Perhaps they should've stuck with the Hoover Dam

[nemt]

considering the Three Gorges Dam is a massive environmental and humanitarian disaster, and a consistent joke in the non-chinese engineering world

I understand the dev's desire to branch out with non-western wonders, and some of them are really solid additions (chichen itza, spiral minaret, etc) but this one seems really really forced.

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

Still, if you stop and think about it, the Three Gorges, if it doesn't get bombed/sabotoged/halted/whatever, it'll supply a ton more power then the Hoover....>>

 

[nemt]

So what? There are tons of hydroelectric dams that supply a ton more power than the Hoover - without destroying an entire province of the country they're located in and significantly reducing water quality.

 

[Gooblah]

Nemt is totally right. The 3 Gorges Dam is both an engineering and humanitarian disaster,not to mention environmental as well!
Just a few weeks ago, the Chinese Government was forced to evacuvate whole towns and cities due to the threat!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

China still wins a Time Victory in 2050 if no-one gets their act together.

 

[Weird Piggy]

Unless they get enough land for the Domination. They already got the population.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Water tiles don't count so they are shooting themselves in the foot there

 

[Enigma256]

if you build the Dam you get 2 for power in every city.

first i thought it was a bug, but further thinking got me to the point that it is a feature

 

[broncoblaster]

I thought they removed the 2 unhealthy's in the new patch?

I could be wrong I havent been able to build it yet to find out.

 

[Enigma256]

haven't played this far in 3.13 yet, so maybe.

 

[Soneji]

Yes, I concur with the OP.

The 3GD is a ecological nightmare, the effect of which can already be seen by satellite iirc..

 

[nemt]

They really missed the mark. The Hoover Dam isn't "wonder-worthy" because it provides a lot of power. Most powerplants provide more power. The Hoover Dam is an engineering marvel, not just some misguided government odyssey to make the biggest something.

 

[Airefuego]

China still wins a Time Victory in 2050 if no-one gets their act together.

Not sure I agree on the time victory... their biggest points-scorer is population, and India is projected to overtake them by 2050...

In terms of World Wonders, they have two I think (great wall and Three Gorges, have I forgotten any though?)

US is still looking on track to win, I count five world wonders and more territory and tech than China, and they are thinking about firing up their space program again...

Russia has a lot of land but not so much pop, and one world wonder I think?

Or otherwise I think the winner will be Europe (if BTS patch 3.2 allows small once-glorious Civs to merge into a Regional Union ) and will get a cultural victory with Rome, Paris and London...

 

[Shylock]

And the Hoover Dam contribute the Colorado River drying up.

Then again both were made by government so both will probably become an epic failure.

 

[Wenla]

Russia has a lot of land but not so much pop, and one world wonder I think?

IIRC there are two, Kreml and Winter Palace (they propably used different name than Winter Palace).

Wenla

 

[nemt]

The Kremlin in Civ 4 is actually St. Basil's, not the entire Moscow Kremlin - a common western misconception. The Winter Palace is the Hermitage, and functions as an art museum (as it does today) not a palace.

 

[Airefuego]

Yes, I wasn´t counting National Wonders (Winter Palace aka Hermitage etc) as everyone gets to build their version, and so it doesn´t really count towards a points win. For example, the US and China have a "hermitage" too, it just has another name in real life, eg US has the Guggenheim or the Smithsonian or something.

So just counting world wonders, I think the US has 5, Russia has 1, and China has 2.

Partly this reflects the makers and the marketing of the game, of course...

 

[Quintillus]

Unless they get enough land for the Domination. They already got the population.

No, they don't have the population. They have 18% or so of the world's population. The Civ3 requirement was 66%; in Civ4 it varies but is always at least in the 40%'s. China is far from the population requirement for domination.

I still prefer Civ3's scoring method. It takes into account the strength of the civilization over all of, well, civilization. It seems rather silly that in Civ4 it's only the status in the very last year that matters in determining a civlization's greatness . Surely, for example, the British Empire gives the British an advantage in the question of who is the greatest civilization, even though most of the empire in not British today.

If you go by CivIV's scoring method, China probably would win purely by population over the U.S., forgetting everything else. They only trail the U.S. by 0.3% in land area, so the U.S. certainly won't leapfrog China there. The only country with significantly more land than China is Russia, which as stated lacks population, so China probably would win by Civ4's scoring method. As to the wonders for the U.S. - they aren't that important in the Civ4 scoring method, and population-wise the U.S. isn't even close.

They'd probably also win by CivIII's scoring method, for having the most consistently great civilization since 4000 B.C. India perhaps could challenge them, but I doubt with success.