Features that I miss

[Deathwalker]

Am I the only one who misses some of the features from Civ 3, for example I do not like the way artillery now works. I miss the old way of being able to target a square any square and not just the city.

Or am I the only one who misses some things from Civ3

 

[Dairuka]

Artillery made Civ 3 too easy.

 

[CrackityJones]

I sorta miss being able to target tiles that way, but I certainly don't miss having the AI be able to do the same thing. Gets a little tiresome watching their hundreds of artillery and naval units strafing the countryside with annoying cannon fire while I'm actually going about the more productive process of sacking their cities.

 

[Palantir30]

Artillery made Civ 3 too easy.

But expensive. Unless you increased the bombard strength, you had to maintain many many artillery units in order to get that kind of strength-based engagement security. Those units cost money, and slow you down, hence balance.

Now we have the random number generator, and degrading strength units enforcing balance. The old ways are better.

 

[Palantir30]

I sorta miss being able to target tiles that way, but I certainly don't miss having the AI be able to do the same thing. Gets a little tiresome watching their hundreds of artillery and naval units strafing the countryside with annoying cannon fire while I'm actually going about the more productive process of sacking their cities.

Just wait till the AI lands a couple transports full of gunships on you, and proceeds to do nothing with them but pillage every tile within 5 tiles of your coastline....instead of using them for sacking your cities. This problem still exists, and is worse now than before.

 

[jayeffaar]

One thing I miss, that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the ability to have the camera follow automated units. Once you've put a scout or galley on auto-explore or automated a worker, it's too easy to forget it. A preference to show them or not would be nice.

Along the same lines, I'd sometimes like to see AI-vs-AI battles that happen within my line-of-sight. If a friendly neighbour's cities are getting pummelled by another AI, I'd like to see it so that I can send help (or run away). Again, there doesn't seem to be a preference for that.

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

One thing I miss, that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is the ability to have the camera follow automated units. Once you've put a scout or galley on auto-explore or automated a worker, it's too easy to forget it. A preference to show them or not would be nice.

Agreed.

Along the same lines, I'd sometimes like to see AI-vs-AI battles that happen within my line-of-sight. If a friendly neighbour's cities are getting pummelled by another AI, I'd like to see it so that I can send help (or run away). Again, there doesn't seem to be a preference for that.

Isn't this be covered under the "Show Friendly/Enemy Moves" options? I've never seen the AI go to war with anyone but me, so I can't verify that it would or wouldn't be... but have you tried it?


Later!

--The Clown to the Left

 

[Percinho]

I miss the Launch button. A spaceship victory has never been the same since it went...

 

[Palantir30]

Isn't this be covered under the "Show Friendly/Enemy Moves" options? I've never seen the AI go to war with anyone but me, so I can't verify that it would or wouldn't be... but have you tried it?

I have show friendly/enemy moves on. I have had the AI go to war with my nothern neighbor. Actually, several AI's went to war with my northern neighbor, enough so that I knew I was not going to have that northern neighbor anymore, so I went to war with him too, since if someone's going to take him over, it might as well be me. So I was racing three AI's to try to take over this neighbor's 8 cities. I got 8, they got 3. We had our units in very close proximity, AND each one of this neighbor's cities had Buddhism, and I had founded Buddhism, had the shrine and had it as my state religion, so I had line of sight on every one of those cities.

All of that, and I never saw an AI/AI battle. So I also agree with jayeffar, it's sad that this is gone.

 

[vyapti]

I miss the Launch button. A spaceship victory has never been the same since it went...

CIV4's space race is better than ever. With Labs, the Space Elevator and more elaborate tech requirements, there is more strategy than in Civ3, but nothing beats the tension of Civ 2

. . . I've launched my spaceship and now have to wait a few turns while everyone knows that I will win if I can keep my captol. . . I haven't actively sought the space race victory since Civ2.

 

[jayeffaar]

Isn't this be covered under the "Show Friendly/Enemy Moves" options? I've never seen the AI go to war with anyone but me, so I can't verify that it would or wouldn't be... but have you tried it?

I always play with "Show Enemy Moves", and often with "Show Friendly Moves" (until later in the game when I have too many "friends" aimlessly running around my countryside -- I really wish they would pick a spot and stay put, those ADD freaks, but I digress...). My point is that with those options on, I've never seen AI fights, even when close neighbours had SoDs knocking at their doors and the number of their defenders dwindled between turns.

 

[Trojan Sheep]

The one thing I really miss from Civ 3 was the Age specific leaderheads. I loved seeing my viking warlord turn into something closely resembling an angry amish man, only to eventually end up looking like a business tycoon with a facial hair fetish. It really gave the different ages a very distinct feel that has been somewhat lost with Civ 4.

I don't miss artillary, it was simply too powerful and although the new incarnation isn't quite as realistic I think it leads to much more tactical gameplay by both player and AI.

Another thing I'm glad they removed was armies, they also pretty much killed the combat system. I would like to see some form of military great leader though. Maybe has a small chance to spawn off of a level 5 or above unit during any fight where they gain 2 or more xp, and can be used to create a war academy (additional 2 xp to new units in that city, and maybe a bit of culture), research a military oriented tech, join a city to provide shields and gold or start a golden age like any other great person.

 

[yoshi]

Artillery: It would have been perfectly acceptable to keep the Civ3 system only have artillery units do damage to units on the same square and reduce city defences without resorting to this new system in Civ4 (i.e. essentially an offensive unit when attacking other units).

The new system distorts the role of artillery and the retreat ability makes no sense whatsoever. Balancing is not the issue here because you can balance in any way (not necessarily by introducing a new feature).

ZoC: There is none--WTH? So units can run around without incurring any penalty until their turn is up. Not even fortresses exhert ZoC! What's the reason this time? Balance? Bull.

Not much else to miss from Civ3 because Civ4 kept most of the Civ3 features.

 

[Percinho]

CIV4's space race is better than ever. With Labs, the Space Elevator and more elaborate tech requirements, there is more strategy than in Civ3, but nothing beats the tension of Civ 2

. . . I've launched my spaceship and now have to wait a few turns while everyone knows that I will win if I can keep my captol. . . I haven't actively sought the space race victory since Civ2.

Agreed, the space race is better than 3, but I really miss the Launch button. There was something deeply satisfying about pressing it knowing it triggered victory.

 

[ikell]

I wasn't a fan of civ3, but I miss a few things from SMAC:

1. Customizable units = very very cool (fission powered bombard workers)

2. Landmarks (how sweet was the borehole cluster?)

3. Supply crawlers

And a random gripe, the new pyramids wonder is weak. I want my old pyramids back, a granary in every city!

 

[DeadZoneMDx]

I miss the Civ2 advisors, they rocked lol

 

[Alone]

As for the artilery I've simular opinion as a thread starter. But it's not that worst than CivIII. The Only thing, I really think, they should change on how the Artilery works now is: Do not allowed Artilery units to take over the city. Same as helicopter. They can fight, but not enter the city first. I don't know any example that someone walk in the enemy zone, first, with Artilery brigade!?!

 

[jedimogg]

i miss being able use the "go to" menu with units. it's minor but i liked being able to click on a unit in the field and telling them to go to a certain city, without haveing to move the map around and clicking go to and then clicking on the city

 

[Velvet-Glove]

I miss the airport icon on the ground next to a city. It makes it very hard to locate your airports.

I'm not so sure that the old Civ3 barracks and harbour icons are so crucial (haven't made up my mind on those yet) but I would definitely like a clearer visual indication of the presence (or lack of) of airports in Civ4.

PS. I've emailed Firaxis about this - maybe if enough people are bothered by this they will patch it into the game one day.

 

[Chopperhead]

I don't really miss a hole lots from Civ3 except tactical nukes, ability to load them on subs. cant really think of anything else right now. I do however miss lots from civ2 Like the High council, Caravans/Freight, *Partisans* ( I really would like to see these guys return), just to name a few.