Running video games (and consoles) thread

[Inky_Wretch]

Re: Civ 5

I'm really enjoying the Brave New World upgrade. You can now win the game via trade routes and having your culture dominate the world.

Allow me to name drop: One of my best friends is a design lead on all the Civ expansions.

He's a helluva game designer. I haven't picked up Brave New World yet, but if it's got Ed Beach's name on it, you can be certain it's great.

Tell him to add sabotage to the list of things spies can do in foreign cities. And maybe a gameplay option to turn stacks of death back on again.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Update on Chivalry: Great concept. Reviews seemed solid. But it's hella glitchy, especially the tutorial.

 

[amraeder]

Re: Civ 5

I'm really enjoying the Brave New World upgrade. You can now win the game via trade routes and having your culture dominate the world.

Allow me to name drop: One of my best friends is a design lead on all the Civ expansions.

He's a helluva game designer. I haven't picked up Brave New World yet, but if it's got Ed Beach's name on it, you can be certain it's great.

Tell him to add sabotage to the list of things spies can do in foreign cities. And maybe a gameplay option to turn stacks of death back on again.

I, for one, enjoy the end of the stacks of death.

I do agree that spying could be more robust.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Re: Civ 5

I'm really enjoying the Brave New World upgrade. You can now win the game via trade routes and having your culture dominate the world.

Allow me to name drop: One of my best friends is a design lead on all the Civ expansions.

He's a helluva game designer. I haven't picked up Brave New World yet, but if it's got Ed Beach's name on it, you can be certain it's great.

Tell him to add sabotage to the list of things spies can do in foreign cities. And maybe a gameplay option to turn stacks of death back on again.

I, for one, enjoy the end of the stacks of death.

I do agree that spying could be more robust.

I can see the reasoning behind it, but I'd like the ability to put more than one unit in a tile - especially in cities.

 

[sgreenwell]

I'm guessing things have slowed down a bit in this thread because we're busy in our respective NCAA 14 threads now. I've had a chance to play it a week or so now, and love the way they re-did the recruiting - much less of a time sink and just more accurate in general now, it seems. The gameplay changes, I can't really tell what they've changed - Some plays seem more effective, and some plays less. I also like the Ultimate Team thing, although I see it as more of something I'll occasionally dabble in when I'm not doing Dynasty stuff.

One option or gameplay mode I wish they would add - Streamlined playing. Meaning, a game option with no replays, no commentary, no running ticker on the bottom of the screen, and none of the presentation stuff. I realize that some of that stuff is in now in order to hide when the game is loading, but I'd honestly rather see a loading icon for a second or two. Just me, or everyone - I normally am tapping X constantly between plays and skipping every sort of presentation thing. I could careless about the "realistic" aspects they throw into the game.

Non-NCAA games, I got my computer back so I've played a couple Civ5 games. Because I have ADD when it comes to games, I'll play a couple turns of that while waiting for NCAA to finish loading / simming. Great stuff. It plays so different from Civ4 that I'm still getting used to things. To those of you with more experience in the game, how far apart should I space cities...? In past games, your "city grid" was always a 5-by-5 grid with the corners cut out, but in this one with the switch to hexes, I can't tell. It's resulted in me inadvertently starting cities that are too far to ever connect to my capital, or so close that they're running into resource problems. I do like though that in general, it's easier to win with a smaller empire as opposed to previous editions, since all of the Wonders you can build have reduced costs.

 

[amraeder]

I don't think much about city grid. You can put workers in tiles 3 out in every direction form your city, so if you're within 6 tiles of each other, you're going to have overlap. Luxuries are very important since they're your primary means of happiness, and you need strategic resources for military units. So, really where I place a city is more based on resource access than anything else.

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

I'm guessing things have slowed down a bit in this thread because we're busy in our respective NCAA 14 threads now. I've had a chance to play it a week or so now, and love the way they re-did the recruiting - much less of a time sink and just more accurate in general now, it seems. The gameplay changes, I can't really tell what they've changed - Some plays seem more effective, and some plays less. I also like the Ultimate Team thing, although I see it as more of something I'll occasionally dabble in when I'm not doing Dynasty stuff.

One option or gameplay mode I wish they would add - Streamlined playing. Meaning, a game option with no replays, no commentary, no running ticker on the bottom of the screen, and none of the presentation stuff. I realize that some of that stuff is in now in order to hide when the game is loading, but I'd honestly rather see a loading icon for a second or two. Just me, or everyone - I normally am tapping X constantly between plays and skipping every sort of presentation thing. I could careless about the "realistic" aspects they throw into the game.

Non-NCAA games, I got my computer back so I've played a couple Civ5 games. Because I have ADD when it comes to games, I'll play a couple turns of that while waiting for NCAA to finish loading / simming. Great stuff. It plays so different from Civ4 that I'm still getting used to things. To those of you with more experience in the game, how far apart should I space cities...? In past games, your "city grid" was always a 5-by-5 grid with the corners cut out, but in this one with the switch to hexes, I can't tell. It's resulted in me inadvertently starting cities that are too far to ever connect to my capital, or so close that they're running into resource problems. I do like though that in general, it's easier to win with a smaller empire as opposed to previous editions, since all of the Wonders you can build have reduced costs.

The recruiting on NCAA is so frustrating but I kinda like that. I won the NC in my second year, Washington Huskies, and I have yet to get a five-star player. I have lost one game in the Pac-12 in two years, Stanford, and am usually 3rd or 4th in the conference in recruiting.

On the old versions, I'd be top 3 in the nation every year after one NC.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

I'm guessing things have slowed down a bit in this thread because we're busy in our respective NCAA 14 threads now. I've had a chance to play it a week or so now, and love the way they re-did the recruiting - much less of a time sink and just more accurate in general now, it seems. The gameplay changes, I can't really tell what they've changed - Some plays seem more effective, and some plays less. I also like the Ultimate Team thing, although I see it as more of something I'll occasionally dabble in when I'm not doing Dynasty stuff.

One option or gameplay mode I wish they would add - Streamlined playing. Meaning, a game option with no replays, no commentary, no running ticker on the bottom of the screen, and none of the presentation stuff. I realize that some of that stuff is in now in order to hide when the game is loading, but I'd honestly rather see a loading icon for a second or two. Just me, or everyone - I normally am tapping X constantly between plays and skipping every sort of presentation thing. I could careless about the "realistic" aspects they throw into the game.

Non-NCAA games, I got my computer back so I've played a couple Civ5 games. Because I have ADD when it comes to games, I'll play a couple turns of that while waiting for NCAA to finish loading / simming. Great stuff. It plays so different from Civ4 that I'm still getting used to things. To those of you with more experience in the game, how far apart should I space cities...? In past games, your "city grid" was always a 5-by-5 grid with the corners cut out, but in this one with the switch to hexes, I can't tell. It's resulted in me inadvertently starting cities that are too far to ever connect to my capital, or so close that they're running into resource problems. I do like though that in general, it's easier to win with a smaller empire as opposed to previous editions, since all of the Wonders you can build have reduced costs.

What I hate is the lag time between plays and everything else in the game. No matter how many times I hit the X button after a play, it always takes several seconds for me to be able to go to the next play.

 

[sgreenwell]

I'm guessing things have slowed down a bit in this thread because we're busy in our respective NCAA 14 threads now. I've had a chance to play it a week or so now, and love the way they re-did the recruiting - much less of a time sink and just more accurate in general now, it seems. The gameplay changes, I can't really tell what they've changed - Some plays seem more effective, and some plays less. I also like the Ultimate Team thing, although I see it as more of something I'll occasionally dabble in when I'm not doing Dynasty stuff.

One option or gameplay mode I wish they would add - Streamlined playing. Meaning, a game option with no replays, no commentary, no running ticker on the bottom of the screen, and none of the presentation stuff. I realize that some of that stuff is in now in order to hide when the game is loading, but I'd honestly rather see a loading icon for a second or two. Just me, or everyone - I normally am tapping X constantly between plays and skipping every sort of presentation thing. I could careless about the "realistic" aspects they throw into the game.

Non-NCAA games, I got my computer back so I've played a couple Civ5 games. Because I have ADD when it comes to games, I'll play a couple turns of that while waiting for NCAA to finish loading / simming. Great stuff. It plays so different from Civ4 that I'm still getting used to things. To those of you with more experience in the game, how far apart should I space cities...? In past games, your "city grid" was always a 5-by-5 grid with the corners cut out, but in this one with the switch to hexes, I can't tell. It's resulted in me inadvertently starting cities that are too far to ever connect to my capital, or so close that they're running into resource problems. I do like though that in general, it's easier to win with a smaller empire as opposed to previous editions, since all of the Wonders you can build have reduced costs.

The recruiting on NCAA is so frustrating but I kinda like that. I won the NC in my second year, Washington Huskies, and I have yet to get a five-star player. I have lost one game in the Pac-12 in two years, Stanford, and am usually 3rd or 4th in the conference in recruiting.

On the old versions, I'd be top 3 in the nation every year after one NC.

It definitely "feels" more realistic in this regard, yeah. I won the NC as Old Dominion in a first-year dynasty, to get that trophy, and only about five 4-star guys were interested in me the next year. I think program prestige gain is capped at one star per year, which is probably part of it. Even with the real-life runs of Boise State, it's not like they've been awash in 5-star recruits since then, so that makes sense.

 

[sgreenwell]

I don't think much about city grid. You can put workers in tiles 3 out in every direction form your city, so if you're within 6 tiles of each other, you're going to have overlap. Luxuries are very important since they're your primary means of happiness, and you need strategic resources for military units. So, really where I place a city is more based on resource access than anything else.

Okay, cool, that was kind of my impression as well. It doesn't seem like there is as big of a penalty for stacking your cities somewhat close, as opposed to past editions. The optimization in general seems to be a lot better when it comes to automation.

 

[amraeder]

I don't think much about city grid. You can put workers in tiles 3 out in every direction form your city, so if you're within 6 tiles of each other, you're going to have overlap. Luxuries are very important since they're your primary means of happiness, and you need strategic resources for military units. So, really where I place a city is more based on resource access than anything else.

Okay, cool, that was kind of my impression as well. It doesn't seem like there is as big of a penalty for stacking your cities somewhat close, as opposed to past editions. The optimization in general seems to be a lot better when it comes to automation.

Yeah, it's good at deciding what to do with your citizens. And because you can have specialists, it's not the end of the world if some of your population can't fit in your hexes (since they can just work as a specialist in your factory, for example, instead of on a tile). I'll also add that only my capitol usually comes anywhere close to getting big enough to make use of all its tiles, anyway.

 

[amraeder]

Sgreenwell and other Civ 5ers: What difficulty do you play on?