The new patch helped a little but ....

[LzPrst]

My first postpatch game was a tall empire and I won easily on King without conquering a single enemy city (total city number on standard map: 6). I was still bored for most of the game though... I spammed farms everywhere possible and sat back and hit end turn while growing my cities, building my buildings, units, occasional wonder and eventually the space ship. It was quite dull.

As shown by my win, I had no need to go fight, and very little reason to for other purposes. I did consider going off conquering some resources, but eventually I didn't bother as I made up for it in other ways. I never got Oil, but I could get submarines, artillery and Mechinf which defended me just as easily as anything else. Had I wanted to go warmongering it was no hassle as Bismarck actually sold me Aluminum and even Uranium. Even the fights I did get into were dull as I just couldn't care much since my defences fended them off by use of an ounce of tactical thinking. Eventually they got as bored as I and signed peace.

A comment on the dullness of wars. With the map size being what it is (on standard), fighting wars is usually a matter of bottlenecking. And while in Panzer General I will stare at the map, scout the enemy forces, plan for ages how to best bring them down quickly (if you don't win quick in Panzer General you lose), in Civ5 I have no incentive to do anything but sit back and wait. So the enemy walks into my rain of fire, die or run out and eventually sue for peace. A few units lost on both sides perhaps, not even a raised eyebrow of concern from me.

[Supr49er]

Anyone tried any of the new maps yet? (Ring, Skirmish, and Ancient Lakes). I plan on trying one this weekend, maybe the Ancient Lakes one.

[Boracks]

Try the ring one, see if you can become Lord of the Ring...

[Supr49er]

There should be a Lord of the Ring achievement.

[Dr Strangelove]

The game still crashes in the later stages for me. As far as I'm concerned Civ is dead.

[Nikolai]

I've had no crashes for months. What is your specs? Are all drivers up to date?

[Burticus]

I think they denounce you too much.

There was a feature in either Civ 3 or 4 that would bring up a diplomatic info screen and would show you who exactly was friendly with whom, was at war with, etc. I want this in Civ 5. So many city states how do I tell whom they are allied with etc. I've gotten myself in trouble by taking out city states for key real estate/resources that are friendly or allied with AI civ's I'd rather not be at war with.

Perhaps this is in there and I just haven't found it yet. And don't say "pay attention to the infospam news bar" because I don't keep up with everything it says. I want a summarized version.

[Dinner]

I'm still getting civs asking me to declare war on a third party and then the guy who just asked me to declare war denounces me for declaring war. Diplomacy is still very much broken.

[wodan11]

I'm still getting civs asking me to declare war on a third party and then the guy who just asked me to declare war denounces me for declaring war. Diplomacy is still very much broken.

You fell for his ruse, obviously. His cunning plan to trick you.

[BigFree]

Still too many bugs..

I've given up on trying to enjoy this game until it's patched properly.

Bugs in the commerce system exist where you lose GPT for an unknown reason. I can reload a auto-saved turn (1 turn prior)to sometimes re-gain the lost GPT; I'm not just talking a 1-2 GPT, but sometimes around 15-20.

Diplomacy is still a joke at times. Sometimes when I put deal on the table I get an approval from the other party. But, if I back out of the screen and put the same deal up again, I am mocked by the AI. I sort of traced that bug down to what items are offered first and from which side (yours or theirs).

Exploring land units will enter into a water tile even if a barbarian or enemy unit is visable; the same exploring units will also enter into enemy tiles during war.

AI pathing for workers building roads often error out with "path blocked"; sometimes the path is blocked and sometimes it's not.

Luxuries and bonus tiles do not always get counted correctly, either through trades through Diplomacy and/or bugs dealing with building effects you lose food and you lose luxuries for your Civ.

Maybe in 6 months time I'll give it another go. I do have faith that, eventually, it will be very playable.

[BigFree]

I'm still getting civs asking me to declare war on a third party and then the guy who just asked me to declare war denounces me for declaring war. Diplomacy is still very much broken.

You fell for his ruse, obviously. His cunning plan to trick you.

That would be fine if that were the case. The fact that multiple Civ's denounce you after one that is known to be "tricky" should not happen. His trickiness should be know to the other Civ's and his denouncements should carry less weight.

I've also had a Civ denounce me for no good reason. After I refused to declare war on his suggestion on one turn, a few turns later, the Civ he wanted me to declare war on declares war on me, then the first Civ denounced me!