I'm thinking of moving to the Philippines.

[Cort Haus]

Lancer and Aeson -

There is a great site for that discussion.

https://www.weplayciv.com

Dale is ready and waiting to edit your posts. Go to it!

I don't know about that but I just clicked the linky and wasn't at all surprised to find a lot more about Civ 5 than at www.apolyton.net

[Dinner]

I do think Poly needs a new front page since it is the first thing people see when they get hear so we have about 5 seconds to tell a potential new user what we're about and what sort of info we have here. We should have a front page more like CFC's which is packed with information and links so new surfers can see what the site is about in just seconds.

[MOBIUS]

I mean, how hard can it be to rip off all of CFC's Civ 5 stuff and stick it on Poly's home page...?

I reckon Dino Doc could do it in about 5 mins, seeing as he's the Poly cut 'n' paste expert...

[MOBIUS]

Here's the Panda ****er's stuff - I reckon it would serve them right if we 'improved it'...

Civilization V Info Center
Discuss this on our forum Image Gallery
Civilization V
Image:Civ5box.jpg
Lead designer(s) Jon Shafer
Developer Firaxis Games
Publisher 2K Games
Release date Fall 2010

Welcome to the Civilization 5 Info Center! Here we'll be adding information about Civ 5 as it becomes available. We'll try to provide accurate information, using facts revealed by the developer, the publisher or other officially released media.

Please understand, though, that we can't guarantee that all information here is correct. Changes happen during the development process and sometimes sources in the press misinterpret things, making statements that are partially or entirely incorrect.


Contents
[hide]

* 1 General info
* 2 Release date, platforms and system requirements
* 3 Major features
* 4 Removed features from Civ4
* 5 Graphics and Sound
* 6 Civilizations
* 7 Wonders
* 8 Combat
* 9 Trade and Diplomacy
o 9.1 City States
+ 9.1.1 Known City States
* 10 Map and Resources
o 10.1 Known resources
* 11 Social Policies
* 12 AI
* 13 Multiplayer
* 14 Modding
* 15 Miscellaneous
* 16 External links

General info

Sid Meier's Civilization V is the next game in the Civilization franchise, a sequel to the multi-award winning Civilization IV. Civ 5 was announced on February 18, 2010 and is scheduled for a Fall 2010 release. The game is being developed by Firaxis Games and will be published by 2K Games. The game's official site is at www.civilization5.com

The lead designer for Civ 5 is Jon Shafer, aka Trip, who should be well known to many Civ fans. Jon is a modder initially, has worked on Civ 4 as a designer/programmer. He was the co-designer for Civ 4: Beyond the Sword and the creator of the popular Final Frontier mod for that game. The game has been in development for over two years as of early 2010, so development probably started in late 2007. The development team consists of some 50 people. Here's a breakdown of the known developers:

* Jon Shafer - lead designer
* Dennis Shirk - producer
* Dorian Newcomb - lead artist
* Ed Beach - lead AI programmer
* Chris Hickman - lead animator

Release date, platforms and system requirements

The official release date is, at this point, "Fall 2010". Civ 5 will be available on Steam though, according to the Steam store, where the availability date is cited as the 1st of September. The date hasn't been confirmed by 2K or Firaxis yet, so we can't be certain if it's correct. As such, it's best to treat this date as a probable guess at this point.

Civ 5 will only be available for the PC (Microsoft Windows) platform.

According to Kotaku, Firaxis is currently aiming for minimum system requirements that specify a 256 MB video card and dual-core processor. DirectX 11 is supported, so is DirectX 9. The supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista and 7. These requirements are not final and please don't consider them to be official at this time.
Major features

* For the first time in the Civilization series, the map will be hexagon-based instead of square-based.
* The game will use a new engine
* Leaderheads will be full-screen, speaking the native language of their civilization
* Resources are quantifiable now, with each source only providing enough of a resource for a certain number of units. If you do not have enough of a resource, you can't build new units that require it.
* Units are limited to only one military and one civilian unit per tile, no more stacks
* A Social tree is introduced, on which you unlock policies that benefit your civilizations
* City states, single-city AI civilizations, feature in the game as minor powers that grease the wheels of diplomacy

Removed features from Civ4

* Religion has been removed. Jon Shafer didn't like the way religions dictated alliances in Civ4, giving them little meaning beyond the religious blocs.

* Civics - replaced by Social Policies.
* Tech trading. The intent is not to allow backward civilizations to catch up in military just by making a good trade
* Leader traits removed in favour of giving each civilization an unique bonus
* Espionage

Graphics and Sound

A new engine is being used for the graphics, which are overall done in Art Deco style. Russel Vaccaro is the graphics designer. Terrain animation, such as forests and oceans, is included.

Civ5 features a longer soundtrack than Civ4

* Regional terrain - different terrain graphics are used for terrain on different continents. Plains look different, for example, in steppe and savannah regions.
* Ethnic music - the soundtrack will include different tunes based on which region your civilization is from
* Ambient sounds change depending on what terrain (forest, hills, etc.) you're looking at
* There is native DirectX 11 graphics support, though DX11 is not required - the game will run on DirectX 9

Civilizations

Civ 5 will feature 18 different civilizations. The following civilizations are currently assumed to be in:

Note: despite 18 civs being planned for the game, 19 have currently been confirmed by different sources. It is possible that some of the press sources were mistaken about a civilization, most probably the information about Incan recordings.
Civilizations in Civ 5 No Civilization Leader Picture Historical summary In-game info
1 America Washington washington.jpg b. 1732, d. 1799 - first President of the United States, commander of the American Continental Army Unknown
2 Arabia Harun al-Rashid
b. 763, d. 809 - the fifth Abbasid Caliph under whom a cultural golden age took place with advancements in arts and culture. Founded the House of Wisdom, an intellectual hub of contemporary Islamic culture Unknown
3 Aztecs Montezuma
b. circa 1466, d. 1520 - ninth tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, expanded borders of the Aztec empire to their maximum size, but later saw his empire conquered by Spaniards Unknown
4 China Wu Zetian
b. 625, d. 705 - only female Emperor of China, founder of the Zhou dinasty Unknown
5 Egypt Ramesses II
b. circa 1303 BC, d. circa 1213 BC - third pharaoh of the 19th Egyptian dynasty, widely expanded Egypt's borders through conquest, commissioned many building projects across Egypt Unknown
6 England Elizabeth elizabeth.jpg b. 1533, d. 1603 - Queen of England, last ruler of the Tudor dynasty. Her rule saw the defeat of the Spanish armada and the rise of Elizabethian artists This AI will favour things related to seafaring
7 France Napoleon Bonaparte
b. 1769, d. 1821 - Emperor of France, known for his many conquests in Europe and domestic innovations including a civil code known as the Napoleonic Code Militaristic AI, likes to build large armies
8 Germany Bismarck bismarck.jpg b. 1815, d. 1898 - first Chancellor of Germany, known for the 1871 unification of Germany and his diplomatic efforts. Unique Unit: Landsknecht (?)
9 Greece Alexander
b. 356 BC, d. 323 BC - King of Macedon and a Greek general widely known for his conquests. Managed to conquer all of Persia, with his troops going as far as India Unknown
10 Inca (?) Unknown
Unknown Unknown
11 India Gandhi
b. 1869, d. 1948 - a political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement, known for his philosophy of nonviolence and resistance through mass disobedience Peaceful AI
12 Japan Oda Nobunaga
b. 1534, d. 1582 - initiator of the Japanese unification that eventually led to the Tokugawa Shogunate, came up with significant innovations in the area of military tactics Unique unit: Samurai
13 Mongolia Genghis Khan
b. circa 1162, d. 1227 - founder and Emperor of the Mongol Empire which became, under his rule, the largest contiguous empire in history. Among his many military campaigns, launched a successful invasion of China AI is likely to attack you if provoked
14 Ottoman Turks Suleiman
b. 1494, d. 1566 - tenth Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, was able to conquer large parts of Europe and Northern Africa, reorganized the legal system by issuing a unified legal code Unique unit: Janissary
15 Persia Unknown
Unknown Unique unit: Immortal
16 Rome Julius Caesar (?)
b. 100 BC, d. 44 BC - Dictator of the Roman Republic who led Rome to military victories including the annexation of Gaul and launching an invasion of Britain Unique unit: Legion
17 Russia Catherine
b. 1729, d. 1796 - Empress of Russia who significantly expanded the Russian borders, won a war against the Turks and was a major contributor to the development of culture in the empire Expansionist AI, will grow territory quickly
18 Siam Unknown
Unknown Unique unit: Elephant
19 Songhai Askia
b. ?, d. 1528 - Ruler of the Songhai empire for over three decades, transformed the empire into a Muslim kingdom and created a model internal organization of the country Unknown

Every Civ has a unique bonus now as opposed to combinations of traits like in Civ4. Also, flavours apply for leaders (see section on the AI).
Wonders

Wonders make an expected return in Civ5. The known Wonders currently are:

* Hanging Gardens - increases happiness
* Oracle - concept art seen in screenshot, no further info

Combat

Combat is significantly different, mainly because stacking is not allowed - only one unit can occupy a tile now. As such, newly produced units should leave the city so that other units can be built there. To make things easier, two adjacent units can swap places without needing to use a third tile.

Most basic combat units now have two moves instead of one. Ranged bombardment has returned, as in units being able to do damage from a distance. Archers are an early long-range unit, it's also known that Battleships can bombard.

Units do not necessarily die after a battle - it's very much possible for a battle to happen and both units to still live. At the same time, you'll have fewer units than in previous games as they're now more expensive and with more significant maintenance costs.

Taking cities is somewhat different. They have a health bar now and they can defend themselves even without any garrison, so an empty city will fire back at attackers. Garrisoning the city with a unit will improve its defensive capabilities. Also, defensive strength can be boosted by some buildings. For instance, Walls - available with Masonry - allow cities to bombard units two hexes away.

Conquered cities can be turned into puppet states - you get the research, gold and culture produced in those but you can't pick what they build.

Terrain plays a bigger role in combat. Regular units standing on hills will gain sight range and defensive bonuses, units fighting from an elevated position also do more damage. Rivers give a defensive bonus. The use of combined arms will be very important for success in combat. It's said that using the terrain correctly will make weaker nations able to hold off stronger attackers. Mountains are apparently still impassable.

Some mechanism of upgrading older units to newer ones does exist, though the specifics are unclear.

Combat between units from different eras has been rebalanced. According to Firaxis, it's now mathematically impossible for a Spearman to beat a Tank.

All in all, combat in Civ5 will be more centered on front line fighting, not just fighting for cities. Breaking through enemy lines will be an important step in your advance.

No more transport ships. Instead, land units can transform to transports, like in Empire Earth or Rise of Nations.
Trade and Diplomacy

* It will be possible to trade "items and land" with other civs.
* No multi-lateral diplomacy
* AI leaders have their own agendas and an overall plan for winning the game
* Diplomacy is going to often give better results than conquest
* Research Pacts can be signed between two civs that have Writing. It costs some gold and conveys a 15% research boost for 20 turns.
* Allied civs benefit your research even if you are researching different techs

City States

* City States are minor AI-controlled powers that never expand, so they only have one city
* City States do not aim to win, they just want to survive
* It's possible to be friendly, hostile or neutral towards a friendly state. Befriending them will provide you with some bonuses that are more beneficial than conquering them
* Multiple civs can receive bonuses from a single City State
* If you approach a City State with military units and some major civ likes that City State, they will warn you. Ignoring warnings regarding city states can lead to serious consequences.
* You can gift gold or units to City States to become friendly with them, they may also make requests for you, such as helping them against barbarians or major civs. Militaristic city states can even ask you to attack other city states.
* Friendly city states may gift you units
* City states have "specializations", such as Militaristic
* City states have a separate tech tree and personality

Known City States

* Budapest
* Florence
* Singapore
* Rio de Janeiro
* Sidon

Map and Resources

* Borders do not extend more than 1 tile into water, based on current screenshots
* Borders expand 1 tile at a time, not in rings. "Good" tiles will be acquired before "bad" tiles. Expansion is still dependent on culture but you can buy tiles, too.
* Instead of 2 tiles, cities can extend their borders up to 3 tiles in every direction now
* Resources no longer come in infinite quantities, now every source of a resource only provides you with a certain amount of that resource. For example, a source of Iron currently lets you build 5 Swordsmen. Technologies can increase that.
* Road spam has been removed - they will now have more relevance and won't be everywhere, though it is unknown how that is achieved

Known resources

* Horses
* Cows
* Deer / game
* Wheat
* Iron
* Ivory
* Silk

Social Policies

Social policies replace the Civ4 civic system. There's a "civilization policy tree" now similar to the tech tree. It's divided into branches, each containing numerous policies that give different bonuses. You can focus on one branch or try to go for several. The only currently known branch is called "Traditional"
AI

AI was described in an IGN preview as follows:

"At the top of the ladder is the grand strategic AI, which decides how to win the game. If the grand strategic AI decides to go for a conquest victory, the strategic AI will build the infrastructure needed to wage war and the operational and tactical AIs will choose and fight the battles. That way the tactical AI won't be fighting battles merely for the sake of fighting battles, but because those battles are relevant in the grand strategic AI's big picture. In the case of the conquest victory, the AI will be aiming to capture the other civ's capitals, which is all that's needed for a military victory this time."

Also, leader AI uses a flavour system. This means that every leader is predisposed towards certain actions - it might be what units they prefer, what victory conditions, whether they prefer war or peace, etc. Before each game, though, the flavours are slightly randomized. The example of Napoleon is given - by default, his warmongering value is 8 out of 10. However, before each game, it can change in either direction by 1 or 2 points. So you could get a somewhat more peaceful Napoleon with 6/10 warmongering or a psycho one with 10/10. There are 25 different flavours in the game.

The AI is also capable of acts such as deception, as well as recognizing some aggressive behaviour. Jon Shafer says:

"They determine whether they're going to be hostile or deceptive, so they could pretend to be your friend and then backstab you later. So there's more going on under the hood than there ever has been.

[..]

If you build your city next to an AI's capital, in previous games they would be like, "Oh whatever." But now we've added additional logic that lets the AI evaluate what's going on in the game as a whole in the same manner as a human would do. So if you build a city next to someone's capital, that's actually going to annoy them. They'll realise that you're settling very aggressively, and that will have an adverse relationship on them. They'll call you up and will say, hey, you're expanding there, don't do this. If you continue doing it, they'll notice that as well, and if they might actually ask that you make concessions, like give them money or something in exchange for keeping their friendship. Otherwise you could have a cold war situation."
Multiplayer

* Civ 5 supports multiplayer over the Internet, PBEM, Hotseat and LAN games.
* There is an in-game browser that even allows you to play Civ Network from within Civ5

Modding

* Modding tools have been promised - one of them is an easy to use editor that people can use to change game rules
* A WorldBuilder tool will now be external, not running from within the game
* It's said that the game will be even more moddable than Civ4 was
* There is an in-game database of mods, allowing you to rate them, also access to fansite forums
* XML is still used for game data
* You can download and install mods using the in-game community system. This service is optional - you can still download mods from anywhere and install them manually
* Civ 5 will not include any scenarios out of the box, focusing on the core game

Miscellaneous

* Game design is inspired by Panzer General
* Great People are still in, so are Golden Ages
* Some victory conditions changed. For example in Conquest you only have to capture all the other capitals. Eliminates boring mop up phase.
* To stop Barbarian hordes, you need to destroy nearby Barbarian cities. Barbs will also get stronger units later in the game.
* Tribal Villages / Goodie huts are now called ruins
* There is a "Strategic View" - currently it's unknown how it functions

[Cort Haus]

I do think Poly needs a new front page since it is the first thing people see when they get hear so we have about 5 seconds to tell a potential new user what we're about and what sort of info we have here.

A saloon-bar argument of an off-topic form and ...er ... that's about it.

[Dinner]

The Civ5 on topic section is actually pretty darn good. It's full of all the latest information on Civ5 as well as some interesting discussion threads but it is not really highlighted on the front page. I'd love to have the various forums get their own links on the front page, a continually updated news section on the center of the front page, and links to current democracy games/competitions/what not for the various civ games. That would help draw new posters in a bit more.

That said the on topic parts of poly have really picked up in recent months with all the Civ5 publicity.

[Lancer]

Do you remember before you ever met Net, when we were chatting and I was helping you with all the knowledge I've acquired over the years? Back then you told me it was , besides meeting Net, one of your dreams to swing in a hammock in a warm place at the beach. I made both of those dreams come true. Do you remember us wandering around Tag looking for a decent hammock and when we found one I bought it and you hung it between two of my coconut trees? You were so very happy to lie in that hammock, like you were in paradise. One of these days I'm going to make the Mabini trip to see your hammock there. To be better than the one I bought to fulfill your dream it must be pretty nice indeed.

Oerdin, I'm not concerned about coming here and saying my piece. I really, I mean really, don't care what antics you guys get up to. A couple people who used to be friends surprised me long ago, and that hurt a bit, with their words but I'm beyond that now. I know its the pastime in this place to try to hurt people and I think I'm done with that. So I come here, do what I want, say what I wish, and that's it. There's no reason not to.

[Dinner]

If you aren't concerned about this place then go away. You keep coming here to stir the pot and everyone knows it.

[giblets]

Meanwhile, the cousin, Bing Bing, that I set up with my friend L.A. is having a great time and wonderful marriage. There in Oregon she is making over $10 an hr and is helping her Philippine family as well as her husband and herself, a true blessing to all. I reflect on them when I consider whether what I do is worth it. What they have is real, and worth consideration, more than I can say of the judgments of the trolls that poison this forum.

The guy married someone who just wanted a green card. How sad.

[Wezil]

Airing personal laundry in public is even more sad.

[Jon Miller]

Can someone tell me what hammocks is a euphenism for?

JM

[Thoth]

Can someone tell me what hammocks is a euphenism for?

JM

vibrating rubber fists.

[Asher]

Can someone tell me what hammocks is a euphenism for?

JM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_swing

[Drake Tungsten]

Filipinas are super Catholic, dude. Aeson isn't getting anything nearly as fun as a sex swing.

[DanS]

As far as I know, there's no prohibition against sex swings and the like.