Civilization IV

[screwtype]

It would be refreshing if we could see factions flourish and flounder.

Well, maybe. But I wonder how you are actually going to make a challenging game if you have your most powerful rivals fading away just as a function of time?

The object of a game like Civ is to conquer the world, it isn't to have an historic simulation of history. If you wanted that, you would in my opinion have trouble grafting it onto the Civ paradigm. IMO you are talking about a totally new game - a totally new genre even - and one that I'm not sure a lot of people would be interested in playing.

I think that each era should be given great importance.

I don't know about "great". Great-er, in some cases, certainly.

if you played each year a turn that would be 5000 turns for a game at least if it starts at the building of the Pyramids, which could take an awful long time to say the least

That's exactly my point. In a game that tries to cover the whole of history, it's a pretty tall order to expect it to cover every period at length and still remain playable. Certainly some extension of time in some eras might be workable. But I mean, if you are really going to have 1000 turns in the stone age, who is ever going to advance past that era before they have either conquered the other civs or been beaten themselves?

The ancient and middle age eras should definately be longer though.

Dunno about the ancient. But I definitely used to feel that the gunpowder era didn't get its fair share.

[The_Doctor]

http://www.kalikokottage.com/civ3/sullla/civ4intro.html

This is a "walkthough" of the game.

A new section will be added each day until next monday. You should probably skip the intro.

[screwtype]

The bugger skipped right past the speed options. Not elaborating at all other than mentioning they exist.

Yeah, pity about that. But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

http://www.kalikokottage.com/civ3/sullla/civ4intro.html

This is a "walkthough" of the game.

A new section will be added each day until next monday. You should probably skip the intro.

Hmm, that's a handy site Martinus. I might read right through that later, but I don't think I'll do it now.

One of the pleasures of a new game is discovering things for yourself

[Fragony]

Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo just what I need so C4 rocks; RIP social life. Civ/smac are just to addictive it is the devil I say. But that won't stop me from getting it, you never really know if you are actually having fun when playing these games, but you just cannot stop.

how is the pike vs tanks thing ;)

[English assassin]

how is the pike vs tanks thing ;)

Not fixed, according to the review I read.

[The_Doctor]

how is the pike vs tanks thing ;)

Highly unlikey according to what I have read.

[ChaosLord]

The pikes versus tanks thing is fixed, but there are some things that can make it more likely to happen. One major thing is that damaged units don't attack at full strength, IE half hp=half strength. So if you find a low tech enemy and continually throw units at him ignoring damage and expecting to win constantly don't be suprised when your exhausted units get taken out.


As for the others, did you guys play Civ3 that much? Empires fell and rose all the time. It wasn't uncommon in Civ3 to see the biggest empire ganged up on in the middle/industrial ages creating a new balance of power. One killer AI usually pops up per continent, and its definitly not always just who was strong early on. I've also had games where all the empires were close in strength(which I loved, because those make for some tense situations).

I've even watched an AI go from less cities then the surrounding civs to conquer one...then conquer another..and so on until he took down the other five civs on that continent and was a superpower I couldn't hope to match. As for HoI(1-2) and Victoria being more complex thats up for debate, Civ just presents its information better so you don't have to go hunting for it.

Another word on combat in Civ4, theres sort of a paper-rock-scissors system going on that requires combined arms. For example Catapults are good against Melee(and can damage all units in a stack, making SoD a thing of the past) but Horse Archers are good gainst Catapults and spearmen are of course good against Horses. Its defined as Artilley/Melee/Horses obviously. Also Archers(finally) are the standard defensive unit until guns, they get bonuses when defending cities.

If you want a look at the techs and promotions, check this download of the tech-tree and promotion list. http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/downloads/civ4-techtree.zip