Industry veteran Adam Sessler of G4TV interviewed Civilization V producer Dennis Shirk today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). In it, Dennis says that the team has been working on Civ4 for two and a half years, ever since completing Beyond the Sword. As in previous interviews, Dennis also talks about the new graphics engine and how the switch to hexes affects the game and the new combat model (1UPT, ranged combat) implying in the process that, as in Civ4, mountains are not passable in Civ5. He explains that the Conquest victory now only requires enemy capitals to be conquered.

On the subject of city states, Shirk explains that they can ask for help defending not only against Barbarians as previously announced, but also against other major civs. Militaristic city states might even request players to attack other city states on their behalf. Finally, the game's producer addresses diplomacy, nothing that AIs will call you out when you mass units on their borders, expand too close to them or even when you explore too much right next to their borders (under the assumption that that means you're scouting him out for a possible attack).

Watch the full 6m21s video interview in SD below, or in HD (or SD) on the G4TV website.