Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video gamesfirst released in Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as Sid Meier's Civilization.

There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series.

The series is considered a formative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate". All titles in the series share similar gameplay, centered on building a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future. Each turn allows the player to move their units on the map, build or improve new cities and units, and initiate negotiations with the human or computer-controlled players.

The player will also choose technologies to research. These reflect the cultural, intellectual, and technical sophistication of the civilization, and usually allow the player to build new units or to improve their cities with new structures. In most games in the series, one may win by military conquest, achieving a certain level of culture, building an interstellar space ship, or achieving the highest score, among other means.

Later games have introduced gameplay concepts and victories based on religion, economics, and diplomacy. Meier civilisation pc game adapted an approach for civilisation pc game new title so that it contains a third of existing features, another third that are improvements from the previous game, civilisation pc game the remaining third as introducing new features.

Newer games often include extendable downloadable content that adds to that game, and often will become part civilisation pc game the new features civilisation pc game the next main game of the series. Civilisation pc game series was first developed by Meier while at MicroProsethe studio he co-founded. After MicroProse was acquired by Spectrum HolobyteMeier left with other designers to form Firaxis Games inwhich has been the principal developer of the series since.

Over the years, some of the crew involved in developing the series became civilisation pc game in producing their own strategy games, such as Bruce Shelley Civilization co-designer of Age of Empires fame, Brian Reynolds Civilization II lead designer and programmerwho went on to create Rise of Nationsand Soren Johnson Civilization III co-designer and Civilization IV lead designer and programmerwho worked on Spore and Offworld Trading Company.

Civilisation pc game issues associated with the Civilization name, due to the Civilization board game created by Francis Treshamarose during the late s but have been resolved through agreements, settlements, and publishing company acquisitions; civilisation pc game Take-Twothe parent company of Firaxis, owns full rights to both the name and intellectual property for the series.

As of Februarythe series has shipped more than 40 million total units. Sid Meier and Bill Stealey co-founded MicroProse in to develop a number of flight simulators and military strategy software titles. AroundMeier wanted to start developing new types of games to expand his repertoire, inspired by the recent successes of the god games SimCity and Populous The name was selected late in civilisation pc game process, and after realizing that Tresham had already published a board game of the same nameMicroProse was able to negotiate a license for the name from Avalon Hill.

Since games like Civilization diverged from MicroProse's combat simulators, Stealey suggested the addition of Meier's name as to capture the interest of players that would recognize Meier's name from the previous titles he developed and give these other games a try; Meier found this worked and continued to use his name as part of the series' branding. Following on CivilizationMeier was prompted to develop a number of similar simulation titles, a situation that did not sit well with Stealey who wanted MicroProse to continue to develop flight simulators; at this civilisation pc game, Meier did not actually work for MicroProse but served as a contractor, having sold his shares to Stealey.

Meier gave Reynolds some advice on the direction to take the game, and subsequently, Reynolds worked with Doug Kaufman, another MicroProse employee that had worked on civilisation pc game their adventure gamesfor Civilization II. Stealey had pushed MicroProse to look towards home video consoles and arcade games based on their flight simulator software, but these investments did not pan out, putting the company into debt. Firaxis published additional titles by Meier, the first being Sid Meier's Gettysburg!

Lacking the rights to the Civilization name, they subsequently produced Sid Meier's Alpha Centauria "space-based Civilization -style game" [8] released in and published by Electronic Arts. Prior to the first Civilization video game, an existing board game of the same name had been developed civilisation pc game Francis Treshampublished in Europe by his company Hartland Trefoil and licensed for publication in the United States by Avalon Hill.

Seven months later Avalon Hill and Activision sued MicroProse over trademark infringement over civilisation pc game rights to the " Civilization " name, asserting that the agreement with MicroProse on the name Civilization only extended to the first game and no others, specifically targeting Civilization II. This move sought to establish "MicroProse as the preeminent holder of worldwide computer game and board game rights under the Civilization brand".

The acquisition of both was completed a month after this settlement, giving Hasbro Interactive the full rights to the Civilization name. Briggs served as the lead designer with Soren Johnson as lead programmer, and the title included two expansion packs, Play the World and Conquests. Since Take Two's acquisition, Firaxis has developed several more titles in the series, including two main releases, Civilization V and Civilization VItwo lightweight versions of Civilization for consoles and mobiles in Civilization Revolutionits sequel Civilization Revolution 2and Civilization: Beyond Earthinspired by their previous Alpha Centauri title.

The main Civilization games are turn-based 4X games, where players attempt to achieve one of several victory conditions civilisation pc game other human and computer-controlled opponents through the actions of "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate". Civilization uses historical aspects from the development of mankind's civilization, and turns take place over a time scale that starts with the dawn of civilization in the millennia before 1 A.

On each turn, players oversee their civilization's government, determine what technology, culture, and civics the civilization should develop, engage in diplomacy with other civilizations, set production and place improvements within cities, and move their civilization's units across the game's world map, often engaging in combat with other civilizations' enemy units.

Games are civilisation pc game on either pre-defined or procedurally generated maps, creating a world with varied terrain including mountains and oceans. Map generation can be set by several parameters, such as average climate or landmass types. Maps can vary in size, which will affect the number of civilizations that can be played by that map.

Players either select or are randomly assigned a civilization led by a historical figure, based on several factual reigns and empires, including the Romans, Aztecs, and Americans; the civilization choice provides certain unique bonuses, units, and improvements for that player.

Players start at random locations on the map, and must found their first city, becoming its default capitol until changed by the player, and explore the map and lift its fog of war to find out what is nearby, including potential resources that can be used in production, and where other civilizations are located.

Cities will generate several resources civilisation pc game on how large the city is which affects how many map spaces it takes up: food which is required to sustain large cities and allow them to grow; production units used to determine how fast a city can build new units and improvements, science and culture which affect progress along the technology treeand currency which can be used by the player for several tasks including upkeep of cities and units, speeding up production civilisation pc game a unit or offered as gifts in diplomacy actions.

Once a city is founded, the player can then start to produce new units or city improvements. Units include military units, commerce-based units such as caravans to establish trade routes with other cities, and civilian-based groups like workers to help improve the land areas around a city such as by constructing fields or mines. Civilisation pc game improvements include buildings that help to boost production types, such a library or university to improve research output, or World Wondersunique buildings that can only be built by one civilization that grants a large bonus to the first to complete it.

Cities will grow over time, expanding to cover more territory on the map while requiring more food civilisation pc game money to maintain, civilisation pc game players can create units that will be able to found new cities, expanding their empire. Units typically move a set number of spaces per turn, limited by terrain: swamps may slow down faster units, civilisation pc game are typically impassible except by air, and water spaces can only be traversed with sea-going vessels that can carry other units.

Combat occurs when any unit moves into a space occupied by another unit that is not currently civilisation pc game diplomatic terms with that player. Each unit has attack, defensive, and health civilisation pc game, often factored by the type of terrain they are presently in and if the units are fortified. The results of combat are determined with a degree of randomness based on the attack and defense strengths. Defeated units are eliminated from the game, and if the attacks are victorious, that civilisation pc game will occupy the space if no other enemy units are there.

If this battle took place on a city's main map space, then the attacker unit takes over the city for that civilization, though some games in the series provide the option of razing the city as well. In this manner, a civilization can be conquered by taking over all of its cities, at which point that player is out of the game. In more recent games, cities can also be taken over through the influence of culture or religion from a nearby opposing city.

Several units are available for performing espionage work, civilisation pc game are hidden from other players unless certain conditions are met. These units can gain information normally hidden to other players, steal technology and culture, or create unrest in an opponent's city to make it easier to capture. The player also oversees the general aspects of their civilization. They set specific types of government that can affect production rates, growth, and other factors, though these government civics must be gained through research and culture growth.

The player also manages the tax rate on cities, which helps to collect currency to pay for unit and improvement maintenance. The player must manage the happiness of their population, which can be impacted by government choices, taxes, nearby military units and actions, overcrowded cities, and pollution, and mitigated by special units civilisation pc game city improvements.

Once a civilisation pc game has discovered an opposing civilization, they can send communication to them to request peace treaties, non-hostile relationships, or offer trades of currency, resources, units, cities, and technology; such trades can also be used to intimidate opponents to threaten to go to civilisation pc game if such demands are not met. Multiple victory paths are available to players; the following victory conditions are general routes available in most games while other routes can also exist in others.

The conquest victory route requires the player to wipe out or take over all capital cities of the other civilizations on the map while still retaining their own. A player may also attempt to win through a diplomatic victory.

By establishing friendly ties with other civilizations, the player can achieve victory by having their allies vote appropriately once the United Nations facility is established. Technology victories can be achieved by progressing through the technology tree to study civilisation pc game travel and constructing the parts required to launch a generation ship to Alpha Centauri. With culture elements in newer games, players can achieve a cultural victory civilisation pc game accumulating enough culture over other civilizations and building necessary structures to civilisation pc game their civilization to a utopia -like state to claim this win.

Finally, a player can achieve victory if they have the most points after a set number of turns have been reached; points are based on several factors including the size of the civilization, their progress towards technology and culture, and currency at hand. To help newer players, the Civilization games include a number of artificial intelligence advisors that suggest which units, city improvements, and technology and cultures they should civilisation pc game in based on the current state of the game.

The Civilization games can civilisation pc game played in a single-player mode, and both local and online multiplayer modes, along with a number of computer-controlled opponents. Some games provide a means to play asynchronously, where each player is given a set amount of time, such as within a day, to decide their actions and send results to a game server, when then determines the results of all actions and returns this information to players. However, the series was consolidated into civilisation pc game Civilization franchise when Hasbro purchased Avalon Hill and MicroProse, in In addition to computer games, several licensed board games inspired by the series have been developed.

InNext Generation listed the series as number 4 on their "Top Games of All Time", commenting that, "[Sid Meier's] goal was to give players the chance to play God. And he succeeded, admirably. Although not the first such released game to have 4X gameplay elements, the Civilization series is considered to have introduced the defining elements of that genre, in particular the complexity of interlocking gameplay systems introduced in the first Civilization game.

The Civilization games, as well as other 4X games that follow their approach, are frequently associated with the "One More Turn syndrome", in which a player, nearing the end of a play session, might state they will end their game after "one more turn" but be compelled to play on for several more civilisation pc game and lose track of time.

This phenomenon is attributed to the core gameplay loop that provides players feedback on upcoming goals and rewards that they can obtain by playing additional turns while new goals and reward appear during the intervening turns. Civilisation pc game science fiction and mainstream author Iain Banks noted that he spent much time playing the game appearing to refer to the first version and that it was one of the inspirations for the concept of the 'Outside Context Problem' central to his Excession novel - the appearance of invaders or travelers who are so advanced that they are totally outside the society's frame of reference.

In an interview, Banks specifically compares this to having a Civilization battleship arrive while the player is still using wooden sailing ships.

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