Why the silence?
 

Civ4 is out now for a couple of months and the last patch seems to have improved a lot. (I couldn't tell as bugs don't strike me. You must have blood like honey. [tongue])

Why aren't there any PBEM's going on now? Is everyone still playing Civ3? Hattrick and the like? Too busy with work? I'd like to play a few more PBEM's than just Ignition and DDCP (which hasn't even started). But I don't want to start them all myself.

Once I get my CD back I will probably get a PBEM going.

Why aren't I starting Civ4 PBEMing now ?

- It is currently being heavily patched, so that the gameplay isn't stable. For games that last a few months, this isn't fitting nicely.
- I'm still discovering the game, I don't feel like dueling with anyone right now. Heck, I don't even understand the concept of religion.
- Yes, I should try to limit myself in Civ involvment, so I will start games with care. Don't want to get to the dreaded burnout in a few months' time.
- Don't worry, maybe we'll have some time discovering the MP fun in a few weeks, at a certain LAN party (hoping to hear from that too).

I'd love to play (and am playing a lot), but I still do not have the game, so MP is still a nono for me, unfortunately. Once I have it, I'd love to take up the challenge and play a game Matrix.

A new patch will be released within a few weeks.

Matrix--Tubby and I started a PBEM but got sidetracked by pitboss. The pitboss game was AW with 4 civs with one AI partnered with us. It was a lot of fun. We were able to finish in two sessions when I resigned last night. I made some blunderous mistakes but the lessons learned were huge.
Lessons learned...
--I took Moscow from the AI but didn't raze it. It was too hard to defend based on distance and Tubby attacked the city with axemen and Jags are no match for axemen attacking a city. Very different when the Jags were on forest tiles.
--Forest chops are huge for cranking out either workers, units or settlers.
--Happiness was a major issue for me but not Tubby who researched religion.
--Forests and forest hills are nearly impossible to attack. Woodsman I and II were very powerful in this game.
--Hook up your iron or copper. I totally spaced out and didn't road my iron. Huge blunder. Tubby chopped axemen and eventually took over Moscow.
--Research path. The frontline techs are important. Getting the ag, military and it seems religious techs were huge. I went for metal casing to get forges and because of the research time it set me back big time. As a note, the AI partner can be told what to research. When you are both researching the same tech the research time is cut in half. It may have made more sense to have my partner to research something different since metal casing was a long cycle even with both of us researching.

I must say pitboss is pretty cool for session play but really didn't seem good for PBEM like spoilers unless we took a break.

For some reason the game didnt really grab me. Been spending my very limited game playing time on hattrick and WoW. Dont suppose that will change soon.

I find the 3D graphics to be slow and on top if that they make the AA units hard to distinguish. Doesnt help either.

For some reason I just don't like the game. I can't really pin it down...I don't like the gameplay as much.

It might be something like this: in Civ3, there is sort of a 'formula' to win. Settler factory, expand fast, conquer enemies, etc. So in Civ3, you could keep going to perfect your strategy and formula. In Civ4, there isn't such a way...and thus, I don't feel a compelling reason to play it.

I've been playing Civ IV single player for some time now. I've finished three games (a time victory, a space race victory, and a conquest defeat) and am currently moving up to monarch... er prince. I'd love to try a PBEM once I learn the game some more.

IMHO, it is not patched to a playable level yet but the patch is on the way apparently. It does not make sense to start games now since the saves might be incompatible with the previous versions. The memories of C3C 1.15-1.22 jump problems are still fresh and many games died because of this. Also, I'still trying to move up to regularly win on Immortal (Emperor is more or less figured out) and Deity without much success yet except with Caesar on Pangea. And the single player games take quite some time to play to the end, for me it is much longer than it were in the case of Civ3.