In Civ IV, production is lost if you don't finish the great wonder first.

[Urederra]

From the article that SUB mentioned in this thread...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2933494#post2933494

Here is the article.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/preview_6129411.html


And here it is the quote:

In Civ IV, when you lose a race to finish a wonder, you lose all the production made on it, and you can no longer transfer it to another project, though you will be refunded an amount of gold. (This rule also covers production of regular buildings and units as well, though in those cases, if you suddenly switch from producing, say, a settler to an archer, you simply save the production that's been made for the settler and start the archer from scratch. And when you go back to producing the settler, you'll pick up where you left off.)

So, we must rethink our strategies....

 

[Civrules]

Seems like a more logical change to me. If you build an expensive unit, and suddenly switch to something else, it didn't make sense for the shields to just carry on to the new project.

 

[Dante Vergil]

Well at least on lesser things such as switching from a hospital to a bank. The banks production will be halted and not lost

 

[Crayton]

I think you would only lose your cities production and receive a refund of gold if the Wonder was built elsewhere. This probably applies to building it in another of your own cities.

 

[dc82]

yeah to be honest, that does make sense. i mean... how weird wud it be if the chinese spent 40 years making the pyramids but the day before it's done decided to instantly change it to the statue of liberty or an archer. haha. it'll for everyone to be more cautious about what they build and prob. use spies more to see how the race for wonders is progressing in other cities.

 

[Sub]

heh, watch, a new exploit comes out of this where everyone sets their citys to build the wonder just to get gold

 

[Evie]

Ahhhh, the sweet sound of the death of my nemesis, the AI wonder cascade...

 

[Carver]

Yes Oda, the end of the wonder cascade makes this a huge improvement.

 

[dc82]

heh, watch, a new exploit comes out of this where everyone sets their citys to build the wonder just to get gold

i dunno if it's a direct return to gold, but i can't imagine it being more profitable than having ur city produce wealth to begin w/

 

[North King]

Indeed, though it was amusing to see the alchemists of my nation turn the stone blocks of the pyramids into bows and arrows. Now it will be more amusing, they will turn them into gold! (Yes, yes, I know, technically you're probably selling the building material for gold, but it is a funny image)

 

[vbraun]

No more pre-builds!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

You know, you can always tell when a popular exploit has been removed when people start whingin' and-a moanin' about a change to the system. In another thread, you have a poster claiming that the inability to carry hammers over from one project to another, and the increased difficulty of expansion, is simply proof that Firaxis has placed graphics over gameplay ! To me, it just sounds like sour grapes because these are probably two flaws of previous games which people like him used to exploit to victory. At the very least, I would think he would like to see how these things operate-in principle -before he starts whinging about how awful they are.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Nice, but I hope they make the AI smart enough to check the competitors wonder-building cities.

 

[sav]

I don't get the whole 'I MUST WIN, DON'T CHANGE THE EXPLOITS!" thinking. I've played Civ since 1995, and though it took me 2 years to win a game of Civ 3 at Monarch level, it doesn't mean I hate it - it means the thing got 2 solid years of gameplay, for only $60. That's awesome value, if you ask me!

 

[The_Unforgiven]

Absolutely a great improvement IMHO. The prebuild technique is lost, and so is the AI Wonder Cascade. The player will benefit more from this implementation in the end, I think. AI will probably be too stupid to check other cities building it and will then lose shields for gold. And their gold is usually my gold in a trade. The player can carefully plan tech routes and check for build status in other cities.
Sounds a little like the difficulty feature in Civ2. That on deity, you lose 1/2 of the shields upon changing between build types (wonder/imp/unit). Just a little though...

 

[Darwin420]

I really like that with units production will be halted if you switch to another unit, then resumed at the same shield (er, sorry, hammer) level it was before. That's something that's been missing since the beginning.

 

[warpstorm]

To me this sounds like a good change. It is more realistic and closes a major cheezy exploit.

 

[kryszcztov]

I've been crying for this for ages. Too good to be true. No more wonder cascade ! Time to really think about starting wonders ! Time to really build the Great Library if you discover Literature first, because others won't be able to switch to it through a cascade ! It makes sense in history + it makes sense in gameplay = I like it. Still waiting for seeing it for real to see if there are cons.

Without doubt, the best new piece of info from the whole article.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Actually, that method still has a few quirks, like what if you are building an archer, and stop building it...and before you stert it up again you get longbowmen (or whatever renders archers obsolete) does the production carry over in That case, the one time that would make sense?
or can you resume building of the obsolete unit and then upgrade it
Or is your investment lost to gold
Or is it lost altogether (although not necessarily ie start bulding a horsman...get chivalry...no more going back to that horseman built unless you lose iron)

 

[Crayton]

Can we start building the same wonder in all of our cities? I wouldn't suggest it, but, one city may be growing faster than your industrial city and eventually eclipse the other city's production. I might not be sure which city would build that Great Library quickest.