Pic relevant. I’ve tried playing the new Civ games several times, and quickly end up quitting because I find them too overwhelming and find it hard to want to deal with the learning curve.

It occurred to me that part of the problem might be that I was jumping into a very old franchise that has been getting increasingly complicated over the years. Had a hunch I would have better luck with the original, so I went onto one of those play-dos-in-your-browser sites, dove in, and sure enough I am hooked!

Do I know what I’m doing? Not really, but stuff is happening and my civilization is growing, and it’s a good time.

  • nullptr@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I remember hitting “next turn” and going to eat, because it d take 30min to compute all AIs lol. I d save literally every turn

  • Wojwo@feddit.online
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    9 hours ago

    I’ll add my vote for Sid Meyer’s Alpha Cebtauri, it is a masterpiece. If you want to branch out Master of Magic is also quite fun and adds some interesting twists. Though it’s not a Sid Meyer game. There’s even a remake of it.

  • fierysparrow89@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Never too late to dicover a classic.

    By sheer chace I came across Alpha Centauri (wikipedia) a sequel to the original Civilization on gog.com. Best purchase ever. Exceptional gameplay. The best 5$ I remember spending.

    • Nighed@feddit.uk
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      13 hours ago

      “Don’t go, the drones need you”

      Sequal to civ2 though I think?

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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      14 hours ago

      Alpha Centauri is a game I’ve had since release. Ended up building a dual P3 1Ghz box so I could play without experiencing extreme slow downs during end game when the whole world is visible.

      I still do a playthrough once a twice a year.

  • chunes@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    I really love this approach and find myself employing it more the older I get. The second game has the best simplicity/fun ratio imo but 4 is also pretty good in that regard.

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    I’ve been playing since 1991. My friend had a copy and I was so into it I’d go over to his house to play it when he wasn’t home. Then I got my own copy and I haven’t stopped playing since.

    Well, except that one time where I had to have my wife hide the Civ V disc from me because I couldn’t stop myself.

    I guess what I’m saying is take breaks and go outside, but I know your life will be “just one more turn…” from here on out.

  • ivanvector@piefed.ca
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    13 hours ago

    If you enjoy the original Civilization, be sure to try out Freeciv. Basically the original game but with expanded gameplay and updated for compatibility. It’s OpenTTD to Transport Tycoon, if you’re familiar with those games. It also has multiplayer features, and there are sites that run turn-per-day MMO events.

  • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    16 hours ago

    Had to uninstall Unciv from my phone.
    Having a Civ-like app 24/7 available in my pocket isn’t something I can handle…

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    16 hours ago

    Peaked at Civ 4, been downhill from there.

    If the idea of having Civs that change with the era, but Leaders who stay the same appeals to you…

    Humankind did it better than Civ 7.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Humankind had so much potential. I wish they had spent more time fleshing out the late game and fixing their multiplayer code.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        15 hours ago

        I mean they have been rolling out updates and fixes since launch, couple of content packs, balance tweaks, reworked a number of systems…

        They’re currently working on a scenario, WW2 Pacific, sounds at least broadly similar to the kinds of scenarios in earlier Civ games, in concept.

        I would hope that after that, they can eventually get to something approaching proper mod tools.

        Yeah, it was a bit of a buggy mess of a launch, no arguing that, but they have been and are still just slowly refining and improving the game.

        Of the seemingly fairly small number of people still playing it… Recent Reviews = Mostly Positive.


        Personally, I don’t know why you’d play any deep strategy game multiplayer.

        Every time I’ve tried multiplayer, in any 4X / Grand Strategy game… everyone is annoyed that I am taking too long, to, you know, evaluate this considerably complex strategy game, with tons of potential upside to taking your time to micro manage things.

        If I am able to take my time, I tend to snowball and by mid or late game, be either winning to the point everyone else quits, or be the only reason why a group of players vs group of AIs game has not totally fallen apart yet.

        But I am one of those apparently rare people who plays single player on the biggest maps and slowest time scales my system can manage…

        … I just have way more enjoyment that way, and I appreciate that the AI in Humankind at least seems to me to be generally better at playing the game than most AIs in most 4X / Grand Strat games, when the player and AIs are on an equal footing in terms of bonuses/maluses.

        • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          My partner and I love to sit next to each other and play these kinds of games co-op — or mostly co-op since they have a bad habit of going Gandhi in 4X games. It’s us versus the world, as it’s always been. ❤️

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            13 hours ago

            Ah, well, I’ve never had a partner with any interest in strategy games.

            Foreign concept to me.

            That is a pretty good reason to care about multiplayer tho, lol.

  • West_of_West@piefed.social
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    16 hours ago

    I was babysitting the neighbours kids one night and their dad was like “kids are in bed feel free to play civ (III) until we are back”

    I had no idea what he was talking about and he delayed his date night to give me a tutorial. Gave me the CD rom after because it wasn’t needed to play. Great times.

  • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    14 hours ago

    it’s the opposite for me. I can’t get into the old ones. I should be able to though. I think I understand the game, have some hours playing five and six, but my ADHD gets the better of me with these user interfaces

  • MrNesser@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Civ 2 is still and always will be the best civ Boat stacking armies for an invasion was the bomb

  • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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    17 hours ago

    I spent so much time playing this version, loved it but not the 30min+ turns while waiting to do a move in end game. Depending which version you are playing, you can save before entering one of the random village huts and if you get something you don’t like (attacked) you can reload and it will reroll the hut. Not all versions allowed this

  • Tynan@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    I’ve played the first five Civ games and I have fond memories of buying units with diplomats! There’s also FreeCiv which is an open source project that’s very similar to Civ2 but probably supports modern hardware better. It’s been built for android but from what I understand they’re built by third parties so if you’re tech savvy or feeling adventurous you could build it yourself. I played it many years ago in a really rough state where nothing was explained and my own knowledge of Civ 2 was the only thing that made it playable but from what I have heard it’s much better now.

    Fun fact, Civ1 was ported to the SNES and Civ2 was ported to the PlayStation.