Alright boyz, here we go!! Civilization IV first impressions...

[GrantDawg]

I'm definitely turning off the Space Race victory. It seems the computer beats me every time with that, and usually like in 1980's or so.

I'm also going to pick up a 6600 video card today. Hopefully that will; solve the slow-downs in late game. I considered buying another gig of memory, but I think the videro card has a better chance of solving it.

[Coop]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I'm definitely turning off the Space Race victory. It seems the computer beats me every time with that, and usually like in 1980's or so.

I'm also going to pick up a 6600 video card today. Hopefully that will; solve the slow-downs in late game. I considered buying another gig of memory, but I think the videro card has a better chance of solving it.

You could try this, it worked for me...only if you have a nvidia card

1. Download and install nVHardPage SE(google it, it should be quite easy to find)

2. Open nVHardPage SE, go under the Direct X Tab and change the Pixel/Vortex Shader to 1.1 by sliding the tab to the left.

3. Check the "Override Shaders" box below it.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Ok...But still doesn't explain how the computer has such large military units early in the game.

Either 1) they sacrifice buildings for units or 2) they cheat.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Coop

You could try this, it worked for me...only if you have a nvidia card

1. Download and install nVHardPage SE(google it, it should be quite easy to find)

2. Open nVHardPage SE, go under the Direct X Tab and change the Pixel/Vortex Shader to 1.1 by sliding the tab to the left.

3. Check the "Override Shaders" box below it.

Will this mess with the other games I play, such as WoW, TW2006, etc?

[Coop]

Not sure...i dont usually use my laptop for gaming besides text sims and adventure games.

[twothree]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Either 1) they sacrifice buildings for units or 2) they cheat.

I have noticed that the AI (at least on Noble difficulty) tends to specialize it's cities. To see this for yourself take a look at an AI city that has recently culture flipped to your side (or use a spy).

I have seen AI cities with almost no buildings in them except for a forge, a factory, and a few other early buildings (like a granary). Clearly, the AI would use such a city to produce units.

" Civ IV - Now with AI"

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by twothree

I have noticed that the AI (at least on Noble difficulty) tends to specialize it's cities. To see this for yourself take a look at an AI city that has recently culture flipped to your side (or use a spy).

I have seen AI cities with almost no buildings in them except for a forge, a factory, and a few other early buildings (like a granary). Clearly, the AI would use such a city to produce units.

" Civ IV - Now with AI"

Which is why those uncultured barbaric nations must be folded into the Holy German Empire. We will bring the light of civilization to all their cities, not just one or two.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Coop

You could try this, it worked for me...only if you have a nvidia card

1. Download and install nVHardPage SE(google it, it should be quite easy to find)

2. Open nVHardPage SE, go under the Direct X Tab and change the Pixel/Vortex Shader to 1.1 by sliding the tab to the left.

3. Check the "Override Shaders" box below it.

Nope, had a ATI card. Seems ATI cards had most of the problems, so I picked up a 6600 card. I had been kicking it around for a while because it always seems that ATI has driver related "issues" and I'm just tired of fighting to get things to work with it. Just popped the new card in, so I'm going to give it a go. I might end up having to reload Civ 4 all together, though.

[jbmagic]

worker automation

if you go under options theres an option for 'automated workers leave improvements' so they wont mess with anything already done. That was one of the first things I changed in my setup .

So far what i've found best is to manually work em at first then automate after you got your main stuff done how you like it

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

worker automation

if you go under options theres an option for 'automated workers leave improvements' so they wont mess with anything already done. That was one of the first things I changed in my setup .

So far what i've found best is to manually work em at first then automate after you got your main stuff done how you like it

I just noticed that option myself today. I also like to manually control my first few workers, but was afraid to automate later in the game. This is a great option.

[Galaxy]

How is the online play?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Nope, had a ATI card. Seems ATI cards had most of the problems, so I picked up a 6600 card. I had been kicking it around for a while because it always seems that ATI has driver related "issues" and I'm just tired of fighting to get things to work with it. Just popped the new card in, so I'm going to give it a go. I might end up having to reload Civ 4 all together, though.

Well, like magic I was able to play the game that would crash the second I loaded it. It works fine with minimal slow downs, but not the Wonder videos are choppy.

[Tasan]

I was able to lower the choppy movies by bumping the anti-aliasing to 2, which kind of makes sense when I think about it now.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I'm also going to pick up a 6600 video card today. Hopefully that will; solve the slow-downs in late game. I considered buying another gig of memory, but I think the videro card has a better chance of solving it.

I've got crashes in the endgame on bigger maps. I'm thinking this is a memory issue, so I'm going to try the "add more RAM" route, to get me to 2gigs.

One of the things I'm loving about the game is that each game I've played feels a lot different. I'm in my third game now and the game is evolving differently than the previous two games. Although certain aspects of the game can be played in similar fashion from game to game, I'm starting to think that you can't play this game with the same overall strategy each time and expect to consistently win.

[vex]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

How is the online play?

I've only played 1 1/2 games, but it's a lot of fun.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I just noticed that option myself today. I also like to manually control my first few workers, but was afraid to automate later in the game. This is a great option.

This is what I started to struggle with last night. I love to micromanage everything in a Civ game (esp. early to mid) just so I can keep track and manage food, production, commerce, and now, health and happiness. But there comes a time where, in my 3 growing cities, I have done all of the obvious things. I guess I could use 1 of my 2 workers to build a road to where I'm going to place a 4th city and I guess have to automate the other one and who knows what it'll do. I have never let the AI manage a city in any Civ games for I constantly monitor and shift priorities. Now I'm not too sure. Have to give this some more thought.

[moriarty]

Ugh, just got the Dan Qualye rating on Noble.

I was playing with the Egyptians and trying to max out culture when 3 of the 5 AI Civ's decided to declare war on me (so much for spreading my religion). One of my border cities had my only access to oil/uranium and needless to say they kept pelting my supply roads until I could no longer build anything but marines. No one came to my defense and I had only one city left before the Incas (!) won the space race.

I havent' won yet on Noble despite usually leading going into the late game. Maybe I need to rethink my strategies or drop down a level.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by moriarty

Ugh, just got the Dan Qualye rating on Noble.

I got the Dan Quayle rating in a Noble game where I finished third of seven, only a few hundred points behind the country that launched into space. My game score was about 3000 points. I was surprised I got such a low ranking. Maybe you get that rating whenever you lose, no matter the margin?

[jeff061]

When I won on noble with space race, with a good sized lead, I only scored a couple notches up from Dan Quayle.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

I got the Dan Quayle rating in a Noble game where I finished third of seven, only a few hundred points behind the country that launched into space. My game score was about 3000 points. I was surprised I got such a low ranking. Maybe you get that rating whenever you lose, no matter the margin?

Nope. I just got the second lowest rating after getting beat in a space race. I was England and just got hammered early in the game, made some monumental blunders, but then started coming back. I was actually leading in points when I lost the space race, but I only had 4 cities, not a lot of land and was trying desperately to build culture or win by diplomatic means, both of which were failing despite my points lead.

As an aside, my capitol city in the game just rocked. It never stopped growing (was at 34 by the end of the game), and it could build like crazy. It was putting out Stealth bombers in a turn. In hindesite, I should have used this tech advantage earlier, cranking out military units left and right and starting a war to get some more territory.

Oh well. Great, great, great game.

[Butter]

Suggestions about how to keep from getting hammered on gold early in games? Seems like I'm always losing gold early on, and can't start catching up until Courthouses appear during the Middle Ages (cutting your maintenance costs by 50%).

[dixieflatline]

build less city improvements that cost gold per turn.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by dixieflatline

build less city improvements that cost gold per turn.

Well, yeah, but that's no fun.

[dixieflatline]

No seriously. Some of the early wonders are actually quite useful and if you have stone or your civ is industrious you can built them in a pretty short time. This will still greatly improve your infastructure but won't bog down your economy that should be going to science. And that is still fun

[ISiddiqui]

One way to prevent getting hammered on gold is to not build as many cities. Remember maintainance depends on how many cities you have and how far away they are from the capital. The less cities you have, the less you have to pay.

And are there improvements that cost gold per turn? I thought that had been eliminated in favor of the new maintainance system.

[Butter]

What do you guys find to be a good number of cities, on average? I've been doing 10-12, but the game is still suggesting that I build more settlers.

[ISiddiqui]

I don't listen to the game telling me to build more settlers .

I find a good number on a standard map is around 10 cities, but that's by the end of the game. However, a good core of ~4 cities is essential, IMO.

[Eilim]

One thing thats helped me is specializing cities. When I first started I built cities like I did research, trying to get everything(which is a recipe for disaster in both cases.) Depending on your surroundings, focus each city on a specific task that the surrounding terrain is suited for. This will minimize some of the costs that can start adding up with city developments.

Also, use your financial advisor screen, as it will tell you exactly where your leaking funds from.

Another thing it could be, how fast are you expanding? Expanding too quickly can quickly cripple your economy if not monitored. Both too many cities, or cities too far from your capital before you have the techs/civics/infrastructure to support them can jack up your expenditures if not careful.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

What do you guys find to be a good number of cities, on average? I've been doing 10-12, but the game is still suggesting that I build more settlers.

Yeah, that part of the suggestion system annoys me. I'll have like 10 cities which I can barely aford and zero room to develop and it keeps telling me to build more settlers.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Eilim

Another thing it could be, how fast are you expanding? Expanding too quickly can quickly cripple your economy if not monitored. Both too many cities, or cities too far from your capital before you have the techs/civics/infrastructure to support them can jack up your expenditures if not careful.

That could be part of it, as I am still used to the old Civ way of cranking out those settlers and sending them off to grab some land pretty fast early on.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

That could be part of it, as I am still used to the old Civ way of cranking out those settlers and sending them off to grab some land pretty fast early on.

That would make sense... since the programmers of CivIV were dedicated to destroy this tactic . Expand slower, building your cities up before you expand.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Eilim

One thing thats helped me is specializing cities. When I first started I built cities like I did research, trying to get everything(which is a recipe for disaster in both cases.) Depending on your surroundings, focus each city on a specific task that the surrounding terrain is suited for. This will minimize some of the costs that can start adding up with city developments.

I'll add to that a lesson learned the hard way (stupid way?). Don't make your "cultural" city on the coast square far away from the borders. Nothing worse than seeing your border expand out into the ocean instead of towards a possible flip city.

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by moriarty

I'll add to that a lesson learned the hard way (stupid way?). Don't make your "cultural" city on the coast square far away from the borders. Nothing worse than seeing your border expand out into the ocean instead of towards a possible flip city.

My early problem with not specializing cities was I was just insanely innefficient as compared to the AI that I couldn't keep up. It came to be a "either or" situation when coming down to commerce/production/tech.. Even more so than normal game balance creates. *Any* deviation from a single focus caused me to start falling behind the AI in too many areas.

Took me quite a few ass-whoopings at noble to see where I was going wrong. Throw in my early diplomacy skills being complete shit (Try to keep everyone happy, yet pissing off all in the proccess. ) and it just lead to a whole lot of ugliness.

[twothree]

Wow. I just realized that I went a whole week without opening up FOF. Civ IV even jumped ahead of FOF in my start menu. After a few victories on Noble difficulty, I played a game on Monarch, and just got crushed by the computer when I started a war I was not prepared to fight. Even getting squashed was fun.

I wonder how long I will remain under it's "Just One More Turn" spell. I still find the game to be great fun, but have started to encounter some of the reported bugs. Getting the exact same "random" map that I had played several days ago was weird.

Also, I agree the game could use some tweaking. The amount of research points needed to aquire later techs should be raised in order to slow down how fast you get new techs. This would slow down the end game, and give you a chance to actually produce and use some of the buildings and units opened up to you by those techs.

[GrantDawg]

I'm getting real aggrevated with the agressive-build AI. Maybe it is just luck, but I seem to always be on the continent with some civ that is building city every couple of rounds. By the time I do the slow build there is no land left to build cities on! Plus I'm having bad luck on resource draws. On my last game I was surrounded by desert and tundra nort/south of my area, yet not a lick of oil. My niehbor, though had like three oil spots all around his capital. Grrrrr...



I love this game.

[KWhit]

Originally Posted by dixieflatline

build less city improvements that cost gold per turn.

Improvements don't cost gold in Civ4. Cities themselves do.

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I'm getting real aggrevated with the agressive-build AI. Maybe it is just luck, but I seem to always be on the continent with some civ that is building city every couple of rounds. By the time I do the slow build there is no land left to build cities on! Plus I'm having bad luck on resource draws. On my last game I was surrounded by desert and tundra nort/south of my area, yet not a lick of oil. My niehbor, though had like three oil spots all around his capital.

I was running into the same situation, while I still prefer the slow build, I've been tinkering with some of the strats in *this* thread when I find myself close to another civ at the start and having some success.

[Galaxy]

Anyone want to try a FOFC game sometime this weekend?

[TroyF]

UGH. Random map, I'm placed right next to Kahn. Of course, he declares war on me within the first 35-40 turns. He can crank out the military so I end up wasting ALL of my resources to build a military to wipe him off the map. (I know long term peace isn't a solution here.

I finally do it, conquer all his cities and wipe him out. Of course, I still haven't teched any growth or economic techs yet and I'm not playing catch up. Out of gold, my units start getting disbanded one by one.

I pour allmy resources into research and am slowly catching up, both in gold and research. I'm now in 1825 or so and have 10 cities. (including the conquered ones) All are growing, all are happy as clams and all have no health issues. (why would they, I couldn't even build a forge until the 1700's, much less anything else.

Thank God I turned off space race and time in this game. i still have a shot if things break right.

I don't need to think about this any longer. This is one of the top five games of all time for me.

[Galaxy]

Does each unit cost one piece of gold? And does disbanning them relieve the financial commiment?

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Does each unit cost one piece of gold? And does disbanning them relieve the financial commiment?

I believe that depends on your civics . IIRC, Pacifism makes each unit cost gold, but no other does so. I could be wrong, however.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Eilim

I was running into the same situation, while I still prefer the slow build, I've been tinkering with some of the strats in *this* thread when I find myself close to another civ at the start and having some success.

Thats a great thread - informative for sure with some fantastic analysis. I actually like to start developing a worker first - help get my city producing faster. Then its a settler and finally another warrior.

I've found that trying to pump out a settler first not only takes a long time (vs. how long it takes after my city has grown and created a worker), but if I do that, I'm almost forced to create another warrior to protect him, and that just slows my growth down even more.

I've been very fortunate with the goodie huts, in one game getting 2 settlers within 10 turns from them. Having 3 cities in 15 turns is a whale of an advantage. Too bad I got crushed by the Japanese

[vex]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Anyone want to try a FOFC game sometime this weekend?

Definitely.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by vexroid

Definitely.

Should I start another thread for a FOFC sign-up? Any time?

[Schmidty]

Well, I finally finished my first game and won. I was Fredrick and I played on Noble. It was a fun game until I realized that I was going to have to win via the Space Race. It was VERY anti-climactic and quick after such an epic game. I'm definitey turning off the Spaceship victory.

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Thats a great thread - informative for sure with some fantastic analysis. I actually like to start developing a worker first - help get my city producing faster. Then its a settler and finally another warrior.

I've found that trying to pump out a settler first not only takes a long time (vs. how long it takes after my city has grown and created a worker), but if I do that, I'm almost forced to create another warrior to protect him, and that just slows my growth down even more.

I usually go with worker first myself, but until that thread I really hadn't utilized wood chopping to get a good start going. One thing with the settler first strats, I tend to run them as gambits (heck, I even do that with standard strats sometimes.). I won't protect an early settler, betting on him getting to where I want him unmolested. Sort of an "all or nothing" move early on. Same thing with waiting guarding early build cities. Can save time/resources in the early game.. or make for a *very* short game.

While I'd probably never try such things in a MP game, in single player sometimes those all or nothing risks can pay off.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by TroyF

UGH. Random map, I'm placed right next to Kahn. Of course, he declares war on me within the first 35-40 turns. He can crank out the military so I end up wasting ALL of my resources to build a military to wipe him off the map. (I know long term peace isn't a solution here.

I finally do it, conquer all his cities and wipe him out. Of course, I still haven't teched any growth or economic techs yet and I'm not playing catch up. Out of gold, my units start getting disbanded one by one.

I pour allmy resources into research and am slowly catching up, both in gold and research. I'm now in 1825 or so and have 10 cities. (including the conquered ones) All are growing, all are happy as clams and all have no health issues. (why would they, I couldn't even build a forge until the 1700's, much less anything else.

Thank God I turned off space race and time in this game. i still have a shot if things break right.

I don't need to think about this any longer. This is one of the top five games of all time for me.

Funny you should mention that. I started a game yesterday in which Ghengis is right next to me as well. The prick keeps starting wars, but I'm fighting defensively making him turn tail and run. I'm working on research in most of my cities still, and soon I will have a big lead in technology on him and crush him! At least, I hope it works out that way

I agree that this is one of my top games of all time.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

Is there anyway to turn off space victory after the game is started? I forgot to turn it off before starting my latest game (which is now into the early midgame portion.)

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by TroyF

UGH. Random map, I'm placed right next to Kahn. Of course, he declares war on me within the first 35-40 turns. He can crank out the military so I end up wasting ALL of my resources to build a military to wipe him off the map. (I know long term peace isn't a solution here.

That's interesting. In my game, Kahn is just to the south of me (with the Germans a little further down) on a "continent" island. I made it a point to be real friendly with him and he hasn't asked much. He founded Judiasm before I founded Christianity and started to spread it in my capital. But I concentrated on culture and religion and after gifting a few techs (they do come too fast), I got the Mongols to convert to Christianity. Don't know really what to expect but with my border right up against his two cities, I may not have to worry about them. But then maybe I will.

One of the little things I did was to drop Research to 80% and raise Culture to 20%. Not only did that help in slowing down getting techs a little, but provided a nice steady boost to culture points. One of the easy things was getting Music first, which gave me a Great Artist and his +4000 culture points got my capital city to the next level on the way to Legendary. The problem I see for the future is that there are 4 other civs which no one here have heard from. Can't tell much from the stats since there have been no contact but even getting my little piece of the world conquered may not mean anything in the long run.

[Galaxy]

I LOVE this game.....I plan on playing it into the wee-hours tonight.