E3 2005: Civ4 Live Stage Demo (GameSpot)

[Louis XXIV]

What they've said about diplomacy so far:

You can negotiate open borders
Trade agreements
Get them to make peace with someone else
Get them to declare war on someone without you declaring war

I also think their attitude can be affected by sharing religion or government options (civics).

 

[Vael]

I really wish they would talk about diplomacy, its always been one of the weakest parts of the game and they barely mention how it changes in Civ4. I hope its because they are still working on programing the AI.

In the interview at IGN the producer said that most of the game was in place and that Soren was spending most of his time working on the AI. With 7 months left until the game comes out that's a very promising concept.

 

[ForbiddenPalace]

The global view certainly is awesome. The animations of the resources, which I miss so much in civIII, certainly bring life feelings to the game. But there are certain downsides in my opinion:
1. The game focus on individual unit such that different types of promotions will make the same types of units with distince abilities. I am afraid there will be too much micro-management for the game if I have 400 tanks and ready to conquer the world.
2. The tech. tree is not very impressive. It simply connected the tech. trees from different eras. I was hoping something like the tech. trees in test of time where everything are connecetd together.
3. The combat scenes really reminds me Sid Meier's Pirates. Pirate is a great game but the battle I have to go through in order to sack a city is really boring and not fun at all. I just hope that kind of battle experience is not introduced into Civ4.

This is a great video after all and makes civ4 even more anticipated.

 

[mudblood]

The way it looks now, it'll be out right after Thanksgiving in the U.S. I don't think it'll be a rush job at the end (at least not too much; there always seem to be a few last minute things with these games), but they'll use every minute they have to ratchet up the buzz and create huge demand for the initial release. There's no reason looking at this game not to believe Firaxis when they say it will be out for the holidays. Which means the week of 11/27. 6 months, 1 week. If you're in North America.

One thing about the animation: The otters they have for furs are too cute. I'm going to feel guilty every time I trade them.

 

[Vael]

Could projects be wonders?

Didn't I see wonders as another listed option in addition to projects?

EDIT: One thing I noticed different about diplomacy is that I didn't see an advisor to save you time on trading.

Indeed. Hopefully there will be advisor screens like in Civ 3 where this will be taken care of.

1. The game focus on individual unit such that different types of promotions will make the same types of units with distince abilities. I am afraid there will be too much micro-management for the game if I have 400 tanks and ready to conquer the world.

The impression I got from Soren's presentation was that there would be fewer units to manage. Rather than a massive stack of 40 Swordsmen attacking by themselves in Civ 3 you would have a smaller force of 10/15 that is more customized and contains a variety of units, each serving a special purpose.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Technologies
Units
Buildings
Improvements
Promotions
Unit Categories
Civilizations
Leaders
Religions
Civics
Projects
Game Concepts

 

[mudblood]

Analysis: EDIT: At 7:19 the game is shown changing turns, and he's given options for what he can have the city produce. I initially thought that it was a list of cities and what they were building.

You cannot continue constructing the Oracle in _____. What would you like to work on now?

Examine City
Worker (_) Recommended
Library (_) Recommended
Settler (_)
Scout (_)
_____ (_)
Spearman (_)
Archer (_)
Catapult (_)
Walls (_)
Aquaduct (_)
_______ (_)
_______ (_)


Not much different here either.

 

[Stephan Hoyer]

Hmm... too bad the world isn't true 3D, so you're still cut off by the poles.

 

[p dandy]

I like that the first civ to outlaw slavery causes discontent in your oppenent's cities. The depth that they added to this game is incredible.

The dual leaders for each civ alleviates some unease that some people were feeling about how the gameplay might be too restrcitive (those who wanted to go on a rampage as Ghandi). The distinct leader bonuses is also interesting (18*2 civs virtually).

So will all resources be tradeable (i.e. basic wheat). It seems like they fleshed out the standard bonus resources.

 

[Slax]

I hate to ask a tech question here, but all I get (at 56k) is a very low res picture with sound and only for about 2 1/2 min. Everyone is not using GameSpot Complete are they? Or is it the connection speed?

 

[playshogi]

Sounds like civs won't have traits as before, but that the civ leader replaces that concept?

 

[p dandy]

Sounds like civs won't have traits as before, but that the civ leader replaces that concept?

Ah, ic. That makes a lot of sense. In the gamespot article they wrote that Napoleon will have militaristic bonuses while Louis (some number) would have cultural bonuses.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

The demo looks fantastic. However, God help me when I try to mod it! The units and leaderheads will take some doing methinks....

 

[Thunderfall]

From the news page:

GameSpot added three 1-minute long gameplay footages in addition to the live stage demo to that page. These gameplay clips are from the same stage demo, except you don't hear the conversation -- only the audio from the game. For example, you can hear the birds chirping when on the main map and the different diplomacy music.

 

[Vegasgustan]

That was certainly sweet. Here is hoping it actually comes out on Mac in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[StavrosMelb]

Oh. My. God.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/media.html

Everyone MUST sign-up to Gamespot and view the live demo! 11 minutes worth of stuff and it reveals a fair bit of info about some leaders, part of the tech tree, resources etc.

I almost cried

 

[ArbitraryGuy]

In the diplomatic movie clips there was Civ specific music! Sweet!

 

[Sullla]

Well. For those of you who were ripping the graphics in the screenshots earlier this morning...



Looks great! Six more months and counting.

 

[Thunderfall]

Everyone MUST sign-up to Gamespot and view the live demo! 11 minutes worth of stuff and it reveals a fair bit of info about some leaders, part of the tech tree, resources etc.

I almost cried

heh, but you didn't have to sign up to view that movie. Free streaming is available for everyone.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

You know, Vael, I soooo hope you are wrong about combat being 1 versus 1! This is the ONE aspect of combat I have been wanting them to change since around the first installment. I always found it quite ridiculous how the combat system seemed to be based on a 'Martial Arts' movie, where two units pair off and fight, whilst everyone else seems to stand back and watch ! Not only that, but it makes combat so very time intensive. It would be sooo much better if you could just dump your stack on the other guys stack-so to speak-and then just watch all the units in both stacks 'go for it', with the computer selecting each unit's opponent based on the greatest likelihood of success. To me, that doesn't seem like much to ask for-especially given that combined arms tactics and stacked combat have been in CtP since the late 1990's!!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.