It takes plenty of patience to make it to the end of a multiplayer game of Civilization 5, patience often stretched to breaking point by de-syncing games and ponderous AI turns. A new patch has arrived for Civilization 5 brings "significant improvements to general multiplayer stability" and does something fancy to the AI move caching, "improving turn-times significantly."

Out-of-sync errors should be less frequent and the UI has been updated letting players see details of a game before jumping into lobbies. On the downside, Firaxis have plugged a few loopholes. In a move sure to be welcomed by the confused citizens, we'll no longer be able to trade cities back and forth to heal them and "generate endless City Strikes." Aw. Here are the full patch notes, from Steam.

Multiplayer

Significant improvements to general multiplayer stability.
Significant improvements to Hot-Join stability.
Multiplayer now using the same AI move caching as single player, improving turn-times significantly.
Lobby improvements: We now display game details in the lobby list (players in each game, map size, map type, DLC required, etc.).
Host can now kick players from the staging room when loading a save (if a player cannot return to a game, the game can now be continued by the rest of the players).
Found and corrected additional causes of Out-of-Sync.
Exploit: Corrected an exploit that allowed players on the same team to trade cities back and forth to auto-heal it.
Exploit: Corrected an exploit that allowed players on the same team to trade cities back and forth to generate endless City Strikes.
Exploit: Corrected an exploit that allowed a player to “lag” the UI to gain multiple free techs.

 
UI

Change “Load Game” save sorting to be “Last Modified” by default.

 
Bugs

When scrapping a unit, make sure any “cargo” units are scrapped as well.
When a unit is destroyed that is carrying another unit, make sure to kill both (missiles sometimes lingered).
Corrected a bug that was causing eliminated Civ’s to not generate notifications correctly.
Changed notification language for when a Research or Trade deal is cancelled due to the AI running out of funds to pay for it (per-turn deal), or are eliminated. It was currently displaying a “because of war” notification which is incorrect.
Corrected an issue that could cause unhappiness from city count and number of specialists to become incorrect over the course of a long game.
Changed Frigate obsolete tech to Combustion.
Fixed Korean science building exploit.
Fixed a problem with City Strike that gave the user the impression that they could not end their turn, when in reality, city strike was still active.
Crash: Fixed a crash that could occur in hot-seat when exiting to the main menu.
Crash: Fixed a crash that could occur when a unit was eliminated by standing too close to a Citadel.

 

CVG bring news that a game of the year edition for Civilization V is just around the corner. It'll include all of the DLC packs that Firaxis have put out since launch, adding Polynesia, Inca, Vikings, the Mongols, Babylon and the Spanish, along with a batch of new maps and scenarios tailored to each civ. The bundle will cost $49.99 and will come out on September 27 in the US.

There aren't any details of a European release yet, but if you missed Civ V the first time around, the GOTY's a good way to grab it with most of the additional units and leaders, though last month's Korea and Wonders of the Ancient World DLC seem to be absent from the list. Read on for a summary of the bonus DLC that's included, and check out our Civilization V review to find out why we heartily recommend it.


Sid Meier's Civilization V (standalone game);
Civilization and Scenario Pack: The Mongols;
Civilization Pack: Babylon;
Cradle of Civilization Map Packs: Mesopotamia, Americas, Asia and Mediterranean;
Double Civilization and Scenario Pack: Spain and Inca;
Civilization and Scenario Pack: Polynesia;
Civilization and Scenario Pack: Denmark - The Vikings;
Explorer's Map Pack;
Sid Meier's Civilization V digital soundtrack.

 

Two new DLC packs are heading to Civilization 5 this Thursday report CVG. The first adds the Korean civ as a playable faction. They're science experts, capable of developing devastating Hwach'a artillery siege machines and resilient "Turtle Boats." The pack also contains a new scenario simulating the samurai invasion of Korea. You can play as the Koreans, Chinese or Japanese and try to defend/destroy the Korean countryside as you see fit.

The second pack adds three new wonders, The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, The Statue of Zeus, and The Temple of Artemis. These give lowly civilisations useful boosts to their cities' growth and military might. The packs will be priced at $4.99 each, or you can grab both as a bundle for $7.50. Catch the trailer for the Wonders pack below.

The Massachusetts institute of technology have been experimenting with their computers' AI. Specifically the way they deal with the meaning of words. You might think that the best way to analyse this kind of thing would be with a human to PC conversation, like in Short Circuit. That's not the case.

Instead, the boffins handed over PC classic, Civilization, and let the AI get on with it. They sucked - winning a mere 46 per cent of the time. The difficulty setting the machines were playing on has not been specified.

Then the researchers handed over the instructions and taught the PCs a "machine-learning system so it could use a player's manual to guide the development of a game-playing strategy." They didn't teach the PC how to play Civ, but they taught them how to read about it. The system had no pre-programmed notion of turn-based strategy or even what the objects in the world represented. The system was a noob.

The AI continued to button-mash but, this time around, when words appeared on-screen the software compared them to text in the manual. It searched for other related words close-by and tried to guess what it all meant. The computer started "reading" the manual and impementing tactics in-game, just like we used to before the days of streamlined tutorials. Its win ratio was boosted from 46 per cent to a reasonable 79.

Associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, Regina Barzilay, offered insight into why they used a game manual to prove their point. She reckons game manuals have “very open text. They don’t tell you how to win. They just give you general advice and suggestions and you have to figure out a lot of other things on your own.”

Civ was picked because it's a really fun game, and they didn't want the computers to get bored during the testing.



Not really. The researchers picked Civ because, “every action that you take doesn’t have a predetermined outcome, because the game or the opponent can randomly react to what you do." It forced the computer to develop a "technique to handle very complex scenarios that react in potentially random ways.”

These kind of systems could make developer's jobs a lot easier. Computers could start automatically creating AI algorithms that perform better than the ones that us stupid humans spend months creating. Alternatively, they could just write the manual and hand it over. Maybe.

What's the best AI you've ever played against? Most of us vote for SupCom's Sorian AI mod. Craig goes for the original F.E.A.R. - but he's never read an instruction manual in his life.

(via Reddit)

Civilization V has received an enormous patch designed to improve enemy AI and rebalance the game to make higher difficulty levels more challenging. The new patch also adds a multiplayer hotseat mode, compatible with all Civ V maps. While email multiplayer hasn't been implemented yet, the update allows players to save between turns to make it easier to swap saves by email manually.

The comedy fix award for this set of patch notes goes to the entry that claims to have "made backstab routine more transparent" for more in-your-face AI betrayal. Despots will also be pleased to know that "liberty and Autocracy are no longer mutually exclusive." You'll find the full patch notes below, as listed on Steam.

Notes

Pacing has received a large amount of work. Expect to have more of a challenge managing your empire at higher difficulty levels than you did before. Consider dropping a difficulty level if you have problems.
Existing saves will work correctly. However, the balance pass may make your existing happiness lower than expected when loading into your existing save post-patch.

 
UI

Civilopedia now available in the Main Menu (under “Other”)
Replay is now available at the end of the game, and through the main menu. You can choose Map, Graphs, and turn-by-turn. Only games played post-patch will apply.
Great People progress UI addition (upper-left Info Corner UI).
Combat preview for Aircraft UI addition.
Fixed aircraft UI issue causing the aircraft selection UI to duplicate itself when rebasing aircraft.
When loading save game files, you can now order the list by name, or last modified.
Fix aircraft UI bug that was causing Nuclear Missiles and Atomic Bombers to leave behind container UI after it’s destroyed.
Removed dead players from Demographics UI.

 
Diplomacy

Made backstab routine more transparent (the dialog will clearly state that they are backstabbing you).
AI now remembers when it has been nuked, for a permanent diplomatic penalty.
AI now recognizes a player that captured their capital for a permanent diplomatic penalty.
End declaration of friendship as soon as war is declared (so can't later get a notification that it has expired).
AI remembers if you satisfied one of their requests (positive modifier, decays over time, based on value of items granted).
AI remembers if you fought against a common foe (positive modifier, decays over time, based on damage done to the common foe).
Track trades between players and allow that to positively influence relationships (the better the deal for the AI, the stronger the modifier). Particularly useful for bribing a hostile AI.

 
AI

Rebalanced AI flavors and strategies for unit training to improve AI army composition and build choices.
Allow the AI to consider Pikeman units for offensive roles when they can't build Swordsman or Longswordsman.
Allow Alexander and Darius to consider Hoplites and Immortals for offensive roles in early game.
AI players may now use a Great General in early rushes on higher difficulties.
Modified flavor tags for Atomic Bomb and Nuclear Missile so AI builds them only when it decides it specifically wants Nukes.
Block City States from building carriers, atomic weapons.
Strategies for building mobile units now persist into Modern era to help AI decisions for when to build tanks and modern armor.
Dampen early game Grand Strategies to give the AI time to expand (AI were sometimes stuck in a single city until late in the game).
Victory adjustments to AI behaviors, including alternate victory paths as “back-ups” (for example, building the Apollo Program, even if they are not going for a Spaceship victory).
Revise code calculating recommended army size (using smaller armies if the threat is low).
Correct issue that was causing late-game continent-bound AI’s to over-build units intending to invade, and never properly execute the amphibious invasion.
Scale recommended army sizes based on difficulty level.
AI grand strategy and flavor weighting balance pass.
AI policy choice weighting balance pass.
AI tech choice weighting balance pass.

 
Gameplay

Player is now given the option to return a CS worker that they free from barbarians.
Roads under captured cities no longer charge maintenance.
Machu Picchu no longer destroyed when capturing a city containing Machu Picchu.
Fixed Oligarchy bug that was causing the effect to expire when loading from a save.

 
Multiplayer

Multiplayer AI is now consistent with Single Player AI.
Hot-Seat is now available through the multiplayer menu.
You can have as many humans playing as available slots in the game.
Password protection is built in.
All maps, including purchased and user-created, are available to play in Hot-Seat.
While play-by-email is not yet implemented, we did include an in-between turn saving option for those that want to play via email.

 
Balance

Mechanics

Policy “Finishers” added to all 10 policy trees. Taking all policies in a tree will grant an additional bonus effect. See policy notes below for more information.
Tweaked Policy cost formula (cheaper earlier, more expensive later).
Reduced per-city Policy cost increase by 50%.
Culture from City States tweaked (less early, more later).
Killing a barbarian for a city state now gives 12 influence (was 5).
Production cost adjustments for units/buildings/wonders (mostly a little cheaper, much cheaper late game).
Unhappiness per city increased to 3 from 2.
All great person tile improvements now connect all strategic resources.
Reduced Culture from Goody Huts to 20 from 30.
Defense penalty and city assault bonus promotions are now lost with upgrade.
Research agreements now give a tech boost instead of a free tech. Tech boosts start at 50% of the median value of all techs you can research. Can be boosted to 100% if you both start Rationalism and build the Porcelain Tower.

 
Terrain, Resources, and Improvements

New bonus resource: Stone (+1 production, improved with a Quarry). See the Stone Works building note below for additional details.
Map generation improvements to integrate Stone into production-poor terrain, reducing the temporary usage of Cows. Additionally, will switch grass bonus resources from Cows to Stone when production is needed.
Marsh and Fallout terrain penalty reduced from -33 to -15.
Academy yield increases with Scientific Theory.
Customs House yield increases with Economics.
Manufactory yield increases with Chemistry.
Marble wonder production mod reduced to 15%.
Luxury resources now give 4 Happiness, down from 5.
Remove penalty for improving Tundra, Snow and Desert.
Railroad improvement now takes 3 turns, down from 7.
Scrub Fallout now takes 2 turns, down from 5.
Repair improvement now takes 2 turns, down from 3.
Well improvements now remove jungle/forest/marsh.

 
Buildings

New building: Stone Works: +1 Happiness and +1 production, and +1 production for each source of Marble and Stone worked. Requires Marble or Stone.
Burial Tomb now correctly has an Artist slot.
Mud Pyramid Mosque reduced 1 Culture.
Circus moved to Trapping.
Forge maintenance reduced 1 gold.
Windmill production modifier reduced 5% to 10%.
Monastery base Culture reduced from 3 to 2. Per resource Culture unchanged.
Mint gold per resource reduced by 1 gold.
Colosseum maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Theatre maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Stadium maintenance reduced by 1 gold, Happiness reduced by 1.
Broadcast tower cultural modifier reduced to 33% but now gives 3 Culture.
Armory maintenance reduced by 1 gold and moved to Machinery.
Military academy maintenance reduced by 2 gold.
Arsenal moved to rifling and now provides city defense instead of unit production.
Walls now gives 4 Defense (was 5).
Walls of Bablylon now give 6 Defense (was 7.5).
Mughal Fort now gives 6 Defense (was 9).
Castle now gives 4 Defense (was 7.5).
University maintenance reduced by 1 gold and now gives a 33% boost to science instead of 50% (will increase to 50% after adopting Free Thought Policy).
Military Academy now requires Armory instead of Barracks.
Arsenal now requires Castle instead of Military Academy.
Military Base now requires Arsenal.
Wat now requires Library.
Mud Pyramid Mosque now requires Monument.
Harbor naval production reduced 10% but now increases sea resources yield by 1 hammer.
Seaports no longer require a sea resource, they now require a Harbor. Production per sea resource reduced by 1 hammer.
Factory production increased by 1 hammer but modifier decreased to 10%.
Solar/Nuclear plant cost greatly reduced.
Solar/Nuclear plant production increased by 1 hammer but modifier decreased to 15%.
Public School science per population reduced by 50% and now provides a flat 3 science.
Research Laboratory modifier reduced by 50% but now gives a flat 4 science.
Workshop production modifier reduced by 5%.
Barracks, Armory, Military Academy and Krepost now provide experience to all units trained.

 
Wonders

National College moved to Philosophy and reduced by 2 science.
Oxford University now gives 3 additional science.
Great Lighthouse now also provides a free Lighthouse in the city where it was built.
Great library now gives 3 additional science, and provides a free Library in the city where it was built.
Porcelain tower now additionally increases the Science granted when completing Research Agreements by 50%.
Hermitage moved to Acoustics and much cheaper to build. Now requires Opera Houses but gives only a 50% boost to Culture.
Stonehenge Culture reduced to 6 from 8.
Pyramids worker speed increase reduced to 25% from 50% but now give a free Worker when built
Hanging Gardens now give 10 Food instead of 1 population per city and Happiness.
Great Wall now obsoletes with Dynamite instead of metallurgy and gives 3 Culture. Additionally, a free Wall is provided in the city where it was built.
Hagia Sophia great person modifier reduced to 25% from 34%, and gives a free Great Person of your choice.
Eiffel Tower now give 5 Happiness plus 1 for every 2 Policies adopted.
Chichen Itza now grants an additional 4 Happiness.
Machu Picchu trade route gold increased by 5% and also gives a flat 5 gold.
The Colossus now gives an additional 5 gold.
Notre Dame now gives 10 Happiness, up from 5, and 3 Culture.
Sistine Chapel Culture modifier reduced from 33% to 25%.
Kremlin global city defense mod reduced to 25% from 50% but now gives 12 defense in the city where it's built.
Cristo Redentor Policy discount reduced from 25% to 10% but now gives 4 Culture.
Pentagon upgrade cost reduced to 33% from 50% but now gives 3 Culture.
Sydney Opera House moved to Mass Media and gives 50% Culture in the city where it's built plus 4 Culture.
Big Ben hurry modifier reduced to 15% from 25% but now gives a flat 4 gold.
Himeji bonus reduced to 15% from 25%, and provides a free Castle in the city where it was built.
Forbidden Palace now provides -10% unhappiness from Citizens in non-occupied Cities.

 
Civilization Unique Abilities

Arabia: Bazaar now gives 2 gold on oil/oasis.
America: Remove river start bias.
America: Increase plot buy modifier to 50% from 25%.
China: Great General trait reduced to 50% from 100%.
Babylon: Great Scientist trait reduced to 50% from 100%.
Germany: Now receives a 25% discount on land unit maintenance.
Ottoman: Now receives a 67% discount on naval unit maintenance, and can upgrade Galley’s to Trireme’s.

 
Policies

Liberty and Autocracy are no longer mutually exclusive.
Freedom, Autocracy and Order are now mutually exclusive.

 
Tradition

Aristocracy now provides +15% Production when building Wonders down from 20%.
Landed Elite now provides 1 Happiness at every 10 Citizens in each City.
Tradition Finisher: +15% Growth and +2 Food in each city.

 
Liberty

Meritocracy: +1 Happiness for each city connected to your capital, and -5% Unhappiness from citizens in non-occupied cities.
Republic now adds an additional 5% building production modifier.
Liberty Finisher: Great Person of your choice.

 
Honor

Honor Opener now additionally provides Culture for each barbarian killed.
Warrior Code now also gives 15% melee unit production.
Military Caste now provides +1 Happiness and +2 Culture for each city with a garrison.
Professional Army now reduces cost of upgrading units by 33% and provides +1 Happiness per defensive building (Walls, Castle, Arsenal, Military base).
Honor Finisher: Grants gold for each enemy unit killed.

 
Piety

Piety Opener now provides a 15% production bonus on Culture buildings.
Free Religion now provides only 1 free Policy but increases the Culture from Monuments, Temples and Monasteries by 1.
Organized Religion now gives 1 Happiness per Monument, Temple and Monastery.
Reformation now increases Culture in all cities with a Wonder by 33%, and starts a Golden Age.
Theocracy now increase gold yield by 10% in cities with a Temple.
Piety Finisher: -10% Culture cost of future Policies.

 
Patronage

Scholasticism reduced from 33% to 25%
Patronage Finisher: Causes other players’ influence with City States to decrease 33% more per turn than usual.

 
Commerce

Naval Tradition policy now also gives +1 moves to embarked units.
Commerce Finisher: +1 Gold per Specialist.

 
Rationalism

Rationalist Opener now increases the Science granted when completing Research Agreements by 50%. Stacks with Porcelain Tower.
Free Thought now also increases University science yield by 17%
Humanism now also affects Public Schools and Observatories.
Rationalism Finisher: +1 Gold from Science buildings.

Freedom

Freedom Opener now provides 25% Great Person Points in all cities.
Democracy now provides -50% Unhappiness per Specialist.
Constitution now provides +2 Culture per Wonder.
Free Speech now provides 8 maintenance free units.
Freedom Finisher: +100% yield from Great Tile Improvements and increase length of Golden Ages by 50%.

 
Autocracy

Police State now provides 3 Happiness per Courthouse, and reduces the time it take to build Courthouses by 50%.
Total War now provides +15% Production when building Military Units and +15 XP for new units.
Autocracy Finisher: 30 turn attack bonus of +20%.

 
Order

Order Opener now provides +1 Happiness per City.
Socialism and Planned Economy swapped places.
Socialism buff to 15% reduction in building maintenance from 10%.
Planned Economy now increases Science yield by 25% in cities with a Factory.
Communism now provides 2 Production and 10% Production towards buildings in each city.
Order Finisher: +1 Food/Production/Science/Gold/Culture per city.
United Front – Militaristic City States now grant units twice as often when you are at war with a common foe.
Technology
Reduced cost of Calendar, Civil Service, Iron Working, Gunpowder, Rifling and Dynamite.
Scaled up costs of all sciences starting in the mid-renaissance era and on (larger increases later on).
Metal Working requires Construction.
Railroad now requires Dynamite.
Radar now requires Combustion.
Globalization requires Computers, and the cost is increased.
Computers require Radar.
Particle Physics no longer requires Globalization (Space victory now possible without overlapping Diplomatic victory).
Future Tech requires Globalization.
Tech Aesthetics: moved Dynamite and all future technologies around by 1 position for better alignment.

 
Units/Combat

Destroyers no longer start with extra sight.
Extra Sight promotions are now lost with upgrade (Caravel).
Great General promotion spawning effectiveness reduced by 50%.
Mohawk Jungle/Forest bonus reduced to 25% from 50%.
Gunship anti-armor promotions now work correctly.
Jaguar now gets Woodsman promotion.
Minuteman now start with Drill I.
Mohawk Warriors no longer require Iron.
Carriers no longer require Oil.
Destroyer moved to Combustion.
Mechanized infantry moves reduced from 4 to 3.
Galley now upgrades to Trireme.
Ironclad now upgrades to Battleship.
+1 moves for Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor, with no sight penalty.
Increased combat strength of siege weapons to 50% of their ranged strength, increased intrinsic city attack promotions (10%/30% -> 20%/50%).
Increased Incan slinger combat strength slightly.
Increased Crossbowman and Chu-Ko-Nu combat and ranged strength.
Decreased Longswordsman, Fighter, Bomber, Guided Missile, Jet Fighter and corresponding UUs strength.
Removed Mandekalu Cavalry city attack bonus promotion (but still has no penalty).
Reduced Tank, Panzer, Modern Armor to lower tier city attack penalty (-25%, instead of -33%).
Aztec Culture from kills now stacks with new Honor Policy branch opener for double Culture killing barbarians.
Boosted Chariot Archer to strength 4 and ranged 7 (Egypt War Chariot as well).
Drop combat value of Berserker and Huscarl to match Longswordsman.

 
Modding

Fixed a bug in Lua where "Events..Remove" was not behaving correctly.
(Lua) Added GameEvents.CityCanBuyAnyPlot(ownerID, cityID) (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.CityCanBuyPlot(ownerID, cityID, plotX, plotY) (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.CityCanCreate(ownerID, cityID, projectTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.CityCanMaintain(ownerID, cityID, processTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.CityCanPrepare(ownerID, cityID, specialistTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.CityCanTrain(ownerID, cityID, unitTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerAdoptPolicy(playerID, policyTypeID); (Hook)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerAdoptPolicyBranch(playerID, policyBranchTypeID); (Hook)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanAdoptPolicy(playerID, policyTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanAdoptPolicyBranch(playerID, policyBranchTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanConstruct(playerID, buildingTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanCreate(playerID, projectTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanEverReseearch(playerID, techtypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanMaintain(playerID, processTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanPrepare(playerID, specialistTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanResearch(playerID, techTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.PlayerCanTrain(playerID, unitTypeID); (TestAll)
(Lua) Added GameEvents.TeamSetHasTech(teamID, techID); (Hook)
It's now possible to have the tech tree "dead end" where the final technology is not repeatable.
New graph datasets used by the replay viewer can be added by mods.
Action Icons now use the database in the same way as other icons instead of using ActionIcons.lua.

 

Leader Josh takes his platoon consisting of Chris, Dan and Lucas through the no-man's land that is the week's news. Stories include patches for StarCraft and Civilization, Chris and Lucas' love for Monster, your stories regarding PC gaming, letters read in funny voices and much more

PC Gamer US Podcast 272: Monstrous

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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The next major Civilization V patch will add a hotseat multiplayer option that will let multiple players take their turns on one PC. Community manager 2K Greg has posted on the 2K forums with news of the patch, which is set to arrive "June or possibly early July."

We can probably expect more bug fixes and balance changes from the next update, too. "This patch will contain far more than just Hotseat," writes Greg, "the other details of the patch will be revealed in the future." For more on Civ 5, check out the official Civilization site.

UPDATE: Winners announced! Congratulations to Christian Coogan, Abra Cadabra (lawls), Iuliu Balibanu, and Scott Jones! Thanks to everyone who entered.

Have you ever wanted to stay up all night in a tropical paradise, playing just one more turn? Now you can, thanks to PC Gamer Airlines. We're giving away four tickets to paradise - by which we mean Steam codes for the Polynesia DLC pack. This bundle adds (among other things) Easter Island heads and Polynesian warriors to the battle for global domination. Doesn't that sound exotic? Read on to find out how to enter.



To enter, simply send an e-mail to contests@pcgamer.com with the phrase "Ticket to Paradise" in the subject line, and we'll select four lucky winners on Monday, March 14. Send those e-mails, and you'll be visiting Civilization's tropics in no time.

2K are getting ready to unleash a major balancing patch for Civlization 5 tomorrow. The update will tweak almost all areas of the game, adding improvements to the economy and diplomacy, and changing the effects that cities have on their surrounding environment.



In a post on the 2K forums, community manager 2K Greg provided the full patch notes, and outlined the main aims of the patch. "we have been looking closely at the tradeoffs between building a Wide empire (one with lots of smaller cities sprawling across the map) and a Tall empire (one with just a few highly populous, highly productive cities). With this patch you’ll see a number of changes to the economic side of the game to bring these two play styles in closer balance with each other."

"City spacing, building effects and the Liberty and Tradition policy trees are where the most extensive changes have occurred. We’re now seeing games where a Tall empire can match or even exceed a Wide one in production and science output even deep into the game."

With the patch the terrain surrounding cities should also be more productive. Buildings will be easier to throw up, and yield greater rewards, enabling smaller civilizations to still be productive with just a few large settlements.

2K Greg also outlines some areas that they're planning to patch in future. "We’ve already identified combat, multiplayer, late-game policies, wonders and civilization-unique bonuses as additional areas that will benefit from this sort of attention. And as this journey progresses we promise to keep an ear to the ground for other areas the Civilization community may want us to address."

2K Games have announced that they will be releasing new Civilization 5 DLC this Thursday. The Polynesia pack will add the Polynesian civilisation and new research trees that can be used to unlock new cultural wonders like the Moai stone heads of Easter Island, and military units like the Maori Warriors. There will also be a new scenario called Paradise Found in which you must take charge of one of four tribes and fight for supremacy in Polynesia.

A map pack will also be released for free alongside the new DLC, adding the Skirmish, Ring and Ancient Lake maps to everyone's game. The new maps will arrive automatically through a Steam update.