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Civilization IV (PC)Up Close and Personal
The World is flat... or is it?It's obvious that I'm looking at Civ, but something's a little different. A little off, even. It's the same familiar palette and terrain, with squiggly roads snaking across the plains, and those slightly squared corners of the continent you get with a tile-based map. But this time the curvature of the Earth is sucking back the corners of the screen. As Jesse Smith zooms in, detailed windmills and sprawling cities and bright dye plantations rise up from the terrain. Civilization IV is fully 3D, and it's got the free camera, globe view, and the level of detail to prove it.Back to topCity improvements and WYSIWYGEvery city improvement has a visual indication on the map. What's more, animations clearly display exactly which tiles are being worked. "Civilization has always been an interface game," Smith says, "but this time we wanted it to be 'What you see is what you get.' We want people to look at the map and know, 'Okay, this city has an obelisk, this city has a Stonehenge, this city has the Pyramids,'" he says. Smith is the producer at Firaxis for Civilization IV.Back to topTrading shields in for hammersA lot of the basics of the Civilization series are, of course, intact. And there are minor changes, such as the shields being turned into hammers. "The shields never really made sense. Why do you build things from shields?" Smith asks. That the question never occurred to me is a testament to how well Civilization has conditioned gamers.Back to topHow to cash in on Great PeopleOver the course of Civilization IV, you'll earn distinct types of Great People with special functions. For instance, you can cash in a Great Engineer to instantly finish a wonder. A Great Artist can be used to give a city a huge culture bonus. Or you can save up your Great People and trade them in groups for Golden Ages. There are seven world religions that can be "researched." The civilization that unlocks a religion gets a holy city associated with that religion, which then spreads it in much the same way culture spreads. You can build missionaries to extend religions even farther, and each religion will offer a unique wonder.Back to topLeave your slide rule at homeWith the new 3D engine, military units are rendered in groups to represent how many health points they have. The combat stats are simplified into a single power rating. "We don't want people to have to bust a calculator out to figure if they're going to win or not," Smith says. With the simplified stats, many units are differentiated by abilities, some of which can be chosen when a unit wins a battle. Maybe your phalanx will get a bonus vs. cavalry, it might heal faster, or it might be particularly good at capturing cities. "It brings in an RPG element," Smith says. "We want each unit to be more important, to be more interesting. Moving around hundreds and hundreds of units isn't fun. But a hundred cool units is fun."Back to topFollow the leader and multiple pathsA civilization's traits are now determined by its leader, so you can have multiple flavors of France, for instance, by playing against Napoleon or Louis XIV. Also more flexible is a tech tree that lets you work your way to the Modern Age with your choice of technologies. Instead of multiple requirements for any given tech, there are now multiple paths to reach it.Back to top'Pit Boss' Mode for network gamesThe multiplayer game is being reworked to support what Smith calls "Pit Boss" mode, whereby a separate server tracks your turns. You can hop on for a live session and then carry it over to a play-by-e-mail game based on your and your opponent's schedules. Also new are team games with shared line of sight, shared wonder bonuses, and communal research for allies. "It used to be in a six-player game if you were in last place, it was just 'okay, I'm out.' But now everyone can stay in the game."Back to topNo more riots...but watch your healthFiraxis is rebalancing the strategic resources by more carefully working them into the random map generation. They're also making them less restrictive. Gunpowder units no longer require saltpeter and Firaxis will probably give players a technology to synthesize oil. The old rules for corruption and pollution have been scrapped. Instead of pollution, each city has a health value similar to its happiness. Just as luxuries help happiness, certain foods will help health. Factories will decrease health, while certain structures will improve it. So instead of cleaning up black dots, you manage the concept of pollution at the city level. Cities don't riot anymore, but unhappy workers simply stop working.Back to topText files are out...scripting is inThe new mod tools are laying Civilization bare. As with some of the previous games, a lot of the data is easily changed from a text file. But now Firaxis is using Python (an accessible scripting language) to do everything from the interface to random map algorithms. They'll even be releasing the source code. "It's way beyond anything we've ever done before," he says.Back to topCivilizaton IV ScreenshotsClick on the following link to view some Screenshots from the game. |
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