Civ 4 - Excited? [UPDATED pt.2 - Game is out & now PATCHED! Share your thoughts.]

[Ron]

And some people had the opposite problem - the game took to long. I read an interview about this the other day and the developer being interviewed mentioned that to solve this the new game will have three selectable game lengths with all variables scaled to fit each of the speeds. One speed is a quick game designed to be faster. Another speed is normal (standard CivIII length game), and the last (the one I am most looking forward to) is Epic, which presumably will take longer.

This is pretty good, as I would be able to adjust the game pace to my time availability. I will try Civ 4 but I am still faithful to Civ 2. Civilization 3 lost me when it made too critical the natural resources, placed too many emphasis in the graphics, and didn't allowed me to play in Earth with every civilization starting in the right place. I have to concede though that the trade, diplomacy, culture, and happiness rules were improved.

 

[Brandigan]

I liked Civ II more than III, I never called in sick because I was in the middle of a war in Civ III! Are they going to milk it with releasing the game as single player, so they can sell it all over again as multi-player?
One thing I really missed from CivII was building caravans/freight and establishing your trade routes that way instead of it happending automatically by building a road or port. It was fun and rewarding when you arrived at the destination, maybe having to navigate through warzones or whatnot, to get that nice fat payday. Anyone else miss that?

 

[DaveMage]

Anyone else miss that?

Yes.

 

[Andre]

Anyone else miss that?

I miss using caravans to stockpile production when I didn't have anything good to produce. Made completing Wonders so much easier, and you never knew when there would be a need for some quick military units. (Though using caravans for units resulted in a 50% loss, IIRC)

 

[JamesL85]

Never played any of the Civ games, but wanted to put another vote in for Alpha Centauri II (if there is such a thing).....

I lost more hours of sleep due to that game than I care to think about.....I remember looking at my watch (needing to get up at 6:00 in the morning) and seeing 3:00 in the morning, and thinking.....One more turn.....

Shortly after, the alarm clock went off in the bedroom......

James

 

[vulcan_idic]

I liked Civ II more than III, I never called in sick because I was in the middle of a war in Civ III! Are they going to milk it with releasing the game as single player, so they can sell it all over again as multi-player?

According to interviews I've read it should be incorporated from the get go... but then they were saying that about Civ III too. The advantage of Civ IV though is they're basically rebuilding from the ground up rather than tweeking an existing design, so as long as you're doing that why not build it in. So far I've heard it supports multiplayer in many varities from various online methodologies to hotseat.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Yup! I need something for Tuesday mornings when World of Warcraft is down.

 

[vulcan_idic]

Modding

THe new Civ is also supposed to be extremely modder friendly with data stored in XML format and coding done largely in Python... Perhaps it would be interesting if a tech smart type gamer made a Civ IV D&D mod... could be fun.

The other nice thing about it being easily moddable is that if there's a feature that enough people don't like someone will probably come up with a mod to change it. It'll be interesting to see what that moddability produces along the lines of this article...
Tapping Into Tinkering

 

[vulcan_idic]

Thought some more on the mod idea, I think it'd be a blast to play on Faerun, Greyhawk or Eberron as a map... The civs would be easy enough to choose. You could play the Cormyrians (unique unit the Purple Dragon - replaces a standard knight) trying to overcome the evil Thayan culture (unique unit the Red Wizard - replaces a standard wizard)!!

 

[Hatchling Dragon]

What I want to see is a new Master of Magic. I would be happy with just a remake of the graphics, everything else unchanged.

It must not taunt us with the precious...