I hope the diplomacy is a little more flexible

[frenzyfol]

One think that irks me about CivIV is when CivA comes to you and asks.
"Hi, go to war with me now against your biggest neighbor CivB, whom you have no preparations for war against"
If you say "No" they hate you forever and probably go to war against you at a later date.

Diplomacy is too black and white. You should be given the options.

Yes, Ill go to war with you right now +5 love
OK, but give me 5 turns to go to war with you +3 love
No, but Ill give you 10% of my GDP + 2 love
How about I just stop trading with them? + 1 love
Neutral
Go away -2 love
Actually, I think I might join civ B -5 love

I hope they fix this in CiV

[frenzyfol]

ooo just found this ..

http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2010/06/16/three-moves-ahead-episode-69-e3-special-short-with-jon-shafer/

Looks like some of my prayers have been answered.
Thank you o great spaghetti monster.

[thyrwyn]

I'm with you, though apparently some people are really upset by the loss of transparency. I love it!

[frenzyfol]

I can understand their anger at the loss of not knowing +1, +2 etc.. But those numbers were not the be all and end all of the diplomacy, they have to remember that on top of that was some randomness.
Ive had +7 happys declare war on me.

[Robert]

Locutus of WePlayCiv has posted a complete transcription of the podcast! Thanks Locutus: Read it here

About the "Piety" social branch Jon Shafer answers a question of Troy:
"Troy: (...)I see the demo and it has Piety -- and Piety has you know the star of David and the Christian cross and a bunch of other symbols -- in the Social Policy section. Can you quote us some details as how Piety, I'm not gonna say is religion but you wouldn't have all those icons there if it didn't mean anything, right? (...)

Jon Shafer: Piety is a Social Policy branch, and for people that don't know much about the Policy system yet, it's kind of a replacement for the Civics and a tie-in with government, where as players accumulate culture they can use that to spend on various Social Policies and progress through the game. It's a system that's somewhat akin to either World of Warcraft or Company of Heroes for people that have played those games. So Piety is one of these branches, one of the ten that are in the game and it's focus is primarily on things like culture and happiness in particular. The symbols themselves are not final, I should note -- you have a very perceptive eye, Troy, I'll grant you that. Yeah, those icons are actually made by our UI artist, he was just more or less filling things in at the point.
(...)
I hate to disappoint you but it is honestly just placeholder. The Piety branch itself though is... Certainly, religion as it was in Civ4 is not in the game. You don't have Missionaries, you don't send them around, you don't found Christianity, that sort of thing. The Piety still gives players the opportunity to roleplay [in a] sense with playing a religious leader, and we do have certainly buildings like Temples and that sort of thing, so it's not completely absent."

Go to Flash of Steel to listen to the entire podcast, or read the transcription at WePlayCiv.