I preordered CivIV and haven't played a full game yet.

[Willem]

Originally posted by D4everman
Is it a mistake to open my borders? all of the civs seem to want me to do that. (I say no all of the time because I have nightmares of the CivIII AI's sending wave after wave of settlers through my territory.)

I used to think the same way but I've since discovered that there's nothing really to worry about in that regard. The AI sticks relatively close to home when it's building cities until it doesn't have any land left in it's immediate area. And I find then they'll usually come in by boat and build along the coast rather plod across your territory. There's definitely a diplomatic boost to having Open Borders early in the game, not to mention increased trade. And there's no downside that I can see frankly.

[Willem]

Originally posted by D4everman
So do you think its a good plan to open borders? The stigma of the AI's goons running through my territory and NOT LEAVING when asked (even when they agreed to leave) from Civ III is still great for me.

Early in the game, yes I'd recommend it. With the city maintenance costs in the game, you don't have to worry to much about the AI plopping a city down on the other side of your empire, it knows better than that. And they will leave if you decide to close them, that's ironclad thankfully. You have to be careful though when you do this since they'll be transported to the nearest border, not the one closest to their own empire.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Willem
I used to think the same way but I've since discovered that there's nothing really to worry about in that regard. The AI sticks relatively close to home when it's building cities until it doesn't have any land left in it's immediate area. And I find then they'll usually come in by boat and build along the coast rather plod across your territory. There's definitely a diplomatic boost to having Open Borders early in the game, not to mention increased trade. And there's no downside that I can see frankly.

Don't rush into getting Open Borders agreements with everybody you have contact with, though. Since it is very likely that some computer players dislike others. So check their standings with each other before you proceed.

In my current game 3 of the computer players on my continent have adopted my religion. The other two had founded their own. Guess who will we attack first?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Don't rush into getting Open Borders agreements with everybody you have contact with, though. Since it is very likely that some computer players dislike others. So check their standings with each other before you proceed.

You'll find out soon enough though when they start bugging you to cancel agreements with their enemy. In the meantime you've made a few diplomatic gains with all of them. I usually ignore those requests anyway. The penalties are fairly minor and it seems that's one of the things they tend to forget easily. I rarely see it get beyond +2.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by Solver
Uhmm no the patch isn't for machines with minimum requirements. It does, though, make some great performance improvements - I can now play Large maps without any lag and also run some other applications in the background. Also, the 1.52 patch has a few balance tweaks and small new features.

1.52 also has a special mode for machines with very low specifications, but you most probably don't want it.

Actually, I have just about the minimum requirements, and after the patch, it runs much better. The simpler graphics mode they added in to the patch really helps a lot.

[PrinceBimz]

Re: I preordered CivIV and haven't played a full game yet.

Originally posted by D4everman
Hello

I have a simple, but kind of silly question. I preordered Civ4 when I first heard about it, having been a fan of the game since civII. I installed it and it was a bit laggy on my pc, but playable. However I didn't play the game. You see I usually get hooked into games, especially civ games ath the exclusion of anything else I might play or do on my PC. At the time I was playing City of Heroes with a friend a lot and I knew it would take time and effort to get the hang of the new civ. But I'm thinking of giving Civ IV its due this week and I just wanted to know how most people have found it so far. I'll have to check but have there been any patches I should download?

I guess i'm just curious on what the general feel of the game is to most people. Sorry if this seems like a silly question.

Patch it up to 1.52 and try starting with a quick speed game. This way you can easily finish in a few hours without having to save. It will give you and idea of how much better this version is then the previous ones. I for one, love CIV4, the religions are an excellent add in just by itself, not to mention unit promotions, the awesome graphics and everything else it brings to the table. Trust me, the more you play it, the better it gets, then you will get that old feeling right back... how they say... "just one more turn".