my top 10 peives of civ 4 and 5.

[phillip1882]

for 4,
pop ups instead of side bar.
pop ups before move.
no city states.
100% chance of victory is nearly impossible against long bowman and above.
cpus rarely go for the victory their unique traits would recommend.
you can have +gold at 100% research/culture/espionage
auto workers generally over build farms
auto workers don't chop jungle until its practically the only thing left.
you can build a cottage an a grass hill, but not on a plains hill
when a enemy unit captures a worker, even if you kill the enemy unit the same turn, you can't get your worker back.

for 5,
the "carpet of death" strategy takes too many turns to capture a civ. by the time you've captured the second city, your units are already obsolete.
archers and other ranged units can make it impossible to gain ground.
promotions are not significant enough to turn the tide of most battles.
build four cities and end turn till end of game.
cities having their own defense is incredibly annoying. (though i must admit, makes sense with 1UT)
great person handling is odd. they don't become part of the city as an option.
happiness for whole civ rather than individual cities, while historically makes sense, but as a game play mechanic, I don't like it.
upkeep for roads, while historically makes sense, shouldn't be in the game. it makes it undesirable to connect all cities and resources until you're sure you can pay for them.
the traits options are strange. i preferred civ 4 version of traits.

 

[lymond]

for 4,
pop ups instead of side bar.
Check the game options...there is a option called "minimize pop-ups" that essentially does what you want
pop ups before move.
I have no idea what this is. Maybe it is tied to the above but I haven't seen that in 12 years or so.
no city states.
Well, as far as I know that was introduce in 5 and meshes with that games mechanics. Not sure how that would work with how 4 works, but then 4 allows for vassal states and colonies.
100% chance of victory is nearly impossible against long bowman and above.
Well, not sure what this means exactly, but game would be no fun if it were easy. Anyway, siege units fix that problem.
cpus rarely go for the victory their unique traits would recommend.
I'd say this point has some merits, but then in my opinion there are no traits in this game that specifically tie to a victory condition except maybe Aggressive, but I find most Aggressive leaders tend to be just that. Anyway, 4 is a highly complex game and there are a myriad of factors that play into a victory - far more than just traits.
you can have +gold at 100% research/culture/espionage
Actually this is not true. Although early on you will start deficit research as you expand, later you can start building wealth and technically can build more wealth than you lose as your global production increase. Regardless, maintenance is an important mechanic of the game and experience players not how to work around this. In 5 it is simple and moronic global happiness mechanic that limits expansion.
auto workers generally over build farms
auto workers suck and that option should not be used, except maybe late game when the game is won. Early worker micro is a key to success in the game. The worker is actually the most important unit in the game.
auto workers don't chop jungle until its practically the only thing left.
yeah..ha..cause that option sucks.
you can build a cottage an a grass hill, but not on a plains hill
plains hills are food deficit and unlikely to be ever worked for a very long time since food is so important in this game.
when a enemy unit captures a worker, even if you kill the enemy unit the same turn, you can't get your worker back.
don't let you workers get caught

for 5,
the "carpet of death" strategy takes too many turns to capture a civ. by the time you've captured the second city, your units are already obsolete.
pretty much true, especially as the game advances
archers and other ranged units can make it impossible to gain ground.
do you mean enemy archers or your archers? range units are key to warfare in 5
promotions are not significant enough to turn the tide of most battles.
I disagree here a lot. For range units, you want to get to Logistics and Range promotions as soon as you can which makes them OP. For melee you go with Rough or Flat 1, then Cover 1 &2, then complete Rough or Fat and then March. This makes them meat shields to take range fire from cities so your range units can knock down defenses.
build four cities and end turn till end of game.
ha..pretty much true
cities having their own defense is incredibly annoying. (though i must admit, makes sense with 1UT)
well yeah - they game would suck without it given the mechanic. I remember in some earlier versions cities were a bit weaker and the game was way too easy.
great person handling is odd. they don't become part of the city as an option.
well technically they do with their improvement. I love manufactories. Scientists plant academies around cap until Labs are built. Merchants are better used for trade missions. And writers/artists/musicians create works that reside in your cities producing extra culture in those cities.
happiness for whole civ rather than individual cities, while historically makes sense, but as a game play mechanic, I don't like it.
truly the worst mechanic in the game next to 1UPT
upkeep for roads, while historically makes sense, shouldn't be in the game. it makes it undesirable to connect all cities and resources until you're sure you can pay for them.
I actually liked this one really. It prevents road spam. Inca trait is so good though. Early on I would prebuild roads then complete at once, and only connect cities when they were at least size 3 or 4 so the extra income pays for it.
the traits options are strange. i preferred civ 4 version of traits.
I agree that they could have added a bit more flavor to the unique abilities. Some of them are quite good, but they are some really terrible and boring ones.

 

[AcaMetis]

pop ups before move.
I have no idea what this is. Maybe it is tied to the above but I haven't seen that in 12 years or so.

City/tech pop-ups asking for what to build/tech next, I assume? There's an option to change that too.

auto workers generally over build farms
auto workers suck and that option should not be used, except maybe late game when the game is won. Early worker micro is a key to success in the game. The worker is actually the most important unit in the game.

There's an option to have automated works leave old improvements and/or forests alone. That said it is not recommended to use automated workers until all your city BFC tiles are manually improved and all forests that require chopping are chopped, or you're at a point where you've basically won the game already. Because automated workers are, indeed, inexcusably awful at their job.

 

[rah]

It seems like the real issue is that he doesn't know the game well enough.

pop ups before move.

If you don't turn them off you can change it so they happen at the end of your turn.

 

[Colon]

Diplomacy. Diplomacy. Diplomacy. NO I WONT DECLARE WAR ON MALI BUGGER OFF.

 

[vincentz]

Diplomacy. Diplomacy. Diplomacy. NO I WONT DECLARE WAR ON MALI BUGGER OFF.

This! I wanted to mod in a third option : "I will NEVER do that!" which gives a double (-2) reaction to the civ asking, but a +1 to the 3rd party, but it requires a lot of work..

Also, compared to how often they ask, it is quite difficult/expensive to get THEM to join a war.

 

[Hamilton321]

pop ups instead of side bar.
pop ups before move

Those were some of my biggest problems in the late game before I discovered queues
.
Also, this thread kind of makes me want to start a thread that compares Civilization IV to other oldish strategy games and how they could be more like civilization or civilization could be more like them, I could do Medieval II: Total War, Victoria II or Europa Universalis III

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

@Hamilton321: Imo Paradox games can't be compared to CIV IV: civ can be way more difficult and complex gameplaywise. But I find them informative and very relaxing! (OK, I am comparing them )