Sid Meier's Civilization IV Prerelease Information

[froglegs]

Civrules in post #66 made a correct point about an historical battle. The problem with trying to recreate something like that is that the game would have to go to a tactical battle system that would consume much of the design effort. What he describes in post #66 can be recreated in a game like "Rome Total War" for instance. I play that game. It often takes me 30 minutes to fight one complicated tactical battle. I like that, but it would be very time consuming for civ which covers a time period of 6000 years instead of just 274 years. You have to beware of successful game systems that reach too far -- like "Heroes of Might and Magic III" was great whereas Heroes IV stunk.

The bottom line is this -- playtest, playtest, playtest! And don't release it until it works.

 

[Milan's Warrior]

Squares rather than the diamond style: It looks like from the screenshots that were available, Civilization IV will not be using the diamond style squares as previous Civilization titles

This is a big improvement for me. I quite never managed to play with diamonds and the grid off.
Keeping the grid on was so tiring

 

[Civrules]

Well, we're not sure what to expect yet, so what I'm about to say is pure speculation...
Maybe the camera can move around, and for this reason, the squares look like they did in the screenies?
It is a possibility.

 

[deo]

Huh! 25 november, can't wait. Great improvments through

 

[Civrules]

Huh! 25 november, can't wait. Great improvments through

I put this date there only because it was on a larger gaming site, although I don't think it can be as reliable as if it were on GameSpot, or if it were officially announced.
So... We'll see.

 

[didaskalia7]

This sounds great, I cant wait, gimme the demo !

 

[ThePunisher]

Given the form for the prevous versions of Civ, anyone want to hazard a guess when we can expect to start seeing Civ4 demos? Is it likely to be 6 months before release or more likely 1 -3 months? Anyone care to speculate?

 

[warpstorm]

Never. There was no Civ3 demo.

 

[Civrules]

[Dec22]I've put up an update with information I found on the new Firaxis site.
[Dec23]A quick update I posted today is that we now know Jesse Smith will be the producer of CIV.

 

[ShallowGrave]

Well, we're not sure what to expect yet, so what I'm about to say is pure speculation...
Maybe the camera can move around, and for this reason, the squares look like they did in the screenies?
It is a possibility.

I think the game, being interely 3D, will be played on a 3D globe (one of the parameters of a game session will probably be the 'planet' radius - maybe thats the reason for that box cover). The camera as you say will move, or rather rotate, the world around. All this is just me speculating of course

 

[Chieftess]

The discussion will be continued in this thread, as Civrules needed to reserve some posts for future info.