Soryn Arkayn
Prince
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2005
- Messages
- 313
I commented on this back on Thursday, but at the time I had played Civ4 for 12 hours straight and hadn't slept in about 20 hours, so I wasn't sure if what I was writing was 100%. But after playing the game over the past 4 days I can safely say that Civ4's Advisors are useless!
The biggest problem is that there aren't even Advisors anymore! In Civ2, there were actual cutscenes with actors saying stuff like "Let's plunge our blades into the bleeding hearts of our enemies" or something like that. In Civ3, for some reason they got rid off the cutscenes and instead had simple animations of the Advisors saying things in dialogue bubbles. I suppose people thought that the dialogue from Civ2's cutscenes got old and annoying relatively fast, which I can sorta agree with, but personally I'd rather have the option to disable or mute it rather than not have it at all. Anyway, in Civ4, the Advisors have apparently been fired, because they're nowhere to be found in the game. The closest things are the game's "Recommendations" for tech research and city production, but they're not the same thing IMO.
I'll go through each Advisor, from left to right.
Domestic Advisor: IMO, the second worst advisor!
It's similar to that of Civ3, except that all of its best features are gone! Like when I want to sort through my list of cities, I want them to REMAIN SORTED when I return later. The way I typically sort my cities is according to their production hammers: highest to lowest. This way I know what city can construct a Wonder or mass-produce military units the fastest. But after I close it, when I return, whether it's one hour or one second later, it's reverted back to the default setting where it lists my cities according to their construction or capture, which is practically useless. Also, if I want to zoom to a city or change it's production, I CAN'T! At least not from the Domestic Advisor screen. I can change the production, but it only accesses the simple (or "dummy") production bar at the button of the game screen, the same way you would by single-left-clicking on the city label, rather than the detailed city view you'd access by double-left-clicking the city label, which is what I want most of the time. And regardless if I left-click, double-click, or right-click on the city, it doesn't zoom to that city. So if I want to goto that city on the game map, I have to close the Domestic Advisor and look for it myself. Why can't I access it directly from the advisor screen like in Civ3? This is such a basic function from Civ3 that it's incredibly frustrating that it hasn't carried over to Civ4. Also, I miss the animated Advisor recommending I construct or produce certain buildings or units. Sure, I rarely listened to him but he was helpful at pointing certain things out that I might've missed.
Finance Advisor: Again, not nearly as useful as in Civ3. I can't view financial information about individual cities. Some of the info, like a city's trade income or maintenance costs, is viewable on the Domestic Advisor, but not the Finance screen! And you may notice that it displays your treasury at the top; research, culture, and gold production on the left; income in the centre, and expenditures on the right -- but DOESN'T show you how much is left per turn in the Finance Advisor screen. If you want to know, you have to consult the top bar of the game interface in the background. Sure, it's not a big problem, but why the hell isn't it on the Advisor screen itself?
Civic Advisor: Can't compalin about this one; it serves it's purpose and since it's new with Civ4 I can't point out it's inferiority to Civ3.
Foreign Advisor: This screen is good and bad, but the bad outweighes the good IMO. The Relations section is alright, but I don't like the fact that they've removed the more detailed lines that were in Civ3, like for open borders, defensive pact, permanent alliance, or trade embargo. It just shows Peace, War, Contact, and a fourth -- can't remember. The lines that are omitted are displayed under Active deals, but it would be a lot better to see them represented graphically under Relations than simply listed under deals. The Resources section is mostly good, because you can see what resources you have and those of your rival Civs, and even if they're willing or unwilling to trade. The problem is that it doesn't show how many sources of a resource that you have to trade, and since in Civ4 you can now trade away your only source (unlike in Civ3 where you'd preserve one source for your own use), if you want to keep that resource you'll have to enter the Diplomacy interface where it DOES show how many resource sources you have to trade. Next is Technology, which is excellent because it lets me see all the techs already researched by my rivals and if they're willing to trade. The fourth section is Active deals, which is fine. It's handy you can cancel a deal from this screen instead of having to go through Diplomacy -- if only they applied this kind of shortcut to the Domestic Advisor screen, among others.
Military Advisor: You'll recall me saying earlier that the Domestic Advisor was the second worst advisor screen, well now I've come to the Military Advisor, which is THE WORST! It is utterly useless! 
Everything that made Civ3's Military Advisor useful is GONE! 
You can't sort units according to city or to unit type anymore, which is my biggest complaint. That's what I used the Military Advisor screen for the most in Civ3; to see how adequately each city was defended as well as to upgrade my units all at once. My only complaint about the Civ3 Military Advisor is that it wouldn't let me upgrade all of particular military unit at once -- I had to select them individually, which was a tremendous hassle late in the game when I wanted to upgrade 50+ Tanks into Modern Armour. Also, it won't let me activate, fortify, upgrade, disband, etc. units from this screen. And I have no clue how to compare my military strength to a rival Civs. I has icons for the different Civs at the top, but if I highlight one it doesn't show me their unit numbers, even if I can see them on the game screen. The utter uselessness of the Military Advisor screen makes me think that it was a feature that got cut out of the game because of the release date deadline. It just doesn't make sense what you can select other Civs' icons, but it doesn't show their unit numbers. And failing actual numbers, you aren't even given a clue from the Military Advisor like "Compared to them, you're army is weak/equal/strong," because there isn't an advisor anymore; the M.A. was the one advisor I routinely consulted and actually listened to, and I feel lost without him in Civ4.
This post is getting long and I'm getting tired, so I'll keep the lass four as brief as possible:
Technology Tree: Inadequate. It's main problem it's not linked well enough to the Civilopedia so you can access more detail on a particular Wonder and it's benefits and effects.
Religion Advisor: I rarely use this one so I can't even recall what it looks like or how well or poorly it works. I just know that religions don't have any benefits or penalties compared to other religions, which is lame.
Victory Screen: Adequate. It'd be better if the information was displayed in a more compelling format, but it does the job.
Palace Screen: To be honest I don't recall ever accessing this screen -- I didn't even know about it until I saw it listed along with the advisor screens on page 27 of the manual. I'll have to check it out before I pass judgement. But I find it strange and disappointing that the game hasn't shown me my palance after all this time.
So overall, Civ4's Advisors have been a huge letdown. The fact that there aren't even animated Advisors anymore is the worst part, because even though I ignored them most of the time they at least kept me informed and gave me clues about what I should be doing. Since I'm experienced at Civ games I know how to play, but my fear is that I've missed something without the advisors help. The second worst part of the Advisors is that most of the best features from Civ3 have been omitted; it's not as if they were changed for the worse, they're just not there at all.
This reinforces my belief that Civ4 was rushed to completion without many of the Advisor features, and the Devs plan to patch them in over the next few months.
The biggest problem is that there aren't even Advisors anymore! In Civ2, there were actual cutscenes with actors saying stuff like "Let's plunge our blades into the bleeding hearts of our enemies" or something like that. In Civ3, for some reason they got rid off the cutscenes and instead had simple animations of the Advisors saying things in dialogue bubbles. I suppose people thought that the dialogue from Civ2's cutscenes got old and annoying relatively fast, which I can sorta agree with, but personally I'd rather have the option to disable or mute it rather than not have it at all. Anyway, in Civ4, the Advisors have apparently been fired, because they're nowhere to be found in the game. The closest things are the game's "Recommendations" for tech research and city production, but they're not the same thing IMO.
I'll go through each Advisor, from left to right.
Domestic Advisor: IMO, the second worst advisor!
It's similar to that of Civ3, except that all of its best features are gone! Like when I want to sort through my list of cities, I want them to REMAIN SORTED when I return later. The way I typically sort my cities is according to their production hammers: highest to lowest. This way I know what city can construct a Wonder or mass-produce military units the fastest. But after I close it, when I return, whether it's one hour or one second later, it's reverted back to the default setting where it lists my cities according to their construction or capture, which is practically useless. Also, if I want to zoom to a city or change it's production, I CAN'T! At least not from the Domestic Advisor screen. I can change the production, but it only accesses the simple (or "dummy") production bar at the button of the game screen, the same way you would by single-left-clicking on the city label, rather than the detailed city view you'd access by double-left-clicking the city label, which is what I want most of the time. And regardless if I left-click, double-click, or right-click on the city, it doesn't zoom to that city. So if I want to goto that city on the game map, I have to close the Domestic Advisor and look for it myself. Why can't I access it directly from the advisor screen like in Civ3? This is such a basic function from Civ3 that it's incredibly frustrating that it hasn't carried over to Civ4. Also, I miss the animated Advisor recommending I construct or produce certain buildings or units. Sure, I rarely listened to him but he was helpful at pointing certain things out that I might've missed.Finance Advisor: Again, not nearly as useful as in Civ3. I can't view financial information about individual cities. Some of the info, like a city's trade income or maintenance costs, is viewable on the Domestic Advisor, but not the Finance screen! And you may notice that it displays your treasury at the top; research, culture, and gold production on the left; income in the centre, and expenditures on the right -- but DOESN'T show you how much is left per turn in the Finance Advisor screen. If you want to know, you have to consult the top bar of the game interface in the background. Sure, it's not a big problem, but why the hell isn't it on the Advisor screen itself?
Civic Advisor: Can't compalin about this one; it serves it's purpose and since it's new with Civ4 I can't point out it's inferiority to Civ3.
Foreign Advisor: This screen is good and bad, but the bad outweighes the good IMO. The Relations section is alright, but I don't like the fact that they've removed the more detailed lines that were in Civ3, like for open borders, defensive pact, permanent alliance, or trade embargo. It just shows Peace, War, Contact, and a fourth -- can't remember. The lines that are omitted are displayed under Active deals, but it would be a lot better to see them represented graphically under Relations than simply listed under deals. The Resources section is mostly good, because you can see what resources you have and those of your rival Civs, and even if they're willing or unwilling to trade. The problem is that it doesn't show how many sources of a resource that you have to trade, and since in Civ4 you can now trade away your only source (unlike in Civ3 where you'd preserve one source for your own use), if you want to keep that resource you'll have to enter the Diplomacy interface where it DOES show how many resource sources you have to trade. Next is Technology, which is excellent because it lets me see all the techs already researched by my rivals and if they're willing to trade. The fourth section is Active deals, which is fine. It's handy you can cancel a deal from this screen instead of having to go through Diplomacy -- if only they applied this kind of shortcut to the Domestic Advisor screen, among others.
Military Advisor: You'll recall me saying earlier that the Domestic Advisor was the second worst advisor screen, well now I've come to the Military Advisor, which is THE WORST!
It is utterly useless! Everything that made Civ3's Military Advisor useful is GONE! You can't sort units according to city or to unit type anymore, which is my biggest complaint. That's what I used the Military Advisor screen for the most in Civ3; to see how adequately each city was defended as well as to upgrade my units all at once. My only complaint about the Civ3 Military Advisor is that it wouldn't let me upgrade all of particular military unit at once -- I had to select them individually, which was a tremendous hassle late in the game when I wanted to upgrade 50+ Tanks into Modern Armour. Also, it won't let me activate, fortify, upgrade, disband, etc. units from this screen. And I have no clue how to compare my military strength to a rival Civs. I has icons for the different Civs at the top, but if I highlight one it doesn't show me their unit numbers, even if I can see them on the game screen. The utter uselessness of the Military Advisor screen makes me think that it was a feature that got cut out of the game because of the release date deadline. It just doesn't make sense what you can select other Civs' icons, but it doesn't show their unit numbers. And failing actual numbers, you aren't even given a clue from the Military Advisor like "Compared to them, you're army is weak/equal/strong," because there isn't an advisor anymore; the M.A. was the one advisor I routinely consulted and actually listened to, and I feel lost without him in Civ4.This post is getting long and I'm getting tired, so I'll keep the lass four as brief as possible:
Technology Tree: Inadequate. It's main problem it's not linked well enough to the Civilopedia so you can access more detail on a particular Wonder and it's benefits and effects.
Religion Advisor: I rarely use this one so I can't even recall what it looks like or how well or poorly it works. I just know that religions don't have any benefits or penalties compared to other religions, which is lame.
Victory Screen: Adequate. It'd be better if the information was displayed in a more compelling format, but it does the job.
Palace Screen: To be honest I don't recall ever accessing this screen -- I didn't even know about it until I saw it listed along with the advisor screens on page 27 of the manual. I'll have to check it out before I pass judgement. But I find it strange and disappointing that the game hasn't shown me my palance after all this time.
So overall, Civ4's Advisors have been a huge letdown. The fact that there aren't even animated Advisors anymore is the worst part, because even though I ignored them most of the time they at least kept me informed and gave me clues about what I should be doing. Since I'm experienced at Civ games I know how to play, but my fear is that I've missed something without the advisors help. The second worst part of the Advisors is that most of the best features from Civ3 have been omitted; it's not as if they were changed for the worse, they're just not there at all.
This reinforces my belief that Civ4 was rushed to completion without many of the Advisor features, and the Devs plan to patch them in over the next few months.
on my garrisoned units to indicate that, which is why I presume they've lost that ability. If so, I think that's a terrible idea. You should still be able to use military police under certain Civic types. I believe that the Nationhood civic gives +2 
