I'm curious about the amount of 'waste'.
What percentage of ideas get through from, say, brainstorming to designing to quality testing to final product?
(eg. '50% of the brainstormed ideas go through to the design table, of that 20% actually ends up in the alpha and of that 50% stays in the final product.')
What steps are being taken to improve the AI? Is improving the AI a priority or does it take a back seat to other things? Do you see the AI as something that needs improvement or is it "where it needs to be" by your standards?
In my opinion, Civ is not, and can not ever be a multiplayer game. I love playing games online... WoW for 7 years, Battle Field series, Counter Strike and Command and Conquer etc. However, Civ is a game you play with you feet up, at your own pace. Sometimes a turn takes an hour because you are just sitting there pondering your next move, thats what I love about it.
The AI in civ 5 was a massive let down, there is no way to sugar coat. It couldn't do a an over seas invasion, It cant protect its ranged units, it doesnt build the rght units (20 AA guns and 5 tanks, really?) Then we have war declaired for no reason (at least that makes sense to the player) and insane leaders... condem me because I DEFEND against someone who attacked me? I mean I can make this list go forever.
I would like to see smart AI... not an AI that cheats and starts with 10 extra techs and extra units.. a SMART AI. Maybe copy the playstyles of top players? Make the AI place cities in smart spots rather then a city every 3 hex's? Are there any plans to make a really good AI? This is what I want to see most in a Civ game. IMO, this has always been civ's greatest weakness, and the one that makes me tire of it.
I have to say, I find it distressing how many people care more about small (on the scale of the world as a whole) civs being added to the game rather then the actual gameplay being improved... honestly, I get you are nationalistic but a civ is really just a name and a color on screen, wouldnt you all prefer the civs we do have could put up a fight and adapt to our playstyles without massive cheating?
Last edited by Jtc3400; 04-09-2012 at 03:05 PM.
One suggestion for you to pass on... how about DLC packs of unit graphics for modders to use. The mod would be dependent on the DLC, so people would have to buy it, and you would thus be able to monetise modding to the extent that modders find them useful. Straight cash from artist time. Especially with how hard unit graphics are to mod, I think that would get some serious use.
But for a question... we've all heard (I imagine) of Firaxis's Frankenstein test groups (how long have they been using them for civ? just a side question)... how much does feedback from Frankenstein affect decisions taken on gameplay, design, etc?
How much time is required to program the AI?
Is the AI's (combat) calculation process based on data from observing human players?
What percentage of devs come from an institutional IT background (college)?
This is how the AI of command and conquer has been improved maybe civ 5 should indead do the sameOriginally Posted by Jtc3400
Why do you think Austria is a better choice as a new civ than Poland-Lithuania?
Gedemon has just released a mod that allows hotseat to be played with many mods.
In one PAX interview Dennis was telling you that multiple passes were done on the AI and especially the naval AI.
Considering the new WWI air units in GaK, in those "multiple passes" was the Air combat AI fixed? Currently the Air AI does not use Intercept nor does it use Air Sweep.
Seeing as the game launched with the AI not using air units *at all* I am concerned it has been overlooked again.
A thread about it
http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread...se-intercept!&
Also, why was the decision made to have combat take place simultaneously in civ5? And is there any plan to fix the combat panning or allow options such as "only show combat to my units" or "show Every single combat" or at least give us a combat log ala civ4.
Thanks
I have been playing civ since Civilization II on the playstation 1. Since I began I wanted to have part of the techtree given to the WWI time period. I always would say to my brother, "Wouldn't it be cool if they added a biplane to the techtree?" He'd always agree with me.
So what I was wondering is how the devs came to the decision to add the WWI units that I have wanted in the game for so long?
I was also wondering will there be time enough to use those units before the WWII units take over? In other words, is the techtree spread out enough between WWI and WWII?
Thanks Greg for keeping us up to date on everything.
I have been playing civ since Civilization II on the playstation 1. Since I began I wanted to have part of the techtree given to the WWI time period. I always would say to my brother, "Wouldn't it be cool if they added a biplane to the techtree?" He'd always agree with me.
So what I was wondering is how the devs came to the decision to add the WWI units that I have wanted in the game for so long?
I was also wondering will there be time enough to use those units before the WWII units take over? In other words, is the techtree spread out enough between WWI and WWII?
Thanks Greg for keeping us up to date on everything.
Here is some questions from the guys at civ fanatics forums.
D712 What made the team decide to make Austria a civ? And how do you think Austria fits into espionage and religion, the two main features of this expansion?
king Oosterveld as many of us have seen, theres a unit under penicillin. some say this is a marine, others say its the WWII infantry. could you confirm what this unit is? also, is the battleship/other ranged ship types limited to range only attacks, or can they melee as well?
bonafide11 How does religion and espionage affect the social policy trees?
Inhalaattori What language is Attila speaking? Has it been a hard task to find voice actors for all the different leaders? What has been the most difficult to find?
Buccaneer Can someone ask whether there could be additional victory conditions? It sounds like the cultural vc is tied more in with faith, for example. I'm wondering about the possibility of a religious-centric vc or perhaps (my long-time suggestion), a conquest vc.
Also, we would all like to hear how much better the AI will be in GaK, when compared to the way it is now in vanilla. How much better will it be at combat? Will it still do stupid things like leaving great generals unprotected? Many of us are skeptical about the AI being markedly improved. We all want the AI to be a noticeable step up from where it is now. Thanks for considering any of these questions Greg. Any answers will be a big help.
The AI has been the focus of much wrath on the forums. What makes programming the AI so difficult? Are there any tricks that make programming the AI less complicated?
Yes anything you can tell us about the AI and the programming involved would be great.
To what degree do marketing concerns influence your creative decisions? Are there any particular examples you would like to share?
Are there any neat ideas you scraped, perhaps for for lack of time, that you wish had made it into the game?
Which one of you is responsible for the diplomatic victory? Fess up
How much does the community influence decisions on the game, and have you ever changed what you were going to do because of community opinion?
Personally, I would like to know how well GaK caters for those of us who prefer to play without city states enabled. Will the the AI adjust their playing style to play well in a CS free game?
I would like to know two things if possible.
1.) How often do testers test Civ 5 and Civ 5 Gods and Kings in multiplayer before releasing the game/patches?
2.) What improvements such as a lobby, multiplayer stability, or some/any other form of improvement has been made in multiplayer playing?
-AwesoMe
www.awesomeciv.com
Q; Very simple... Nexus and Firetuner are essential assets for Modding. Will we ever get some form of total control (either through proper documentation or supplemental toolset) over the GR2 (and so on) modeling aspects (Leader Screens, Units, etc)?
It's probably the one thing that has really bothered me since the game launched and I'm very excited by the new direction. I'm not asking for the devs to apologize or whatever (like how the media wanted George W. Bush to "regret" his presidential decisions), but more just talk about how immersion is playing a bigger role than it did in the original design docs.Ooh, that's a good one, steth. I'm curious about that as well and hope they respond to it. A similar question crossed my mind back when I was first hearing about the GAK news.
I agree, it seems like Civ is shifting closer to the immersive, role-playing AI side of the spectrum, and away from the play-to-win, gamer-mentality AI. I feel a fine balance of both would be optimal; perhaps GAK will find a better balance of them.
----
Also, I guess I'll refer to the expansion as GAK now since that's what Greg is using.Instead of using acronyms like GK or G&K. (Although, it does remind me of someone going "gaaak!" after tasting something disgusting, lol.)
I've often seen it said that one of Firaxis' (perhaps informal) policies is to prioritize "fun" over other potential goals (like realism). Of course, "fun" is in the eye of the beholder. Since your team is designing for an audience--meaning, not purely for yourselves--how do you determine what archetypal player the game will be designed for? Furthermore, what kind of decisions does that then influence?
Thanks Greg for this opportunity. Here are my questions:
Are we going to see multiple Civ Leaders for the same civilization at some point in the future for Civ V, as we have seen in previous incarnations of the game?
On that note, would you consider more modern Civ leaders? (OK can't really do that for Rome, Babylon, Persia but for relevant Civs etc) I think that Haile Selassie is now the most 'modern' Civ leader ever as he died in the mid-70s but are there plans on having say: Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, (England) Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, (USA) Mikhail Gorbachev (Russia), Anwar Sadat (Egypt), Francois Mitterand (France), Willy Brandt, Angela Merkel (Germany) etc? (For my fellow Civers, I know that this is technically flawed as Gorbachev is USSR and Thatcher & Blair are UK - I am aware of the different political national entities; just making the point before anyone replies).
Are there any Civs that you avoid for political reasons like Tibet or Israel for example? In the latter's case Jerusalem is in as a CS but this is nothing do with Israel, it seems that it's there solely as a religious city, significant to 3 major faiths. Is therefore Israel's 'exclusion' from the game for 5 versions of the game so far deliberate for political reasons (Potential bad press, boycotts etc) or that you deem it 'not worthy' enough so far for inclusion?
Would you ever consider putting Hitler in the game? I know this is controversial but are you restricting yourself on moral grounds or is it by legislation? There have been statistically bigger genocidal maniacs already in previous Civs, making more than 1 appearance a piece ie Mao and Stalin. Just asking because I am a Jew (hence the name
I am also a proud Englishman but I would have thought that it would have been more prudent to have the UK/ Great Britain as a Civ instead of just England, which could potentially appeal to maybe 15 million more people...AND this is when my great island was at its peak, in the 18th to early 20th century as this entity. (England is superb by itself with tons of history but I thought that Britain would be an 'easier' choice, although you technically couldn't have a ruler before 1707 as its leader, thus excluding wonderful Elizabeth I and previous leader, Henry VIII).
Do you think that you released Civ V too early with the many complaints about game play, AI intelligence and other 'incomplete' parts of the game? Could this have turned off a lot of potential current and future customers and instead? If you released a more 'complete' version a little later, even a year after, as you are doing now with G&K, could this have been better for the brand?
Why did Nimoy not come back for Civ V?
Are there any jobs going...?
Implementing a Globe Map
With the shift to hexes, has serious consideration ever been given to sliding 12 pentagons in there, and producing an actual globe map?
e.g. A Soccer ball (or truncated icosahedron) is the simplest example of this. But a 'sphere' built this way scales-up while only ever requiring 12 pentagons.
Regardless, what are the general thoughts within the Firaxis dev-team regarding this?
While interesting, I don't see how a solid with 32 faces could be converted into a map... yes, the hexagonal faces could be divided into smaller hexagons, but the pentagonal faces pose a larger problem.
Plus, how much would it *really* enhance the game? Flight is a rather small part of the game, and it's not like polar regions would/should be easily accessible to land units.
Isn't it possible to make a Geodesic dome without pentagons?
The ideas and solutions revealed so far are fantastic. It would be fascinating to understand a bit about the ideas process, the parameters, the key selection criteria and what was left on the cutting room floor?
1) Is there any thought being given to how the AI will handle trading? Currently, AI often rejects an equal exchange (e.g. luxury vs luxury) that would otherwise benefit it. Will the new diplomacy mechanics make AIs more willing to enter agreements with their friends?
2) We know that sharing information with someone etc. makes the AI more friendly. Will the actions helping/harming an AIs ally/enemy influence their attitude (e.g. will attacking someone's ally make them more hostile)? As I understand it, currently the biggest factor in this manner are the declarations of friendship and denunciations, and this systems is rather simplistic.
3) How transparent will the new diplomacy system be? Unlike in Civ4, in vanilla Civ5 not much specific information about an AIs attitude can be seen. Will this stay unchanged?
Since the questions cant be about G&K as Stated in the OP
1: Out of all the Civ games which one is the majority of the dev teams Favourite?
2: Wheres SID and whats he upto atm?
Have we as a community influenced any civilisation decisions other than the obvious one? (Polynesia)
What is harder to cope with: your corporate bosses or us, constantly demanding more?
1) Are there any civilizations or leaders which are considered too controversial to be added to the game (such as Israel or Tibet)?
2) Do the personal politics of the developers ever inform the inclusion or omission of certain gameplay features (such as global warming)?
I had the same questions myself, but I can tell you already that there are no job openings, as I check the careers page on Firaxis and other developers' sites fairly regularly.Are there any Civs that you avoid for political reasons like Tibet or Israel for example? In the latter's case Jerusalem is in as a CS but this is nothing do with Israel, it seems that it's there solely as a religious city, significant to 3 major faiths. Is therefore Israel's 'exclusion' from the game for 5 versions of the game so far deliberate for political reasons (Potential bad press, boycotts etc) or that you deem it 'not worthy' enough so far for inclusion?
Would you ever consider putting Hitler in the game? I know this is controversial but are you restricting yourself on moral grounds or is it by legislation? There have been statistically bigger genocidal maniacs already in previous Civs, making more than 1 appearance a piece ie Mao and Stalin...
Are there any jobs going...?
Here's an easy one - Is the 9th Civ the Zulu? And if not, we'd like a hint from what region the 9th Civ is from
-Mark
Why Austria have polish emblem? (white eagle in a red shield)
Is it chance for more expansions/ DLCs for the game? Does god and knights is the last?
This is really bugging you isn't it? 29 posts, and it seems like half of them relate to this specific issue.
What sort of process goes into the naming of units? What are the final decisions based on?
Lol, man. Pls read Gregs posts. He sais that it's not that time he can answer that sort of questions.
These two are good ones.
Was it an intentional design decision to make Queen Elizabeth sound ridiculous and working class, or was it just that the designers didn't know what an English accent sounds like?
I'd like to know:
"What will be done to expand upon the modern/future eras of the game in terms of adding modern buildings, wonders, etc?"
MMore seriously, is it political correctness that has meant there is no WWII scenario? If so, how do you decide whether a scenario is politically correct enough to create?
Hi Greg! These are my questions:
Do you usually play Civilization 5 as a pc game player only to have fun?
If the answer is positive, how many hours do you play in a week?
Do you usually play Civilization 5 in multiplayer mode between people of the dev team?
Do you think it is important to play your own game to find bugs or discover things to improve?
P.S. I love your game!
AI AI AI!!!
I second all those who want to know more about the design philosophy and evolution behind the AI, as I find it the most fascinating part of the entire game design. Probably the most challenging as well. Would the developers agree that the AI is the single most difficult part of the game to "get right"?
Gods and Kings obviously offers them a chance to make needed improvements, but I'm sure resources are limited as well. I'd be very interested to know how they balance AI development with all the new features.
I'd like hear the devs explain their philosophies and implementations of Multiplayer, and whether they consider what they've made a success in terms of MP and their goals for it.
As mentioned in this thread, I would like to hear how this specifically applies to the upcoming content (particularly with espionage) as my friend and I won't just be blinding purchasing Civ stuff anymore because of our letdowns with MP thus far :S
You can word it nicer than that I guess, but I think it's only fair to get some direct responses in this area after what we've been sold (again, speaking in terms of MP).
Thanks
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