What's in Civ4. Just the facts, ma'am.

[curtsibling]

I recall reading in PCZ magazine that there will be a CIV4 editor and the provision for Python modding!

[Nikolai]

Thanks curt!

A thing mentioned in the text under one of the screens that I didn't see in your summary(sorry if I've just missed it): One can now start in a particular era.

[Myrddin]

Don't want to throw too much cold water on some interesting comments, but my take on the PC Zone screenshots is that the banner with a skull on a black background is possibly a Firaxis in-house one for multiplayer; as it also appears over a unit which consists of 3 lions



Also missed a unit of crossbowmen, and what I would guess to be the basic warrior unit, carrying clubs

City tag has a number for population and name of what is being built. Below this are 2 bars (brown and blue), each split into sections of different intensity - I would guess showing time to city growth and build completion

The bars shown do not fill the area completely - the unshaded areas could be impact of health/waste?

[Nostromo]

Don't know if anyone has noticed this, but on one of the screenshots it says that:

Within the confines of the game, however, allying yourself to a certain religion will enable you to curry favour with other like-minded peoples. They're not as stupid as you might assume though, and come fully equipped with a tangible memory. As such, suddenly converting to the same religion will not cut the mustard. As one of the dev team succinctly explained: "They'll be like, 'where were you a thousand years ago?'"

[honus]

If anyone would be so kind, I would love to see a few screenshots!

My email is bendump hat gmail dawt com


edit: D'oh, i just saw the thread with 'em!

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by curtsibling
@Shogun:

Nope! Actual barabarian-controlled animals, and also barbs can attack animals too!

Perhaps your horse resources could be a target...

Well, that's an interesting twist....

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by nostromo


Hook up your computer to your home projector, like the photo you posted in the picture thread.

Ummm....I'm looking for an excuse to buy a flat screen TFT monitor.

My 17" monitor purchased REFURBISHED in 1996 just won't die!!!!

Yeah...okay, I'll use the projector.

[ajbera]

Everything sounds great so far, but I hope they bring back the concept of emergent civs, even if it's modeled as in Civ2. I like snotty young upstart nations (like my own! Go USA!)

[Nostromo]

Ummm....I'm looking for an excuse to buy a flat screen TFT monitor.

Speaking of flatpanels, I hope Civ 4 will support multiple screen resolutions. To look their best, games have to be playing in the flatpanel's native resolution. Mine's 1280x1024.

[Locutus]

Opening post updated, again. Expect more new info and updates later today (first I need some sleep )...

[Toby Rowe]

Considering the last major Religion didn't even exist until the 5th Century (Muslim), I hope we get plenty of time to develop our nation before our chosen religion starts to strangle us with doctrine and stifle science.

(The world IS still flat and Darwin IS still a liar)

Agnostically Toby

[Nikolai]

Toby: Not even Aristotle thought the world was flat remember. As for Darwin, he was no liar, he came with a theory that can be right, but we can't prove it per se. Anyway, his theory can't rule out the presence of God, He might very well have used methods like Darwin proposed.

So much for religion, now I just look forward to the next bit of info on Civ4.

[Locutus]

I updated the first post with a link to ALL known screenshots!

As for Darwin, he was no liar, he came with a theory that can be right, but we can't prove it per se.

It's a good thing you used smilies

[Nikolai]

Huh?

Anyway, for the screenshots:

[Locutus]

I added yet more new information to the opening post, mostly from a radio interview and a German Computerbildspiele magazine preview.

From the radio interview, we basically just learn that Civ3 lead artist Nick Rusko-Berger is also working on Civ4 and that the total Civ4 team consists of roughly 15 people (presumably this is the core team that works on the game full-time; most game productions involve hundreds of people, but many only for 'minor' issues such as QA testing, etc).


From the German preview, a lot more new info can be learned:

- There will be 85 techs, of which some "can only be discovered in very specific ways" (whatever that means)
- Confirmed techs:
* Agriculture
* Alphabet
* Calendar
* Civil Service
* Code of Laws
* Compass
* Construction
* Currency
* Drama
* Engineering
* Feudalism
* Fishing
* Hunting
* Literature
* Machinery
* Masonry
* Mathematics
* Meditation
* Metal Casting
* Mining
* Music
* Optics
* Philosophy
* Polytheism
* Theology
- Hinduism and Islam are among the 7 world religions
- Religious prophets give you information about foreign countries and their cities.
- The first civilization to discover a certain technology founds a world religion, for instance, the first player to discover Polytheism founds Hinduism.
- There will be a total of 102 buildings in CIV and 30 wonders. Some wonders have the ability to give you a golden age.
- here will be a total of 83 units in CIV.
- Movies return in Civ4, and will be triggered when your civilization does something significant, such as building a wonder. There will be 90 of them total.
- Some of the Civ leaders are Roosevelt, Washington, and Bismark.
- The AI leaders will have distinct personalities (as reported); if your own actions in the game don't reflect the worldview of these leaders, they will get very angry at you.
- the following civs are confirmed to be in the game (on top of the civs I already mentioned in the opening post): America, Arabia, China, Egypt, Mongolia.
- Edit: missed one point: you will be able to create armies in CIV by stacking single units together. It is not clear whether these armies are just for moving around (as in Civ3) or also for coordinated combat (as in CtP)


These things are also mentioned in the German preview but sound so dodgy I'm not putting them in this fact thread until some other source confirms them:
- The output of resources can be increased by building tile imps on them. E.g. A windmill tile-imp allows you to gather more wheat. (Dodgy: In Civ3 you needed to build tile imps to harvest them at all)
- Each civilization will have a cultural and a national flag. (Dodgy: TWO flags? Screenshots only show one and two makes no sense whatsoever)
- One of the screenshots shows that when you establish a religion, (Hinduism is shown in the screenshot), you experience one turn of anarchy and get one additional happy person in every city where Hinduism is the regional religion. That implies that your civilization will not be united behind one religion, but different regions of your empire will have different belief systems. (Dodgy: how can you establish a religion when you already have cities/regions where this religion already exists? The general idea of that comment is probably true, but how exactly it works is unclear to me)


Thanks to Micaelis Rex for the translation and write-up of the German article.