More Civ6 Observations

I’m playing Civ6 steadily; a distraction from work-life combined with a hobby when the house is quiet. As such my frustrations with Civ-like games has returned a little because:

• The starting click through movies and “click to continue” screens are horrid. This game’s UX is so bad that you need to click “OK” to get to the starting menu! Who does that!
• The UX for political interaction is shite too – you click teh bottom left hand buttons to make choices and then close the screen with the top right! That’s UX fail.
• I hate using and defending Spys. I’d love a mod which removes them from the game.The in-game interface is ugly, constantly re-allocating the is a pain, and I want more detail on what they are doing and their success ratios. I give up trying to promote them.
• I’m now trying to learn the ins and outs of a Religious victory. Its nonsense at present. I’ll learn the Tourism one after I get the religious one down.
• The Domination victory is by far the easiest. By far.
• The starting position, presence of barbarian, and leader choice makes all teh difference. Those three factors are huge levers for success or failure. Yes that makes sense, but it also means some games are just dead from the start.

Anyway, on a lighter note – here is what happens in a sim game – a launch pad is next to sheep. Those poor sheep.

Civ6 update and benefit of DLC expansion

I’ve played around 320 hours of Civ now and still consider myself a novice. A key out-take from play so many hours as a novice is – this game has high replayability as a base game and does not need DLC to be worth buying. That’s excellent.

The new DLC expansion was released recently, again adding new content and also new game mechanics for Civ6. It introduces Eras, City Leaders, and a range of new sub-mechanics which will make the gameplay more complex. I’m holding off on buyig the expansion until I get a better grasp of the game as is.

PCGames – “Historic Moments award Era Score, and this is what determines what Age you will fall into as the era transitions. Reaching a certain threshold will trigger a Golden Age, but failing to do so will trigger a Dark Age. After receiving a Golden Age, the threshold is changed, and the next one is harder to achieve. But after receiving a Dark Age, the threshold is changed to make it a bit easier to get a Golden Age next time.”

The studio who creates civ6 has said they like DLC and microtransactions for their games, and can foresee doing more in the future (uptake is apparently very high for the DLC). I’d hate microtransactions to be in Civ but like the DLC small segments.

Refs:

• The announcement of Rise and Fall expansion
• Firaxis likes DLC fo Civ6 and will continue to make it.
• Overview of the “Rise and Fal”l DLC expansion

More impression of Civ6

Civ6 is a punishing (fun) game. I’m playing on the easiest level as a learner and the AI has a naggingly consistent propensity to totally wreck my beautiful plans. 

My biggest gripe is how shit the startup screens are. Huge ego stuffing symbols from the creators, then a single mouse click which you always need to do. 

Hey designers – if I don’t have a choice then just move on. Or allow me to click quickly through. IDGAF about your company name. I care about Civ. /grumble. 

I’ll say I’m generally winning or at least making good in roads but cripes – the AI is sometimes illogical. 

For example:

• NPC civ plonked a city between two of my cities because there was just a sliver of space. Who does that! Bastards. 
• Building walls is an almost must do, but they drain so much cash and production early on. Perhaps I need to build in close and not spread so far. 
• The barbarians appear about 10 turns after your units declare war and swing over the other side of the map. Bastards. 
• How do I reduce how many other NPC civs are present. So many contenders. Perhaps I need to start on a huge map. 
• Who in hell knows how to start a religious victory style game? 
• Why are the penalties for killing and razing a city so nasty in the early game? Isn’t this what civs did?

Good game though. 

Playing Civ6, newbie mistakes are great fun

I bought Civ6 a day ago and started playing. Wow, the game has changed since my old days of Civ and Civ2. The endeavours and strategies look like they will be the same but so much of the game interface has changed – for the better. Here are my impressions. 

• I sat clicking like an idiot for a long while wondering why my setteler wouldn’t make a city when I pressed the B button. Even moving him around didn’t work, till I saw the build button. 
• It took me ages to work out that Traders made roads. Good change, but tempting to use Romans as empire choice to get them automatically (so I read).
• I still don’t know how to use Envoys or all of the political levers. Do spies exist anymore?
• It starts so simple and ramps out of my comfort zone quickly. 
• I’m yet to change the assigned population tiles for the city. 
• I’m yet to suss how to use districts properly. 
• I still want to crush everyone on the map with hordes of units, so maybe I should be playing the barbarians. 
• I love and hate the new barbarians. Bastards are a pain but good for unit xp. 
• Being a single player turn based game suits the home life I have, as I can walk away anytime. I almost grabbed my copy of MOO3 out of the box but decided a new game would be more fun. 
• Getting the steam sale discount was ok, but I fear the ongoing temptation of DLC. 

I’m having so much fun discovering how to play a Civ game again. Just need to now get 60 hours in a day.