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MarkG Supplemental CIVILIZATION IV PREVIEW

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  • MarkG Supplemental CIVILIZATION IV PREVIEW

    The following are a series of questions and answers razed in the forums since the initial posting the preview. I hope it helps answering some very specific (but critical) issues.

    Click on the screenshot to enlarge

    Issues answered on the forums

    Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker

    Also, when you say 'close borders', you mean close as in distance?

    yes, if you have several cities close to the cities of an AI, you may get "our close borderds spark tention" negative points towards the AI's stance at you


    what different states of Borders can you have-only open and closed or open, normal and closed?

    open: units can pass through your borders
    normal/closed : units cant pass through your borders without declaring war


    Originally posted by Blake

    Like is there a "Load Mod" option in the mainmenu...

    actually, there is exactly that

    there is a mods directory with each mod having each own subdirectory with the altered/new files


    Have you noticed any of the infamous phalanx vs tank problems?

    no


    How is negotiating going?

    there is are "what's your price for X" options to easily get a starting point. then you can huggle a bit


    Are other civs now really respecting your borders?

    if you dont have an "open borders" agreement with the AI, he cant enter. and the AI will never declare war just to pass across the street



    Originally posted by korn469

    Did drafting make it from civ3 into civ4?

    drafting is in, with pop or gold expense based on your civics choices


    Originally posted by Stuie

    Mobilizing your economy for wartime in Civ3 provided a bonus to shields for building military units while at the same time restricting what was available to build (you couldn't build anything with a non-military purpose).

    no such thing, except that you have civic choices that are better for warfare and you can optimize your city production for more shields


    Originally posted by Nikolai

    I just came to think of one thing: If you have slave workers (that's what the "foreign" workers are after all ), and abolish slavery, will those be freed then? And what does happen with them? Will they become normal workers or just disappear? And then what happens in later wars when you capture them? PoWs?

    nothing of this happens


    you CAN capture workers though (but you cant differentiate them from your own)


    Originally posted by Xurx

    Is there a way to occupy/claim land/expand borders without having to build a city ?

    yes, if you build your culture your borders will expand


    Originally posted by kolpo

    How are the civics balanced?

    there are civics that will help you if you take a military path, a cultural/great people path or a religion path

    there will certainly be lots of discussion on the civics....


    Do all leaders care equally about your religion/civics or are some more religious or civic oriented?

    some are religious some are not


    Originally posted by bt_oz

    but can you have say most of your cities one religion and say outlaying cities another religion ?

    cities in your civ can have varying religions.


    And can you force some of your cities to adopt a certain religion?

    two notes on that
    1) you can send missionaries to your own cities and spread the religion of your choice there (as long as you have at least one city with that religion in order to build the missionary)
    2) religions spread on their own depending on existing spread on other cities. e.g. if you have found a religion in one city and you build the specific religious buldings you will make it easier for the religion to spread to surroung cities, in your civ and on other civs
    3) you can force some cities not to have some religion unless you choose a specific civic choice (that allows only your official religion to spread within your civ)

    bottom line, you can control how religion spreads in your cities but not totally


    Most importantly, do the drawings last between turns?

    yes


    Can you have multiple drawing layers?

    no


    can you adjust movement & battle speed

    no in-game setting, perhaps it can be done via xml...
    solver: But you can turn combat resolution off altogether


    Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker

    Are forts still in the game? If so, what are there function in Civ4?

    they are in, giving defence bonus


    Originally posted by Niptium

    You also said having more than one religion can give you a boost in later stages.

    My questions are:
    1) What's the benefit of chosing the civic that stops any other religion from spreading in your empire ? What's the benefit of having an homogenous religion ?
    2) And if in one city there is more than one religion. If there isn't percentage - how can the game illustrate that it's only the ones with the state religion that gets a boost ?

    1) if you go to war with a civ and that civ's religion has spread to your cities, these cities will have more war unhappiness
    2) Religion screen

    Originally posted by LaRusso

    can you raze a holy city? are there any effects on the religion, its spread, etc?

    You can raze a holy city. The effect on spread is the same as any city


    Originally posted by bt_oz

    I was wondering about the multiplay game you played together were you able to save progress in direct ip games??

    MP games can be saved and be continued at a later time

    Also, if someone's connection is dead, the other players can vote to decide if the player will be droped or if they want to continue


    Originally posted by korn469

    Describe how air units work please

    A bit too generic so a note on bombers: Bombers can bombard cities or attack units on the fields (attacking a stack brings collateral damage to all the units on the tile).


    Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker

    any info regarding maintainance costs for cities and their associated improvements-if any-as well as costs for units and civics choices?

    Unless you use the pacific civic choice which highly increase maintainance cost of units, you will be more worried from city maintainance cost


    Originally posted by V. Soma

    How did you find the role of naval units in the game?

    Naval units are important, especially as the AI really does naval invasions. If you fear war from an AI coming from the sea you should have a couple of sea units defending your coasts to a avoid a surprise naval invasion!


    Originally posted by korn469
    the new city health system

    A city's health is as important as how much you care about it's growth. for each city you get positive points from building and resources you gather or trade in and negative for city size and factories


    Originally posted by tuckson

    How is bombarding going? Are you able to bombard things to pieces or will one (like in civ3) need land units to finish things off?

    you need land units


    Originally posted by sabrewolf

    does the AI get annoyed if you often ask for deals but do not accept his offers?

    there is negative efect from rejecting trade deals. there is negative effect if you refuse a request for help in a war or if you refuse a demand ("give me tech X")


    Originally posted by sabrewolf

    regarding coastal cities: in civ3 it was really annoying if you did not place a city right at the coast but still had coastal tiles. you couldn't get more food (harbours) and commerce (dock). is this the same problem

    yes, you need the city to be on a coast to be able to build these buildings


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