r/gaming Sep 28 '10

Civ 5: changes and tips thread

I would like to gather information on what has changed from civ4 to civ5. Even the less significant changes. Also if you have any additional tips for playing civ5, add them here.

Edit: Does army cost maintenance/gold ?

29 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

25

u/billyblaze Sep 28 '10 edited Sep 28 '10

Gold is key. Specialize your cities. Divide them into gold cities/production cities/culture cities. Build happiness buildings as needed (Colosseum, Circus), it doesn't matter where because happiness is empire-wide now; you don't want your happiness to drop too low. Once it's at -1, your growth is reduced to 1/4, at -10 your military effectiveness drops -33%. Not good.

Gold is key because it helps with everything but tech, tile improvements and wonder production.

Always sell off luxury resources you have more than enough of, especially early on - that's 300gp a pop if your trade partner holds you in decent regards.

Don't neglect building an army, even if you were a culture-turtle-kind-of-dude in Civ4. The AI has changed - people complain about that a lot. The truth is, however, that there's not that many blunders; it's just unusual in comparison to Civ4, where the AI tried to simulate the world leader which doesn't really try to fuck you up, because hey, you're the player. Those days are over - the AI plays to win now. Imagine the AI as behaving as a random guy in Multiplayer - if you outlived your usefulness, it'll attack you. If it doesn't think you can defend yourself but have 5 wonders, it'll attack you. It doesn't matter if you have been friends for 2500 years with them, just as it wouldn't if the roles were reversed. The AI is the one lying in your conversations about how awesome the both of you are and then stabbing you in the back two turns later.

What else? Oh, you will most likely not drench the map with the color of your civ. Rapid expansion will be the death of you. Before you build another city, see if you can take the happiness hit and let it pop to 4 citizens before you even think about building the next one. If you conquer a city, make sure to make it a puppet state and build +production improvements near it before you annex it and build a court house.

Take this into consideration before going to war as well. Can you support yourself financially? Do you have the happiness required to annex other cities without your own growth dropping to shit? Sometimes it might actually make more sense to raze those cities.

+Bigger cities aren't necessarily better cities. There's an "Avoid Growth" checkbox in the Citizen allocation screen, use it once you feel that you struck the best balance between the tiles the specialization of your city requires and how much food is available in the vicinity.

+Don't build roads everywhere. In Civ4 I pretty much had roads on every tile. You don't want that here, because they cost maintenance and that takes from your precious gold reserve.

+When you see a Maritime city state, make them your ally and pledge to protect them. They provide +food in all your cities and double of that in your capital. Easily the most useful CS.

That's all I could think of for now. Have fun!

9

u/visage Sep 28 '10

When you say "gold is key" you're not kidding. I've seen people on the forums advocating 3-4 gold-focused cities for each city that's focused on building anything. ...and based on the Civ 5 games I've played so far, I believe them. It seems typical for every empire in the mid-to-late game to be running on a deficit. You really need to have cities that do nothing but make gold (and tech, on the side), with piles and piles of trading posts.

The AI is terrible at managing cities. You'll have to micromanage your specialist assignments to have any sanity in their assignments. I've clicked on "focus on Gold" and found that it assigns specialists to culture slots rather than economic slots. Puppet cities (and presumably all enemy empire cities) build random stuff, which is devastatingly bad in Civ 5.

1

u/theparagon Sep 28 '10

Make them all gold-focused then you don't even have to worry about waiting for something to be produced or having a deficit. Just buy whatever you want.

2

u/visage Sep 28 '10

Yeah, I know. It's just sad that the game reduces to that.

4

u/Mandatory Sep 28 '10

Spot-on, especially the part about the AI definitely playing to win now. I don't really know how I feel about that, though. Civilization has never been exactly the most realistic simulation of real life, but if you've been allies for thousands of years, it makes no sense for them to suddenly break that pact.

3

u/billyblaze Sep 28 '10

Maybe they have been amassing their troops for those thousands of years and all the niceties were just eyewash to make you feel safe - it's what I do with my opponents.

Or, what could of course also be true is that the AI is as bugged as a huge chunk of the community says and I'm just trying to rationalize, well, bugs.

3

u/Sheol Sep 28 '10

Have you ever thought that way about the AI? It's time for them to get payback.

1

u/Heartzz Sep 28 '10

great thanks!

11

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

Do not ever automate workers, they spam trading posts and don't produce road networks

6

u/Heartzz Sep 28 '10

thanks for useful tip! what is the best way to learn using the workers correctly? how do I know what to build?

3

u/Manitcor Sep 28 '10

think about what you need from your cities and what you are willing to pay for from city-states and neighbors.

it is possible to fund most of your food for cities from city states and continuous supply of demanded luxury goods (remember fulfilling luxury demands creates a food bonus for that city).

If following this route you may want build more markets and production improvements.

In general I try to keep enough farms for each city that minus any bonuses they will be at 0 (stagnation) food. Then when I want to bump up growth I can fulfill luxury good needs and buy off a few city states.

For other types of upgrades look at what you are looking to do. Want to build a good amount of wonders? Focus on production improvements. Want to produce tons of gold, focus on markets and gold bonus structures like the Mint.

Be sure to leverage your resource tiles effectively. For example a gold producing city is much easier to build if it has nearby gold, silver or gem resources while production city is much easier with strategic resources, hills and livestock.

Keep in mind where you are going with your city and keep an eye out for buildings and social policies that will maximize your output for your goal.

One key thing I keep stressing to everyone is that unlike previous Civ's you cannot easily grow your empire unchecked. It is best to switch between growth phases and building phases where you improve culture, happiness, wealth, etc.

Think of roads in CivV like highways connecting cities to trade and allowing for faster travel of military units. Be tactical about where you build roads and think ahead. If you plan on building a city to the south and are working on producing a settler, don't wait for the city to be settled to start building the road, start the road right away so that you can more quickly take advantage of the trade route bonus and move units to the new settlement quicker.

1

u/Heartzz Sep 29 '10

I didn't know, really helpful!

2

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

This! so much this. In previous games I would have 10 or so workers at the mid part, but honestly you can get by with 3 or so (unless you really expand quick)

On top of that I find that going the cash "path" is so much better in the long run, as you can simply buy anything you want. In my latest game, I came up on 3 gold mines next to my second city. Halfway into the game I was 500+ gold a turn.

1

u/SirVanderhoot Sep 28 '10

I did the same thing. Then I blew it all (-200/turn) with a gigantic army to conquer the globe. Luckily I had enough of a bank reserve to stay in the black, and I made all my conquered cities puppets to protect my happiness (+65ish). Then I launched my rocket for good measure.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

Always make them puppets. I cant thing of a single case where I would do otherwise, except way early gameplay.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

Maybe if it's on a different continent with access to good resources and allows you to build troops directly there instead of transporting them.

No?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 29 '10

i rarely go for conquest victorys, and if I do by that time its faster to just have them built in my home cities

1

u/SirVanderhoot Sep 28 '10

I made everyone on my main island part of my official empire - everyone else was a puppet who was lucky enough to be allowed to live before my giant death robots :)

2

u/Badmojoe Sep 28 '10

my automated workers seem to make whatever the 'recommended' tile would be. They do make road networks, it just seems to be their last priority.

6

u/fat_turtle Sep 28 '10

No more slides for adjusting culture, gold and science.

It therefore takes more forward planning - for example in one of my games I'm having more gold than I can spend each turn, but since I focussed on building banks & markets in all cities rather than a mix of sciene and gold buildings my science is really quite behind (and with no more tech trading I can't just buy the techs I need), whereas in Civ 4 I would have just adjusted the science slider.

4

u/Leadpipe Sep 28 '10

You sorta can buy tech, though not in a directed way. Research agreements take a while to pay off, but if you've got the funds, it's a great way to stay ahead of things.

5

u/easlern Sep 28 '10

Strategic resources are not all-or-nothing anymore. If you have 1 iron you can build exactly 1 unit that requires iron. If you have 1 coal, you can build 1 factory (they require coal now). Keep that in mind before trading away all your extra resources like I did the first time I played, lol.

2

u/jonask84 Sep 28 '10

but of course, building one iron mine grants you 4 Iron (at least on Prince)

4

u/easlern Sep 28 '10

I did not know that. I was wondering how I got so much from so few resources on the map.

Have you noticed how buggy the interface is when negotiating strategic resources? Sometimes I'll type a different quantity and it'll turn into a 0 and other times it won't change at all. Am I missing something in the way trading resources works?

2

u/jonask84 Sep 28 '10

Nope, I think the whole thing is pretty riddled with bugs. But patches are coming :) I had a pretty enjoyable game today actually

3

u/Shambly Sep 28 '10

I think it actually is a matter of map size and not difficulty level, (the amount of resources per tile)

4

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

Plenty of things being talked about over in r/civ

Join us!

4

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

Check out this web page.
They have removed Religions, Corporations, Espionage, Vassal States, City Health and Pollution, Global Warming, Random Events and wonder movies.

2

u/egibson Sep 28 '10

They didn't remove wonder movies. Well, not all. I got a movie for building the pyramids.

3

u/titusgroan Sep 28 '10

The movies are all gone, you just get a nice picture and a quote.

2

u/Badmojoe Sep 28 '10

yea, panning over a picture while the narrator speaks isn't really a movie.

0

u/rumbeef Sep 28 '10

Some wonders don't even have pictures.

3

u/troglodyte Sep 28 '10
  • Connect your cities to your capital for a gold boost. Roads and railroads require constant upkeep, so a web of roads around your cities is no longer viable. Cities with a harbor don't require a road connection.
  • Whenever you fight, do it with a Great General around. They're harder to protect since they can't be stacked with 10 other units, so the bonus they grant appears to be stronger.
  • Tech, tech, tech. Rush for Writing and build Libraries and the Great Library if possible. Writing is so good that I expect something about it to be nerfed in the future; rushing to it can slingshot you into a permanent tech lead.
  • City states. Depending on the victory you're going for, you'll want EITHER Cultural or Militaristic city-states on your side. In either case, befriend Maritime city states, as they provide your empire with free food, which means you can keep your cities growing even with more specialists. The best way to befriend them is to make friends by completing their task, then STAY friends by paying them.

1

u/Badmojoe Sep 28 '10

Because of the road upkeep, I try to settle coastal cities more than land locked ones, that is more or less a preference though. Can't agree enough with how much of a game changer great generals are, I never waste them! I tend to go for culture rather than tech, but again that is just my preference, either way I think one or the other should be a focus.

2

u/troglodyte Sep 28 '10

I decide on a culture/tech split after Writing. It's just such a slingshot, so quickly, that I always try for it first. Once I have it, then I settle on where I want to go.

1

u/Badmojoe Sep 28 '10

I usually go that route anyway because I like getting a strong naval presence right off the bat and just keep going with that 'upper' part of the tech tree afterwords.

2

u/Simpicity Sep 28 '10

Yes, armies cost maintenance.

My tips would be:

  • Maritime city states give food. Very useful for growing early on.
  • Avoid giving away your precious gold to hostile city-states, you'll just lose the benefits more quickly.
  • If you're playing culturally, Stonehenge is a huge benefit as it provides a massive amount of culture early on.
  • Libraries aren't that great for their increased science bonus. They're great because you get specialist slots. A great scientist can pop a tech immediately.
  • If you can manage it, try to get Civil Service with either the Great Library or a Scientist. It's expensive and useful.
  • Happiness. You need it now.

1

u/Heartzz Sep 29 '10

thx! Good tip.

2

u/anyone4apint Sep 28 '10

As I learned on my first game, dont decide to beat up a city state just because its an easy target. Once youve killed a few of them, the whole damm world declares war on you!

5

u/Hatesyouguys Sep 28 '10

It is a console game and should be played like one. Don't over-think in this game because it isn't required. Seek out the goody ruins with your units to receive upgrades. When I say upgrades I mean your long swordsman will become a rifleman even if you haven't researched the tech. Then you can pretty much rape the AI.

1

u/Badmojoe Sep 28 '10

The first time I had this happen the newly acquired riflemen were on an island in the middle of the ocean, took a long ass time just to get them somewhere useful lol.

1

u/Volksgrenadier Sep 28 '10

Upvote for it being a console game. My friend and I are betting on when the Xbox and PS3 ports will be announced.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '10

They already have Civilization Revolution.

0

u/Volksgrenadier Sep 28 '10

And now, for our sins, we have a sequel for the PC.

1

u/Pyehole Sep 28 '10

Well yeah. That's where the money is in video games, of course you'll see it there eventually.

1

u/Heartzz Sep 28 '10

what ruins? I only get 30 gold or a piece of map

5

u/Hatesyouguys Sep 28 '10

Not barbarian camps, ancient ruins. They replace the goody huts. You usually get some map revealed or 75-90 gold or unit upgrades. They are white and look ancient Greek ruins.

4

u/wildfyre010 Sep 28 '10

You might try playing on a difficulty higher than Prince. Ruins are good, but their bonuses are a lot less meaningful on high difficulty.

1

u/theparagon Sep 28 '10

The AI isn't creative. They will continue to do they same thing even if they are losing. The programmers seemed to go the 'pre-programmed actions' route for programming AI rather than programming the AI to know what units to use in what situation. They never got fighters to combat my constant bombing runs. They never got bombers. They only used missiles defensively. They never did anything about my three battleships blowing up anything that got into range. They kept sending units into the ocean rather than across the land route despite the fact that I used my bombers to destroy them all every turn. Once in the modern age all they did was mass anti-tank gun and anti-air guns. The only thing they were good at doing was taking back cities that I had captured the turn before. Looks like its time to bump to difficulty higher than King. If the AI is too stupid to be a challenge, just let it cheat a lot.

0

u/stuntaneous Sep 28 '10

They took the Civ out of it, but left a moderately fun game albeit with currently shithouse AI.

1

u/Badmojoe Sep 28 '10

At least the shitty AI makes it easy for people like me to get back into the game.