IGN first look at E3

[CellKu]

We will not be including any espionage options that are terrorism related. You will, however, create spy units and move them around as you did in previous versions of Civilization.

Will that mean that sabotaging production won't be possible anymore? What about stealing troop plans etc? Will there only be spy units or will they also have a decent espionage system? If they only revert back to spy units and cut back on espionage, that will be too sad.

 

[777]

When I look those global pics it gets a bit of dizzy in my head Really! Since I'm used to way civ is I try to lean my head all the time, huh weird! And it's really hard to figure hexes. I guess it will be first time when I put grids on. And funny thing was that I searched where's the town. There's name but where's town, but then I realized that it's made kind of interesting way You have city view in your map.

 

[dc82]

i'm guessing the globe view is optional. i'll sure u can flat map view it if u want.

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

- food trade is not possible

I think you might be wrong.

The system has been greatly expanded with the addition of many more resources, all of which are tradable. Some of the new resources, like marble, help to increase wonder production, some are food resources

Hopefully not having any spy operations that are terrorist related will only mean that you cant do things like poison watersupply and plant nuke (I think thats the case).

 

[Vael]

Wow, the floodgates have opened up! A lot of interesting things presented in that interview.

Gabryel: the Firaxis guy interviewed explicitly said that you could not trade "food" to allow cities to grow faster, but could trade them as resources to increase a city's health.

 

[oldStatesman]

IGNPC: Maybe I'm sick but I really miss being able to poison a rival city's water supply. Are you going to be including new options for espionage and its more "honorable" cousin diplomacy?

Barry Caudill: We will not be including any espionage options that are terrorism related.

Why? Terrorism has been around all throughout history under different names ... Why be so sensitive about this and not about using real religion names which can also cause dissent? Ostrich behavior IMHO.

 

[stormbind]

Although i'm obviously just as exited as everyone else about civ4, these screenshots make me worried that civ4 may just be trying to be something it isn't.

One of the best things about civ is the simple, uncomprimising interface - and i'm worried by the look of civ4 screenshots that Firaxis are trying to make it seem more "sophisticatedly user-friendly", through hidden controls and smarter graphics, when one of the best features of civ is it's simplicity and straight-forwardness, whilst a great and complex gae underneith.

It says they are aiming for WYSIWYG so cities will look unique on the map. This will be a bit like Civ3 city view.

I already mentioned (in an edit) that the large size of characters is my biggest concern.

Any idea what the minimum requirements might be?

 

[p dandy]

The more screenshots I see, the more these giant figures bother me (just a little though). Anyways, I like the variation in resource purpose such as marble giving you increase wonder production.

 

[Slave of CIV]

honestly, it looks horrible. The units look like oversized titans, and the graphics remind me on disney land, beside, its still ugly. The good news: it can only gets better!

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

Ouch, just saw the globe-world view, I really hope they clean up the graphics and make the tiles more seamless before rlease.

 

[stormbind]

Populous had a better 3D globe view, so I would expect the screeny to be a prototype.

 

[CellKu]

The more screenshots I see, the more these giant figures bother me (just a little though).

That's true. They have WYSIWYG and 3D, but they haven't adjusted the size of the units. Hm.

 

[Rookie One]

So far everything looks pretty good. Except i'd like to see the unit models scaled down.

 

[yalejock]

The graphics look very weak: the globe shot is OK but those circular things with units in them look aweful; the units are gigantic and look clumsy hovering over the cities; I do not like the way the borders look... Civ3 looks way more appealing. Please God let it be just a prototype...

 

[V. Soma]

I join the gang up on hating these giant units...


But now I have a question concerning the IGN screenie that has
Novgorod as a city (the one with 3 swordsmen (?))
Question:
Just where is the city Novgorod on this picture? I mean, graphically...
I see two clusters of structures:
one is close to the right of the name "Novgorod",
the second is "under" the middle unit icon.
None of them I suspect is the graphic for the city...

So, where it is?

 

[sgrig]

The graphics look much better now! I also like the globe view. Finally in Civ we'll have a spherical world!

However I'll join others in asking for either the units do be scaled down, or (better) the terrain and terrain improvements to be scaled up.

Concerning Novgorod in the pic, I guess there is nothing there to show the city because it does not have any improvements yet. If you look at the other screeshot with St Petersburg - it only shows a city wall, which I guess is the only improvement in that city. I would prefer however something to point out that there is a city in the given square.

EDIT: Just read the full interview and although I like many of the things said, I'm not too sure about techs having only one prerequisite. However with the amount of customization freedom they are providing, I'm sure that can be modded.

 

[ionimplant]

the graphics look pathetic... i think civIV shouldn't try to excel too much in the graphics. no matter how hard it try, it just won't be those games like counterstrike or ageofempire. i hope the game still play well... i like the civIII pictures more... yeah. those giants are really ugly.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I do not like the way the borders look...

I think the borders look cool

I have some complaints, and other parts look really, really good.

Not that graphics is what I buy games for

 

[Black_Hole]

food trade between cities wasnt specifically specified, but they said food is no longer for a city growing, but the citie's health

 

[mudblood]

Mali is in!
Which means, no more Zulus!

I count 16 civs from the various sources we've seen (names of cities on screen shots, reports of civs from various mags, and now IGN), which would mean the following, if those represented who was in, and they haven't decided to get rid of anybody:

Arabs
America
Aztecs
China
Egypt
England
France
Germany
Inca
India
Japan
Mali
Mongols
Persia
Russia
Spain

Plus Rome & Greece?

Also, I like that rivers act as roads for trade goods.
I like that on the global map it appears that you can see where your units are.
I really want to find out more about the diplomacy. That was something they really needed to steal from CtP.