CIV Discussion

[Jumjalum]

Since there seems to be so many CIV players here we really need a proper Civ 4 (or CIV) thread. I was hoping we might be able to get some Obsidian games running, whether by doing the play-by-email thing or by normal internet, it'd be nice to culture bomb some of your towns sometime.

 

As far as my civ experiences go I played the first and second when they came out but I only briefly dallied with the third which didn't seem much fun and quite teeth-gnashingly unfair against the AI. CIV, on the other hand, is just great so far. Religions are a cool addition along with great people and unit customisation but the whole game just seems to have been refined to a degree which allows for many different options for developing your civ that actually work. My hat goes off to Fireaxis for making a game so complex and yet intuitive and easy to get into. I'm still pretty much a n00b at this stage but I'm getting hopelessly addicted.

 

I recommend reading Sulla's game walkthroughs if you're a beginner. They're insightful and quite funny in places. http://civ4info.com/Sullla/civ4.html

 

So if you're up for a game of civ please post your time zone and Xfire name if you have one.

 

Name - bigbottom

Timezone - GMT

Edited January 9, 2006 by Jumjalum

[Pidesco]

I don't have Civ4 yet, but when I do get it (and it will be mine!!) I'll be definitely interested.

 

Name - pidesco

Timezone - GMT

 

 

Edit: I hope to get it before the end of January.

Edited January 9, 2006 by Soulseeker

[Deraldin]

Timezone: GMT -5 (EST)

Name: Check the sig... "

 

Would definately love to play a round with some of you guys.

[Llyranor]

EST - 5.

 

I think the best method to handle these sessions would be through play-by-email. Basically, each player plays their turn then emails or sends it some other way to the next player. We could arrange the play order via timezones. If every player does at least one turn a day, then it could work out.

[Judge Hades]

I do have Civ 4 on my computer but not the disc.

 

At least I now know who BigBottom is.

[Jumjalum]

EST - 5.

 

I think the best method to handle these sessions would be through play-by-email. Basically, each player plays their turn then emails or sends it some other way to the next player. We could arrange the play order via timezones. If every player does at least one turn a day, then it could work out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Even if we barely make it out of the ancient age it might be fun just to test it.

Edited January 10, 2006 by Jumjalum

[Nick_i_am]

GMT

Nickiepoo

 

Haha, Lly (mongolians), myself (Japanese) and BigButt (indians) started playing a game and managed to get to the start of the medevil age in a 3v3v3 game on the 'mazes' map type. Lots of fun just building up infistructure while beating of barbarians and expanding with Bigbutt acting as a culture/wonder center while myself and Llyranor concentrate on military strength.

[Oerwinde]

oerwinde

 

Pacific time. I think thats GMT -8 or something.

[Llyranor]

GMT

Nickiepoo

 

Haha, Lly (mongolians), myself (Japanese) and BigButt (indians) started playing a game and managed to get to the start of the medevil age in a 3v3v3 game on the 'mazes' map type. Lots of fun just building up infistructure while beating of barbarians and expanding with Bigbutt acting as a culture/wonder center while myself and Llyranor concentrate on military strength.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yup. Fun session.

 

Also, what that made us realize is how PBEM would take forever. That sessions we just went through would have taken us months if it weren't for direct IP gaming.

 

I think a better alternative to PBEM for bigger games (with more players) would be scheduling (such as organizing a big 18-player session every saturday at, say, 5GMT, for example --> only those who know they could meet up there consistently at that time would sign up). The other advantage is that if you can't meet for one session, then AI or even someone else can take over.

[Jumjalum]

Fun game indeed, apart from constantly getting the smackdown from those barbarians. The swine killed a crucial settler of mine one tile away from his building site.

[Delta Truth]

I will be interested I haven't bought this one yet I will get it one the weekend.. I wonder how the mulitplayer function will be cause previous versions weren't too good but I heard it was good .. anyone try it already??

[Llyranor]

Civ4 + multiplayer = winner.

[Nick_i_am]

Yeah, I have been a long time fan of civ and multiplayer has ALWAYS been a failing, but this time they have done it right and done it well.

[Pidesco]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to sticky this thread?

[Llyranor]

Well, it's not a Civ4 forum. We can just spam and bump it while pretending to make constructive posts, I guess.

[Pidesco]

But we could use it as a way to set up civ games, thus bringing the obsidian community closer together and thus being good for the forums.

 

 

And maybe some devs are Civ fans.

[alanschu]

I'm currently addicted to the game that's for sure. :D

 

 

I'm playing on Noble right now, and after some relative tech parity I beat out a strong competitor, and now have most of the best cities to myself. I have my medium armor and mech inf against tanks and standard inf with tons of airplanes :D

[Llyranor]

Well, I've played a couple of Civ4 sessions with other Obs forumnites via Xfire, so building up that gaming network was definitely a good thing. Civ4 online rocks.

[alanschu]

I've yet to play the game online.

 

My roommate didn't seem all that interested unfortunately.

[Llyranor]

Hehe, after being corrupted by online Civ4ing, I can't even go back to singleplayer. Permanent alliances make for very cool coop (shared sight + research + bonuses from wonders).

Edited January 12, 2006 by Llyranor

[alanschu]

I played with a permanent alliance in an AI game. Though I imagine it's not quite the same.

[Nick_i_am]

No, not really.

 

Take myself and Llyranor's latest game, 2v2v2v2v2v2 (I think , there might be more 2's), on epic speed. I'm playing the finantial/expansive English (more money, less health problems) while Llyranor is playing the philisophical/creative Germans (more great people, more culture).

 

Off the bat our tactics were for Llyranor to start producing a lot of great people points to get an advantage in production late on into the game with a host of super-specalists and other stuff, but to do that, we needed the parthanon, luckily we started off with marble. Teching to polytheism via mystisism, Lly had to build the Parthanon as fast as posible, which meant only creating a bare-bones of a civ. Hence we had to cooporate VERY closely to assure the wonder was built, and it came very close a few times, with barbarians raiding the city and cutting off our resorces, while also trying to stop our opponents overexpanding on the land we would need later. To this end I even built a settler and gave it to Llyranor so he could build a 'plug city' to stop another nation expanding across land. Then we got another scare when it looked like alexander might build a city between us, cutting off the supply line I had built between our two nations. Trying to balance diplomacy between the other civilizations was a big issue too, and we even got bullied out of some technology at some point because we couldn't afford to go to war. Very cool game.

 

The fact that you're really playing with another human, which means actual strategy, plus the fact that on epic speed, every desision becomes important and long-term.

[Oerwinde]

I played some multiplayer games with my roommate, we found out fast that teaming together gave us a very unfair advantage if we didn't team computer opponents together. Also, the game would disconnect one of us from the lan once we got into the industrial age and we couldn't reconnect ever, and we'd have to start over. Happened every time. Well, until the first patch. After the first patch we kept getting out of sync errors and couldn't get past the first 10 turns.

[Nick_i_am]

Weird, we've had direct connect games go into the modern ages easily without problems like this. Occasionally (hasn't happened since patch) the game will crash, and this seemed to be a multiplayer issue only, but overall it's been very stable.

 

But yeah, with perm alliances, the human players either have to be crippled (high difficalty or one city challange) or all the other teams have to be balanced too.

[alanschu]

Chop trees to rush that bad boy.