which supplies the furs they crave is not actually shipping them anywhere. But then the idiots will happily celebrate even while you raze a city providing the resource. Personally, I think it's nice Civ V is finally modelling the utter stupidity of large groups of people. Arch, what do you mean by it only applies benefits to the city working it? I am talking about the happiness bonus of +5 each luxury gives, which is of course global happiness. You don't need to build a road to get that bonus, I am certain.

the computer builds as many cities as it can most of the time, regardless of usefulness

It doesn't. The AI uses mutual defence rather than anything else to position it's cities. It's primary aim is to ensure every tile within it's borders can be attacked by at least one city. It does have certain things it will ignore this for and beeline (chokepoints and strategic resources mainly), but it will then attempt to backfill. Whatever the actual reasoning, it doesn't seem natural, and the AI must be handicapping itself in a way the player wouldn't (building cities in tundra or desert provide little benefit, and of course high no. of cities = a drain on happiness and increases the amount of culture needed to get a social policy)

countries seem to denounce too often and for no apparent reason

No apparent or simply not visible to you? Denouncing a country gives a small relations boost with countries and city states which dislike the denounced nation. The AI will usually denounce to grab free city state loyalty points. It's also another way of saying "I'd like a co-operation pact against X, who's up for it?". One of the things they tried to do this time is force the AI to play the same diplomatic game as the player. Well 'not apparent' and 'not visible to me' are the same thing I think But some people seem to do it with little or no prior interaction with you. It could be my playing on a huge world map with many nations on which is causing it, but I recall countries miles away from me denouncing me early game...what reason could they have?

Allowing huge technology jumps like that shouldn't be allowed

It's not, in order to be given a tech from the concluding of an RA you must be able to research the tech yourself at the point the RA concludes. If it gave you mechanised infantry then you must have already had the pre-requisites researched (Electronics). Not sure about riflemen. You can get mechanised infantry before their non-mechanised counterpart because the electronics branch is separate from the replaceable parts branch. Not sure about gunpowder though Well there is clearly a problem when I can get mech before riflemen

 

[Archonsod]

I should probably read the manual, but the last time I tried I had to give up (hate PDFs).

Yeah, I didn't bother with the manual either. You can see it if you check the city though

Arch, what do you mean by it only applies benefits to the city working it? I am talking about the happiness bonus of +5 each luxury gives, which is of course global happiness. You don't need to build a road to get that bonus, I am certain.

If the city isn't connected to the road network you'll only get the bonus in that city. If you check the resources for any other city you'll see they're missing the luxury. Once that city is connected to the road network, you'll see the resource added to each city also in the network and a bonus to happiness in each city from it.

The only thing that adds directly to global happiness are natural wonders and some of the government policies. I'm not sure exactly how global happiness is calculated; it's not the sum of happiness in all cities (I've tried to game it on that respect and it didn't work). I suspect it's % of population based, in which case you should get more benefit from increasing happiness in your larger cities than your smaller ones (which seems to be the case).

Whatever the actual reasoning, it doesn't seem natural, and the AI must be handicapping itself in a way the player wouldn't (building cities in tundra or desert provide little benefit, and of course high no. of cities = a drain on happiness and increases the amount of culture needed to get a social policy)

It's not. Number of cities don't affect happiness, population does. And a city which never grows from level 1 doesn't generate any population unhappiness (it was what my exploit was based on; if global happiness was just the sum of city happiness then you should in theory be able to massively boost your global happiness by keeping a city at level 1 and building all the +happiness buildings).
Culture is a bit harder to judge. The only AI's which care about culture are those geared for a cultural win, like Ghandi. In their case, they already adopt a strategy which mitigates the culture requirement increase (as you should when going for a culture win; with certain policies, wonders and buildings you will offset the increased cost which is a flat rate per city with the increased cultural generation in every city).  Civs not geared up for cultural victory will ignore it for the most part anyway.
You're also overlooking the massive defensive advantage it gives the AI. By placing throwaway cities around it's prime land it forces any attacker to deal with them before they can advance to where they can do real damage; especially if it's geared as a war civ (they'll generally build forts and the like, so even a size 1 city is going to be attacking with a strength somewhere in the range of modern artillery). It prevents you being able to make a quick rush for the capital for a quick end to the war, and also buys time for it to prepare a decent military defence against your attack.
In fact, it's a strategy you'll generally see recommended for players to adopt on higher difficulties, particularly in the early game. Being able to drop 90% health off any Barbarian approaching your capital without using a unit is almost a fundamental necessity.

some people seem to do it with little or no prior interaction with you. It could be my playing on a huge world map with many nations on which is causing it, but I recall countries miles away from me denouncing me early game...what reason could they have?

Check nearby city states. Units on automated scout will happily trespass in a city state's territory which will give you around a -50 relation with the city state. AI's will then denounce you since it gives them a boost to their relations with that city state. The AI is aware of all city states without having to discover them, which is silly but there you go. Generally, even Mongolia's AI is geared to take maximum advantage of any opportunity to boost city state relations for free.
Interestingly enough, it's also why you can be the first to discover a city state, and see an AI civ announce they are protecting that city state in the same turn.

Well there is clearly a problem when I can get mech before riflemen

Like I said, it would depend on your research. Mech's only pre-requisite is electronics. I know you can get them before infantry since there's no pre-requisite tech on the electronics branch that requires you to have replaceable parts. I've not checked all the way back to gunpowder, but it might be possible. If it is the case, then I reckon the problem is your research strategy You could probably tell by how quickly you advanced era's afterwards. Era advancement seems to be dependent on having all the techs of a given era researched; it's possible for example to be researching medieval techs and still be pre-classical if you ignore the sea tech. As soon as you research sailing you'll advance to the classical era; if you've got all the classical era techs but the sea tech researched, then assuming you research the sea tech next you'll advance immediately to the medieval era once it's discovered.
As for it being a problem, not necessarily. Most later units require strategic resources to be built, and by the time you hit the industrial era you're forced to choose between investing those resources in your military or economy. Depending on the hidden resources that get revealed, players might be forced to shortcut through the tech tree (as in the example of mech inf skipping regular inf) in order to make up for lacking oil; since players with oil are likely to start building tanks.