The problem I have with Civ games

[DennisS]

I get war declared on me after a modest number of turns. I can kiss their ass, give them trade, make nicey-nicey, just doesn't seem to do much good.

[jamus34]

I get war declared on me after a modest number of turns. I can kiss their ass, give them trade, make nicey-nicey, just doesn't seem to do much good.

Yeah the diplomacy vs AI in Civ games always seemed wonky. Didn't matter how much someone liked you if you didn't have a strong enough military they would declare war and take what they want. To me the games end up being a balancing act between growth and military might.

[DennisS]

I get war declared on me after a modest number of turns. I can kiss their ass, give them trade, make nicey-nicey, just doesn't seem to do much good.

Yeah the diplomacy vs AI in Civ games always seemed wonky. Didn't matter how much someone liked you if you didn't have a strong enough military they would declare war and take what they want. To me the games end up being a balancing act between growth and military might.

My play style has always been one of research and expansion. I create poorly defended, lovely plums for the AI to come conquer. I know, I know...need to work on that.

[jamus34]

I get war declared on me after a modest number of turns. I can kiss their ass, give them trade, make nicey-nicey, just doesn't seem to do much good.

Yeah the diplomacy vs AI in Civ games always seemed wonky. Didn't matter how much someone liked you if you didn't have a strong enough military they would declare war and take what they want. To me the games end up being a balancing act between growth and military might.

My play style has always been one of research and expansion. I create poorly defended, lovely plums for the AI to come conquer. I know, I know...need to work on that.

Yeah Civ does really allow for that type of gameplay. I always preferred to play as high technology and use the military tech advantage that brings to field a smaller military. Problem is you need enough time to get that science advantage

[James Sterrett]

Jon Shafer (lead designer for Civ V) --

"Nobody finishes games of Civ! Nobody does! That's the biggest challenge that Civ has: trying to make the game work and be fun from turn 1 to turn 500. Turn 1 to turn 200 is great, but turn 200 to 500 hasn't been all that great in any Civ game.

The reason it's such a challenge is that you're trying to map history onto this game and the fun part of 4X games is in the two first Xs. Exploration and Expansion. In almost every 4X game you're done with those two things around half-way through. The Exploitation is less interesting because you're not getting a lot of new things, you're just adding to the stockpile you already have. So you're losing the most enjoyable 60% of the game by half-way through. I'm not sure any Civ has figured out what to do with the second half of the game."

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/05/17/jon-shafer-on-designing-civilization-5-joining-paradox-and-making-strategy-games-better/

[Slick Wilhelm]

I always thought the beginning 1/4 of the Civ games were the most fun. The closest I ever got to finishing one, was Civ III, and that was only about 3/4 of a game. Over the decades, I guess I've had enough Civ fun. The last installment I purchased was Civ IV.

[Boggit]

I always thought the beginning 1/4 of the Civ games were the most fun. The closest I ever got to finishing one, was Civ III, and that was only about 3/4 of a game. Over the decades, I guess I've had enough Civ fun. The last installment I purchased was Civ IV.

I have finished games in all Civ I-V series (not all games obviously), but I agree with the general consensus that they are less fun after playing for quite awhile, and the iterations after Civ 3 were even less fun, if not so slick in appearance as Civ's 4-5.

I really enjoyed a variation of Civ - Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire and the expansion. You could develop different weapon systems in the workshop as technology advanced. It seemed better thought out than the usual Civ games.