Articles & Guides - [Gameplay] Multiplayer Review: The World As You Know It Is Changed
Play Modes, Game Length & Research
Play Modes
Cton-style fans rejoice. We call it "Always War" now, but that option is a
selectable game toggle - enforced from the rules themselves. All players are
considered by the game to be "at war" at all times. Alternatively, if you just
want a Free-For-All where three people can't trade techs against you, choose
"No Technology Trading." You can still swap resources or make border
agreements, but you do your own research, thanks!
There's also the strange favorite One-City-Challenge enforced by the rules
(be warned, the AI can ignore this rule if you add them to the game.) Though I
personally find it about as much fun as watching drying paint, there's even
an "Always Peace" mode - no war declarations of any kind, ever!
Starting in different eras no longer requires a goofy mod file - it's right
there on the game select screen: Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Industrial,
Modern, Future. Special bonus: You start with different amounts of units in each
one, and your cities even found with a few buildings and population points
in them at the higher eras! Never has starting with an advanced era been so
fun. ;)
Elimination has also changed into two possible flavors:
a) You take a city and it instantly burns to the ground, and your opponent
gets a "tick mark" towards the elimination total. (1 city, 2 city, etc)
b) You take a city and it is automatically kept. The person who lost it can
ERASE the "tick mark" for a lost city if they retake it from you. You, on the
other hand, can lose that city to anyone without a "tick mark" - you only get
eliminated by losing cities you founded.
Either option can be chosen from the rules menu at the start of the game.
One allows "Elimination Assassination" while the other requires Elimination to
be a convincing show of military domination, not snapping up a tiny city on
the frontier that would be retaken the next turn.
Victory when the game ends is still a matter of score, but score is no
longer a guessing game. On any given turn, you can hover over your name and score
to find out exactly how you've earned your points. No mysteries!
Game Length
CIV plays faster than C3C, as a rule, at least once you're used to it.
Here's why:
- Hotkey binding for building queus and unit stacks. You can set a number
key to say "build these buildings in this order" and then found a city, smack a
key and you're done, it's got five buildings queued up. Unit stacks all over
the map can be immediately selected and centered by binding them in the same
manner.
- No more super micromanagement needed! Since everything overflows now
(extra hammers go to the next building, extra research to the next tech, extra
food to the next population jump) there's no more need to go tweaking city
tiles every turn.
- Much better governors. Every city has six governer buttons that will set
the city's tiles in an optimal position for what you want: Emphasize food,
production, commerce, science, great people, and "Stop growth." You can even mix
and match!
As a result, games tend to progress further. This is okay, because the tech
tree and starting position in CIV is a little earlier than C3C. You don't
start with a worker, or the ability to build roads, mines, farms, etc. Those
wishing a C3C era tech start should choose Classical starts.
Typically, a decent-length CIV game is about 2.5 hours, and 150 turns. (That
may vary widely, depending on your timer setting.) 100 turns usually (except
on Duel, a very small map size) isn't enough for a decent game anymore. 150
turns doesn't take nearly as long as C3C, though, especially on Blazing, the
fastest of five turn timer speeds.
The Place of Research in CIV
Even in your fast ancient-start games, the days of "kill tech and max lux"
are over. Techs earn points now - quite a few of them - and there are precious
few useless technologies. A player who builds too big an army and neglects
research will likely find themselves crushed very quickly after their venerable
units are repulsed. There's also no clear best path, even in the ancient era
for warmongers. What's your fancy? Super-defensive longbows? Siege and tusk?
Swords and crossbows? Each carries major advantages and disadvantages. Ever
play "Rock, Paper, Scissors?" You've got the idea.
Road != Cash
The nature of commerce has changed in CIV. Inexperienced players may
frequently find themselves staggering with debt until they become accustomed. Roads
no longer improve commerce - tile improvements called cottages do. A
cottage-heavy empire will haul in lots of money but have poor production. A
cottage-poor empire will haul in too little cash and produce junk. Like so much else
in CIV, the answer is that there IS no easy answer. Adapt to the situation, or
die.
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