Will there ever be a market for Civ IV remake?

[Nick723]

• Address peace vassals/game throwing

I always felt a good mechanic would be: if someone you’re at war with vassals to someone else, you are given the option to:
a) take peace (as the game forces you to now)
b) declare war against the new master as well
Nothing is more annoying than having your units teleport out of a winning position just to have to re-declare the next turn...

 

[Lennier]

I agree that you should have the choice, but if someone you're at war with peace-vassals to someone else (they're not at war with), their new master declares war on you. (If they capitulate to one of your co-belligerents, you get an imposed peace.) Just as annoying to be thrown into a war with another powerful AI that your army is out of position to deal with.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Not much of a Dominions fan I guess, lol.

Don't even know what that is. But either way I dislike multiplayer and prefer my strategy games to go slow and slow. My preferred game settings are the largest map a mod can provide and the slowest game speed. And I disable quick victory conditions such as cultural and time in favor of conquest, domination and space race or their equivalent.

Civ 4 MP games could be completed in 2-4h on blazing timer, depending on number of players. A remastering of Civ 4 should keep most of the core design, but fix a few things:

That sounds horrifying. A 2h game of CIV is like... well frankly it's like the strategy equivalent of Moderator Action: <Snip>
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889. I apologize for the language but that's really all I can compare it to.
Moderator Action: This language will not do on this forum. Do better. - lymond
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
Also, I am not a fan of fixing old exploits like the gold thing. Actual interface bugs like the alt key thing should be fixed because those are bugs. But exploits need to remain in the game because they are part of the charm. It's like if you were doing a remaster of an old tape of some ancient rock god or another and you noticed he missed a note. You wouldn't fix that. You'd leave the mistake in because it has become part of the performance.

Same with "rebalancing". I absolutely hate it when remasters change the balance and mechanics of the game they are supposed to be updating. It's simply no longer the game I enjoyed at that point but a new game wearing its skin.


If a CIV4 remaster was to come out my wish list would be in order of importmance:
1. Full mod compatibility with CIV4. This includes a fully released DLL and code designed such that absolutely no changes are required to make old art and code work with the new version.
2. Support for modern computers with more RAM and better CPUs. Serious multithreading beyond just the bare bones is great if they can do it but probably not realistic.
3. Fix various actual bugs like the stuck ALT key or the stuck arrow key for scrolling.
4. Better support for modern resolutions and stuff so that the game does not reset its graphics options every time I change mods.
5. Add BUG as one of the mods packaged with the game like Charlemagne or FFH were with BTS.
6. EVEN MORE OPENNESS FOR YET BETTER MOD SUPPORT.

And nothing beyond that.

 

[Reg Pither]

. But either way I dislike multiplayer and prefer my strategy games to go slow and slow. My preferred game settings are the largest map a mod can provide and the slowest game speed. And I disable quick victory conditions such as cultural and time in favor of conquest, domination and space race or their equivalent.


That sounds horrifying. A 2h game of CIV is like...

Agree 100%. A 2 hr game is barely scratching the surface, I want my games to last weeks!

 

[Noble Zarkon]

EVEN MORE OPENNESS FOR YET BETTER MOD SUPPORT.

I don't know what more they can do than, you know, publishing the entire source code!!

 

[civac]

They didn't publish everything.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I don't know what more they can do than, you know, publishing the entire source code!!

They didn't publish everything. There are still bits missing. And the bits that are missing seem to be semi random. Like for example the code that selects which animations are plaid in combat is semi hardcoded.

 

[raystuttgart]

@Noble Zarkon

They did not publish the code for the exe. So no, they did not publish "all".
(I fully undertand why they did not because it would have opened all doors for unpaid piracy copies.)

This however causes issues for programmers that really want to implement complex features much more often than you might expect.
You would not believe how often we have stumbled over issues even top programmers like @f1rpo and @Nightinggale could not change because of that.

Summary:

No, they have not published all source code which is completely understandable though. They have published a big part of it though.
Some things in Diplomacy Screen or Main Menu or PlotTypes or ... are hardcoded in the exe and are thus beyond our reach.
Thus if we modders want to change them we have to code crude "workarounds" and "hacks" causing lots of effort.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Repeating myself (again).

I want to play on big maps. With many nations. And for many turns. The more the better. On a decent 'puter, that isn't "top" of this or last year......


Don't try to invent the wheel once more. Keep your focus on an update of the game-engine.


Now - I don't know if the game-engine has been altered much between the official releases. But if it has, then I'll xcross my fingers for an update of the BTS-version.

 

[frumpleraggins]

Civ 6 has gotten progressively worse after the first expansion, and Civ 5 is great, but it's Civ 4 for me me because 1UPT isn't as interesting as Civ 4's unit movement (however, stacks of doom at times are frustrating, not as frustrating as micromanaging units in Civ 6 or Civ 5 though). I doubt they will remake this game and no other 4x compares for me.

 

[Pir Lan Tota]

Civ4 for me all the way. I hate it that Civ6 feels like you are being penalized for building a civilization, each settler, trader and worker increased in costs...Also, civ4 with BTS was allround great game. Still playing it coop!

 

[The Snug]

I'm fine with the graphics, mostly. I would settle for multithreading with the ability to use more ram, because I also like to play on huge maps with more than 30 civs. I'd like to play on ginormous maps with 100 civs. And also for easier modding, getting rid of PITA things like tgas.

I played civ's 1-4, but quit on the franchise after 5. Haven't even looked at 6. I will play civ4 until I'm dead.

 

[Slaughter]

I'm fine with the graphics, mostly. I would settle for multithreading with the ability to use more ram, because I also like to play on huge maps with more than 30 civs. I'd like to play on ginormous maps with 100 civs. And also for easier modding, getting rid of PITA things like tgas.

I played civ's 1-4, but quit on the franchise after 5. Haven't even looked at 6. I will play civ4 until I'm dead.

Same. I think that what makes it is not just the better mechanics but also the IMMENSE modding potential.

Honestly, I think the future is doing OpenCivIV. Like Open X-COM. There's even a OpenSMAC in the works. Would be null sweat to make it require having a copy of Civilization IV so the IP lawyers stay away. And this framework would allow slotting in old Civilization IV mods with minimal issues while still providing a vanila+ experience for purists.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

There's even a OpenSMAC in the works.

TELL ME MORE.

 

[LeanArcticWolf]

If a CIV4 remaster was to come out my wish list would be in order of importmance:
1. Full mod compatibility with CIV4. This includes a fully released DLL and code designed such that absolutely no changes are required to make old art and code work with the new version.
2. Support for modern computers with more RAM and better CPUs. Serious multithreading beyond just the bare bones is great if they can do it but probably not realistic.
3. Fix various actual bugs like the stuck ALT key or the stuck arrow key for scrolling.
4. Better support for modern resolutions and stuff so that the game does not reset its graphics options every time I change mods.
5. Add BUG as one of the mods packaged with the game like Charlemagne or FFH were with BTS.
6. EVEN MORE OPENNESS FOR YET BETTER MOD SUPPORT.

I completely support a Civ IV remaster along those lines. I would love for the game to be open source too-for the mod support, but the piracy would make them lose money on this project. HOWEVER, if they decided to support this through crowdfunding, then it wouldn't matter if it was open source or not. Would you all support a crowdfunded Civ IV Remaster, if it meant it would be open source?

 

[TheBirdMan]

Under conditions as those written by PPQ_Purple and LeanArcticWolf, I would support it..

 

[Pangaea]

Would you all support a crowdfunded Civ IV Remaster, if it meant it would be open source?

Definitely. But I don't exactly see that happening from such a company that has developed Civ 5 and 6 and effectively ended the franchise for something entirely different, and much worse and inferior.

One excellent example of that happening (open sourced) is the game Warzone 2100. Everything was gifted away to the community from what I recall, and the whole game has sort of been revamped from the bottom up now. Still in continued development too, years upon years later. The game itself is free too, and even part of Linux' depository iirc.

As for all these "popular" remasters and suchlike that goes on now, I'm sure they would butcher the game if they did that to Civ 4 anyway, so quite frankly I prefer what we have. It's not great with the memory leaks and UI sluggishness and a closed .exe, but it's a GOOD game with excellent gameplay, and I really do love that over the BS they're currently pushing out. Many developers have gone to hell so they are certainly not alone or a unique story, but it is still always sad to see. But I do greatly appreciate what was done with Civ 4.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I completely support a Civ IV remaster along those lines. I would love for the game to be open source too-for the mod support, but the piracy would make them lose money on this project. HOWEVER, if they decided to support this through crowdfunding, then it wouldn't matter if it was open source or not. Would you all support a crowdfunded Civ IV Remaster, if it meant it would be open source?

Moderator Action: <<Snip>>
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
Moderator Action: CFC has a zero tolerance policy for piracy. The policy includes advocating for piracy. Text removed -lymond
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

And finally they wouldn't need to actually release all of the code. Not even close. There are plenty of critical things we don't need access to because honestly modders couldn't do anything useful with it anyway such as say how the game interacts with the rendering pipeline. And those are the critical bits that actually make the game what it is on a technical level.

 

[Financial Ombudsman]

If only just to update the graphics, the game mechanism is pretty sophisticated as is. Maybe nerf Inca, or at least have AI starts with warriors and archers.I'd be the first one in line to buy it.

Moderator Action: Moved to Civ4 GD. leif

I would buy an updated Civ4 without hesitation.

 

[Fippy]

Did you link the 4gb patch already @lymond ?
(Helps with performance issues like lag).