Civ 4 & 5 Differences: The List

[BjoernLars]

I am trying to make an objective list of the differences between the two games of Civ 4 and Civ 5. I am just looking for the differences in game play mechanics. Here is what I have so far. If you can think of anything that I missed, please let me know and I will add it to the list.

• Hex vs. Square Tiles
• 1UPT vs. Infinite Stack
• No Religion vs. Religion
• AI Competes Against You vs. AI Plays a Role
• Ranged Units vs. “Suicide Catapults”
• City Bombardment vs. City Defense based on Units
• Cities Can Defend Themselves vs. Cities Can't Defend Themselves
• 1 Tile Cultural Expansion vs. Ring Cultural Expansion
• Purchasing Tiles vs. No Purchasing Tiles
• Global Happiness vs. Local Happiness
• No health vs. Local Health
• 1 Leader per Civ vs. Multiple Leaders per Civ
• Very Unique Civ Abilities vs. Standardized “Balanced” Civ Abilities
• Limited Units of Strategic Resources vs. Unlimited Units from Strategic Resources
• Embarking vs. Troop Transport Units
• No Espionage vs. Espionage
• Natural Wonders vs. No Natural Wonders
• No Random Events vs. Random Events
• Road Upkeep vs. No Road Upkeep
• Trading Posts vs. Cottages
• Research Agreements vs. Tech Trading
• Building Maintenance vs. City Maintenance
• Resource Dependent Buildings vs. Non-Resource Dependent Buildings
• Social Policies vs. Civics
• No Slider vs. Science/Culture Slider
• Internal Trade Only vs. International Trade
• Wonder Artwork vs. Wonder Videos
• No End of Game Replay vs. End of Game Replay
• No Power Graphs vs. Power Graphs
• Individual Great Person Points vs. Group Great Person Points
• No Vassals & Colonies vs. Vassals & Colonies
• Civ 5 Icon Art vs. Civ 4 Icon Art
• No Slave Rush vs. Slave Rush
• Can't Use Gold to Finish Production vs. Can Use Gold to Finish Production
• Transport Spaceship Parts to Capital vs. Spaceships Parts Automatically Ready
• Workers & Settlers Can't Join City vs. Workers & Settlers Can Join City
• Strategic View vs. No Strategic View

I've looked through a couple of other posts and got some ideas, but never really saw a list.

Thanks for the differences that I miss. I've already been able to expand the list some more.

[Louis XXIV]

A couple of those that need a bit of elaboration:

AI Competes Against You vs. AI Plays a Role
I'd also add "factors affecting relationship given without weight vs. factors assigned clear point values."
"Declaration of friendship and denouncements used to define friends and foes vs. point system/civics/religion."

City Bombardment vs. City Defense based on Units
Should probably add that cities defend themselves in Civ5.

Very Unique Civ Abilities vs. Standardized “Balanced” Civ Abilities
"Unique ability based on the Civ vs. Unique ability based on the leader"

Social policies build upon each other based on culture earned vs. civics that are exclusive within branches based solely on technology

Goodie huts only give benefits vs. goodie huts can also spawn barbarians

Barbarians appear in villages in FoW vs. Barbarians can found cities

City-States vs. No City-States (no clean way of putting that).
No random events vs. random events
Natural wonders vs. No natural wonders
(More generally, unique map icons that provide ongoing benefits but are independent of resources)

Bonus resources only benefit individual city vs. All resources tradeable

Obviously, I'm very wordy tonight.

[BjoernLars]

Good ideas for the clarifications Louis 14. I will try to edit my list and make it clearer when I have time later today.

[Louis XXIV]

I have an extra X in my name

If you were to incorporate them, I'd suggest thinking of a way to phrase what I said more concisely.

[TM Moot]

Puppets v Vassals (sort of!)
No Espionage v Espionage
Limited internal Trade Routes v International/Continental Trade Routes
Research Agreements v Tech trading/brokering
Trade Posts v Cottages
Costly Roads v Road spam

[Babri]

2UUs or 1 UU & 1UB/UI Vs standard 1UU & 1UB
Social policies Vs civics
Building Maintenance Vs City Maintenance
More unique civs overall Vs Standard leader traits & average UUs
Natural Wonders Vs None
Population based on Science & Wealth based on Specialists/Tiles Vs Commerce & sliders

[aatami]

Rarer large leadership desicions that are meaningfull vs. Constant small, quite meaningless decisions.

[vincentz]

Originally Posted by aatami

Rarer large leadership desicions that are meaningfull vs. Constant small, quite meaningless decisions.

I guess you failed to read the first line of the OP :

I am trying to make an objective list

Spoiler:

The irony is that moving a stack of 50+ units is small and meaningless rather than individualy moving 50 units ?

which brings:

Unit micromanagement vs City micromanagement

[aatami]

Originally Posted by vincentz

I guess you failed to read the first line of the OP :

I am trying to make an objective list

I did not.

[Babri]

Originally Posted by aatami

Rarer large leadership desicions that are meaningfull vs. Constant small, quite meaningless decisions.

The negative side is that there is little to do when not at war.

[aatami]

I wasn't speaking of war when I was talking about leadership desicions.

[headcase]

Global Culture needed to build Utopia Project vs Three Legendary Cities for Victory
UN only used for victory vs UN to pass various resolutions

[vincentz]

Originally Posted by aatami

Rarer large leadership desicions that are meaningfull vs. Constant small, quite meaningless decisions.

Then I didnt understand you. Would you care to elaborate?

I do however, partly, agree with your statement though... with a small edit :


Rarer large leadership desicions that are meaningfull
(and not much to do between)

vs.

Rarer large leadership desicions that are meaningfull
(and constant small, quite meaningless decisions to fill the gab)

[Lay_Lay]

This one should be up there after Hex and 1upt.
Can buy almost everything with gold vs. Cannot
huge difference

[enigmagic]

No replay at the end of each game.

No tile animations to show which tiles were being worked.

I miss both of these

[Louis XXIV]

Replay is back.

[PieceOfMind]

No map trading vs. map trading
Leaders speak vs. Diplomacy text (not sure if this goes in a "game mechanics" list, but then so neither does end of game replays or wonder videos)
Simpler single-round combat vs. complicated multi-round combat
Streamlined user interface vs. ergonomic but uglier user interface
City States vs. no City States
No Global Warming vs. Global Warming
No Vassals or Colonies vs. Vassals and Colonies
Great Person points collected for each type vs. being pooled together

[Babri]

Puppeting & Razing taking few turns VS No puppeting & instant razing

[BjoernLars]

Originally Posted by Louis XXIV

Replay is back.

Unless I am missing it, does the replay show the map and overtime expansion or is it only a list of actions that happened throughout the game?

[Mercade]

Nice thread!

Buy whole units/buildings only versus rushing a half-build unit/building. No slavery rushing.
Workers cannot join a city to boost population.
Spaceship requires components to be transported to capital for installation.