Apolyton has upgraded to vBulltetin 4.2.0. We still have to fix some issues.

The menu of the downloads has to be rebuilt and some menu items are still missing. Also there are some ...

Apolyton is upgrading to vBulletin 4.2.0. vBulletin 4.2.0 comes with with a new way to customize the forum menu bar so that I can put there in a drop down menu links to the games we cover. vBulletin 4.2.0 comes also with a mobile style. Let's see how that turns out. To upgrade Apolyton from vBulletin 4.1.10 to vBulltein 4.2.0 we must close the forums for a short while.

This is the plan: ...

Civilization V: Patch 1.0.1.705 has been released. It addressed problems that have been found since the Civ5 addon Gods and Kings like the leader shift save game bug, and miscellaneous crashes and bugs. Here is the complete list:

[PREVIOUS SAVES]

• Older saves with DLC leaders (including Genghis) will no longer "shift" when loaded into the patched game.

[CRASH FIXES]

• If a user does not have a religion, and receives a religion from another Civ, setting the "automated faith purchase" option could previously cause a crash when the purchase tries to fire for either the player, or the AI. This has ...

Civilization 5 addon Gods and Kings add and improves miscellaneous features. Civ5:G&K improves the game balancing. Civ5:G&K accelerates the turns with an improved combat processing. Civ5G&K tweaks many civilization properties, especially those of the Songhai. Civ5G&K adds also new music and new background images for the main menu and the loading menu. The general improvements like balancing, artificial intelligence, combat system etc. are also announced for a future Civilization 5 patch.

Civ5 Gods and Kings improves the Artificial Intelligence

Civ5:G&K improves the AI on all levels so that it is noticeable stronger. Civ5:G&K makes the AI more concentrate in the end game so that it focuses more and is faster on building the spaceship to Alpha Centauri. Civ5:G&K gives the AI the ability to consider how much it is willing to do a nuclear first strike.

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The Civilization 5 patch 1.0.1.674 brings the new Steam Workshop to Civilization 5. The patch adds font icon and unit art moddability to Civ5. It also disables the diplomacy modifiers for trying to win the same way, which we already know from the Civ5 addon Gods and Kings. Here is the full list of changes:

[MODDING]

• Steam Workshop enabled.
• DLL swapping is now possible in-game.
• Updated mod browser to utilize Steam Workshop.
• Font Icons are now moddable.
• Unit art is now fully moddable.
• Mods are now activated the moment you click "Next" on the mods browser rather than when you click "Single Player."

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Gods and Kings emphasizes quests to gain influence in city states

Gods and Kings adds to Civilization 5 new types of city states, and rebalances the city states. City states cannot just be bribed with gold to gain influence there. To gain influence in city states, it is more important in Gods and Kings to complete quests for the city states. City states can offer in Gods and Kings up to three quests. The available quests and their type can be viewed in the diplomacy overview. The quests are divided into two types: Global quests and religion or civilization specific quests. Global quests can be completed by any player on the map. Global quests can directly turn a city state into an ally. Global quests examples are:

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The Steam Workshop comes to Civilization 5. The Steam Workshop replaces the Civ5 in-game mod selection feature for everybody whether you have installed Gods and Kings or not. ...

Gods and Kings adds 3 new scenarios to Civilization 5. The scenario is in particular interesting: A steam punk scenario that takes you into an alternative reality. But let's talk about the scenarios in their order.

Fall of Rome

Play as either Eastern Rome or Western Rome trying to fend off the barbarians OR as one of the barbarians themselves. (Webhallen, Official) Both Eastern and Western Rome have to pick Social Politics, that have negative effects. This is supposed to reflect the political decay and decadence. The Social Politics make also the Barbarians stronger to make the struggle for survival harder.

Into the Renaissance

Grow your medieval kingdom into one of the great nations of Renaissance Europe, fending off outside invasions from Mongols and Ottoman Turks and fighting the religious wars of the Crusades and Reformation! (Webhallen, Official) This scenario mainly focuses on spreading religion under leadership of a major European empire.

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Good Old Games rereleased the original Colonization for $5.99. Good Old Games previously released the classics Alpha Centauri and Call to Power 2, that Apolyton covers, too. Well in case of Colonization, we had a section on the old Apolyton, and it is still waiting on a backup for resurrection. However, our priority for now is Civ4 and Civ5.

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Gods and Kings adds one new era to Civilization 5

Gods and Kings adds one new era to Civilization 5. The new era has so far no known name, but it is placed between World War I and World War II, and tentatively called the Great War era. Ed Beach: "...there is no so called Great War era, we only used this terminology to describe a class of units. We have, however, added a new era to the tech tree that should help us to extend the post-gunpowder world a little bit further."

With the new era we get new units, especially WWI, and the Infantry has been split into a WWI and WWII.

Gods and Kings adds 5 new technologies to Civilization 5

Gods and Kings adds 5 new technologies to Civilization 5. Here is the list:

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Gods and Kings adds 52 new achievements to Civilization 5. Here is the list of the achievements, directly grabbed from the official Civ5:G&K website:

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The changes to diplomacy

Gods and Kings adds to Civilization 5 diplomacy, embassies, religion, espionage, ideological blocks, and addresses some imbalances.

Civ5:G&K addresses imbalances with the AI (artificial intelligence, computer player). The AI does not dislike you anymore if you are just "trying to win the game the same way as" the AI itself. The AI does not mind so much anymore if you settling closely when the empire borders are already clear and settling is just about closing gaps. Whether the AI considers you a warmonger depends now whether you have started the war or not, this seems to be related to conquering cities and city states. Additionally, the AI forgets things more easily so that wars do not tend to run forever. Other balancing changes concern the research agreement, it now requires Education instead of Philosophy and both civilizations must be now friends.

Gods and Kings brings embassies to Civilization 5 diplomacy. Embassies are available from the Classical Age and reveal the capital of the other civilization. Embassies are required for agreements like Defensive Pact and Open Borders. Embassies also allow access to the intrigue menu that is part of espionage. Espionage is an important factor in the late game when religion ceases to be important.

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The Civilization 5 Gods and Kings official website went online. There Firaxis offers a list of Civ5:G&K previews, tells us what new civilizations are in the game. There the Civ5:G&K leaders welcome us in their native tongue (at least I hope so). We get some bits and pieces of information about the addon. We learn about 52 new achievements in Civ5G&K. We can download wallpapers, and avatars, definitively something we have to add to Apolyton. And we can preorder Civilization 5 Gods and Kings.

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Religion In Civilization 5 Gods and Kings

Religion is one of the main features that God and Kings on Civilization 5. Religion was in Civilization 4 and even so it was intended to go into the original Civ 5 it was omitted from the game, as Apolyton found out. Now with Civilization 5: Gods and Kings, religion returns.

Religion does not just return, but returns in a new form to Civ 5. In Civ 4, it just flavored the game the benefits the various religions game very similar. In Civ 5: G&K, religion is modular, it is based on building blocks: The Beliefs.

The Beliefs group into four categories, the Pantheon Beliefs, the Founder Beliefs, the Follower Beliefs, and Enhancer Beliefs. The Pantheon Beliefs are basic Beliefs and constitute a pre-religion. The pre-religion can be turned into a full religion by adding a Founder Belief. A Founder Belief can be added by a Great Prophet. Founder Beliefs only benefit the founder of a religion. To a religion two Follower Beliefs can be added. Follower Beliefs benefit anyone who follows the religion. And finally an Enhancer Belief can be added, to enhance the spreading of the religion.

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Gods and Kings adds 9 new Civilizations to Civilization 5. Additionally, it adds Spain from paid downloadable content (DLC). Each Civilization as two Unique Item that can be built. The first item is a Unique Unit (UU), the second item is either a Unique Unit, a Unique Building (UB), or a Unique Tile Improvement (UI). There 12 new Unique Units, 3 Unique Buildings, 1 Unique Tile Improvement, and 2 unknown Unique Items.

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Gods and Kings adds 9 new wonders to Civilization 5, it adds 1 new national wonder, and 1 new natural wonder. Additionally, it changes a wonder.

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New Buildings

Gods and Kings adds 13 new buildings to Civilization 5. At least 3 of the 13 buildings are Unique Buildings (UBs). This means they can only be build by one specific civilization.

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The Civilization 5 addon Gods and Kings adds 27 new units to the game and changes the combat system. Here are the details:

Combat System

• All unit values were completely revised.
• More early (WW1) aircrafts.
• Naval units have been split into two types: Naval melee and naval ranged units. (Ed Beach)
• Melee ships can pillage or capture cities. (Ed Beach)
• Embarked units now have Defensive Embarkation.
• Embarked land units can be stacked with naval units. (Ed Beach)
• Units have now 100 hitpoints instead of 10, so that the combat system can be better fine tuned. (Ed Beach)
• The damage a unit makes has been increased from 4-8 to 24-36.
• So far 2 units could destroy a unit of equal strength, now 3.5 units are needed to destroy a unit of equal strength.
• This makes it more difficult to defeat cities and units.
• Catapults for instance can now survive a melee attack.
• The AI (artificial inteligence) can compose its armies better.
• The AI can plan and execute sea invasions within 10 turns instead of 50-60 turns.
• Completed the Archer upgrade path: Archer -> Composite Archer -> Gatling Gunner -> Machine Gunner (added) (Ed Beach)
• After a promotion a unit's health is only restored up to 50%.
• No penalty in combat on plains.

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Bengt Lemne from Gamereactor has interviewed Ed Beach the gameplay designer of Firaxis for the Civilization 5 addon Gods and Kings. They were talking about religion, diplomacy, and combat in Civ5:G&K. Here is the video of the interview and a transcript, which has been edited for style and clarity:

Bengt Lemne:
Gods and Kings, I just got a demo, and I thougfht it is similar to the press release about it: A new expansion, they are writing about religion for Civ5. For me it's not a huge deal, because I played religion in Civ4. But vow, when I saw the demo, that's gonna change the game as I play it, completely.

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