Computer Games Cover Story

[Falconius]

Just got my latest Computer Games mag in the mail with Civ all over the cover.

The article tells a lot of what we've already heard, but there is some new info. For instance, (and I quote)

"When culture reaches a certain point, the radius of your borders grows by one. The first increase comes at 10 Culture points, which will probably take 10 turns at the start of the game (your palace starts generating one culture point per turn). The amount you need to grow your borders increase by a factor of 10 each time, so they won't expand again until you accumulate 100 culture points, and then after that 1,000, and then 10,000, then 100,000, at which point you win the game via a Culture Victory."

[Falconius]

More from the CG article:

"All the Small wonders become available not from research, but from game states. For example, the Heroic Epic becomes available to build when you've made your first Leader. Ironworks is a Small Wonder, and you can build that in a city that has both Coal and Iron within its radius."

[TechWins]

Hey thanks for that info.

[Christantine The Great]

So your greatest border can only be 4 squares in every direction from a city (5 if you play past the victory, which I always do)? Sounds good, I suppose. I just hope that is the same for sea squares, too. It really pissed me off in SMAC when I would put 2 coastal cities.

[TechWins]

What does all this mean about Small Wonders? Does this mean that there are now small wonders, minor wonders, and major wonders?

With the lack of expansion on your borders being available maybe colonies might be more useful that what I originally thought. Although, I still believe that it won't be very useful to build a colony in the very early stages of the game.

[Falconius]

The only other things in the CG article I haven't seen elsewhere:

Specifics about city defections:
"For it to happen at all, a city has to have a square inside its radius that's owned by somebody else. One that happens there's a whole series of checks to see if it actually converts, and it has to do with type of government, the strength of your culture, military units that are close by...all sorts of stuff."

A tidbit about Domination Victory:
"'Right now it's two thirds [of the world],' says Briggs. 'It was three quarters. We're trying to find a happy place , where the player knows he's won, and the game acknowledges it.'"

There's also some cool pics.

And just so Computer Games Mag doesn't sue me for quoting the article before general release, I'd like to point out that they are the greatest Computer Games Review/Preview Mag on the planet and I plan on renewing my two year old subscription again and again until I'm to feeble to handle a mouse!

[tniem]

Originally posted by TechWins
What does all this mean about Small Wonders? Does this mean that there are now small wonders, minor wonders, and major wonders?

I think small and minor wonders are probably the exact same thing. Just the author has written it differently.

[Falconius]

Originally posted by TechWins
What does all this mean about Small Wonders? Does this mean that there are now small wonders, minor wonders, and major wonders?

As I understand the article, what some of us have been calling minor wonders, they are calling Small wonders. In fact, this is what Briggs calls them in the article.

[TechWins]

I think small and minor wonders are probably the exact same thing. Just the author has written it differently.

I've been lead to believe that minor wonders can be built by every civ at the most once. While major wonders are the wodners that only one civ can build. "Small" wonders don't seem to fit under either of these two categories. Therefore I think that there are now small, minor, and major wonders.

[isaac brock]

There are NOT Small, Minor, and Major wonders. Firaxis has stated the existence of TWO types of wonders. I'm certain they never said minor wonders, but someone associated "Major" with "Minor" and got you confused. Yes, these Small Wonders have special conditions for building them. But each civilization may build one of them. There is no reason to think that there are three types of wonders. That goes against everything that's been said so far.

[Falconius]

Originally posted by TechWins
I think that there are now small, minor, and major wonders.

Let's nip that rumor right in the bud. Under the heading, "Small Wonder," the article says:

"Most of the Wonders of the World remain unchanged, but Small Wonders are a completely new concept. Unlike the regular Wonders of the World, which are limited to one of each type per game, Small Wonders are only limited to one per tribe."

Then the article continues with what I quoted about Small Wonders above. The article never mentions "Minor Wonders,"
and since Small fits the description, it is simply an alternate name, apparently the name they are going with.

Hope you are not disappointed, Techwins. Maybe three or more levels of wonders will be in Civ IV.

[Skanky Burns]

While we are on the topic of wonders, when you capture a city with a wonder in Civ 2, you get to keep the wonder. But what happens if you capture a city with a small wonder??

Would it automatically be destroyed?? Or would you be able to keep it if you havent built that particular one elsewhere, or would you be able to have a 'collection' of small wonders of each type??

"Heres my Pentagon in New York, and over there in Keiv ive got another one..."

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Regarding the borders 4 squares from the city is quite far away. With a decent number of cities that means that culture will help you a lot in the domination victory. If you have small culture, you will need to conquer more cities.

I guess the small civs with a lot of culture will be able to win too. I am just wondering if you can shut down all the embassies, and quietly crawl to the culture victory, so that noone knows it is coming.

[lockstep]

When culture reaches a certain point, the radius of your borders grows by one.

If this info is correct, Firaxis has scrapped the concept of city-individual border radii that was in alpa versions of Civ3 (look at this screenshot: http://www.civfanatics.com/cgi-bin/a...s/1-1-2225.jpg).

I liked the idea of city-individual radii, but maybe it was too complicated while not really improving gameplay.

[dainbramaged13]

I liked the city-individual borders a lot better, and realy theres no real evidence against them yet. i dont think