sela1s1son
King
I was having my problems with my ATI video card, so I removed it an used my built in Nvidia Gforce 4 MX
Kinda slow at times, but I have 512 MB Ram, and 2.xx Ghz Processor overclocked to 3 Ghz. I'll probably pick up some more RAM memory at Best Buy today if that'd help.
Will there be a patch to fix rhe ATI nonsense?
Now a review
Well due to the slow gameplay my first game is taking longer then expected... but once the graphics problem is fixed or I upgrade ram (or both) that should be nill.
The graphics: very nice, while Graphics are not high on my list of priorities, they do well!! Especially when missionaries or Great People do actions.
EXTRAS for PRe-order: I love the music, great! Civ 1 theme and the one other theme which is awesome (theme n the Civs section of the Civ 4 page)
Music: Done very well, I wonder if it's different between cultures?
I'm playing as Rome on the Earth map. Mwehehehe. MY best allies are, ironically, the Germans. Everyone started wanting me to stop dealing with Alexander, so I did, then had a bunch of my neighbors declare war on him. I took Athens, which has proven useful... the Germans took the second Greek city.
ICS has been solved. I probabl have around 10 cities and it is 1858 AD, and I'm doing well. Tech progresses much more reasonably (not to fast, not to slow, just right... and no big gap in techs either).
Religion is really neat, I can't tell you how fun it is. I'm playing on Chieften (So I can get my bearings straight, but I didn't want to play the lowest level (Settler)). I founded FOUR of the religions (Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Taoist). I decided, partially to do my own taste before the game, to make Rome a Jewish civ. Organized religion, and ensuring your selected CIv's state faith spreads can be very rewarding. Having the shrine of your state religion, is also very rewarding... especially if you get your faith to spread! IT does indeed effect diplomacy, but not in an overly weak or overbearing way. Again, just right.
I think they went for the Goldilocks principle.
It is really rewarding to have a smaller empire that has a very good infrastructure then a vast one with a low infrastructure level. Frederick is almost twice the geographic size as me, but I'm 600 pts ahead of him. Plus I had a decent tech lead over him.
Funny thing is, BERLIN... yes BERLIN culture flipped to me! I had a city in (Real World France) which was pumping out culture like a maniac, and had a culture bomb.... Berlin ended up flipping to me. IT was very rewarding I'll say. I then put a culture bomb in Berlin for the clinch. The German capital moved, and I think I get a bonus for Berlin having once been a capital or something as it has that little star by all the icons.
Right now, it seems two factions are forming: Germany, Egypt, and I think India... with China, Japan as another. The Persians and Mongols are kidna question marks. However I've gotten several civs to attack the Mongols (they're the current weakest civ) and I have: Germany, Egypt, India, and the Persians attacking them along with myself (for diplomatic reasons). I think Mongolia is siding with China and Japan I think I may see rumblings of a world war coming.
The civics are fun, I'll tell you. And believe me the old line of thought (Well all the high level freedom are good for peace and high level tyrannical ones are good for war) does not apply. I'm still going with organized religion for now and may indeed stick with it for quite some time. I may soon weigh the advantages of spreading my non-state faith in my civ and if it'd benefit me to have freedom of religion, but then I'd lose the Shrine bonuses I think... Eep... if I had a bigger empire Freedom of Religion would be a good idea (especially if I spread all faiths in my empire!) Oh the fun and different paths are great.
Indeed your stratagy and game experience are inter-related. A larger civ may be more inclined to certain civics over smaller ones, also religion will have a major effect too. Very neat, and will lead to more unique games and higher replayability.
I think I'll put together an expedition to put a city in the America's and/or take the Barbarian city I saw roughly where Washington DC is.
I also loved there was a notice the first time someone circumnavigates the world! FINALLY! I've always wanted that. Nothing significant, but fun.
War is VERY different I will tell you. I saved the game before trying (mainly to see how different war was) and my conventional stratagy failed both times against Germans, so I went back and played all peaceful like (except against the Greeks who fell to my Praetorians).
The promotion system is nifty! Also you don't need a hoarde of workers, only a few probably (or at least I only need a few).
It is a GREAT LEAP forward... a magnificant step forward.
I'm finding myself wanting to send my Jewish missionaries to China to see if I can entice Qin Shi Huang to convert, and thus make him a friend (and an enemy of the Mongols?)
The depth has been increased.
Civ 4 has really delivered. I loved Civ 2 and 3 both for different reasons... and SMAC also. Civ 4 takes the best of all 3 of those, combines them, and adds even more cool/fun stuff.
Trade is actually much more desireable for many reasons: Health, resources, Production bonuses, and DIPLOMATIC BENEFITS. I've been trading for Frederick for quite some time, and it has made him even friendlier with me. THe open borders also helped. Germany is probably my best ally by far.
I wasn't too aggressive with missionaries for a lot of the game, although I did send one into Berlin for three of the faiths I founded (Judaism, Christianity, and Taoism as I got the latter two's missionaries free). Frederick has the same state religion as me (Jewish), and I'm spreading that faith (due to having the Shrine) throughought his empire where it doesn't exist and trying to push it through Persia and Egypt. Whe you build new cities they have no faith, so I may advise you to make sure they get your state religion's faith (especially if you have organized religion).
I'm looking forward to adapting to all the new things. If once can overly adapt to it... hopefully it will vary each game and I will learn how to vary my stratagy.
THE BAD
A few concerns/questions:
I only seem to be able to get 8 civs in a game... is there a way to get more? I think there is I just need to figure out how.
I don't know if its because I only have 512 MB of RAM or the Video card issue , but the game is currently slow which IMHO effects gameplay. A smooth/fast play is actually easier IMHO then slower/choppy play. Then again, if its the RAM (or temporarly relying on the aforementioned video card) it just may be a hardware issue for me.
The whole ATI mess
-----------
Overall: A-
VERY GOOD GAMEPLAY, nice graphics. IT really is a sweet game. However because of the ATI mess (and this may be behind the slower gameplay in terms of it moves slowly) I gave it a - and not a +. Once those issues are resolved, I'd say A+.
Kinda slow at times, but I have 512 MB Ram, and 2.xx Ghz Processor overclocked to 3 Ghz. I'll probably pick up some more RAM memory at Best Buy today if that'd help.
Will there be a patch to fix rhe ATI nonsense?
Now a review
Well due to the slow gameplay my first game is taking longer then expected... but once the graphics problem is fixed or I upgrade ram (or both) that should be nill.
The graphics: very nice, while Graphics are not high on my list of priorities, they do well!! Especially when missionaries or Great People do actions.
EXTRAS for PRe-order: I love the music, great! Civ 1 theme and the one other theme which is awesome (theme n the Civs section of the Civ 4 page)
Music: Done very well, I wonder if it's different between cultures?
I'm playing as Rome on the Earth map. Mwehehehe. MY best allies are, ironically, the Germans. Everyone started wanting me to stop dealing with Alexander, so I did, then had a bunch of my neighbors declare war on him. I took Athens, which has proven useful... the Germans took the second Greek city.
ICS has been solved. I probabl have around 10 cities and it is 1858 AD, and I'm doing well. Tech progresses much more reasonably (not to fast, not to slow, just right... and no big gap in techs either).
Religion is really neat, I can't tell you how fun it is. I'm playing on Chieften (So I can get my bearings straight, but I didn't want to play the lowest level (Settler)). I founded FOUR of the religions (Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Taoist). I decided, partially to do my own taste before the game, to make Rome a Jewish civ. Organized religion, and ensuring your selected CIv's state faith spreads can be very rewarding. Having the shrine of your state religion, is also very rewarding... especially if you get your faith to spread! IT does indeed effect diplomacy, but not in an overly weak or overbearing way. Again, just right.
I think they went for the Goldilocks principle.
It is really rewarding to have a smaller empire that has a very good infrastructure then a vast one with a low infrastructure level. Frederick is almost twice the geographic size as me, but I'm 600 pts ahead of him. Plus I had a decent tech lead over him.
Funny thing is, BERLIN... yes BERLIN culture flipped to me! I had a city in (Real World France) which was pumping out culture like a maniac, and had a culture bomb.... Berlin ended up flipping to me. IT was very rewarding I'll say. I then put a culture bomb in Berlin for the clinch. The German capital moved, and I think I get a bonus for Berlin having once been a capital or something as it has that little star by all the icons.
Right now, it seems two factions are forming: Germany, Egypt, and I think India... with China, Japan as another. The Persians and Mongols are kidna question marks. However I've gotten several civs to attack the Mongols (they're the current weakest civ) and I have: Germany, Egypt, India, and the Persians attacking them along with myself (for diplomatic reasons). I think Mongolia is siding with China and Japan I think I may see rumblings of a world war coming.
The civics are fun, I'll tell you. And believe me the old line of thought (Well all the high level freedom are good for peace and high level tyrannical ones are good for war) does not apply. I'm still going with organized religion for now and may indeed stick with it for quite some time. I may soon weigh the advantages of spreading my non-state faith in my civ and if it'd benefit me to have freedom of religion, but then I'd lose the Shrine bonuses I think... Eep... if I had a bigger empire Freedom of Religion would be a good idea (especially if I spread all faiths in my empire!) Oh the fun and different paths are great.
Indeed your stratagy and game experience are inter-related. A larger civ may be more inclined to certain civics over smaller ones, also religion will have a major effect too. Very neat, and will lead to more unique games and higher replayability.
I think I'll put together an expedition to put a city in the America's and/or take the Barbarian city I saw roughly where Washington DC is.
I also loved there was a notice the first time someone circumnavigates the world! FINALLY! I've always wanted that. Nothing significant, but fun.
War is VERY different I will tell you. I saved the game before trying (mainly to see how different war was) and my conventional stratagy failed both times against Germans, so I went back and played all peaceful like (except against the Greeks who fell to my Praetorians).
The promotion system is nifty! Also you don't need a hoarde of workers, only a few probably (or at least I only need a few).
It is a GREAT LEAP forward... a magnificant step forward.
I'm finding myself wanting to send my Jewish missionaries to China to see if I can entice Qin Shi Huang to convert, and thus make him a friend (and an enemy of the Mongols?)
The depth has been increased.
Civ 4 has really delivered. I loved Civ 2 and 3 both for different reasons... and SMAC also. Civ 4 takes the best of all 3 of those, combines them, and adds even more cool/fun stuff.
Trade is actually much more desireable for many reasons: Health, resources, Production bonuses, and DIPLOMATIC BENEFITS. I've been trading for Frederick for quite some time, and it has made him even friendlier with me. THe open borders also helped. Germany is probably my best ally by far.
I wasn't too aggressive with missionaries for a lot of the game, although I did send one into Berlin for three of the faiths I founded (Judaism, Christianity, and Taoism as I got the latter two's missionaries free). Frederick has the same state religion as me (Jewish), and I'm spreading that faith (due to having the Shrine) throughought his empire where it doesn't exist and trying to push it through Persia and Egypt. Whe you build new cities they have no faith, so I may advise you to make sure they get your state religion's faith (especially if you have organized religion).
I'm looking forward to adapting to all the new things.
If once can overly adapt to it... hopefully it will vary each game and I will learn how to vary my stratagy.THE BAD
A few concerns/questions:
I only seem to be able to get 8 civs in a game... is there a way to get more? I think there is I just need to figure out how.
I don't know if its because I only have 512 MB of RAM or the Video card issue , but the game is currently slow which IMHO effects gameplay. A smooth/fast play is actually easier IMHO then slower/choppy play. Then again, if its the RAM (or temporarly relying on the aforementioned video card) it just may be a hardware issue for me.
The whole ATI mess
-----------
Overall: A-
VERY GOOD GAMEPLAY, nice graphics. IT really is a sweet game. However because of the ATI mess (and this may be behind the slower gameplay in terms of it moves slowly) I gave it a - and not a +. Once those issues are resolved, I'd say A+.
