Civilization V

It's a pretty simple decision for me, and I am able to have a pretty fair 1 to 1 comparison: after I played the Civ4 demo, I had to have it. After I played the Civ5 demo, I really don't care and I'm glad I didn't preorder it. And with all the additions of the 2 Civ4 expansions, I can't really go back to basics with Civ5.

Quoting louist,

reply 50

Been playing and largely enjoying Civ 5.

No scenarios. I suppose these will have to fall under "mods," but they could have easily shipped the game with a few set-pieces, like they have done in previous versions.

Maybe I am being cynnical here, but i suspect we'll be seeing scenarios that traditionally ship with Civ games as DLC, probably over-priced DLC.

I am not crashing or anything drastic, but I am pretty sure I am taking a performance hit of some kind, chugging like others have mentioned. That might be the reason the game is rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe over the weekend I'll have time to track the issues down.

I am not crashing or anything drastic, but I am pretty sure I am taking a performance hit of some kind, chugging like others have mentioned.

It looks like Civ 5 is not exempt from memory leaks. I'm playing on a Huge Earth-type map, and after maybe 2-3 hours it starts getting bogged down pretty majorly. Stuff starts taking longer, the talking heads make the PC start to choke.. then I restart the game, and everything's fine again. I haven't tried enabling the LMA header for the exe to see if it makes it last longer, but from the looks of things it's a memory issue.

Quoting Annatar11,

reply 53

I am not crashing or anything drastic, but I am pretty sure I am taking a performance hit of some kind, chugging like others have mentioned.
It looks like Civ 5 is not exempt from memory leaks. I'm playing on a Huge Earth-type map, and after maybe 2-3 hours it starts getting bogged down pretty majorly. Stuff starts taking longer, the talking heads make the PC start to choke.. then I restart the game, and everything's fine again. I haven't tried enabling the LMA header for the exe to see if it makes it last longer, but from the looks of things it's a memory issue.

Restarts haven't worked for me. I've got 5 hours in one game, and 2 in a second. I've found setting all the video options to minimum (ESPECIALLY the talking head animations) almost fixes all performance issues. But like I said, I'm running a pretty damn shiny computer, I shouldn't have to run the game at it's worst just to enjoy it.

At the same time, though, I found after the initial annoyance of having to make the sacrifice, I barely notice the difference in graphics. I'm a strategy gamer, primarily, and my focus has always been on mechanics, playability, and solid UI over graphics. Civ V at its worst is still one of the better looking TBS games out there at the moment.

Louist - I'm not sure this will help but I'm playing smoothly with Medium video setting on all ( except High resolution textures) on a dog of a PC. Thing is 5 years old and only the video card (8800GT) exceeds minimum specs. However, I'm running XP so only DX9c is available to me. I wonder if they problem is more related to the DX version. You may want to try DX9 version, if that's possible, until a few patches are released.

Again, I'm no expert just trying to help you diagnose the problem.

Quoting louist,

reply 54

Quoting Annatar11, reply 53
I am not crashing or anything drastic, but I am pretty sure I am taking a performance hit of some kind, chugging like others have mentioned.
It looks like Civ 5 is not exempt from memory leaks. I'm playing on a Huge Earth-type map, and after maybe 2-3 hours it starts getting bogged down pretty majorly. Stuff starts taking longer, the talking heads make the PC start to choke.. then I restart the game, and everything's fine again. I haven't tried enabling the LMA header for the exe to see if it makes it last longer, but from the looks of things it's a memory issue.

Restarts haven't worked for me. I've got 5 hours in one game, and 2 in a second. I've found setting all the video options to minimum (ESPECIALLY the talking head animations) almost fixes all performance issues. But like I said, I'm running a pretty damn shiny computer, I shouldn't have to run the game at it's worst just to enjoy it.

At the same time, though, I found after the initial annoyance of having to make the sacrifice, I barely notice the difference in graphics. I'm a strategy gamer, primarily, and my focus has always been on mechanics, playability, and solid UI over graphics. Civ V at its worst is still one of the better looking TBS games out there at the moment.

Using latest drivers? DX11 or DX9? My game is running flawlessly on my [email protected], 4 gigs ddr3 coursair, and 2 ati 5770's in cross fire. BUT I haven't had the spare money for Win7 so this is running a copy of XP on it. So I am running dx9 version of the game. Playing on LG 23" widescreen lcd flawlessly at 1920x1080. (edit) Also if it matters I am playing everything on high, 4xAA, the only thing not on high is Fog of War, for some reason if its on medium I can't play large or huge maps it COD's and it also COD's anything bigger then standard if set to High...stupid clouds....(end edit) From what I have been able to deduce so far, most of the people having problems are running Win7 or Vista and trying to play in either dx10/dx11.

Now assuming you are playing in dx11, try this, Run the game in DX 9 and see how it works for you. Again this is assuming you are running dx11 or dx10.

Civ V rocks.

Is anyone else playing close to 100% of the game from the strategic view (And Elemental from the cloth map) like I am?

I only switch to normal view to check out how a new unit looks or to take garrisoned units out of a city.

So far the only thing I miss from CivIV is the modding (Civ V has not released the SDK yet).

Sammual

Quoting klaxton499,

reply 55

Louist - I'm not sure this will help but I'm playing smoothly with Medium video setting on all ( except High resolution textures) on a dog of a PC. Thing is 5 years old and only the video card (8800GT) exceeds minimum specs. However, I'm running XP so only DX9c is available to me. I wonder if they problem is more related to the DX version. You may want to try DX9 version, if that's possible, until a few patches are released.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one playing games on an older machine. The minimum specs had me really concerned as my desktop is an older machine as well. I'm so glad they offered a demo so I could see if it was going to be playable at all.

P4 3GHz, 3GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT w/ 24in monitor at 1920x1200 running Windows XP.

Quoting Gravedancer,

reply 58

Quoting klaxton499,
reply 55
Louist - I'm not sure this will help but I'm playing smoothly with Medium video setting on all ( except High resolution textures) on a dog of a PC. Thing is 5 years old and only the video card (8800GT) exceeds minimum specs. However, I'm running XP so only DX9c is available to me. I wonder if they problem is more related to the DX version. You may want to try DX9 version, if that's possible, until a few patches are released.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one playing games on an older machine. The minimum specs had me really concerned as my desktop is an older machine as well. I'm so glad they offered a demo so I could see if it was going to be playable at all.

P4 3GHz, 3GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT w/ 24in monitor at 1920x1200 running Windows XP.

Unless that CPU is dualcore you are significantly under minimal specs - I dont expect it to run Civ5 at any decent speed.

quoting post

I been hearing a lot of problems are going on with Civilization V. I am curious if that game will be judged by the same merits that Elemental was judged?

What do you guys think?

I don't think that it will generally be compared to elemental (as you have to know what elemental is to compare it to civ5). I personally do compare the two, though, as I pre-ordered elemental and ended up returning it based on its state at launch. When I look at civ5, I see a much more polished game than elemental on a huge budget. They seem to have, in many ways, already fleshed out many of the concepts SD was shooting for. Check out Civ5's mod download tool. It looks very similar to what impulse has today, but it very polished. Civ5 has working MP at start, elemental had non working MP a launch and a beta of MP a month or so after launch. A beta that generally locks up and becomes unplayable in less than 100 turns. Civ5 (for me) doesn't crash or experience slowdown, elemental does. And to be crystal clear and very fair - I'm comparing elemental exactly as it is today (9/24/2010) to civ 5 (9/24/2010) on my pc. There's no bias, its just how they play on my modern pc, on the latest drivesr, etc. I really like the idea of magic in elemental and the modding options they have in plan for it. That's all exciting stuff. I think it will develop into a great game. But I currently think that civ5 is superior to elemental based on the level of polish.

Rather than quote you all (and thanks for the replies!) I'll just lump it all together.

I'm running:

Windows 7 ult, 64bit
i7 920 2.7GHz
12GB RAM
Geforce 260

It's well above the recommended specs. I've been running it with DX 11, I'll have to give 9 a shot later. I updated the drivers yesterday, and they shouldn't be an issue. This has me stumped.

Not entirely related, but I've noticed some incompatibility between auto saves and mods. I loaded up a game running the Celtic mod and the True Earth mod, and about 300 turns in (single, continuous playthrough,) I accidentally sold the wrong conquered Aztec city back to them. I went to load up an auto save about 10 turns earlier, and Civ informed me my "current mods are not compatible with this save" Hmph!

i7 920 2.7hgz
6GB Ram
Win 7 Pro 64 bit
ATI 5850

No slowdown - latest drivers released 9/15/2010

Hard drives - 2 300 gig Veloricraptors in Raid 0.

I played 1 game in direct X 9 (no issues at max settings). Had to change a few things to get direct X 11 to run... strange, but did that. Let me know if you can't launch in direct X 11 and I can help. Played again in direct X 11 at max settings. No slowdown.

edit - anyway, sounds like i have a setup very similar to yours, but on ati vs nvidia and I have experience 0 crashes and even 0 slow down on max settings.

Quoting OMG_pacov,

reply 62

Hard drives - 2 300 gig Veloricraptors in Raid 0.

I threw up in my mouth a bit.

Quoting Melamine,

reply 63

Quoting OMG_pacov, reply 62
Hard drives - 2 300 gig Veloricraptors in Raid 0.

I threw up in my mouth a bit.

and that is relevant how? Enjoy your vomit.

Well, as of now I can't get this game to work at all and there's TONS of people having the same problem... and yet, in none of the reviews I saw this problem (bigger than memory leaks, balance, etc) was mentioned at all... while Elemental got completely thrashed for its technical problems... so back to the OP, they weren't treated with the same merits at all... and that makes me sad...

I pre-ordered elemental and ended up returning it based on its state at launch. ...

And to be crystal clear and very fair - I'm comparing elemental exactly as it is today (9/24/2010) to civ 5 (9/24/2010) on my pc

I am not saying I disagree with your assessment, but if you returned Elemental, you most certainly are not comparing it "as it is today (9/24/10)."

Unless, of course, you are still playing Elemental after you returned it, which would likely beg several follow up questions.

I am not saying I disagree with your assessment, but if you returned Elemental, you most certainly are not comparing it "as it is today (9/24/10)."

I finished the return process with stardock on Tuesday of this week. Told them I'd wait for 1.08 to see if that solved my problems. So, you do have me on a technicality - I technically only had the game until 9/21/2010, but it is on the latest version, so it is a very fair comparison imo.

Not a fan of piracy and pay for all of my software.

Quoting Dieguitoarg,

reply 65

Well, as of now I can't get this game to work at all and there's TONS of people having the same problem... and yet, in none of the reviews I saw this problem (bigger than memory leaks, balance, etc) was mentioned at all... while Elemental got completely thrashed for its technical problems... so back to the OP, they weren't treated with the same merits at all... and that makes me sad...

Yes , I agree. That is what I was saying on another post in this thread. That most reviews have been very good on the Civ 5 game with problems, excluding 1up. And I read a ton of reviews about Elemental while true, really trashed the game at launch.

I wonder how much advertising monies weigh in the review scores at the end of the day. Or from a different point of view: how much the Gamers Bill of Rights played.

Still haven't had a chance to start up the game in DX9.

Saryk, In some defence of the reviews of Civ V: While there are certainly issues with with compatibility and memory leaks, these are pretty minor, and I can get the game running almost 100% if I gut the video settings. There are the odd bugs (Barb encampment spawning over a road makes the road disappear, though the tile still acts as a road, the mod auto save issue...). But I've also never suffered a crash of any form with some 900-1000 turns under my belt in three games so far. This is far and away a much, much, much, much more stable release than elemental was. Elemental had me crashing once or twice in the first 50 turns, and got worse from there. Alt-tab would crash the game. Some quests (The one for armour) would crash the game...

And then there are the Civ V mechanics, which a) work as intended, and b ) do a great job of keeping the game fun. Elemental missed those milestones. And that's not merely my opinion. Magic, for instance, wouldn't be getting a huge rework if Stardock didn't feel the same way.

So the disparity in the reviews makes sense. Elemental was one of the worst games, on release, that I've ever played. Perhaps the worst. Civ V doesn't even make it into my list of bad releases. Sure, I'm ticked off that a AAA title from a solid studio has some compatability issue with my hardware, but I CAN play it, and it IS FUN..

Your comment about GBoR is valid, I think, but I could easily believe Civ V achieved those reviews on its own merits.

Quoting Rebell44,

reply 59

- P4 3GHz, 3GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT w/ 24in monitor at 1920x1200 running Windows XP.

Unless that CPU is dualcore you are significantly under minimal specs - I dont expect it to run Civ5 at any decent speed.

The CPU is not a dual core. It did run at a decent speed. Played 6 hours last night, stayed up until 3am this morning - standard size map, 8 civilizations, 16 city states. Speed was not an issue at all. Only crash I had was with my first diplomacy screen. After I set it to minimal, didn't experience any issues. Other video settings are a mix of low (for fog and water) to medium with textures as high which I can do cause I have a decent video card.

Oh, I also went into the advanced setup to turn off attack animations after reading someone talk about having to wait 15 seconds for a bomber animation.

As for time between turns, while it isn't instant, it wasn't more than a few seconds between turns.

EDIT: As for the crash in the diplomacy screen... I had it on low during the demo and never had a problem, but it was slow. When I first started the full version of the game, I changed it immediately to minimal, saw a message about restarting the game for the change to take affect, but I didn't. So I suspect that had I restarted the game before playing, it wouldn't have been an issue.

I played 1 game in direct X 9 (no issues at max settings). Had to change a few things to get direct X 11 to run... strange, but did that. Let me know if you can't launch in direct X 11 and I can help. Played again in direct X 11 at max settings. No slowdown.

What did you change to get DX 11/10 to run? DX 11/10 crashes on me within the first few minutes of starting the game. DX 9 runs flawless for me. I have everything set to max except no AA. I am running two 4870 in crossfire, maybe crossfire is my problem.

Well - my problem was related to launching the game in direct x 11 directly. I had to get steam running in normal (non compatibility mode) on win7 to even be able to launch in direct x 11. I actually didn't have any issues once I had that mode running. From what I read up on your card, it doesn't support direct X 11 - but it does 10. I assume you have the latest ati drivers (9/15/2010 for my 5850 anyway)... it could be that you'll have issues until the next drivers come out that will likely address that problem. I don't think I can help you out much more than that though... sorry bud.

Quoting awuffleablehedgie,

reply 64

and that is relevant how? Enjoy your vomit.

Delicious boot times my friend.

Yeah - I very much like the raptors. Got a great deal on them and was able to pick them up for $100 a pop at best buy, no less. The things they put on clearance sometimes... I figured in raid I'd get great performance and it should be fairly comparable to an SSD, but a cheaper setup with much more space per $. At any rate, the way the tech is going, these will be my last mechanical drives, but they are quite nimble.

Quoting OMG_pacov,

reply 74

Yeah - I very much like the raptors. Got a great deal on them and was able to pick them up for $100 a pop at best buy, no less. The things they put on clearance sometimes... I figured in raid I'd get great performance and it should be fairly comparable to an SSD, but a cheaper setup with much more space per $. At any rate, the way the tech is going, these will be my last mechanical drives, but they are quite nimble.

Yeah I prefer Raptors to SSDs for everyday use due to the $/GB difference. When SSDs are less expensive (and available with more storage), I'll reconsider them.

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