Civ4 Pre-Release Information - Discussion Thread

[Locutus]

This thread is for discussing everything related to the Information section of our website. Basically what we used the "Just the facts ma'am" thread for before: providing new info, pointing out mistakes or controversies in the existing info, or just general discussion about what's in Civ4.

Every time the Information section is updated, I will post a summary of the changes in the Update Thread.

[Locutus]

Question: should I top this thread or is it enough if the update thread is topped?





For ease of reference I will post major updates here as well:

Two updates have been posted in the last few days:

June 1:
Official section added

June 4:
Updated everything with info from the new Barry Caudill interview:
- Overall design section expanded with paragraphs on accessibility and AI
- Added paragraph about reduced map sizes to Terrain section
- Added Keshik as Mongol UU and also a comment that all civs except the Babylonians have been spotted during or after E3 (Arabs and Aztec were mentioned in the interview), so that if the Greeks or any other Civs are included, it is very likely to be at the expense of the Babylonians
- Modding section renamed Modding & Scenarios and a comment added that the game will probably ship with a few built in scenarios
- Added Bonus vs Mounted and Bonus vs Melee for Pikeman and Axeman respectively in the Units
- The following quote: " you could have a bureaucratic vassal tribal government with a free religious system and a free-market economy" leads me to add bureacracy as Legal civic and Tribal Rule? as Government. Since Vassal and serf are more or less synonyms, I'm gonna assume that Barry referred to Serfdom when he spoke of 'Vassal', especially since Labor is the only category left (unless I placed one of the other four wrong, but it seems to make sense).
- added the tidbit that Barry worked on every Civ game since Civ2: MPG to the Development section
- the scenario editor is apparently called the World Builder, added this to the Modding section

[GeoModder]

I think there will be plenty of discussors coming over to keep this thread 'topped' on it's own account.

Is there any info yet on the max world size?

[Vince278]

Also, how about the issues that took up so much processing time in the past such as recalculating the trade routes every turn?

[Nikolai]

I think that it's enough with the main thread topped, and maybe link to this one in the first post. I think this thread will be near the top most of the time anyay.

[Myrddin]

Is it time to replace 'tech tree'?

It no longer behaves like a tree but as a net or web

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Nikolai
and maybe link to this one in the first post.

Already there.

I think this thread will be near the top most of the time anyay.

It was almost on page 2 before Myrddin posted. The level of discussion will probably increase rapidly over the next months, making this thread (temporarily) drop to page 2 before long. But since the other thread links to this one, I'll keep the situation as it is.

Originally posted by Myrddin
Is it time to replace 'tech tree'?

It no longer behaves like a tree but as a net or web

Firaxis still uses a tree (my tree is an almost exact copy of the Firaxis tree as seen in the E3 video), and that *is* an accurate view. It's not like you can invent Combustion from the start... But I do hope Firaxis will eventually provide a way to display the tree properly and show the difference between AND and OR gates (more?) prominently...

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Locutus
But I do hope Firaxis will eventually provide a way to display the tree properly and show the difference between AND and OR gates (more?) prominently...

Are there different gates? I did not see that. The E3 interview sounded more like all gates are of the OR kind...

[Locutus]

Based on earlier information (from the various magazine previews) we know both kinds exist. Of course, that may have changed and they may only have OR gates now, but until we see proof of that I'm not gonna make any such assumption.

[Locutus]

Updated the Information section with the latest info extracted from the Gamereactor video:

- Added comment that game speeds resemble accelerated production in section Game Speed
- Added to Combat that units of different types can be part of the same army and can be moved around as one.
- Added comment that at least 12 players are supported in MP and Civilizations sections
- Added to Civilizations section that every leader has two traits, listed the known traits of Militaristic?, Creative and Organized, added Asoka as second Indian leader and Memphis as Egyptian city
- Added to Terrain that only Jungle, Forest and Hills give defensive bonuses
- Added new Civics info: Organised Religion as Religious civic, Civil Service required for Bureaucracy
- Added info to Combat that the longer a unit is fortified, the bigger the defensive bonus it gets
- Added comment on moving units to UI section, as well as a comment that the UI is still very much under development so not much can be said about it yet and a comment that the entire UI is in Python
- Added comment on Sid's involvement to Development: that he comes down and plays MP and gives feedback and helps with mangament
- Replaced Fortress? with Castle and added effect comment to Walls and Castle, added moved Granary to the correct icon, added Barracks, removed question marks from Monestaries and Lighthouse
- Renamed Samarra Mosque to Spiral Minaret, removed question marks from Chichen Itza, Angkor Wat, renamed religion-specific Wonders to religion-specific Shrines
- Added Unit stats: 6? Strength for Swordsman, 8? for Axeman, 3? for Catapult, Axeman is a Melee units, Catapult a Siege Weapon, Axeman and Spearman cost 35 Hammers; added Mechanized Infantry, renamed Tank to Modern Armor, moved War Chariot to appropriate icon
- Added Generic Strength bonus promotions, confirmed and expanded Amphibious promotion
- Confirmed Chichen Itza as being granted by Civil Service, added Bureaucracy
- Added stats Grassland Hills, added 0% defense bonus where applicable, added Windmill to Tundra Hills
- Renamed Hunting Camp? to Camp
- Added 0 Gold to Copper, 7 Gold to Gold

Based on the PC Gamer info Platypus Rex posted, I also expanded the Great People info: there are about 100 in total and specialists gather Great People points, which determine what type of Great Person you get. But this latter point may turn out to be a misunderstanding, so I might remove that info again in a few hours.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Locutus
Firaxis still uses a tree (my tree is an almost exact copy of the Firaxis tree as seen in the E3 video), and that *is* an accurate view. It's not like you can invent Combustion from the start... But I do hope Firaxis will eventually provide a way to display the tree properly and show the difference between AND and OR gates (more?) prominently...

My impression is that there are only OR gates, not AND gates.

[ajbera]

I hope that's not true. At least, I hope that's easily correctable/moddable.

[Kuciwalker]

Oh, I'm sure it's moddable, they've said things to that effect, but I believe the default tech tree only contains OR gates.

[akulla]

Locutus

Thanks for all the hard work, yu da man.

Akulla

[mhkhosravi]

importing or exporting Electrical Power



A new Idea :

It would be alot better if Electrical Power be exportable. (importing oil or uranium, producing electrical power and exporting it)
perhaps it should more improvements, like "Power Lines" in addition to Power Plants.