DS Version Impressions and Q&A

[bamf226]

A number of DS questions

1) How do I tell who I am at war with. I go to the Diplomacy Screen and see the other 4 Leaders. I expect to see a dove or sword on the leader's image but it is not there, also the upper screen doesn't say the war status. The only way I can tell is talk to them, there has to be an easier why to tell who is at war with you.

2) How do I tell the nationality of a unit on the map? I scroll over the unit with the Yellow box and all it says is warrior etc. The colors sometimes work but some nations have very similar colors. Any easy way?

With such small maps, it should be easy to remember what civs you are at war with. There is no indicator for war. On the diplomacy screen, you can see which civs you have a peace treaty with. You can also try to enter an enemy territory. If it gives the circle-slash symbol, you are not at war with that civ.

Egypt - yellow
Greek - cyan
Mongolia - red
Rome - purple
Russia - green
America - blue
France - cyan

How do you tell the difference between Greece and France? No easy way. Just take note of what direction the unit is coming from. The maps are so small, you should know all of your neighbors pretty quickly and be able to know which civ the unit belongs to even if the colors are close.

I agree Civ on the go on the DS is very cool, but I sure wish they had not omitted so much key info. Top things I've noticed --

* I rarely can tell the attack power of either my units or the enemy, even during battle, without the scout ability (unlike 360)

Look at the top screen. When you select your unit, the attack is listed with modifiers on the top screen. When you attack another unit, the defenders defense is listed on the top screen including modifiers. The only time the defending info is not seen is when attacking a city without a scout.

* It is awkward to see what units are defending all my cities

It does take some stylus work to cycle through all the units.

* It is not always clear if I am fighting an army or unit

The health bar for armies has more segments than a single unit.
Ex. a legion unit has 3 health, a legion army has 9

 

[Warrior of Wales]

Unfortunately the UK/Europe version isn't on sale until 29th August. (pre-orderded with Play.com).

I keep reading about patches.. Does the DS version need the patches and how are they down-loaded, or will a newer edition be sold at a later date? I'm a bit worried that by the time mine arrives it will be out of date.

 

[JohnSearle]

Unfortunately the UK/Europe version isn't on sale until 29th August. (pre-orderded with Play.com).

I keep reading about patches.. Does the DS version need the patches and how are they down-loaded, or will a newer edition be sold at a later date? I'm a bit worried that by the time mine arrives it will be out of date.

There most likely won't be any patches for the DS version. There is next to no space on the system to store patch data, and no previous DS game have attempted a post-release patch.

As for newer edition being sold at a later date... Some DS games have been sold that have had newer versions, but this is somewhat uncommon. I think gameplay will remain as is, and the only thing that they might do for that is small graphical bugs.

The reason why I say gameplay will be left as is... In playing multiplayer (local or not) both systems need to be reaching the same gameplay calculations, otherwise they become out of synch. If they release a newer version of CivRev DS that changes gameplay, then older releases would no longer be able to work with them. I doubt that they would do this.

That said, there isn't a lot of non-gameplay related problems that could be patched without ruining multiplayer. I wouldn't worry.

Cheers,

- John

 

[ICNP]

My Impression is that it's Civ Lite. I think the designers made a good bit of bad choices. And considering how few options you have for the games 5 Save Slots seem unnecessary. Has any one tried the Scenario's?

Civilopedia definetly needs in. So far when I look at Printing Press all it says is "Oh Printing Press its my favorite tech!" Wonderful what does it do! I don't see how this helps new players.

 

[bobbobjack]

I totally agree. The DS version is flooded with bad design decisions. I don't care for the poor graphics and sounds, the gibberish talk, the lack of civilopedia, the poor (well, the absence of) MP features, the missing crucial information, the absence of some functions implemented in the other console. Nah, i really don't care 'cause they can fix it with patches. Oh, right, this is the DS version we're talking about...

But in all honnesty, i'm an addict. I'll just play and cry.

 

[XxtraLarGe]

My Impression is that it's Civ Lite. I think the designers made a good bit of bad choices. And considering how few options you have for the games 5 Save Slots seem unnecessary. Has any one tried the Scenario's?

Civilopedia definetly needs in. So far when I look at Printing Press all it says is "Oh Printing Press its my favorite tech!" Wonderful what does it do! I don't see how this helps new players.

AFAIK, Printing Press is just place holder. It doesn't do anything except act as a prerequisite for other techs. You could probably easily skip it all together.

 

[dojoboy]

AFAIK, Printing Press is just place holder. It doesn't do anything except act as a prerequisite for other techs. You could probably easily skip it all together.

But my advisor loves that tech!

 

[MarkM]

CivRev is actually less than 40MB total including the save file. There are numerous DS games that top out at 128MB, so they had plenty to work with if they had wanted. And the difference in cost between the two different sized carts is practically zero. The actual flash rom itself costs almost nothing, so a change in size is nothing. Its the actual manufacturing of the cart it self, flashing the rom, labeling the cart, and packing it all that costs quite a bit.

But I definitely agree the UI is really half assed in this game.

Yes, I have read that Elite Beat Agents is 128mb (makes sense with all that music).

traviathin, if you have a moment please go to listen to the apolyton podcast of an interview with the CivRev project leader Around 7.5 minutes in he spends a couple minutes talking aobu the limitations of the DS version and the reasons for them. One of the statements he makes is that "we had no more room left on the civ cartridge, we would have put more on but quite literally couldn't" -- or something like that.

If what you say is true, then I think we just caught this guy lying, for the sake of an easy way out to the question whey they didn't have everything the other platforms have ("we wanted to, really, we just couldn't!")

Interesting.

 

[dojoboy]

traviathin, if you have a moment please go to listen to the
If what you say is true, then I think we just caught this guy lying, for the sake of an easy way out to the question whey they didn't have everything the other platforms have ("we wanted to, really, we just couldn't!")

Interesting.

Well, not really. What he is saying could very well be true given the likely possibility that he was working w/ a company decision. He's not necessarily lying. He's saying, what we were "given as a limit" wouldn't allow for it.

I personally would have loved for them to utilize the sound and pressure features of the mic. I've mentioned this elsewhere, but to have a unit bonus for attack, say the berserker bonus, where you get to belt an "Argh!" into the mic for a +1 attack would have been fabulous, or blowing into the mic for a +1 movement bonus for galleys, etc.

 

[MarkM]

I would have loved for them to utilize the sound and pressure features of the mic. I've mentioned this elsewhere, but to have a unit bonus for attack, say the berserker bonus, where you get to belt an "Argh!" into the mic for a +1 attack would have been fabulous, or blowing into the mic for a +1 movement bonus for galleys, etc.

Are you serious?

 

[dojoboy]

Are you serious?

From your brief response, I gather you have no opinion, other than to simply disagree? Do you own a DS?

 

[criminiminal]

I'm disappointed enough with Civ Revolution for the DS I want to smash the game into pieces and send it to 2K games with a note reading something to the effect of, "I bought your game but there was only garbage in the case. Please sent me the actual game when you're finished making it playable."


Simplifying and streamlining game play shouldn't feel like a step backwards from previous incarnations.

everything this guy said in his original post is spot on imo...

i realize this is for the DS...but there are some really crappy aspects of the game. i spent a few hours playing it tonight again & i cant see myself playing this unless i am sitting on the toilet for an extended amount of time or stuck in hell for eternity w/ my DS and this version of civ.

the worst part is that someone is going to be introduced to civ through this version and have NO idea how amazing the game was/is.

 

[dojoboy]

i realize this is for the DS...but there are some really crappy aspects of the game.

We're all ears. Let's hear the list.

 

[criminiminal]

We're all ears. Let's hear the list.

well as i said...i agree w/ everything Cornstalk already posted. i didn't feel the need to reiterate every point he made. but since you asked...

the manual sucks, doesn't explain many aspects of the game.

no civliopedia

unit attacks feel like they are left to chance

cannot move units in stack

map is way too small

not enough control options (map type, tax/research adjustments, can't work the land, etc)

ai's always want war...& will just decide to declare it on you even if you are nowhere near their territory...for no apparent reason.

i also feel like the units & buildings are too easy/fast to acquire

 

[dc82]

A lot of these gripes are not really exclusive to the DS and are towards CivRev across all platforms. In fact, the only one exclusive to the DS is that lack of a Civilopedia - which I honestly never use (if you're on this forum, you might as well look it up here where it's more concise anyways). But map size, manual issues, unit attacks, aggressive AI, building speed is the same no matter whether or not you're on the DS, PS3, or Xbox 360.

Again, the designers made the game to be small and fast. Whether you like that or not, well... that's up to each player to decide. Also for control adjustments, it's simplified, but you can decide how to focus your cities (Production, Gold, Science, etc.) and you can customize which tiles to use. Honestly though, I don't know if having workers, tile improvements on DS would be all that fun anyways.

There's definitely a lot of gameplay issues for CivRev, and you're gonna kill yourself if you try to compare it to PC Civ - honestly, especially given the super aggressive AI, I'd almost treat this game as a Civ-Risk hybrid where... you just pretty much have to expect war.

But back to the DS - again, there's actually a few features I like on the DS that I would love to see on the consoles (aside from the portability of the DS)
- End of Game scoring details
- End of Game replay
- Skipping through battle animation
- No dancing bears (less stuff popping out)
- No mandatory 5 second animation/loading for each spaceship part you build

 

[dojoboy]

the manual sucks, doesn't explain many aspects of the game.

The DS game guide was trimmed to make it fit in the DS case. However, Jason2K is having it the full DS game guide prepared for d/l at the 2K CivRev forums.

no civliopedia

Meh. Important to some, not to others. I rarely access this in Civ4.

unit attacks feel like they are left to chance

Can be, but if people would take the time to preview stats on the top screen they'd understand more about what's taking place.

cannot move units in stack

I agree. Moving a stack of units together shold have been a no-brainer.

map is way too small

I disagree. It's perfect for a 2-3 hour game, which is Firaxis's intent.

not enough control options (map type, tax/research adjustments, can't work the land, etc)

Can all be done through micromanaging each city. Or, you can just choose to focus on gold, production, science, or a balance.

ai's always want war...& will just decide to declare it on you even if you are nowhere near their territory...for no apparent reason.

This is identical to Civ2, which I didn't care for very much. I much prefer the diplomacy options of Civ4, and to some degree Civ3. However, being at war in CivRev has no detrimental effects, other than redirecting focus to building some military units in some cities. There is no war weariness or reputation issues w/ being at war in CivRev.

i also feel like the units & buildings are too easy/fast to acquire

Essential for a 2-3 hour game, as designed.

 

[XxtraLarGe]

But back to the DS - again, there's actually a few features I like on the DS that I would love to see on the consoles (aside from the portability of the DS)
- Skipping through battle animation
- No mandatory 5 second animation/loading for each spaceship part you build

I wish turning off battle animations was an User Interface option.

I think one of the most disappointing things about the game is how abruptly it ends without even any reward for winning. A simple screen with a picture of the U.N., World Bank, or somebody planting your flag on whatever planet you find by Alpha Centauri would have been a nice addition.

 

[bamf226]

In fact, the only one exclusive to the DS is that lack of a Civilopedia - which I honestly never use (if you're on this forum, you might as well look it up here where it's more concise anyways).

Having to look through a website for basic game information about a game built for portable gaming seems a little absurd doesn't it?

 

[bamf226]

The DS game guide was trimmed to make it fit in the DS case. However, Jason2K is having it the full DS game guide prepared for d/l at the 2K CivRev forums.

Please let me know when this is out there. Too bad most people buying the game now probably won't know to go out and hunt for a real manual.

Can be, but if people would take the time to preview stats on the top screen they'd understand more about what's taking place.

An attack that triples a units defense should not fail as often as it does. I can't tell you how many times I've restarted from a save because an attack that should have been no contest was lost.

 

[dojoboy]

I wish turning off battle animations was an User Interface option.

:shock:

What? Jumping toward the enemy in an extended "skip motion with hang time" is a time honored skill for delivering a death blow!