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

[Buccaneer]

(am I allowed to start this?)

Anxious to hear actual gameplay experiences.

[Draft Dodger]

and I'm anxious to hear more AI jokes

[NoMyths]

I think you have to give an actual first impression to start the thread, but that's probably just me.

I'm just as anxious to hear the early word on the game.

[Buccaneer]

That's probably true but I think I'd rather hear from other first.

Plus it'll give me a chance to ask questions.

[cody8200]

Played it for 3 hours. I like the changes. Love how religion works. I started Christianity! Definetely doesnt play the same as the older versions. Doesn't seem like as much about land grabbing/quick city building. Diplomacy seems better. I havent gotten into any wars yet...Im a peaceful guy. Anyway, I'm loving it. BTW, the graphics are pretty. Not age of empire 3 pretty but by far the best looking civ 3 yet. I like the interface changes. Hardly have to go to the city view at all. Nice.

[Buccaneer]

cody, what about the pace or advancement through the tech tree?

[cody8200]

The tech tree is quite a bit different. Quite a few added techs and until you advance you cant do much with workers. IE-you cant build roads until you have a certain tech, you cant build farms, stables, pasures, etc. I like the ability to go through the tech tree in a non-specific order since there are no tech "ages" like Civ 3. In the beginning the pace was slow (as it has been in all Civ games). I'm at 1 ad now and it took me about 3 hours to get there. I probably could have went faster but I wasnt in a hurry. To me, it seemed like the BC period lasted longer than in previous civs.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by cody8200

The tech tree is quite a bit different. Quite a few added techs and until you advance you cant do much with workers. IE-you cant build roads until you have a certain tech, you cant build farms, stables, pasures, etc. I like the ability to go through the tech tree in a non-specific order since there are no tech "ages" like Civ 3. In the beginning the pace was slow (as it has been in all Civ games). I'm at 1 ad now and it took me about 3 hours to get there. I probably could have went faster but I wasnt in a hurry. To me, it seemed like the BC period lasted longer than in previous civs.

Could you have gotten to 1 AD quicker through streamlining and concentrating more on research (at the expense of other elements)? I am asking not that I would want a faster pace (god forbid) but rather in how much control do you have on advancing, if that makes sense.

[Bee]

Have they added a hip hop soundtrack yet?

[Airhog]

So far I have only played the Tutorial. I never played Civ3 so I cannot compare it to that, only Civ2. I like the changes so far. It does seem like a worthy sequal to Civ2 so far.

The biggest changes I am liking so far, are the Hamlets. These give your cities gold. They grow after so many turns and produce more gold. I really like these kinds of improvements, so I dont feel like I have to keep micromanaging my workers. I am not sure if this was in Civ3, but workers/settlers are different now. Settlers only have 1 goal. I didn't notice if you lose a level on your city when you build one, but it did say that your city doesnt grow any while they are being built.

I will probably try to start a game tomorrow after work, or later tonight if I can. I will try to provide a better idea once I have played through a full game, and decide if they got it right.

[Airhog]

The music is nice. I liked the intro music, and it seems to be period specific. I saw some of the install files for the renissance, and it was mozart, and bach. Good music for civ playing I think...

[Raiders Army]

I'm more of a G'n'R or Megadeth fan for playing Civ.

[Buccaneer]

That's funny, I have always put on my Mozart CD when playing Civ2.

[cody8200]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Could you have gotten to 1 AD quicker through streamlining and concentrating more on research (at the expense of other elements)? I am asking not that I would want a faster pace (god forbid) but rather in how much control do you have on advancing, if that makes sense.

I could have gotten to better technology by 1 ad if thats what your asking. I also really like that you cannot change production midstream but it does allow you to come back and finish producing that unit. This helps make your decisions on what unit to make much more important.

Also the contract has quite a bit of an african theme to it (not african american)

[jbmagic]

how big is the manual?

[Flasch186]

Manuel is about 5'9" and thats average for his homeland.

[Coop]

Did anybody get a French tech tree?

[hukarez]

Originally Posted by Coop

Did anybody get a French tech tree?

Funny you mention this, I was browsing the official website when I came across this:

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/techtree_support.htm

Received a French Tech Tree Poster?
October 26, 2005

2K Games has determined that a small amount of U.S. units of Civilization IV incorrectly included the French language Tech Tree poster due to an error at an assembly plant. Do not return the game to the store. Please provide your shipping information below and we will replace this item with the English Tech poster at no charge to you. A PDF file of the English version is available for immediate download through the link below. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.

...so you can consider yourself one of the lucky few!

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Coop

Did anybody get a French tech tree?

It is a known problem. Follow this link to get an English tech tree sent to you or download a PDF version.

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/techtree_support.htm

[Airhog]

Okay, I couldnt resist and started a new game

I set it on the second difficulty level. The only other setting I changed was no barbarians. Map size was one down from standard. I believe the map type was balanced.

First impressions of the map size, was it was a bit small. we have 5 different AI playing on the map, and we have filled out the map pretty much. However, this doesnt seem like a bad thing. I have 5 cities, and that feels like just the right number for this map size, plus there is no more land for new ones near me.

Game progressed fast for me, as I am already upto about 850AD. I set the settlers to auto cultivate my land. This has worked mostly well. There is one problem though, the game undervalues gold I think. I had to lower my reasearch to 90% because my upkeep was more than what I was bringing into the treasury. You still need to build road to special resources, and my map looks mostly like a civ2 map at this point. However, there is no irrigation for me yet, or none that I can detect anyways. I think less is more in this respect though.

I havent tried combat yet. I usually play my first game peacefully to get a grasp on the tech tree and everything else. So far, I love the tech tree. It seems very varied in what you can build. So far, it doesnt seem like it bottlenecks like it did in Civ2. I always felt that it was a race to monarchy, then gunpowder, then industrial revolution. Doesn't feel like that so much here.

I haven't quite figured out religion though. I started out as Confuscism, but discovered Christianty and switched. It was ironic though, because I discovered it on 1 AD After I switched my states religion to Christianity, I could still build Confuscism temples. I think there is a distinction between discovering the religion, and your states religion. I'm not sure yet if there is any disadvantage to not discovering multiple religions.

Everyone is talking about the AI, and so far I cannot complain. However, I think its to early to judge the AI. Only after playing for many hours can you decide if the AI is weak. So far though, they have not ganged up on me, and I have some good, and some bad relations with others. No war yet, though I think the Inca's are leaning that way.

I talked about the Pace earlier. I think its fine right now. I am still witholding opinions about it though until I complete a whole game. But since the Worker AI seems pretty solid and I think it works pretty well to automate that, it may speed up gameplay quite a bit.

And finally, I have to share the only bug I have encounted. The sound skips for me whenever I complete a wonder, and it shows the wonder video.

[timmynausea]

Thanks for the link about the French tech tree. I got one.

[Ksyrup]

Automating workers sounds like a fantastic change. Civ III got so tedius trying to keep up wih dozens of workers and what they were doing. It was like setting study time for TCY players.

[Buccaneer]

Thanks Airhog!

[Airhog]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Automating workers sounds like a fantastic change. Civ III got so tedius trying to keep up wih dozens of workers and what they were doing. It was like setting study time for TCY players.

Since I never played Civ3 Im not sure how bad it was, but I know that was the worst part for me in Civ2. Also, I believe that you can set a city to empasise a resource. Im not sure if this carries over to the settlers working on that city though, but it would be sweet if they did.


And yes, it does have the just one more turn feel

[cody8200]

Actually you could automate the workers in civ 3. I got the French tech tree too.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by cody8200

Actually you could automate the workers in civ 3.

True. I guess it's not so much a change as something I might need to take more advantage of if it is implemented better. I really didn't like the feature in Civ III, since I ended up having to chase down automated workers to place them in better positions. And, I rarely if ever used it early on in the game, because the AI always had something different in mind than I did for the workers.

[Coop]

Originally Posted by henry296

It is a known problem. Follow this link to get an English tech tree sent to you or download a PDF version.

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/techtree_support.htm

Im getting my game tomorrow, i was just curious if anybody got it.

but thx anyway

[jbmagic]

More great impressions

Even single-player and multiplayer options have been improved in Civ IV. The single-player game offers much-improved artificial intelligence that seems to cheat much less than in previous games, or not at all. In the single-player game, rival nations won't mysteriously explore the entire world in two turns, nor will they use those two turns to magically build a network of five cities where there were none before. Computer-controlled nations will also make much more reasonable bids at the table, but they can't be easily bribed with small handfuls of cash, either. The single-player difficulty seems to scale extremely well by offering a very gentle introduction for beginners at the lowest levels and a suitably tough challenge for experts at the highest levels.

[Buccaneer]

Here's another gameplay review

Originally Posted by Kam

I just finished my first game. I only played on Cheiftain, so I could get a feel for it. I won with a space victory in 2020 - I did not have any goal other than to test the game, so I am sure that I could have won earlier.

Only one war, I was England and I fought Spain and Japan. All the right units won...my War elephants lost to machine guns, my infantry beat archers, etc.

It was a pretty easy level, I was far ahead in technology, but I had very little military. So when I went to war, I was unprepared. I was left to pillaging, so my antique military could at least accomplish something. I built some fighters and bombed cities but I had no real ground troops.

Overall, it feels like a very good game.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I started up my first game with nearly the same settings as Airhog. The only difference I can see is that I started at the 3rd (warlord) difficulty setting (out of nine total).

Up to about 600AD in an hour and a half. Right now, gameplay seems brisk. One reason that the pace may be fast is that there seems to be a lot less micromanaging in this version of the game. It seems like a lot of things can be automated. For example, (I don't know if this was in CivIII but I don't remember it) in Civ IV you can order a worker to make a road from point A to point B, which sure is a time-saver.

The AI seems decent at this level, but it's hard to tell as I've only bumped up against the Russians and the Germans, and we have yet to fight. I do seem to have a lead over both civilizations in the research race and in development, but at the Warlord level of difficulty humans have an easier time than the AI with such things.

So far I'm liking the game, but it's much much too early for me to draw any conclusions.

Plusses: less micromanaging, unit experience and promotions, religion (started to figure this one out), and nifty interface.

Minuses: very minor interfaces issues, but nothing worth mentioning.

[SunDevil]

Here is a beta tester who created a walkthrough for everyone who is on the fence buying the game, or something to tie over the people who are waiting for it.

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

[Buccaneer]

Besides technical issues, no one reporting any troublesome gameplay bugs? Anyone have a pulse on the custom maps and scenarios included?

[Bee]

Bucc,

You should check out the thread on the QT3 forum about the game. Towards the end of the thread, a couple people have posted some details about the gameplay that you might find interesting.

B

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

Up to about 600AD in an hour and a half. Right now, gameplay seems brisk. One reason that the pace may be fast is that there seems to be a lot less micromanaging in this version of the game. It seems like a lot of things can be automated. For example, (I don't know if this was in CivIII but I don't remember it) in Civ IV you can order a worker to make a road from point A to point B, which sure is a time-saver.

This is what I was getting at earlier. I know we could automate workers in Civ III, but only to do specific tasks, and usually I had to either change them to something else when I felt they were not productive anymore, or had to move them where I thought they were needed the most. I don't recall being able to automate workers to build roads from A to B. That kind of thing is going to be a welcomed addition to the game. Building roads early on took a lot of micromanaging.

[Capital]

Does this game have a single player campaign?

[Eilim]

3 games played so far, and 3 ass kickings handed to me. (granted, one was an comical attempt at a single city civ.) Been playing at the middle level, noble I think it is. The one with no boosts for myself or the AI and might have to kick it down a notch or two until I get a better grasp of the route I wish to take tech wise, as going un-focused seems only to lead to mega ass-whipping.

I have to say I'm really loving this game, as witnessed by the lack of sleep since first installing it last night.

Oh, and one thing I've noticed, you really have to pay attention to your diplomacy and pick your friends well. I've had little to no luck at my attempts at keeping everyone happy and almost always end up getting dragged into wars over being nice to the wrong person at the wrong time.

[bob]

Any guesses as to if this game would work with my NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 420?

[Flasch186]

it works on my nvidia pushed laptop!!! WOOHOO!!!

[bob]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

it works on my nvidia pushed laptop!!! WOOHOO!!!

How old is your card? Mine is about 3 years old now...

[Flasch186]

geforce Fx GO5200 (Omega 1.6693) P

whatever that means

[Coop]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

geforce Fx GO5200 (Omega 1.6693) P

whatever that means

Is yours a dell?

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This is what I was getting at earlier. I know we could automate workers in Civ III, but only to do specific tasks, and usually I had to either change them to something else when I felt they were not productive anymore, or had to move them where I thought they were needed the most. I don't recall being able to automate workers to build roads from A to B. That kind of thing is going to be a welcomed addition to the game. Building roads early on took a lot of micromanaging.

You could build from city to city in Civ III. In fact, I *think* you could build from point to point.
Also, workers would become active when they ran out of work to do.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

You could build from city to city in Civ III. In fact, I *think* you could build from point to point.
Also, workers would become active when they ran out of work to do.

Really? I suck. Then again, I haven't played Civ III in quite awhile. All I remember is the game getting very tedious as it approached the end. Basically, the end game for me consisted of repeated failed attacks with a navy that should have been able to take on the galaxy and running around activating workers to clean pollution. Oh yeah, and winning (if I ever got that far).

[Eaglesfan27]

FYI:

Gamespot gave it a 9.4 with a very nice write-up. I'm going to leave for work early and try stopping at a store or two in the Baton Rouge area to see if any of them have the game in.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Really? I suck. Then again, I haven't played Civ III in quite awhile. All I remember is the game getting very tedious as it approached the end. Basically, the end game for me consisted of repeated failed attacks with a navy that should have been able to take on the galaxy and running around activating workers to clean pollution. Oh yeah, and winning (if I ever got that far).

that latest patches fixed a lot of this. The endgame was still predictable, but at least the micromanagement was cut down some.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by Coop

Is yours a dell?

HP ZD7140us.....consistent problem with the AC jack though.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This is what I was getting at earlier. I know we could automate workers in Civ III, but only to do specific tasks, and usually I had to either change them to something else when I felt they were not productive anymore, or had to move them where I thought they were needed the most. I don't recall being able to automate workers to build roads from A to B. That kind of thing is going to be a welcomed addition to the game. Building roads early on took a lot of micromanaging.

Actually you could do all of those things in Civ3. Shift-Ctrl-R built a railroad from point a to point b. Ctrl-R built a road from point a to point b, for example, and you could choose several automate worker options, such as "Automate--clear forests", "Automate-clear pollution", "Automate--build trade network" (connected all of your cities), or just automate in general. I played Civ3 later in the cycle than most, so maybe all of that wasn't included in earlier versions, but it worked very, very well in Civ 3 Complete, that's for sure.

[Daimyo]

The difference between Civ3 with the expansion and all patches was such a totally different experience than Civ3 out of the box.

Civ3 out of the box << Civ2 < Civ3 fully patches w/ expansion

Hopefully Civ4 is better out of the box than Civ3... So many people missed out on how good Civ3 became because of the early problems. I should get my copy today.

[Greyroofoo]

Goodbye Real World

I shall miss thee

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

FYI:

Gamespot gave it a 9.4 with a very nice write-up. I'm going to leave for work early and try stopping at a store or two in the Baton Rouge area to see if any of them have the game in.

I also checked on the way home and EB Games had it in a box behind the counter which they had just opened to pull the pre-orders.