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By ainwood at 2010-03-12 18:59
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Jeff Buckland at Atomic Gamer has written a Civ 5 Preview.
In this review, he mentions that mod-ability of previous games has spawned "fantastic communities", linking to CivFanatics!
Quote:
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Most of my time spent playing Civilization games was with the second one, way back in the day, so if you're like me and didn't get much into the brilliant Civ IV, let's get you up to speed. It expanded on the series in a ton of great ways, and the added modification abilities in the last two games have spawned a fantastic community full of creative people that are very willing to share their work with others. Now, 2K and Firaxis are unveiling Civilization V, and this one might have some of the most radical changes in the series yet.
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There is also mention of the "Strategic View" button that has been mentioned in other articles in the last few days.
>> Head on over to Atomic Gamer and check-out the preview.
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By DaveShack at 2010-03-12 00:28
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Shaka WANTS... YOU!
The Game to end all Games is here!- CIV BTS MTDG II lets give CIV the sendoff it deserves!
This is an announcement of the second CIV BTS Multi-Team Democracy Game (MTDG).
The last CIV BTS MTDG was won by Team Kazakhstan, in a sudden, controversial finish. This can not stand! The grudge match is on, and teams are already being formed.
Which team will emerge victorious? Only you can decide thatÂ… The game will be starting very soon.
If you would like to participate, please visit the
BTS MTDG Forum and sign on to one of the teams listed.
All are welcome! For answers to the most common questions click here to get the MTDG F.A.Q.s.
For other questions, visit the BTS MTDG Forum.
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By Thunderfall at 2010-03-11 17:28
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PC Gamer has published an interview with lead designer Jon Schafer and producer Dennis Shirk about why they've cut religion, how diplomacy has changed, and some community features.
Below is the answer Jon Schafer gave when asked about the biggest differences between Civ4 and Civ5:
Quote:
There's a few things. One of the big ones is that, instead of square tiles, we're going to have hex tiles. There's a couple things with hexes that give the advantage over squares. First off, graphically they look better, because no tiles share corners. You can have more of an organic look. You don't have to have 90 degree angles everywhere, you can have it more free flowing. It also helps out with gameplay. Everyone who plays Civ knows that when you move your units, or whatever, visibility range, you generally want to go along diagonals, because you cover more distance that way than if you go a straight line. With hexes that's no longer a factor, so there's benefit in gameplay and in the visuals.
Couple other things. We're really excited about the changes we're making to the combat system. Anyone who's familiar with the old SSI [Strategic Simulations, Inc] games like Panzer General will recognise the change that we've made. That's the inspiration behind the system. We really liked the mechanics in that game, so we took the basics from it and iterated on it.
Some of the details on that is that instead of having big stacks of units like players are used to, you're only going to be able to have one military unit on each tile. So you'll see fronts form on the battlefield more, instead of these big masses. We're also going to be introducing ranged units to the game, like archers and catapults. They'll be able to fire over multiple tiles and hit enemies away from them. We think those things will make the combat really exciting.
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Thanks to Tom Francis of PC Gamer UK for posting about it.
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By Thunderfall at 2010-03-11 03:46
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Forum member bite is maintaining a very nice list of features confirmed so far for Civilization V.
The list is getting updated regularly. If you notice anything missing from the list, just post about it in the thread.
Thanks to bite for doing this!
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By Thunderfall at 2010-03-11 02:52
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 With the recent announcement of Civ5 and this week's Game Developers Conference, there have been an influx of Civ5 related articles. Here are just some of them that came out in the last two days:
If you found any Civ5 article not mentioned in the news section, feel free to post it in our Civ5 General Dicussions forum and share the info with fellow Civ fans!
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By Thunderfall at 2010-03-11 02:17
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GameSpot has also published their first impressions of Civilization V after seeing a hands-off demonstration at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Below is a small excerpt about city expansion:
Quote:
 Expansion will still be crucial to your success in Civ V, and the amount of "culture" your nation produces will still be the determining factor in how often your cities expand, but this time around, cities will not automatically expand outward in giant concentric circles. Instead, your holdings will expand one hex at a time and will tend to automatically grow toward specific nearby areas that your current civilization needs--for instance, if you've been developing your agricultural base, your nation will automatically tend to expand toward that nearby wheat-growing plain. While you can still use the old trick of annexing nearby resources by just sending out a settler to build an adjoining city nearby, there will apparently be game-specific disadvantages to having two cities too close to each other. Instead, Civ V will offer you a new alternative to send settlers to a desired area and plunk down a huge sum of gold to simply annex that zone and its resources.
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You can read the full article here.
>> Discuss Civ5 on our forums
>> Civ5 Screenshots Gallery
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By Denniz at 2010-03-10 18:27
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 The Civilization IV Hall of Fame has been updated. 152 games were accepted since the previous update.
Congratulations to Kamino for the highest score of the update with a Tiny Monarch Domination game for 823,970 points.
babaBrian was the most active player during this update, submitting 14 games.
Only 5 players were brave enough to take on Deity this update adrianj submitted a 850 BC Duel Deity Conquest game for 61775 points
Fluroscent submitted a 1392 AD Small Deity Space Colony game for 547637 points
smitsk00 submitted a Oct 2034 AD Small Deity Domination game for 15293 points
Sun Tzu Wu submitted a 3295 BC Duel Deity Conquest game for 24302 points
WastinTime submitted a Jan 2050 AD Small Deity Time game for 110715 points Gauntlet Info:
G-Major 69 - Religious, Monarch, Huge, Normal on Archipelago with Charlemange (Agg AI; Barbs On; See Opponents)
1st Kaitzilla 1515 AD
G-Minor 91 - Cultural, Prince, Standard - any Speed
1st Kaitzilla 1040 AD
2nd Sir Drake 1230 AD
3rd Infantry#14 1370 AD
** New Gauntlets Starting **
G-Minor 92 - Domination, Noble, Standard, Epic (One City Challenge)
G-Major 71 - Space Colony, Deity, Standard, Normal (One City Challenge, Barb On)
>> Civ IV HOF
>> Full Update Details
>> Discussion Thread
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By Thunderfall at 2010-03-08 19:26
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 IGN just published a new Civilization V preview with some new details from a hands-on playtest of the game! The 3-page article goes into the core game mechanics in more depth than any other preview so far, and notes the diligence Firaxis has put towards this game: "It sounds kind of insane, but Firaxis is constantly running AI games in a test environment to get a better sense of the relationships between all these systems."
Here are a few excerpts that should help Civ4 veterans get a sense of what's different:
Strategic resources are handled differently. There the quantity is very important. One iron deposit, for instance, will only grant you the right to build and maintain, say, five iron-based units. You can't build any more than that until one of those units dies (or is disbanded) or you get access to more iron. You will be allowed to keep those units in the field if your resource is pillaged, but there's an additional maintenance burden and you won't be able to replace them if they're lost.
Borders are also handled a bit differently. Instead of just dropping a big culture bomb at certain thresholds, a city's territory will keep better pace with population and grow one tile at a time. Now when you get a new tile, you'll probably have no other choice but to work it. It's still based on culture, and you can drop some cash to speed things up, but culture growth will be more relevant over the long term in Civ V. You also won't pick the tiles individually. Instead the game will weight growth towards "good" tiles like grassland or wheat and away from "bad" tiles like forests and mountains. It makes sense that culture would tend to spread quickest where people can settle and make a living, but we're not sure yet what impact this has on production-focused cities that need lots of mines and forests. You can discuss the preview here on our Civ5 General Discussion forums.
Thanks to the author Steve Butts (aka mrbee) for posting about it on the forums!
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By Ginger_Ale at 2010-03-07 21:12
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A few days ago, IGN published an early preview of Civ5 in which they discuss some of the influences of the current build, including Civilization Revolution and Panzer General. We also get a sense of lead designer Jon Shafer's impact in shaping the game.
Here is an excerpt, focusing on diplomacy and moddability:Naturally, it's not all about making war, so diplomacy has been overhauled as well. Diplomacy has a wider focus but has also been streamlined a bit. In terms of focus, the team wanted to create a game where the player's main interactions weren't always driven purely by competition. The inclusion of unaligned city states that can be used as leverage against larger powers helps move diplomacy in a new direction. By removing the religion and espionage systems, Firaxis hopes to focus diplomacy more on specific strategic situations and less on the exploitation of more arbitrary game elements. [...]
It's not surprising given Jon's background that the new version of Civilization will be even more moddable than Civ IV. All the tools have been taken to a whole new level, so the more you know about XML and programmable DLL, the more you'll be able to achieve with the game. More importantly, the game itself will contain a browser for full community interaction, so you can search for, discuss, install and rate mods all from within the game shell. Firaxis will maintain a small bit of control over this and will rely on player flags to evaluate objectionable content.
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By civ_steve at 2010-03-06 03:19
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 It's been over 8 years in the making - the 100th Civ3 GOTM is underway! The game has been moderately modified and commemorates the players, staff and GOTM experience; you play as "CivFanatic", leader of the Human Players and you play against a set of AI civilizations that recall many of the top players from the GOTM. If you play only 1 Civ3 game this year, you'll want to play this one and be a part of this milestone game! But hurry up - submittals will only be accepted to the end of March. You will need to play in Civ3 PTW with the last patch (1.27), but no other mods are required.
Civilization: Human Players
Rivals: 13 pre-selected.
Barbarians: Raging
Difficulty: Emperor
Land Form: Archipelago, 60% ocean, Large map.
Geology:5 billion years old, Normal and Normal.
>> Visit the pre-game discussion thread
>> Go download the starting saves
>> Visit the Civ3 GOTM Forum
Check out the latest Games, Results and Player Standings at the GOTM Main Page.
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By Ginger_Ale at 2010-03-03 16:43
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Over the past few days, a number of gaming magazines have published previews of Civ5 in their print versions. A couple of forum members have been kind enough to summarize what these articles contain, so if you haven't been scanning the Civ5 forums recently, here is some of what you missed. 
Swedish PC Gamer, as reported by Danielos:About 50 persons are currently working on the game, which has been in development for over two years, but is now reaching the final phases.
City states:
These are small, AI-controlled civilizations. They never grow big and doesn´t desire to win. The player must choose if he is to be friendly, indifferent or hostile towards a city state. The attitude you has towards a particular city state will have a big effect on diplomacy. If for example your units is approaching a city state that have friendly relations with another civilization, he will warn you, and if you ignore them, there will be consequences.
Barbarians:
The barbarians originate from a barbarian city and will get more advanced units later in the game. You need to wipe out all barbarian cities to get rid of the barbarian hordes.
City expansion:
Borders does no longer expand in large areas, but one hex at a time. Remote hexes like marshes, forests and mountains will be harder to acquire.
Economy:
You can invest money in your neighboring hexagons, for example trying to acquire an important resource before your opponent.
Research:
You can also sign a research-deal with another civilization. This way, both civs will cooperate to reach the new technology and both will gain it when the discovery is made. This was included to encourage cooperation between civilizations.
Diplomacy:
The civilizations will have an all-new advanced AI. All opponents will have fixed characteristics. Based on this unique personality, every AI-player will have their own agenda, which the AI will use to plan how to best play to win the game. But there will also be a certain randomness to avoid having the AI be too easy to predict. Computer Bild Spiele, as reported by Civinator:Tech trading is abolished.
Alliances give special boni (per example the possibility for a quicker research of a technology)
Cut-out of religions as known in Civ 4 confirmed
Cities can grow bigger than in former versions of the civ series as they there are 3 tiles for a city in every direction to be worked on.
New troops must leave a city at once, as there is only one unit per tile
Distance fighters (archers, artillery and so on) can shoot over the front units, lakes and other tiles
One philosophy is to form front lines for battles far away from the cities. GamePro, as reported by dc82:Leaders/Civs
German leader: Otto von Bismark
China leader: Wu Zeitein/Zetein
American leader: Washington
Japanese leader: Oba Nobunaga
Arabian leader: Harun al-Rashid
Other confirmed leaders mentioned in the article (Genghis Khan, Caesar, Napoleon, Gandhi)
Units
Basic military units move two tiles in combat instead of one. Be sure to read the rest of those threads as there is lots of new info!
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By Blue Monkey at 2010-03-01 23:10
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March brings some early signs what has been germinating in the minds of the Civ 3 modders. And there are sure to be other creative schemes that have yet to bear fruit.
SCENARIOS & MODS
UNITS
TERRAIN GRAPHICS
CITY GRAPHICS
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By Magic_gorter at 2010-03-01 10:26
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This month a special one. I've called it "Grand Canyon". As the title tells we will play on a map with a lot of mountains and rivers. I removed all huts too. I hope it is a nice challenge. Have fun.
To download the game, visit this page.
And of course, a screenshot of the starting location:
Have fun playing.
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By Ginger_Ale at 2010-02-25 19:48
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Gaming site IGN published an announcement trailer for Civ5 earlier today. While the 90 second video contains no in-game footage, it sets the stage for what will hopefully be more videos to come.
In the trailer, numerous quotations are heard, narrating a sequence of still images and video scenes: Vikings at sea, the city of Constantinople, and exploring the New World, to name a few. The clip has the feel of an intro video for a game, and so any insight is pretty limited.
Thanks to Newcomer24 for the news tip.
>> Watch the trailer at IGN
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By Denniz at 2010-02-25 18:15
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The Civilization IV Hall of Fame has been updated. 143 games were accepted since the previous update.
Congratulations to WastinTime for the highest score of the update with a Small Deity Space Colony game for 353,306 points.
babaBrian was the most active player during this update, submitting 12 games.
Only 8 players were brave enough to take on Deity this update bestje submitted a 1997 AD Standard Deity Conquest game for 16061 points
killercane submitted a 1956 AD Standard Deity Conquest game for 16945 points
kittenOFchaos submitted a 1917 AD Duel Deity Cultural game for 53588 points
Misotu submitted a Jan 2050 AD Small Deity Time game for 86340 points
ozbenno submitted a 1988 AD Standard Deity Conquest game for 21029 points
shulec submitted a 1985 AD Standard Deity Conquest game for 18080 points, a 1985 AD Standard Deity Conquest game for 17576 points and a 1980 AD Standard Deity Conquest game for 18882 points
Sun Tzu Wu submitted a 225 BC Huge Deity Religious game for 45742 points, a 275 BC Huge Deity Religious game for 39681 points, a 550 BC Duel Deity Religious game for 32303 points, a 1450 BC Duel Deity Religious game for 28491 points, a 1000 BC Duel Deity Religious game for 29470 points and a 675 BC Huge Deity Religious game for 48254 points
WastinTime submitted a 1390 AD Small Deity Space Colony game for 353306 points Gauntlet Info:
G-Major 68 - Domination, Immortal, Standard, Epic on Continents with Charlemange
1st The-Hawk 920 AD
2nd adrianj 1882 AD
G-Minor 90 - Diplomatic, Warlord, Small, Epic
1st WastinTime 160 AD
2nd Sir Drake 775 AD
3rd Infantry#14 805 AD
** New Gauntlets Starting **
G-Minor 91 - Cultural, Prince, Standard - any Speed
G-Major 70 - Cultural, Monarch, Standard, Normal - Industrial Era Start
>> Civ IV HOF
>> Full Update Details
>> Discussion Thread
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By Ginger_Ale at 2010-02-25 07:39
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In the upcoming Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Firaxis, 2K Games, and Intel will be making a joint presentation on the workings behind Civ5's game engine, as reported by Gamasutra.
According to the GDC 2010 website, Dan Baker will be speaking on behalf of Firaxis during the 60 minute talk. Here is the official presentation description:
Firaxis, 2K Games, and Intel are pleased to present the world premiere game engine and technology sneak peek of Civilization V, launching this fall! You'll learn how Firaxis developers have used the newly released GPA 3.0 PC platform tools and Threading Building Blocks to offer Civ V playability on a myriad of systems; from the rapidly expanding mainstream mobile gaming market, all the way up to the multi-core high-end enthusiast demographic. Millions of Intel(R) Core i3, i5, and i7-based systems are ready to play - will your title scale? This sounds like good news for essentially everyone, as it shows Firaxis' commitment to making sure the game is playable for a wide range of people. Thanks to CanuckSoldier and V. Soma on the forums for the news tip.
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By Thunderfall at 2010-02-18 13:12
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Here is the announcement many of you have been waiting for! 
2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, today announced that Sid Meier's Civilization V, the newest entry from the genre-defining strategy-based franchise, is currently in development at Firaxis Games for PC. Civilization V reinvigorates the classic turn-based strategy genre with an astonishing new engine built from the ground-up for this flagship edition of the Civilization franchise. Players are introduced to an entirely new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features that deliver a fully immersive experience providing hours of entertainment as players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known.
Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.
"Sid Meier's Civilization franchise has been recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all time with millions of units sold worldwide," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Civilization V takes the franchise further by offering players a more immersive experience with deeper strategies; heightened tactical combat; vast, realistic landscapes to explore, battle over and claim as their own; and an in-game community hub where Civ fans can share content and compete against each other without leaving the game. This marks a new era that will forever change the franchise responsible for sleep deprivation and reduced productivity for nearly two decades."
"Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team," said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. "Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series."
In addition to Civilization V, Firaxis Games is also currently developing Sid Meier's Civilization Network, a Civ game for Facebook. With Sid Meier leading design, Civilization Network will offer yet another option for world domination to both the casual gamer and the biggest fans of the series. It's another way to access the famously addictive world of Civilization.
Nine new screenshots are available in our new Civ5 gallery!
  
For more information, check out the official Civ V website.
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By Tone at 2010-02-18 02:39
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 The Civilization III Hall of Fame has been updated. 21 games were accepted since the previous update.
Congratulations to templar_x for the highest Firaxis score of the update with a Standard Deity Conquest game for 17192 points.
Spoonwood was the most active player during this update, submitting 9 games. This included the only Sid level submission.
A number of players gained number one positions on harder difficulty levels:
Spoonwood with a 620 AD Standard Sid Conquest game for 15574 points.
templar_x with a 210 BC Standard Deity Conquest game for 17192 points.
Spoonwood with a 1495 AD Small Demigod Cultural 20k game for 4942 points.
Spoonwood with a 1375 AD Standard Emperor Cultural 20k game for 6027 points.
The settings for the new gauntlet are Large Monarch 20K.
Congratulations to del62 for becoming a Quartermaster and to Spoonwood for taking over the top spot in that competition.
>> Civ III HOF
>> Full Update Details
>> Discussion Thread
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By Ginger_Ale at 2010-02-14 20:04
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 Our February update of Civ4 files is a lot more balanced than in previous months: a good variety of units, leaderheads, and modpacks highlight the list. Thanks to all the creators!
UNITS
GRAPHICS
AUDIO/VIDEO
NEW CIVILIZATIONS
MODPACKS
MODMODS
HYBRID MOD COMPONENTS
SDK MODCOMP
MAPS/SCENARIOS/MAP SCRIPTS
>> Announce your files for future posts
>> View all files in the Downloads Database
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