Sid Meier's Civilization

[King Murchad Big Groypers]

What does Civ VII do well? Does it bring anything good to the table?

The soundtrack is an improvement over 6 in my opinion, bringing back generic age and war-specific music. While each civ in 6 having its own theme that gradually developed over the course of the game was cool, it quickly got repetitive and lacked any major differentiation between ages. In Atomic you'd hearing the same songs you heard in the Medieval era but with electronic instruments.

Standout songs for me are the four Modern Age ambient war & peace themes: Hope Rising, Stand Firm, Si Vis Pacem, and Para Bellum. Two melodies with peace and war versions that properly capture the 'feel' of a Modern Age. Conveys the stakes and tension of the lategame while also being triumphal of your civilization's achievements. A good soundtrack can really help to fill in the gaps of immersion.

Problem is that Geoff Knorr did this all better in 2014 and 2015. I can never fully hate Beyond Earth, because it and its expansions have some absolutely phenomenal soundtracks that conveyed the emotions and themes of the game, with tracks that have separate early, middle and lategame versions, as well as separate war and peace themes. My issues with Civ 7's soundtrack are that it's too short and that the individual civ themes are mediocre. An ideal Civ soundtrack for me would have themes based on geography like Civ 5 with its stellar use of Romantic-era classical music for Europe, individual civ themes that develop over the course of the game, and broad age-specific war and peace themes that capture the mood of each age.

The war system looks to have also been an upgrade on the whole. City attack has been removed, sieges are more interesting, the AI can use planes, and army commanders solve dumb micromanagement while also allowing for depth. Nukes though are more of an endgame toy for players that've already won a domination victory, rather than an integral tool for breaking lategame stalemates. Fun wars alone don't make up for the rest of the game being shit, however.

 

[Dammit Mandrake!]

Beyond Earth

It sounds like you put some time into Beyond Earth. I bailed pretty early but how did this game end up developing with expansions and updates?

Anyone is welcome to answer.

 

[Computer God Autism]

It sounds like you put some time into Beyond Earth. I bailed pretty early but how did this game end up developing with expansions and updates?

Anyone is welcome to answer.

It didn't, really. Rising Tide destroyed whatever potential could be salvaged from the game. Ocean play is uninteresting (honestly I was never really interested in it to begin with so it's not that big of a loss to me) and hybrid affinities were a stupid idea conceptually and wind up having little impact beyond further eroding what little distinctiveness factions might have had, but the biggest crime was they destroyed the diplomacy system; they removed favors, removed the ability to directly trade resources in favor of abstract diplomatic capital, the trait system is an even more retarded version of Civ 6's agenda system, you have no real control over peace proceedings, and the whole thing is reduced to effectively a relation slider ranging from war to alliance.

 

[Foxxo]

the AI can use planes

It can't seem to use Barbarians/"City-States" anymore, though. Too stingy or other-player-focused with its Influence.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

hey @Foxxo

What is "team color" of C7 Barbarians? In C6 it's black on red. And in C1, C2, and XB/PS Rev it's just red. And it's white in DS Rev.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Alright lay a positive take on me. What does Civ VII do well? Does it bring anything good to the table?

Hard mode: you can't bring up the graphics.

The soundtrack is good, some odd choices for themes like Prussia's but it's still good.
I like how the main theme combines quotes of classic literature.

....And um......... They atleast have enough balls to keep Russia in the base game. I seriously did not expect that.

 

[The Big A]

hey @Foxxo

What is "team color" of C7 Barbarians? In C6 it's black on red. And in C1, C2, and XB/PS Rev it's just red. And it's white in DS Rev.

There are no "Barbarians" in Civ 7, Barbs and City States got merged into something called "Independent Powers" which have a Black on White color scheme.

The soundtrack is good, some odd choices for themes like Prussia's but it's still good.
I like how the main theme combines quotes of classic literature.

....And um......... They atleast have enough balls to keep Russia in the base game. I seriously did not expect that.

How else can you properly LARP as the Soviet Union? They even gave them the space victory.

 

[Smashed & Slamed]

I kinda want to try Civ VII to see how shit it is. But it's so shit nobody is gonna bother to crack it.

 

[Jesus Swept]

You can buy it on Steam, play for less than 2 hours and refund it, or install Loonix, the linux version doesn't have Denuvo and has been cracked already.

 

[X Prime]

The Civ devs now thinking humanity peaked during the 1960s is kinda depressing. The civ games once had future eras for humanity to look forward to and they were once a big part of the game.

Is it my imagination, or does the Contraception wonder there replace a bunch of lighter-skinned babies with one darker baby?

 

[King Murchad Big Groypers]

It sounds like you put some time into Beyond Earth. I bailed pretty early but how did this game end up developing with expansions and updates?

I've only spent 50 hours on it, and have only ever played it with its expansion.
Oceans broke the game, because they doubled the amount of land available for settling without compensating for it. So by lategame even if you settled like crazy there'd be 50% of the map left uncolonized. In every civ game there's a constant land rush feeling, but not here. There's little reason to declare war when you always have the low-risk option of expanding to empty free land. It's a combination of the mapgen and shitty passive AI.
Hybrid affinities, the orbital layer, the trait system that unlocks different trade agreements, the unit upgrade system, the aliens, the tech web and four virtue trees are all interesting ideas, but never really cohere together well. The game's just really dull.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Is it my imagination, or does the Contraception wonder there replace a bunch of lighter-skinned babies with one darker baby?

I think it's more the lighting than the model changing.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

Is Humankind... good? I haven't bought a Steam game in a while.

I had to think about this because I have such a love/hate relationship with the game.

If you can find it on sale or find a way to play it for free I'd say give it a try. It's important to say though that humankind is also pretty much abandoned as they haven't done any dlc, updates, or patches in quite some time.

and yeah what @Slap47 said, you'd probably be better off playing ES2.

 

[Foxxo]

hey @Foxxo

What is "team color" of C7 Barbarians? In C6 it's black on red. And in C1, C2, and XB/PS Rev it's just red. And it's white in DS Rev.

Red while they hate you, black while they're friendly, and white while they're buck-broken.

 

[Anonitolia]

The soundtrack is good, some odd choices for themes like Prussia's but it's still good.
I like how the main theme combines quotes of classic literature.

To add on to this, the logo is gorgeous. It's a real shame. If all you did was watch that video, you'd think that Civ VII was the pinnacle of the series from audio and visual quality alone. The way the C segments all the eras and displays all the monuments while keeping itself from getting crowded, evoking older statues with all the little flourishes scattered across what would otherwise be empty space, all on a marble background with golden accents really emanates a kind of class that the actual game just doesn't fucking have.

It's baffling-- there had to be a completely different team working on the logo and the soundtrack that had nothing to do with any other part of the game, I cannot believe that a song this good i'm on my third repeat after hearing it for the first time today, I love it more than any other main Civ theme and a logo this thoughtful exist for a game so thoroughly half-baked and scummy.

I really miss when this level of quality was present in a game that actually deserved it.

 

[Slap47]

Would you folks recommend Civ VII? I've played Civ for a while at least, starting with IV then going back to the older games then V when it came out, sadly I couldn't stand VI so I never bought it after playing the pirated copy (technically someone gifted it to me), the DLC and that "Red Shell" shit made that decision even easier. That being said, does Civ VII offer anything that's worth trying at least that you would recommend?

Probably not.

 

[LowlyPheasent]

Would you folks recommend Civ VII? I've played Civ for a while at least, starting with IV then going back to the older games then V when it came out, sadly I couldn't stand VI so I never bought it after playing the pirated copy (technically someone gifted it to me), the DLC and that "Red Shell" shit made that decision even easier. That being said, does Civ VII offer anything that's worth trying at least that you would recommend?

A bulk of the mechanics it introduces are just rip-offs of humankind. I'd suggest looking at videos of that if 7's mechanics look enticing otherwise I'd avoid it. I'm not even interested in pirating it to be brutally honest from what I've seen the mechanics are a turn off for me.

 

[Sweeter and Savoury]

I tried it as I am a Civ fan but I refunded it pretty quick

It absolutely reeks of wokeness, so many female leaders who make zero sense shoved in there cuz stronk POC wahmen of course. Plus all these word changes to make sure the game passes the Progressive sniff test (founder really? not Settler?) and all the expected white male leaders are worse then the unknown niggers who by some fancy luck have the better traits etc etc. Changes for the sake of changes, the AI is even more retarded and I thought Civ6 was bad but the AI in 7 is bonkers bad.

So for me that's a hard pass. I'll stick with Civ5 for another decade I guess.

I picked up Humankind from Epic for free so I might give that a try but I've heard nothing good about it.

How much longer until these bloody woke game companies die off? I'm getting real tired of their shit.

 

[Smashed & Slamed]

How much longer until these bloody woke game companies die off? I'm getting real tired of their shit.

I think KnowledgeHub or some other rantsona type jewtuber pointed out that stuff like Concord began real work around 2020. Because 2020 created a big influx of cash that needed to be spent quickly so a lot of projects got started or increased in scope, scale and gayness. Civ VII started work before 2020, got canceled in 2020 and restarted round 2021 btw. Do to delays and other things what would have normally been a 2 year dev cycle became a 4 year one. Since after Concord and everything else bombing we will see a shrinking in scope and scale but that will also cause delays. So a non woke game that was designed in 2023/4 will at best see the light of day in 2026/7. The non woke games released today are stuff that was worked on before 2020 like Space Marine 2.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]