Civilization IV release next month

[Element Alpha]

Firaxis Games presents:

Sid Meier's
Civilization IV​

Civilization IV is the latest installment in the award-winning Sid Meier's Civilization series. The game is currently being developed at Firaxis Games and is expected to be published by 2K Games in late October 2005. Firaxis began working on the title about two years ago.

The most prominent change from previous civilization games is the graphics. The game world is now completely 3D. Rivers, resources, and terrain improvements are all animated, making the map come alive like never before. You will also be able to smoothly zoom in from a rotating global view all the way down to the city level, as well as change the camera angle to a Civ2 style isometric view or a Civ1 style top-down view. All city improvements and wonders are now directly visible on the map, so if you build the Pyramid, it will appear within that city's radius. Fans who missed the Civ2 wonder movies will be happy to know that wonder movies are making a return in Civilization IV! There are about 45 movies total in Civ4.

Of course, graphics is not the only area that received an overhaul. Firaxis has built the game from the ground up and added lots of interesting new features to make the game even more fun to play.

More info:
Official Firaxis Homepage
Civilization IV Fanatics' Center
Gamespy's Hands-on preview


Amazon.com have finally listed Civ4 on their website. The release date is October 24 for their store.

(click on the images below to enlarge them)


MORE SCREENSHOTS

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Spoiler

this game will own you 24/7

 

[Kangy]

All my hard work so far will come to a complete and utter halt when this is released Sid Meier is going to own my soul again!

 

[Element Alpha]

All my hard work so far will come to a complete and utter halt when this is released Sid Meier is going to own my soul again!

I know what you mean. I just stopped living for a couple of weeks when civ3 came out. I've never played anything else that addicting and soothing. It's almost as good as beer and sex combined, only there's no weird morning after hangover, and you get to conquer the world.

 

[Kangy]

Yeah, I loved most everything about it. The graphics, music and unit balances worked exceptionally in Civ 3. I could play for days and days with tiny breaks just after it was released. My own problems were that the AI sorta sucked (everyone seemed to be locked against you in particular, not actually looking out for themselves) and bombers and ships were pretty useless a lot of the time. A good infantry (or tanks later on) army just seemed to roll out all over everywhere, to be honest.

I'm really looking forward to the religious aspect of the game, and the fact that ages aren't actually set any more. Also, I think it looks beautiful from the gameplay videos, zooming into cities and out over the world in one sweep and such.

 

[Element Alpha]

I have to agree that the AI was focused on destroying you more than watching out for itself. I never got past medium difficulty for a succesfull campaign. What made it hard was the AI not respecting your borders at all and declaring war when you told them to get out. I read somewhere this should be fixed now, so opponents you're at peace with won't cross your borders as if there weren't any.

The religion system has me wondering too. About the 'no era' thing, I wonder if you'll be able to climb the tech tree all the way without having to study basic skills like writing or maths.

The multiplayer aspect is something I've always wondered how people managed to use. It sometimes takes a few days to finish a campaign, how can you manage to play it with more than one player? Not only is it demanding a high level of dedication from all the players, but what if one of the players is losing from the start? you'd have to start all over. It's no fun to play an entire day knowing you'll be crushed anytime soon.

 

[Beerdude26]

All my hard work so far will come to a complete and utter halt when this is released Sid Meier is going to own my soul again!

Lol, been there. Normally, I can't STAND games like these. Then I tried Sid Meier : Alpha Centauri. I was HOOKED. I kept on playing for DAYS on end. I regret the day that Civ4 will be released, for millions will perish through malnourishment.

 

[StardogChampion]

I don't like the graphics at all. They're too cartoony. It's way too Rome: Total War for my taste.

 

[Kangy]

I thought that they looked awesome in the videos. No smoke and mirrors, it seems like it's mostly down to fantastic work by the Firaxis artists. I liked the artwork of Civ 3, but this looks just as good.

 

[Gargantou]

Too be honest, I enjoyed Alpha Centauri alot more than Civ 3, so I'm hoping he'll someday make an Alpha Centauri sequel..

 

[DreadLord]

It's almost as good as beer and sex combined, only there's no weird morning after hangover, and you get to conquer the world.

Hahahahhahahahahahhahahahaahahahahahahah, no.

 

[Cole]

I will be buying.

 

[HunterSeeker]

Hmm, must have this digital drug!

 

[destrukt]

hot damn.

 

[dream431ca]

Too be honest, I enjoyed Alpha Centauri alot more than Civ 3, so I'm hoping he'll someday make an Alpha Centauri sequel..

You never played the Expansion pack??

Anyway, Civ 4 is not on my list of top games to buy but I'll read the review of it..I like strategy games and I hope this one is good.

 

[Gargantou]

Ofcourse I played the AC exp pack, but I still want a full-fledged sequel.

 

[dream431ca]

Ofcourse I played the AC exp pack, but I still want a full-fledged sequel.

Me too

 

[Raziaar]

Okay. For all of you Civilization nuts. I am new to the game, and picked up Civ 3 with conquests.

I am starting the game, I build out. Have about 4 cities. And start building large armies. I have about 15 military units in a single stack, comprised of archers, warriors, and hoplites. I am greece. I go to attack the persians, and in their capital city, about 3 of their units take out all 15 of mine! And all their units were, were spearmen, archers, and warriors.

WHAT GIVE! This has happened, again, another ****ing time. I took four units. ARchers, warriors, hoplites. Attacked one warrior. The warrior wasn't fortified, and he COMPLETELY demolished my damn units, only losing one bar total of health!


I *REALLY* don't know how combat works in this game. Can somebody explain it to me? <mutters> I have all sorts of technologies pertaining to combat researched, too. Gah.

4 enemy units are wiping out my entire about... 35 man army. Gah!!! Its on the easiest mode, too.


ALso, on a side note, many things confuse me. For one, How do I completely halt production? Seems no matter what I do, they build units nonstop. I went in and told the govenor to not build anything ever, and he still does. Also, sometimes it seems that after I click the end turn button, it'll take several times of it to make a turn go by. For instance, if I am at the beginning of the game, I have a worker building a road. It takes 2 turns. I can click the end turn button up to 5 times before he'll finish that road! GAH.

And please... don't tell me to RTFM

 

[DigiQ8]

god... im gonna be broke in November

 

[HunterSeeker]

Okay. For all of you Civilization nuts. I am new to the game, and picked up Civ 3 with conquests.

I am starting the game, I build out. Have about 4 cities. And start building large armies. I have about 15 military units in a single stack, comprised of archers, warriors, and hoplites. I am greece. I go to attack the persians, and in their capital city, about 3 of their units take out all 15 of mine! And all their units were, were spearmen, archers, and warriors.

WHAT GIVE! This has happened, again, another ****ing time. I took four units. ARchers, warriors, hoplites. Attacked one warrior. The warrior wasn't fortified, and he COMPLETELY demolished my damn units, only losing one bar total of health!


I *REALLY* don't know how combat works in this game. Can somebody explain it to me? <mutters> I have all sorts of technologies pertaining to combat researched, too. Gah.

4 enemy units are wiping out my entire about... 35 man army. Gah!!! Its on the easiest mode, too.


ALso, on a side note, many things confuse me. For one, How do I completely halt production? Seems no matter what I do, they build units nonstop. I went in and told the govenor to not build anything ever, and he still does. Also, sometimes it seems that after I click the end turn button, it'll take several times of it to make a turn go by. For instance, if I am at the beginning of the game, I have a worker building a road. It takes 2 turns. I can click the end turn button up to 5 times before he'll finish that road! GAH.

And please... don't tell me to RTFM

If one defends a city that unit recieves a significant bonus to defence (especially if it has walls). In Civ3 spearmen have good defence and is incredible hard to defeat when they defend cities early in the game, your best bet is lots of archers, who have good offence.

Keep in mind that units have two combat stats: Offencer and Defence, only offence is used when attacking and only defence is used when defending, so spearmen are good attackers but poor defenders.

 

[Raziaar]

If one defends a city that unit recieves a significant bonus to defence (especially if it has walls). In Civ3 spearmen have good defence and is incredible hard to defeat when they defend cities early in the game, your best bet is lots of archers, who have good offence.

Keep in mind that units have two combat stats: Offencer and Defence, only offence is used when attacking and only defence is used when defending, so spearmen are good attackers but poor defenders.

Thanks! Any way you can answer my other questions in the other post?



<laughs> and Oh my god, did anybody see the Civilization 4 official trailer with the granny? ROFL!

 

[kirovman]

If the worker is taking longer than 2 turns to complete the road, it probably mean he can't get the resources (ie shield production) required to complete the road?

I've forgotten how city shield production would affect workers building roads though.

 

[Raziaar]

If the worker is taking longer than 2 turns to complete the road, it probably mean he can't get the resources (ie shield production) required to complete the road?

I've forgotten how city shield production would affect workers building roads though.

Bah. Workers building roads is handled by shields!? I thought it just took a certain number of turns. Damnit, amybe I need to test it, and find some way to see how many turns have elapsed. Still learning the game.

 

[Kangy]

Military strategy in Civ 3 takes some time, but spearmen can defend ridiculously well for a long time. On the odd chance, they can actually beat a tank. Thankfully, they've supposedly fixed that in Civ 4, and have made it so that a well-balanced offensive is needed to truly get decisive victories (artillery, trade blockade and actual troops, as opposed to just using huge infatry armies).

Raziaar, if I were you, I'd try to starve the enemy down before you try actually taking the city. Not only will the city be producing slower, it could lead to starvation, which lessens their defence bonus and rioting within the city. It's also going to slow any counter-offensive down in their efforts to get the city back.

Wear them down by destroying all their farms, mines and roads, and then use a good stack (2x the size of their defence force, plus at least one defensive unit to base in the city if you take it). If the offensive goes badly, don't persist that turn, but make sure you can keep up a sustained hit on the city. Eventually, they're just not going to be able to hold you off and lose it.

I'd also consider using horsemen to quickly swipe away all their weaker cities before going for the stronger cities. It damages their power significantly, and could cause them to dispatch defensive units from the bigger cities elsewhere in a counter-offensive or support fashion.

I'm such an armchair commander

 

[Element Alpha]

there's a lot to know before you can make a good empire. About the workers: they are faster when you change your state to a monarchy, and become even faster when you change to democracy. Picking an industrious civilization also works to have faster workers. And finally, I usually pair up my workers to get things moving quicker. Note that there's a fine balance there: if you use more than two workers on an improvement (road, mine, etc..), you lose time in the long run.

About the attack/defence problem: units fortified, on hills, on mountains, in cities, in forests or on rivers gain 25% to 50% defence bonus. A spearman fortified on a hilltop has a 75% defence bonus, wich makes it a very tough opponent early in the game. You can use catapults to bring down the health bar of troops inside before attacking them. Destroy all the roads around a city to cut it from luxury goods at least one turn before attacking. This will tend to riot the city. Using allies (with agreements) to confuse the enemy works as well. Remember to declare war before moving into your ennemy's territory. If you don't, other civs will be less prepared to join/assist you later on (they'll remember your betray and ask more money or won't want to make agreements at all).

The game is very complicated and requires a lot of balancing out of priorities. But it's damn fun to play.