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I think over time some of the criticism of this iteration of Civ will fade, because the installation issues [which I didn't experience, by the way, and the machine that I keep in reserve for games can be tempermental as hell] pale compared to the gameplay.
The AI may be better, and it may not be better. I've only had the game for a day, and eight hours of play isn't enough to know. BUT the game itself is more difficult, due to the new resource and trade system, and the tradeoffs that system sets up keeps you boxed in so badly that the AI "feels" smarter.
Just about everything in the game is dependent upon your road network and your access to critical resources. City happiness is dependent upon possession of luxury resources and road access to them. New unit construction is dependent upon possession of strategic resources and road access to them. City growth is dependent upon possession of food bonus resources [if you don't have flood plain tiles, city growth is slow in the absence of food bonuses]. You will NOT ever have all the resources you need in the early game and the mid-game, if you play on a decent sized map. So you've got the expansion, city management, and military tasks you had with Civ II, but you have these additional new "supply" tasks. The additional tasks create just enough of a guns vs. butter type conflict to keep you from being an old-style juggernaut.
I also don't immediately see simple strategies to give the human player back an insuperable advantage.
Here's an example:
I'm playing as the Persians. The Persians are industrious, and my workers build the bleep out of roads, mines, whatever. I'm expanding as fast as I can, tying everything together with roads so I can get the luxury resource bonuses in all of my cities [yes, that's right, a luxury bonus being worked in one city raises the happiness of all of your cities, as long as they are tied together by roads]. I'm ahead of the 11 AI's I'm playing on a gigantic map from the outset, and things look peachy. I'm thinking, Stay ahead in research, just keep rolling until you get gunpowder. This is Civ, after all - all you have to do is get to gunpowder, right?...I don't have horses, and no one will trade horses to me, but I've got iron and lots of Immortals all over the place, so who needs horses, right?
All of a sudden the Eqyptians start demanding techs as tribute. I don't want to give them the best ones, so I try to foist Polytheism and other such garbage onto them, but they won't back off. The Eqyptians DO have horses, and all of a sudden they swoop down on me EVERYWHERE AT ONCE, and the graphics may be useless to you hard-core types but I have to tell you all those little chariots running around look impressive. They pillage the roads leading to my iron, they pillage the roads I'm using to trade luxury goods with the Babylonians and the Greeks, and they start dinging some of my outlying cities. I still don't think it's a big deal, because, well - it's only the AI, right? But suddenly I realize that the GODFORSAKEN AI UNDERSTANDS FORCE PROTECTION. Instead of stupidly throwing his units against fortified units until they're all dead, he's a god-damn Ulysses S. Grant out there, routing his chariots in one at a time, taking some damage and then allowing them to retreat, staying where I can't rush him without leaving my cities undefended. In CTP2, you will recall, the retreat function was the most unbalanced element in the game, because you could use it to literally never lose a unit, while you cut the AI to ribbons; in Civ III, the AI has learned how to do this, and seems to know when you can't chase him because you just don't have the mobile units. I've lost a few cities that it would be suicide to try to take back [the AI is also fond of hitting my units when they're in the open and then running away] and I barely, just barely, have been able to hold on to my iron. When you have to defend your cities, PLUS your resources, PLUS every tile of road [your resources are no good if your road network doesn't get them to your production cities, remember] and when you have to do it at a mobility disadvantage, the game is a challenge...I'm heading back to the game now, and if the iron goes, the AI will inevitably win.
The AI may be better, and it may not be better. I've only had the game for a day, and eight hours of play isn't enough to know. BUT the game itself is more difficult, due to the new resource and trade system, and the tradeoffs that system sets up keeps you boxed in so badly that the AI "feels" smarter.
Just about everything in the game is dependent upon your road network and your access to critical resources. City happiness is dependent upon possession of luxury resources and road access to them. New unit construction is dependent upon possession of strategic resources and road access to them. City growth is dependent upon possession of food bonus resources [if you don't have flood plain tiles, city growth is slow in the absence of food bonuses]. You will NOT ever have all the resources you need in the early game and the mid-game, if you play on a decent sized map. So you've got the expansion, city management, and military tasks you had with Civ II, but you have these additional new "supply" tasks. The additional tasks create just enough of a guns vs. butter type conflict to keep you from being an old-style juggernaut.
I also don't immediately see simple strategies to give the human player back an insuperable advantage.
Here's an example:
I'm playing as the Persians. The Persians are industrious, and my workers build the bleep out of roads, mines, whatever. I'm expanding as fast as I can, tying everything together with roads so I can get the luxury resource bonuses in all of my cities [yes, that's right, a luxury bonus being worked in one city raises the happiness of all of your cities, as long as they are tied together by roads]. I'm ahead of the 11 AI's I'm playing on a gigantic map from the outset, and things look peachy. I'm thinking, Stay ahead in research, just keep rolling until you get gunpowder. This is Civ, after all - all you have to do is get to gunpowder, right?...I don't have horses, and no one will trade horses to me, but I've got iron and lots of Immortals all over the place, so who needs horses, right?
All of a sudden the Eqyptians start demanding techs as tribute. I don't want to give them the best ones, so I try to foist Polytheism and other such garbage onto them, but they won't back off. The Eqyptians DO have horses, and all of a sudden they swoop down on me EVERYWHERE AT ONCE, and the graphics may be useless to you hard-core types but I have to tell you all those little chariots running around look impressive. They pillage the roads leading to my iron, they pillage the roads I'm using to trade luxury goods with the Babylonians and the Greeks, and they start dinging some of my outlying cities. I still don't think it's a big deal, because, well - it's only the AI, right? But suddenly I realize that the GODFORSAKEN AI UNDERSTANDS FORCE PROTECTION. Instead of stupidly throwing his units against fortified units until they're all dead, he's a god-damn Ulysses S. Grant out there, routing his chariots in one at a time, taking some damage and then allowing them to retreat, staying where I can't rush him without leaving my cities undefended. In CTP2, you will recall, the retreat function was the most unbalanced element in the game, because you could use it to literally never lose a unit, while you cut the AI to ribbons; in Civ III, the AI has learned how to do this, and seems to know when you can't chase him because you just don't have the mobile units. I've lost a few cities that it would be suicide to try to take back [the AI is also fond of hitting my units when they're in the open and then running away] and I barely, just barely, have been able to hold on to my iron. When you have to defend your cities, PLUS your resources, PLUS every tile of road [your resources are no good if your road network doesn't get them to your production cities, remember] and when you have to do it at a mobility disadvantage, the game is a challenge...I'm heading back to the game now, and if the iron goes, the AI will inevitably win.
Game sounds great.
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