Sid Meier's Civilization V

Sid Meier's Civilization V (also known as Civilization 5) is an upcoming turn-based strategy computer game developed by Firaxis Games. It is the latest game in the Sid Meier's Civilization series, and is due for release for Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010 in North America and on September 24, 2010 internationally.

In Sid Meier's Civilization V, the player leads a civilization from prehistoric times into the future on a randomly-generated map, achieving one of a number of different victory conditions through research, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest. The game is based on an entirely new game engine with hexagonal tiles instead of the square tiles of earlier games in the series. Many elements from Sid Meier's Civilization IV and its expansion packs have been removed or changed, such as religion and espionage. The combat system has been overhauled, removing stacking of military units and enabling cities to defend themselves by firing directly on nearby enemies. In addition, the maps contain computer-controlled city-states as non-player characters that are available for trade, diplomacy and conquest. A civilization's borders also expand more realistically, favoring more productive terrain, and the concept of roads has changed.

The game features community, modding and multi-player elements.

AI
The AI in Sid Meier's Civilization V is designed to operate on four levels: the tactical AI controls individual units; the operational AI oversees the entire war front; the strategic AI manages the entire empire; and the grand strategic AI sets long-term goals and determines how to win the game. The four levels of AI will complement each other to allow for complex and flexible AI behaviors. Each of the AI-controlled leaders will have a unique personality, determined by a combination of 'flavors' on a ten-point scale; however, the values may slightly vary in each different game. There will be 25 flavors, grouped into categories including growth, expansion, wide strategy, military preferences, recon, naval recon, naval growth, and development preferences.

Cities
Now cities can spread up to three tiles outwards instead of two. As before, cities remain the central pillar of Civilization gameplay. A city can be founded on a desired location by a settler unit, and the city will grow in population, produce units and buildings, and generate research and wealth. The city will also develop culturally and expand its borders one tile at a time, which is critical in claiming territory and resources. The expansion process will be automated and directed towards the city's needs, but it can be accelerated with gold.

City warfare has been revamped. Cities have hit points that, if taken down to zero, will signal the city's defeat to invading forces. Hit points can be increased by merging units with the city. Captured cities can be annexed, razed, or transformed into puppet states, each option having distinct advantages; for example, puppet states will provide resources and have lower unhappiness.

Units and combat
In this iteration of the series, tactical gameplay will be encouraged over numbers, with the introduction of new gameplay mechanisms. Most significantly, the square grid of the world map has been removed in favor of a hexagonal grid, a feature inspired by the 1994 game Panzer General, according to lead designer Jon Shafer. In addition, each hexagonal tile, including city tiles, can accommodate only one military unit at a time, forcing armies to spread out over large areas instead of piling onto a single tile. This has the effect of moving most large battles outside of the cities, and forces increased realism on sieges, which are now most effective when surrounding the city tile. Also, increased movement points, simpler transportation over water, ranged attacks, and swapping of adjacent units will allow for more versatile maneuvering of units.

Units take longer to produce than in previous games from the series, making them more valuable. As they defeat enemy units, units may be either promoted for bonuses or forgo their promotion in lieu of being completely healed. Another departure from previous games is that units are no longer always destroyed if defeated in combat.

Research
Technology trading has been removed in favour of joint technological ventures. Two civilizations at peace can form a research pact, which for an initial investment of gold will provide both with a random unknown technology after 20 turns as long as they remain at peace. However, it is possible for a civilization to sign a research agreement for the sole purpose of getting an enemy to spend money which could be used for other purposes; AI civilizations are programmed to sometimes use this tactic before declaring war.

Social Policies
In a change to the culture system, in Sid Meier's Civilization V players have the ability to "purchase" social policies at the expense of earned culture. These social policies are made up of ten separate trees, and filling out six of the ten trees is a requirement to win a cultural victory. These policies replace the "Civics" government system of Civilization IV; the main difference is that the player had to switch out of old civics to adopt a new one, while social policies are cumulative bonuses. According to Jon Shafer, "With the policies system, we wanted to keep the feel of mixing and matching to construct one's government that was part of Civ IV, but we also wanted to instill a sense of forward momentum. Rather than having to switch out of one policy to adopt another, you build upon the policies already unlocked. The thought process we want to promote is "What cool new effect do I want?" rather than the feeling of needing to perform detailed analysis to determine if switching is a good idea."

City-states
City-states, a new feature to the series, are non-expanding minor civilizations that can be interacted with. They can be conquered outright, or befriended for bonuses such as resources and units. There will be three types of city-states, each with different personalities and bonuses: maritime, cultured, and militaristic. A city state will have the potential to play a prominent role in diplomacy among larger civilizations, as well as make specific requests and grant rewards.

Victory conditions
As in previous games, there will be multiple ways to victory in addition to military conquest. The player may focus on scientific research and become the first to assemble and launch a spaceship, winning a space race victory. Diplomatic victory requires support from other civilizations and city states in the United Nations. In the revamped culture system of Sid Meier's Civilization V that consists of social policy "trees", the cultural victory involves filling out six of the ten "trees" and completing the Utopia project (reminiscent of the Ascent to Transcendence secret project in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri). World domination is of course an option, but the victory condition has been simplified compared to previous games in the series. Rather than completely destroying the other civilizations, it is now only necessary to capture all of the capital cities.

Civilizations and leaders
There are 18 civilizations available in the standard retail version of Sid Meier's Civilization V. The player will choose a civilization and assume the role of its leader, based on prominent historical figures. Each leader of a civilization will have a unique unit, another unique unit or a unique building, and a special ability. The player will be able to interact with the leaders of other civilizations via the diplomacy screen, which features, for the first time in the series, fully rendered and animated leaders that speak their native languages.

Downloadable content
Besides the 18 civilizations available in the standard retail version, additional civilizations will be available as downloadable content. So far Babylonia under Nebuchadnezzar II has been announced as a bonus civilization included in the Steam and Direct2Drive Digital Deluxe Editions. Additionally, both scenarios and standalone maps will be offered as DLC. The first "Double Civilization and Scenario Pack" DLC is tentatively scheduled for a late 2010 release. Players who pre-order through amazon.com will have access to the DLC "Cradle of Civilization: Asia", players pre-ordering from Gamestop will have access to the "Cradle of Civilization: The Mediterranean", and players pre-ordering from Walmart will receive "Cradle of Civilization: The Americas"

Release
2K Games announced that Sid Meier's Civilization V will be released on September 21, 2010 in North America and September 24 internationally, through retail and the Steam content delivery system. There is no set date for the game's release for the Mac OS X platform, but a representative for Firaxis said that a Mac version would be released eventually. In conjunction with its release, the State of Maryland, where Meier and Firaxis are based, named September 21, 2010 as "Sid Meier's Civilization V Day", in part due to Meier's success and for him "continuing a tradition of developing the talent and creativity of future generations".

A special edition of Civilization V is also set for worldwide release on the same day as the standard edition. The package will consist of: a 176-page artbook, a "behind-the-scenes" DVD at Firaxis, 2-CD game soundtrack selections, and 5 metal figurines of in-game units, as well as the game itself.

A demo was announced to become available on September 21, same day as the North American full game release.