Civilization V: Brave New World

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Jedi Knight Luigi: Jul 13, 2009

Llamadeus posted:

I'll do it!

FINALLY. I am likely your only ally at this point in the game given that we don't share borders (I'm playing as Carthage), so make sure you send me a PM as well (steam ID: mustardeleven)

# ? Aug 21, 2014 00:16

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# ? May 31, 2024 07:47

Crazy Ted: Jul 29, 2003

Is it just me or does Atilla love to poo poo out cities no matter what? I turned his Expansion bias down to 2 and the next time I saw him in a game he still had six of his own cities by 500 AD.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 00:37

Athaboros: Mar 11, 2007; Hundreds and Thousands!

So, I used the MultiPlayer ModPack Maker to create a small mod compilation as "DLC" that adds a few interface and graphical enhancements without altering any of the game's core mechanics. When a mod functions as DLC, it theoretically should be able to be used in multiplayer and should allow achievements in singleplayer. If any of you want to give it a shot and let me know how it works for you, I'd appreciate any feedback. I've run a few trials with it on my own game, and everything seems to be in order. Do keep in mind that you have to start a new game, as the graphics/interface may be wonky if you do not. I also recommend using it alongside the Enhanced UI mod, which I use, as this modcomp assumes you are using EUI.

This mod (as with EUI) is installed by dropping the contents of the .zip file into the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC" folder, replacing the filepath with wherever your Steam installation lives.

For now I'm calling it "Vanilla Plus", and if you're interested in giving it a shot, it can be downloaded here.

The mods included are:

pre:

Historical Religions Edit v. 35 (adds a few new choices for religions)
InfoAddict v. 22 (adds interface elements tat provide more information directly to the player)
Quick Turns v. 10 (allows you to skip AI unit movement/combat based on certain criteria)
Randomize City Names v. 1 (chooses a random name from the city list for all cities after the capital)
R.E.D. Modpack v. 27 (adds flavor graphics to most units ingame based on the owner's civilization; rescales units)
R.E.D. Smaller Landmarks v. 5 (makes buildings/improvements scale relative to units)
Expanded Civilopedia Entries (additional civilopedia information, fixes typos)
Faster Aircraft Animations v. 3 (planes don't take as long to cycle through their animations)

If this is a success, I will do some more mod compilations that include other mods that I enjoy running but affect game mechanics, like Less Warmonger Hate, several mapscripts (if I can get them to work), the Game Balance mod, and Smart AI. If there are any other mods you'd to see, I want to hear it.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 04:06

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Speaking of Enhanced User Interface, am I missing something or does EUI remove the diplomacy dropdown menu entirely?

# ? Aug 21, 2014 10:08

ManOfTheYear: Jan 5, 2013

Any tips on playing with Venice? First time using it.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 14:13

BigPaddy: Jun 30, 2008; That night we performed the rite and opened the gate.
Halfway through, I went to fix us both a coke float.
By the time I got back, he'd gone insane.
Plus, he'd left the gate open and there was evil everywhere.

Welp, time to stop being cheap and get BNW.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 14:25

Bloodly: Nov 3, 2008; Not as strong as you'd expect.

ManOfTheYear posted:

Any tips on playing with Venice? First time using it.

Trade routes. Not just external, but internal as well. You get double the normal amounts, and that includes those granted by Wonders like Petra and the Colossus.

Remember that your Mechants are double-strength when doing a trade mission. That's a LOT of gold you can funnel into units or buildings.

Two choices when concerning City-States. Ally them via Merchants of Venice and gifts, enjoy the fruits of such 'labour'. Or use the Merchant to puppet them outright and funnel Food into the Capital.

Reminder that puppeting a Mercantile removes the 'special' resource.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 14:39

monkeymagic: Aug 10, 2004; He is Trampling the Unrighteous with Hooves of Hot Iron

If I get an early merchant as Venice, but cannot find any good city states to puppet (minimal resources, poor yield tiles, net happiness hit rather than benefit), is it better to use them for a trade mission or saving it until I explore the seas and find a better one far away?

# ? Aug 21, 2014 15:22

The Human Crouton: Sep 20, 2002

monkeymagic posted:

If I get an early merchant as Venice, but cannot find any good city states to puppet (minimal resources, poor yield tiles, net happiness hit rather than benefit), is it better to use them for a trade mission or saving it until I explore the seas and find a better one far away?

Get the city. You'll want to set up an internal food trade route from it to your capital.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 15:48

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

monkeymagic posted:

If I get an early merchant as Venice, but cannot find any good city states to puppet (minimal resources, poor yield tiles, net happiness hit rather than benefit), is it better to use them for a trade mission or saving it until I explore the seas and find a better one far away?

Depends on how well you can use the gold/influence, naturally. For most civs, being able to rush-buy stuff early on can be pretty handy, since you're normally heavily gold-constrained and can't produce many hammers; however, you only have one super-city to worry about so the calculus may be different.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 15:50

Mad Jaqk: Jun 2, 2013

Civs III and IV are also on marked way down on Steam right now. I never played anything in the series before V, which I really like but is starting to feel a little routine. Is it worth picking up the older games, or are they basically Civ V but worse?

# ? Aug 21, 2014 16:56

Luceo: Apr 29, 2003; As predicted in the Bible.

Mad Jaqk posted:

Is it worth picking up the older games, or are they basically Civ V but worse?

Civ4 is a very different game than Civ5, and is better in many ways, but worse in others. It's worthwhile in its own right.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 17:02

Kaal: May 22, 2002; through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Mad Jaqk posted:

Civs III and IV are also on marked way down on Steam right now. I never played anything in the series before V, which I really like but is starting to feel a little routine. Is it worth picking up the older games, or are they basically Civ V but worse?

Civ 4 is excellent, and it has an added bonus of having a great back-catalogue of mods and total overhauls that completely change the game.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 17:04

Mad Jaqk: Jun 2, 2013

Luceo posted:

Civ4 is a very different game than Civ5, and is better in many ways, but worse in others. It's worthwhile in its own right.

Kaal posted:

Civ 4 is excellent, and it has an added bonus of having a great back-catalogue of mods and total overhauls that completely change the game.

Cool, I'll check it out. Thanks!

# ? Aug 21, 2014 17:11

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Civ4 is significantly more complex than Civ5. It does require more micromanaging to be successful. And of course combat is completely different; have fun with Stacks of Doom. At least the AI can use them with some degree of competence too.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 17:26

DarthBlingBling: Apr 19, 2004; These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box

Just thinking, if you go tradition with Venice would you get the monument and aquaduct bonus? It seems the AI never builds the monument, or at least it's never present whenever I annex a city from the AI so probably wouldn't already be built if you use the merchant of Venice to puppet a city.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 17:39

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

DarthBlingBling posted:

Just thinking, if you go tradition with Venice would you get the monument and aquaduct bonus? It seems the AI never builds the monument, or at least it's never present whenever I annex a city from the AI so probably wouldn't already be built if you use the merchant of Venice to puppet a city.

You don't get the monument. It only shows up in the first four cities you found. So conquering doesn't work either.

Tradition's still the best starter social policy tree by a long chalk for Venice.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 19:09

Bogart: Apr 12, 2010; by VideoGames

Tangentially related to Civ, but Firaxis just announced their own convention. :xcom:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/firaxicon-official-firaxis-games-convention-tickets-12291102017 It's in Maryland, weekend of September 27th. Just me, or does that seem a little short notice for a convention?

Bogart fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Aug 21, 2014

# ? Aug 21, 2014 19:28

DarthBlingBling: Apr 19, 2004; These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box

Gort posted:

You don't get the monument. It only shows up in the first four cities you found. So conquering doesn't work either.

Tradition's still the best starter social policy tree by a long chalk for Venice.

Suppose you can't beat the growth and happiness bonus, although I do like the resting point bonus in patronage, friendships with the right cities can give much wanted food and culture bonuses which is great early on.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 19:31

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

DarthBlingBling posted:

Suppose you can't beat the growth and happiness bonus, although I do like the resting point bonus in patronage, friendships with the right cities can give much wanted food and culture bonuses which is great early on.

Well, yeah. Tradition > Patronage > Rationalism has been a standard route through social policies for ages.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 19:44

DarthBlingBling: Apr 19, 2004; These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box

Gort posted:

Well, yeah. Tradition > Patronage > Rationalism has been a standard route through social policies for ages.

Aye but with Venice is there any rush to get Tradition finished ASAP, couldn't really care for one free aquaduct and my puppets growing any faster, in fact do puppets even count towards that growth bonus?

# ? Aug 21, 2014 20:19

Vil: Sep 10, 2011

There's something to be said for getting Venice itself growing faster. That said, you've generally got time enough to flesh out a full tree and open another, before Rationalism is available. It's worth considering opening Patronage, at least, before finishing Tradition. Maybe grab the resting point policy as well.

Venice's economy doesn't really kick into high gear until a bit later, so the bonus to gold gifts to city-states can potentially wait a bit.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 20:26

DarthBlingBling: Apr 19, 2004; These were also dark times for gamers as we were shunned by others for being geeky or nerdy and computer games were seen as Childs play things, during these dark ages the whispers began circulating about a 3D space combat game called Elite

- CMDR Bald Man In A Box

Vil posted:

There's something to be said for getting Venice itself growing faster. That said, you've generally got time enough to flesh out a full tree and open another, before Rationalism is available. It's worth considering opening Patronage, at least, before finishing Tradition. Maybe grab the resting point policy as well.

Venice's economy doesn't really kick into high gear until a bit later, so the bonus to gold gifts to city-states can potentially wait a bit.

I only usually finish off patronage if I've gotten all my ideal social policies and ideology tenets and I've got culture points burning a hole in my pocket. I usually only open it to get the resting point policy. I also like to get commerce if I've not hit renaissance yet for the money bonus and crack at Big Ben, would seem ideal for Venice.

DarthBlingBling fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Aug 21, 2014

# ? Aug 21, 2014 20:31

HappyHelmet: Apr 9, 2003; Hail to the king baby!; Grimey Drawer

Mad Jaqk posted:

Civs III and IV are also on marked way down on Steam right now. I never played anything in the series before V, which I really like but is starting to feel a little routine. Is it worth picking up the older games, or are they basically Civ V but worse?

Ignore the sale then go on GOG and pick-up SMAX for $5 instead.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 21:31

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

I don't think there's anything to be said for the Civ games earlier than 4. 4 and 5 are both solid games that stand on their own however.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 21:39

Kaal: May 22, 2002; through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Gort posted:

I don't think there's anything to be said for the Civ games earlier than 4. 4 and 5 are both solid games that stand on their own however.

Well the earlier Civ games were great for their time, but they were largely iterative improvements and Civ 4 was the latest and best version of the concept.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 22:12

Paul.Power: Feb 7, 2009; The three roles of APCs:
Transports.
Supply trucks.
Distractions.

Gort posted:

I don't think there's anything to be said for the Civ games earlier than 4. 4 and 5 are both solid games that stand on their own however.

Civ 3 still has the best modern era music, and it would be amazing if Firaxis had rock, jazz, techno, etc. in their soundtracks again.

Maybe in Beyond Earth?

# ? Aug 21, 2014 22:19

THE MACHO MAN: Nov 15, 2007; ...Carey...

draw me like one of your French Canadian girls

Does the a I get any better above king or do the bonuses just increase. Because I'm realizing that unless the aj corners me or I get a poo poo start I seem to just get out to big leads quickly. In my current game I'm over 200gpt after slingshot ting the industrial era and I'm at least five techs ahead

# ? Aug 21, 2014 23:17

Glidergun: Mar 4, 2007

THE MACHO MAN posted:

Does the a I get any better above king or do the bonuses just increase. Because I'm realizing that unless the aj corners me or I get a poo poo start I seem to just get out to big leads quickly. In my current game I'm over 200gpt after slingshot ting the industrial era and I'm at least five techs ahead

It's basically just the bonuses. As you scale up the AI bonuses get to stuff like "start with a second settler, and some workers and a few archers, and all the tier 1 techs and maybe a couple of tier 2s, and also everything costs like 50% hammers and 50% beakers." It's still a matter of hanging on until your superior long-term priorities can outpace the AI's ridiculous headstart, but the headstart is super ridiculous - there's a reason that one of the most common pieces of advice for improving your gameplay on higher difficulties is to completely ignore all the wonders; it's because up until the industrial era or so the AIs will build all of them before you have a chance to even try.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 23:24

isndl: May 2, 2012; I WON A CONTEST IN TG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS CUSTOM TITLE

THE MACHO MAN posted:

Does the a I get any better above king or do the bonuses just increase. Because I'm realizing that unless the aj corners me or I get a poo poo start I seem to just get out to big leads quickly. In my current game I'm over 200gpt after slingshot ting the industrial era and I'm at least five techs ahead

AI just gets bigger bonuses. It does make them slightly more aggressive because they'll have giant standing armies, but they aren't any smarter about it.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 23:25

Ham Sandwiches: Jul 7, 2000

isndl posted:

AI just gets bigger bonuses. It does make them slightly more aggressive because they'll have giant standing armies, but they aren't any smarter about it.

Yeah but fighting an AI on Deity is a very, very different proposition than on King. I think you're downplaying the effects having 5x the units has, or the fact that even the dumb ai can drown you in units (nice walls + archer, can they fight off 20 warriors?) if they attack at the wrong time.

Higher difficulties also lock the player out of many wonders, makes you almost unable to compete in religion (compared to the way AI can crap out prophets and missionaries), makes early war harder and represents more of an opportunity cost, and city states can be a bit of a challenge depending on map type and civs present.

Ham Sandwiches fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Aug 21, 2014

# ? Aug 21, 2014 23:27

Subvisual Haze: Nov 22, 2003; The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault.

The AI also gets essentially unlimited happiness on the higher difficulties, so enjoy having them poo poo loads of tiny cities right on your borders.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 23:29

TheAnomaly: Feb 20, 2003

Gort posted:

I don't think there's anything to be said for the Civ games earlier than 4. 4 and 5 are both solid games that stand on their own however.

2 was better than 4 as it gave us both SMAC and the good Colonization games.

Seriously, though, play Civ 4 or 5 but go back and play SMAC/the original Colonization. Their focus really ups the ante on how these kinds of games can work.

# ? Aug 21, 2014 23:30

isndl: May 2, 2012; I WON A CONTEST IN TG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS CUSTOM TITLE

Rakthar posted:

Yeah but fighting an AI on Deity is a very, very different proposition than on King. I think you're downplaying the effects having 5x the units has, or the fact that even the dumb ai can drown you in units (nice walls + archer, can they fight off 20 warriors?) if they attack at the wrong time.

Higher difficulties also lock the player out of many wonders, makes you almost unable to compete in religion (compared to the way AI can crap out prophets and missionaries), makes early war harder and represents more of an opportunity cost, and city states can be a bit of a challenge depending on map type and civs present.

But at the end of the day, the AI is still playing like an idiot. I had a game the other day where I had Atilla next door, and even though I was totally expecting the attack, I flat out wasn't ready for my capital to be surrounded by a two-layer deep wall of Horse Archers. But because the AI is idiotic, I just focused down the Warriors and the couple rams that showed up later and brokered a peace off that.

It's a harder game, which is no surprise given that it's a higher difficulty level. The original question however was whether or not the AI plays smarter, and the answer to that is still no.

# ? Aug 22, 2014 00:04

Ham Sandwiches: Jul 7, 2000

isndl posted:

But at the end of the day, the AI is still playing like an idiot. I had a game the other day where I had Atilla next door, and even though I was totally expecting the attack, I flat out wasn't ready for my capital to be surrounded by a two-layer deep wall of Horse Archers. But because the AI is idiotic, I just focused down the Warriors and the couple rams that showed up later and brokered a peace off that.

I'm simply trying to say that many of the idiotic things the AI does when playing at Prince / King can actually become a problem on Immortal / Deity. Are they still kinda crappy at Warmongering and unit positioning? Yes. So while the AI is not going to behave differently in terms of how it moves units / conducts attacks, it will present a much more credible threat overall in many other ways.

Ham Sandwiches fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Aug 22, 2014

# ? Aug 22, 2014 00:10

Bogart: Apr 12, 2010; by VideoGames

Which Civ game had the leaders modernize with the time period? Because punk rocker Joan d'Arc was pretty good.

# ? Aug 22, 2014 00:48

isndl: May 2, 2012; I WON A CONTEST IN TG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS CUSTOM TITLE

Bogart posted:

Which Civ game had the leaders modernize with the time period? Because punk rocker Joan d'Arc was pretty good.

That would be Civ 3.

# ? Aug 22, 2014 00:52

SolidSnakesBandana: Jul 1, 2007; Infinite ammo

AesirKnight posted:

So, I used the MultiPlayer ModPack Maker to create a small mod compilation as "DLC" that adds a few interface and graphical enhancements without altering any of the game's core mechanics. When a mod functions as DLC, it theoretically should be able to be used in multiplayer and should allow achievements in singleplayer. If any of you want to give it a shot and let me know how it works for you, I'd appreciate any feedback. I've run a few trials with it on my own game, and everything seems to be in order. Do keep in mind that you have to start a new game, as the graphics/interface may be wonky if you do not. I also recommend using it alongside the Enhanced UI mod, which I use, as this modcomp assumes you are using EUI.

This mod (as with EUI) is installed by dropping the contents of the .zip file into the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC" folder, replacing the filepath with wherever your Steam installation lives.

For now I'm calling it "Vanilla Plus", and if you're interested in giving it a shot, it can be downloaded here.

The mods included are:
pre:
Historical Religions Edit v. 35 (adds a few new choices for religions)
InfoAddict v. 22 (adds interface elements tat provide more information directly to the player)
Quick Turns v. 10 (allows you to skip AI unit movement/combat based on certain criteria)
Randomize City Names v. 1 (chooses a random name from the city list for all cities after the capital)
R.E.D. Modpack v. 27 (adds flavor graphics to most units ingame based on the owner's civilization; rescales units)
R.E.D. Smaller Landmarks v. 5 (makes buildings/improvements scale relative to units)
Expanded Civilopedia Entries (additional civilopedia information, fixes typos)
Faster Aircraft Animations v. 3 (planes don't take as long to cycle through their animations)
If this is a success, I will do some more mod compilations that include other mods that I enjoy running but affect game mechanics, like Less Warmonger Hate, several mapscripts (if I can get them to work), the Game Balance mod, and Smart AI. If there are any other mods you'd to see, I want to hear it.

Came to this thread looking for mod advice, decided to just get this. Thanks for making it!

# ? Aug 22, 2014 00:52

Jamsque: May 31, 2009

Rakthar posted:

I'm simply trying to say that many of the idiotic things the AI does when playing at Prince / King can actually become a problem on Immortal / Deity. Are they still kinda crappy at Warmongering and unit positioning? Yes. So while the AI is not going to behave differently in terms of how it moves units / conducts attacks, it will present a much more credible threat overall in many other ways.

I got back in to Civ in a big way lately and while I like a lot of the changes in BNW the AI is still my biggest gripe with the game. It takes some of the satisfaction out of winning wars when the AI wastes its turns attacking barbarians rather than my units, and I am fed up with having to constantly decline requests to exchange horses and iron for luxury resources in the modern era.

# ? Aug 22, 2014 01:08

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# ? May 31, 2024 07:47

TooMuchAbstraction: Oct 14, 2012; I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.; Fun Shoe

Jamsque posted:

I am fed up with having to constantly decline requests to exchange horses and iron for luxury resources in the modern era.

If you have spare luxury resources, find an AI who has GPT to spare and sell 'em. It shouldn't be hard to tie up all your spare luxuries this way, and the AI won't try to trade for your only remaining copy.

# ? Aug 22, 2014 01:34

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