Alright boyz, here we go!! Civilization IV first impressions... - Page 9

Godzilla Blitz · 11-02-2005, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dixieflatline

Play on epic and that will solve all your problems.

Quite a few players at CivFanatics are saying that the Epic setting doesn't get things right. I'm not sure what they don't like about it, but there are a bunch of people messing with the Epic/Normal settings to try and fine-tune things.

Buccaneer · 11-02-2005, 07:14 PM

You guys crack me up.

I think for test/learning curve games, Standard pace should be about right. I do, however, look forward to having an Epic game - with whatever fine-tuning they come up with. It should be about the same pace as a regular Civ2 game on Deity, I think.

Forbidden City is good, changing civics to Hereditary Rule might be better.

Schmidty · 11-02-2005, 07:20 PM

Well, I pulled my first all-nighter last night. It was my first since Civ2 back in 1999. I'm playing as Frederick (Phil/Creat), and have been producing Great Artist/Culture Bombs at an insane rate. I LOVE beating the shit out of other civs without even having to fight.

dixieflatline · 11-02-2005, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fflix

what does the epic setting change?

I haven't play on it yet but all the built and research times go back. From what I hear it's paced like Civ 3 if you prefer that.

Godzilla Blitz · 11-02-2005, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schmidty

Well, I pulled my first all-nighter last night. It was my first since Civ2 back in 1999. I'm playing as Frederick (Phil/Creat), and have been producing Great Artist/Culture Bombs at an insane rate. I LOVE beating the shit out of other civs without even having to fight.

This might be a silly question, but what is a culture bomb?

Is it that great artist that adds 4,000 culture to your city at one pop? You use him in a city near the enemey and it flips the city to your side?

Galaxy · 11-02-2005, 08:53 PM

I'm def. interested in a FOFC online game...

jbmagic · 11-02-2005, 09:14 PM

did anybody also pick up civ 4 strategy book? how is it?

Schmidty · 11-02-2005, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

This might be a silly question, but what is a culture bomb?

Is it that great artist that adds 4,000 culture to your city at one pop? You use him in a city near the enemey and it flips the city to your side?

Basically, but it takes multiple Great Artists along border cities to do that. Luckily, I am a GP machine at the moment. All of my opponent's cities along my borders are starting to be assimilated. Most of them are barely above 50% as far as their own citizens still being from their own culture. Should be fun once they start to join the dark side.

Eaglesfan27 · 11-02-2005, 11:06 PM

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned. I love how you if you found a religion, you can see into cities that have adopted that religion. It certainly amplifies the importance of being the first to found a religion (or preferably multiple religions.)

Calis · 11-02-2005, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned. I love how you if you found a religion, you can see into cities that have adopted that religion. It certainly amplifies the importance of being the first to found a religion (or preferably multiple religions.)

Using a Great Prophet to plop down those Religion-specific buildings in the Holy Cities is no joke also. Some seriously nice benefits there, went along ways towards winning me the last game I played. I founded numerous religions in my last game and kept on pumping out Great Prophets and building those structures, and it was very very helpful.

Eaglesfan27 · 11-02-2005, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calis

Using a Great Prophet to plop down those Religion-specific buildings in the Holy Cities is no joke also. Some seriously nice benefits there, went along ways towards winning me the last game I played. I founded numerous religions in my last game and kept on pumping out Great Prophets and building those structures, and it was very very helpful.

Yep. 2 Great Prophets and 2 Religion Specific buildings were a key to me winning my last game as well. Oh yeah, I crushed Saladin

jbmagic · 11-02-2005, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Yep. 2 Great Prophets and 2 Religion Specific buildings were a key to me winning my last game as well. Oh yeah, I crushed Saladin

what level you playing on?

Eaglesfan27 · 11-02-2005, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbmagic

what level you playing on?

Depends on my mood. I have one game going on Noble and one on Monarch.

Coop · 11-03-2005, 12:00 AM

I suck at fighting. any tips?

Eaglesfan27 · 11-03-2005, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coop

I suck at fighting. any tips?

Artillery units are key for softening up the enemy. I love my cannons. Pay close attention to terrain and city defensive bonuses as well.

Galaxy · 11-03-2005, 12:06 AM

I can never quite figure out how the computer has the load of units they have.

vyshka · 11-03-2005, 01:01 AM

Was trying out MP this evening with a buddy of mine, and got raped by a barbarian horde. I guess I was optimistic in my expansion and had not built up adequate defenses. A 3 unit stack of barb warriors attacked my capital and took it. Then hit my second city which had sent troops to try and retake the capital, and managed to kill them and then take my second city. I had a 3rd city that had just started (size 1), and I was able to hold on to that, but now the barbs have an archer in my capital with level 3 City Defense upgrade, plus other units.
I have been pounding them with a cat, but I am pretty much out of the game. Great fun though.

Galaxy · 11-03-2005, 01:08 AM

I'm thinking of playing a MP game tonight...

Peregrine · 11-03-2005, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dixieflatline

Play on epic and that will solve all your problems.

Not quite, I've been playing on Epic since my second game, it's still too short.

Peregrine · 11-03-2005, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy

I can never quite figure out how the computer has the load of units they have.

Good question, I fought a war against the Japanese in one game, and they had just an ungodly number of units, they had only a couple more cities than I did, but they were constantly throwing groups of 10-12 units at me, then another wave would come a couple turns later.

Eaglesfan27 · 11-03-2005, 02:12 AM

Tonight, the "just one more turn bug" has really hit me. I really should have gone to sleep about an hour ago, but this one game I've got going is so much fun. I'm at war with the Germans in 1940 with a decent technological advantage on them. Meanwhile, a massive war is going on between the Greeks and Russians. I'm getting so close to wiping out the Germans, but they are hanging tough in 3 remaining well defended cities (I've captured 4 or 5 cities they had) and I really want to go and finish up the war even as I'm typing. However, I know that sleep is important especially since I'll be driving a lot tomorrow. Oh well, I'll force myself to go to sleep.. or will I?

Galaxy · 11-03-2005, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Good question, I fought a war against the Japanese in one game, and they had just an ungodly number of units, they had only a couple more cities than I did, but they were constantly throwing groups of 10-12 units at me, then another wave would come a couple turns later.

This is something that I want to explore more. Everything I go to war, it just seems they have always have units in the truckloads, and when you clear them out; another truckload just comes in.

Vince · 11-03-2005, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Yes, they can carry Explorers, but not Settlers. You have to rely on getting lucky with a goodie hut to build a new city with those.

One thing that I noticed reading the instruction manual that I didn't realize while playing the game is that Caravels and Galleys (the non-astronomy ship) can move on Ocean squares as long as they are under your cultural control. You'd still need a second continent rather close to your first, but it does leave that option open.

Like you said Ben, this could be one of the more amazing strategic decisions on a trade-off in-game that I've ever seen.

Peregrine · 11-03-2005, 04:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy

This is something that I want to explore more. Everything I go to war, it just seems they have always have units in the truckloads, and when you clear them out; another truckload just comes in.

Well it's possible they are just drafting a lot of units using whichever Civic it is that gives you the draft ability. It lowers your cities population but you can definitely raise an army fast that way.

Mizzou B-ball fan · 11-03-2005, 08:46 AM

A very cool thing I noticed last night. I was building a road between my first two cities. The cities were 4 spaces apart. After I built the first piece of road, a message popped up saying my cities were connected. I was thinking that they weren't because there were three more pieces of road to complete. Then I realized that my capital was on a river and that the river ran within one space of my other city. I had built a road to the river and the trade route was completed by the river since it ran to the other city. WAY too cool.

Butter · 11-03-2005, 08:57 AM

Does anyone know what kind of units you get when you "draft" your population? Also, how does that work? I noticed the "Vassalage" civic, and thought that might be kinda fun to use in a conquest scenario.

Coffee Warlord · 11-03-2005, 09:22 AM

You usually get your best 'standard' infantry unit when you draft.

Oh, and it's a button on the city detail screen. You lose some happiness for a few turns, but unlike Civ3, conscript units are not weaker. They are just as good as any you build.

spleen1015 · 11-03-2005, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Well it's possible they are just drafting a lot of units using whichever Civic it is that gives you the draft ability. It lowers your cities population but you can definitely raise an army fast that way.

I never noticed this Civic. I bet the AI adopts this Civic when it goes to war and pumps units out.

I will have to pay attention to this.

Barkeep49 · 11-03-2005, 09:47 AM

I have to say that I think I've considerably underestimated the importance of spreading religion via missionaries. Having your neighbors share a religion with you seems to me the best way to prevent war (something I don't like to fight in Civ 3).

EDIT -- I also think that the computer has to be having some different way of getting units as the units that I was atacked with en mass last night by the Japanese were all calvary.

I am in my 4th game on Noble. I have yet to finish a game with a victory but I'm getting better and better. I know I will feel quite an acomplishment when I do win on this level.

dixieflatline · 11-03-2005, 11:09 AM

So is there a better civ out there than the indians(Gandhi in particular)? They start with mysticism one step away from an early religion. Their special unit is the fast worker which moves three. This may not seem all that good but workers spend a lot of time moving on to a space without a road and if they move three they can move there and start working the new space a lot. It's espeically handy in the beginning of the game getting to new resources. Their traits are spiritual and organized/industrious which are decent as well.

Ben E Lou · 11-03-2005, 11:12 AM

Available as a download purchase now: http://www.direct2drive.com/

Coffee Warlord · 11-03-2005, 11:12 AM

I'm pretty high on the Germans (Frederick in particular).

Creative is by far my favorite trait, and Philosophical certainly doesn't suck.

dixieflatline · 11-03-2005, 11:16 AM

Frederick is nice. I agree that's a nice combo. still like the indians a bit better though.

spleen1015 · 11-03-2005, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dixieflatline

So is there a better civ out there than the indians(Gandhi in particular)? They start with mysticism one step away from an early religion. Their special unit is the fast worker which moves three. This may not seem all that good but workers spend a lot of time moving on to a space without a road and if they move three they can move there and start working the new space a lot. It's espeically handy in the beginning of the game getting to new resources. Their traits are spiritual and organized/industrious which are decent as well.

It all depends on how you play each civ. The best game I've played was with the Germans and they have traits I don't really like. I like the Indians, but I really like the Arabians. I never have a good game with them though. I don't think I am taking advantage of their abilities.

Godzilla Blitz · 11-03-2005, 01:22 PM

Finished my first game in my "best of seven" Noble difficulty series last night. Finished third out of seven nations, a loss.

Some thoughts...

1. Randomizing the map-generation parameters makes things both more difficult and more interesting. I was on a standard size map, but there were tons of islands everywhere. Had I known this at the start, I could have focused more quickly on naval techs. Instead, I had to scramble to build a navy.

2. The midgame and endgame need tweaking with regard to pacing. Units take too long to build relative to tech advances. My average city could crank out most new, expensive units in 8-12 turns, but I was getting tech advances in 2-6 turns. I realize my gameplay style affects this, but staying up in tech is a critical strategy, and the AI civs were getting advances just as fast, if not faster than I was. It's neat that I discover all these nifty new units to make, but not so much fun that I never get to use them. I'll be following the development of mods over at CivFanatics that are working on slowing things down and getting the unit/tech/time/building pace down.

3. Politics in the game rocks. Toward the 1900's in my game, I had built up good relations with all the AI nations. Although I was in third place, either of the two powerhouses in the game could have rolled over me in a few turns if they chose to. Trusting the good relationships, though, I basically stopped building a military. Although I had a couple of threatening disagreements, I was able to stave off wars through politics.

4. Endgame strategy is intense. I was about 300 points behind the two top cultures with about 100 years to go. I was too far behind in tech to go for space, and had no chance miltarily. I tried a culture blitz, figuring that I might be able to flip a few cities and make up the slack and go for a point victory. I cut science and cranked up every cultural generator I could. I was able to take three cities, and was on the verge of getting two or three more when the Americans won the space race. The Indians, on the other hand, just barely lost a Diplomatic victory the year before the Americans made it into space. It was just a blast to play in a game where the top three nations were each trying to win in a different way. It was also a blast to watch my borders swelling up and over the cities of other nations.

The neat part of this, for me, was realizing that there are tons of ways to win the game, all of which take quite a bit of skill to pull off. My culture strategy was much too late and too costly in terms of falling behind in the tech race. But had I started more moderately in the early game, I may have been able to pull it off.

5. I had a half dozen crashes-to-desktop in the back half of the game. The auto-save feature works fine, but bummer that I lost a few turns each time it happened. I might take a look at getting more RAM. Got 1gb now on a p4 2.6.

Back to trying again. Great game.

jeff061 · 11-03-2005, 01:25 PM

I agree, the end game pacing is pretty bad and is the largest weak point in the game.

I finished up a game on noble last night. The second I got Tanks I started building them, and I only had 5 or 6 built before I won the space race. Let alone any modern armor or any semblance of an up to date navy.

Ksyrup · 11-03-2005, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

2. The midgame and endgame needs tweaking with regard to pacing. Units take too long to build relative to tech advances. My average city could crank out most new, expensive units in 8-12 turns, but I was getting tech advances in 2-6 turns. I realize my gameplay style affects this, but staying up in tech is a critical strategy, and the AI civs were getting advances just as fast, if not faster than I was. It's neat that I discover all these nifty new units to make, but not so much fun that I never get to use them. I'll be following the development of mods over at CivFanatics that are working on slowing things down and getting the unit/tech/time/building pace down.

This is exactly what I posted about a couple of days ago, and that was after only an hour of playing the game. I was still in the process of creating military defense units, workers, and settlers while I continued to research tech advance after tech advance every 5-10 turns. It was insane.

dixieflatline · 11-03-2005, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spleen1015

It all depends on how you play each civ. The best game I've played was with the Germans and they have traits I don't really like. I like the Indians, but I really like the Arabians. I never have a good game with them though. I don't think I am taking advantage of their abilities.

Sure it depends on how you play each civ but the indians techs help a lot in teh beginning and their special unit helps a lot in the early game as well. Getting off to a good start is huge in this game. I'm just saying all things equal they are probably someones best bet. I'm certainly not going to play them every time as I like variety but it's an observation.

Peregrine · 11-03-2005, 01:35 PM

I won my first game on noble yesterday, small map and I just ran way ahead, it ended up being me and two others who loved me so it was an easy diplomatic victory. I'm beginning to really like the Chinese, I have good luck with them for some reason.

Personally I like almost all of the civ choices, you just have to play different ways to play up their strengths and weaknesses. I'm pretty fond of America-Washington, it's sort of like playing Morgan in SMAC, both his traits give you more money so it's nice from a cash perspective.

Peregrine · 11-03-2005, 01:39 PM

dola -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This is exactly what I posted about a couple of days ago, and that was after only an hour of playing the game. I was still in the process of creating military defense units, workers, and settlers while I continued to research tech advance after tech advance every 5-10 turns. It was insane.

I've seen this happen too but I think it depends how you build your cities. I tend to have several very production heavy cities and could build end game units in 5-6 turns with them. If your cities are more science based then obviously your research will be faster and your units slower.

However, I agree with the main point, this is why I've been turning off the Space victory (ends the game before you get to play with all those cool units) and time victory (same) options.

Godzilla Blitz · 11-03-2005, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This is exactly what I posted about a couple of days ago, and that was after only an hour of playing the game. I was still in the process of creating military defense units, workers, and settlers while I continued to research tech advance after tech advance every 5-10 turns. It was insane.

According to the designer's notes in the manual, one of the goals in Civ IV is to make the game play faster than Civ III. I agree with this concept. The pace of the game up to about gunpowder feels fast but fine to me. It's at that point, though, where things seem to skyrocket. I'm ok with a "fast" game, but I feel like I'm fastforwarding a video tape when I play my midgame and endgame.

The nice thing, however, is that there are a number of people already working to address this. I bet we have a mod very soon that goes a long way to improving this.

The obvious answer to this is to play on the Epic scale, but I've heard this isn't very good.

Calis · 11-03-2005, 01:44 PM

I've heard of some people having luck basically using Epic Research with Normal unit builds or something along those lines.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134109

Pretty big discussion of it there. I'm not concerned enough to actually do the work, but I do agree it is a problem. I'm sure someone will come up with something soon enough.

ISiddiqui · 11-03-2005, 01:46 PM

Quote:

The obvious answer to this is to play on the Epic scale, but I've heard this isn't very good.

Really? I've heard that it's the ONLY way to really play CivIV.

Quote:

The pace of the game up to about gunpowder feels fast but fine to me. It's at that point, though, where things seem to skyrocket. I'm ok with a "fast" game, but I feel like I'm fastforwarding a video tape when I play my midgame and endgame.

I partly believe that that was done on purpose to mimic the dramatic increase in technological advancement since the 1500s-1600s, where technology has advanced at a rate never seen before.

Galaxy · 11-03-2005, 02:01 PM

Wait...You can draft? Can anyone explain this more...

Galaxy · 11-03-2005, 02:02 PM

The thing about technogoly advances is that you can upgrade your units, granted you have the financial resources to do so.

ISiddiqui · 11-03-2005, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Wait...You can draft? Can anyone explain this more...

It's only with the Nationalism civic. You can draft 1 unit of population to become 1 unit. But it causes MAJOR unhappiness.

Godzilla Blitz · 11-03-2005, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calis

I've heard of some people having luck basically using Epic Research with Normal unit builds or something along those lines.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134109

Pretty big discussion of it there. I'm not concerned enough to actually do the work, but I do agree it is a problem. I'm sure someone will come up with something soon enough.

That's an interesting thread, and a good look at how changing one variable in a complicated system can have many unintended effects.

If you think that techs come too fast and therefore you slow down the pace of tech advances, nations will never get through the tech race before the game ends, and you'll be researching gunpowder in 1950. So then you add turns to the game. But since you haven't changed the rate of how you build improvements, you'll quickly run out of city improvements to make. So then you make it take longer to build things. But that affects something else, and so on for seven pages of that thread.

Like you, I'm not concerned enough to do anything about the whole thing. Much easier to just talk about it.

ISiddiqui: I might have to give an epic game a shot and see how it goes.

Eaglesfan27 · 11-03-2005, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

I partly believe that that was done on purpose to mimic the dramatic increase in technological advancement since the 1500s-1600s, where technology has advanced at a rate never seen before.

I've thought the same thing.

Galaxy · 11-03-2005, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

It's only with the Nationalism civic. You can draft 1 unit of population to become 1 unit. But it causes MAJOR unhappiness.

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

Peregrine · 11-03-2005, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

It's only with the Nationalism civic. You can draft 1 unit of population to become 1 unit. But it causes MAJOR unhappiness.

I haven't seen the unhappiness be much of a problem, mostly because you're reducing the population of the city, which itself is a major cause of unhappiness, so it tends to balance out. Drafting can be key if you get caught off guard with a minimal army, as seems to happen to me fairly often.

11-02-2005, 07:20 PM	#403
Schmidty Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Early, TX	Well, I pulled my first all-nighter last night. It was my first since Civ2 back in 1999. I'm playing as Frederick (Phil/Creat), and have been producing Great Artist/Culture Bombs at an insane rate. I LOVE beating the shit out of other civs without even having to fight. __________________ Just beat the devil out of it!!! - Bob Ross

11-02-2005, 11:06 PM	#409
Eaglesfan27 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: New Jersey	One thing that I haven't seen mentioned. I love how you if you found a religion, you can see into cities that have adopted that religion. It certainly amplifies the importance of being the first to found a religion (or preferably multiple religions.) __________________ Retired GM of the eNFL 2007 Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles (19-0 record.) GM of the WOOF 2006 Doggie Bowl Champion Atlantic City Gamblers. GM of the IHOF 2019 and 2022 IHOF Bowl Champion Asheville Axemen.

11-03-2005, 12:00 AM	#414
Coop High School JV Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: NJ	I suck at fighting. any tips? __________________ eNFL-Carolina Panthers Xbox Live- Coop421

11-03-2005, 01:01 AM	#417
vyshka Mascot Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Tempe, AZ	Barbarian Scum! Was trying out MP this evening with a buddy of mine, and got raped by a barbarian horde. I guess I was optimistic in my expansion and had not built up adequate defenses. A 3 unit stack of barb warriors attacked my capital and took it. Then hit my second city which had sent troops to try and retake the capital, and managed to kill them and then take my second city. I had a 3rd city that had just started (size 1), and I was able to hold on to that, but now the barbs have an archer in my capital with level 3 City Defense upgrade, plus other units. I have been pounding them with a cat, but I am pretty much out of the game. Great fun though.

11-03-2005, 02:12 AM	#421
Eaglesfan27 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: New Jersey	Tonight, the "just one more turn bug" has really hit me. I really should have gone to sleep about an hour ago, but this one game I've got going is so much fun. I'm at war with the Germans in 1940 with a decent technological advantage on them. Meanwhile, a massive war is going on between the Greeks and Russians. I'm getting so close to wiping out the Germans, but they are hanging tough in 3 remaining well defended cities (I've captured 4 or 5 cities they had) and I really want to go and finish up the war even as I'm typing. However, I know that sleep is important especially since I'll be driving a lot tomorrow. Oh well, I'll force myself to go to sleep.. or will I? __________________ Retired GM of the eNFL 2007 Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles (19-0 record.) GM of the WOOF 2006 Doggie Bowl Champion Atlantic City Gamblers. GM of the IHOF 2019 and 2022 IHOF Bowl Champion Asheville Axemen.

11-02-2005, 07:14 PM	#402
Buccaneer Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Colorado	You guys crack me up. I think for test/learning curve games, Standard pace should be about right. I do, however, look forward to having an Epic game - with whatever fine-tuning they come up with. It should be about the same pace as a regular Civ2 game on Deity, I think. Forbidden City is good, changing civics to Hereditary Rule might be better.

11-02-2005, 08:53 PM	#406
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	I'm def. interested in a FOFC online game...

11-02-2005, 09:14 PM	#407
jbmagic Pro Starter Join Date: Apr 2004	did anybody also pick up civ 4 strategy book? how is it?

11-03-2005, 12:06 AM	#416
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	I can never quite figure out how the computer has the load of units they have.

11-03-2005, 01:08 AM	#418
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	I'm thinking of playing a MP game tonight...

11-03-2005, 08:46 AM	#425
Mizzou B-ball fan General Manager Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Kansas City, MO	A very cool thing I noticed last night. I was building a road between my first two cities. The cities were 4 spaces apart. After I built the first piece of road, a message popped up saying my cities were connected. I was thinking that they weren't because there were three more pieces of road to complete. Then I realized that my capital was on a river and that the river ran within one space of my other city. I had built a road to the river and the trade route was completed by the river since it ran to the other city. WAY too cool.

11-03-2005, 08:57 AM	#426
Butter Coordinator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Dayton, OH	Does anyone know what kind of units you get when you "draft" your population? Also, how does that work? I noticed the "Vassalage" civic, and thought that might be kinda fun to use in a conquest scenario. __________________ My listening habits

11-03-2005, 09:22 AM	#427
Coffee Warlord Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Colorado Springs	You usually get your best 'standard' infantry unit when you draft. Oh, and it's a button on the city detail screen. You lose some happiness for a few turns, but unlike Civ3, conscript units are not weaker. They are just as good as any you build. Last edited by Coffee Warlord : 11-03-2005 at 09:23 AM.

11-03-2005, 09:47 AM	#429
Barkeep49 Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Not too far away	I have to say that I think I've considerably underestimated the importance of spreading religion via missionaries. Having your neighbors share a religion with you seems to me the best way to prevent war (something I don't like to fight in Civ 3). EDIT -- I also think that the computer has to be having some different way of getting units as the units that I was atacked with en mass last night by the Japanese were all calvary. I am in my 4th game on Noble. I have yet to finish a game with a victory but I'm getting better and better. I know I will feel quite an acomplishment when I do win on this level. Last edited by Barkeep49 : 11-03-2005 at 09:48 AM.

11-03-2005, 11:09 AM	#430
dixieflatline High School Varsity Join Date: Sep 2003	So is there a better civ out there than the indians(Gandhi in particular)? They start with mysticism one step away from an early religion. Their special unit is the fast worker which moves three. This may not seem all that good but workers spend a lot of time moving on to a space without a road and if they move three they can move there and start working the new space a lot. It's espeically handy in the beginning of the game getting to new resources. Their traits are spiritual and organized/industrious which are decent as well.

11-03-2005, 11:12 AM	#431
Ben E Lou Morgado's Favorite Forum Fascist Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Greensboro, NC	Available as a download purchase now: http://www.direct2drive.com/ __________________ The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'!

11-03-2005, 11:12 AM	#432
Coffee Warlord Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Colorado Springs	I'm pretty high on the Germans (Frederick in particular). Creative is by far my favorite trait, and Philosophical certainly doesn't suck.

11-03-2005, 11:16 AM	#433
dixieflatline High School Varsity Join Date: Sep 2003	Frederick is nice. I agree that's a nice combo. still like the indians a bit better though.

11-03-2005, 01:22 PM	#435
Godzilla Blitz College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000	Finished my first game in my "best of seven" Noble difficulty series last night. Finished third out of seven nations, a loss. Some thoughts... 1. Randomizing the map-generation parameters makes things both more difficult and more interesting. I was on a standard size map, but there were tons of islands everywhere. Had I known this at the start, I could have focused more quickly on naval techs. Instead, I had to scramble to build a navy. 2. The midgame and endgame need tweaking with regard to pacing. Units take too long to build relative to tech advances. My average city could crank out most new, expensive units in 8-12 turns, but I was getting tech advances in 2-6 turns. I realize my gameplay style affects this, but staying up in tech is a critical strategy, and the AI civs were getting advances just as fast, if not faster than I was. It's neat that I discover all these nifty new units to make, but not so much fun that I never get to use them. I'll be following the development of mods over at CivFanatics that are working on slowing things down and getting the unit/tech/time/building pace down. 3. Politics in the game rocks. Toward the 1900's in my game, I had built up good relations with all the AI nations. Although I was in third place, either of the two powerhouses in the game could have rolled over me in a few turns if they chose to. Trusting the good relationships, though, I basically stopped building a military. Although I had a couple of threatening disagreements, I was able to stave off wars through politics. 4. Endgame strategy is intense. I was about 300 points behind the two top cultures with about 100 years to go. I was too far behind in tech to go for space, and had no chance miltarily. I tried a culture blitz, figuring that I might be able to flip a few cities and make up the slack and go for a point victory. I cut science and cranked up every cultural generator I could. I was able to take three cities, and was on the verge of getting two or three more when the Americans won the space race. The Indians, on the other hand, just barely lost a Diplomatic victory the year before the Americans made it into space. It was just a blast to play in a game where the top three nations were each trying to win in a different way. It was also a blast to watch my borders swelling up and over the cities of other nations. The neat part of this, for me, was realizing that there are tons of ways to win the game, all of which take quite a bit of skill to pull off. My culture strategy was much too late and too costly in terms of falling behind in the tech race. But had I started more moderately in the early game, I may have been able to pull it off. 5. I had a half dozen crashes-to-desktop in the back half of the game. The auto-save feature works fine, but bummer that I lost a few turns each time it happened. I might take a look at getting more RAM. Got 1gb now on a p4 2.6. Back to trying again. Great game. Last edited by Godzilla Blitz : 11-03-2005 at 01:29 PM.

11-03-2005, 01:25 PM	#436
jeff061 Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: MA	I agree, the end game pacing is pretty bad and is the largest weak point in the game. I finished up a game on noble last night. The second I got Tanks I started building them, and I only had 5 or 6 built before I won the space race. Let alone any modern armor or any semblance of an up to date navy. __________________

11-03-2005, 01:35 PM	#439
Peregrine Pro Starter Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Cary, NC	I won my first game on noble yesterday, small map and I just ran way ahead, it ended up being me and two others who loved me so it was an easy diplomatic victory. I'm beginning to really like the Chinese, I have good luck with them for some reason. Personally I like almost all of the civ choices, you just have to play different ways to play up their strengths and weaknesses. I'm pretty fond of America-Washington, it's sort of like playing Morgan in SMAC, both his traits give you more money so it's nice from a cash perspective.

11-03-2005, 01:44 PM	#442
Calis College Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Kansas	I've heard of some people having luck basically using Epic Research with Normal unit builds or something along those lines. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=134109 Pretty big discussion of it there. I'm not concerned enough to actually do the work, but I do agree it is a problem. I'm sure someone will come up with something soon enough.

11-03-2005, 02:01 PM	#444
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	Wait...You can draft? Can anyone explain this more...

11-03-2005, 02:02 PM	#445
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	The thing about technogoly advances is that you can upgrade your units, granted you have the financial resources to do so.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)