Civ IV - first impression

I got Civ IV Wed. I completed one game.

Equipment - powerMac G5 Dual 2.5 Tower - with stock video - System
profile shows it as ATY,RV360 - 12meg RAM, 1.5G RAM

being that I did not read any manuals (who does?) I played a random map
with 8 players (1 me 7 computer) at the second level of difficulty


Notes:
- Civ IV does not allow switching out to the rest of the OS
- the game play is similar but not exactly the same as CIV II/III

issues I had:
- Select a unit to move to a city - click (or hold left mouse button)
and select the destination city - the destination city is selected and
the originally selected unit's selection is lost.
Very annoying

- same is true if you click on another unit (enemy or friendly)

-- to avoid this you have to click on an empty (no units) location
and then while holding the mouse down drag it around to the location you
want to move to. Alternatively you can right click on the destination
location and then select 'move to' from the contextual menu.

- build queue is not the same as before. Adding a second or more unit
to the queue can be a pain. if you are building a unit, a second unit is
added *IN FRONT* (before) the current unit. a third unit is added
*BEHIND* the original unit. so instead of getting a queue A,B,C you get
a queue B,A,C

- if you are adding a new item to the queue, the previous one was
completed, adding a second item is difficult. The second item tends to
replace the first item rather than adding to the queue.

- The AI has issues - still - toward the end of the game 2 different
computer players would move a unit inside the boarders of the city's
area of control until it ran out of movement, then pick up on the next
turn. Basically moving the units in circles.

- when you build the spaceship there is no direct indication of what you
have completed (ala Civ II)

---
Things that were improved (IMHO):
- ability to win via 'politics' ala Alpha Centauri

- a better idea of where the tech you are researching is going to take
you. There is a research 'tree'

- the ability to 'capture' cities from the enemies by overtaking their
area of control.

---
towards the end of the game - things did slow down. It was taking too
long to 'open' a city.


all of the above are my opinions YMMV

"Fetch, Rover, Fetch" <Fetch-Rover-Fetch RemoveThis @K9University.edu> writes:

>I got Civ IV Wed. I completed one game.

Oh, thanks for the report.


>being that I did not read any manuals (who does?) I played a random map
>with 8 players (1 me 7 computer) at the second level of difficulty

I do give manuals a try, but lately they've been foiling us
inveterate readers by having the manuals written by a Markov Chain
program, so that everything comes within a few lines of making sense,
but never actually does.

How many computer opponents are available? How big can the map
get? I've been kind of spoiled by the Europa Universalis line of 200
opponents and a two-godzillion-by-one-brazillian map, but it's also got
a completely gibberish manual and a steep learning curve. Civ I through
III were easier to grok.


>Notes:
>- Civ IV does not allow switching out to the rest of the OS

... You could swap out before? I don't think I ever noticed
that.


>issues I had:
>- Select a unit to move to a city - click (or hold left mouse button)
>and select the destination city - the destination city is selected and
>the originally selected unit's selection is lost.
> Very annoying

That would drive me crazy. I've come belatedly to appreciate
the shift-click method of selecting a destination city, particularly
since I have a nice two-button Kensington mouse that splits the left
and right sides elegantly.


>- build queue is not the same as before. Adding a second or more unit
>to the queue can be a pain. if you are building a unit, a second unit is
>added *IN FRONT* (before) the current unit. a third unit is added
>*BEHIND* the original unit. so instead of getting a queue A,B,C you get
>a queue B,A,C

Ooh. Hm. I think I see the sense of that, thinking that if you
pick something once it's just dropped into the queue, but you pick it
twice then you want it more urgently. I could see it, anyway. It'd just
take a bit of getting used to.


>---
>Things that were improved (IMHO):
>- ability to win via 'politics' ala Alpha Centauri

How are the politics/diplomacies worked out now? I liked how it
was developing in Civ III, with pretty free-form trades for maps, gold,
technology, cities, et cetera. Except, of course, that you couldn't
buy a world map with all the gold in the world.


>- the ability to 'capture' cities from the enemies by overtaking their
>area of control.

That's a nice feature. Sort of an implementation of the seige
of cities? Or a substitute for the diplomatic buying-by-subversion of
cities?


>---
>towards the end of the game - things did slow down. It was taking too
>long to 'open' a city.

Always happens ... I don't suppose any other behavior's possible
for this model of game.

--
Joseph Nebus
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