Civilization IV details

Steven (Steeven)
In een aantal tijdschriften staan de eerste stukjes informatie over Civilization IV. Deze Turn-based empire building game zal ook op de E3 te aanschouwen zijn. Details van het spel zijn hieronder te lezen:

Informatie uit het Duitse tijdschrift Computerbildspiele:

* There will be a total of 85 technologies, and some of the confirmed new technologies include Agriculture, Meditation, Fishing, Hunting, Mining, Calendar, Compass, Civil Service, Metal Casting, and Machinery.
* Religious prophets give you information about foreign countries and their cities. The first civilization to discover a certain technology founds a world religion, for instance, the first player to discover Polytheism founds Hinduism.
* Religions can gradually spread across the world from their founding cities.
* Civ4 has 102 buildings and 30 World Wonders.
* There are 83 units in CIV, and a total of 41 experience bonuses for units.
* Wonder movies are back!!!
* Some civilizations have two leaders while some have only one. This explains why there are 28 leaders and only 19 civilizations. For example, for the Germans its Otto von Bismarck, while the Americans have the choice between Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Washington.
* Unit control is improved. With a single mouse click, you can easily join many units together in an army and have them march over the battlefield together.
* There are 25 civics organized into 5 categories. Player can adjust them anytime. For example, you can choose between Free Market and State Property, between Freedom of Religion and Theocracy. If you introduce Emancipation, it could even lead to unhappiness and riots in other nations without equal rights.
* Players can form alliances with each other in multiplayer games. Allied nations will put their accomplishments together, join forces in combat and share all information.
* People with programming skills will be able to completely change the game and to adapt it to their wishes.

Informatie uit het Engelse tijdschrift PC Zone Magazine:

* The Game length will be reduced from 550 turns, to 400
* The victory conditions will be: Spaceship, Conquest, Domination, Culture (with 3 cities with near perfect culture) and Diplomatic
* There will be three game speeds: quick, medium and epic
* You will be able to start in a particular era
* The tech tree will be more flexible, as we know. And it will not be split into eras
* The terrain will be a lot more detailed: pastures, wineries, watermills and windmills all represented in detail on the terrain, with visible smoke from factories
* 7 real world religions; including Christianity and Buddhism
* There will be 31 new resources
* There will be 28 world leaders. Not clear if you will be able to choose which leader to play with.
* There will be no city limit
* Great People: 5 categories - artist, tycoon, prophet, engineer, scientist. They will probably be triggered by City performance. There will also be 3 to 4 benefits per each one including culture boost, academies, multiple golden ages, and free techs
* Some of the leaders will be: Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Einstein, Michelangelo
* Combat: Your units will gain experience from the victory of battles. Each level increase allows choice of extra abilities such as using enemy roads, bonus attack in cities, moving faster in forests. You will end up with high-level units with specific abilities
* Governments: There are no set government styles. You can choose things such as free markets, environment, slavery, conscription, emancipation, etc
* Health is another important factor, as is happiness and your economy

Informatie uit het Engelse tijdschrift Computer Gaming World Magazine:

* Much of Soren Johnson's time (Civ IV lead designer) will be spent on improving the AI. One goal is to have rulers with distinct personalities. Gandhi will be generous to weaker nations, while the Khan will shy away from any diplomacy at all
* The City Governor AI will also be improved
* All resources in the game will offer distinct terrain improvements
* Combat will be more simplified. There will not be separate attack and defense strengths. Units will now have one single base strength. Infantry will have defensive bonuses in difficult terrain, while cavalry will have an advantage attacking ranged units such as archers. Artillery/Siege units will be stronger and will allow for damaging all of the units in a stack. These changes were done to encourage use of combined arms
* The switch to 3D allows the interface to be streamlined: for example, all of the information about a city, its buildings, and workforce is now all accessible from the main screen
* There will be "Great people such as artists or scientists, that will provide bonuses to cities or bring about Golden Ages
* There will be "civics" choices, such as social engineering. The player can change settings for such things as allowing slavery or freeing slaves, or the amount of religious tolerance

Overige informatie:

* Barbarians will have animal attackers.
* Maps can be zoomed, spun, showing the traditional tiles we all love.
* Religions will indeed be generic.
* The civs all have a cultural/nation flag.
* The terrain features and tile improvements also look amazing! Mines, mills and proto-factories!
* Temples and city enhancement features seem to be on the maps.
* Irrigation/crops and and bonus tiles are represented fully. Rivers are very detailed!
* A merchant is spotted!