CivFanatics -- Hands-On Civ4 Preview

Oh i c, so that not the same but that do the same job. thx for the answer.

Oh, Civrules, I've another question, also on customization: Is it possible to change the colour and/or flag of your civ? Without modding files, that is.

Again, thanks in advance.

Chieftess said:

A Multiplayer Preview may be out shortly (within a day or so). It has been sent to the editor, so to speak.

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how's that editor doing?

CivRules could you tell us how balanced you think the unit promotions are? This has been worrying me a while and from someone who has played the game, I wonder if they are valid.

Lord_all_Mighty said:

CivRules could you tell us how balanced you think the unit promotions are? This has been worrying me a while and from someone who has played the game, I wonder if they are valid.

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Form what I've seen the basic "Combat" promotion is +10% power, and the other specialised promotions (city attacker, city defender, etc) are +20% power

While I can't speak for all promotions, these seem pretty balanced - either an all around but weaker promotion, or a more specialized one that is twice as good, but only in limited circumstances.

Good question though. I'd love to hear what the Betas have to say about that.

grahamiam said:

how's that editor doing?

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It's posted!

Anxiously awaiting Civrules next installment...

A couple of questions:

1. I know city improvements show up on the map, but is there still a detailed city view?

2. Regarding city graphics: Does CivIV have culture groups where the city art/graphics were unique to each culture group like in CivIII, or does the player choose the culture he wants his cities to look like, or is it all the same graphics regardless of culture group?

Thank You in advance.

I have not read the whole thread, so sorry if this has been answered before.

From the preview -

No longer do you see a huge stack of doom coming out of foreign borders. What you could see is even scarier. The AI attacks in steady waves of units that just keep coming.

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Surely this is what the AI has always done, and it has been the bigest issue with the AI. Instead of building up an invasion force big enough to do real damage, it just sends whatever units is has in dribs and drabs for you to kill with overwelming force.

I hope the modding will allow this to be changed, though I guess it is not trivial to get right of it would have been done by now.

Trust me, Samson, from everything I am hearing the AI is VERY smart and competent in how it launches invasions against others. I think the issue being put forward is that, instead of sending a single, mostly homogeneous stack of troops to be wiped out by a human player, it now sends numerous smaller groups of mixed unit types, and targets key points in a more strategic fashion. My point is, they WOULDN'T talk about the way the AI conducts warfare if it was simply identical to the way it was in Civ3.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

Thanks for the reasurance. I really hope you are right, a good AI would really make this game.

Hi guys (and girls??),

My first post, personal and not too euforic. I love the Civ. series and played all of them, don't get me wrong! But I have been disapointed by a lot of games lately ( Black & White 2, AoE3, Earth 2160, Rome Total War the invasion thing) they look brilliant have all you wish in a good RTS game but they get boring very quickly! Maybe I'am spoiled by all this gaming and expecting things that can't be made.

I have all my hopes set on Civ.4, and hope It will be just as addictive as they used to be (even took a week off work ). And not being turned into some easy money making clone that is to easy and doesn't have any new challenges and ideas. I've been reading a lot about this game and a bit worried. Its all 3D and all but I don't care about that I need some seriously good gameplay. Can some of you guys change my thoughts!!!

Anyway thanks for all your info. on this site.

QUESTION:

Can you rename your wonders?

(I hate to have something like Oxford library in my city. If the library is in city called Washington, then it should be Washington library.)

Inhalaattori said:

QUESTION:

Can you rename your wonders?

(I hate to have something like Oxford library in my city. If the library is in city called Washington, then it should be Washington library.)

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Good idea! That should be easy to do in XML.

Lord Shadow said:

Oh, Civrules, I've another question, also on customization: Is it possible to change the colour and/or flag of your civ? Without modding files, that is.

Again, thanks in advance.

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It's through modding. I'm sure there will be a ton of people making new flags, and it is not that difficult to do...

Lord_all_Mighty said:

CivRules could you tell us how balanced you think the unit promotions are? This has been worrying me a while and from someone who has played the game, I wonder if they are valid.

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They are balanced, because no Civ is left behind here. It’s not like Civ A gets to promote their units, while Civ B lags behind. There are Civics & Buildings which allow you to promote units even without going to battle!

@ Legionarius – No City view here. The WYSIWYG concept presents buildings and city features smack on the terrain, so it shouldn’t be misleading when simply looking at your cities.

Samson said:

I have not read the whole thread, so sorry if this has been answered before.

From the preview -

Surely this is what the AI has always done, and it has been the bigest issue with the AI. Instead of building up an invasion force big enough to do real damage, it just sends whatever units is has in dribs and drabs for you to kill with overwelming force.

I hope the modding will allow this to be changed, though I guess it is not trivial to get right of it would have been done by now.

Click to expand...

You are misunderstanding… It is not just throwing units to battle, it is making small stacks and sending them in to your land (in waves).
I think you’re underestimating this.

Duwes said:

Hi guys (and girls??),

I have all my hopes set on Civ.4, and hope It will be just as addictive as they used to be (even took a week off work ). And not being turned into some easy money making clone that is to easy and doesn't have any new challenges and ideas. I've been reading a lot about this game and a bit worried. Its all 3D and all but I don't care about that I need some seriously good gameplay. Can some of you guys change my thoughts!!!

Anyway thanks for all your info. on this site.

Click to expand...

I think in the preview I concluded pretty well that it’s not all about the eye-candy. 3D gives a huge opportunity to make the game more accessible, and it does an A+ job on that, imo.

Weasel Op said:

Good idea! That should be easy to do in XML.

Click to expand...

You are right.

Duwes said:

Hi guys (and girls??),

My first post, personal and not too euforic. I love the Civ. series and played all of them, don't get me wrong! But I have been disapointed by a lot of games lately ( Black & White 2, AoE3, Earth 2160, Rome Total War the invasion thing) they look brilliant have all you wish in a good RTS game but they get boring very quickly! Maybe I'am spoiled by all this gaming and expecting things that can't be made.

I have all my hopes set on Civ.4, and hope It will be just as addictive as they used to be (even took a week off work ). And not being turned into some easy money making clone that is to easy and doesn't have any new challenges and ideas. I've been reading a lot about this game and a bit worried. Its all 3D and all but I don't care about that I need some seriously good gameplay. Can some of you guys change my thoughts!!!

Anyway thanks for all your info. on this site.

Click to expand...

If you will like Civ4 or not is not something that I or anyone else can predict, but most of us on this site of course like what we're seeing in the previews. Some people are of course complaining about specific features, but that cannot be avoided. There is no such thing as a perfect game for everybody. Whatever you say, you can't name this game an easy money making clone. It has lots of new gameplay features and seems to be very well thought trough. The changes made are much bigger then the ones made with the introduction of civ2 or civ3. Some features include civics (building stones of your government), improved strategic and tactical combat, streamlined gameplay by allowing most actions to be performed directly from the main map and by removing unfun features like pollution cleaning and replacing them by fun features like health, more interesting terrain improvements, great people that can be produced by cities and have a big influence on the choices one makes for his cities (make a production city, commerce city or great-people-creating city), good AI according to the hands-on previews from experienced civ-players of this forum (and from Apolyton), good multiplayer facilities, etc.

The best source for information of this game is Civrules Pre-release information which can be found here:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/info/

Civrules said:

They are balanced, because no Civ is left behind here. It’s not like Civ A gets to promote their units, while Civ B lags behind. There are Civics & Buildings which allow you to promote units even without going to battle!

Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood my question.

What I wanted to know is if the unit's bonuses that promotions bring are balanced (I.E. when I make a choice on which promotion to give my unit, is it a balanced list)?

Balanced for what? It depends what you're planning on using the unit for, after all.

I have a nice question:

Civrules, have you seen the type of files that the game uses for saves-graphics-units? Are they too differente for what we had on CivIII?

What about the city art/style? Are they unique to a culture group (i.e Far East) or is it the same style for every civ?