First Thoughts

I am running Civ 4 on a Sony Vaio PCG v505EX. The processor is a pentium M 1.5 ghz with 768mb of ram. ATI mobility radeon 9200 with 32mb of ram. Operating system is a dual boot Suse Linux 10.0 (day to day operations) / Windows XP sp 2 (running civ here ). Hope this helps. ok.. back to civving.. one more turn..
 
Question : does leaderheads change over time ? ( Pleaseee tell me it does... I don't want to negociate with a Caesar in toga about a non proliferation treaty :( )
 
Forests and jungles can grow from one already forested square to an adjacent non-worked tile (maybe non-adjacent but for all I have seen, only adjacent ones).

Leaderheads don't change. Check out the one for Isabella though, it is probably the nicest one !

You can also see the different units in a city (as opposed to previous iterations where only the top defender showed).

Barbarians can capture cities but not only. Barbarian cities can appear by themselves as well over time in uncontrolled areas.
 
I also have just finished playing my first hour of civ 4

first: the more i play it, the more i like it.

second: it is very easy to slip right into the 'mind of empire' ...
the game is extremely intuitive to slip into and 'wrap your head
around'. everything you would expect to be there, is there,
and more or less easy to get to. (except i can't find an on
screen 'next unit with action points' button yet...)

third: the game is so easy to get playing, that after a few turns
you stop seeing the interface or graphics at all, and are only
aware of the strategy of the map. the production of the squares,
the overall military strength of each city, the ebb and flow of
borders, who is following what research strategy...

third.half: one of the wonderful things about this version of
civ is that it is so graphically pleasing. it is very nice to zoom
all the way out and turn your world map into a desktop globe.
it is also very nice to be able to zoom in and watch your
city develop. the units have a good amount of character,
and, well... it is just very nice to stop thinking about the
stats or the next turn or the next 100 turn strategy, and just
admire the civilization that is springing up from your efforts.

so far... two thumbs and a big toe up!
 
Resources are at a premium in this CIV. I made a play for some iron to the North of my CIV, wanted to improve my military. Montezuma didn't like that idea so he sent his "iron" army after me in swarms. The only way they would accept peace is by giving them the city with the iron next to it. Currently trying to grab some bronze to the east but am having trouble with barbarians.

Lesson learned: Don't ignore early military development.

The religion aspect of the game is really cool. I spread Arabia's version of Hinduism all throughout Japan, and they may be willing to help me with Montezuma...
 
Forests spread? Awesome! I always loved that about SMAC. On the other hand, forests in SMAC were pretty useful, especially with the later city improvments. In Civ forests aren't as good, so this might not be such a bonus. We'll see.
 
this was my first civ game and i played it for 3 hours stright to point i had gotton myself at the tip of every computers sword and i work tonight... from a new perspective the game has amazing gameplay and battles in this version as well as graphics. its nice to see everything in 3d thats going on.

as far as crashing. didnt have that problem but im on an
athlon 64 2.0ghz
1028 mb ram
geforce 4 ti 4200 so it may vary

im looking forward to tonight playing my first epic game... yes in my first game i got to 1850's but the last hundred years or so i was fortifying my capitol so i wouldnt lose
 
Ok, first impressions.

Most importantly, I want to emphasize that this game has zero NEGATIVE new features(ie features that would "ruin" the game for the Civ veteran). There weren't any drastic changes to freak out over. All you'll find is the same old Civilization fun in a much newer, more refined, prettier package. Great stuff!

On the surface(granted I haven't gone past a couple of hours of playtime - I haven't fought a battle against another Civ as of yet), the change that I found most notable is the depth added to square improvements. The days of running around planting roads and irrigating your land are over. The "irrigation" option has been completely removed and replaced with a myriad of new options including Pastures, Camps, Mines, Net(fishing), Plantations, Windmills, Lumbermills, Forts, Workshops, Winery's etc. etc... In order to harvest squares with horses, cows and/or elephants, you need to build a pasture. In order to harvest grapes, you need to build a winery. Very cool and warmly welcomed on my behalf. :) Sometimes, say for instance you build a cottage in a forest, it doesn't immediately destroy the entire forest.

Fun new things include:

Great people - I've had 2 great engineers and one great artists. They can be used in several different ways including building techs, speeding up production and in the case of the artist, I was able to have him produce a "Great Work of Art."

Killing Aminals :) - Lions, Bears, Tigers etc play a role similar to what the barbarians in CivIII played in that they are really just good for familiarizing yourself with the combat system earlier in the game. They do roam freely and may have the ability to attack units(although I didn't experience this).

Off of the top of my head, that's really the only noticeable features I found. The animations and the added depth are all there but not worth mentioning until I've explored them fully.

My Setup:
ATHLON 64 4000+
40 GB Raptor
GeForce 6800 GT
SB Audigy 2
Windows XP Pro

No crashes in around 1.5 hours of playtime.
 
I love the graphics and the feel of the game so far. The sounds are great too, especially when you scroll up close to a unit.

One thing that is different from the reviews I read: I thought that corruption was going to be dealt abstractly, but in the manual on page 43 it says that corruption of a city depends upon distance from the capitol.

I was looking forward to fewer corruption calculations. But I haven't gotten far enough into the game to have it affect me yet, so I'll stop whining.
 
Verdict is still out. Im not a big graphics fan, and the early game is extremely slow... Wouldnt call the game anything close to "gripping" yet. Hoping that action starts to happen soon. This is after a couple hours of play.

-Chris
 
MaXXXXXuM said:
...and the early game is extremely slow... Wouldnt call the game anything close to "gripping" yet. Hoping that action starts to happen soon.

What difficulty are you playing at?
 
Wow - this system is really bogged down right now. I can't quote Maxxxxum. By slow, do you mean that the gameplay is slow or the game itself? I thought that the game was slow. It wasn't too bad, but I thought to myself, if it's this slow now imagine later when things start to get complex. Didn't happen, though. The game stayed pretty much at the same pace throughout in that my turns took longer because there was an increase in things to do, but the oponent's turns didn't take longer and longer after every turn, and I'm in the modern era. So that's a big plus.
If you mean gameplay is slow, I guess thats where we differ. I enjoy the early part of the game with all of the exploration.
 
I played for a few hours. I honestly don't like the game so far. The new graphics are almost too busy. This is the first game I've ever played where my eyes hurt from it...then again, it could be age. My destroyer and battleship could only bombard city defenses...I couldn't bombard land units themselves, this may be able to be changed in the xml or python files.
I feel the unit graphics themselves aren't anything impressive. On a related note, I could not find any of the 3D unit files in my CivIV folders..thinking of making my own units. I only found some under the mods folder, and they were KF files (possibly keyframe files). Bottom line is I am far from impressed with this game. However, there is no reason why others with different tastes than me shouldn't enjoy it.
 
SO the Leaderheads don't change with time?!!!

That was one of the BEST features of CIV III...

Please! Someone tell me it is not true.....
 
I don't care about the leaderheads - I mean it's not as if Caesar will still be alive after thousands of years anyway; it's just an arbitrary representation.
 
Yes but seeing Ceaser in a Bowler and specs was AWESOME! It gave a sence of movement to the game... like things were always progressing and changing... which is, of course how it is.
 
quail said:
I don't care about the leaderheads - I mean it's not as if Caesar will still be alive after thousands of years anyway; it's just an arbitrary representation.
Actually, I use that dynamic to my vicarious roleplay advantage. I lead an entire empire of immortal pleasure-droids, expanding their empire ;) :lol:
 
What I've liked best so far is the change in trading advances -- having to wait until you've discovered alphabet makes a huge difference as to diplomacy.
 
ScooterB said:
SO the Leaderheads don't change with time?!!!

That was one of the BEST features of CIV III...

Please! Someone tell me it is not true.....

Remember there are no more eras such as in Civ3. You have "ages" but they are not the break they were in the tech-tree or in the looks.
 
Stardog13 said:
Oh and it was a full crash, blue screen and all; not just crash to the desktop.

That's actually good news, since it means the game didn't crash, your system did (likely caused by a crappy video card driver or something).
 
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