
Gamasutra: Jon Shafer's Blog - Revisiting the Design of Civ 5 - apress
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JonShafer/20130218/186843/Revisiting_the_Design_of_Civ_5.php?utm_source=feedburner
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apress
Amazingly candid admissions by the designer of the fifth entry in the Sid
Meier franchise, by far the worst and least playable. At least now we know how
this train wreck happened. Among other things, Shafer did the AI programming
himself despite a lack of previous experience, leading him to make the
computer Civs far too random. He also didn't think through his many efforts to
simplify gameplay such as by removing a player's ability to allocate resources
among research, spending and culture, which was a key component of tactical
strategy. Switching from a stacking units model to a one-square-per-unit model
also made no sense without radically changing the game's maps, which he failed
to anticipate. And on it goes.

