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“War? What is it good for? Capturing cities for the Domination victory, of course”
Kurt Vonnegut once gave a talk at a primary school wherein he gave the kids a simple creative exercise. Go out and write something, a poem, a short story, a joke, anything. Put all your care and effort into it and when it’s finished, rip the paper to shreds. Don’t share it with anyone, just make it and kill it. The lesson was about learning to enjoy the process of creation more than the result and that the most important person your work can affect is yourself. I bring this up because I’ve got quite a few drafts in my google docs folder and yet have not updated for many weeks and I’m going to chalk it up to following Kurts advice and totally not because I have no faith in my work being interesting enough to bother sharing with people. Yup, totally the Kurt thing. Woo creativity. Anyway, Civ 6 is out so let’s talk about that, ok? There’s loads I can talk about that!
If you’re unfamiliar with Civilization for whatever reason then here’s a quick recap. 25 years ago a fella called Sid Meier made a game called Sid Meier’s Civilization, a game that has the player guide a civilisation’s development from prehistory all the way into the near future. You pick a culture and famous dead history person to play as and then get dumped into a randomly generated world map to start planting cities, exploit resources, research new and interesting ways to kill people and then kill a bunch of people and take their stuff. Every few years a bunch of people who aren’t Sid Meier make a game called Sid Meier’s Civilization (blame Robin Williams for that) and affix a number one higher than previous to the end and while they come up with a bunch of new mechanics and ideas the basic formula remains. Thing is, I think Civ 6 is kinda brilliant and I’m gonna try and explain why.
There’s a straightforward method for a game to establish a connection with that part of the gamer’s brain that experiences pleasure when a progress bar completes. All you have to do is establish a series of easily achievable short term goals and have each one entice the player onward with an alluring set of possibilities that lurk just around the corner, and then have it all in service of a grand long term vision. Games like World of Warcraft’ve made a shit gazillion dollars off this lark. It’s what gives Civilization that reputation of being addictive, smashing that ‘End Turn’ button a few more times, who fucking cares if it’s 3am I’ve gotta tech Muskets and invade the Chinese. At its simplest Civ is just a series of progress bars filling up. You’ve got your Research bar, your Civics bar, each city you control is filling up a progress bar on whatever it’s building and there’s never a point in the game where things are not happening.
Civ is nothing if not about steadfast progression. You can’t even hit the end turn if you’re not utilising your progress bars, the game does not permit idleness. I feel this explains why Civilization has maintained such a broad appeal (well, for turn based strategy games), it’s a dense cluster of systems that seldom overwhelms because it’s calmly yet firmly reminding you to use all your things. There’s great comfort to be had in knowing that whilst your decisions may not be the best ones at least you’re making lots of them. Civ is a series established upon the philosophy that wanting is far more exciting than the having and therefore attempts to engineer the most powerful desire network that it can. This is why there’s always that issue where lategame rolls around and you’ve established yourself as the dominant global force and things start to peter out a bit because where’s the drive to keep going? The grass is no longer greener on the other side because you own all the bloody sides, but hey you can always burn it all down and start over.
But in order to convince players that they’re displaying more intellectual involvement than one of those chimps that behavioural scientists put in cages with nothing to do but press the button that dispenses food, there’s some thoughtful decision making as well. New to the series is the concept of plonking all your city’s infrastructure out on the world map and what feels inspired by those obscure German board games- about 18th century mercantilism or whatever- is the concept of adjacency bonuses. Having farms near other farms means more food. Having commerce near shiny rocks and rivers means more money. Having science near mountains means more learning… somehow. So city planning now feels like a bit of a jigsaw and that’s great. Also great is the concept of tech Boosts. Each research and civic upgrade has a boost associated with it, an action that if performed gives a 50% bonus to completion. Having a bunch of farms speeds up the Feudalism civic, fighting Barbarians inspires military research, and so on. This encourages the player to try a bit of everything in order to hit as many boosts as possible which in turn makes them more involved with the myriad of systems the game has to offer and that’s pretty great. Also it encourages synergy, and nothing gets a strategy players’ dick hard quite like leveraging synergy.
So, raw gameplay’s excellent for the most part. There are some flaws but they only really become apparent after a hefty amount of time and if you have to go looking for things to complain about in a game that’s a positive sign I would argue, especially when most of them are the sort of things that future content will probably fix up. Diplomacy is kind of broken and awful and Religion doesn’t scale particularly well and the research tech tree could do with a few more things added and why isn’t Australia playable yet (fingers crossed for Paul Keating as the playable faction leader, but knowing my luck they’ll troll us all with Tony Abbott or some garbage)? Yeah I’m sure the devs know all about that shit, they’ll get right on it once they’re done swimming in their enormous gold pile Scrooge McDuck style. What probably won’t be adjusted is part of the aesthetic and tone.
Now look, I don’t wanna be one of those snide arseholes who wants to argue that Civilization paints an unrealistic portrayal of human development because there’s not a reasonable chance of spawning in a location that lacks the means to generate a food surplus and so the only strategy available is to live in peace and harmony with nature in a permanently nomadic existence for millennia until a bunch of white people with shirts and guns show up to steal your children. But I can’t deny that the cynical part of me wants to point out how relentlessly optimistic the game’s overall tone is. The game’s theme is of constant progress, of growth, ambition and a tremendous loftiness that is certainly appropriate when dealing with the vastness of human endeavour, but what’s missing is a sober acknowledgement of the fundamental darkness enabled by certain zeitgeist. There’s no mention of slavery, racism, ethnic cleansing, religious pogroms, genocide, internal corruption, vast inequality, postcolonial imperialism leading to social upheaval and worst of all: Adam Sandler films.
On the other hand, these are games and I suppose we can accept a certain amount of concessions because this is escapism dammit. We don’t need our entertainment to fill us with utter despair when we’re trying to ensure our vision of Fascist Germany doesn’t overstretch its means. This isn’t an encyclopedia, it’s a game, and one that might make you want to read some Wikipedia entries and perhaps come to your own judgements about how shit has panned out. Cynicism aside, the visuals are crisp and clear, the UI provides information most handily and the character animations are quite excellent.
One final note, about the game’s soundtrack. Firaxis composed a buttload of music for the game and most of that is a playlist specific to each culture. They begin as one or two instruments playing a simple tune and since the game goes on for hours you’ll slowly relegate it to the back of your mind like you would wallpaper or skirting boards. But as you progress through the eras more instruments get introduced and by late game what started as a fiddle and a banjo has metamorphosed into a full on orchestra, and they’re still playing that same melody that’s been seared into your subconscious. This almost feels analogous to Civilization as a whole, as time goes on the newer versions become more complex and impressive but fundamentally it’s the same beats, the same melody, the same song.
And it’s a pretty darned good one.
For real, though, when the fuck are we gonna get Australia?!
 
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On November 01 2016 08:37 BEARDiaguz wrote:
For real, though, when the fuck are we gonna get Australia?!
When it becomes relevant to history.
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On November 01 2016 09:17 Lucumo wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2016 08:37 BEARDiaguz wrote:
For real, though, when the fuck are we gonna get Australia?!
When it becomes relevant to history.
Ouch.
Also, there's no Adam Sandler film in Civ VI ?
+ Show Spoiler +
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This was a serious post, so I'll give it a serious response.
Civilization is an interesting game. In modern times we have opened the Pandora's box of doubt, which is basically LSD, hash, and psilocybin along with all the stuff people have never used. We can see that the spiritual development tech tree is solid. Humans are a species of excellent long-term visionaries with high Intelligence (like a cat), high Wisdom (like a Labrador), high Charisma (like a bird). Humans are not prone to irrational decisions under the worst of conditions (LSD, psilocybin, hashish), and so are excellent spirit-guides. Humans are naturally not very powerful while sober compared to related species on their planet (Earth). Human characters are often mauled by lions, killed by cheetahs, or run over by elephants (each with respectively higher Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution; if somewhat lacking Wisdom and Charisma).
Humans' one weakness is a fondness for amphetamines, which somewhat lower Wisdom and arguably bolster Intelligence. In the long-game civilizations without dependencies on amphetamines sometimes fair better. There seems to be a not unpronounceable correlation between amphetamine use and surprisingly lower technological advancements in long-term growth sectors. Civilization historians remark that while the past 200 years have certainly been interesting, what gamers term "Modern Earth" civilizations have somewhat limited time horizons. In-depth roleplayers argue that there are seemingly "adult" statistics like Wisdom and Constitution that correlate strongly with Intelligence in determining long-run outcomes.
Not all surveyors agree that humans are the most intelligent species on Earth, in a functional sense. Some people attribute the growth of human intelligence to be something of a mistake from an evolutionary standpoint as humans are not properly speaking either elephants or lions. Another way of putting this is that pure carnivores and pure herbivores perform much better on specialized intelligence tests than monkeys which are sometimes filmed performing bizarre irrational, territorial acts of cannibalism. It is this sort of event that leads species with a higher prerogative for logical thought to disavow monkeys as supreme predators.
There are for instance the highly commented "SOMA" cultures. Basically these cultures argue that certain figurative advancements in chemical warfare among rival human civilizations around the year 1960 resulted in a drug called SOMA, and provided a catalyst for enslaving world populations. Here we see the mad monkey again, at work cannibalizing rival tribes. Physio-chemical warfare among various ethnogenecists, and neurophysiologists resulted in a cocaine off-shoot called SOMA. SOMA was originally introduced conceptually in the 1930s, of course. But the real world identical "SOMA" first began appearing in Modern Earth civilizations around 1985.
SOMA is essentially a Charisma drug with considerable short-term and long-term damage to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution. The active ingredient (methamphetamine) rapidly strips the nerves bear and transforms the system of cognition into that of a primitive creatures, like a honey bee. The catalyzed reagent coats the nerves, neurons, dendrites, axons, and other nervous tissue in sugar. This creates a quasi-passive insanity that outwardly appears harmless but preys voraciously on mammalian functions that constitute much of a being's Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom. SOMA civilizations are military very weak, but are stable to win long-term religious victories in the absence of conquest and economic pressure.
In my game, China is rapidly becoming a SOMA civilization. The traditionally hyper-aggressive Chinese are gradually being pacified into an India. With the threadbare nerves of their soldiers taking a toll on military and idle scientists rehashing given work, the Chinese civilization is becoming desperate. They are threatening ties with India, and look likely to give up Tibet, compromising most of the Western plateau and passage through the Himalayas. Ironically the individual soldier units are classified "aggravated" while not aggressively hostile. If China does not win a cultural victory, or a religious victory in short order, then my civilization will be able to force concessions. While most of the cultural artifacts granting Wisdom and Intelligence are collapsing within five turns, it will still be a long run game against a religious victory from the Chinese.
If you are interested in joining my modded server, send me a PM. We are using a roleplaying mod individuating stats. There is an extensive back history to "Modern Earth" and players are expected to read it before making crucial decisions.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
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I think the lack of focus on what you call the 'darker' side of humanity has more meaning than that. In their view, in terms of progress they are not even worth mentioning since civilizations define social norms and there is no 'right' or 'wrong' in that context.
I mean of course you can argue right now slavery is wrong and we were wrong to do it 1000 years ago but who knows in another 10000 years slavery might become a needed commodity? (trading with aliens to keep the peace?machines becoming sentient and wanting to be slaves??) And history will look back and laugh at our foolish notions >:
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On November 02 2016 13:24 Kingsky wrote:
I think the lack of focus on what you call the 'darker' side of humanity has more meaning than that. In their view, in terms of progress they are not even worth mentioning since civilizations define social norms and there is no 'right' or 'wrong' in that context.
I mean of course you can argue right now slavery is wrong and we were wrong to do it 1000 years ago but who knows in another 10000 years slavery might become a needed commodity? (trading with aliens to keep the peace?machines becoming sentient and wanting to be slaves??) And history will look back and laugh at our foolish notions >:
There is also the case of classical slavery where you sold yourself into it due to debt or not managing to feed yourself. If we didn't have social welfare we would likely have some form of indentured worker or slavery system.
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If you want "slavery, racism, ethnic cleansing, religious pogroms, genocide, internal corruption, vast inequality, postcolonial imperialism leading to social upheaval", you'll need to play more historical based games. For obvious reasons, it is harder for games based on random generation to replicate as such. I recommend looking at paradox interactive games. If you want to act out your inner "Fascist Germany", you can be fascist Germany in Hearts of Iron. If you want "a bunch of white people with shirts and guns show up to steal your children" you can play Europa Universalis where you can slaughter every single native of entire regions. So yeah, if you don't like general optimism, there are alternatives.
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On November 01 2016 09:17 Lucumo wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2016 08:37 BEARDiaguz wrote:
For real, though, when the fuck are we gonna get Australia?!
When it becomes relevant to history.
I'm putting this in a personal mental file called "reasons why I shouldn't be given mod status on teamliquid.net because surely I would abuse it's power"
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On November 06 2016 02:27 BEARDiaguz wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2016 09:17 Lucumo wrote:On November 01 2016 08:37 BEARDiaguz wrote:
For real, though, when the fuck are we gonna get Australia?!
When it becomes relevant to history. I'm putting this in a personal mental file called "reasons why I shouldn't be given mod status on teamliquid.net because surely I would abuse it's power"
<3
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I wish they made an updated alpha centauri, with the same depth as the original.Also my review on your review, was that I wish you condensed it to the facts more, I think I skipped the first 4 paragraphs. But everyone likes different things so if you have a good audience keep it up I suppose!
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On November 06 2016 09:42 radscorpion9 wrote:
I wish they made an updated alpha centauri, with the same depth as the original.Also my review on your review, was that I wish you condensed it to the facts more, I think I skipped the first 4 paragraphs. But everyone likes different things so if you have a good audience keep it up I suppose!
Myself too i don t like long written articles. However this was extremly well written and structured, amd i enjoyed every word of it.
Not sure if any new civ might beat civ2; this or alpha centuari looked like they could, and now i have serious time to dedicate to this;
What would you suggest to go for, elpha centauri or civ6?
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On November 09 2016 04:57 pebble444 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2016 09:42 radscorpion9 wrote:
I wish they made an updated alpha centauri, with the same depth as the original.Also my review on your review, was that I wish you condensed it to the facts more, I think I skipped the first 4 paragraphs. But everyone likes different things so if you have a good audience keep it up I suppose! Myself too i don t like long written articles. However this was extremly well written and structured, amd i enjoyed every word of it. Not sure if any new civ might beat civ2; this or alpha centuari looked like they could, and now i have serious time to dedicate to this; What would you suggest to go for, elpha centauri or civ6?
Civ 2 was pretty flawed in many many ways. I played this game to death and was pretty damn good at it, but the ai being really really stupid made the game eventually repetitive.
I'm looking forward my new pc and civ 6. It looks awesome.
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To a certain extent Civ games are sandboxes (not completely, but you can play it as such to some extent). Feel free to be a rampaging horde where you raze all cities you conquer (except capitals, which you can "enslave" by only using them for building military, preferrably starving the population while doing so, and definitely not giving them access to any amenities). Would that be enough genocide, slavery and repression for your taste?
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That was very well written.
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On November 06 2016 09:42 radscorpion9 wrote:
I wish they made an updated alpha centauri, with the same depth as the original.Also my review on your review, was that I wish you condensed it to the facts more, I think I skipped the first 4 paragraphs. But everyone likes different things so if you have a good audience keep it up I suppose!
Alpha Centauri is my most favourite Civ game by far too.
Such a pity it never received too much publicity.
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On November 01 2016 09:17 Lucumo wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2016 08:37 BEARDiaguz wrote:
For real, though, when the fuck are we gonna get Australia?!
When it becomes relevant to history.
To be fair It's tough for me to come up with a decent leader.Playing as Ned Kelly would be hilarious though.
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On November 03 2016 05:45 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
If you want "slavery, racism, ethnic cleansing, religious pogroms, genocide, internal corruption, vast inequality, postcolonial imperialism leading to social upheaval", you'll need to play more historical based games. For obvious reasons, it is harder for games based on random generation to replicate as such. I recommend looking at paradox interactive games. If you want to act out your inner "Fascist Germany", you can be fascist Germany in Hearts of Iron. If you want "a bunch of white people with shirts and guns show up to steal your children" you can play Europa Universalis where you can slaughter every single native of entire regions. So yeah, if you don't like general optimism, there are alternatives.
In Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, you can be really cruel to people, if you so choose.
Some stuff from Civ2 still makes me laugh. If you change your government to "Democracy", you have zero corruption in all of your cities. Communism is garbage, and the only other government besides Democracy worth switching to is Fundamentalism, because you can make a huge military.
SMAC also has shit that pisses me off: switching your economy to "Free Market" is suicidal because you fucking wreck the planet. The "Green" economy, however, is amazing to the environment, boosts your efficiency, and doesn't really hurt your growth if you're doing Democratic politics. Why is the Green economy so efficient? Because environmentalism, that's why. You can do a Planned economy if you want good growth, but Planned Economy shits all over your efficiency, and so for the long-term, you can't sustain a Planned Economy.
There's some really in-your-face environmentalism in these games, to the point where it's obnoxious at times. Also, the Morganites suck to play as.
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There is a lot of environmental feelgoodery in SMAC, but Green is easily the weakest economic choice in the game. Free Market is the strongest overall, because +1 energy per square dominates everything else, despite the nasty penalties you have to work your way around. Planned is extremely useful in short bursts, for its population boom effect (with Democratic and Children's Creche).
SMAC is really interesting in how the environmental high-planet and forests everywhere is simple and decent, but optimal play involves boreholes, cities in the tightest possible grid, intentionally triggering fungal booms to harvest mind worms from cash, nerve stapling, rehoming military units in a base with a punishment sphere, spamming supply crawlers everywhere. Morgan is clearly one of the stronger factions, possibly second, behind University.
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On November 19 2016 13:57 ninazerg wrote:
There's some really in-your-face environmentalism in these games, to the point where it's obnoxious at times.
Yeah, I've been learning Civ 4 for the last 3 months or so now and the global warming mechanic is exactly that: Obnoxious, with a capital O. It seems like it supposed to be some sort of trade-off/punishment for using nukes, except that if you build nuclear plants, and/or if they meltdown, or simply you play the fucking game too long it also just starts running rampant turning random tiles into deserts. Very poorly implemented, probably because there isn't any real weather or climate modelling to speak of, just biomes. It makes very little sense for it to just randomly appear since they removed the pollution mechanic and should have been done away with, like how "corruption" was folded into "maintenance."
Luckily for this specific problem, you can just fix the values in the XML to eliminate it. In your face Firaxis, you bunch of hippies!
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.giphy.com/dARUXSVNXc5Da.gif)
