Another Gamespot article

[Sub]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/preview_6131541.html?tag=boxcar_all_preview_image

Enjoy.

 

[MrMahk]

November ship

they didnt say expected or anything, so could this mean its guaranteed november?

 

[HourlyDaily]

The use of the trade screen seems to be improved along with the new things we knew you could offer for trade. From a distance it seems to be progressing well.

 

[Meleager]

cities dont sit on water any more!!

tile improvements seem to wrap around rivers also

 

[Sub]

I have to say, the city in that first pic seems a little to big to fit on one tile.

 

[Savage Discipil]

Can't what till November.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

In the second picture in the upper left hand side, is that a Fortress?

BTW, how can anyone say that those graphics look cartoony, they look great!

 

[Tacit_Exit]

I think the units could be about half their current size.

 

[Savage Discipil]

In the second picture in the upper left hand side, is that a Fortress?

BTW, how can anyone say that those graphics look cartoony, they look great!

It's a small city notice the purple territory expanding there.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

Thanks I hadn’t heard a lot about any of the defensive structures that were deleted or added, I was hoping that was a fortress.

 

[Lord_all_Mighty]

This game keeps looking better and better (both in terms of graphics and gameplay).

 

[HourlyDaily]

On the city sizes - do they take up more than one tile? If you wanted to raid the city for instance. It looks like they might because you can't see any tile improvements with the city buildings there. Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer it to be like that.

 

[Meleager]

Another thing that should be pointed out is that one of the image captions said that mountians are now impassable.

 

[joethreeblah]

This game keeps looking better and better (both in terms of graphics and gameplay).

Err...

Those are more drawings.

 

[T100]

OMG I can't wait for this game now....totally pumped.

 

[North King]

The graphics are bloody beautiful except for one thing... UNIT SIZE! Gods, those things make the whole map ugly.

 

[apatheist]

This "banking" of resources or research is not infinite, however, as you will start to lose production or research slowly over time.

Most definitely.

In the case of wonders, where someone else can build it so you are unable to return to it, you will be paid a fair market value in gold for any lost production.

Heh. Fair market value. Yeah, right. What does that even mean? There's no fairness. There's no market. There's no value. Not that I care much about this feature; I just thought it was funny.

Plus, you don't have the old "wonder domino" effect from previous versions, where you will see five wonders completed in the same turn as everyone scrambles to change production from the one that was just built.

Um, it's called wonder cascade, Barry ;-)

In Civ IV, cities require a maintenance amount that increases with each city.

So, does that mean that the base maintenance amount (no modifiers for improvements or what have you) is fixed based on when a city is founded? Or does it mean that maintenance isn't tied to a particular city, but rather to the civ as a whole based on the number of cities? I doubt it's either of those, based on previous previews and intuition, but it's a pretty ambiguous statement.

Of course, people like to play with lots of cities, and we certainly don't want to shut down their enjoyment of the game. Those people will be able to make very large civilizations with many cities, but they will have to do so in a more thoughtful and strategic manner.

Tantalizing, but not very informative.

In the options screen, players can turn on an option that will let them see bars over the units, so you can easily judge your chances before entering into combat.

Some people wanted to see stats before fighting a battle. It doesn't sound quite so precise, but it's close.

Roads no longer grant commerce because we completely overhauled the trade system and it just didn't make sense, in light of the new rules, to also give roads/railroads a blanket bonus. The other problem with the old way was that there was really only one choice that made sense--you build a road any chance you get--and having only one real choice is not very fun. There are plenty of ways to generate trade in Civ IV and they are more strategic and fun than simply sprinkling roads everywhere

I hope this means that trade will be a realistic, natural, network-based model. Again, tantalizing, but not very informative.

What about the cutthroat, ruthless AI that came after you like you had insulted its mother and that knew everything about you, including the location of your every city and military unit? You'd have a huge lead, then suddenly, the AIs would gang up and come after you with a vengeance, even if you had been the most peaceful of neighbors. Have you addressed that in Civ IV?

Barry didn't directly address this, so it sounds like the AI will still be a weasely cheat.

Workers can be grouped together, and then their actions within that group can be queued--so you can tell three workers to build a road to a certain point and not have to mess with them for several turns.

Finally.

 

[Lord_all_Mighty]

Err...

Those are more drawings.

What do you mean? The article has new screen shots attached to it.

 

[SonicX]

In the second picture in the upper left hand side, is that a Fortress?

BTW, how can anyone say that those graphics look cartoony, they look great!

These are certainly more than promising, I agree...
A couple remarks though
- The borders should be a bit thinner
- On the first screen, the outer layer of building set apart at an equal distance looks a bit odd
- Mountains would look better if they formed a chain
- Tile transitions are a bit rough, could be smoothe
- Units are too large.

But nevertheless, the biggest pain for me is waiting until november or december (our shops are always later).
I hope they pre-release an entire Civilopedia preview though.

 

[Meleager]

The units only look huge up close. When you zoom out (which you will spend most of the time in) they look just right.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/screens.html?page=55