Civ IV worth now?

Hi.

When I was very young I started playing Civ II, which helped me to learn English. I had good times with it. 2 or 3 years ago I bought Civ V, and I play it regularly.

After the anouncement of Civ VI, Civ IV is 75% off in steam. Is poeple usually playing both games? Civ V players enjoy Civ IV? Or having Civ V the experience of Civ IV is almost the same? It is as moddable as Civ V is?

It is really cheap right now, but if it is the same game with older graphics and same concepts maybe I won't bother with it.

Thanks for your help!

Civ4 is more moddable than Civ5. That's really not debatable.

Think most players would agree that they are quite different. Civ4 to Civ5 represent the biggest shift in the Civ-franchise so Civ4 is certainly not the "same game" as Civ5. The stacks in Civ4 is probably the most common dealbreaker for Civ5-fans in Civ4.

Civ4 also have a much steeper learning-curve.

I tried out V, but returned back to IV. So recommend you try it out with the BtS expansion. Use BAT or BUG mod for standard game. Else there are several interesting mods that also alter game play.

Simply buy and try it. With a 75% discount you won't risk too much.

CIV4 is not the same game as CIV5, CIV5 is stupid, CIV4 is great. CIV4 can have better graphics with BAT (or Blue Marble or Vincentz VIP-Mod graphics) .

Pedrolo88 said:

Hi.

When I was very young I started playing Civ II, which helped me to learn English. I had good times with it. 2 or 3 years ago I bought Civ V, and I play it regularly.

After the anouncement of Civ VI, Civ IV is 75% off in steam. Is poeple usually playing both games? Civ V players enjoy Civ IV? Or having Civ V the experience of Civ IV is almost the same? It is as moddable as Civ V is?

It is really cheap right now, but if it is the same game with older graphics and same concepts maybe I won't bother with it.

Thanks for your help!

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If you liked civ2 then you should love civ4. Civ1-4 was a progression of the series. Each step along the way building to and adding new elements to the game. Civ2 had a Sci FI sequel Alpha Century, which added a major new feature with culture borders that expanded over time. This was incorporated into civ3 and returned in civ4. Every few years with more powerful computers the game series has received tweaks and improvements. However with civ5 the game was broken down and re-invented. Civ5 is WAY different then all previous versions. A completely different game. Civ5 was dumbed down for mass appeal and easy access to a larger gaming audience, going where more money could be made. Many hard core civ players agree that civ4 is as close to perfection as civ can get. In regards to whether you should purchase civ4 , ask yourself a single question. Which game provided you more enjoyment civ2 or civ5. If you favor civ2 over 5 then getting civ4 and its 2 xpacks is a no brainer.

Many many players are still playing Civ IV after 10 years already with no end in site. Civ IV is not just the best of the Civ games, but one of the best of all time.

Graphically it is more than fine. I actually like the graphics in IV better than V. Yeah, V has a newer engine and shinies, but IV graphics are more tangible IMO. The graphics in IV will never get old. And there are some mods that make it even better.

So, I highly recommend that you get it on the cheap. As others have said, IV has a steeper learning curve. It is simply a much more complex game than V, with more strategic depth. Hop over to S&T forum to get advice on the game and learn.

I think most, if not all, still roaming this part of the forum will praise civ IV. It IS a great game. to me its the greatest there is, however, its not perfect:

Suicide Siege Weapons
The siege weapons are doing melee attacks, and since they have collateral damage (hitting more than one unit in the multi-unit/tile, they are preferred to be used in the beginning of a battle, often resulting in suicide.

Stack of Doom
Since there is no limit to how many units can fit in one tile, the AI will often come rolling with HUGE stacks of units. Sometimes 80+.... Counter: Suicide Sieges.

Diplomacy
Most of the times its "Trade resource A to resource B" or "Trade Tech A to Tech B", and while the AI will come knocking on your door asking "Declare war on civ C" or "Stop Trading with Civ D" or even "You need to revolt into x Religion/y Civic" it can become somewhat generic and most of the time then answer is "nope".
It requires some skill and experience to form strong alliances, especially if they should result in the AI declaring on your enemy.

AI
The AI is pretty decent I think, but its still an AI, and sometimes... ah well, maybe it shouldnt bulldoze a Town to make room for a farm, or drop off an army on a 1 tile island in the middle of nowhere, or build that city on the North-pole just so it can get that one crap.

With that said, I think many of the above, and other minor issues, are actually handled better than in civ V, or there are mods to take care of it. I'm personally working on mods atm to take care of the first two.

Civ IV Beyond The Sword is the most refined version of the classic Civ game there is. Civ V is a completely different game that bears the Civ name but has completely rebuilt movement, economics, politics, warfare, and trade. And, sadly, a very weak AI, and technical issues that makes it a swine for overheating your hardware. Civ VI looks set to be an evolution of Civ V that brings some good ideas, but we don't know if it'll run cool and present a decent challenge.

Hi. I finally bought it, 6€ for all the series is a really good price!

I find a little difficult to discern what resources come from every terrain type and where my citizens are working in a city. Does the BAT or BUG mod improve this?

Thank you again!

Pedrolo88 said:

Hi. I finally bought it, 6€ for all the series is a really good price!

I find a little difficult to discern what resources come from every terrain type and where my citizens are working in a city. Does the BAT or BUG mod improve this?

Thank you again!

Click to expand...

Welcome to the club

To view special resources (iron, bananas, oil, sugar, etc etc), pressing Ctrl-R shows "resource bubbles" in the map. To view each tile's yield in the map mode, press Ctrl-Y. Many resources are invisible until you get a certain technology (aluminum, oil, coal, horses, uranium), while there are tech requirements for building improvements. Farms require Agriculture, plantations require Calendar, and so on. The Worldbuilder (press Ctrl-W) reveals the entire map including *all* resources regardless of era or your technological situation, and allows you to make countless modifications

Changing which tiles are being worked in the city screen is not radically different from older versions of the game, IIRC.

On the city screen it's rather easy to see what tiles are being worked (the ones with a white circle around them), and then you might have some specialists or striking citizens in the right column.

Seeing what tiles are being worked directly from the main screen is a bit harder. If the tile yields(ctrl+y) is on, then the tiles being worked will have slightly larger icons. There's also small changes to the improvements(like a worked farm will have light in the house and green fields, a worked mine will have a cart coming out and fire and smoke from the smelter). Don't think BUG/BAT actually improves this as it's really not a big deal once you've played a bit.

Hi Pedrolo, this reference guide for BTS is useful. Also with keyboard shortcuts.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6571

Pedrolo88 said:

Hi. I finally bought it, 6€ for all the series is a really good price!

I find a little difficult to discern what resources come from every terrain type and where my citizens are working in a city. Does the BAT or BUG mod improve this?

Thank you again!

Click to expand...

The newest version of BUG has a feature that shows coloured circles when you select a city that show which tile is being proved, but installing BUG, BAT, BUFFY or whatever you want is more about that those mods are so good that while not changing much of the game, the game is not the same anymore. Basically every information you could possibly wish for is easily displayed somewhere where it can be easily seen so those mods are really sort of "must-haves" if wanting to play better.

Yes, players are still playing Civilization IV after all these years, including me (but very very rarely due to work commitments). Also, if you're interested in giving multiplayer a shot, there's a community over at Realms Beyond that is still playing lots of pitboss and PBEM (play by email) multiplayer games. They generally play at a high level so you'll want to follow some current games and see what the tactics are like before jumping in.

Seraiel said:

CIV5 is stupid, CIV4 is great.

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QFT. Nuff said!

lindsay40k said:

Civ IV Beyond The Sword with K-mod is the most refined version of the classic Civ game there is.

Click to expand...

I added a bit in bold. That said, I played Civ 4 vanilla for ages when everyone else had moved on to BTS, and had a perfectly splendid time! Would encourage any new players to look at old GOTMs (Games Of The Month), which provide a nice bit of flavour and a standardized game where you can compare your results with others'.

Have fun!

Seraiel said:

CIV4 is not the same game as CIV5, CIV5 is stupid, CIV4 is great. CIV4 can have better graphics with BAT (or Blue Marble or Vincentz VIP-Mod graphics) .

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Clearly this is a matter of opinion and not really fair to tell the OP that it is 'stupid'. Civ 4 and Civ 5 are very different games and not liking the mechanics of Civ 5 is no reason to call it stupid when the game is clearly very popular with others. You don't even explain to the OP why you think it is stupid either.

HughFran said:

Clearly this is a matter of opinion and not really fair to tell the OP that it is 'stupid'. Civ 4 and Civ 5 are very different games and not liking the mechanics of Civ 5 is no reason to call it stupid when the game is clearly very popular with others. You don't even explain to the OP why you think it is stupid either.

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Ok, for you:

CIV5 is a game that has one severe problem that gets mentioned by basically all players that critisize it, it's the concept of "1UPT" . While this concept itself is good, the AIs just aren't able to use it properly, basically making the AI, that was already mostly incapable of achieving anything in CIV4 even more incapable of anything. It's not ok to call CIV5 therefore stupid and CIV4 therefore great, because that wouldn't be fair, let's just say CIV5 is a game that strives to be good, but it just doesn't succeed and CIV4 is a game that already is good and the gamers developed it continuously further for 10y making it the greatest game of all times!

Is this better now?

I've seen plenty of people praise 1UPT, so no, it's still a matter of opinion.

Though I do agree with you. Civ V pales in comparison to IV. I think the biggest problem of all however is the global happiness mechanic, closely followed by 1UPT.

Heh, for me the biggest problem in V is science=population. 1upt is just extra crap on the crap pile and global happiness is even more extra crap.