Improvements of Civ IV over Civ III

[Smeagol]

I've had Civ III on my laptop for a long time, but never really had the time to play it until now. I am also downloading the Civ IV demo for my main computer. Before I get too deeply into Civ III, can anyone tell me the advantages of Civ IV over Civ III, or direct me to a site/thread that includes this info? Many thanks.

[Ennet]

there are some good reviews on: http://civilization4.net/3/169/

[molly bloom]

You lose a second and third eye, but gain a V for Victory.....

[Nikolai]

Scrap Civ3 and get Civ4, it's the easy.

[johnmcd]

Yeah, to me, four is better than three in every single regard.

[Smeagol]

I can't check review sites from work... for those who have said it, can you elaborate on what makes Civ IV so much better than III?

[Arrian]

Off the top of my head:

CIV is balanced much better than CivIII.
There are lots of valid paths to victory. Strategic choice and all that.
Religion is a cool addition.
Great People are cool and yet pretty balanced.
Maintainance costs instead of corruption Waaay better, IMO.
Civics instead of governments. Makes for more interesting choices.
Terrain improvements are more diverse (see: cottages, windmills, watermills).
Less tech and map trading by the AI (no tech trading until Alphabet, which takes a bit to get to, and no map trading until Paper, which is medieval).
The AI, while still far from brilliant, is better.

Things you might miss:

No military great leaders (until the expansion comes out) and thus no massively overpowered Armies like in CivIII

UUs are, for the most part, not hugely powerful. The Roman Praetorian is perhaps the one that is. But most of them are not game-breakers.

Golden Ages are less powerful. Then again, you can have more than one.

Artillery units do not blast the bejeesus out of units on another tile. You can't do that until you get Bombers. Catapults, et. al. can reduce city defenses and they can attack, which cause splash damage but also can result in the loss of the artillery unit (they have a retreat chance, or they might win). It's a little odd. But it works, IMO.

-Arrian

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by johnmcd
Yeah, to me, four is better than three in every single regard.

Except system requirements

[Nikolai]

But those are much better with the latest patch. Pre 1.61 I had huge problems running the game on other than small worlds, but now I can use the large maps without problems (well, I haven't tried the largest around, but the next largest works just fine).

[Solver]

I would put it briefly so:

Civ III has some cool concepts, but very flawed execution. Ultimately, the problem of Civ3 is a complete lack of strategic depth. Civ4 is much better balanced and much, much deeper strategically.

BTW, on the technical side, Civ4 performs better for me than Civ3 .

[rjwoer]

Yes I agree Civ 4 is more balanced. That's a good way of putting it. And far more complex in the good, replayability way.

Another simple but huge difference for me is the fact that maps are always different in Civ 4. In Civ 3, I started to get a feel for the maps and remember the lay of the land even if I couldn't see it, because I'd played the game so many times.

I had a ton of fun with Civ 3, but since Civ 4 is available why go with anything else?!

[RGBVideo]

Single player is much more fun in cIV than in CivIII. AI acts much less predictably now in the gamefield. You actually can presume that your AI allies stay loyal for the whole game if you're loyal to them now.

[LordShiva]

Allies are for hippies

[Ennet]

Originally posted by VJ
Single player is much more fun in cIV than in CivIII. AI acts much less predictably now in the gamefield. You actually can presume that your AI allies stay loyal for the whole game if you're loyal to them now.

depends what leader you chose to ally, tbh..

[Nikolai]

LS, what is it with you and hippies?

Ennet: Indeed. I was allied to one of the bad guys(personality speaking), don't remember who, and was backstabbed in the modern age. It came from the sky, totally unexpected. Here I had helped the SOB throughout the ages, given him gifts and good deals, and then he backstabs me... I was lightly defended at the border too, I was more into building up the borders to my enemies. I though.