Civilization 4

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Going back, I'm hoping he's correct about the AI no longer forming the "All against one" blocs, but rather seperating into distinct, seperate groups. That was my biggest pet peeve in Civ3 - I wanted the AI's to act distinctly in their individiual interests, not as one big group. Galactic Civilizations has done this better than any of the other games.

Same here. I would go to war with a nation, have an ally with one. My ally would sign a peace treaty with my ememy, then declare war on me after signing a pact with my ememy! They you get all the nations against you,

[TazFTW]

In Take Two's third quarter earnings report, they said that Civ IV's release date will be pushed up several weeks from mid-Nov to late Oct.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by TazFTW

In Take Two's third quarter earnings report, they said that Civ IV's release date will be pushed up several weeks from mid-Nov to late Oct.

Well, that's not quite as bad as what Infogramme did in moving the release up one (two?) months so all of us that bought the "special edition" for $70 got jack-shit.

[TazFTW]

They've now announced Civ IV Preorder Edition. If you preorder Civ IV, you get the following, "a CD soundtrack, a keyboard template, a tech tree poster, and a spiral-bound manual--all in collector's edition packaging (pictured)."

[andy m]

but do you get the actual game itself?

[Ben E Lou]

I've been busy, and haven't had time to read or post the following stuff. Lots of new news! First off...

Civics
By: Barry Caudill
Senior Producer, Firaxis Games
9/6/05 Choosing your government has been an interesting part of playing Civilization since the original. In Civ IV, our team at Firaxis has really ramped up this feature and given players many more choices, which bring with them a whole new set of interesting decisions to make and strategies to employ. The new Civics system will allow players to customize their government to fit their current situation and style of play.

In the game, when you first open the Civics page you will see 25 options divided into 5 categories. The categories are: government, legal, labor, economy, and religion. Initially, you will be limited to the lowest levels for each (making you a barbaric, decentralized despotism with tribal labor and practicing paganism), but you will unlock more of the choices based on your research. Changing to new Civic forms will have a dramatic effect on the character and success of your civilization. You'll be able to boost or cut productivity, wealth, and happiness, make choices to increase/decrease the spread of religion, and even affect your ability to produce and maintain a large standing army.

Of course, it's not just as simple as picking all the highest level Civic options. A monarch needs to make the tough decisions. Every choice has an upkeep level assigned to it and you could end up with a really great government that puts you in the poorhouse. In addition, your current circumstances might make it impossible for you to use some of the higher-level choices. The good news for all the leaders out there is that you will be able to play around with all the choices and get an idea of the costs and benefits before you have to “Start the Revolution”.

So, the choice is up to you. Will you be a despot or a king? Will your people respond better to a democratically elected ruler or a theocrat? Will you have a free market or is everything state property? Make the best choices and lead your people to their rightful place in history!

[Ben E Lou]

mp3 of an interview with Sid Meier

[Ben E Lou]

Civilization 4 Multiplayer Hands-on Preview

Gather your friends for another addictive injection of strategy from the folks at Firaxis.

by Dan Adams

September 13, 2005 - When it comes to addiction, we're pretty educated. Not only are we all drunks and sex addicts, but we write about video games. Unless you've felt the nasty twinge associated with being away from your computer or TV for too long, you're not really fit for this job. And as any of us PC guys will tell you (along with several of the console guys as well) there are very few games quite as addictive as the Civilization franchise. Pretty much all of us remember Civilization II more fondly than any of the others and definitely lost more time to it. Civilization III was still great, but made things even more complicated and difficult in some key areas that cut the lust down to a dull roar. But now that we've had the chance to play Civilization IV multiplayer for a bit, the ache is certainly returning. Even though the stay at Firaxis was only a few hours long, it was heart-wrenching to have to abandon the battle and climb back on a plane to get home.



Lets be clear about this. There are a lot of differences between Civilization III and IV beyond even the most obvious addition of the 3D game environment. The interface has been made much simpler for diplomacy and civ management in general, combat is more intuitive, units can be upgraded like crazy, religion takes a much bigger role, and non-combative strategies are very viable options for success. But the biggest change, something most important for this multiplayer preview, is the way that the game was constructed. This fourth game in the series was built from the ground up as a multiplayer experience. No more "tacked-on" feeling with this. From the way the game plays, it's pretty evident that they really took a lot of issues into consideration.


There are several different ways to play multiplayer in the game, including options about victory conditions, starting technologies, and so on, but there are also several different ways to play such as hot seat, email, and simultaneous rounds. We played simultaneous rounds throughout the day, which created a much different gaming atmosphere than what players might be used to in single player. I didn't really think it was possible for the pace of a Civlization game to be turned up a notch, but Firaxis has succeeded. Not necessarily because of how fast rounds can pass (timers can be set so players can't sit fiddling for hours between turns), but because of how smooth everything plays.

Even when a couple of the computers pooped out (apparently not on purpose but serving as a demonstration of the server tech very well), the game simply paused and popped up a question (on a screen marked "Democracy") for the rest of the players to vote on what to do. The vote is either kick that player and replace with AI, save the game and continue playing until that other player can join in, or simply wait for the other player to re-connect to the server and claim his place. It makes playing less of a hassle since games can easily be saved, even in dire circumstances. Considering how involved a game of Civ can get, especially in a multiplayer game where players have been talking trash, building alliances, and sinking some emotional involvement into the game, this seemingly small process could be a lifesaver.

A game starts like any other strategy multiplayer game with the server host picking rules, players picking factions (and sides if applicable) and then entering the game at a random starting location on the map. As with the other Civilization games, the maps are random to promote the exploring part of the experience. Players will have to venture out, find resources and claim them before an opponent comes in and knocks at your door.

Civlization has long been about creating good alliances early and gathering as much information and knowledge as quickly as possible in order to get new technologies which unlock certain wonders and abilities. Grabbing alphabet, writing, and literature was always an early plan of mine in order to make sure that I stayed in the tech race with computers more skilled than me. In this, you just never know where your opponents are going to go. It might even be worth going a path less traveled in order to trade techs with those that want what you have.


Actually, one of the really important aspects of playing a team game, which was most of the day, is that research is shared between team civs. So when Gamespy's Fargo and I teamed up, we always checked with each other about the direction we should go. It's just a matter of deciding whether to combine forces or split and go for two different techs at once. Combining forces to find better techs certainly seems the smarter choice, especially since it opens up the chance to build wonders which effect both teams as well.

Gameplay tends to move pretty quickly because of team research so getting armies up and running is probably a good idea in order to protect and expand. It's very unlikely that a human player would let an open and undefended city pass without taking it like a computer opponent might. Sacking an early city is a huge blow. Speaking of huge early game mistakes, Fargo and I were doomed from the beginning in a game against the masters themselves when I mistakenly sent out settlers with no escort. While I didn't encounter barbarians, my settlers were sadly eaten by a trio of hungry lions. Send troops with your settlers! They're vulnerable and need protection. That one early set back had me playing catch-up (and Fargo by association) the entire game as Sid Meier started rolling out wonder after wonder.

Civ players will find combat to be very different than previous games in the series. Gone are the days of offense and defensives scores. Every unit now has a base power changed only by the addition of different types of bonuses. For instance, archers can hold a hill better than swordsman could (different terrain have advantages normally anyway as always). These bonuses are affected by experience and upgrades. One of the major changes to the way unit experience is handled is the addition of levels. Each time a unit goes up in level, whoever controls that unit can choose one of several unit upgrades. This can be anything from improved hill defense or city attack to straight power or healing abilities. This means you can pick certain units to defend a specific area like a city and build them up for that purpose (as long as they can survive enemy onslaughts that is). This also means you never know exactly what you'll be coming up against in a game, especially in multiplayer, where human play won't be quite as predictable as computer opponents. In any case, battle outcomes seemed to make more sense than they used to.

For the first team game in our day Fargo (one of the Gamespy guys) and I took to attacking the hell out of our opponents. Because the enemy was almost completely on the defensive, knocking our way into a city was pretty difficult. Not only were the defenders able to upgrade their units with defensive bonuses, but they also had plenty of time to fortify since it takes a while to take full effect. The end result was a victory by points on our side as time ran out on the match.

Martial prowess is not the only road to power in Civilization IV. Diplomatic and cultural magnificence are easily as powerful. Culture in particular can be huge for taking cities. Not only does culture grow with every addition to a town, but the new "Great People" can absolutely turn the tide. During a FFA match against some computer opponents, Fargo ended up on a different side of the world than me. Slowly, we were each able to take cities from our enemies. I chose force, though captured a couple of enemy cities through cultural expansion. Fargo just built and built and built and expanded his culture to a point where bordering cities were helpless against his might. Added onto everything else, he received a Great Person which he used to enter a city close to his borders and create a Great Work. Choosing to do this is being affectionately called a "culture bomb" by Firaxis as it explodes in the city and creatues a gargantuan amount of culture. When Fargo dropped his bomb, his borders grew infinitely closer to my own. While I had a more powerful military at the time, I have little doubt that Fargo would have been able to finish that match off given more time.


One of the biggest factors in balancing culture correctly is the way religion is handled this time. Players can wreak havoc by becoming the first civilization with a certain type of religion. At that point, they'll have a holy city and civilizations that adopt the same religion are likely to be friendlier to you in the single player game. In multiplayer, it's all about sending in your missionaries to spread you religion around. It's even possible to force another civilization to adopt your religion, which can potentially bring in a tidy sum of money for you. Actually forcing a society to change their beliefs is a whole different thing. Citizens can become very unhappy should their way of life change so dramatically. Using religion to sow discontent among the populace may be sort of screwed up, but just look at how well it creates conflict around the real world.

Civilization is definitely high on the list of games we're looking forward to this year. Everything we've seen so far, especially the multiplayer in my case, points to an awesomely addicting strategy game. It haunted my dreams on the way home from Baltimore.

We're all very interested to see how the new features is received by the hardcore Civ fanatics and casual players alike. Hopefully we'll have more time to really get into the nitty gritty of the game at some point before release. We've had a very limited amount of time to play, so it's hard to tell how much all of these features will change the game for good or bad in the long run.

Keep an eye out for plenty more info on Civilization IV from Firaxis before it's October unveiling.

[Ben E Lou]

Another preview...





Despite the hopes of many, the words "Civ" and "multiplayer" have never really clicked together. Ever since Civilization in 1991, fans have wanted to play against others in the great race to see who could guide their primitive civilization through history. That dream sort of became a reality with Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold in 1998. However, players quickly discovered that translating an epic, single-player, turn-based strategy game into a multiplayer affair wasn't as easy as hoped. Simply put, it took a very long time to play a multiplayer game. Meanwhile, things didn't get any better with 2001's Civilization III. First, multiplayer was stripped out of the core game to make sure it shipped on time. Then a broken version of multiplayer shipped with the Play the World expansion, and it didn't get fixed until the Conquests expansion a year later. So, yeah, you can probably see why multiplayer Civ remains an elusive dream to this day.




Archers and longbowmen make excellent city defense units in the early part of the game.
That is, until now. We recently flew to Firaxis' Maryland offices to participate in some multiplayer matches of Civilization IV, the upcoming chapter in the storied franchise. In the span of only a few hours, we played two multiplayer games of Civ, an impressive feat considering a single-player game of Civ can easily take upward of 10 hours or more. And, yes, both games were exciting and nail-biting affairs that came down to the finish to determine which side would win. How was this possible? Read on.

The first thing to keep in mind with Civ IV is that it represents a whole new chapter in the franchise in many ways. Not only does Civ IV rewrite many of the underlying rules of the series, but also it represents a new approach to creating a Civ game. Previous Civs were all designed as single-player games, with multiplayer modes uneasily tacked on to them, which was why they didn't work as multiplayer games. Determined to create a multiplayer Civ experience that not only worked but also was fun and fast to play, the designers went about creating the multiplayer game first for Civ IV. This let them not only get an early jump on play testing, but also it let them experiment and build new types of modes never before seen in a Civ game.

To make a multiplayer experience that works, Firaxis has taken several approaches. The traditional Stone Age-to-Space Age game now has an innovative, persistent server mode--called pit boss--that should let a group of players play the epic-length game at its leisure. However, we didn't get a chance to test out the pit boss or the epic-length game in multiplayer. We played one of the multiplayer modes which is specifically designed for fast-paced play--it was actually limited to 100 turns. And despite the fact that it limits you to the early eras of the game (basically the Stone Age to the Bronze Age), it's an amazingly effective mode. You know that you don't have a lot of time to waste, so the early-game emphasis is on expansion and conquest rather than defensive "turtling" for the long haul, which might occur in an epic-length contest.

We played in teams of two against each another, and this afforded us a chance to explore the new team dynamics. Basically, when you're teamed with another player, you get to share everything, from great wonder effects and resources, to research. For example, you share line-of-sight information with your teammate, so you can see what he or she sees. When you research a technology, you can choose to research the same technology together (thus cutting the research time in half), or you can have one person handle, say, all military technologies while you handle the economic technologies. And, of course, you can come to each other's aid during war. Unfortunately, we came to this realization too late in the first game, when we failed to expand our empire quickly enough and the opposing team threw wave after wave of units at us, isolating and whittling down our defenses. We did, however, learn some valuable lessons about combat.




Get workers started on building improvements to your land ASAP.
In Civ IV, your best city defense unit early on isn't the spearmen unit, like it has been in every other Civ game to date, it's the archer unit. Spearmen are only really useful against cavalry in Civ IV. Meanwhile, warriors occupy the bottom-most rung of the military ladder, like they have in previous Civs. Warriors do have an important role, though, especially in the dangerous new world of Civ IV. That's because in addition to roving bands of barbarians, there's a new threat to keep in mind: wild animals. The Stone Age was a dangerous place for man, as wolves, lions, bears, and more roamed the land. The presence of these beasts in Civ IV means that sending out any unescorted settlers or workers can be a very dangerous proposition, especially since the animals seem to home in on easy prey. Thankfully, you can group a warrior with a worker or a settler, thus ensuring that the worker or settler is protected. The need to build escorts for each of your civilian units alone will drastically slow your rate of expansion, as you can't afford the risk of sending out droves of unprotected settlers and workers.


The Best Defense Is a Good...

You'll also definitely want to send out some warriors on their own to explore the land and to attack targets of opportunity, which is very important. Lead designer and programmer Soren Johnson explained that you get more experience for attacking, and less for defending, so it's worthwhile to send out warriors early on to have them attack packs of wild animals. That's because you can upgrade your military units in Civ IV when they gain experience levels. Basically, once a unit is promoted, you'll be alerted that you can upgrade it by selecting a bonus. You may upgrade its unit strength (making it tougher to kill), you may increase its city defense strength, you may improve its combat strength when fighting in woods or hills, and more. This way, you can create highly specialized units, such as elite city defenders. Or on the flip side, you can create elite city attackers. You'll also have a reason to want to preserve that unit for as long as possible. The wise leader is the one who manages to keep his or her elite units alive, as they're far more valuable than green units.


Build cities on hills if you can, as they can grant a valuable defensive bonus.
The ultimate key to survival in Civ multiplayer, though, is expansion, which makes sense. If you have three cities, and your opponent has six cities, you're in obvious trouble. Simply put, you need to build up a larger empire than your rivals so you can generate a larger economy, which helps you not only create a larger army, but also lets you research up the technology tree faster, letting you unlock some potentially decisive technologies.

For example, during our second multiplayer game, we were also caught on the defensive early on, but we managed to hold on by building up archer units. It wasn't until the enemy researched new technologies and unlocked new units that we were finally overwhelmed. Yet on the flip side, it's far more difficult to expand your empire in Civ IV as quickly as you did in earlier Civ games. That's because the expansionism strategy of previous Civs, where you tried to build as many cities as possible as quickly as you could, has taken a hit in Civ IV. There are many more pressures on you at the beginning of the game, and it can be unwise, as well as downright difficult, to expand too rapidly. What you need to do is balance your priorities between expansion, research, building military units, and improving your core cities. Build too many cities too quickly and you'll have a lot of vulnerable cities to defend. But if you wait too long, the enemy will get the jump on you.

It's also important to read the terrain carefully. Mountains are no longer passable by land units, which should be taken into account. Key and secondary resources are scattered over the map, which could make building a city by them worth it, if for no other reason than to deny those same resources to the enemy. Defensible positions, such as rivers and hills, should be exploited, as they grant defensive bonuses to cities. Make sure workers construct roads so you can rapidly shift forces around your empire. Also, make sure to station units so you have line of sight in a defensive line, because one nasty tactic that we discovered is that human opponents can and will try to do an end around, sending military units to sneak around your borders, only to reappear at the gates of one of your vulnerable cities in the rear. Or instead they'll simply cut a road linking you to a critical resource, thus crippling your ability to construct advanced military units.




Always remember in multiplayer that the best defense is a good offense.
This is all common sense, of course, but it's proof that Civ IV works as a multiplayer game. You'll be caught up in the strategy of the game from the get-go, trying to work with your allies while desperately trying to outthink and outplay the opposition. Moreover, this short multiplayer game feels like an excellent mode for LAN games, for when you and your friends are hanging out together. There's a built-in, adjustable timer that ensures the game keeps moving forward--so you don't have to wait forever for someone to finish his or her turn.

Of course, we'll have to wait and see how the rest of Civ IV's multiplayer turns out. In particular, we'll have to wait and see what that ambitious pit boss mode will be like. But at this point, things are looking up for Civ multiplayer in a way it hasn't before. The short multiplayer can be ruthless and cutthroat, which is exactly what you want in a multiplayer strategy game. Civ IV's release date has moved forward a few weeks, so we can now expect the game to ship somewhere around the end of October or at the beginning of November.

[Ben E Lou]

Complete tech tree for Civ4.

[Ben E Lou]

Gameplay Footage


There's some wheeling and dealing going on, diplomatically.





Contrary to what you may think, it's not every day that we get our hands on one of the most anticipated games of the year...ahead of everyone else on the planet, no less. So when an in-production version of Civilization IV recently arrived in the office, we immediately threw it onto our computers and got to the "hard and difficult work" of breaking down a new Civ. That means we played the epic campaign several times, we expanded our empire through cultural dominance and military conquest (and got our rears handed to us on more than one occasion), and much, much more. And after getting lost in Civ IV, we came away with an excellent sense of how Civ IV differs from its illustrious predecessors.




It's a big, huge, scary world, so go out and conquer it.
You may have heard that Civ IV is a big step for the franchise, as it rewrites many of the underlying rules of the series. At the same time, we discovered, it's also a blend of the familiar and beloved turn-based strategy that has made Civilization one of the biggest names in strategy gaming. So where to begin? Well, the beginning is as good as place as any. From the opening menu, the first thing you realize about Civ IV is that this is a much more colorful and livelier Civ than its predecessors, as you're greeted with a cheery melody that feels like it could have been lifted from The Lion King. That's just a hint of what you're in store for, though. You're next launched into the familiar options from previous Civ games. Select a single-player game and you must choose the various parameters of the game, from map style and size, to climate and sea level, to the civilization that you play.

More importantly, you probably want to know what civilizations made the cut. So, without further ado, you can play as the Americans, the Arabians, the Aztecs, the Chinese, the Egyptians, the English, the French, the Germans, the Greeks, the Incans, the Indians, the Japanese, the Malinese, the Mongolians, the Persians, the Romans, the Russians, or the Spanish. Approximately half these civilizations have two possible leaders, which will mainly affect the opposition you encounter, as computer-controlled civilizations will behave differently depending on which leader they get. For example, if you like to play a peaceful, defensive game of Civ, then you'd better worry if Napoleon shows up next door leading the French, because you know he's going to be eyeing your borders like a hungry wolf. Have fun!

Aside from the leader personalities, each civilization has inherent traits that determine whether it veers toward aggressive expansion or, say, peaceful mercantilism. Not to mention that each civilization starts the game with its own set of bonuses and technologies. Unfortunately, the text in the built-in "Civlopedia" wasn't quite finished in the version we played, so we couldn't cull this information. Interestingly, there seem to be a lot more difficulty levels than in previous Civs, and the highest difficult levels are now monarch, emperor, immortal, and deity. If past Civ games are any example, then we can safely guess that these levels should provide a challenge to the most cutthroat of Civ veterans out there, assuming they can adjust to the many new rules, that is.

For the purposes of this preview, we played mainly as the Americans, because as Americans, we're partial to them. But also, the Americans get a cool unique unit late in the game: the Navy SEAL, which replaces the Marine unit, as well as the top-level F-15 fighter jet from Civilization III. Thus, as the Americans, you're dropped into the Stone Age with a settler and an accompanying warrior, and you must begin the long struggle to advance through time. Thankfully, there is a lot of automation built into the game, so the first thing you'll probably want to do is order your warrior or scout to immediately auto-explore the terrain to discover "goody huts" (primitive villages that give you free stuff). Meanwhile, you'll want to settle down and found your first city with your settler. User-friendly is the term for this chapter of Civ, and the game will immediately highlight attractive tiles to establish cities, taking into account nearby resources, terrain features, and proximity to other cities or civilizations.




There are lots of resources out there, so let the computer handle them.
(We should take this moment to note that the version of the game we played still represents work in progress, so you may notice a graphical glitch or a debugging message in the screenshots. The interface is also undergoing a lot of work. Therefore, don't be alarmed if it looks clunky or cluttered in places, particularly the city screen. Also, the details discussed here are subject to change depending on testing and play balancing, so please keep in mind that the game is still in development.)

Once you've settled down into your first city, the game bends over backward to be user-friendly. Your first task will be to begin research, so you're offered a list of available technologies, with a couple recommended that you choose (though you can always choose your own). Then you'll need to begin building something in your city, and, once again, a list will present you with all your construction options, with two of them recommended. In general, the recommendations are sound, but you may wish to follow your own path for whatever reason. There are also numerous adviser pop-ups that appear during the game that will recommend that you construct a certain building in a particular town, though you can disable these if they become too annoying.


Empire Builder

After your first city is built, one of the first things you'll need to construct is a worker unit, which can construct improvements on the land outside your city. In previous Civs these improvements were limited to a handful (road, farm, and mine), but now there are a plethora of different resources and improvement options at your disposal. For example, you can now build windmills atop hills, watermills on rivers, wineries in vineyards, and much more. It can seem a dizzying array of choices, but thanks to automation, all you have to do is let the artificial intelligence take control of your worker, and it will go about building the best available option on each square, as well as link your cities together by roads. It's such an efficient process, and it improves the pace of the game immensely, since you no longer have to worry about micromanaging all those workers, like you did in previous Civs.


When you're powerful, other leaders just want to be your friend.
You also want to make sure to take advantage of the many natural resources in the game. There are more than 30 resources, divided into several categories. Food resources, such as corn, wheat, and clams, play a part in the new city health system. As your cities become bigger, they become unhealthier. One way to combat this is to gain access to different food types, which represent nutritional variety. Each different food resource reduces your unhealthy population by one. Meanwhile, there are luxury resources, such as gold, gems, and silk, and these make your populace happy. Then there are strategic resources, such as oil and aluminum, which let you build certain units, as well as copper and marble, which increase production. There are even esoteric resources, such as Broadway musicals and hit movies, which can make your people happy or that you can trade with other nations.

Next up is the actual empire building, as you need to start establishing new cities and growing the size of your empire. You may get lucky and have an explorer come across a goody hut that gives you an extra settler, but in most cases, you'll need to build a settler at your city and send it out, along with a military escort if you want it to survive an encounter with a wild animal or a barbarian unit. We've found that getting a second city started immediately can be immensely helpful in solidifying a lead against your neighbors, but there's another benefit that we didn't foresee. One of the new concepts in Civ IV is that other civilizations need permission to cross your borders in peacetime, which means that under certain conditions you can fence off your rivals to large portions of the continent, letting you settle it at your leisure. On the flip side, the same thing can be done to you, in which case you may need to negotiate open borders so you can slip your settlers through a rival's territory to get to new land. However, doing so opens you up to another danger: culture flipping.

Culture was a concept that was introduced in Civilization III, and it's still around in Civ IV, though it has been modified quite a bit. Essentially, culture represents "soft power," or the ability of nations to defeat other nations through peaceful means. Think of blue jeans taking down the Soviet Union and you'll begin to get the idea. Culture in Civ IV is important because it expands and determines the sizes of your borders. Build a grand civilization, or one that's at least grander than that of your neighbor, and you'll see your borders expand at the expense of your neighbor's borders. This puts a very strong emphasis on building cultural improvements in your cities, such as libraries and theaters, as the more culture you generate, the better. One particularly nasty tactic in the culture war is to drop what the Firaxis developers like to call the "culture bomb." Basically, if one of your cities creates a great artist unit (which can be randomly generated by building specific great wonders in a city), you can have the artist create a great work in a city, instantly giving it a 2,000-point culture boost. This can have a devastating effect on a rival's border, which then makes it possible to literally isolate cities by shrinking their borders to nothing. In this case, eventually a city will revolt to your side, and you can then take custody of it.

In a number of games we played, we managed to claw our way into the lead but discovered that holding onto it was another issue altogether. Civ IV calculates a running score for each civilization, and this is based on a number of details, such as civilization size, technology, and military power. We discovered that if you leave your civilization lightly defended or equipped with obsolete units, other nations will take advantage of the fact. We tried to play defensive games, where we "turtled" within our borders and built an advanced civilization. Still, we discovered that we needed to maintain a formidable military, if for no other reason than to deter our neighbors from attacking us. This meant upgrading our defenses with walls and castles, as well as upgrading military units whenever a new technology made them obsolete. For example, archers make way for longbows, which make way for muskets, which make way for infantry, and so on. You can upgrade existing military units for a cost in gold, or you can simply construct new ones. It's also important to make sure to build barracks, as they grant new military units an experience level, which allows you to upgrade units when they're created. For example, you can promote a unit by making it a more effective defender, a more powerful attacker, or bestow upon it some other useful trait, such as the ability to heal faster. And, of course, the best defense is a good offense, so you'll also need to maintain mobile and rapid units, such as war elephants, cavalry, and tanks, so you can take the fight to the enemy.




The tech tree is no longer divided into eras, so it's a nonstop race to the future.
The combat system has undergone a lot of work from previous Civs. The new strength rating goes a long way toward determining the course of a battle. It may sound like a simple idea--the "stronger" a unit, the better its odds--but it's one that has eluded earlier Civs for some reason, as you can hear countless stories about a Stone Age spearmen unit defeating a modern-day tank. In Civ IV, strength goes a long way toward nullifying a lot of those situations, and we saw elite, modern-day Navy SEALs defend a city against waves of less advanced units. (This also made subsequent attacks even more difficult, as all those victories gave the Navy SEALs enough experience points to level up and gain new abilities, such as bonuses for city defense, bonuses against gunpowder units, or a higher strength.) It's still possible to lose, though, especially if the enemy wears you down by sheer attrition, and we expect to hear some grumbling about the combat, though it's still a big improvement over previous Civs.


City Sprawl

One thing that surprised us was just how fast the game flies by. It's hard to state just how much "faster" Civ plays now that you don't have to worry about little details, like micromanaging workers. You also don't have to plunge into the city screen to constantly rearrange the population, like you had to in previous Civs, because unhappiness revolts are a thing of the past. We knew that we were in for a treat during our first game and realized three whole hours had passed in the blink of an eye. It's incredibly easy to get drawn into the game, especially since there are no more transitions from one age to another to mark your progress. You'll start in the Stone Age, and before you know it you're knocking on the door of the industrial age, wondering where the time went. (And this is playing in the default normal mode. Those looking for an even quicker game can play the quick mode, where costs are reduced and there are fewer turns. Conversely, those looking for an even longer game can try epic mode, where the reverse is true.)


We really like the fact that cities feel like cities in this game.
That's not to say that you aren't making any decisions, though. You're constantly making decisions as to what to build in cities or what to research next or where to build a new city. These are higher-level decisions, and they are much more interesting than the repetitious tasks of earlier games, where 90 percent of your commands were to workers telling them to build a road or a farm. You're also making decisions about your government, as well as your religion. Gone are the classic government "archetypes" found in previous Civs, such as democracy, communism, and feudalism. Now there's a civic system that lets you tailor various aspects of society (government, legal, labor, economy, and religion) in a number of ways.

Basically, when you research a certain technology, it may unlock a new civic choice for you, and the game will ask if you wish to adopt it. For example, research communism and you can choose to enact the state property civic, which reduces maintenance costs in relation to distance from your capital, as well as increases food production. Research philosophy and you can adopt pacifism (a religious civic), which doubles your birth rate in cities but increases the support costs for each military unit. Obviously, certain civics are ideal in certain situations. When you're at peace, free markets, emancipation, and representation are the way to go, but if you're in a battle with a cutthroat opponent, you may find yourself wanting to tighten down on civil rights so that you can get lower upkeep costs on your military units. To prevent you from constantly switching civics, there is a slight cost whenever you change, as your society will temporarily slip into anarchy while the revolution is under way.

Religion is undoubtedly one of the riskier new additions in Civ IV, for obvious reasons, and Firaxis is playing it relatively safe. However, since religion has been (and remains) a driving force in human history, its absence could no longer be ignored. There are seven religions in the game (and, if you must know, they are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism). As with civics, you unlock new religions when you research certain technologies, and if you're the first civilization to unlock that technology, one of your cities becomes the founding city for that religion. Religion seems to be mainly a force for getting along with your neighbors. That is, if you can export your religion to your neighbors using missionaries, your chances of getting along with them go up. If you want to prevent this, you can adopt certain religious civics, such as theocracy, which halt the spread of non-state religions. You can also adopt organized religion, which boosts construction in cities with the state religion. There is also a free religion civic, which eliminates state religion, adds happiness, and boosts scientific research. Meanwhile, all religions have the same effects in game, so one religion isn't necessarily better than any of the others.

As we noted in the beginning, Civ IV is a much more colorful game than its predecessors. The rest of the music is as colorful and varied as the cheery opening theme, while the sound effects are quite good. Meanwhile, the game earns some extra points in our book, because every time you research a new technology, the grandfatherly voice of Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock himself!) kicks in with an appropriate quote from history. Graphically, we must admit the game does take some getting used to, but it does grow on you, particularly in how it feels more alive than previous Civ entries. There are also lots of neat graphical touches, like the fact that if you zoom in close enough on the world map, you can see all the improvements and wonders you've built in a particular city. We also love the way that cities actually "sprawl" out now, as if they're taking over neighboring tiles. Now big cities really "look" like big cities on the map. Meanwhile, as it's developed, the countryside takes on a life of its own, as towns and villages sprout up between cities.




Helicopter gunships versus knights? It's fun, so long as you're not on the receiving end of that matchup.
We've easily played hours upon hours of Civ IV since we've gotten our hands on it, and yet we can safely say that this only represents the tip of the iceberg. But that's somehow fitting for a game that encompasses approximately 6,000 years of history. Our sense of Civ IV is that, overall, it's a big improvement for the franchise. Yes, change can be a scary thing, and undoubtedly some changes will upset some people. However, change can also be a good thing, and in many ways, Civ IV feels like both a whole new game and good old Civilization as we know it. Firaxis will spend the next month finishing the single-player game, and we've learned that some other features will be finished after the game is released. Specifically, the multiplayer pit boss, which will allow persistent multiplayer games of Civ IV, will be released in December. Meanwhile, the software developer kit, which will aid mod makers, will be released in January. While that will undoubtedly create some disappointment, the good news is that the single-player game is looking good thus far. Civilization IV is scheduled to ship at the end of October.

[ThunderingHERD]

I refuse to read any previews of this game for the same reason I never peeked at my presents pre-Christmas.

[Buccaneer]

How do you think the tech tree compares with Civ2 in the choices and decisions we will have? I do like that it makes more sense historically and it is not the abymissmal failure that Civ3's tech tree was but it appears to be more streamlined in just looking at it.

[Ksyrup]

Is October 24 the release date for this? I haven't bought a computer game in quite a while, but this may be the one I get.

[sachmo71]

So I looked into the pre-order (yes, shocking), and noticed that shipping is almost $9.00.

Man I'm a tightwad.

[Anthony]

i'd probably pick this up for the MP aspect. depends on if there's a strong interest here to do some FOFC get-togethers.

[ISiddiqui]

The Gamespot preview looks nice, but I wonder what the requirements are. I couldn't play Pirates! on my PC, so I'll hope I can play this!

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i'd probably pick this up for the MP aspect. depends on if there's a strong interest here to do some FOFC get-togethers.

I absolutely want to do a Conquer the FOFC game of Civ4 shortly after we all get the feel of the game.

edit: Assuming we can find enough people that are willing to do a 'hour or so here, hour or so there' type game.

[jbmagic]

new Tech tree

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/techtree/

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

new Tech tree

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/techtree/

Just wow.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Just wow.

Play nice..

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i'd probably pick this up for the MP aspect. depends on if there's a strong interest here to do some FOFC get-togethers.

IWS

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Just wow.

I have to admit that this is pretty funny.

Can't wait for this game, btw.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Just wow.

You didn't have the word "new".

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

You didn't have the word "new".

True.

I'm not sure I like the information in this next article, and I'm fairly certain that you won't, Buc.

While there have been many previews of Civilization IV, there's hardly been any coverage of the game's middle to late stages. That's due to the fact that while we've been able to play with the early eras of the game, when you're busy clawing your way out of the Stone Age and researching such groundbreaking technologies as the wheel, Firaxis limited our time with Civ IV to basically everything before 1AD, leaving out the 2,000 years that follow. That changed recently, when we got our hands on the first playable version of Civ IV ahead of everyone else on the planet. So in this preview we'll give you an idea of what the later part of Civ is like.




You made it to the Middle Ages. There's still a lot more history ahead.
Assuming you're not crushed by rivals or by barbarians during the early part of the game, sooner or later, your primitive civilization will advance its way out of the Stone and Bronze Ages, but then what? Well, if you play on the standard-sized map using the default "continents" world setting, odds are you'll find yourself with a decent-sized civilization with approximately five to 10 cities. At this point, you'll have pretty much established the borders with your neighbors, and all available land on the continent will have been settled. You'll have to switch gears from exploration and expansion to focusing on improving your economy, because now it's a race to see which civilization can advance the fastest up the tech tree.

Several of your cities, mainly your oldest ones, will be your "core" cities. They've simply had more time to build up than the others and are best dedicated toward building key improvements, such as national wonders and great wonders. National wonders are the old "small wonders" from Civilization III and are basically smaller wonders that each civilization can build once. These include the familiar Wall Street wonder, which boosts the economy, but there are also new national wonders, such as Oxford University, which lets every civilization build its own super-university, and Scotland Yard, which lets every civilization that builds it recruit spies. That's right, the old spy unit that was last seen in Civ II makes a return in Civ IV, and she's once again capable of spying on enemy civilizations as well as detecting enemy spies.

You'll also want to get going on constructing more of those great wonders, those one-of-a-kind monumental wonders that can grant the civilization that constructs them a significant boost. While many of the great wonders will be familiar to Civ veterans, keep in mind that a lot of them have been tweaked. Some of the changes are mostly cosmetic (Hoover Dam is now Three Gorges Dam), while others are more significant (Great Library now only gives you free scientists instead of free technology). There are also new great wonders to be aware of, such as Notre Dame Cathedral, Hollywood, Broadway, and rock and roll. Those last three great wonders are particularly interesting, because they highlight the role of culture in the game, and they also produce valuable trade goods in the form of films and musicals that you can export to other countries.

One of the biggest changes in Civ IV, and one that has been discussed in great detail already, is that you can no longer transfer production from one project to another. This is an age-old exploit that has finally been addressed, and we found that it certainly ups the risks involved in undertaking a huge project like a great wonder. In the past, if someone beat you in a race to finish a great wonder, you could simply take the existing production and instantly transfer it to another project, preferably another great wonder. Now, if someone beats you to a great wonder, you receive a refund that's determined by how much work you've already invested in it, which can translate into hundreds of gold. Still, that's little consolation to losing a race to a great wonder. One thing's for sure, though. It will be much more difficult for you to "monopolize" the great wonders, particularly at harder difficulty levels.




Great wonders are still great, but they're harder to build.
We also found that the "no transfer of production" rule had an effect on our building of regular city improvements. You can no longer switch to another project at the last second like you may have in earlier Civ games. For example, you may be 12 turns into constructing a university when a rival declares war on you. In earlier Civ games, you could simply dump all that production into a military unit, letting you "instantly" recruit it. In Civ IV, the game will "save" the production that's already been done on the university, and you must start any other new project from scratch. This means that you can't afford to procrastinate on important upgrades, such as defenses and military units. Meanwhile, you also can't use this to "store" production for a later date efficiently, because "saved" production will slowly decay over time.








Space, the Final Frontier

While we can't be absolutely certain of this yet, it does feel like the pace of Civ IV is quite different from the pace of its predecessors. There's much more of an emphasis on the "early" part of the game. In previous Civ games, you went from 4,000 BC to 1 AD in a heartbeat, but now it feels like it takes a bit longer. Meanwhile, the later stages of the game feel a bit more compressed. This is seen in the tech tree, where there don't seem to be as many late-era techs as before. If this is true, then the developers at Firaxis have accomplished one of their goals, which was to rework the pace of the game.


Samurai warriors are the unique unit for the Japanese, and they're tough.
It also feels like the Middle Ages can blow right by, as you can go from the Bronze Age to the Industrial Age fairly quickly. To give an example, for much of the early part of the game, archers are your best city defense unit. When feudalism is researched, this unlocks longbows, which replace the archers. But it isn't long after feudalism before gunpowder is reached, and all of a sudden, muskets replace longbows. By now, you're on the verge of the Industrial Revolution, and technologies such as rifling will unlock infantry, and suddenly you're dealing with relatively modern military units.

As the military units get more powerful, it's more critical than ever that you keep your defenses up to par. Thanks to the new strength system, old units can become obsolete quickly, as they're less likely to defeat a technologically advanced foe than they were in previous Civ games. To help you defend, there are a number of city upgrades that you can construct. City walls seem to stick around for a long time now and don't disappear like they did in previous games, but you can also fortify your cities with castles and bunkers (for air attacks). The most important upgrade, though, is your units. They simply need to keep pace with the enemy, or else. This means constructing pikemen, longbows, and knights in the Middle Ages, but then quickly transitioning to gunpowder units when gunpowder is researched. Siege weapons such as artillery are also key, as they can have an attrition effect on invading armies, and they can also pound the defenses of a fortified city. Thankfully, siege weapons aren't completely defenseless like they were in Civ III. In that game, you could capture an unescorted siege unit simply by moving a military unit over it. Now, siege units will put up a fight.

The winning conditions in Civ IV remain relatively the same, though there have been obvious changes. First, there's plain old conquest, where you eliminate your rivals from the face of the planet. This is arguably the hardest and longest method, because war has a way of grinding down the pace of a game. You'll need to get your economy on war footing to constantly create new units, while you may find yourself fighting a war on multiple fronts. As such, while military conquest is certainly an option, it's certainly understandable if you gravitate toward the other two victory conditions.

Second is the diplomatic victory, where you get enough votes from other civilizations to win the game. The diplomatic victory condition is triggered by construction of the United Nations great wonder, but it's no longer the case that the nation that builds the UN gets to dictate its agenda. One of the first orders of business for the UN is to elect a Secretary General, and every civilization gets a vote in that process. If you manage to get elected, you can then try to get various resolutions passed. (If you fail to get elected, you'll have to wait for the next election.) The resolutions that you can propose include diplomatic victory, but you can also propose a nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which bans nuclear weapons; global civics such as free speech, emancipation, and environmentalism; and open markets.

The third victory condition is to be the first civilization to construct a spaceship to colonize Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. The spaceship has been scaled down quite a bit, and we count about a dozen component pieces in total, so you will no longer need to dedicate dozens of cities to building spaceship parts for a long time, like you did in the earlier Civs. You can also boost spaceship production by building laboratories in your cities or by constructing the space elevator great wonder, which boosts spaceship production in all of your cities.




It's not that much longer to Civ IV.
Since we've been playing with an in-production version of the game, details are subject to change. Unfortunately, much of the later portions of the game are still in a working state, and missing textures and graphical glitches are much more numerous than in the early part of the game, so we're limited on the number of screenshots that we can show you. Considering the fact that the game is scheduled to ship late next month, Firaxis certainly has a lot of work to do between now and then. However, we remain excited by what we've seen and played of Civ IV so far, as we can certainly attest that the addictive gameplay of the Civilization series is as sharp as ever.

[DaddyTorgo]

what's not to like about that SD? That the modern era is compressed in favor of the ancient era?

[Dutch]

It's going to include the middle ages and even more past that.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...46.html?page=2

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

what's not to like about that SD? That the modern era is compressed in favor of the ancient era?

I think I'd rather see them expand the ancien era to balance things out, rather than compress the modern.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

And I'm also not sure I like the idea of having only 5-10 cities at that point.

[Crapshoot]

I gotta say, I really don't like the new interfaces and what not, and it bothers that they spend more time on this, and less on an AI that you know, treats each civilization as an individual group, as opposed to one mass entity. Perhaps holding off on that pre-order is a good idea..

[DaddyTorgo]

i would have to say i agree with both of those points of yours. i always favored having more in the region of 12-15 cities, with around 6 being "large" cities and the other 6-9 being smaller/newer.

one thing i hope they have addressed to is the difficulty in beginning a city rather late and ever having it grow to any significant size. look at NYC for example...you couldn't have something like that in Civ, all your largest cities always ended up being the first ones built and your newer cities seemed to be artifically "capped" if you will.

[Buccaneer]

I think "artificial" is a key word. I have no problems in the number of cities because that has always been my style. BUT...I do not want the game to enforce limits or caps for the sake of perceived realism, age balance or whatever - just like I don't want the game to have hard-coded limits on tech tree advancement. I want the game, in SP, to be free form in that your pace of building and advancement is determined by my developments (or lack thereof) and not to be forced to play at a certain pace determined by the game. For example, if I decide to concentrate on building Science cities right off the bat and get to the point of getting advances every 3-4 turns, so be it. It, however, does sound like this more doable than in Civ3 but to what extent, I can't tell.

I still like the inability to switch productions but I don't remember if they took out rush building.

I am bothered, just like with all of the Civ3 discussions, by the gameplay concept of "ages". That sounds artificial and contraining. It doesn't matter to me - at all - that the [fill in the blank] age would zoom by quickly. If I want to capture the feel, research and units of a particular age, then I would play a scenario set in that age.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I am bothered, just like with all of the Civ3 discussions, by the gameplay concept of "ages". That sounds artificial and contraining. It doesn't matter to me - at all - that the [fill in the blank] age would zoom by quickly. If I want to capture the feel, research and units of a particular age, then I would play a scenario set in that age.

Having not read much of the discussions -- are they from developers or reviewers? If it's reviewers, I wouldn't worry too much.

[ISiddiqui]

CivIV has no ages anymore, Bucc.

And I'm all in favor of fighting ICS with soft caps on cities (ie, cities far away from capital suffer crippling corruption and health... basically shutting down those cities.

[Buccaneer]

Then I imagine the reviewer has too much Civ3 on his mind. Should have looked at the source more: Gamespot. Says it all.

[jbmagic]

this game looks impressive.

just hope the AI is good on it.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Just wow.

to my offense, i deleted my post when i reliaze you already posted about the tech tree in civ4. i realized my mistake.


but i guess you undeleted it.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

to my offense, i deleted my post when i reliaze you already posted about the tech tree in civ4. i realized my mistake.


but i guess you undeleted it.

Sure thing, pal.

[Dutch]

Are we gonna have to seperate you two?

[duckman]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Sure thing, pal.

Can you be any of bigger an asshole than right now?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by duckman

Can you be any of bigger an asshole than right now?

unrelated to this fiasco, i like to think one's ability to be an even bigger asshole is limitless.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by duckman

Can you be any of bigger an asshole than right now?

Hmmmmm....the fact that I got annoyed makes me an "asshole?" Interesting.

[vex]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Hmmmmm....the fact that I got annoyed makes me an "asshole?" Interesting.

No, it's the fact that you have to be an asshole whenever he says something.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by vexroid

No, it's the fact that you have to be an asshole whenever he says something.

Only when he says something stupid. When HE ASKED ME to take him off my ignore list, I made a pledge to myself to try my best to only razz him when I'd razz anyone else. If I recall, this is only the second time I've razzed him in that time (which has been a while..weeks, if not months, I think). Anyone who posted the exact same thing that was posted, oh, 10 messages or so ago is going to get razzed here. You know that as well as I do.

[Anthony]

i don't like SkyDog, so take this with a grain of salt:

i'm really starting to get tired of jbmagic. at first i didn't see what it was about him that could be considered annoying, but now i think i got it. i hate the way he has to rush and be the first one to start threads on like every tv show. i hate how he thinks he has to post "news". i hate how he asks questions all the fucking time. to me, in terms of annoying FOFC posters, Izulde is tops followed not too far by jbmagic, with QS a third and sov, who thinks he's as funny as me and thinks he's on my level and should have killed himself when he was a child.

but seriously, jbmagic is fucking annoying. if he were to post half as much as what he does now i'd be really happy.

i can't wait for this Civ4 game to come out. it'll be my 1st Civ game so i hope i don't get embarassed in MP, but i really like how deep it's turning out to be.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Does anybody else think the graphics look like they might be a step back from Civ III? While I'm not generally against 3-D, I'm concerned that they look to be making things that way for it's own sake (not for specific presentation needs), and I think the level of detail on the maps looks like it's gone down from the previous edition.

[ISiddiqui]

::shrug::

I REALLY like these graphics where I didn't think CivIII's were anything that special. I like the expansion of cities, and 3d spherical map. I think it looks very nice indeed.

[Buccaneer]

Anyone who played Pirates would feel comfortable with this. In the brief time I played Civ3, I immediately did not like the graphics and went with Spoon's graphics set (that's not his name, do you remember who I'm referring to, Imran?).

I do wonder (and have not bothered to check anything) is how customizable and events-driven the graphics will be? One of the great things about Civ2 was the ability to instantly change any graphic's tile based on an event.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Anyone who played Pirates would feel comfortable with this. In the brief time I played Civ3, I immediately did not like the graphics and went with Spoon's graphics set (that's not his name, do you remember who I'm referring to, Imran?).

I do wonder (and have not bothered to check anything) is how customizable and events-driven the graphics will be? One of the great things about Civ2 was the ability to instantly change any graphic's tile based on an event.

Snoopy you mean ? Yeah, I went with his as well, but the new interface bothers me- the brown city screen and what not.

[ISiddiqui]

It has been said everything is customizable (Python scripting or something), but graphics will be harder than Civ2, merely because the graphics are more 3d.