Nov 16, 2016

14 tiny things that drive me crazy about Civ 6

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

#15: Gilgamesh's superfluous second pinky fingers.

Civ 6 is real good. I agree with most of the stuff that T.J. had to say about it in his enthusiastic review. I think Civ 6's elegant map breathes a ton of life into the series, and I love the Pixar-quality expressions of the leaders. I like most of the UI, how much individual tiles matter, and that barbarians are smart and annoying. I think the changes to combat are smart.

But alongside these improvements are a pile of annoyances that I am compelled to put on the internet. Here are some discomforts that've sapped my enthusiasm for Sid's Sixth.

1. Adjacency bonuses: incredibly important, poorly expressed

This is the big one. When you're about to build a district, Civ 6 tells you what bonuses you'll get for that tile immediately if I drop a campus beside two mountains, I'll get two bonus science per turn, for example. But you can't really check in on those adjacency bonuses mid-game. Is my aqueduct boosting my theater district? How much are my mines helping my industrial zone? It's bonkers that I can't just hover over a tile and have it tell me in detail what benefits it's giving me.

2. My kingdom for a tooltip

Likewise, some of Civ's biggest nuances go un- or under-explained. For my first playthrough, I struggled to figure out why a city I'd conquered was suffering occupation penalties hundreds of turns later because the (I guess) inconsequential topic of city conquering is afforded a single sentence in Civilopedia, which itself has tons of information gaps. What do you do with captured spies? If I agree to not move too close to my neighbor's borders, will I violate that promise if their borders advance, or if a scout passes by? What determines which type of artifacts spawn from an antiquity site? What's the threshold for gaining or losing the war weariness penalty? If I found a city atop a luxury resource, do I get it?

3. Amenity allocation

On that note: I like amenities. I think they're an interesting counterweight to population growth. But they aren't well explained. Civ tells you that amenities are distributed evenly between cities, automatically. But if I have four cities and five amenities, with equal population, who gets the fifth one? Again, it's frustrating to not have perfect information when you're deciding whether to build a zoo or a spy. It also took me too long to understand that duplicate luxury resources provide no benefit, other than being tradable extras.

4. UI scaling doesn't work at 1440p

5. Distance-based benefits

Some buildings and wonders, like zoos, or a power plant, grant their benefits to all owned cities within six tiles. Getting two improvements for the price of one can be game-changing. Unfortunately, Civ 6 gives no indication of how that six-tile range is determined. If my neighboring city is four tiles north and two tiles east, does that mean it also gains the benefit? You can calculate it out yourself after a building is completed, but again, why isn't there any visualization of this when you're making a building decision?

6. Camera snapping to units

You can disable this easily by tweaking a text file, but the default camera behavior can be pretty aggravating depending on how many 'awake' units you have and how widely they're distributed over the map.

7. Tourism is the loneliest number

I enjoyed my run as Teddy Roosevelt. I founded New York and Yosemite on the same turn! Hell yeah. Accumulating great works and great people remains a satisfying part of Civ: deploying Chopin or Mary Shelley or Dvorak and seeing their creations spring to life, fullscreen, feels like grabbing epic loot off a boss in Diablo.

Ultimately, though, tourism in Civ 6 is a number that you watch go up until you win. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there's no visualization to help me delight in the idea of citizens visiting my museums and resorts. I don't get the same visual payoff that I do with a science victory, where I get to see each stage of the Mars mission shot into space. That's a shame because Civ 6 has some wonderful, handcrafted details: if you build Cristo Redentor, for example, its appearance changes depending on the time of day. But there's no expression of Berlin or Jerusalem being thriving hubs of travel and culture.

Broken record time: tourism's nuances are also poorly explained. I have to do a lot of mouse-hovering over icons to figure out that India's religion is boosting the tourists I get from them, or that, because Germany grabbed the Enlightenment civic, I'm getting fewer tourists from them. Culture also doesn't interact with many of the game's other systems, other than spies. What if tourists had a negative impact on housing?

8. The religious endgame

For many of the same reasons, I find Civ 6's religious victory unsatisfying. Because you've only got three units, it's attrition with very little strategy underneath it. Although some civs like Kongo have interesting interactions with religion, and the 'faith race' to earn a great prophet is interesting, religious warfare essentially operates on a parallel plane from the rest of the game, disconnected from Civ's other systems and goals.

9. The spy assignment UI

Please, just let me click on the tile I'd like to place my spy.

10. The hidden unit selection menu

"Now where did I put Leonardo da Vinci?" Seriously, I had to help two different people find this thing.

11. The ancient secret of tile swapping

It's strange that the Very Useful ability to swap tiles between bordering cities is buried under the citizen management button. Swapping a big farm or production tile can make all the difference when you're managing population growth or wonder progress.

12. And Civ's secret spreadsheets

Blame this on my own illiteracy (or on #4), but I didn't find the incredibly useful "View Reports" button until about 40 hours in. It's right there, staring at you in the top-middle of the screen, ready to table a bunch of valuable info your cities' output.

13. Diplomacy menu 'lag'

I can click on things within the diplomacy menu while a turn is processing, but that my inputs don't resolve until the turn is done processing. It's weird to be able to push these buttons and have them not immediately respond. Likewise, visualizations like the worker allocation view aren't usable while a turn's being processed.

14. Housing isn't visualized

Housing becomes a big concern in the mid-game before you unlock neighborhoods, and yet Civ 6 hides where housing is distributed across your tiles. There is a UI mod for this, but it's not great.

...And, yeah, the AI, which T.J. dug into in greater detail at the bottom of his review.

Nov 7, 2016

10 players share stories from their funniest, strangest Civilization campaigns

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

I first fell in love with Civilization after I was destroyed.

On a giant, fractal map I cultivated a tiny, city-state-like paradise on a remote island, completely (and happily) cut off from the rest in the world. Turn after turn, I invested heavy into culture without building anything as much as a spearman to fortify the small force you spawn in with. My isolationist utopia was cranking towards victory, until one day I was discovered by Otto Von Bismarck and the rest of his German aircraft carriers.

He declared war on me, and an incomprehensibly huge German fleet emerged from the enveloping fog of war. My island, stocked with all the world s wonders and great people of nearly every designation, was shelled to death in about three turns. Just brutal, remorseless technocratic natural selection, and I was laughing so hard as all my hard work burned to the ground.

That s the great thing about Civilization. History is brutish and unfair, but it can also be hilarious. With simple graphics and complex systems, Sid Meier's flagship franchise has given us so many vivid stories grudges against famous world leaders, tales of terrible slides into despotism, classic cases of AI gone haywire all from the privacy of our own bedrooms. With the release of Civilization 6, I reached out to some of Civilization s oldest fans and asked them to tell me about their favorite memory on the tiles.

Bless our proxy states

I was playing as Alexander/Greece in Civilization 5. I was hidden behind a huge mountain range that cut my empire off from the rest of the continent. Mongolia was one of three other civs just East of these mountains. There was a small valley that opened up my territory to the rest of the landmass, but it was controlled by a city-state. As the eras went by, I watch Genghis Khan kill every other Civ one by one as I hide behind this huge mountain range. Mongolia took over the entire continent by the industrial era. He then declared war on the city-state controlling the pass through the mountains. I gifted that little city-state at least a dozen units to help keep them alive during their war against Mongolia. I eventually hit the point where I had no military unit left because I was fighting a proxy war to keep Mongolia from controlling this pass.

The city-state eventually fell to Mongolia only a few turns before I won a science victory. I remember feeling remorse as I left the planet thinking about the city-state that kept me safe. I imaged the spaceship with the name of the city-state written on the front of it; Toronto. YouTuber Drew Durnil

The reverse colonization

I've told this story on my channel before but it's the first one that pops into my mind anytime I think of fun Civ games. It was back in the Civilization 2 days and I started out all alone on a decent-sized island. With no need to put any focus into military I could go all in on tech and economy and thought I was doing really well, I could just imagine myself, once I learned to build caravels and could visit the other islands, marching through their primitive civilizations with my mighty knights. Once that day came I loaded up a couple caravels with knights (and a worker to improve my soon to be lands) and sailed off to discover across the sea. Turns out, all but one other civ was on one massive continent. With the tech sharing of the old Civ games they far surpassed me, and now that they knew of me, and how weak I was, my knights were no match for their tanks and artillery and I was quickly destroyed. YouTuber Nookrium

Image via MyAbandonware.

Nuclear irony

I was playing Civilization 2 as America, and was going for a domination victory. Japan was the other powerful Civilization remaining in the game. I had been at war with them for some time. The war was dragging on and I did not yet have nuclear weapons.

While I was transporting units across the ocean to hopefully close them out, they dropped a nuke on Washington.

In 1945.

The random irony killed me. I only wish I had captured as screenshot. Reddit user JackFunk

The false flag

My best story would have to be from Civ IV. I was playing a multiplayer game with two friends, and as you may be aware, Civ IV features a multitude of random events that may happen throughout the game, most of which we were unfamiliar with. One such event popped up around the renaissance era stating that the dread pirate Blackbeard was ravaging the seas.Not long after, I happened to chance upon his ship... and easily sunk it with my own Frigates. That was a little underwhelming, I thought. But then the most unscrupulous idea occurred to me my friends were still quite unaware that I'd made the villain walk the plank, and in Civ IV, you can build Privateers, which hide their nationality from other players. You can also rename units... see where I'm going with this?

And so, a great fleet of a dozen "Blackbeards" set sail from my ports, aiming straight for my "allied" friends, and started plundering their coasts, sinking their transports carrying settlers to newly discovered continents and blockading their ports. And they bought the ruse hook, lure and sinker! For maybe 30 turns our Skype voice chat was filled with rage at the horrible computer-controlled corsair wrecking their stuff, as I struggled to contain my giggles. Reddit user TakFloyd

Image via Steam user Zigzagzigal

Attrition

This was in Civ V. I was playing as Harald Bluetooth and spawned on the coast. Immediately to the south of me, Montezuma and the Aztecs popped up. Even if I was sharing a continent with the Aztecs, that wouldn't have been TOO bad, except the diplomatic tooltip told me that Montezuma had "coveted lands that I currently own." Which probably meant my seaport.

This should have been a red flag, telling me to just say "fuck it" and restart the game. But I didn't do that.

Cut to a few turns later (still in the Ancient Era), and suddenly, out of the blue, the Aztecs declare war on me with the intent to invade me. My Viking army is constantly being zerg rushed by Aztec Jaguar warriors and other troops. I beat them back every time, even with a military as pitiful as mine. Despite this, Montezuma refuses to make peace with me. Ever.

It is now the medieval era. Both the Vikings (myself) and the Aztecs have been fighting against each other in a fruitless war for 2000 years. There can be no peace. Only constant, senseless bloodshed conducted in the name of both Odin and Quetzalcoatl. My people face a constant Aztec onslaught, wondering each turn whether they will survive for much longer. No matter how many of his troops I kill, Montezuma always comes back with more jaguars, spearmen, and siege engines. He refuses to negotiate peace. Ever. This war can end only with the destruction of one side, and it probably won't be his. Reddit user Willie5000

Attrition

I remember playing Civ 3, going for a science victory and generally minding my own business. I didn't really explore all that much and considered myself safe, since my small island nation was isolated and defended by mech infantry at the time when everyone else was fielding muskets.Well, lo and behold, I get [a declaration of war] by the Zulu. I pretty much scoff at the notion and proceed as usual, waiting for them to send some sacrificial units that I can easily blow to kingdom come. A turn passes, then several, then I forget about the war entirely and switch back to building stuff.

And then I lose the goddamn game.

How, you ask? Well, my small island nation had some fog of war in the far left corner. Nothing there but empty tundra, so who cares. Apparently, Mr. Shaka used that spot as a disembarkation point for what I can only assume were an INFINITE number of cavalry. I just sat there and stared at the never-ending line of cavalry units running at my cities and getting slaughtered, over and over and over again, occasionally chipping some hp from the defenders until they won. I counted at least 30 units before I lost track. I still don t know how many he actually had.

To this day, the very first thought in my head when somebody mentions Civilization, is that damn sound loop of: pa-tup pa-tup, pa-tup pa-tup, blam blam, boom, bleaaargh, flop. Reddit user Grumpy_Hedgehog

The Siberian war machine

When I was a kid I broke my leg playing hockey. I was going to be laid up all summer and I was really bummed about it. My brother surprised me by buying me Civilization 1. On my first game I was playing as America on Earth. I took over all of the US and Canada and thought I was doing just oh-so-great. I had a solid garrison of archers and spearmen in every city, tons of tile improvements, etc. Suddenly a civ I haven't met unloads about four dozen freakin tanks onto the shores of New York, and THIS GUY and his epic 8-bit music pops up telling me I'm about to die.

Turns out that if left alone, the Civ 1 Russia on Earth could leverage Siberia like crazy since it was all "forest" rather than ice or tundra tiles. So Stalin had many dozens of cities and tanks while everyone else is fielding knights. The red armies of Mother Russia overran my paltry forces in days and that music has forever after given me chills.

It was then that I knew I'd be hooked on this game series for life. Played every version, including Alpha Centauri, and I've loved them all. So far Civ 6 is as outstanding as I had hoped. Reddit user JonesitUp

Mandatory fun

I was playing a ring map with some friends as Egypt.

I was basically wonder spamming (Egypt's unique ability lets them build wonders faster) and was getting close to a cultural victory. Ultimately it was me and one other guy playing the game, once the less competitive people dropped out.

I was something like 99% influential over him when I got a Great Musician. Normally you can send a GM into another Civ's lands, but I didn't have an open borders agreement with him. Knowing I was going for the culture win, he refused to make that deal for obvious reasons.So I did what any culturally enriched dictator would do I declared war on him and held a CONCERT BY FORCE.

YOU WILL SIT AND YOU WILL FUCKING LISTEN TO THIS BEAUTIFUL MUSIC GERMANY

I won the game as a result and we died laughing in the process. RIP. Reddit user Patientbearr

The Trojan horse

I was playing vanilla Civ 5 with Japan (me) China and France and some other civilization that I can remember.

So we were on this big continent, China made a bunch of cities so its territory took like 3/5 of the continent, France and I shared the last 2/5. France was above me and China was below me.

During the whole game I was trying to go in the pacifist route, going for a cultural or technological win so I had little to no army, so I tried my hardest to get China to be friends with me so it could protect me just in case. China was at the modern era when we were still in the Renaissance with France, and had a bunch of Helicopters, tanks and a lot of other units.

France declared war on me for some reason, probably wanted a bigger territory but thankfully China came to the rescue and absolutely destroyed the French, who only had its capital remaining. France offered a peace treaty to me alongside a bunch of gold per turn and stuff so of course, being the pacifist that I was, I accepted. China didn't, however, and asked me to open my borders so it could destroy the French civ. Once again I said yes.

So China moved all of its army in my border to get to the French civ and suddenly declared war on me. The AI used the fact that France was above me to trick me into letting its army in my border. I was amazed at how smart the AI was (or how stupid I was to trust China) and I got destroyed in one turn. Reddit user RobbertFruit

Nov 1, 2016

3 things that Civilization 6's expansions must improve

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

Gorgo demands a more nuanced tourism system.

Civilization 6 might be the most complete-feeling Civ game on its release in series history. I commented in my review that it feels like it already has about an expansion and a half worth of features compared to the launch build of Civ 5, and it s the most transformative step from one game to the next Firaxis has ever taken. Yet, there are still huge opportunities to be seized and threadbare or just plain boring systems that could be fleshed out or retooled. Here s where I think the devs should focus their efforts with upcoming expansions:

Make the map more dynamic

Civ 6 is all about that beautiful, detailed map and how you interact with it. There s only one problem: It remains largely static and passive as an entity, changing only based on what you and your competing civs choose to build on it. In the real world, continents can undergo significant changes in 6000 years, both as a result of human activity and the whims of nature. For example, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age that followed it saw significant changes in global climate between about 900 and 1900 CE. Swelling and receding tundra could upset or give a boost to food production in marginal regions.

There are plenty of other examples: The desertification of the African sahel. The disappearance of the Aral Sea. The Roman city of Pompeii being buried under ash. The devastating damage to urban centers by hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes in the 20th and 21st Centuries. And of course, the present age of global warming (which was even modeled in some previous Civ games by rising sea levels I miss stuff like that!) I ve talked before about how acts of the gods can be a hard thing to balance in terms of fun factor, but I think a well-designed expansion that takes this living map and makes it feel even more alive could be a huge win.And if we re going to shoot for the stars, I d adore a mechanic or scenario that allows the world to end in a nuclear apocalypse, unlocking a Post-Apocalyptic era with new units, techs, civics, and victory conditions.

Religion and culture need some love

Civ 6 launched with in-depth religion and culture systems, as well as a religious victory condition for the first time in the series. There s just one problem: they re not very fun. The religious game basically boils down to spamming missionaries faster than your opponents, and theological combat is a shallow affair, with only three unit types and no real tactics or planning involved. Culture also seems to be a pretty basic port of the tourism system from Civ 5 s expansions, and while it has some nifty late-game tie-ins like archaeology and national parks, it s still not really a victory I get excited about. More than once, I ve won with culture when I wasn t even trying to do so on the Prince difficulty.

Both of these systems need a dose of added strategy and excitement. Maybe instead of missionary spam, preachers and apostles could act like spies that you station in enemy cities to perform missions? If we re going to keep theological combat, we could at least use some kind of rock-paper-scissors dynamic with a few new units, and maybe some support options (like a 'Grand Inquisitor' who gives an attack buff to all your inquisitors in a small radius). Culture-wise, I d love to see some kind of endgame project or mission to secure victory, instead of just waiting for a number to tick up. It s entirely passive and anticlimactic at this point. It doesn t require much decision-making, nor does it inspire late-game drama the same way a military victory or a neck-and-neck space race might.

Expand on the already great diplomacy system

Diplomatic interactions with other leaders are a major strength of Civ 6. Firaxis would be wise to build on this. The one victory condition from Civ 5 we re missing so far is the Diplomatic one, and we also lack the late-game shake-up that was the United Nations. Such an addition could mesh beautifully with AI agendas and the casus belli system. Perhaps the UN could pass a motion that makes religious war justification unlawful, for example. It would also be great to see late-game treaty alliances like NATO or the Warsaw Pact in a Civ game. Perhaps even a shared Diplomatic Victory condition, if that s not too blasphemous?

While we re at it, I think Civ could benefit from adopting a few more things from the grand strategy genre, like deeper diplomatic relationships. Maybe you don t want to conquer a neighbor s cities, but rather make them into a vassal or tributary state. Maybe diplomacy-focused countries could establish something like a sphere of influence, granting benefits to their allies but also allowing them to spread their culture to sphered civs more easily? If there s one thing Civ 6 is primed for, it s building upon the diplomacy game to create a volatile and stimulating ecosystem of trade deals, multinational organizations, and political skullduggery.

Oct 27, 2016

Can you play Civilization 6 without ever founding a city?

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

This didn't work.

You can play Civilization 6 without ever founding a city not even with your first Settler in the Ancient Era but only kind of. I first tried this without modding Civ 6 at all, hoping that if I acted fast enough, I could level up my starting Warrior by finding settlements, and then successfully siege and take a city-state. This did not work.

As you can see in the screen above, Brussels easily defeated my Warrior, took my Settler, and I lost on turn 16. I hope that's a record. But I was determined to find a way to play Civ 6 without founding any cities, because once I decide on a stupid self-imposed rule there's no giving up. So I allowed myself only a slight change: I modified Eras.xml so that I would start in the Ancient Era with two Warriors and an Archer. I cheated, but only just enough to get off the ground. It's hardly even cheating, if you think about it, but please don't think about it.

Within minutes I had done it: I started a game, and without founding a city I captured a capital, Toronto. This is pretty impressive, considering I didn't cheat even a little bit. Not at all.

You can almost see the Maple Leafs blowing a two goal lead in the third period from here.

As a Canadian, I should probably be offended that Toronto is a city-state and not part of the great Canadian civilization. Really, I'm more bothered that they chose Toronto and not Quebec City or Montreal, both of which have greater history. But who cares: Canada is Aztec country now.

This whole scenario gives me an idea: what about a game where everyone starts with two Warriors and an Archer, but no Settler at all? The only way forward for each civ would be to capture a city-state as its capital. Sounds fun, though I'm doubtful the AI can handle it. I try it anyway.

On first attempt, it doesn't work at all. I forgot that when I conquered Toronto, I was playing as the Aztecs, who have a special Eagle Warrior unit that replaces the Ancient Era Warrior. With two regular Warriors and an Archer, there was no way I could capture a city state: my Archer could only do 15-21 damage per turn, and the city regenerated 20 health per turn. My Warriors, meanwhile, couldn't attack without losing most of their health and needing several turns to heal.

No one can win this battle.

If you're wondering why that image is so orange, I was playing at 1 am (naturally, it's Civ) and forgot I had Flux on. You should use it. But also turn it off for screenshots. Anyway, I went back to mucking with Eras.xml to see if I could start with no Settler, two Warriors, and two Archers to make this work, but no matter what I did Civilization 6 seemed insistent on starting me with only one Archer. Eventually I got frustrated and just pasted a bunch of units in and that's when it decided to work.

That'll do, pig.

Well this is nice, isn't it? I have no problem taking a city-state as my capital with this army: in just nine turns, I capture Nan Madol. Unfortunately, the world rankings suggest my AI opponents aren't so clear on how to proceed. I lead in every victory category because they haven't captured cities. I give it a few more turns, but no luck. I'm the only one who knows how this game is played.

So let's go back to my first game, where everyone started with a Settler but I just chose not to use it. I may be dead broke (units cost upkeep money even if you don't have a city generating gold) but I've captured Toronto, and now I have my sights set on Buenos Aires.

Yes, I will do your city-state quest. That's what this army is for.

Buenos Aries falls easily. I like that unprotected cities aren't a huge deal to take early on in Civ 6. But with all my troops scattered as I seek out new states to conquer, I become worried that I may be subject to the same treatment: my neighbor to the east, Egypt, randomly got in touch to tell me that my army is puny and I'm dumb. Or something like that. The point is that it was rude, and greatly displeased the people of Aztec-Canada.

Without declaring war, Cleopatra beings amassing troops near the border of Toronto. With my starting Settler still nestled in the city which is sort of annoying because it means I can't hide Builders there during wartime I begin moving troops to confront my Egyptian foes. It's time to see if, despite being behind by several turns of production and research, I can make an Ancient Era civilization mine.

The AI Cleopatra isn't exactly subtle about her intentions.

Egypt only has two cities, Shedet and the capital, R -Kedet. I march toward the weaker city of Shedet, and thanks to my Archers and Aztec Eagle Warriors, I capture it without much trouble even before my brand new catapult makes the trek from Toronto. Buenos Aires, meanwhile, is being defended from Civ 6's more aggressive Barbarians by a single Archer, which is a pain in the ass, but I manage to complete the Hanging Gardens there anyway. Things are looking pretty good for my no-city-founding playthrough.

This is what you get for calling my army puny.

I was always irked by how Civilization 5 discouraged conquering with revolts and unhappiness not that bombarding a city with arrows and then marching in with axes wouldn't cause those things, but it was such a pain I typically installed puppet governments or razed cities when what I really wanted to do was expand my empire while keeping it under my creative control. To a degree, I think it was Civ 5's wording that turned me off captured cities didn't really feel like mine, even if I got them up and running again.

I'm glad Civilization 6 simplifies this: Keeping a city no longer suspends its production, instead making it less productive until the war is over and it's negotiated for at the peace table. It's lost a bit of Civ 5's nuance eg, installing a puppet government until the war is over, and then annexing only the best cities when you can afford to buy courthouses to cheer everyone up (when have they ever done that?) but I feel much more encouraged to expand through war if that's what I want to do. And with my rule that I won't found any cities, it's the only way forward.

Instead of settling things at the peace table, though, I've decided to smash the peace table with an axe. Every few turns Cleopatra offers me a deal, even offering to let me keep Shedet, but I ignore her and march toward R -Kedet. Despite all her big talk, she didn't have much of an army at all (this was on Prince difficulty, so not too hard). Egypt falls to the Aztecs.

My civilization at turn 110 with four cities and my starting Settler hanging out in Toronto.

I never took an aggressive approach in Civ 5, preferring to expand on my own and turtle. But I was always annoyed by city-states hogging land I wanted, so much that I started turning them off altogether. Now that early wars aren't quite so much of a drain, though, I'm really enjoying being an all out warmonger in Civ 6. I would make a terrible world leader.

If you want to muck with the starting conditions yourself, it's pretty easy. Find your Civilization 6 install folder, which if it's in Steam's default location will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

From there, navigate to \Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data and find Eras.xml. Make a copy of it to back it up, then open it in a text editor. Scroll down to the 'MajorStartingUnits' section and you'll find a bunch of lines which define which units players start with depending on the starting era, some with extra variables, such as 'AIOnly' which gives the AI extra units at harder difficulties.

If you want to start an Ancient Era game with an archer, for instance, you'd add the line:

I had to do some experimenting because as I mentioned, it mysteriously refused to accept my changes for a while (which probably just means I introduced a typo somewhere), but using the existing lines as examples you should be able to set up any starting units you like. Scroll further in the file and you can define starting buildings, governments, civics, and techs as well.

If I manage to win this game without ever founding a city, I'll let you know. But more likely, because it's what I always do with Civ, I'll get to the Renaissance Era and decide to start over with a new stupid rule.

Oct 24, 2016

Civilization 6 tweaks and fixes guide

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

We're still waiting on word from Firaxis about when we can expect mod tools, but all the loose Lua and XML files hanging out in Civilization 6's directories already give us the opportunity to do some good tweaking. Mostly thanks to the eagle eyes of the Civit subreddit, here are a few ways to customize Civ 6 to your liking and get it running better. (Also read our Civilization 6 review if you haven't already we like it a lot.)

Fix slow loading or freezing

As always, update your video drivers if you haven't recently. But if you've done all the standard troubleshooting and just getting to the Civ 6 main menu is still a long process, or it hangs on the way there, Windows Defender may be causing your grief. It definitely was for me: before I added an exception, loading the menu took ages and it would hang if I alt-tabbed.

To create a Windows Defender exception in Windows 10, open your PC's settings from the Start Menu. Click on 'Update & Security' and then select 'Windows Defender' in the side menu. Select 'Add an Exclusion' and choose to exclude a folder. Select the whole Civilization 6 install folder if it's installed to the default Steam directory, that'll be: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

And that's it. If Windows Defender was your problem, the main menu should now load much faster and it ought to be a little more forgiving about alt-tabbing. If that doesn't work, Reddit user LoadTimes has some other suggestions.

Disable the startup logos

It's easy to disable the main intro video it's in the options menu, under 'Application' but also getting rid of the logo splash screens is slightly trickier. The trick comes from Reddit account Civ6LogoSkip, which is a very specific account to have, but a very useful one to us.

Navigate to \Base\Platforms\Windows\Movies in the Civilization 6 install directory see the fix above if you don't know where to look, or right click on the game in your Steam library, then select Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files. Unfortunately, just deleting logos.bk2 will cause Civ 6 to hang while loading. Instead, we have to replace it with a blank video.

Rename logos.bk2 to something else, and then either make a copy of WipeRight.bik and rename it logos.bk2 to replace the logos with a brief pattern, or (even better) download this blank bik video and use it instead.

Use WASD to control the camera

Reddit user Xacius has the details on this tweak. First, unbind W and A in the settings so you don't accidentally attack when you mean to move the camera. Now navigate to Civ 6's UI directory ([Your Install Directory]\Base\Assets\UI) and open the file WorldInput.lua with a text editor (WordPad works fine). Search for 'DefaultKeyDownHandler' to find the function we want to edit. You'll see four if/then statements which handle input from the arrow keys: Keys.VK_UP, Keys.VK_RIGHT, Keys.VK_DOWN, Keys.VK_LEFT. To add WASD control, we just need to tell it to also check if the WASD keys are pressed.

Here's how the 'if' statements should look when you've edited them:

if( uiKey == Keys.VK_UP or uiKey == Keys.W ) thenif( uiKey == Keys.VK_RIGHT or uiKey == Keys.D ) thenif( uiKey == Keys.VK_DOWN or uiKey == Keys.S ) thenif( uiKey == Keys.VK_LEFT or uiKey == Keys.A ) then

Now find the 'DefaultKeyUpHandler' function and make the same change, save the file and try it out. For more on how to muck with the controls, check out Xacius's comprehensive post.

Increase scroll speed

This is another tweak from Xacius. Open WorldInput.lua (in the folder \Base\Assets\UI) and search for the variable local PAN_SPEED. The line should look like this:

local PAN_SPEED :number = 1;

Just change the number to 2 to get around the map faster.

Change font sizes

Settings for fonts and their sizes are stored in Civ6_FontStyles_EFIGS.xml, which you'll find in \Base\Assets\UI\Fonts. Open the file with a text editor to start mucking with it, but save a backup first. I haphazardly set all the fonts to size 24 or higher and the result wasn't exactly attractive, as expected.

Turn off unit cycling

Unit cycling which automatically swaps focus to the next available unit drives me pretty nuts in wartime, so I was happy to see Reddit user Miramosa's tweak.

The option to turn off unit cycling did make it into the options file, but apparently not into the actual menu. The file you're looking for is UserOptions.txt, which you should be able to find in Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI. Find the line that reads 'AutoUnitCycle 1', change the 1 to a 0, and save.

Enable team multiplayer

As Andy has written about in more detail, there is a way to enable team multiplayer in Civilization 6, even if Firaxis isn't ready to enable it officially. A 2K rep told us that this is "not a feature supported" by Civ 6, and recommends backing up any files you mod.

Team multiplayer is easy to flip on, though. Find the file StagingRoom.lua in your Civilization 6 install directory (it'll be in \Base\Assets\UI\FrontEnd\Multiplayer\) and open it in a text editor. Search for the line 'playerEntry.TeamPullDown:SetHide(true);' and change its value to false. Note that 'playerEntry.TeamPullDown:SetHide' appears other places in the file, but only one is set to true by default, so be sure to find that one. There's a note above it that reads 'IMPORTANT: DISABLING TEAM PULLDOWNS UNTIL DAY 0 PATCH' if you aren't sure. We're our own Day 0 patch!

Oct 24, 2016

Civilization 6 team multiplayer can be enabled by editing a single game file

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

Civilization 6 is out and it is exceptionally good. One thing it's missing, however, is an option for team multiplayer. But it looks like the feature is coming, based on the findings of this Reddit thread, and more interestingly for the daring (or reckless) among you, there is a way to enable it, to a limited extent, right now.

A number of references to team multiplayer have been found in the game's code, along with a comment in the XML stating, "Important: Disabling team pulldowns until day 0 patch." The general consensus is that the feature was planned and then kiboshed, probably due to some bug that reared its ugly head at the last minute. But you can re-enable it, as instructed in the Civ Fanatics forum, by editing line 1134 ("playerEntry.TeamPullDown:SetHide") in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\UI\FrontEnd\Multiplayer\StagingRoom.lua" (or whatever path you use) from "true" to "false."

Even though you can turn it on, you may not want to rush to do so, since team multiplayer clearly hasn't been fully (or even mostly) implemented. According to follow-up comments, civilizations can't share research or technology, and while teammates can see one another's starting locations, areas of the map uncovered after the beginning of the game are not shared. Victory conditions aren't shared either, so it's impossible to achieve a team victory.

And of course there's always the risk of crashes that can so easily arise from this kind of horsing around. "At the moment Team Multiplayer is not a feature supported in Civilization 6," a 2K rep said. "If someone is going to mod any of the game files or XML files to change how features work, this is obviously at their own risk, so always backup the files they re planning to mod beforehand."

I think the "at their own risk" part bears repeating.

Civ 6, as we noted here, is "very moddable," but even so this sounds like one that you might want to stay away from, especially since official team multiplayer support (hopefully in the relatively near future) looks like a sure thing. I won't judge if you just can't wait, though and if you do give it a try, let us know how it goes in the comments.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Oct 23, 2016

Civilization 6 makes big push into esports as major organization starts new team

Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI

Major esports organization Team Liquid announced today that it's making a push for the professional Civilization 6 scene with the creation of a new team. It was revealed that well known strategy game player Stephen "MrGameTheory" Takowsky is set to be the team's captain.

Team Liquid co-CEO Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet wrote on the organization's website that he started in competitive games with the Civilization franchise, and it was through Civ 4 that got him to pursue esports seriously.

"It was through competing in Civilization IV at the highest level that I found the confidence to jump into the world of esports and leave behind my job in the world of finance," he said. LiQuiD112 continued by talking about the virtues of competitive Civilization before focusing specifically on the player who'll lead the company's team, listing his accomplishments.

"MrGameTheory is a former world champion Civilization player who achieved the rank of #1 on the Civilization Revolution leader board, Civilization IV international league, and Civilization V international league," Arhancet detailed. "He holds the records for most 1v2, 1v3, 1v4, and 1v5 ladder victories in Civilization IV."

In a statement, MrGameTheory said that he's honored to lead Team Liquid's Civilization team and looks forward to "continue [his] contribution to one of the greatest gaming franchises."

"Participating in the competitive Civilization community with Steve Arhancet has been one of the great joys of my life," he wrote. "After we won our first Civilization Championship Cup back in 2007, with a team so small that we could barely participate in two-thirds of the events, I learned that a dedicated group of friends can accomplish the seemingly impossible. Civilization remains the most complicated game in the world, and I am thankful to be part of an organization capable of taking on the challenge."

Team Liquid will announce the addition of two more players to its Civilization 6 team on October 29, while it plans to host "a series of grueling tournaments" to try and find the "most exceptional players in the community." You can read the full post here.

With how long matches go for in the Civilization games, it'll be interesting to see if this esports push will be able to keep viewers invested and awake. As much as I like the idea of competitive Civ, it's definitely not as action-packed as games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, and even League of Legends. Because of this, I have doubts that it'll be able to capture the attention of a wider audience.

In PC Gamer's review, critic T.J. Hafer called Civilization 6 "the liveliest, most engrossing, most rewarding, most challenging 4X in any corner of the earth."