Three months is a long time to scratch the civ itch - apply for a copy of CtP2 & AoM

[Ekmek]

to stay on topic, I'm definetly with te ctp2 itch until I get civ IV (in a year or two)

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Originally posted by Aro
It's amazing how you folks are posting intensively in a six-page thread about CtP2 and AoM... In a Civ IV forum!!!!

yeah.. i thing there must be something cool about this civ4, see how old is that game already? and still a thriving community

back on topic, i just a strange appearance.. for no obvious reason there appeared a column builder at my capital, i had no war going on, no barbs around and didn't get any x has slain y message.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

40 A.D. while my wise men tinker about the secrets of plumbing my wandering diplomat finds the secret of dark ages in a goody hut

[stankarp]

back on topic, i just a strange appearance.. for no obvious reason there appeared a column builder at my capital, i had no war going on, no barbs around and didn't get any x has slain y message.

SLIC is not 100% reliable as sometimes every now and then something happens in the source that blocks or interferes with an external function. To make absolutely sure that you get your points and monuments when you capture a capital or kill an AI, I have a backup code that triggers if the main code fires. Unfortunately, sometimes if the AI captures an AI capital, you will get the Column Builder.

secret of dark ages in a goody hut

Due to the size of the AOM tech tree, sometimes you will get a advance from a hut that is 2 levels away.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Zaphod Beeblebrox
which brings me to the question why you disabled the second ring for cx tiles?

Occasionally the 2nd ring gets used for the Suburbs.
I´ve giot 2 cities within my empires which built a suburb there.

They´ve both in common that they´re mostly surrounded by water with only few landtiles free to build city expansions there.
(below is a picture of the first; the second is even more extreme as it has only 1 land tile directly adjacend to it)

So maybe in combination with the posting of stancarp, it could be that the city builds its expansions always in the first ring if there are >= 4 land tiles in the first ring.
If not it also uses the second ring to build them there.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

yeah meanwhile i've seen a ring three suburb (though there had been a little space in ring 2, ring 1 consists of another suburb, an outpost and lots of water) but i've quite often seen the expansion code tear down a suburb in ring one though there would have been sufficiant space in ring 2

[Daddy-O]

OK - I'm ready to start the review as promised. Watch here for updates.

[smithldoo]

I thought I would drop in and say how disappointed I was in Civ 4. While on the face of it it has more depth in some areas, the game never flowed really well for me and I had major technical issues already covered in 500+ threads in another part of the forum.

I thought the graphics were bland, 3d was a big mistake. If I played in the normal view, about 12X8 tiles, It was very hard to see who a unit belonged to as the colour of the flag nearly disappeared and virtually no chance of telling if there were multiple units in a tile. Menus were very basic and simple ommissions like not being able to access the diplomacy screens from the diplomacy advisor. The units menu simply showed how many of each type, whereas in AOM it goes a step further and allows you to track individual units and move them with the menu still open.

Different tile improvements for different goods got tedious after a while as well as those workers again. Once I had 6-8 it became a pain, I captured a few and every turn rather than leave them idle I spammed out tile improvements. Totally unrealistic and childish system IMHO. Much prefer the AOM system, one tile improvement for goods and every tile improvement costs something, rather than some 4000 yr old worker churns it out for free.

Many wrong messages, and a few noticeable bugs. Over 3 games I had at least 3 occurrances where I disbanded a cleric in a foreign city and nothing happened, no message to say it was successful or not. I also had 9+ occurances where I disbanded a great person and did not get my advance.

But my biggest complaint is the AI, usuall Civ style over the top cheats which XXXX you off no end (e.g., I was biggest in a game, 5 techs ahead of any other ai at 0AD, by 500AD, all but one had caught up). The only thing that caused concern was the AI attack out of the blue after 500AD when the map is full and they are on your borders. Apart from that, it was a cake walk.

In my last game, Monarch level, great plains, playing as Louisxiv, I was nearly 3 times the next ai score when the game crashed and died around 1800 AD. I killed the ai one after the other with relative ease, as soon as I built a couple of buildings in a city I had no problems finance wise. AI counterattacks were pretty poor, often I would use a captured worker as a decoy and a valuable unit like a knight would go to great lengths to leave cover and kill it. Killed several stacks of unescorted catapults. The unit promotion system while interesting, actually made it much easier to take cities.

Bug ridden, booooring, bland botch up IMHO Civ 4. Hear of the saying, a camel is a racehorse designed by a committee, this committee was so big it produced a jackass.

[alva]

where I disbanded a cleric in a foreign city and nothing happened,

I also had 9+ occurances where I disbanded a great person and did not get my advance.

:Hmmm:

What did you expect to happen?

[Kassiopeia]

Heh, that's interesting, my friend thought putting the great person to Sleep mode in a city would give the city the promised superspecialist. Maybe GP actions are worded ambiguously in the manual?

[smithldoo]

Sorry, I have spent the past 3 days trying to finish ONE game of Civ 4. I have been having all the troubles referred to in the help columns, eventually finishing the game with the partly fogged out map referred to. Trying all sorts of drivers. etc.

Without a doubt, I have had MORE trouble with Civ 4 than EVERY other game I have played PUT TOGETHER. As a average computer person, I did not realise that you needed a special video card to play Civ 4. I can play RomeTW, MTW, EU, AOE3, and RON on big maps with lots of units and no troubles, but on my 2.8gig processor, 1.5gig Ram, 128 mb video card (2 yr old), Civ 4 is like dragging a dead sloth through quicksand. CTD, freezes, mouse freezing, CTD that totally locks the computer that even Ctrl/Alt/del would not release, had to power off to regain control. I have finished one game and that will be all. I also forgot the small memory leak

Alva:
When I disband a cleric in a home city, I get a message to say if it is successful or not, in a foreign city no message, have to check the little religious icons to see if there is any change. IMHO very inconsistant.
In respect of the Gt Person for advance, I expect what the MOUSEOVER says, you "AUTOMATICALLY GET THE ADVANCE". I now know find this is not the case, but that is buried at the end of a paragraph in the manual and clearly contradicts the mouseover.

Kassiopeia is dead right, a lot in the manual is not very clear, collateral damage, inflation etc.

There are more instances of the above re wrong messages. The game I got out of the box is not even a good beta in my opinion, more like an alpha IMHO.

In AOM, I can be playing a game that was 5 times the size of the one I finished up winning in Civ 4(hug map), and I can grab a stack and be ready to move before the last one finished at turn 300 when there are nearly 300 cities and 2500 units in the game, you tried that in Civ 4?

I bought it in good faith, the system specs are really not very factual or clear, much like the manual and mouseovers. If I knew I needed to buy a new video card to play, I would never have bought it.

If they had simply added the new concepts to the old civ 3 graphics, I would not be complaining, simple as that.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by smithldoo
When I disband a cleric in a home city, I get a message to say if it is successful or not, in a foreign city no message, have to check the little religious icons to see if there is any change. IMHO very inconsistant.

I always get the message whether the cleric was successful or not. When I click on the spread religion button (and not "disband"), I get a message (and for hinduism a cool music as well). The message colour is already telling you what happened, you don't even have to read it: green - successful, red - failed.

[padillah]

Originally posted by smithldoo

Alva:

In respect of the Gt Person for advance, I expect what the MOUSEOVER says, you "AUTOMATICALLY GET THE ADVANCE". I now know find this is not the case, but that is buried at the end of a paragraph in the manual and clearly contradicts the mouseover.

This should not be the case. Understand that it tells you what tech it will discover, it's not simply going to finish the one you currently have.

But I've seen the mouseover read two things (you have to really try hard, it keeps going away and the land mouseovers pop-up. I hate that):
"Discover Technology
Liturature
The Greate person wil automatically discover the technology. This consumes the Great Person."
...and...
"Discover Technology
Drama
The Greate Person will add 1081 beakers to the discovery of the technology. This consumes the Greate Person."

The mouseover text tells you if you will get the advance or just get beakers towards the advance.

If you have a savegame with a Great Person saying you will get an advance and it does not give you the advance stated, send it to Firaxis.

Tom P.

[padillah]

Originally posted by smithldoo
Over 3 games I had at least 3 occurrances where I disbanded a cleric in a foreign city and nothing happened, no message to say it was successful or not. I also had 9+ occurances where I disbanded a great person and did not get my advance.

You say "disbanded"? Do you realise that disbanding them just throws the unit away?

You have to click the "Spread Religion" Icon in order to spread the religion, NOT disband the cleric.

Same with the Great Person. Disbanding a Great Person simply throws the GP away. There are other Icons for adding them to the city and procuring advances.

I also saw something in your message about not getting to the diplomacy screen from the Diplomacy Advisor: try right-clicking on the person you want to negotiate with. It'll pop open the Diplomacy screen for that AI.

Tom P.

[smithldoo]

Thanks for the replies.

Tiberius, I know that and pointed that out (you get the message if you do it in your cities), my point is you get NO message if you TRY in a foreign city.

padillah.
Sorry, I have been playing AOM a lot where you disband special units to initiate a function, when I say disband, I am saying press on the light bulb or the religious icon.

I am looking now at GP Keppler in my last game. It says
"+3288 for the research of Fibre Optics. This will have the great person automatically discover a technology. This action will consume the great person".

I am aware of the process now, after having it pointed out. However I have highlighted the part that is confusing and misleading if you do not remember sentence 3, para 1 page 82 of the manual.

Too put it simply in a civil court if I had 2 DEFINITIVE statements vs one that is contradictory, I believe I would win on the balance of probabilities. It says in the mouseover, quote again "automatically discover the technology". Simply one of several wrong messages and vague explanations in the manual.