Your Worst Fear for Civ 4 (The Negativity Post)

[Senethro]

Without going the Colonisation route of having very specific resources, emphasis on trade, slow growth and high rewards for building up it can't be done without a radical overhaul of the game system.

(I wouldn't mind seeing a return to in-depth trading. Trade would be another method of spreading your culture.)

And the problem would remain that anything one city can do, 5 cities could do better.

[Dis]

It depends on what you consider a successful civilization. And how you want to define a victory.

Take a nation like switzerland. Very small. But most people consider them a success. Though personally I wouldn't say they are #1. You should not be able to win a game with a nation that small. That's my opinion. You have to do more than just provide a high standard of living for your people.

On the other hands, large civs should not necessarily automatically dominate all. I'd like to see smaller civs with high research rates. Take for example England. Not a large civ in actual history. But they conquered so much of the world. How exactly did they do this? One reason is technical superiority in their military equipment and techniques. As it is, this can't be represented well in civ3. And consequently, any island civs are hopelessly doomed.

[Senethro]

Originally posted by Dis
On the other hands, large civs should not necessarily automatically dominate all. I'd like to see smaller civs with high research rates. Take for example England. Not a large civ in actual history. But they conquered so much of the world. How exactly did they do this? One reason is technical superiority in their military equipment and techniques. As it is, this can't be represented well in civ3. And consequently, any island civs are hopelessly doomed.

I disagree. I think it was through not oppressing the native peoples to the same degree as other imperial powers did and through building of economic ties and power. The British navy was a monster, but their land dominions were mostly held by "soft" power rather than a zerg rush of troops.

Trade power IS something that a small island nation could be given.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Senethro


I disagree. I think it was through not oppressing the native peoples to the same degree as other imperial powers did and through building of economic ties and power. The British navy was a monster, but their land dominions were mostly held by "soft" power rather than a zerg rush of troops.

Trade power IS something that a small island nation could be given.

Quite- the British government only became directly involved by degrees- the 1773 Regulating Act and then much more directly following the Indian Mutiny of 1857, when the obvious failings of the East India Company meant a more practical approach to the sub-continent was required.

But it all began with trade and a company...

Economic inducements and divide and rule (playing off individual rulers against each other helped too. Empress Victoria was supposedly very fond of her coterie of maharajahs and princes and nawabs.

[diablovision]

Worst fear for civ4:

Mac port will be late, buggy, or too resource-intensive.

I'm still mildly pissed that none of the expansions run on Mac!

Arggh I gave up my PC to rid myself of the first person shooter addiction, only to be hooked by civ, and I don't want to go back to the PC!

[GeoModder]

Worst fear for cIV:

That it won't ship after all.

[Mace]

And there it is...that's the ultimate negative thought about Civ4.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by GeoModder
Worst fear for cIV:

That it won't ship after all.

Don't say something like that, you almost gave me a hearth attack

[Dis]

Originally posted by diablovision
Worst fear for civ4:

Mac port will be late, buggy, or too resource-intensive.

I'm still mildly pissed that none of the expansions run on Mac!

Arggh I gave up my PC to rid myself of the first person shooter addiction, only to be hooked by civ, and I don't want to go back to the PC!

why do people insist on buying macs?

[hexagonian]

Better and more stable computers.

[diablovision]

Why Macs?

Hmmm....let me count the reason.

1. The best combination of UNIX and desktop software that can be had. Having worked on / with UNIX for the past 7 years for what I do, it is powerful and useful.

2. Software quality. Apple has probably the best software support for core OS features and the update facility is simple and easy to use.

3. Usability. The fit and finish of Apple software is far more coherent and usable that in Linux or Windows (though I haven't used windows since Win2k back in the day).

4. Availability of office suites (Office X), and professional publishing / authoring / video applications.

5. Features. OS X is probably the most advanced OS out there, in terms of usability features, doodads, etc--without having been haphazardly thrown together into a big mishmash.

6. RISC. If you have to write any assembly code (which admittedly, I don't anymore) for high performance, it is damn nice to have it.

7. Stability. Some applications crash, but less than once a week. I haven't need to hard reboot the machine more than 5 times in the past two years--the OS is just solid.

But of course there are plenty of drawbacks, but I find that none of them matter enough to me to provide a compelling argument against.

Frankly, I don't mind either way whether you want to use a Mac, but those are my reasons.

[Boris Godunov]

My worst fear for this thread is that I'll have to read the rantings of Mac zealots thanks to Dis's post.

AAAAARGH, TOO LATE!

[Aro]

Originally posted by GeoModder
Worst fear for cIV:

That it won't ship after all.

Exactly. Nothing can be worst than that!

[alva]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
My worst fear for this thread is that I'll have to read the rantings of Mac zealots thanks to Dis's post.

AAAAARGH, TOO LATE!

Ack, it's ok, just as long as not of that ever happens in the OT, I'm fine with it.

[Darkstar]

Originally posted by Mace
Ya ought to be able to win with Venice, and a few far-flung colonies like Rodos, Candia, and Corfu...now that would really be neat.

You can do that in SMAC. But you are better off ICSing in it, due to traditional Civ tile/city usage.