After viewing gameplay of Civ V on Youtube...

[siredgar]

I have a few specific questions about gameplay and world editing.

Just so you know, I have not bought the game yet. And actually I want to wait a couple of years until the Complete version comes out. That way I figure I won't have to blow $150 on the game and deal with all these bugs, crashes, patches, etc.

But I keep getting tempted by news articles about the game and after watching some gameplay videos on Youtube, I am both intrigued and disappointed. Although I'm pretty sure that Civ V did not fix these problems I had with the game, I just wanted to make sure by asking the kind folks here!

So I have a few questions about the game:

1. What is the world editor programming language? Is it XML again? Or is there an easy interface you can go into like Civ II to edit the civs, units, maps, etc?

2. Can you easily control the amount of desert in the game? It was determined in Civ IV there was too much desert compared to the real world (32% in Civ IV vs. 25% in the real world, please see: http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/1...n-Civilization). Does desert pop up next to jungle? What is the desert ratio in Civ V? What are terrain sets? Is there a "European" terrain set?

3. In one of the previous editions (Civ II or III), you could have "culturally related neighbors" or something like. Basically, if I play a European civ, my starting location would be placed near other European civs. This disappeared in Civ IV (maybe it's in XML, but I could never figure out XML programming- never worked for me). Does Civ V have this feature?

4. Is there no religion at all any more? I kinda liked religion. A fun thing in Civ IV was to become a religious power and build many religious buildings and convert other civs to your religion to make them friendly to you. Is religion completely gone?

5. In higher levels (Emperor and above), are there ANY peaceful civs or do they all become aggressive and difficult to deal with (often times the case in Civ IV)? It should be that even in the higher levels you can get weaker civs to submit to you and some to be friendly to you.

6. Are civs still unreasonable in trading at higher difficulties? I mean where they refuse to trade ANY (strategic) technologies to you. It was upsetting to see a Friendly civ not even trade one tech for three you gave them in Civ IV. Will small civs go to war with me even though they might get crushed? A lot of times, friendly civs were often too afraid to fight even if you gave them a ton of tech and gold. Also, are AI civs more likely to give up cities in exchange for peace than in Civ IV?

7. How are borders created? By culture/influence? Or they fixed once they meet with another civ's borders? Or do they fluctuate even after the borders of two civs meet? (I always thought it was ridiculous that borders would fluctuate even after two civs meet, they should be fixed just like in the real world. That is without war or treaty.)

8. How sensitive are the AI? Do they get upset (even -1) if you refuse their trade offer? How sensitive is the trade? Is it the same in previous versions where I can repeatedly make offers (higher and higher) without upsetting the AI? (Personally, I think you should NOT be able to make so many offers without affecting their attitude towards your civ.)

9. How did they avoid getting the spaghetti roads in Civ V? (This is good.)

10. Does anybody have a screenshot of the advanced menu? What is included in this menu?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Proteus_MST]

2. The advanced start setings are similar as in Civ IV, so you have the same capabilities to control deserts as there

4. No religion at all...don´t expect them to add it in a patch, they said, that it would intrfere too much with their new diplomaxcy model

6. Well, diplomacy IMHO is much more unüpredictable than in Civ IV...for example don´t expect Civs that have been friendly to you for 1000 years, to stay so in the future. You also will see Civs that were beaten down to a single city still make unreasonable demands for peace (or, after making peace, trying to anger you with snippy remarks). I assume the same you can say for trade.
There is no tech or m,ap trading in Civ V btw.

7. Borders appear around your city...they get enlarged by culture, but, unlike in Civ IV just by 1 tile each time. YOu can enlarge your borders however by buying tiles.

8. AI often reacts in unpredictable ways

9. You have to pay upkeep for every road in your territory (as well as for every road build by you, that isn´t within the borders of another Civ/city state). You also don´t need to connect resources via roads...as soon as you build the necessary tile improvement on their tile, they become available to you. Roads in Civ V are just for trading connections between your outlying cities and your capital, as well as for movement.

[MxM]

On 8, we have been promised an overhaul of diplomatic system. Right now, there is no way to know what AI is thinking, doing about you. You are in nearly complete darkness. There is no anything numeric about its relationship to you or to anyone that you can see. I am sure, AI is very predictable IF we had any info on what it thinks, but right now, it feels nearly as random toss. (Though, if you are good to some Civ, it is unlikely that it will DOW you, and more likely to sign research agreement and other agreements with you, but that's about it).

[siredgar]

Thanks for your replies!

I have seen more screenshots of the game and even tried the interface briefly. It seems as though the options are very limited. I don't know, but I think like many of you I liked the way I can customize in Civ and make my own world. That just doesn't seem possible any more...

Why did they do this? Okay, I understand if you want to dumb down the game to get the masses, great. But why not make the Advanced Options menu more complete? Why not allow the user to customize maps more? Is it really that bothersome to do?

And did everybody hate relgion and civics? Why were those eliminated?

Anyone else with answers to the other questions?

[Sabre2th]

I don't think diplomacy is unpredictable at all. The leaders seem to act appropriately based on prior relations. I actually like that their attitudes are hidden. It makes them feel a bit more real, rather than just a list of numbers to manipulate.

Note that I've only really played up to King level, so it's possible it's different for the highest levels, but those just feel like work anyway...

[Fidel]

Did anyone try limited resources? Fractal map?

[Ming]

I don't think diplomacy is unpredictable at all. The leaders seem to act appropriately based on prior relations. I actually like that their attitudes are hidden. It makes them feel a bit more real, rather than just a list of numbers to manipulate.

I have to agree... it is far more predictable than people seem to think. And there also seems to be a lot of "revisionist" opinions on Civ IV diplomacy. While you could see a numeric score, it was very meaningless. People who you were plus 20 with would attack you instead of civs that were listed as their worst enemies. I stopped worrying much about diplomacy in Civ IV since it was kind of silly. You spread your religion to a neighbor, make trades, fulfill his requests, rack up the points, and then he DOW's you. In a game I played just a few weeks ago, the only two civs that attacked me were my "brothers of the faith" friends... while the civs that hated me, never attacked.

I do wish they had some simple summary screens that showed current diplomacy. I would love a screen that shows who everybody was at war with, and a summary screen showing all the open border agreements, and WHEN they will expire. But I really don't see a need for some "meaningless" numeric value like there was in Civ IV... since it really didn't mean anything.

At the games I've been playing at Deity, I've had no problem building strong relations with some civs that last the entire game. I also pretty much know who will attack me. There are more than enough indicators for you to see. It seems FAR MORE predictable than the randomness of Civ IV.