Gold: How useful will it be? (The Currency)

[Legionary37]

Being a vetran of Civilization 2, I remember how useful spies were and how viable a strategy they were. They needed alot of gold, but they were very useful. You could bribe armies, sabatoge production, steal technologies, and even bribe cities. This made accumulating alot of gold into a viable strategy.

However, I have found this is a much less viable strategy in Civilization 3. Accumulating and spending alot of gold isn't as useful as it used to. This of course has alot to do with the complete nerfing of espionage in Civ 3, along with wonders not being able to be rushed, but also that it just doesn't get what it used to.

Of course, you can upgrade units (The Warrior-to-swordsman rush is a good strat) but it seems to me that gold simply isn't asuseful.

Currently in the game I'm playing (70% water, Continents, large map, Persians, Monarch Level, it's about 1776, I'm in the Modern Age, just about to complete the Manhattan project) I've accumulated more than 120000 gold and am the world superpower.

The problem is that there isn't alot for me to spend it on. Espionage is ridiculously expensive and hardly works anyway. The AI seems to demand an enormous amount of money for most things (It's just better to trade techs for resources and luxuries, and vice-versa.) Most of my cities can build tanks etc. in just a few turns, so just rushing everything is really just going to deplete my treasury. It seems the only practical use for this horde I've accumulated over the past 700 years is to defecit spend for a while to research techs faster.

I thought of this when i was reading about Civ 4. The Great Merchent can complete a "Trade Deal" that gives you 1000 gold. My thought is "So what? Except earlier in the game, 1000 gold just gets you a few units, or 1 or 2 improvements.

So my question is, how is Civilization 4 going to make obtaining alot of wealth viable, rather than just channeling it into culture and research?

 

[MasterChief]

A new aspect in the game that im fond of is the ability to manipulate other civs into engaging in war with another civ. But how would one go about getting someone to declare war? With money. Lots of money.

Also, perhaps the game will be more balanced. Maybe maintanence costs will be higher later in the game. Just remember, when a new generation of any game comes out, its more balanced than the previous.

And adding something like transportation costs when using railroads would help spend money and limit the distance that can be traveled by land units in one turn.

 

[Louis XXIV]

That's an interesting perspective. I always thought Civ3 had a greater advantage to the rich civ than Civ2 because that was their unit support (instead of shields from a city).

 

[Trajan13]

Well with the return of spies, and turning the simple happiness slider into a culture slider that gives happiness and culture, I think gold will become more central to overall strategy.

Of course, if they allow for the gold-rushing of wonders(something I miss) and make the trade/diplomatic model more fair so that you can deal with an AI in terms of gold, then gold would be even more useful.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

The biggest consumer of your national treasury-from what I have read-will probably end up being the cost of city maintainance-which now replaces corruption. It is possible that many cities players build will not be instantly viable-as sources of income-even if they are right next to the Capital. This will effectively mean constant, short-term deficits throughout the game, as you expand-or at least that's how it looks to me.
Aside from this, though, I get the feeling that missionaries, spies, culture and diplomacy/trade-along with the old favourites of units, research and rushing-will all help to keep budgets 'in line'.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Legionary37]

I hope it will.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Oh, also remember that roads will no longer provide bonus commerce, which will reduce the amount of gold you get (though admittedly we don't know how this will work just yet.)

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[apatheist]

I'm sure the amount of gold will be roughly the same, at least in terms of purchasing power. It will just come through a different mechanism. They wouldn't remove the commerce value of roads and leave it without balancing that with something.

 

[Legionary37]

Or maybe they'll just have tiles produce more base commerce to make up for it.

 

[bjblue]

I'm hoping now that the commerce bonus of roads has been done away with that actual trade becomes the real source of income!

 

[mitsho]

1. the Culture slider
2. (I hope) spionage!

Then, as already said, we'll prbably have fewer money, because roads won't any, and maintenance will take more money away than corruption did. I hope that this will be evened out with a 'better trade model'.

and finally, we haven't heard much of civIV trade yet. That was a topic, the developers always avoided. I therefore hope that they have a mini-bomb for us there...

mitsho