Posted Mon Jun 20, 2016 at 12:13 PM PDT by Brian Hoss
Impressions coming out of E3.
Update: Here's that 'Civilization VI' E3 Walkthrough:
Today, 2K and Firaxis shared some new info on 'Sid Meier's Civilization VI,' specifically, the idea of "unstacking cites" is the focus. As this new way of building cities, and by extension, civilizations, was the cornerstone of the E3 presentation that I took in last week, now seems like a great time to dig into the E3 info. (I should mention that it was Sean Bean once again narrating the action.)
In 'Civ VI' players will use the hex-based tiles surrounding the city heart to build new districts of various functions and benefits. These districts, like say a religious forum, industrial zone, or a barracks, tie into the city-specific management used in the new game. The example given involved making one city in the player's cities focused on religion while another city was focused on science. The outlay of the related districts yields certain benefits to surrounding districts, so choosing the specific hex matters.
In the example, the two first cities were made to be cultural centers, ripe for building associated wonders, but on the faction's southern frontier, another city was used for military build-up, which came in handy when barbarians attacked. That same city not only fought the barbarians, but pursued and eliminated the barbarian's camp. (As one needs to do to truly deal with those early turn enemies.)
As diplomatic relations were established with other neighbors, trade agreements were struck. These agreements were all about trading resource riches between nations, but the western neighbor, Egypt, recognized that their own nation was falling behind.
Egypt launched a surprise attack, and ravaged several city districts on the north western city before the player could send in much of a response. By way of invasion, Egypt was able to deny the use of those same important districts that had been built up before. When the Egyptian forces were routed, (having fallen short of taken the city) those districts were rebuilt (repaired) to their prior state of productivity.
This war with Egypt turned into a route as the player's armed forces applied a serious technological edge, with tanks and bombers attacking horse-based cavalry. Once Giza was taken and Egypt was out of the game, the healing could begin for the newly acquired city.
From there, prosperity allowed not only for the construction of wonders, but also for the eventual end game of space travel.
In this early peek at the game, the city districts and special management loom large. Deciding how to build each city is important, and the importance carries over to attacking a defending. Likewise, there seems to be more ways to cultivate diplomacy early in the game. Likewise, the policy variety afforded by specific cities should mean more options for building an empire than the typical go-to policy set.
At the same time, this is classic build, expand, and succeed of the series. The additional tools, like the cultural aura have now been better integrated in the game.
You can find the latest info on 'Sid Meier's Civilization VI' linked from our Video Game Release Schedule.
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