Civ4 : info & screenshots ! - Page 6

Shabbaman · 23-05-2005, 13:30

I've found a E3 civ4 feature on gamespot. Some screenies as well.

Shabbaman · 29-06-2005, 11:01

There's another civ preview on gamespy. Now read this:

Quote:

quote:From our short experience with the game so far, it looks like everything we want from a Civ sequel. Games like Rome: Total War will give us a gritty, slow-moving, realistic strategy experience, whereas Civ IV is light, fast-moving, and fun.

Sounds like bad news. A light game? Bah... Besides, R:TW is just a bit more complex than a regular RTS game. If that's what they call gritty and slow-moving then I wonder how much arcade civ4 will be.

akots · 29-06-2005, 17:19

Will disagree in one point: RTW is a very complex game with very complex city management indeed. If done properly.

Markstar · 29-06-2005, 17:24

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by akots

Will disagree in one point: RTW is a very complex game with very complex city management indeed. If done properly.

Is it more complex than Civ3 (or better yet, Civ2)?

But I think I have voiced my fear of a look-good-feel-good-keep-it-simple game instead of a great-strategy game enough so I stop now.

akots · 29-06-2005, 17:49

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Markstar
... Is it more complex than Civ3 (or better yet, Civ2)? ...

It is certainly as complex as Civ3 (with governors on in Civ3) in terms of city management. There are no tiles and no micromanagement of them however. And individual provinces have certain pecularities you have to consider. But there is huge growth-happiness-productivity-tax puzzle in each of the cities. Fortunately, once you figure out how to grow influence trait with the family members, it's getting more tolerable.

I'm playing not so badly imho. Won vH/vH as Julii in 208BC and as Greek Cities in 232BC (50-province games) with all-bugs-fixed patch (from player1) and still did not figure the way how to cope with squalor efficiently. There are other issues as well I'm stll having a vague idea about.

digger760 · 30-06-2005, 10:00

i read somehwere vh/vh in RTW was not the hardest, it was a combination of medium/vh or vh medium foe some peculiar reason. But in General the AI in RTW is bad.

In regards to civ4, i think it is beyond doubt that i will buy it, regardless, if being shite. I <b>could</b> take it back within 10 days of purchase, but considering the potential of re-porgramming the AI with python scripting, it think that could keep the game open to end-less possibilities.

Markstar · 30-06-2005, 10:08

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by digger760

I <b>could</b> take it back within 10 days of purchase, but considering the potential of re-porgramming the AI with python scripting, it think that could keep the game open to end-less possibilities.

Yeah, you could be right. Maybe I need to stay a little more informed about the mods out there. I don't have any enhancements installed right now (besides the smiley for citizens) but it seems there are some interesting ones out there.

akots · 30-06-2005, 15:34

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by digger760
i read somehwere vh/vh in RTW was not the hardest...

That had been somewhat fixed in 1.2 and by player1 but hold true for unpatched version.

Socrates · 20-07-2005, 04:32

THE GAME IS CHANGING !!!

Go check the news at CFC, there is one new preview by Gamespot. I just read CFC's summary, and plan to check the preview and the interview tomorrow. (need fucking sleep)

Almost if not all the info is good news. I don't know about the combat system, but the rest looks promising. I'm a bit of a moron, and will post the summary here (bolding by me).

The game more about decision making and less about going through the established motions that have built up over the years.

Consider that you will no longer be able to transfer production from one project to another, a major exploit since time immemorial.

In Civ IV, when you lose a race to finish a wonder, you lose all the production made on it, and you can no longer transfer it to another project, though you will be refunded an amount of gold. (This rule also covers production of regular buildings and units as well, though in those cases, if you suddenly switch from producing, say, a settler to an archer, you simply save the production that's been made for the settler and start the archer from scratch. And when you go back to producing the settler, you'll pick up where you left off.)

Soren Johnson [lead designer] said that key resources are more evenly distributed in Civ IV, which is good news.

The bigger your city gets, the unhealthier it becomes. And that can take a toll on the population, as the city will eventually begin to starve. You can combat this by building certain types of buildings, such as aqueducts and hospitals, but what will really help is if you can secure access to the seven different types of food resources, which represent nutritional variety.

"The game is balanced now to have not as many cities. You can still spread your influence over a broad area, but not have as many cities, necessarily." - Barry Caudill [Senior Producer]

"In Civ IV, we have this sort of maintenance system that slowly pushes some pressure on civilizations that expand a little bit faster than what might be good for them at that time." - Soren Johnson
The focus in Civ IV is on fewer, but more specialized, cities.
This is something that the artificial intelligence will recognize, too, as computer-controlled civilizations won't spam you anymore with settlers, and if they try, they won't be able to cross your empire's borders anymore without your permission.

Barry Caudill also said that Civ IV has some features from Civ III that let you select a specific type of unit from a stack that you can then send to one location, reducing the need to repeat the procedure umpteen times over.

Stack Attack: You can actually stack up a bunch of units and send them someplace and give them an attack command. And if you're using combined arms...so you have some defensive-type units and you have a tank. The game will automatically look at who you're attacking, who their defenders are, and say, 'We should attack with this guy first. This is what the AI would do.

In Civ IV, the amount of damage a unit does to another unit is now out of a scale of 100, even though that's more or less hidden from the user. The amount of damage a unit does is relative to its different strengths. So now when a spearman attacks a tank, he may hit three times, but that's only going to take off a quarter of the tank's hit points. Meanwhile, a tank hitting a spearman only has to hit him once or twice, and he's gone entirely.

Dan McGarry (MP Designer) said that the server browser in the game will include buddy list functionality to keep track of your friends easier.

Firaxis will cull all sorts of statistics from multiplayer matches, which will let it rank players, which is aimed to avoid some of the frustration when you find yourself in a multiplayer match with ruthless Civ pros.

The game will also ship with a number of prebuilt scenarios with different sorts of victory conditions. For example, a World War II scenario will start you with all your cities and military units already built, and instead of conquering the whole world, you may have a more focused goal, such as taking or defending Paris.

Cottages (new terrain improvement) with smoke coming out of their chimneys indicate which neighboring terrain squares are being worked.

The quick game is very much for that one-night experience," Caudill explained. "We don't want it to feel like it's all compressed and jammed together. We want it to feel like you're playing Civ, but it just happens to take less time. So your tech costs are reduced, your unit production costs are reduced, your building costs are reduced. There are less turns to worry about, but you still have this huge sweep of time that happens in a Civ game. The epic speed is the same idea, just the opposite end.

akots · 20-07-2005, 06:14

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by kryszcztov
... The bigger your city gets, the unhealthier it becomes. And that can take a toll on the population, as the city will eventually begin to starve. You can combat this by building certain types of buildings, such as aqueducts and hospitals ...

"The game is balanced now to have not as many cities. You can still spread your influence over a broad area, but not have as many cities, necessarily." - Barry Caudill [Senior Producer]

"In Civ IV, we have this sort of maintenance system that slowly pushes some pressure on civilizations that expand a little bit faster than what might be good for them at that time." - Soren Johnson
The focus in Civ IV is on fewer, but more specialized, cities.
This is something that the artificial intelligence will recognize, too, as computer-controlled civilizations won't spam you anymore with settlers, and if they try, they won't be able to cross your empire's borders anymore without your permission. ...

Bet they stole it from RTW. Not exactly stole but "borrowed". In RTW your expansion might be somewhat hampered by lack of generals and requirements to quell unrest for a few turn before moving forward. But there might always be a way to overcome this. Some dirty tricks and such.

23-05-2005, 13:30	#51
Shabbaman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Costa La Haya Posts: 8,494	I've found a E3 civ4 feature on gamespot. Some screenies as well. __________________ "Our spam is backed with COMETS!"

29-06-2005, 17:19	#53
akots Nebuchadnezzar II Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Glover Park Posts: 4,459	Will disagree in one point: RTW is a very complex game with very complex city management indeed. If done properly. __________________ Cujusvis hominis est errare; nullius, nisi insipientis in errore perseverare Ciceron (Marcus Tullius)

20-07-2005, 04:32	#59
Socrates Emperor Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 3,946	THE GAME IS CHANGING !!! Go check the news at CFC, there is one new preview by Gamespot. I just read CFC's summary, and plan to check the preview and the interview tomorrow. (need fucking sleep) Almost if not all the info is good news. I don't know about the combat system, but the rest looks promising. I'm a bit of a moron, and will post the summary here (bolding by me). The game more about decision making and less about going through the established motions that have built up over the years. Consider that you will no longer be able to transfer production from one project to another, a major exploit since time immemorial. In Civ IV, when you lose a race to finish a wonder, you lose all the production made on it, and you can no longer transfer it to another project, though you will be refunded an amount of gold. (This rule also covers production of regular buildings and units as well, though in those cases, if you suddenly switch from producing, say, a settler to an archer, you simply save the production that's been made for the settler and start the archer from scratch. And when you go back to producing the settler, you'll pick up where you left off.) Soren Johnson [lead designer] said that key resources are more evenly distributed in Civ IV, which is good news. The bigger your city gets, the unhealthier it becomes. And that can take a toll on the population, as the city will eventually begin to starve. You can combat this by building certain types of buildings, such as aqueducts and hospitals, but what will really help is if you can secure access to the seven different types of food resources, which represent nutritional variety. "The game is balanced now to have not as many cities. You can still spread your influence over a broad area, but not have as many cities, necessarily." - Barry Caudill [Senior Producer] "In Civ IV, we have this sort of maintenance system that slowly pushes some pressure on civilizations that expand a little bit faster than what might be good for them at that time." - Soren Johnson The focus in Civ IV is on fewer, but more specialized, cities. This is something that the artificial intelligence will recognize, too, as computer-controlled civilizations won't spam you anymore with settlers, and if they try, they won't be able to cross your empire's borders anymore without your permission. Barry Caudill also said that Civ IV has some features from Civ III that let you select a specific type of unit from a stack that you can then send to one location, reducing the need to repeat the procedure umpteen times over. Stack Attack: You can actually stack up a bunch of units and send them someplace and give them an attack command. And if you're using combined arms...so you have some defensive-type units and you have a tank. The game will automatically look at who you're attacking, who their defenders are, and say, 'We should attack with this guy first. This is what the AI would do. In Civ IV, the amount of damage a unit does to another unit is now out of a scale of 100, even though that's more or less hidden from the user. The amount of damage a unit does is relative to its different strengths. So now when a spearman attacks a tank, he may hit three times, but that's only going to take off a quarter of the tank's hit points. Meanwhile, a tank hitting a spearman only has to hit him once or twice, and he's gone entirely. Dan McGarry (MP Designer) said that the server browser in the game will include buddy list functionality to keep track of your friends easier. Firaxis will cull all sorts of statistics from multiplayer matches, which will let it rank players, which is aimed to avoid some of the frustration when you find yourself in a multiplayer match with ruthless Civ pros. The game will also ship with a number of prebuilt scenarios with different sorts of victory conditions. For example, a World War II scenario will start you with all your cities and military units already built, and instead of conquering the whole world, you may have a more focused goal, such as taking or defending Paris. Cottages (new terrain improvement) with smoke coming out of their chimneys indicate which neighboring terrain squares are being worked. The quick game is very much for that one-night experience," Caudill explained. "We don't want it to feel like it's all compressed and jammed together. We want it to feel like you're playing Civ, but it just happens to take less time. So your tech costs are reduced, your unit production costs are reduced, your building costs are reduced. There are less turns to worry about, but you still have this huge sweep of time that happens in a Civ game. The epic speed is the same idea, just the opposite end. __________________ Sent from my Debian

30-06-2005, 10:00	#56
digger760 King Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Fake Dog Poo Factory. Posts: 1,887	i read somehwere vh/vh in RTW was not the hardest, it was a combination of medium/vh or vh medium foe some peculiar reason. But in General the AI in RTW is bad. In regards to civ4, i think it is beyond doubt that i will buy it, regardless, if being shite. I <b>could</b> take it back within 10 days of purchase, but considering the potential of re-porgramming the AI with python scripting, it think that could keep the game open to end-less possibilities.