Civ4 Multiplayer Hands On Preview

In the article, there was something about catapults reducing the cities defenses by 15%. What exactly does this entail? Are there certain hit points (associated with walls, barracks, etc.) that must be reduced before unit damage occurs or does "reducing defenses" mean reducing the health of defending units or something else entirely?

Thanks
 
Great preview Chieftess, I noticed that you said it ran great online! This is great news, have any of the testers tried playing online with a 56k modem? This is the only type of connection available to me, and I was really hopping it wasn't going to be real laggy online.
 
Civrules said:
I hope not!!
;)

I'm writing up another one. Due out before the Game's release.
Click to expand...
Civrules: Do players have any intelligence about AI research paths and progress?
 
@JBearIt. Have you seen those screenshots of cities which show a sort of 'Marble Pillar', with a +X% next to it? Well, this is the defense bonus which the units in that city currently enjoy (from culture, city improvements-and possibly over time as well, though I can't say that for certain). It is this defense bonus which siege weapons reduce-effectively 'softening up' the enemy prior to the attack.

One thing I am curious about though (a question for Thunderfall, Chieftess or Civrules), is how do siege weapons like catapults behave if they are part of a stack being attacked? Do they work like in Civ3, where they get a 'defensive bombard' attack prior to the main battle. What about if you send in an entire STACK against an opponent-with catapults in it-do they ever attack other units prior to the main battle? It just worries me how siege weapons seem like they need to actually ATTACK units in order to dish out collateral damage-thus putting themselves at risk of being destroyed-rather than being stand off units which 'pound' the enemy just before the other units slug it out. Would any of the beta testers be able to clarify EXACTLY how siege weapons work in different situations? (BTW, I don't want to see siege weapons work exactly like they did in Civ3, but I DID like their 'first strike' ability when their stack got attacked!)

Oh, and one last question. In the games you guys have played, have you ever been able to successfully blockade another nation with land or sea forces-thus depriving them of resources and/or cash from their trade routes?

Thanks in advance guys, this game looks like it is really gonna ROCK-in spite of one or two misgivings I might have!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
 
JBearIt said:
In the article, there was something about catapults reducing the cities defenses by 15%. What exactly does this entail? Are there certain hit points (associated with walls, barracks, etc.) that must be reduced before unit damage occurs or does "reducing defenses" mean reducing the health of defending units or something else entirely?
Click to expand...
No, it doesn't reduce the health of units. What it does is reduce the defense bonus of the city.

For example: in this screenshot, both Paris and Orleans have 40% defense bonus. The bonus can come from walls, wonders, culture, etc. Some big cities can have +100% defense bonus. Using catapult to lower the defense bonus to 0 will make it much easier to take the city and it will reduce your casualty. That's why it's always a good idea to bring some catapults along when attacking cities, even though they are slow moving.
 
JBearIt said:
In the article, there was something about catapults reducing the cities defenses by 15%. What exactly does this entail? Are there certain hit points (associated with walls, barracks, etc.) that must be reduced before unit damage occurs or does "reducing defenses" mean reducing the health of defending units or something else entirely?
Click to expand...


If it is unit health, don't recently fortified units gain 20% per turn for 5 turns while they fortify? Would it be best in that case to attack right away, or is it best to just pound away the defenses to nothing and then attack?
 
Sorry, I was too slow. Thanks for the answer.
 
Thunderfall said:
No, it doesn't reduce the health of units. What it does is reduce the defense bonus of the city.

For example: in this screenshot, both Paris and Orleans have 40% defense bonus. The bonus can come from walls, wonders, culture, etc. Some big cities can have +100% defense bonus. Using catapult to lower the defense bonus to 0 will make it much easier to take the city and it will reduce your casualty. That's why it's always a good idea to bring some catapults along when attacking cities, even though they are slow moving.
Click to expand...

So to use your Paris example, the first hit of the catapult will knock the defense down from 40% to 25% (a 15% reduction)? That leads to other questions: How quickly do the defense points from a stucture, culture, etc regenerate? If they are reduced to 0% do you have to rebuild? I guess that wouldn't make too much sense for culture-related defense points but a wall could be destroyed. Finally, do catapults start to inflict collateral damage to defending units in a city only after the defenses have been destroyed?

Thanks again.
 
Birdjaguar said:
Civrules: Do players have any intelligence about AI research paths and progress?
Click to expand...

I'll be covering that. :)
 
JBearIt said:
So to use your Paris example, the first hit of the catapult will knock the defense down from 40% to 25% (a 15% reduction)? That leads to other questions: How quickly do the defense points from a stucture, culture, etc regenerate? If they are reduced to 0% do you have to rebuild? I guess that wouldn't make too much sense for culture-related defense points but a wall could be destroyed. Finally, do catapults start to inflict collateral damage to defending units in a city only after the defenses have been destroyed?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
The defense bonus of city does regenerate. I don't know the exact rate but it's not very fast. You don't need to rebuld when defense bonus is reduced to 0%.

Aussie_Lurker said:
It just worries me how siege weapons seem like they need to actually ATTACK units in order to dish out collateral damage-thus putting themselves at risk of being destroyed-rather than being stand off units which 'pound' the enemy just before the other units slug it out.
Click to expand...
Aussie, you always have long questions. :p To answer one of your questions, yes, to inflict collateral damage, you do need to use your catapult to attack a target. This is ony fair since collateral damage is very powerful and causing collateral damage w/o any risk would make the catapult far too strong. In fact, it's a very good idea to attack catapults before they can cause collateral damages. Attacking with your catapult doesn't mean it will always die, since it has a chance of retreating. And after some fighting with your catapult, you can also select a Barrage promotion which would allow the catapult to cause more collateral damages.
 
Birdjaguar said:
Civrules: Do players have any intelligence about AI research paths and progress?
Civrules said:
I'll be covering that. :)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
:hatsoff: I look forward to reading it.
 
Thunderfall said:
It doesn't look like pig at all. :D

That's actually Rice. Kinda hard to see in this zoom level.
Click to expand...
Beady eyes, brown nose and a curly tail peeking out from behind spells pig. :p
 
I have clipped the image and sharpened it in photo shop so those of you who are blind can the pig. Notice teh brown nose and two eyes. The curly tail is harder to see, but it is framed by the ears. I think I can sell this on ebay.
 
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