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As you can probably tell from its name, Civilization IV is the fourth chapter in the landmark strategy game series that stretches back to 1991. It goes without saying that the Civ formula is one that has withstood the test of time quite well. That's not to say we don't have our issues with the game. We love Civ, but there are little nitpicks that have bugged us for years, like watching spearmen from the Stone Age defeating a modern-day main battle tank or, even worse, a battleship. So with Civ IV currently in testing and balancing for its November ship, we threw some questions at Barry Caudill, the game's senior producer, hoping to find out how Firaxis has improved the gameplay to eliminate those nits.
GameSpot: The news that you've removed the ability to transfer production from one project to another caused a ruckus among Civ fans everywhere. What's the thinking behind that, and how much has it changed the game thus far in testing?
Barry Caudill: Being able to transfer all production from one thing to another (or from one research project to another) has traditionally been one of the big exploits in the series. It doesn't make much sense to be building something like the Colossus for many years and then have all of that simply transfer into a Great Library or an aqueduct. The good news is we understand how much players would hate it if all production or research spent simply went away--it doesn't. Let's say you are building a Buddhist temple and decide that you really need a better defender, so you switch to an archer. If you were to then switch back to the temple, you would find all of your previous production on that temple is still there.
The same would be true for research. If you are researching optics and feel the need to switch, you will still have that research available when you switch back to optics at a later time. This "banking" of resources or research is not infinite, however, as you will start to lose production or research slowly over time. In the case of wonders, where someone else can build it so you are unable to return to it, you will be paid a fair market value in gold for any lost production.
It really hasn't been a big balance issue in tests because everyone (the artificial intelligence included) is on a level playing field in this regard. Plus, you don't have the old "wonder domino" effect from previous versions, where you will see five wonders completed in the same turn as everyone scrambles to change production from the one that was just built.
GS: We've learned that expansionism, or squeezing in as many cities as you possibly can on a continent, is dead, or at least on life support, in Civ IV. What's the reasoning for this change, and what will happen if you try to build cities like mad?
BC: Another big exploit from previous versions was a strategy lovingly referred to as "settler spam." This tactic was based on the player making a settler in each city as soon as possible and then starting new cities. Lather, rinse, repeat. In Civ III, we added corruption to try to address this, but it wasn't so much a solution as an annoying speed bump. In Civ IV, cities require a maintenance amount that increases with each city. That means settler spammers will find themselves going broke, or with very little money left for research.
Of course, people like to play with lots of cities, and we certainly don't want to shut down their enjoyment of the game. Those people will be able to make very large civilizations with many cities, but they will have to do so in a more thoughtful and strategic manner. As cities grow, they are better able to sustain themselves without taxing the overall economy. Players will also be able to use diplomacy, religion, trade networks, and improvements to generate more income, thereby making them better able to handle the ever-increasing maintenance costs.
GS: The combat system has been overhauled, so the infamous "spearmen defeat ultramodern hi-tech main battle tank" problem shouldn't happen anymore. Right? Explain.
BC: The short answer is yes, and the long answer would be fodder for a whole article. The main change is that we brought back a system similar to firepower from Civ II. That system was a bit too complex and many people struggled to understand it; so, like many other things in Civ IV, we decided to streamline the process. Basically, two units of the same relative power will do about 20-percent damage per hit, so it would take five hits to kill another unit. When one unit is much more powerful than another (like in the case of the poor spearman, for instance), the more powerful unit does a higher percentage of damage than the less powerful unit. So if both managed to hit three times in this battle, the spearman would have only done about 40-percent damage to the tank, while the tank would have decimated the spearman.
In addition, there are many more calculations going on under the hood and that makes for fewer "lucky rolls" from the random number generator, and that helps balance it out even more. In the options screen, players can turn on an option that will let them see bars over the units, so you can easily judge your chances before entering into combat.
GS: There are certain great wonders in Civ that are simply heads-and-shoulders better than the rest, such as Great Library, and if you got these wonders, you had a huge edge over the competition. How have you addressed this in Civ IV?
BC: We took a long, hard look at all of the wonders from previous games and changed or eliminated anything that was really unbalanced. In the case of the Great Library, we moved its former effect to the Internet wonder, which comes much later in the game, where the impact is less. The "new" Great Library gives the player the ability to have two free scientist specialists and makes the city more likely to generate a great scientist.
GameSpot: The news that you've removed the ability to transfer production from one project to another caused a ruckus among Civ fans everywhere. What's the thinking behind that, and how much has it changed the game thus far in testing?
Barry Caudill: Being able to transfer all production from one thing to another (or from one research project to another) has traditionally been one of the big exploits in the series. It doesn't make much sense to be building something like the Colossus for many years and then have all of that simply transfer into a Great Library or an aqueduct. The good news is we understand how much players would hate it if all production or research spent simply went away--it doesn't. Let's say you are building a Buddhist temple and decide that you really need a better defender, so you switch to an archer. If you were to then switch back to the temple, you would find all of your previous production on that temple is still there.
The same would be true for research. If you are researching optics and feel the need to switch, you will still have that research available when you switch back to optics at a later time. This "banking" of resources or research is not infinite, however, as you will start to lose production or research slowly over time. In the case of wonders, where someone else can build it so you are unable to return to it, you will be paid a fair market value in gold for any lost production.
It really hasn't been a big balance issue in tests because everyone (the artificial intelligence included) is on a level playing field in this regard. Plus, you don't have the old "wonder domino" effect from previous versions, where you will see five wonders completed in the same turn as everyone scrambles to change production from the one that was just built.
GS: We've learned that expansionism, or squeezing in as many cities as you possibly can on a continent, is dead, or at least on life support, in Civ IV. What's the reasoning for this change, and what will happen if you try to build cities like mad?
BC: Another big exploit from previous versions was a strategy lovingly referred to as "settler spam." This tactic was based on the player making a settler in each city as soon as possible and then starting new cities. Lather, rinse, repeat. In Civ III, we added corruption to try to address this, but it wasn't so much a solution as an annoying speed bump. In Civ IV, cities require a maintenance amount that increases with each city. That means settler spammers will find themselves going broke, or with very little money left for research.
Of course, people like to play with lots of cities, and we certainly don't want to shut down their enjoyment of the game. Those people will be able to make very large civilizations with many cities, but they will have to do so in a more thoughtful and strategic manner. As cities grow, they are better able to sustain themselves without taxing the overall economy. Players will also be able to use diplomacy, religion, trade networks, and improvements to generate more income, thereby making them better able to handle the ever-increasing maintenance costs.
GS: The combat system has been overhauled, so the infamous "spearmen defeat ultramodern hi-tech main battle tank" problem shouldn't happen anymore. Right? Explain.
BC: The short answer is yes, and the long answer would be fodder for a whole article. The main change is that we brought back a system similar to firepower from Civ II. That system was a bit too complex and many people struggled to understand it; so, like many other things in Civ IV, we decided to streamline the process. Basically, two units of the same relative power will do about 20-percent damage per hit, so it would take five hits to kill another unit. When one unit is much more powerful than another (like in the case of the poor spearman, for instance), the more powerful unit does a higher percentage of damage than the less powerful unit. So if both managed to hit three times in this battle, the spearman would have only done about 40-percent damage to the tank, while the tank would have decimated the spearman.
In addition, there are many more calculations going on under the hood and that makes for fewer "lucky rolls" from the random number generator, and that helps balance it out even more. In the options screen, players can turn on an option that will let them see bars over the units, so you can easily judge your chances before entering into combat.
GS: There are certain great wonders in Civ that are simply heads-and-shoulders better than the rest, such as Great Library, and if you got these wonders, you had a huge edge over the competition. How have you addressed this in Civ IV?
BC: We took a long, hard look at all of the wonders from previous games and changed or eliminated anything that was really unbalanced. In the case of the Great Library, we moved its former effect to the Internet wonder, which comes much later in the game, where the impact is less. The "new" Great Library gives the player the ability to have two free scientist specialists and makes the city more likely to generate a great scientist.
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