What's in Civ4. Just the facts, ma'am! (2nd edition)

[Locutus]

Don't have much time today due to RL issues, but first post updated. Added:

- Aztec flag
- Delhi as Indian capital
- Chinese cities of Canton, Shanghai, Tientsin, Tsingtao, Xinjian
- Confucianism as religion (confirmed)
- Grocer Building (placeholder)
- Catapult, Frigate, Tank, Submarine, Mobile Infantry, Helicopter Gunship, Stealth Bomber, Nuke Units (placeholders)

Edit: and I added the Firaxis site to the screenshots section.

[Provost Harrison]

Looks impressive...I wait with anticipation...nice to see they have kept some of the old aspects of the other games, and religion sounds like a cool idea!

[Provost Harrison]

Also they seem to be a lot more focussed and seem to be less rushed now they have Infogreed off their backs

[Alexander I]

I certainly hope so.

I view that as the one major problem contributing to the downfall of Civ3. Poor Microprose wouldn't have done that...

[Jaybe]

Infogreed was undoubtably a factor, but the defection of a good portion of the crew to form BHG (Rise of Nations) and all the legacy poorly-documented code from Civ2 also had their part.
Combining old code with people not so familiar with that code would be a good recipe for ... Civ3!

[Xorbon]

All things considered, Civ 3 turned out to be a pretty good game...at least once C3C came out. It only took a couple more years after the release of the original game to finally get a good product!

[Alexander I]

I suppose it wasn't as bad by the end, but I still hope Civ4 doesn't have that problem!

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Alexander01
I suppose it wasn't as bad by the end, but I still hope Civ4 doesn't have that problem!

What?! If there aren't improvements to be made, how will we expect there to be updates and upgrades! I AM at least half serious, here.
New versions can be almost like a new game. Learning how to play (and especially play WELL) a game is where a large part of the fun is.

[Roman]

Thank you Locustus!

Civilization IV seems to be shaping up very well so far. At the moment I only have 3 unanswered concerns (apart from bugginess - like everybody I hope they take their time to test the game to avoid too many bugs):

1) The spherical map might make regional scenario-making diffucult. Don't get me wrong - I love the spherical map for the random maps and for world maps (and I am assuming there will be world maps included with the game or the ability to create them), but for maps of say ancient Rome, or medieval Japan, etc. they will not work very well. Unless, of course, the ability to make flat maps is retained in the game in which case this concern would be moot.

2) I am hoping for many civilizations to be playable simultaneously (preferably all of them) on the same map. This will most likely be possible, but it has not been mentioned yet.

3) I am somewhat concerned about the removal of maintenance for buildings, which I most certainly did not consider to be an 'unfun' element. Perhaps they have replaced it with something different and even better (though maintenance was good) but there is no word on that yet. Removal of corruption and waste does not really bother me too much and neither does the removal of rioting - I did not consider them bad features, but unlike maintenance they were not exactly superb features either. As to the removal of pollution and subsuming it under health - that decision I wholeheartedly applaud - I hated having armies of workers having to be constantly on guard to clear polluted squares - that was really annoying.

As for the rest of the game - it seems to be shaping up great and even these concerns may be addressed as more information becomes available to us.

[Alexander I]

Yes, simultaneous play would be an interesting feature.

[alva]

Is a magnitude more difficult to program (from what I've heard ).

[Roman]

Originally posted by Alexander01
Yes, simultaneous play would be an interesting feature.

Although that would be an interesting feature, it is not what I meant. By saying 'simultaneously' I meant that it would be nice to have many civilizations playable in the same game rather than merely 7 in Civilization 2.

[Alexander I]

Originally posted by Roman


Although that would be an interesting feature, it is not what I meant. By saying 'simultaneously' I meant that it would be nice to have many civilizations playable in the same game rather than merely 7 in Civilization 2.

I knew what you meant. Civ3 had a possbility to mod to have 31 at once.

[Fosse]

Which brings up a good point.. I hope the game will balance itself according to how many civs are playing. You could play with 31, but it would completely wreck the tech rate because the biggest maps were only designed for 8 (even though 16 could by default play on huge... that was wonky tech rates anyhow).

[Lorizael]

cIV's map isn't spherical, it's just rounded when you get to a global view. Watch the video and notice that while they traverse east and west all they want, they can only tilt it north and south a little bit.