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

vulcan_idic said:
the way they nerfed spies - eliminating the unit and making it much harder to conquer other civs by basically buying out their cities - which had been one of my favorite tactics in CivII.
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Ah, but we got culture, which is a mighty fine tactic, if used right.

What amazes me about all the Civ games is the variety of play styles that are possible. I was comparing notes with a friend a while back and we play totally different. I rush to Monarchy ASAP, even neglecting other techs; then on to Democracy as soon as things settle down some. He keeps Despotism until Communism comes up. In the late game, I usually have many thousands of gold on hand and buy several buildings each turn, while occasionally goading an enemy into attacking me, so I can try to take his land. My friend can never afford to spend gold on construction, is regularly at war, and has massive armies marauding. We play on the same difficulty and have about the same win rate.
 

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No pre-order for me... I can't wait for it, but I've been informed it's going to be a Christmas present. It's OK though - anticipation is half the fun anyway!
 

trancejeremy said:
I liked the first Civ a lot. But the rest, eh.

I want to like Alpha Centauri, but the political ideology in it turns me off, so I can't play it (the planetary conciousness stuff. <shudder> Makes me want to go club a seal).

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.
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Except that I, Chairman Lizard of the Hive, have SUBJUGATED the planetary mind to my INDOMITABLE WILL countless times. Er, uhm, in the Name Of The People, of course.
 

Mercule said:
Ah, but we got culture, which is a mighty fine tactic, if used right.

What amazes me about all the Civ games is the variety of play styles that are possible. I was comparing notes with a friend a while back and we play totally different. I rush to Monarchy ASAP, even neglecting other techs; then on to Democracy as soon as things settle down some. He keeps Despotism until Communism comes up. In the late game, I usually have many thousands of gold on hand and buy several buildings each turn, while occasionally goading an enemy into attacking me, so I can try to take his land. My friend can never afford to spend gold on construction, is regularly at war, and has massive armies marauding. We play on the same difficulty and have about the same win rate.
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Culture is a mighty fine tactic - it Civ III it replaced the spy/economic buying of cities as my favorite mode of domination... but I still miss all the things I could do with a spy.
 

I will probably pick it up. I played Civ1 & Civ2 a LOT, SMAC TONS (SMAC2 must happen!) and of course, the precious MOM.

My 3 main complaints about Civ3, and the reason I didn't play it as much are:
Combat system failure. CIv2 had a great sombat system. SMAC had a brillant terrific combat system. Civ3 took several giant steps backwards. Bah.
The oft mentioned corruption - I eventually learned to play on smaller maps.
The random resources/luxuries. A Civ with good r/l was golden. Poor r/l, well, poor.

We shall have to see what this one is like.

And of course, my main concern: How easy is it to control with Speech Software? No typing, no mousing for me - RSI BAD. SMAC is great with the voice control, all you need is patience. Civ3 is OK, not quite as good...
 

Henry said:
It looks good, to be sure. I think a lot of problem with Civ3 was that Alpha Centauri really raised the bar, and Civ3 kinda took the bar back down a notch or two. I loved the governmental micromanagement in Alpha Centauri, and the unit customizations. These will be back in an lesser way in Civ4, and that is a big deal to me.

I'm still curious about how the interface will be handled -- the screen shots are not very clear. But I haven't been disappointed by a Sid Meier game yet! :)
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Civ 3 dropped the bar three or four notches. SMAC was so good, and Civ 3 wasn't.

The odds were stacked in favor of the computer, rather than making the AI smarter. As for alliances... (my favorite part of SMAC - alliances that worked!), corruption that went up to ungodly levels, AIs that new exactly which cities were lightly guarded, etc, etc. I still dust off Civ 2 now and again, but Civ 3 remains in its case.

The Auld Grump
 




I probably won't be picking up Civilization IV for a while yet. I'm still too addicted to World of Warcraft, and I don't want to juggle two seperate gaming addictions. :D
 

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