Video Games Venting frustration @ Civilization franchise.

Blockinlick

Ultra Pinkstink
Super Saiyan 2
366
308
35
Just wasted 8 hours of my life on Civilization IV.

I grew up as a teen playing this game when it was the Minecraft of its time. I tried Civ5 and didn't like and I tried Civ6 and didn't like it. Civ4 has stood the test of time for me though.

I absolutely love the premises of the game, the way it operates, the deep strategy and map utilization & whatnot. However, I have a love/hate relationship with it because the diplomacy is nonsensical and game-breaking. It becomes a factor of luck and randomless instead of strategy or skill, because no matter how hard you try to please everyone, there's that random chance that a few will just dogpile on you for petty reasons.

This last game (Noble difficulty), I was trying to play peacekeeper. I was handing out gold and techs hand-over-fist trying to keep everyone happy. I do understand that in trying to keep everyone happy, it will make things worse with some. Like Genghis Kahn, you cannot avoid conflict with this guy if he borders you. Nonetheless, I felt like I was doing a damn good job overall keeping everyone happy. Then out of nowhere, Isabella, Montezuma, Napoleon, & Genghis Khan declare WAR on me.

-I held them off for awhile and thanks to my diplomacy, managed to get a few allies to declare war on both Napoleon and Genghis.
-Then I managed to make peace with Genghis.
-Somehow, Napoleon slipped a large army through that I didn't see and sacked one of my 3 cities.
-Then Genghis and Isabella declared war again.
-I made peace with Napoleon and Isabella and Genghis was just wrecking my tiles.
-Then Napoleon declared war again and Alexander joined in too.
-Alexander started wrecking my tiles too and Isabella declared war... again.
-Then I made with peace with Alexander, Isabella, and Napoleon again.
-By this point, I was shattered. All of my offensive units were wiped out. All I had left were the units defending my cities.
-So Genghis Kahn just came in and wiped me out.

It just seemed so random and nonsensical. I was leading in tech, gold, and overall score and my army was fairly strong. But there's not much you can do when 5 civs decide to be assholes for no reason at all. It really sucks to put 8 hours into a game like that, be doing well, then get wiped out by something completely out of your control.

I pretty much lost by virtue of bordering Genghis Kahn and Napoleon. That said, there was zero I could do to avoid my fate, so it just feels like 8 hours of my life wasted.

I love this game, but I hate it too.
 

Super Kami Guru

Head Maid
Legendary Saiyan
11,359
13,364
645
That happened to me in Civ 6, as well. Had a good game going, leading in just about everything and then every civ just decided to start a war with me. Very frustrating!

My personal favourite was always Civ 3, though the unit stacking always annoyed me to no end in that game, because of how limitless it was. It was still a really fun game to play, though, and ranks as my fav. I like Civ 4, but never spent as much time with it as the others, so I guess I just never really gave it a fair shake, and I actually really did like 5 and played the hell out of it when I could. BE and 6...eh...they're not that great, but I still spend time with 6 when I get the chance. Each one has its' own unique frustrations, though, so I absolutely feel you on the pain there. Nothing like building up a great civ and having the AI just randomly decimate you for no reason!
 
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Blockinlick

Ultra Pinkstink
Super Saiyan 2
366
308
35
That happened to me in Civ 6, as well. Had a good game going, leading in just about everything and then every civ just decided to start a war with me. Very frustrating!

My personal favourite was always Civ 3, though the unit stacking always annoyed me to no end in that game, because of how limitless it was. It was still a really fun game to play, though, and ranks as my fav. I like Civ 4, but never spent as much time with it as the others, so I guess I just never really gave it a fair shake, and I actually really did like 5 and played the hell out of it when I could. BE and 6...eh...they're not that great, but I still spend time with 6 when I get the chance. Each one has its' own unique frustrations, though, so I absolutely feel you on the pain there. Nothing like building up a great civ and having the AI just randomly decimate you for no reason!

The lack of unit stacking is the biggest reason I can't play 5 or 6.

I mean, overall those last two iterations nerfed the military aspect into the ground. You pretty much HAVE to focus on either the cultural or space victory. Conquest just became a fluke or pipe dream.

My playstyle is typically to be peaceful early game and then go for the conquest mid-game.

In 5 or 6, if you try to do that, the AI civs will have strong city defenses and you'll flop on the first cities' doorstep that you try to attack.

Since you can only have one unit per tile, you can't just bring a bunch of catapults to break their defense. If you do bring any catapults, the city defense feature will ensure they're either dead or wasteful. You have no choice but line up units single-file to be slaughtered one by one.

Just a big middle finger to people who play to conquer.
 
Last edited:

Super Kami Guru

Head Maid
Legendary Saiyan
11,359
13,364
645
You're not wrong, it's very difficult to to play conquest, but if you start massing your forces early it's possible. If you're going that route, you have to be in early, explore as far as you can as fast as you can and get building units. Still tough, but definitely doable.
 

Blockinlick

Ultra Pinkstink
Super Saiyan 2
366
308
35
You're not wrong, it's very difficult to to play conquest, but if you start massing your forces early it's possible. If you're going that route, you have to be in early, explore as far as you can as fast as you can and get building units. Still tough, but definitely doable.

Meh. I'll stick to CIV4 where it's better than "maybe possibly doable".
 

Blockinlick

Ultra Pinkstink
Super Saiyan 2
366
308
35
Fair enough, I certainly understand the desire to want to unit stack, it makes sending forces a lot more interesting!

I mean it does get silly and ridiculous late game, when you can stack 50 Modern Armor tanks on one tile, then steamroll 10 cities in 30 turns.

But I'd rather have a bad late game that's silly than an awful early & mid game.
 

Super Kami Guru

Head Maid
Legendary Saiyan
11,359
13,364
645
I agree with you on that one, the early game in 5 and 6 is a bit of a grind when there's just nothing much to do but build and scout. Would've been nice to incorporate some other sort of mechanic early on to make the game a bit more enjoyable in that regard.
 
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