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Civilization V : THIS! IS!

spekkio

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This LP delivers.
Well, at least this part that has images working...

:rpgcodex:
 

RK47

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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I apologize. I really need to trim down the size a bit. Didn't know dropbox has such a stringent limit. I did Mass Effect 1 & 2 LP on them before and never hit bandwidth cap. Strange really.

Ah well, as you can see they added a little bit more with the hex based combat now. There's flanking, terrain (which they already have in Civ 4) and ranged attacks.

Here's how flanking works:
Extra allied units that occupy tiles adjacent to the hostile target will give 15% strength bonus to your attacking unit. So even the weak scout can help out in flanking by occupying tiles around the target.

Tiles:
Pretty simple yet has variety, I like it. Open terrain like Plains, Snow, Desert and Grass penalizes 33% strength when on defense. Rough terrains like Forests & Hills gives bonuses to defense. Attacking across rivers is also penalized. Movement across rivers, without a bridge built, will end a turn right after a unit crosses it. Which I will demonstrate how it affects attackers and gave advantage to defenders.

Ranged Attacks:
Ranged attacks such as archery, catapults and eventually artillery will not allow defenders to retaliate. Rough terrains like forests provide cover against damage. My hoplites caught by catapults in the open usually ends up at 1 HP, if not dead. Naval bombardments are also ranged attacks and can cause massive damage to land units near coasts if unchecked.

Experience & Promotions:
Terrible terrible terrible. Just awful. The first three promotions you gain access to any general troops will be:
1. +20% in rough terrain
2. +20% in open terrain
3. instantly full heal the unit.

Now tell me, which one would you rather have? I saved up most promotions for 3rd option which can turn tables pretty quick in close battles. I won't bother mentioning how to abuse since you save up promotions and gain 2 levels from building barracks and armory in your army production town. Wheeee, 2 health potions. Watch as that near death samurai refills to full health and kill your infantry in battle next turn! Next GEN!

Is Civ 5 dumbed down?
City buildings - Yes. Definitely. I cannot stress how badly designed some buildings are. Barracks I already mentioned. But most of them offers very little for such a long investment. In deity war mode, you can hardly produce anything else but units. Use gold to buy those production enhancers / experience boosters if you need to. I know I did with my Barracks. And all buildings generate no pollutions. So happy Factory spam.

State policies - This allows you to customize your nation to war mode, expansion mode or small empire mode. Unfortunately, it's permanent. Unlike Civ 4 Civics, you can't change. And larger empires use more culture to adopt new policies. Some of the policies at later ages are more powerful, so people learn to save it for later and slingshot like crazy in production bonuses / research. A little bit of flexibility would be nice, not that I need it now. Sparta is a warring nation 24/7

Empire Happiness - Makes no damn sense. Luxury goods contribute +5 happiness. Each populace decreases happiness. Number of cities built will reduce it as well. Annexed cities creates more unhappiness but allows control of production. Puppet cities generate less unhappiness, but will build random buildings. Positive happy points will accumulate and at certain point will trigger Golden Age. Unhappy points will drain the accumulated points down to 0. It's not really worthwhile obsessing about Golden Age triggers through that method, however, people usually go with Great Person or Wonders. Can break the game with 50 turns of GA.
 
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RK47 said:
Experience & Promotions:
Terrible terrible terrible. Just awful. The first three promotions you gain access to any general troops will be:
1. +20% in rough terrain
2. +20% in open terrain
3. instantly full heal the unit.

Now tell me, which one would you rather have? I saved up most promotions for 3rd option which can turn tables pretty quick in close battles. I won't bother mentioning how to abuse since you save up promotions and gain 2 levels from building barracks and armory in your army production town. Wheeee, 2 health potions. Watch as that near death samurai refills to full health and kill your infantry in battle next turn! Next GEN!

Having 2 warriors that each auto heal 3 HP per turn while attacking, backed up by 2 horse archers who can shoot 4 arrows per turn each is a bit cooler, though.
 

RK47

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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
That's true, but the nature of our conflict means each soldier must be able to inflict damage and deal more again next turn with minimal rest. I'm sure you'll understand once you see the scope of what we're facing. Because....a thousand warriors of Arab and Japan will descend upon us. Their numbers will blot out the tiles.


sparta101.jpg


sparta102.jpg


Did we bring this upon ourselves? Or is it only a matter of pre-emptive strike?

Whatever happens,

NECA0022.jpg


sparta103.jpg
 

RK47

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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Berlin is a lost cause...for now. The Arabian war machines across the rivers would pulverize our men should they approach. Their swordsmen will cut them down in a hail of blades and rain of chariot arrows.

sparta104.jpg


While the Japanese has settled in, building more stronghold near Sparta.

sparta106.jpg


We let Berlin fall while our men get in position to retake it. We will wait for Greek Companion Cavalry reinforcements to arrive.

sparta105.jpg


Once again, Sparta and her allies are attacked.

sparta109.jpg


This time, the outcome is not clear cut.
 

RK47

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River crossing always ends a unit turn, unless there's a bridge made. Now we're going to punish the Arabs who crossed early.

sparta107.jpg


Our Hoplite is more than a match for their regular Spearman. However, their swordsman survived the encounter. Albeit, with heavy casualties.

sparta110.jpg


During the enemy's turn, their catapult decimated one of our hoplite. Barely alive, he has no where to hide. The surviving enemy swordsman retreated across the river to regroup.

sparta111.jpg


A hoplite and newly arrived cavalry will retake the burning ruins of Berlin, while the near death Hoplite will make a final suicide charge against the Arab catapult across the river.

sparta112.jpg


He was successful. Glory to the Spartans!

sparta113.jpg


He will perish gloriously in the following night, cut off from his friends across the river, surrounded from all sides by the unwashed masses. Sparta lost another son.

The Cavalry raised the Spartan flag above Berlin once more and the defense of Berlin resumes.

sparta114.jpg
 

RK47

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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
The Chariot Archer never stood a chance, but the pikemen posed a slight challenge. A little softening fire from the city's bombardment, and flanking from the first cavalry, and the second one can rush in to take it out with slight damage.

CHARGE!

sparta115.jpg


Two down. Dozens to go.

sparta117.jpg


Meanwhile up north, Ivan the Terrible takes the offensive to Japan.

sparta118.jpg


St. Petersburg had to deal with barbarian camp. A hoplite was pulled from the front to deal with this threat.

sparta119.jpg


While Munich fends off a city state army allied with Arabia.

sparta120.jpg


Nary an end in sight.

sparta121.jpg


Very, very reckless of me.

sparta122.jpg


I sacrificed a hoplite for a catapult once more. Another son of Sparta sacrificed for the greater good.
sparta472.jpg


sparta123.jpg


Cape Town is with us till the bitter end.

sparta124.jpg


The Barbarian uprising was finally put down in St. Petersburg.
Where upon victory, the Hoplites charged towards Munich to fend off the city state of Hanoi's army from the west.

sparta125.jpg


The Emperor of Japan offered us peace in exchange for the two German towns we fought so hard to defend and some rare earth.

sparta126.jpg


We sent our reply the very next day in true Spartan style.

sparta127.jpg


sparta128.jpg


You want my cities? Come get them.

300-sparta1.jpg
 
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Could really do with a zoomed out picture of the landscape at the end so we know what the overall situation is. Otherwise, continue onwards to victory :salute:


One thing I really hate is that city states count against you when making peace. Since the enemy civ has to make peace against you AND each individual city state they end up asking for much more in return. If you aren't allied with city states I've had them basically give up half their empire in exchange for peace. Even if its a stalemate they will often give up some gold for peace even if all you have done is hold the line for 15-20 turns. But add a single city state in and the AI thinks its paying double for peace, so you have to give them cities/rare luxuries/every gold you have.

Also, random great general names is lame.

sparta128.jpg


This is why I will never play Deity even if the lower levels are too easy. Bunch of fucking BS :x
 

RK47

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I'm staring a horrible death at 1000 AD. I think I'll skip the screenshots and give you a narration instead.

Lol.. The cheating is gross. But what do you expect from Deity?

I automatically write off those asshats in Civ Fanatics when they said Deity is too easy. Stop playing Duel Tiny maps for Achievement, cocksuckers!
 
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Your starting position being right in the middle of multiple enemies probably makes Deity nigh-impossible. Not that I know of a great way to actually gain a victory, but you can at least hold off enemies decently through a choke point in a corner of the map.

I think to truly have a chance at a domination victory you are pretty much required to take either the chinese or the japanese because you really need something that lets your units absolutely butt rape 1v1. Give them auto heal and defense upgrades, Quick load if they ever die and get 100 kills apiece while you take out other civs with monstrous bonuses. Greece is still one of the most powerful civs in lower difficulties, but in Deity you probably can't do jack shit if the enemy decides to take out your city states and the companion cav is only useful for so long (though its certainly awesome while it lasts).

Do militaristic city states gift you higher tier units then you can make if other civs are teched far beyond you? That might be a way to even up the battles.
 

RK47

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100% agreed. It was good while it lasted. Alright. Before I die. I will try to burn the Japanese Emperor's capital city.
 
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Played a short game against Deity in honor of our fallen spartan brothers. I was doing pretty damn well until the Japanese surpise expanded right between my cities, triggered a war, and invited an allied city state right next to me to join in on the fun. My army was right next to the city state helping them defend against egypt, so it evaporated instantly.

That said, I think the chinese + good spawn location is the trick. I didn't get a good spawn location since I started in the middle of a lot of enemies, but the chinese +45% general bonus is what you need to set you even with an enemy that is always 1 tier ahead. You really must stack the buffs though. I was pumping out Cho-Ko-Nu's that started with +10% morale bonus and 2 free upgrades in addition to the 2 shots per turn upgrade. My best units were getting a total of around +100-140% bonus depending on placement, and they were auto healing several health per turn. Egypt only had one city left by the time I got curb stomped.

Question: What exactly determines the base rate at which your influence with a city state falls? Some city states fall at 1.12 per turn while normally it falls at .75 per turn. What makes that happen?
 
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Some city states have a "hostile" personality. Your influence with these will fall faster than with others.

Regarding deity, the AI does not only receive bonuses, he plays an entirely different game than you - I do not think they even have to worry about happiness.
 

RK47

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And therefore their Golden Age triggers more often...further exacerbating their massive production problem.

It's not unusual to see Deity AI occupy a single continent but kept building units to occupy every tile in that island without attempting to mount a naval invasion. So people who boasted beating Deity standard maps are probably using water maps as defensive buffers.
 

Luan

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Great LP! I'd look forward to you doing another one with either China or Japan. China for your firing 3x a turn RIFLEMEN/Infantry/Mech after upgrades or Japan for their awesome Bushido bonus. Oh, Samurai are badass too since it's basically a free level up.

I've gotten my 12 civ, 28 city state Diety Huge Earth Marathon (disabled ancient ruins since mechanized infantry at 2000 BC is inane) game to turn 780 before running into the 70 city limit crash. No matter what I do I can't progress as the game will boot me to desktop without fail. I'm at war with Hiawatha and France. Someone will grab a city that turn and it'll just trigger a CTD. I'm in a comfortable position to pull either a domination or science victory.

Regardless, I spawned in the general center of the world (near Saudi Arabia), but since the map was huge, it gave me plenty of time to stockpile my policies and great scientists to straight tech to Samurai, take out England in east Asia, then slingshot to riflemen to take out America in southeast Asia. I was using Infantry vs Siam war elephants to take out Europe. Next conquest was a giant death robot + modern armor support to take out South America. With all the puppet states and focused teching, past the renaissance I've consistently been the most literate of the civs. I have a single level 8 giant death robot, 5 mechanized infantry, 4 of which are level 12-13 and a trio of modern armors which are around level 6. This discounts the choppers, stealth bomber, carrier with f22's and subs/missle cruisers with nukes... Just this small group (relative to the AI's death blankets) annihilates anything that comes by with all the wonder + policy bonus while fighting in friendly lands. Which is basically everywhere since you conquer your cultural borders. Literally, the giant death robot has a strength in the 400's for most engagements. Eventually the advantages of the AI just dry up over time and then they play just like any other difficulty of AI. If you get ahead of them, generally you'll just take off and run away with that lead. Only Napolean (all of North America) and Hiawatha remain (Africa + all the cities that I've sold him sprinkled all over my vast empire)

You just have to plan your tech slingshots and conquer appropriately for that science boost. Economy isn't very important, just enough to cover the maintenance costs of puppet states. Your cash infusions will come from pillaging and selling off cities. I actually am able to maintain a positive happiness and gold so it's not completely unmanageable. Just sell off your unprofitable cities to the dominant AI since they have 50k gold and 800gold per turn. Random useless cities were netting 4k gold, nicer ones 8k, really nice ones with lots of luxuries can fetch 12k (despite the AI already having multiple sources of it) Which doesn't matter since you can crush their army regardless when they inevitably turn on you. 4k gold can net you 3 giant death robots with big ben + autocracy (1.7k gold). Modern armors and choppers will only cost you around 1k a pop.

It's very possible to beat Diety. And the AI is awful especially on island maps, on which I have been able to pull off both cultural and diplomatic victories.
The only place you can really hide on the earth map is South America as North America is blocked off by a mountain range. (This is after you take out the other 2 civs that would inevitably spawn down there with you)

Diety is self-described as the difficulty setting "Only the best in the world will beat this level"

This being my first Civ game ever... well...

._.
 

lightbane

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Wait what? Don't tell me that the GIANT DEATH ROBOT was actually a real unit of the game... If that's so, :decline:
 
Self-Ejected

ScottishMartialArts

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lightbane said:
Wait what? Don't tell me that the GIANT DEATH ROBOT was actually a real unit of the game... If that's so, :decline:

It is, but it's implemented in such a way as not to feel retarded. It requires the very last tech before Future Tech, and requires Uranium which is crazy rare, at least in the games I've played. It wipes the floor with anything it catches in the open, although its lack of defensive bonuses, its penalty for attacking cities, and the fact that a given player will only ever have 4 or 5 of them ensure that they aren't overpowered. Basically it's a balanced super-unit that shows up in the last 50 turns when everyone is building spaceship parts and waging nuclear war. Civ V has some major issues, but the Giant Death Robot is actually pretty fun.

It's got a great firing animation/sound too.
 

Luan

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Indeed, the giant death robot is really fun! I like how it is truly limited by Uranium. If only the rest of the units had these scarce resources limit their deployment. Aluminum is practically everywhere. I can make as many modern armors and choppers as I please. Airforce has no stacking rules either though it feels very... weak. Renaissance era Cavalry doing damage to my bombers? wut?
 
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It's very possible to beat Diety. And the AI is awful especially on island maps, on which I have been able to pull off both cultural and diplomatic victories.

Of course its possible, its just boring and relies on exploiting AI stupidity to the max while utilizing ridiculous tech BS.

Selling off enemy cities, only to declare war, recapture and resell again is amusing as hell though. Its the Civ5 version of experience and gold farming :lol:

Luan said:
Indeed, the giant death robot is really fun! I like how it is truly limited by Uranium. If only the rest of the units had these scarce resources limit their deployment. Aluminum is practically everywhere. I can make as many modern armors and choppers as I please. Airforce has no stacking rules either though it feels very... weak. Renaissance era Cavalry doing damage to my bombers? wut?

Yeah, swordsmen taking down helicopters is ridiculous. I built 1 air unit then never another. Civ has the history of Tank vs Spearmen, I think it may be some kind of developer joke or something.

IMO, resources like Aluminum should have different grades of how hard it is to find and use. Just discovering Aluminum is the equivalent of being able to mine surface deposits, further up the tech tree you can mine and extract it from more and more places as your technology and refinement ability improves.
 

Luan

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Oh, and to answer your question about the different rates of influence decay on city-states. Hostile dispositioned city-states decay at a faster rate than irrational or neutral. The speed of decay varies with game settings. On Marathon, irrational and neutral decay at 0.66, and hostile at 1.00. This isn't taking into account policies or civ perks.

Meh, the game as is is a mess. I should go back to playing starcraft 2 or something. Or play Civ 4. Would the 4th iteration be jarring after experiencing Civ 5's sparkliness and slipstream gameplay?
 

RK47

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OK Folks. I want to win this game. But is it still possible? I'll post the save game when I get home. I definitely 100% agree the starting location is shit city. Sparta lies on open ground with dense hills to the east, with river to the west and open plains to the south. Defensive war is not a fucking option with their artillery units.
 

Luan

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You may be able to hold it off if you sac a great general to place a citadel at a choke point. I'm not sure if the AI artillery is competent enough to handle it. My guess is no, and they'll burn all their units, soon suing for a peace treaty relinquishing the majority of their empires.
 

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