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

[Simplicity]

Civ 1 was cool. Civ 2 was ok, and Civ 3 became unfun because it became too complex. Sometimes, simple ideas can be the most fun.

I still want a new or remake of Railroad Tycoon.

Ummm... There's been a one or two of those remakes. Perhaps you should try Railroad Tycoon *Three*? Great game. I highly enjoy it.

Civ 4 has been focusing on simplifying the annoying parts of the Civ series significantly. You will have fewer units (maybe half as much), fewer workers (an order of magnitude less), and fewer cities (slightly) in Civ 4 as opposed to 3. Attack/Defense has been combined into Strength. Corruption has been removed. Worker automation is supposedly much better. All build choices come with recommendations. Combat success probabilities can be displayed before attacking (if you like).

That said, unit promotions, religion, and civics are incredibly cool additions... I can't wait until the 25th (it's gone GOLD you know!).

 

[Simplicity]

Meh. Just play freeciv.

Civ 1 and 2 compatible? Check.
Choice of flat, round, traditional Civ E-W only wrapping or N-S only wrapping? Check.
Choice of hexagonal tiles? Check.
Completely customizable rulesets (e.g., change tech tree, change units, change buildings and their effects, change nations)? Check.
Free (as in both beer and speech)? Check.

FreeCiv is useless.

Horrible graphics? Check.
Worse than the original game graphics? Check.
Horrible interface? Check. Ooooh let's play File Menu: The Game.

Civ3 w/ expansion packs is superior to Civ2 and way superior to FreeCiv.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Pre-ordered a month ago.

I'm worried, though. I HATED Civ 3. Could not stand it. I'm worried that Civ 4 will also be a grand disappointment.

Pity that Civ 4 won't have anything like, say, Battle Armor Infantry or Mecha Cavalry units, at least not out of the box. That's really one of the things I want, to have a bunch of useful post-modern units.

Brad

 

[John Crichton]

Pity that Civ 4 won't have anything like, say, Battle Armor Infantry or Mecha Cavalry units, at least not out of the box. That's really one of the things I want, to have a bunch of useful post-modern units.

That's what user-mods are for. Civ has always been a game that the community gets involved in and goes beyond the designers packed in game. Units, senarios - you name it. I fondly recall playing a few rounds of Star Wars/Trek themed matches in Civ II.

Good times.

 

[mrtauntaun]

So if they've done away with corruption, does that mean all cities regardless their distance from the capital all have the potential to produce the same ammount of shields and such?

 

[Simplicity]

So if they've done away with corruption, does that mean all cities regardless their distance from the capital all have the potential to produce the same ammount of shields and such?

Each city has a maintenance cost in gold that you have to pay based on the distance of your city from the capital. There's also a maintenance cost based on the number of cities you have. Maintenance for individual buildings is gone.

So I think they can be equally productive, but if you have too many cities or cities too far from your capital, it'll weigh *all* of your cities down.

Having my border cities totally crippled by a lack of production was one of the most annoying parts of Civ3, in my book.

 

[Simplicity]

I've been reading up on all of the *many* previews (including ones done by beta testers), so if people have questions about what the game is going to be like, I can give pretty detailed answers in most cases, actually.

 

[DaveMage]

I've been reading up on all of the *many* previews (including ones done by beta testers), so if people have questions about what the game is going to be like, I can give pretty detailed answers in most cases, actually.

Is conquering the world still a viable option for winning?

 

[Simplicity]

Is conquering the world still a viable option for winning?

There's two types of conquering wins... Conquering (take every city) and Domination (take 60% of the land mass). Obviously, you can't "conquer" unless the domination victory type is turned off for that game, but that's doable.

The other ways to win are:
1) The Space Race (much harder in this version, supposedly... more components, each of which require more work to be done).
2) Diplomacy (Get enough votes in the UN to win). You must first become Secretary General, and then put this to a vote. Obviously, it's unlikely for others to vote for you, since they don't necessarily want you to win. (There are a variety of other things you can put to a vote as Secretary General as well...)
3) Cultural Win. Reach a cultural threshold in a single city, and another threshold for the whole civilization to dominate in culture.
4) Timed Win. After too many turns (540 in a normal game, I believe) the maximum score is computed and a winner is chosen.

As to whether conquest is viable: Yes, it's definitely viable. Most of the beta testers seem to favor conquest according to the polls I've seen. The space race is harder, so that's become a bit less of an easy way out. The cultural victory has become considerably more viable as well with the addition of "Great People" as one of the core mechanics of the game
(the Great Artist is referred to as a "culture bomb" due to his ability to quickly expand your nation's borders from a high influx of culture).

Why combat is cooler:

Bombardment units play a bigger role in this game. They can cause collateral damage to units in a stack or reduce city defenses (i.e. make defending units get less of a defense bonus in a city).

Civ4 also removed the capability to switch production on the fly... That means if someone declares war on you, you can't just switch everybody to producing defense units (well you can, but you'll have to produce them from scratch...). So you have to be much more strategic about your defense.

Mixed stacks are used much more as well due to the way the unit promotion system works. Having a single unit with a medic promotion can be a big boon to a stack. But you might also want some units who are specialists at attacking cities or cavalry...

Railroads are no longer infinite movement. Only 10...

You can pillage villages, towns, hamlets, and cottages (these are like "suburb" improvements to a city) for *money*. So now you can do damage to their improvements and gain some cash at the same time.

 

[mrtauntaun]

So many changes. So much for my insto-polluting cleanup crew, no longer able to travel via rail across the continent in 1 turn
I like the space race, I'll still have to give it a go my first play through, harder or not.
I DO like how they made those strategic resources more abundant. I HATED that about Civ 3, where I needed coal to make my railroads, and the greeks had it all. Then I gotta take 1 city and hold it, while trying to back out of the war