Gamespot Video Interview

[UnGenius]

and the info box says:

Workers allow you to build roads and railroads. They can also (?) and widen your cultural borders.

[Aro]

Originally posted by Verenti
Use FRAPS. Its free(requiring a donation for higher functions) and its great for getting screen caps from videos and games.

Thanks a lot!

[sophist]

Originally posted by Verenti
(requiring a donation for higher functions)

We call that "not free" where I come from ;-)

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by UnGenius
and the info box says:

Workers allow you to build roads and railroads. They can also (?) and widen your cultural borders.

Eh? Anyone got any details on this cultural thing for the workers?

[Verenti]

It's just the tool tip when you roll over the worker in the production queue, So naturally, as of now, We have no information on the nature of the ability.

[Robert]

I must have missed it, but I found some things that are new (to me)

I'll quote it anyway, make fun of me if it's posted before.

production switching:

if you suddenly switch from producing, say, a settler to an archer, you simply save the production that's been made for the settler and start the archer from scratch. And when you go back to producing the settler, you'll pick up where you left off

city specializing: (certainly not new, but this quote explains more (to me at least ))

Now it's very much, 'I'll have this city focus on food so I can get some great people out of it. Then I'll have this city focus more on production, and this city by the ocean will have more trade routes. So I'll build some more commerce there.'

About ICS

It felt like that it was basically the only way to play. The game is balanced now to have not as many cities. You can still spread your influence over a broad area, but not have as many cities, necessarily."

You can attempt to pursue an expansionist strategy, but Johnson explained that you'll encounter problems if you do. "In Civ IV, we have this sort of maintenance system that slowly pushes some pressure on civilizations that expand a little bit faster than what might be good for them at that time," he said. The focus in Civ IV is on fewer, but more specialized, cities. This is something that the artificial intelligence will recognize, too, as computer-controlled civilizations won't spam you anymore with settlers, and if they try, they won't be able to cross your empire's borders anymore without your permission.

Enjoy your gamebox Yin.
(Firaxis should really jump on this, film Yin eating the box, and use it for marketing! What's more cooler then one of your biggest (negative) critici who's eating the gamebox since the game turned out to be way cooler then he ever could expect )

[Senethro]

Why can't you have an ICS where the smallest repeating unit is a tetrad of cities each specialised in science/money/culture/high production?

[sophist]

Because the maintenance would kill you?

[GeoModder]

Sounds like the location of a "Forbidden Palace" will become important.

[Ninot]

well, that all sounds promising, but I'm not convinced on the death of ICS yet. It just sounds slightly less bountiful, but still a viable strategy.

[bivvend2]

And provided that it is a less bountiful strategy, it is ok.

ICS is only a game killer if 2 size 1 cities outperform 1 size 2 city. A tetrad of specialised cities would be just that, specialised and should involve considerable investment. If 2 tetrads of size 1 unspecialised cities still outperforms a tetrad of size 2 specialised cities then ICS is still a vialble strategy.

[Senethro]

Did anybody see what the maintainence costs are based on? Is it by city number or distance from capitol?

[GeoModder]

Distance from the capital, I think.

And don't forget that Firaxis mentioned that maps in general will be smaller, so city numbers will dwindle anyway.

[Robert]

A little (I)CS should always be there.
It wouldn't be good if a 1 city empire could beat a 100 city empire. 10 Should be able to beat 25 though, imho.

[Senethro]

Only in the short term if they'd been developing their military and stockpiling units. As Civ can be quite defensive/meatgrinder at times I'd be surprised if 10 could beat 25 often.