Information - Gameplay Concepts
Game Time & Speed
Civilization IV, like other Civ-like games, is a game that covers all of history: you start in 4000 BC with a wandering tribe, you end the game in 2050 AD with spaceships, nuclear weapons, superconductors, genetics and future technology. However, you do not have to start in the Stone Age in Civilization IV: if you want to skip ahead to your favourite era, you can now start at any point in the technology tree.
A standard game of Civilization IV from 4000 BC to 2050 AD lasts 400 turns (compared to 550 in Civ3). However, there are three modes of play in Civilization IV, which work similarly to accelerated production in Civ3: Quick, Normal, Epic and Marathon. Quick games are mostly indended to be played in Multiplayer: everything goes much faster than normal and games can be completed in just a few hours. Normal games are intended for standard play, they offer a similar gaming experience as Civ3, although games will typically last slightly less long. This is the game type that lasts 400 turns and normally that should offer roughly 15-20 hours of gameplay. Epic games are for the hardcore fans who just can't get enough: everything goes at a slower pace, which leads to long, protracted games with plenty of time to build and use the various items that you can invent. If that's still not enough for you, there's always Marathon, which takes the changes of Epic one step further.
All these timing properties are stored in XML files [see Modding] and can be changed by the user, so those for whom Marathon games aren't epic enough need not fear. It is possible to alter existing modes and to create new ones, it's even possible to create hybrid modes: for instance games where Units are constructed really fast but Buildings really slow.
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