Skybuck's first single player game review (A former civ3 conquest player woeh ! :) )

Skybuck

Prince
Joined
Apr 23, 2005
Messages
301
Well I just played a game and here is a real player/user review. (Me used to civilization 3 conquest multiplayer <- played it over 200+ times at least :) )

I started the game and I choose the smallest game possible since I am on a slow system:
PIII 450 mhz, 256 MB ram and GeForce FX 5200 with 128 MB of ram.

Pangea and default graphics/sound settings.

My windows xp is pretty much optimized and tweaked... so only 12 services running and no
other deleted like auto backup and error reporting and dll cache and that sort of slow
stuff, all disabled. That explains why my PC performs so well lol.

Anyway I was quite surprised that the game actually ran on my system...
I expected the game to run to slow to be playable but as with all games the game was playable.
The only problem so far was intro's/full screen animation.. the sound would stutter/stop every second. (I think I accidently skipped over the intro because I wanted to raise the app priority in task manager.. oh well I ll check next time I start it up ;) I did see like space and world coming into view ;))

Well after playing for an hour or so I defeat the AI and my score was: 36404.

It said I was Julius Ceaser level or something :)

So much for the AI lol... Yes I played many online games so I know how to kick butt :D

Anyway my first impression was this:

1. First few minutes... wow I gotta get used to this big time. I was a bit scared and didnt dare to do much and was just exploring with my warrior lol... I was a bit worried the AI or the bad beasts would attack me... but fortunately non of that, I also immediatly got a free settler from a hut ?! How many players had that their first time lol ? I think I must have been very lucky ? :D

I also noticed some forests growing.... I thought to myself: "Hmmm that s pretty cool and could be handy.... now those forests replenish and can be cut down for extra wood=production <- yeah baby =D )

2. Second few minutes... hard to tell where units are and what kind of units it are...

3. Confusion about how to connect resources...

4. Trying to read the civpedia is hard... mostly pictures which makes it really hard to find quickly what you are searching for... but once you enter a random picture you can see all the units/text next to it but still... So the civpedia is a bit weird/dumb.

No links to things etc... which I also missed a bit.

5. I already build a farm on the horses... so now I had to build a pasture on it destroying the farm lol.. didn't know what I was doing at the start.

6. What the deleted is cottage? I think its housing for your people or something... I didnt really bother to look it up.. or maybe it s just a new city ? hmm I dont know... I do know it gives one extra gold.. so it's probably just some sort of city improvement which can grow ?!?

Sigh... well I can be short about all of this:

1. It has many many many building types ?! <- maybe a little bit too much ?
2. Research goes incrediably fast at the start and then slowsdown somewhat...
(I immediatly got a free village from a hut too maybe that explains it lol.)
3. I build more cities later... the ai build a city right after I destroyed his capital, I was a bit surprised like that... I guess he sneaked away with a settler or something lol... He only build one other city lol... then I destroyed that one quickly as well... Me had like 6 archers and two horses and destroyed his capital... (I think the civ was callled mallie or something like that... yellow dudes :) ) then had 4 or 5 left plus
one horse to take the last city... I was a bit lucky that I destroyed last city
since I destroyed it with my last archer :D)

Little addition: I am not sure... maybe I attacked the last city with two horses instead of just one... anyway I upgraded one of the horses with better sight after it destroyed the capital first... the upgraded sight was hell cool... I really liked it a lot... at the end I simply decided to throw everything against the last city with success as described above.

4. I do miss the "stack attack" option... all units have to be moved manually and attack individually ?

I can see that that would make the game a bit more fair but ok... required lot's of moving with mouse etc...

5. Actually my hand is quite hurting from playing this game... I never had that before...

I constantly had to move the mouse around to see what I was doing and to scroll the map etc.

My first final conclusion is this:

1. It's pretty much a deleted game... the graphics are too large/clumsy/hard to tell what is what etc... I did like some stuff like water flowing and air flowing when zoomed out...

2. I liked the overall view of civilization 3 better <- more cities and more units on screen.

So what I am saying is that the big graphics in civ 4 make the game a lot more hard to play...

My hand/arm/wrist is really hurting from all the game scrolling... I dont know why really...
Maybe the mouse just moved to slow... maybe my system was too slow...

Or maybe civ4 misses something...

But for now I ll give it the benefit of the doubt.... ;)

3. I will lower my graphics and I ll see if it has a mouse sensitivity option and maybe a "scroll faster" option etc... because all the scrolling was too slow ;)

4. Also the startrek voice telling about some "stupid wisedom deleted started to annoy me a little bit... I hope it can be turned off lol because in multiplayer that would really start to annoy quickly lol... who gives a deleted about that deleted lol.

5. Anyway I havent played multiplayer yet. Thank god for that.. because first I have to tune it otherwise my hand would fall off or something =D

So i'll try to some it up in short:

What I have been able to tell so far from first game in duel mode until BC 1000 or something.

Good points:
+ New stuff, new boats, new fishing options, new resources, new ways to connect them.

Bad points:
- Graphics way too big, takes up too much space, no overview <- can zoom out but useless cant move units in zoomed out ?

- Graphics a bit fuzzy, hard to tell what is what and where etc...

All in all it was quite an interesting experience lol... I am not yet down playing this game etc... first I wanna see how it performance with lower graphics etc and how multiplayer is like etc...

And maybe I ll also try the game out on faster system etc... though I doubt it will make any difference for the graphics clearity... it will probably remain fuzzy etc...

Anyway that's about it folks...

See you sometime in the future possibly :p*

P.S.:

Personally I can not understand the positive review that it has been getting.
I read many reviews and I was like: "Huh ? New stuff ? Are you crazy ? All that stuff was already in civilization 3 conquest <- expansion pack"

So I guess most of those reviewers didn't play the expansion pack lol =D

To be honest during the game I wanted to quite and start playing civ3 conquest gain... but as I said before I am not done yet... I have to try civ4 at lower graphics... and I would still like to try multiplayer to see if it crashes less than civ3 conquest etc... oh well, sigh.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Moderator Action: Warned for language.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
 
If the AI isn't putting up enough of a fight, try increasing the difficulty level. You said you got a settler from a hut; you can't pop settlers from huts on any difficulty higher than Chieftan, so there should be plenty of room to make things tougher. The AI is significantly penalized on Chieftan, actually...

A Duel map also only supports two civs, you and one AI civ. These are very unusual circumstances for a game of Civ4; generally speaking, it's not hard to crush one AI civ on an extremely small map on the second-easiest difficulty level. Perhaps you'd have more enjoyment on a different map setting? :)

If you can't see that Civ4 has drastically changed the gameplay and introduced many new features since Civ3 Conquests, well sir, I will have to respectfully disagree with you. :)
 
Sullla said:
If the AI isn't putting up enough of a fight, try increasing the difficulty level. You said you got a settler from a hut; you can't pop settlers from huts on any difficulty higher than Chieftan, so there should be plenty of room to make things tougher. The AI is significantly penalized on Chieftan, actually...

A Duel map also only supports two civs, you and one AI civ. These are very unusual circumstances for a game of Civ4; generally speaking, it's not hard to crush one AI civ on an extremely small map on the second-easiest difficulty level. Perhaps you'd have more enjoyment on a different map setting? :)

If you can't see that Civ4 has drastically changed the gameplay and introduced many new features since Civ3 Conquests, well sir, I will have to respectfully disagree with you. :)

Lol, I am not saying anything like that.

I simply described how my first game proceeded. You are drawing conclusion yourself.

Maybe I dont need all those extra "enhancements"/"new gameplay options" to win. (I simply build a large army (mini stack of doom lol) and crushed the AI lol )

But I do understand what you are saying, and I agree with you that the AI was simply not a challenge at all at that level. Generally I dont like playing AI... I see no point in it ;) Especially not if the AI becomes way to hard :) (read: cheating or unhuman like)

Oh yeah one more thing came to mind... which I already read in the review...

Pillaging now gives a bit of gold... I pillaged exactly once... a farm I think it was... It gave me 2 gold <--- fricking awesome !!! =D

Raping land now pays off ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhh :D hahahaha.

Newbies better watch out !!! Because I have a feeling CIV 4 will be RAPE paradise lol ;) =D

Oh yeah one more thing: I didn't see any time bar/turn time etc ? huh ?

I didnt know when my turn was over... until it said press enter to continue ? hmmm maybe single player doesnt have a time bar or it was not enabled oh welll. ;)

Oh yeah and something else just popped into my head too...

Left mouse button vs Right mouse button...

Sometimes you need to click left to move a military unit and
Sometimes you need to click right to move a worker unit ?

Or was it the other way around ??? <- a bit confusion lol...

Selecting units was also a bit weird... I ended up accidently setting paths for units... but fortuntely I could undo that somehow by clicking the unit etc... I kinda miss the "color disc" etc to see what I selected etc... but maybe all that can be turned on/off via options etc...

But I guess people will get used to this... <- boring...

Why not everything the same way... weirdness.
 
Hand hurting? Couldn't you zoom out to see more land? I'd expect hands hurting from Quake....but Civ?
 
Al Fredo said:
Hand hurting? Couldn't you zoom out to see more land? I'd expect hands hurting from Quake....but Civ?

As I described zooming out is just for viewing it doesnt allow to move anything ?

I never ever heard my hand with a shooter... at least not while playing with the mouse.

I and a friend of mine did get a terminator hand when we first played it back when we didnt have internet etc... We didnt know that we should play the game with a mouse so instead we played with the keyboard for three hours non stop, the first entrance level and we kept pushing forward and the shift button to run lol. We got CRAMPS in our HANDS LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

After three hours I decided it was time for a minute break and then I let the keyboard go and I noticed my hand was moving like a terminator... IEE, IEE, IEE... I could no longer move my hand smoothly... but it went in shocks of 90 degrees etc... I chatted to him: "Make a fist" and he replied: "Woooooooooooooooooooooooooow"

He had a terminator hand too ;)

That was the last time we played together. I didnt play the game again for a year <- simply not interested ;)

A year later or so I and somebody else got our arses kicked at college by somebody using a mouse... while we used keyboard.... then I started playing the game again at home with a mouse via the internet and then I discovered the true fun/potential of QUAKE !.... Nothing beats the mouse so far.... ;)

Maybe nintendo's new controllers though.

I ended up playing quake so much via an expensive isp I payed like 700 bucks for a phone bill LOL. After that I got a free internet provider and later cable ;)

Yup that were the times... there was this one guy called: "King" (30 to 35 year old guy) or something he was so good he pissed me off lol... I went crazy/mad/bezerk... I swore I would win that round of 30 players and I was fricking mad lol... and I actually won... while having a ping of 500 lol :D Fricking great... It was the squared level with lava and doors right before the end level with the big boss... all other people went like: "calm down dude, calm down" lol :D

Bye,
Skybuck.
 
Well today I also played a multiplayer game...

I joined it thinking that it was a new game... but noooooooo it was a replacement game...

Well anyway... I played it... and I ruled it ha-ha.

I simply build a gigant big stack of doom and destroyed bombay... and then I destroy hamburg. Yes two different civilizations got deleted by me lol.

I said to them lol: "The stack of doom is still in power"

In other words the stack of doom still rules woeh =D

Then the game crashed or something... I think they left and then it crashed...

The hamburg player tried to bombard me with catapult I could tell it did some damage but not enough my stack was just tooo big just like some of my body parts lololololololololololololololololololol

Well I am too crazy right now today to play a serious game... the pc is also kinda sssssssssslow... I dont know maybe I go play on faster pc... maybe i play on my slow pc... I really dont know yet...

I really dont like the game that much the graphics are just tooooo slow toooo big toooooo strange.. to bad really... to chaotic I told them...

But the hamburg player like it lol.... ;)

Oh well.

Bbb-b-b-b-b-b-ye bye
Skybuck.

Oh one more thing....

Right now I am listening to the beethoven music via winamp....

Yes... I simply went into the civilization folder where the soundtrack is located....

The music is sure nice... and I haven't even reached the modern age yet ;) :p*

Also if you want to view the video's without sound stutter..

Try downloading the RAD video tool from/for BINK...

Just search for BINK and VIDEO with google and you lll find it ;)

It plays twice as fast as the in game player and no stutter...

I already saw all victory movies... and some wonder movies...

SPoiler aLert: There is even a space elevator wonder ! wow ;) :)

I wonder what I does but I dont really care lalalalalalalalalaalalalal lol :p* :)

Bye,
Skybuck.
 
Well I finished skipping through all the music... it's a bit monothemic... mostly violins and violins and violins even in modern age... gje. thums down... bad, bad, bad, bad, bb-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-ad. So I take back what I said.. the music not so great... to-to-to-to- monothemic meaning all the same... oh-oh.

Bye,
I am not even going to put my name here lol hahahahaha I am to embarased that I listened to this music lol :D hahahaha.
 
I think you didn't have to ban him, he would ban his selves in a moment

Btw I think he loves civ3 to much, he played it so much, got used to that game so much and he can't let loose of his old tactics and they don't work as good as in civ3, therefore he doesn't like it, you got to open up to let civ4 basics and tactics come to you, only then you would be able to love it.

But it's nice to read some scepticism from atleast someone (because you almost always hear postive things), I appriciate that although the bad words could be left out.
 
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