IGN first look at E3

[Twonky]

I like the most of what I read and looked at so far. I´m definitly in to buying civ4 asap
What I´m really looking forward to is
a) The new "government"-system. Choosing a combination of 5 traits will result in lots of possible settings. That improves the very limited choices in civ3 imensly. I´m already looking forward to the "republik vs. democracy"-threads being replaced by hundreds of threads!
b) The huge improvement of diplomacy. That was really needed and will allow for more strategies and styles of playing.
c) The new unit system. I´m not all clear on how it will exactly work, but I like everything I read about it so far. Sounds like it will be more individual and allow for more customisation of the units.

I share the reservation about workers, though. I always found it quite strenuous to watch after your 200 workers in modern times on a larger map. Hope they will do something about it, because I´ll NEVER automate anything.

And I´m curious about the city-mechanisms. Will food only be good for health and city-growth be only affected by culture? We´ll have to wait and see later I guess.

Just one word on the graphics: I don´t give to much for that. I´ll get used to what the game looks like after the first 100 hours of playing-time anyway...

 

[Quentin]

I didn't notice anyone commenting on this one: We have also removed the idea of separate attack and defense values and replaced them with a single Power rating. Maybe the combat system has been developed in other ways so that this won't become a problem, but I really don't want to see a simpler combat system.

Might be because this has been already been known for awhile. I actually prefer it this way. I never could understand why there were seperate attack and defense values. Some units will still naturally be better suited for attacking or defending(/tanking) due to their speed, HP, combat advantage, etc.

 

[t0mme]

I'm afraid that the '3d-ness' of Civ will add nothing to the overall experience, except higher system requirements. And by the looks of these screenshots I think my fear is justified. Guess it's to late to switch back to simple and clear 2d graphics

 

[CellKu]

...they seem to have gone backwards-in much the same way as they did going from Civ2 to Civ3-via SMAC. i.e., they introduced all of these great new concepts, but then tossed out a whole bunch which were good-but perhaps needed a bit more work (i.e., throwing the baby out with the bathwater !) Espionage and trade are both perfect examples of this. Moving towards a more abstract system was a GREAT idea, they just needed to improve the way in which it worked to make both of them more viable strategies. Instead, it seems that trade is going to be pretty much automated (which I hope I just misread) and we get spy units from Civ2 back ! This is not the way to solve the problems which existed within the trade and espionage systems IMHO.

That is exactly what I think! "Simplify, simplify, simplify" should not mean to toss out valuable (more abstract) concepts, IMO.

 

[CellKu]

I didn't notice anyone commenting on this one: We have also removed the idea of separate attack and defense values and replaced them with a single Power rating. Maybe the combat system has been developed in other ways so that this won't become a problem, but I really don't want to see a simpler combat system.

I think - hopefully I got this right - that they have moved to a better combat system and so dropping the separate attack/defense values doesn't seem to be that bad.
From what I understand the concept is more indvidualized (pikemen are good against horsemen, but will do bad against other units, possibly archers, while horsemen are good against archers or so). So there is no need anymore for the more generalized combat system that works with attack and defense values.

 

[Commander Bello]

I'm afraid that the '3d-ness' of Civ will add nothing to the overall experience, except higher system requirements. And by the looks of these screenshots I think my fear is justified. Guess it's to late to switch back to simple and clear 2d graphics

I only can agree to this.
Currently, I don't see any added value in the new display of units. Instead, they even look more strange than in Civ3, as that display WAS abstract by concept. 3D now means a more realistic graphics model, but then why having units being able to step over an entire settlement?
What concernes me even more: how will that turn out when we are using the zooming functionality? Will there be different zooming rates for the units and the environment? And perhaps a third rate for the improvements?

As by now, I don't like the graphics. They just look like kid's building blocks thrown together.

 

[Snoopy]

I'm afraid that the '3d-ness' of Civ will add nothing to the overall experience, except higher system requirements. And by the looks of these screenshots I think my fear is justified. Guess it's to late to switch back to simple and clear 2d graphics

Nah... (This is me, saying no, you're wrong, and can't be bothered explaining why you're wrong. )

But I will say this, since it is 3D, you can have your old top-down view or if you like you can have it at isometric view, I really don't think there is that much of a problem with clarity.

 

[ThERat]

having played Civ from the beginning (Civ1), I have to say the graphics presented to us are plain awful right now. what are they thinking? They truly look like clumsy bits and pieces, monstrous units...and to say modders can fix it...
what we need are clear, simple graphics. after 100 hours of gaming, all those fancy animation like 'once resources are workered' don't help. The global view looks worse than Civ2 IMHO.

As for the gameplay, it sounds pretty good, but we need to play the game to find out how it 'feels'. It sounds to me as if they listened to our feedback. It's good that armies are gone given that the AI was unable to use them. I particularly like the promotion system.

 

[MeteorPunch]

Well Snoopy and Warpstorm, two of the best Civ III terrain modders, have said that it will be easy to mod the graphics. Imo, much easier than Civ III.

I really, really hope they include some kind of SDK, which most PC games now offer. This way anyone could mod the graphics as they wish.

 

[stormbind]

Well, Civ 4 already sounds a lot better than Civ 3 Conquests to me.

If I were to be completely honest, Civilization has never impressed me. Thus, Civ4 stands the greatest chance of impressing me because none of the others have. I play because it is a strategy game, and as far as modern strategy games are concerned, it is playable and has some connection to reality (i.e. It is about humans).

Civ Win:
Very repetitive because the AI are the same in every game. Graphics aren't so much a problem because that is not what the game is about.

Civ 2:
Now the graphics are a problem! It looks boring but I haven't played it. I have played the clones though.

Civ 3:
Animations and music make the early game exciting, but late game becomes tedious. Late game is also more repetitive because you have by then overcome geographic difficulties.

Civ 4:
Looks like animated Collosus stepping on shrubs, but because the game is still largely unknown there is still hope...

All versions:
British & Russian Commonwealths (a bit like devolution) demonstrated that it is really the only way to manage a huge empire, but somehow the game about empire building doesn't even have the option. That is just flawed and could also be the illusive answer to improving end-game.

 

[Snoopy]

Here I made a little experimenting with unit sizes, see pic below:
50% of original size is far left on the pic,
75% of original size is left-bottom from original group...

Which one do you like?

I like the small one

but you can see why there will be problems with having units at that size considering how much more detail the terrain has.

 

[stormbind]

Maybe the example units are just poorly coloured to show the true possibilities of playing at that scale.

After playing for a little while you would soon know what to look for, so I don't think spotting units is an issue - especially if they are animated (breathing motions &c.)

 

[Matrix]

The world is round! How are they going to combine that with square tiles? Because you can also see the tiles being square shaped on those two globe screenshots.

Here I made a little experimenting with unit sizes, see pic below:
50% of original size is far left on the pic,
75% of original size is left-bottom from original group...

Which one do you like?

Have you seen the orange line around Novgorod? I think that is one tile. Those units aren't oversized, they have simply zoomed in a lot! Trying to determine whether 50% or 75% is better is nonsense - you should simply zoom out.

 

[stormbind]

Matrix, what about the size of Novogrod?

What if we want soldiers that are not bigger than cities?

 

[warpstorm]

All this obsessing over the graphics when most of you said it was the gameplay that was important...*shakes head wonderingly*

 

[Commander Bello]

All this obsessing over the graphics when most of you said it was the gameplay that was important...*shakes head wonderingly*

Well, as long as the graphics are somehow consistent, I don't care about them to much.
So, at this link: you can see some "bird's view" screen which I think are quite nice. Nevertheless, when zooming in, it becomes much distorted as the units are WAY too big - IMHO.

 

[stormbind]

It is about getting a ballance, warpstorm. If graphics are distractive then you have a problem...

 

[Incubuz]

I'm just a little scared of the graphic engine, think I read it was the same as in Pirates. Which were rather buggy and slow at times. Combined with civilization...just dont feel right.

 

[Guagle]

In one of the pics there are Russian Roman Legionaries. Does that mean there will be no more UU for each civ? Or did they went back to civ2 on this?

IMHO the terrain graphics are ok if a bit square but i really don't get the giant soldiers. I noticed that in some other screenshots the units were about the right size do what's going on?

 

[evil potato]

Oh please, you know what these graphics reminds me? You remember the games produced by Koei back in the early 90's for the super nintendo? games like Aerobiz, aerobiz supersonic, PTO, Romance of the Three kingdom, Ghengis Khan, Liberty or Death? ring a bell? well if it does you 'll agree it looks the same. If it doesnt go grab a SNES emulator and try one of these games and you'll see.