First Civ 4 Screenshots!

[Jon Shafer]

Whether you like the old style or not, my point is that things can change quite a bit very quickly.

[Alex]

Yeah, things will certainly change a lot, these first screenshots are obviously from an alpha build... But I'll admit that I don't understand why 3D is so much better than 2D... Looking at the screenshots, I think that the basic graphic engine is ready to go (it's going to be refined and polished and enhanced from here on), and, frankly, I think that a 2D engine would work perfectly too.

(And no, I don't care about the ability to zoom all the way from the Milky Way to the nail in the foot of one of my citizens)

[Brent]

Those graphics don't really bother me much.

headed by Sid: good.

Zooming: good but not really necessary.

Spearmen/ Tanks: Darn!

Different research paths: cool.

Creating personalized worlds: Alien ones?

Historical events: cool.

Control AI: very cool.

[Robert]

* Development is being headed by creator Sid Meier himself.

we all know that this means that he's just involved by playing the game and giving some creative input. Soren is the real boss. That's

* Civ IV has been written entirely from scratch.

This is without any doubt the best! No longer bugs that can't be solved because of 'old code'

* The 3D engine will allow you to zoom smoothly from a global view all the way down to a single city.

I do actually like the zoom option. Not the zoom-in option, which I fairly don't care about. But the zoom-out option. I really miss the overview I had in civ2. The world map, or the continental map.

* Individual units will gain experience and acquire new upgrades such as bonuses against specific enemy types and the ability to use enemy roads.

Sounds interesting

* No more spearmen defeating tanks.

Oh my, as if that happened oftenly. Pherhaps I experienced this 3 times in 4 years. It's just only a favourite thing to mourn about. I just don't hope that this means that stronger units always beat weaker units, that would defenitely suck. I love the cIIIv model.

* Besides incorporating new technologies, the tech tree has been changed to allow radically different research paths to the same high-level technologies. Now you won’t have to follow a strict research path to be competitive later in the game – a design that opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

A more flexible tech-tree sounds promising. I'm curious how they'll work it out. I would love it if different nations can follow different pahts of the tech-tree, and for that reason miss certain techs.
The 'trading tech' thing should be reconcidered as well in this case. It cannot be that two players follow a totally different tech-path, but do still share it with each other though.

* Civilization IV has been designed to fully support the mod community. The game is written using flexible XML data files and the Python scripting language so that modders will have no trouble at all creating their own personalized worlds, units, technologies, and historical events. Advanced modders will even be able to control the AI.

Good for the modders. Pherhaps I'll mod myself some stuff as well, though I know that I'll be most interested in the basic game anyway.

* Civ4 has been designed from the outset to include the multiplayer mode. You will be able to team up in co-op mode against the AI or other teams of players, and a random-map generator ensures an equal start.

Yeah, that's what they said about cIIIv as well.
We know how things went anyway.
I don't believe it has multiplayer mode until I play it.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by alva
Development is being headed by creator Sid Meier himself.

As mentioned by Cyber, probably not true. We know Soren is in charge.

The 3D engine will allow you to zoom smoothly from a global view all the way down to a single city.

One of the things I love about CtP as well Especially in full 3D it should look good.

No more spearmen defeating tanks.

I hope so, about time, after 12+ years...

Besides incorporating new technologies, the tech tree has been changed to allow radically different research paths to the same high-level technologies. Now you won’t have to follow a strict research path to be competitive later in the game – a design that opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

A world of possibilities or a world of beelining to Tanks? Time will tell, I guess...

Advanced modders will even be able to control the AI.

Overall, sounds promosing. But as usual with such early info, this article raises more questions than it answers

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by CyberShy

* Civ IV has been written entirely from scratch.

This is without any doubt the best! No longer bugs that can't be solved because of 'old code'

So we get bugs that can't be solved because of 'new code'
IIRC, Civ3 was programmed from scratch already.

I don't think starting out all over again all the time is such an advantage. You have to do way more testing and the initial release will most likely be bug ridden.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Atahualpa
IIRC, Civ3 was programmed from scratch already.

No, it was based on the SMAC engine.

[Carolus Rex]

Ouch!

Hope you people are right about this one. Heck, Civ 2 has nicer looking graphics...

Carolus

[Robert]

Don't bother about the grapics. They'll change!
This is the alpha mode.

[Last Conformist]

That looks very ... Settlerish. Even more of a toy look than CivIV. I'd not object if the final gfx looked more strategic/abstract/CivIIish.

Individual unit bonuses? Am I the only one who senses some huge micromanagement here?

[The diplomat]

Obviously these are alpha graphics that will change a lot. They are probably just meant to show us that civ4 will be 3D.

The info does sound promising. I will wait before getting excited about anything. I am not going to do like I did for civ3 where as soon as the first artwork and screenshots were released I as drooling at mouth with anticipation only to be dissapointed after playing the game. I am going to wait until the game is released and then make a careful decision if the game is worth buying or not.

[Brent]

Soren or Sid, doesn't make a huge difference to me.

I had thought that maybe they should have stuck with old code, I figured it worked well enough, but I guess there are things I want it to be able to do that it needed new code for?

Apparantly you will be able to see what buildings are actually in your city from a view of several tiles, which is cool.

I may be at a much greater disadvantage not being able to defeat a Tank with a Spearman. Maybe it will be easier to keep up technologically and upgrade?

About multiplayer, were they playing it in Civ3 early in development?

I guess i've kind of resigned myself to be content if there are only 8 civs.

I kind of prefer the general look of the screenshots over more realistic graphics.

[Nikolai]

I don't care about pictures very much, and certainly not at this point. The info though... The more, the better. The info we've got so far isn't much, it it's something. I'm looking forward to this game, but I will try to do as I "managed" last time, to not have high and unrealistic hopes, like a few on this site had to Civ3...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Wycoff
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that those graphics look worse than Civ 3?

It looks a lot worse. Here's hoping Firaxis makes some major changes before the release.

[Nikolai]

Of course they will... Read what has been said here so far, guys.