On Wednesday at GDC, the Kartel was treated to a preview of Civilization V by Firaxis. The successor to the legendary series is still in its pre-alpha stage, but already has made creative improvements in the right places and introduces some exciting new concepts of its own.
Fans of fellow turn-based-strategy epic Galactic Civilizations II may recognize some innovative influences from that game. For example: one-city civilizations called nation states appear and have an important impact on gameplay. These act as NPCs of sorts. Players can give them aid in various ways such as trade agreements, cash, or military support, and I fleetingly noticed a "friendship points" mechanic. Befriend them, and city-states can help you in multiple ways depending on their own strengths, such as donating troops or food stores.
Diplomacy received a considerable overhaul. Firaxis wanted to make each leader feel like a unique personality and create more benefits from longer relationships between civilizations. Newly available for trade is a "research agreement." After researching writing, players can propose this to a friendly civ. For a lump sum of gold, both civs will receive a 15 percent research bonus for 10 turns, encouraging more faithful, longer relationships. Engaging a foreign power in diplomacy takes you to a full-screen meeting with an animated and voice-acted head-of-state. These characters inhabit richly detailed scenes that reflect their legacy -- Washington conducts affairs from his office, and Napoleon reaches agreements on the battlefield.
What really makes these interactions over-the-top is the voice acting, which is done in each civilization’s native tongue. No "simlish" here, Bismarck will address you in perfect German (translated in text for your convenience, of course). When we declare war on Washington, his normally pleasant tone grows bitterly ominous: "You have mistaken our love of peace for weakness," he intones. "You will regret this." The leaders are distinguished by more than just aesthetics. The AI has been programmed with definitive tendencies and priorities that reflect each leader's place in history. For example, Queen Elizabeth will run a maritime empire.
The battle system was pretty solid in Civ IV, but there were some impressive changes in Civ V. This new battle system even had Civ V producer Dennis Shirk excited, a self proclaimed diplomacy junky in the Civ series. Most notable of these changes is the removal of “stacking” troops on one tile. Terrain and tactics will play huge parts in battles, as we saw one stack of warriors hold a canyon 300 style against superior units thanks to huge terrain advantages and bottlenecking the opposing troops. Combat is not always resolved in death, though; the loser may limp away badly damaged. Upkeep costs will be higher, necessitating smaller, more thoughtfully managed armies.
Units still have one strength rating, and receive terrain and promotion bonuses. The promotions are supposed to be more unique this time around, not just numerical upgrades. The handy battle-odds calculator is still here, but prettier. Ranged bombardment has returned, though you will have to protect your ranged units because they are weak in melee.
No longer will stacks-of-death fortify cities; only one unit can be garrisoned in each thanks to the removal of stacks. Firaxis wanted players to be forced to do more fighting outside their cities. To make up for this, cities have a strength rating of their own, and building defenses may actually be worth it this time: walls allow the city to bombard besiegers. Capitals are given importance; capturing all of them results in a conquest victory.
Cultural expansion is done in an all-new and more organic fashion. Borders expand one hex at a time, based on the resources your cCiv needs most. You may also spend gold to "claim land," an option that will surely add another layer of decision-making to the early game. The hex grid, along with the non-linear expansion allows for variety in the contour of your nation.
The interface has been cleaned up in a big way. Firaxis wanted a more streamlined UI, so they moved things that "don't need to be up there" while still making them easily accessible. Notifications pop up individually on the right sight of the screen (as in Rome: Total War). You are no longer prompted to select build queues at the beginning of your turn, and the build menu is thankfully separated into buildings and units -- no more scrolling through all of one to get to the other.
The game engine used in Civ V has been built from the ground up, but still boasts the straightforward python xml scripting and customization. As we mentioned earlier, the world-builder tools will ship with the game, but this time available as a stand-alone program. What's more, Firaxis promised an in-game repository for users’ mods where the mods can be rated and downloaded. This will help expose many more players to the exceptional modding community that follows this series. The AI has been worked on extensively, and will look at the map in a different way with many points of focus on different strategic levels.
Painfully to both us and the presenters, the preview left questions unanswered. We could tell Dennis Shirk wanted to go on about religion, civics, wonders, and the tech tree, but unfortunately he couldn’t tell more. Firaxis is content with keeping revelations to a slow burn, and I for one will be foaming at the mouth by the time release approaches in fall 2010.
If you haven't already, make sure to check out our article discussing Firaxis ambitious plans for player mods and user generated content for Civ 5
[Edited By Moderator]
