CivilopediaIV = F-

[braclayrab]

Anyone disappointed by the Civilopedia? There seems to be a lot of missing infomation... I'm hoping that it will be hotfixed with some more useful info, but even then I don't think it will measure up.

1) Currently, my civilopedia is completely blank under the entry for 'city ruins'... I don't know what it is, but it's in the civilopedia. 'city ruins'
2)My description for 'farm' says "+1g(with irrigation), 'irrigation', which i'm now suspecting is a mistake and that at some point irrigation was a technology during development... I spent like 15 mins looking for it before I reached this conclusion. (irrigation is nothing in CivIV so far as I can tell)
3)The list of categories isn't in alphabetical order and can't be alphabetized.
4)Not enough links directly to other entries. If my description for farm says '(with irrigation)' I should be able to click on irrigation, even if it doesn't really exist. irrigation = unicorn.

My main gripe I guess, is that the civilopedia seems LESS useful than the one in CivIII... one of the things I loved about CivIII was the Civilopedia and I guess I was hoping for something at least on par...

P.S. After leafing through my instuction book('farm' was in the appendix........) I've discovered that farms are exactly like irrigation in CivIII. Still no sign of what irrigation is though...

P.P.S. Okay, i'm off the go figure out why I have no music. (I might also try to figure out why I have to put in the 'install' cd to 'play') I'm just glad my vid card supports T&L.

/waves

 

[braclayrab]

In case anyone cares:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=133203
(how to turn on the music)

This is all looking very sloppy Firaxis...

 

[Modifiable]

Let me say that so far, I'm loving everything about this game. The Civilopedia, however, is dissapointing. I'm spoiled by google. Give me a search engine. Let me type in, say 'trade technology' and it come up with a list of civilopedia entries that might help. I spent 15 minutes fighting through it before I figured out that I needed the Alphabet to trade technologies.

 

[quarthinos]

For more errors, check the blurb about unit promotions. According to the civilopedia, you need 2 xp for the first promotion, 3 more for the second, and then 4 more for the third. But it says that makes a total of 10... Whoops!

 

[phr0ze]

Civilopedia just sux in this game. I mean there are areas of the civilopedia that are only represented by icons not words. But its usually the words you are looking for because some other stupid part of the pedia didn't properly cross reference. I also hate the heavy use of mini icons in the text. It wouldn't be as bad if you could hover the icon to see what it represents. But I will master these soon enough.

 

[braclayrab]

Let me say that so far, I'm loving everything about this game. The Civilopedia, however, is dissapointing. I'm spoiled by google. Give me a search engine. Let me type in, say 'trade technology' and it come up with a list of civilopedia entries that might help. I spent 15 minutes fighting through it before I figured out that I needed the Alphabet to trade technologies.

I should also mention that I'm actually enjoying the game as well. It IS still Civilization. I actually only intended to post about the civilopedia and it kinda turned into a stream of conciousness about all my complaints.

 

[braclayrab]

Civilopedia just sux in this game. I mean there are areas of the civilopedia that are only represented by icons not words. But its usually the words you are looking for because some other stupid part of the pedia didn't properly cross reference. I also hate the heavy use of mini icons in the text. It wouldn't be as bad if you could hover the icon to see what it represents. But I will master these soon enough.

Exactly.
Mouse-over should be a convenience, something you go to for MORE information, not a necessity, something you go to for THE information.

Yes, the pictures are getting on my nerves as well, perhaps I'll get used to them, but currently, I don't understand what "[picture of some crap] +1 food" means

 

[CdGGambit]

Exactly.
Mouse-over should be a convenience, something you go to for MORE information, not a necessity, something you go to for THE information.

Yes, the pictures are getting on my nerves as well, perhaps I'll get used to them, but currently, I don't understand what "[picture of some crap] +1 food" means

That picture is most likely the tech biology, which gives +1 food to farms when researched. Get your techtree poster out and cross-reference if ya have to.

 

[phr0ze]

In the past civ games I didn't need the poster or book to play. Now I feel I need it close by incase something new comes along since the in game pedia just sucks.

Also anyone notice the icons on the tech tree poster for Taoism and Confucism(sp) are reversed. It seems like QC is what 2K forgot.

 

[Monado]

What drives me crazy about the civilopedia is that you can't seperate the resources into their groups. Luxories, natural resources, and the health sources are in one big group. The civilopedia does this in other areas as well. For instance, the wonder's are not seperated but just thrown in with the rest of the city buildings.

 

[sueil]

The civlopedia sucks bigtime. No other way to put it. The biggest disappointment of the game. The rest of the game I more or less like except for a few minor gripes but the civlopedia is just awful.

 

[Rocky Top]

I have to agree, the civilopedia is terrible. The one that came with Civ 3 was awesome. You could find out anything you needed to know but I am really disappointed in this one.

The game play more than makes you forget about the piss poor civilopedia. I would prefer if they would have left it just like it was but oh well, if thats all I can ***** about, I will be just fine.

 

[Chinese American]

does it come in XML so we can improve it?

 

[MeteorPunch]

I am disappointed with it too. Graphically it just looks...cheap.

 

[braclayrab]

does it come in XML so we can improve it?

I was thinking the same thing... I poked around a bit and it appears that the civilopedia IS in xml, however, it's disjointed, and I'm not sure if it's all there. I only had a few minutes to look at it, but I'm going to take a longer look tonight after work...

 

[Hypus]

P.P.S. Okay, i'm off the go figure out why I have no music. (I might also try to figure out why I have to put in the 'install' cd to 'play') I'm just glad my vid card supports T&L.

/waves

The sound is very "3d-aware" btw. If you still hear no music zoomed all the way in close to your city; then you have a problem. I just hope all these people with sound issues aren't freaking out without playing a bit.

The cd-thing could be as simple as a typo--even though the typo is right on discs (could be added perk of owning the collector's edition---or is EVERY version having this problem right now?

 

[braclayrab]

The sound is very "3d-aware" btw. If you still hear no music zoomed all the way in close to your city; then you have a problem. I just hope all these people with sound issues aren't freaking out without playing a bit.

The cd-thing could be as simple as a typo--even though the typo is right on discs (could be added perk of owning the collector's edition---or is EVERY version having this problem right now?

Yeah, i solved the sound issue and I read under a lengthy 'bug' thread that the CDs were mislabeled. Coincidentally though,sine you mentioned it, i don't have music when i'm zoomed all the way in or all the way out. There is an XML file that looks like it defines all the distances and volume changes... All of this looks like it's easily fixable. All that remains to be seen is whether Firaxis is going to fix it for us or whether we have to fix it ourselves.

 

[Flak]

The Civilopedia isn't searchable or sortable? That's crazy in this day and age! Well I think one of the absolute first things somebody needs to do is find the files for the Civilopedia and throw them into a small database.

 

[Rince]

What disappoints me about the Civilopedia is that you can't right click on Units/Buildings in the City Screen anymore to get quick access. It seems to me that in Civ III you could almost click anywhere for such info.

Rince

 

[KymeraTX]

Yeah id have to agree on this also, but i hope Firaxis can patch it to make it like Civ 3's pedia.