By Alec Meer on September 19th, 2010 at 1:30 pm.
First the absurdly long walkthrough video, and now the whole bally manual for next week’s Civ V. If you want to get a head start on what path up the tech tree you need to take to build helicopter gunships and exactly how the no unit stacking combat thinger works, have a read on this. It’s got a complete unit breakdown for warlike types and buildings and wonders for the more constructively minded, but sadly the entire tech tree chart isn’t in there, nor is there any designer commentary. Should give you a decent sense of how the game does and doesn’t differ from its predecessors, though. All being well (i.e. if the build I’ve got starts behaving itself again) we’ll have Words O’Judgement for you on Tuesday.
25MB PDF here. Full colour, as they used to say when such things were rare. Download rather than open in a browser tab, unless you want long waits.
19/09/2010 at 13:40 Fridge says:
Pre-loading of Civ V is now possible on Steam.
19/09/2010 at 13:45 Commander Gun says:
Maybe this manual download is the final argument i need to buy this from steam rather than buying it on DVD in the shops. I’ve been doubting this whole weekend about buying this from Steam or not, no idea why i am so hesistant as so far i did not have any problems with games on steam. It’s probably the whole ‘must be online’ thing that puts me off…
19/09/2010 at 13:50 MuscleHorse says:
Except Steam doesn’t have to be online for your games to work – the offline mode woes of the past are a thing of the… past.
19/09/2010 at 14:53 MaXimillion says:
The game will use Steam even if you buy it from stores.
19/09/2010 at 16:49 kupocake says:
The only reason to be hesitant is that the pricing on Steam isn’t actually that competitive. £25 at Amazon and Game, £27 at Play. Steam is £30
Can’t speak for international prices though.
19/09/2010 at 16:52 Archonsod says:
Direct2Drive are offering it for the same price as Steam, plus you get Civ III complete and the first DLC for Civ 5 free.
19/09/2010 at 17:08 Frodo says:
Yes, Steam is probably the worst option price-wise, even if it the game is requiring Steamworks. I’m getting mine at retail.
And the offline woes are definitely NOT a thing of the past. If you don’t have the foresight to know when your Internet will go down, you are screwed — Steam won’t start unless you’ve previously set it to be offline. Meaning… it’s a useless feature.
19/09/2010 at 17:34 pkt-zer0 says:
“Steam won’t start unless you’ve previously set it to be offline.”
It will, you just can’t install games (unless you’ve had them backed up) or update them.
19/09/2010 at 18:21 Emphursis says:
If you try and start Steam while you don’t have an active internet connection, you get the option to start in offline mode.
From there, you can play any game you have started whilst in online mode.
It’s not difficult! I really don’t know why/how people have so many misconceptions about offline mode…
19/09/2010 at 18:48 Frodo says:
“I really don’t know why/how people have so many misconceptions about offline mode…”
Because it doesn’t work. Every time I’ve tried to start up Steam during an Internet outage, it just hangs and doesn’t actually start up. I’ve never seen Steam give bring up the message you’re referring to.
19/09/2010 at 19:02 Frodo says:
Ok, so I just pulled my Internet cable and tried booting up Steam to confirm. It freezes on the box that says “Updating Steam…” and never gives me an option to boot into offline mode.
I would definitely say that it doesn’t work.
19/09/2010 at 19:37 MWoody says:
I’ll confirm that myself from multiple recent experiences:
If your Internet connection suddenly dies, STEAM WILL NOT START. Offline mode ONLY works if you know in advance that you’re going to be losing connection, and even then, some specific games won’t work if you didn’t start them at least once in online mode.
I like Steam, but it gets too easy of a ride lately for my tastes. I’ve frequently seen people claim you shouldn’t buy product X because “if you lose your Internet connection, you can’t install or play the game; use Steam instead, it has an offline mode!” This is bullshit, and it needs to be pointed out as such frequently and loudly. The vast majority of my connection interruptions are unexpected, and having the majority of my game library suddenly unavailable in those situations is frustrating as all hell.
19/09/2010 at 19:38 Barman1942 says:
@Frodo
It’s just you. When Steam can’t connect to the server, it tells you and gives you the option for offline mode.
19/09/2010 at 19:48 Frodo says:
Um, it’s not just me. Did you even bother to read the comment above yours? Plus how would you know anyway… you’re just one gamer among many. Just because Steam works for you doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
Duh.
19/09/2010 at 20:48 Emphursis says:
Did you try re-booting your PC? Because if I were to turn off my router and turn on my PC (or even just remove the cable), I can guarantee that I get that message.
In fact, try it yourself…
20/09/2010 at 05:25 Grape Flavor says:
Yeah, forget the digital download. It’s the same price in the store, around here anyways, and works on Steam either way. You’re just ripping yourself off by not buying the version with the nice paper manual.
And IMO all this pre-order stuff is crap, too. Maps shaped like the real world? Um, no thanks, part of Civ gameplay is exploring the unknown and if you already know what it looks like you kinda just ruined that.
19/09/2010 at 13:50 m_s0 says:
This was the single most anticipated game of the year to me, until I learned about Steamworks. If it ever gets removed, which I naturally doubt, I’ll buy Civ V. If not, tough luck, it’s not as if IV suddenly becomes unplayable after V is out.
19/09/2010 at 13:53 m_s0 says:
If the Steamworks integration gets removed, I meant. The game itself looks astonishing, probably the most promising Civ so far.
19/09/2010 at 14:23 IAMJETHRO says:
Unless you have bad internet(which I had until 4 years ago), there’s no reason to have Steam. Care to enlighten the hate for Steam?
19/09/2010 at 14:33 Rich says:
If you’ll pardon the meme, “Haters gotta hate”.
To be fair, connecting to the net once to activate a game and then letting Steam run in the background offline is such a chore. Also, I hate having patches delivered in totally resumable fast downloads.
19/09/2010 at 15:14 Senethro says:
I guess its not surprising that the civ series is one of the last holdouts for grumpy old men who still want codewheels and looking up the 17th word on page 42 of the manual.
19/09/2010 at 16:53 Archonsod says:
Well excuse us for not wanting Valve to be collecting data from our systems and insisting on running a totally unnecessary client so we can play the game they’re renting to us.
19/09/2010 at 17:08 LionsPhil says:
“grumpy old men who still want codewheels and looking up the 17th word on page 42 of the manual.”
hurr durr facts have no place in internet arguments
Civ IV is now officially no-CD patched. Before that it was a straight disc check.
19/09/2010 at 17:56 Wowza says:
@Archnosod: You mean the optional data collection made public for developers to determine system requirements and for gamers to help make upgrading decisions, the client that handles multiplayer, quick automatic updates, community features and cloud game saves, and the subscriber agreement that’s basically the same as any EULA?
19/09/2010 at 19:05 Frodo says:
@Archonsod
Agreed, you hit the nail on the head. It is a completely unnecessary client. Especially for this game.
19/09/2010 at 20:08 Archonsod says:
“@Archnosod: You mean the optional data collection made public for developers to determine system requirements and for gamers to help make upgrading decisions, the client that handles multiplayer, quick automatic updates, community features and cloud game saves, and the subscriber agreement that’s basically the same as any EULA?”
Crap that doesn’t assist me in the slightest? Hell yeah. If Valve want me to do their market research, they can pay me for it or piss off.
19/09/2010 at 20:09 Senethro says:
Why “especially for this game”? Given the extra features that Steam adds and that Valve are currently encouraging publishers to adopt Steamworks by offering it to them for free, why bother getting another DRM system for extra cost?
The street date was broken on Civ5 today by some Walmart. If they were using a disc check/cd-key then that would mean Civ5 would be on the torrent sites tonight. (indeed, there are some reports the encrypted files already are)
19/09/2010 at 21:30 Frodo says:
@Barman1942
Yet his statement also lacked substance and wasn’t even an argument. And you targeted me instead of him. Hm…
19/09/2010 at 21:57 Wowza says:
“Crap that doesn’t assist me in the slightest? Hell yeah. If Valve want me to do their market research, they can pay me for it or piss off.”
Um, like I said before, Steam doesn’t collect information unless it asks you to. And I’m pretty sure Fireaxis is using Steamworks for a better patch distribution method.
20/09/2010 at 01:20 Fergus says:
“Crap that doesn’t assist me in the slightest? Hell yeah. If Valve want me to do their market research, they can pay me for it or piss off.”
So your intellectually informed argument against Steam is “They asked me if I’d like to take a completely optional survey with publicly open results, therefore they are crap and I hate them and will never buy anything from them ever”?
Not really seeing the rationale here, sorry.
20/09/2010 at 05:20 Grape Flavor says:
haha well sucks to be you then! You’re depriving yourself of an awesome game, and Firaxis loses 1 sale? I think you got the short end of the stick there.
If you think you’re the vanguard of some vast anti-Steam movement you’re delusional, so I hope you enjoy punishing yourself.
19/09/2010 at 14:04 Bowlby says:
The more I hear about the combat, the more I get tempted to buy this at release. Also, I was very pleased to hear how they’ve taken inspiration from Revolution in simplifying the game mechanics
I’m still not totally convinced that the UI is an improvement, however. Although, I think this is likely just a case of me not being familiar with it.
I’m eager to try out the demo. :)
19/09/2010 at 14:07 Lars BR says:
Luddites. I for one welcome our Valve overlords.
I just wish they’d change the “don’t be logged in to the same account twice” to “don’t play the same game with the same account more than once”, but otherwise I could barely imagine how they’d make it better. Except for the launch-prices compared to physical media.
If you don’t want to buy a Steamworks-using game, I predict you’ll live a very boring life down the road.
19/09/2010 at 14:16 Duoae says:
What about being able to download updates in the background and install them at your convenience so that you don’t have to sit waiting to play a single player game because you just booted up steam and you forgot to flag the game as “do not update” which actually translates to “I don’t want to update this game when i want to play it but i still want the improvements that patches bring!”
19/09/2010 at 14:23 Lars BR says:
Right. Also, I hate that steam can’t download stuff for other games while you’re playing a single-player game (or multi, it’s not like a round of BC2 eats all of my 8Mbit).
19/09/2010 at 14:38 Nick says:
Yeah, it used to be possible to download whilst you were playing another game but they helpfully “fixed” that.
Bastards.
19/09/2010 at 15:05 Kamisama says:
Alt Tab => resume download.
Congratz, you can now download updates for a game while playing another.
19/09/2010 at 17:12 Frodo says:
“If you don’t want to buy a Steamworks-using game, I predict you’ll live a very boring life down the road.”
Hardly. I can live without mindless run-of-the-mill shooters and buggy Total War games, thank you.
19/09/2010 at 17:14 LionsPhil says:
Use of the word “luddites” really should just be an automatic permaban on these comment threads. Along with “casual”, “dumbed down”, and “Oblivion with”.
19/09/2010 at 17:21 Vinraith says:
If you don’t want to buy a Steamworks-using game, I predict you’ll live a very boring life down the road.
And that, in a sentence, is what’s wrong with Steam. If you’re not concerned about the closing of an open platform, I have to wonder why you’re a PC gamer in the first place. If want you really want is a quasi-open system governed entirely by a single company, I believe there’s already an app for that.
19/09/2010 at 17:37 pkt-zer0 says:
If you’re not concerned about the closing of an open platform
Wait, Valve are preventing people from developing software like GfWL or Impulse::Reactor? I was not informed of this.
19/09/2010 at 17:41 Vinraith says:
@pkt
You don’t want to have this conversation with me on the day GOG closed, trust me.
19/09/2010 at 17:49 Barman1942 says:
@Frodo
Nice bullshit argument you have there. Yes, Steam carries FPS games and the Total War series, what about it?
19/09/2010 at 17:53 Barman1942 says:
@Vinraith
So you blame GOG closing down on Valve and Steam?
19/09/2010 at 17:57 Vinraith says:
@Barman
No, but I see one fewer alternative.
19/09/2010 at 18:11 Lars BR says:
I am intrigued about your proposed permaban of people who can’t spell causal.
Anyway, back to the subject: It will bug me EVERY SINGLE TIME I PLAY IT that inventing Horseback Riding depends on inventing The Wheel. Wait, what.
19/09/2010 at 18:50 Frodo says:
@Barman1942
Yes and he made a bullshit statement. Why so touchy?
19/09/2010 at 19:50 Barman1942 says:
@Frodo
Because your statement added nothing and did not counter his argument. You simply stated that you do not like FPS’s and Total War games, and from the sound of it, you made it seem like that is somehow the fault of Steam.
@Vinraith
There are still other digital download sites out there. Buy from them, be a customer if you don’t want them to go out of business as well.
19/09/2010 at 21:31 Frodo says:
@Barman1942
Yet his statement also lacked substance and wasn’t even an argument. And you targeted me instead of him. Hm…
19/09/2010 at 22:01 Barman1942 says:
@Frodo
So why did you even reply to it then?
19/09/2010 at 14:40 [21CW] 2000AD says:
I’ve got a feeling I’ll be practicing my psychic punching powers on m mates in America who are getting the game 3 days ahead of the rest of us. Staggered releases are really annoying.
19/09/2010 at 14:59 Azradesh says:
I heard that there is no printed manual with the store bought copy. This makes me very sad.
I bought Civ4 for the manual, (HOLY CRAP A GAME WITH A MANUAL!) and stayed for the game.
19/09/2010 at 17:01 Archonsod says:
I’d hope there is, considering the installation instructions :
“If prompted for your Product Code (for disc-based installations), please note it is located on
the back of the manual cover.”
19/09/2010 at 15:05 pingualot says:
Ehh you do know that you can very easily fix this by alt-tabbing out of the game and pressing the resume button twice to resume the download?
Try looking for answers before you complain.
19/09/2010 at 15:16 Nick says:
Yeah and what if the game crashes when you alt tab? Its hardly a feature, more a workaround and as they seem to actively try to prevent you from doing it for whatever reason (like fixing the old workaround) I think complaining is perfectly acceptable.
19/09/2010 at 17:10 LionsPhil says:
Yes, and although my car explodes every time I shift into fourth, it’s entirely my fault for not realising that when I want to use fourth key I have to hum a bar of “Ode to Joy” first! This is entirely reasonable and the whole exploding thing is clearly a non-issue because of it.
19/09/2010 at 17:43 pistolhamster says:
clearly exploding cars and alt-tabbing out of a game are equals. If I had to choose I’d be hard pushed to decide whether I wanted my vehicle to asplode or to spend 20 seconds doing the alt-tab thing in the few times per month that I am actually trying to play a steam game and updating a game at the same time.
Cam’an guys, really.
20/09/2010 at 05:33 Grape Flavor says:
Do games alt-tab nicely these days? Last time I tried alt-tabbing a game was Beyond Good & Evil and I got a nice friendly BSOD to show for it…
19/09/2010 at 15:13 bitkari says:
Oh noes! I bought a retail copy specifically for a nice printed manual, and I was hoping, a lovely foldout tech tree just like in the olden days!
Perhaps the deluxe/mega/special/limited/whatever edition should have had a nice fat manual, with charts and trees instead of a pewter spearman?
19/09/2010 at 15:31 airtekh says:
I started downloading this just to look at the tech tree, then I re-read Alec’s post.
I am sad. :(
19/09/2010 at 16:05 MadTinkerer says:
This is what your local Staples [or insert the name of your nearest office supply store] is for. Want a nice printed [insert name of PDF file here]? Go to Staples [or whatever].
Nothing is truly out of print anymore.
19/09/2010 at 16:06 MadTinkerer says:
Gah! That was meant to be in reply to the guy who wanted a printed manual. FINE I’LL LOG INTO THE COMMENT THINGY FROM NOW ON.
19/09/2010 at 16:11 Demidyad says:
the entire tech tree has been known for a while, see here:
http://well-of-souls.com/civ/images/tech_tree3.jpg
19/09/2010 at 16:16 Diabolico says:
I was scanning through the pages and was overwhelmed by how huge this game is. :)
I hope the sales will be really good.
19/09/2010 at 16:28 Dav says:
Found under Uranium:
Units requiring this resource: Giant Death Robot, Atomic Bomb, Nuclear Missile
…interesting.
19/09/2010 at 20:14 Ginger Yellow says:
Schafer talked a bit about the Giant Death Robot on the Polycast recently.
19/09/2010 at 21:43 Tom OBedlam says:
I was just about to post that.
Hmmmmmm…..
Hmmmmmm……
That doesn’t sound very Civ-y does it?
19/09/2010 at 21:48 Tom OBedlam says:
Follow up: top AIM here http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?4222-Civilization-5-Giant-Death-Robots!&s=96571dd5a02dd0e48380ef1e6abedcc9&p=140199&viewfull=1#post140199
19/09/2010 at 16:31 Vandelay says:
Quick glance of that manual and it looks like it is much better then the one you got with Civ 4. I also like the way they seem to be really trying to make a digital manual have benefits over the physical thing, with them having images that can be enlarged and to be able to jump to specific pages.
But I still would much rather a real manual. One that I can quickly reference whilst playing. That seems essential for a game like Civ and constantly having to alt-tab out of the game (hoping it doesn’t crash,) is not the ideal when you just want a quick recap of how something works.
19/09/2010 at 16:54 Dav says:
I assume they still have the Civilopedia for that. I used the in-game help a lot more than the manual in Civ IV; it was more up-too-date than the printed version, for one thing.
19/09/2010 at 19:28 Oddtwang says:
Judging by the walkthrough videos, the in-game manual looks pretty damn excellent.
19/09/2010 at 17:58 hansg says:
meeeh… 256 MB NVIDIA 7900 GS :S i only got a 7600…
19/09/2010 at 18:02 Worrisome says:
The game seems really streamlined. Hope it’s not the dumbed down kind.
19/09/2010 at 18:08 kwyjibo says:
Won’t be getting this game as it doesn’t run on my laptop.
I mean, what, the 3d graphics of Civ IV weren’t enough for you?
Games like WOW purposely keep specifications low to reach as many people as possible. For a game that’s all about strategy, and not about graphics, why are the specs so damn high?
19/09/2010 at 18:29 unclelou says:
I mean, what, the 3d graphics of Civ IV weren’t enough for you?
Games like WOW purposely keep specifications low to reach as many people as possible. For a game that’s all about strategy, and not about graphics, why are the specs so damn high?
I don’t see why strategy and graphics need to be mutually exclusive. And the same complaints were heard when Civ IV was released. And probably when Civ Ii and III were released, too.
That said, can’t you play the game completely from the abstract 2D overview map? That should at lease lower the GPU requirement significally.
19/09/2010 at 19:46 kwyjibo says:
Yes, but Civ IV was released when everyone still had desktops.
In 2008, laptop sales eclipsed that of desktops. The PC hits nowadays aren’t the ones that shout about graphics, I’d have thought this would have played into Civ’s hand – it hasn’t.
19/09/2010 at 20:06 unclelou says:
@kwyjibo
I’d argue that most people who play games still have desktops, though. And that most modern Laptops will be more than good enough to play Civ V. Making it look like it’s already 5 or more years old to keep the requirements lower might have cost them a lot more sales.
19/09/2010 at 18:52 pipman3000 says:
oh no not my stategies :(
19/09/2010 at 19:10 Steampunk'd says:
@Frodo
It’s wonky, and the procedure is arcane, but offline mode does work for me. You either had to have your games all fully updated and manually enter offline mode at least once or something or other for it to automatically go into it later on? Failing that, hop on one leg five times, drink the urine of a virginal frog, and warble Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” in the key of D.
If you can’t trust random internet posters, who can you trust? (Offline mode really does work for me, though for what it’s worth).
19/09/2010 at 19:21 Edgar the Peaceful says:
I’m hoping that when the game comes out the discussion here will be about Civ V rather than Steam. I guess there’s too little to go on at the moment.
Without having investigated the changed mechanics too deeply, all I can say is that the Art Deco design looks gorgeous, plus the promise of tactical combat and less micromanagement generally appeals very much.
The staggered release date is a pisser, however. Can’t wait.
19/09/2010 at 19:37 Edgar the Peaceful says:
I suspect this might help UK Buyers: http://hotspotshield.com/
19/09/2010 at 19:43 Frodo says:
Um, it’s not just me. Did you even bother to read the comment above yours? Plus how would you know anyway… you’re just one gamer among many. Just because Steam works for you doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
Duh.
19/09/2010 at 19:48 Frodo says:
Ugh, reply button fail.
19/09/2010 at 20:08 Barman1942 says:
And just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for everyone.
19/09/2010 at 20:12 Senethro says:
lollin
My guess is that you haven’t saved your credentials, the usual step people miss when they say they can’t activate Offline Mode whenever.
19/09/2010 at 21:34 Frodo says:
I never said it didn’t work for everyone. If it doesn’t work for one or more people, however, it’s not completely functional. Simply put, the reason Steam gets a bad rap for the offline mode is because (1) you have to go out of your way to set it up beforehand (it’s a hassle) and (2) it just doesn’t work in every situation.
19/09/2010 at 22:04 Barman1942 says:
@Frodo
Clicking a check box at start-up is out of the way and a hassle? Steam is bad because it’s not a perfect piece of programming?
20/09/2010 at 01:13 Frodo says:
Now that you mention it, yes I would say it’s not a good piece of programming, considering how often it freezes on me. And offline mode is more than a simple check box — you have to set it up EVERY time you want to go offline, and that’s assuming you know you’re going to be offline in the first place. It’s an unnecessary hassle and I get the feeling Steam doesn’t want you to go offline in the first place. They sure don’t advertise their offline mode much.
20/09/2010 at 14:44 Senethro says:
No, it really is as simple as ticking the save credentials box. If you’re entering your user/pass into Steam every time you load it up then you’re not prepared for Offline mode.
20/09/2010 at 15:35 MWoody says:
Seriously, folks, this isn’t hard to test. Try it right now. Close Steam, pull the plug on your router, start Steam. Watch it fail.
Even Valve’s own FAQ pages say you need to go into offline mode while still online.
20/09/2010 at 17:57 Senethro says:
Test report: Logged into Steam, made sure my user/pass were set to save, exited steam, pulled ethernet plug, started Steam, window comes up asking me if I want to retry connection or go offline, clicked Go Offline, Offline mode worked.
It really is as easy as ticking the little box that saves your username and password.
19/09/2010 at 21:17 PeteC says:
I’d assume you could play it in windowed mode just like in Civ IV so no alt-tabbing needed.
19/09/2010 at 21:19 PeteC says:
Gah. Meant to reply to Vanderley.
19/09/2010 at 23:45 Javaguy says:
If Steam offline doesn’t work for you then make sure you’re on “disconnected” rather than “limited or no connectivity”. Things like Hamachi break it too as it tries to update through them. Hence freeze on “updating
/written on my phone due to me currently having no internet.
20/09/2010 at 01:20 Frodo says:
I have Hamachi so that could be my problem. Valve/Steam is not fond of LAN games (Hamachi doesn’t seem to work with Source engine LAN games) so I’m not surprised they don’t bother to fix it to be compatible with their client. Really, though, it’s just plain annoying that I have to start Steam to start my games at all. Why can’t they just go the Impulse route? Use the client once to download/activate; then you could even uninstall Impulse if you really wanted. There’s really no reason at all to require a client to be running unless you are doing a DRM check — and the option of offline mode in Steam means a DRM check isn’t the reason.
20/09/2010 at 05:32 Biz says:
forgive me if I go off topic and don’t talk about DRM systems…
but the AI seems to be just as poor as ever. the non-cheating AI is in the middle… i know that doesn’t mean anything in and of itself, but based on past history it seems we’ll only get a challenge from cheating AI’s
20/09/2010 at 07:42 Edgar the Peaceful says:
That is a bit disappointing. Hopefully the ‘vanilla’ AI on Prince will prove more of a challange.
For me, a large part of Civ’s charm comes from its ‘bonzai’ appeal – carefully pruning and shaping your empire – rather than having to ruthlessly compete. Of course, it shouldn’t be a pushover though..
20/09/2010 at 10:39 foop says:
Steam worked fine for me offline when my network connection died. However, it does give the appearance of hanging when you launch it and it tries to connect to the servers. On one occasion it took at least five minutes before letting me play offline. But it did let me play.
21/09/2010 at 13:35 fmilk says:
So, any news of demo yet?
21/09/2010 at 15:22 SuperBladesman says:
The demo is out; I’m downloading it now :)
steam://install/65900
21/09/2010 at 16:33 SuperBladesman says:
The ‘streamlined’ interface is nice, but is leaving me a little underwhelmed if I’m honest. It looks a bit too basic, though when you dig the depth is still there.
Still, I’m largely amazed that it runs on this machine, since it’s nowhere near the minimum spec (only a 6600!). It’s Civ, what more can I say… Maybe more, when I’ve played for longer than 10 minutes.