Have you played Sid Meier's Civilization?

[Maciamo]

Civilization is one of the most famous and popular video games of all times. First released in 1991, it has influenced at least two generations of strategy and war game enthusiasts, but also of practically anybody interested in history and technologies. Civilization 6 was released a few months ago, adding ever more realism. The number of historical scenarios developed by fans is startling, covering just about any period of history on all continents.

It's surprising that after 8 years of discussing haplogroups and ancient civilisations nobody has mentioned this game yet. I would expect a strong correlation of interests between this game and historical genomics.

I haven't played much video games since my early teens, but Civilization has always been an exception. I have played since the original Civ1 and my favourite is Civ4.

One of my criticisms is that the game only starts in 4000 BCE, when it could have started in 10,000 BCE. It's odd to have to invent hunting, fishing and mysticism, or even agriculture, animal husbandry, sailing, mining and pottery only after 4000 BCE. But apart from that, it's pretty good.

So who is a fan here?

[LeBrok]

I've played many video games in past but never tried this one. Perhaps because I know how civilization comes to fruition, what needs to be invented and when. I didn't feel I will be in control, and game boring. That's still my speculation, because I never tired. One day I guess.

[Sennevini]

I used to play CivIII many times.. it lacks the religion part of Civ IV, but I loved it. I always did the full map with 16 civs, and at the end only some remained. I found it interesting that the pace of technological progression was faster on a large continent, than playing with smaller continents.. as expected.

[Maciamo]

I only play with real maps (usually the world map), or historical scenarios. Some mods in Civ IV make the game even more realistic:

1) Rhye's and Fall of Civilization: the game starts only with the few oldest civs (Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese), then new civilisations arise progressively according to the historical date. We can then switch civilisation when a new one appears. The game takes into account the golden age and historical decline of various civs, as well as major outbreaks of epidemics like the plague, which ravages the population of cities, especially if we don't manage carefully enough the health of cities by building aqueducts and later hospitals, etc. There are three different historical objectives to reach for each civilisation to win the game.

2) Realism Invictus: a complete rewriting of the game's rules, techs, units, economic systems, types of government, etc., which are all vastly expanded (e.g. 130 new techs). Instead of playing with 16 civs, this game allows to play with over 30 civs. There are over 80 new leaders, each with their own personality. What makes it exceptionally realistic is that each civ now has plenty of unique units specially designed to look like the real units of each civ. Additionally, the usual empty spaces on the map in Africa, South America, North America and Siberia are now populated by minor civilisations (or tribes) who have encampments (instead of cities) in all these regions. This makes it much harder to gain land.

3) Pie's Ancient Europe: another extremely realistic scenario, but for the classical civilisations of the ancient Mediterranean and Europe. Scenarios include the Greco-Persian Wars, the Punic Wars, the Roman attempt to conquer Germania, etc. Each Greek city state is a civilisation of its own. Religions and world wonders are tied to civilisations, or ethnico-linguistic groups.

[Jovialis]

I love civilization, and have been playing it since the first game. I had the Super Nintendo version of the first one. Civilization IV was my favorite as well; I was a big fan of the Vassalage system.

Though, Civilization III was the best one aesthetically. imo

I haven't played VI yet. But I still play Civ V sometimes.

I have a lot of fond memories of Civilization II as well.

One of my criticisms is that the game only starts in 4000 BCE, when it could have started in 10,000 BCE. It's odd to have to invent hunting, fishing and mysticism, or even agriculture, animal husbandry, sailing, mining and pottery only after 4000 BCE. But apart from that, it's pretty good.

So who is a fan here?

Ever I since started learning more about prehistory, this also has become apparent to me about the beginning of Civ.

I miss the culturally linked starting locations, they seemed to have gotten rid of that after III. I think it would have been cool, to spawn the civilizations according to simulated human migrations, at the start of the game. The game could generate a planet, pick a "cradle of humanity", and spawn the players based on that. I'm surprised no one has created a mod like this.

[Maciamo]

I love civilization, and have been playing it since the first game. I had the Super Nintendo version of the first one. Civilization IV was my favorite as well; I was a big fan of the Vassalage system.

Though, Civilization III was the best one aesthetically. imo

I haven't played VI yet. But I still play Civ V sometimes.

I have a lot of fond memories of Civilization II as well.

I quite liked Civ II at the time and even created maps for it (no big surprise for those who know my fondness for maps), including an attempt to recreate the greener, more forested Middle East of the early Holocene. Civ III was a disaster. Civ V had some interesting new ideas, but was less fun to play than Civ IV. I haven't tried Civ VI yet, but I have heard it was even most graphically pleasing than Civ V and even less fun.

Ever I since started learning more about prehistory, this also has become apparent to me about the beginning of Civ.

I miss the culturally linked starting locations, they seemed to have gotten rid of that after III. I think it would have been cool, to spawn the civilizations according to simulated human migrations, at the start of the game. The game could generate a planet, pick a "cradle of humanity", and spawn the players based on that. I'm surprised no one has created a mod like this.

You can download maps with the real starting locations. But for Civ V they are still few and far between and are unnecessarily annoying to load. The lack of good historical maps and scenarios on Civ V is its biggest weakness. I personally don't see any reason to play if a map is not going to be realistic with accurate starting locations for each civ.

[Jovialis]

@ Maciamo

Have you played any of the Total War games?

[Maciamo]

@ Maciamo

Have you played any of the Total War games?

No, never tried. It's not so much the war aspect of Civilisation that I like, but rather the evolution through the ages, discovery of sciences/technologies, political and economic systems, the diplomacy, and of course the civilisation building process, with the colonisation, cultural borders, wonders of the world, etc.

[Jovialis]

No, never tried. It's not so much the war aspect of Civilisation that I like, but rather the evolution through the ages, discovery of sciences/technologies, political and economic systems, the diplomacy, and of course the civilisation building process, with the colonisation, cultural borders, wonders of the world, etc.

Sometimes I like to play as culture or science focused civilizations. Playing civilization focused on conquest feels a bit like a chore sometimes.

I was also a big fan of Sim City too. However, there's another game called Cities: Skylines which is much better than Sim City though. A Finnish software developing company built it out of an actual traffic simulator that professionals use for city planning. It's very immersive, and is geared more towards being a complex city building simulator. The graphics are very good; they're photo realistic. There's also an insane amount of detail; you can rename streets, create districts, look a the needs of individual businesses. As time goes on, more services are needed. You have to balance congestion on the roads. For example, the city my have a garbage problem, so you create trash pick up services; but then you have to consider the impact it will have on traffic. You can enact different laws and tax rates in different areas. Change funding even according to the time the day; police could be more active at night, than in the day time. There's a tremendous amount of content.

You can even click on individual citizens, and find out where they work, where they live, their age, their name, their education, etc. They even have a lifespan.



There's actually been a lot more content added to the game through DLC. Plus, there's tons mods that can even replace cars and business signs, into real world version.

I hope that eventually some company could develop a game similar to Civilization, that could be this complex. Maybe not as detailed as clicking on individual citizens, though. I guess it was be more of a simulator than a strategy game though. Nevertheless, I like that kind of sandbox game design.

[davef]

Sometimes I like to play as culture or science focused civilizations. Playing civilization focused on conquest feels a bit like a chore sometimes.

I was also a big fan of Sim City too. However, there's another game called Cities: Skylines which is much better than Sim City though. A Finnish software developing company built it out of an actual traffic simulator that professionals use for city planning. It's very immersive, and is geared more towards being a complex city building simulator. The graphics are very good; they're photo realistic. There's also an insane amount of detail; you can rename streets, create districts, look a the needs of individual businesses. As time goes on, more services are needed. You have to balance congestion on the roads. For example, the city my have a garbage problem, so you create trash pick up services; but then you have to consider the impact it will have on traffic. You can enact different laws and tax rates in different areas. Change funding even according to the time the day; police could be more active at night, than in the day time. There's a tremendous amount of content.

You can even click on individual citizens, and find out where they work, where they live, their age, their name, their education, etc. They even have a lifespan.



There's actually been a lot more content added to the game through DLC. Plus, there's tons mods that can even replace cars and business signs, into real world version.

I hope that eventually some company could develop a game similar to Civilization, that could be this complex. Maybe not as detailed as clicking on individual citizens, though. I guess it was be more of a simulator than a strategy game though. Nevertheless, I like that kind of sandbox game design.

Hopefully they'll port that to PlayStation 4 so I have reason to dust mine off.

I haven't played much in the way of strategy games besides the advance wars series, or fire emblem ( i would totally dominate with archers and Pegasus riders) or old fashioned chess. Lol.

[Jovialis]

@Maciamo,

Right now you can get Civ IV with all the expansions, and Colonization, on Steam for $7.49. I already have it on DVD from years ago, but I don't think it's compatible with Windows 10. I think the sale ends on December 15th. Moreover, it's still mod-able.

[Jovialis]

Civilization VI: Gold Edition is currently 74%-off the standard price, on Steam. I have procured it.

I've been a fan of the Civilization games since the beginning of the series. However, I was turned off to part VI because the graphics looked too cartoony. Nevertheless, I became intrigued to play it, after I saw one of the developers created an official graphics mod, that makes it look photo-realistic; a la Civ V.