A new Civilization game has been announced.

**TinCow** · 03-20-2007, 23:32

One of my favorite aspects of Civ 4 is how multiplayer friendly it is. My wife and I regularly play games together and it's immensely easy and fun. There are even 'deathmatch' style maps that are designed for multiplayer and team games. So many options to make the game exactly what you want it to be. Pretty much any style of play you've ever had in any of the previous Civ games can be duplicated in some manner.

I agree that it's not really "new" in any sense, but I think the proper way to look at Civ 4 is that it comes closer to perfecting the game than any other version, especially if you play with the Warlords expansion. If there was one thing I could change about the game, it would be to make the tech tree larger. That said, they've done an excellent job of making sure that the game is balanced. There's nothing that's too overpowered or underpowered. Everything can be countered by something (except possibly Praetorians in the ancient era).

**Pindar** · 03-21-2007, 01:46

Does CivIV have a real world map?

**TinCow** · 03-21-2007, 03:17

If you mean does it have a map of Earth, yes. If you mean does it have a setting that generates 'realistic' maps, yes. I think the "Fractal" map setting which comes with Warlords is the best 'natural' map generator I've seen. It's comparable to the generator in SMAC, which was very good.

**The Celt** · 03-22-2007, 17:19

Meh, I tried Civ III and didn't like it. IV was better, but I'm more prone to playing games like Total War and EU. Civ just feels to old fashioned to me.(Pardon my blasphemy)
I mean, when the heck are they gonna update that god awful soundtrack? In CivIV it still sounds like something from the early 90s!

You know we have this thing called Mp3s now, that can contain more detailed music! Cid really needs to fire that composer....

**TinCow** · 03-22-2007, 19:34

Originally Posted by The Celt

Meh, I tried Civ III and didn't like it. IV was better, but I'm more prone to playing games like Total War and EU. Civ just feels to old fashioned to me.(Pardon my blasphemy)
I mean, when the heck are they gonna update that god awful soundtrack? In CivIV it still sounds like something from the early 90s!

You know we have this thing called Mp3s now, that can contain more detailed music! Cid really needs to fire that composer....

If you go into the settings in Civ IV, you can tell it to play music from a custom folder instead. I find that most games are like that these days.

**edyzmedieval** · 03-23-2007, 11:11

I played Civ IV for about 3 hours. Not too addictive to me, because it's like a board game, and technology advances waaay too fast for me.

**TinCow** · 03-23-2007, 14:34

Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

technology advances waaay too fast for me.

Play on Marathon speed setting. You won't have that problem at all.

**Lorenzo_H** · 03-23-2007, 10:25

Originally Posted by The Celt

Meh, I tried Civ III and didn't like it. IV was better, but I'm more prone to playing games like Total War and EU. Civ just feels to old fashioned to me.(Pardon my blasphemy)
I mean, when the heck are they gonna update that god awful soundtrack? In CivIV it still sounds like something from the early 90s!

You know we have this thing called Mp3s now, that can contain more detailed music! Cid really needs to fire that composer....

I like some of the Civ IV music. The intro screen, for instance "Baba Yetu" and the intro screen for Warlords is some nice War Chant.

But yeah, some of it could do with a toss in the bin.

**screwtype** · 03-23-2007, 12:22

Originally Posted by diablodelmar

I like some of the Civ IV music. The intro screen, for instance "Baba Yetu" and the intro screen for Warlords is some nice War Chant.

Yeah, that Baba Yetu piece is really nice. In fact, one of the few things I liked about Civ4. I actually had to stop and listen to it all the way through several times, I rarely do that with computer game music. In fact, I always play games with the music off

**Lorenzo_H** · 03-21-2007, 14:22

Originally Posted by TinCow

One of my favorite aspects of Civ 4 is how multiplayer friendly it is. My wife and I regularly play games together and it's immensely easy and fun. There are even 'deathmatch' style maps that are designed for multiplayer and team games. So many options to make the game exactly what you want it to be. Pretty much any style of play you've ever had in any of the previous Civ games can be duplicated in some manner.

I agree that it's not really "new" in any sense, but I think the proper way to look at Civ 4 is that it comes closer to perfecting the game than any other version, especially if you play with the Warlords expansion. If there was one thing I could change about the game, it would be to make the tech tree larger. That said, they've done an excellent job of making sure that the game is balanced. There's nothing that's too overpowered or underpowered. Everything can be countered by something (except possibly Praetorians in the ancient era).

Yeah I enjoy playing my bro. I beat him all the time though...

**TinCow** · 03-21-2007, 15:31

Originally Posted by diablodelmar

Yeah I enjoy playing my bro. I beat him all the time though...

LOL, I can freely say that I am much better than my wife, since she doesn't read these forums. Due to that, we play cooperatively as a team against the AI. We pump up the difficulty because of the team advantages we get.

**Lorenzo_H** · 03-22-2007, 09:42

Originally Posted by TinCow

LOL, I can freely say that I am much better than my wife, since she doesn't read these forums. Due to that, we play cooperatively as a team against the AI. We pump up the difficulty because of the team advantages we get.

Actually the players who aren't in a team get a bonus anyway ie they have a huge base science rate. Players in a team still have the advantage because of: city upkeep (the less cities you have, the less the upkeep is, and since you are in a team, you don't need quite as many cities as someone who isn't), expansion is faster, and micromanagement is easier.

**screwtype** · 03-22-2007, 08:01

Originally Posted by TinCow

If there was one thing I could change about the game, it would be to make the tech tree larger.

Yeah, that's something that disappointed me about Civ4 too. I got used to the tech tree in Civ3 and it seemed to make very good sense and be well paced and so on. Civ4 by contrast, you just seem to rip through the tech tree and there isn't the same variety or sense of achievement or tension as you struggle to get that vital tech as there is in Civ3. Just another feature that made Civ4 a much more bland experience than the previous game for me.