New IGN Preview...

[warpstorm]

I remember them saying that you have lots of parameters for map creation including being able to make custom Python scripts for world creation.

 

[Louis XXIV]

So you mean:
The spanish possess the holy city of hinduism, they see and know (pretty much) everything of the cities were this religion is predominant. The player has set the mode here to show growth. So, he/she sees this in every city that is hinduistic, they are shown either green (growing) or pink/red (starving). The grey cities are not hinduistic, and thus the player has no information wether they grow or not.

Pretty good, this screen also shows the line of sight within religion, cool ...

Either that or all the cities are owned by one civ (I can't see any cultural borders anywhere).

 

[mitsho]

the cultural borders are not shown because the player has tickled them off. This is certain, because other screens of that set show the same map and there you can see borders. So, this screen just shows the range of selection you have what you want to be shown on your map and what not...

mfG mitsho

EDIT: @warpstorm, thanks, I didn't know this... cool

 

[Sickman]

Xen, you might be right about Roman Leaders, Aurelius would be perfect balancing option towards Caesar.

What surprises me is that why mongols have two leaders?
How Firaxis felt it was hard to find two leaders for all when they thought that two mongol leaders deserved to be in the game?
I just can imagine someone in Firaxis pointing out (Beaver and Butthead style) "Wouldn't it be cool to play Mongols...eh...like different way than in military fashion?
And someone said sure and now let's roll on random which civs get two leaders in the vanilla version and which one in expansion.
Now that we know that not all civs have two leaders it would be better to get them in the possible expansion.

One thing that I noticed in one of the videos (don't remember which one) is that there are units armed with crossbows!

This issue was already covered before and I would suspect that crossbows are in game because it would make ancient archer unit recognisable compared to the later version of marksman or for the same reason other civs get crossbows so English unique unit Longbows are more easily to be recognised.

 

[Mobilize]

I still don't like what I see.. this is so disapointing.

One thing I wonder is why Firaxis can't just keep everything equal numbered/balanced/etc like have 2 leaders for every civ, more civs, and why couldn't they make the cities single tiled like before?

Finally they have Salah ad-Din as a leader.. that's one thing to look forward too.

 

[N3pomuk]

Any body else worried that artillery is supposed to act like a normal unit? I think that would be a huge loss, ranged combat was a huge gain for civ, what else have they gone back on? will we also have to move each of our bombers the 20 spaces to and fro when bombing? this might be a mistake.
cheers

 

[playshogi]

I hope I will still have my advisor to tell me if he is angry or happy with the offer.

Well, I hope there will only be 1 or 2 offer exchanges before the AI leader cuts off communication until the next turn. Haggling with the advisor to find out the EXACT price the AI would accept is one of those "unfun" items that should be eliminated.

 

[ogmoir]

I like the intro music as it seems to be sung in Swahili, which I'm studying. "Baba yetu" means "Our Father", but I can't figure out much else.

Everytime a new preview comes along, the game seems better and better. I hope it means that when the game comes out, I'll be blown away.

 

[dc82]

the song is based on the Lord's prayer ("Our Father, who art in heaven...")

 

[Slax]

Any body else worried that artillery is supposed to act like a normal unit? I think that would be a huge loss, ranged combat was a huge gain for civ, what else have they gone back on? will we also have to move each of our bombers the 20 spaces to and fro when bombing? this might be a mistake.
cheers

I don't think they said they got rid of ranged combat, only that artillery can attack as a normal unit (it does not have an attack value of zero like in Civ 3).

 

[Novaya Havoc]

Okay -- hold the phone. Two leaders for... the MONGOLS?

Out of Russia, Japan, Spain, Germany, Egypt, Rome... two leaders for the MONGOLS?!

Come on. If one civ should be typecast, Mongolia is most certainly it.

C'est la vie. I peg the Russians and the Germans as being the other two civs with two leaders. Russia without two leaders - given their large empire and very dramatic and different eras -- is just silly.

 

[Carver]

I hope they explain how artillery works more (maybe I would get it if I had played Civ2). If arty attacks like a normal unit can it be destroyed?

 

[Carver]

I think there may indeed be a fabled 19th civ. That may be why they're using placeholder names like "Motown" and "Cliffs of Insanity" - perhaps they haven't conclusively decided wether or not to include the civ.

Also, the cities look much better than those in Civ3, IMHO. I love the Mali cities in the pic from 6/23 ( http://media.pc.ign.com/media/620/620513/img_2872475.html ). They just blend in with the surrounding terrain and look much more real.

 

[BearMan]

oh... seems the music release wasn't official =)
as far as I can see, the sample of the civ4 music is down now =)
however, it's a great piece of music (downloaded it erlier).

 

[TheBB]

Can someone share the music with us who was a few hours short of downloading it?

Love what I'm reading. Don't get what all the complains are about... Can't wait any mooooore.

 

[microbe]

The graphics for the landmass look good, but I really don't like those units. They don't look as good as civ3.

 

[Furius]

I strongly hope Mecca and Medina won't be the first cities of the Arabs, they'll come later on in the first 10, but not as number one and two, please. At least, they've added Susa to the Persian list.

What? Weren't Mecca and Medina the original citys of Arabia. I think they have precedence, what with Kyoto being built before Tokyo, to have the original cities built first.

On another note, for those poor people who missed out, I do have a copy of the music still, if you were to PM me I could send out a copy... It is rather large, though...

 

[ThERat]

since artillery now has attack strength again, it means that you can't capture them any longer. That, I find pretty sad. Who would use artillery to attack lets say a tank any other way than shelling it?

Your units only have a single combat stat, so you don't have to worry about separate attack, defense, armor, or any of that.

actually IMHO this made startegic planning all the more important to have defensive and offensive forces. You mean tanks are as good as defense as offense? I don't know

 

[warpstorm]

You mean tanks are as good as defense as offense? I don't know

Except that there are all the other modifers. Some units are better on some terrains or against other units. Just saying that they are as good on offense as defense is simplifying it a bit, unless everything I've read is wrong,

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

ign mentions that "about" 8 of the 18 civs have 2 leaders - ne ideas which ones for wut... so far i got:

two rulers:
chinese: qin shi huang/mao zedong
english: elizabeth/victoria
french: naploean/louis xiv
mongols: genghis khan/kublai khan
americans: washington/fdr
indians: ghandi/ashoka

one ruler only:
arabs: saladin

unknown no. of leaders:
japanese: tokugawa
greeks: alexander
romans: julius caesar
egyptians: hatshepsut
persians: cyrus
aztecs: montezuma

unknown:
germans: ?
incans: ?
russians: ?
spanish: ?
mali: ?

My guess for the other civs with two leaders would be Rome and Egypt. They've got probably the easiest list of possibilities out of the remaining civs. (Rome: Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Constantine the Great, etc. Egypt: Ramesses II the Great, Thutmoses III the Conqueror, Ptolemy II, Cheops (Khufu), etc.) Although I wouldn't be surprised if Russia or Greece had two instead.