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''Sid Meier's Civilization IV'' (or '''''Civ IV''''') is a '', which is due to be released in July 2006 . OVERVIEW Civilization IV is a Historical 4X game in which the player builds an Empire from scratch. All standard full-length games begin in 4000 BC with a single settler to build one's first city and a Scout or a Warrior . From there, the player expands the empire while contending with rivals, utilizing the Geography , and developing Technology . The human has several obstacles to face modelled on political or economical problems faced by real-world nations. Apart from this they also have to handle their diplomatic relations with rivals and their continuing quest for exploration and new resources. Other important tasks include the planning of where to build new cities and progress in Science which reveals access to new technologies. A player has the choice of playing the part of a number of historical figures ranging from Mahatma Gandhi ( Indian Empire ) to Mao Zedong ( Chinese Empire ). The scope of the game ranges from a period near the stone-age to 2050 A.D. Civilizations gradually advance in technology based on their own production of "research" and the presence of Great Scientists. Technologies range from Writing and Pottery to Paper to Nuclear Fission . All technologies reveal new possibilities for a civilization and enable the chance to trade technologies with other civilizations in return for military aid, gold or other technologies. The concept of technological growth is based on a Technology Tree . Another important concept in the game is the growth of culture, which expands one's cultural borders and can also cause one's culture to infiltrate into other civilization's, sometimes causing a city to rebel against its current owner. Culture is increased through the creation of World Wonders , which also has other affects and the spreading of a number of Religions (''see below''). The game can be won through Conquest (conquering all other civilizations), Domination (having a dominant percentage of the world's land and the world's population), Space Race (being the first to construct a space ship to fly to Alpha Centauri ), Cultural (having a dominant culture), Diplomatic (through votes in the United Nations ) or Time (having the most points at the end of 2050). GAMEPLAY , the leader of Mali , insulted by the player's decisions.]] Diplomacy Diplomacy in Civilization is generally the trading of goods, but could also involve the creation of trade-embargos, the promising of military aid and the adoption of civics and religion. Different trade options require different advancements to unlock, and some things may only be traded for certain other things (e.g., per turns deals must be compensated by another per turn deal). The general items to trade to the other civilization are resources (including luxuries such as wine), maps (to reveal information about the rest of the world) and gold. The reasoning behind diplomacy is more Transparent when compared to Civ3 : the Diplomacy window now not only displays the other leaders' attitudes (friendly, pleased, cautious, annoyed, furious), but ''why'' they feel that way (e.g "-2: You refused to stop trading with our worst enemies!"). When a leader is friendly towards one's civlization, they are more likely to accept deals without unfair bargaining. Another new feature is the new abilities of the United Nations . The United Nations wonder allows passing global Resolutions (e.g. the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ) in addition to granting access to diplomatic victory. Unlike real-world resolutions, ''Civilization IV'''s resolutions are binding. during a buildup for war.]] Combat Units no longer have separate attack and defense values. Instead, they have a base strength that is increased or decreased depending on the situation. The unit's strength also impacts how much damage it can do. Prior to the 1.52 patch, the unit's damage was calculated using its current strength (which also acts as life/hitpoints and changes accordingly). After the patch, the damage is calculated from the base strength - this means that badly damaged modern units can still easily win battles against obsolete units. Instead of generic increases in rank, individual units gain specific types of combat experience, such as bonuses against specific types of enemies or abilities like faster movement in forests. In total, there are 41 different types of combat promotions. It is also now possible for players to examine "combat odds" before attacking, giving the player a good sense as to whether a given attack will succeed or not, factoring in all the various bonuses and penalties associated with terrain, unit capabilities, and so forth. The 1.61 patch brought further changes, and now damaged units attack or defend with the average of their current and full strengths. Production and trade The game features 32 types of resources, all of which are tradeable and require an improvement (such as a mine or an oil well) to be utilized. Some resources are required for certain units, buildings, or wonders; some may double the production speed of a certain wonder; and some act as luxuries like in ''Civ III'', providing either happiness or health to all cities connected to them. There are also three types of culture goods provided by World Wonders, rather than resources, that can be traded: Hit Single s, Hit Movie s and Hit Musical s. To trade goods or to send them to other cities within one's border, they must have some form of connection between the goods and the city. In the later game, this connection can be through ocean tiles, but in the early game, it is limited to roads and rivers. Cities on the same river or coastline are automatically connected for trading purposes. Production (also knowns as "Hammers") is sometimes used as a resource-term on Civilization. Each tile provides a city with a certain amount of "Hammers" which collect up in the city to produce buildings and units. Unlike in Civilization III, the player is no longer able to transfer all production from one project to another, but all production on a certain project will remain. For example, if the player is building a temple but decides to switch to a harbor, production on the harbor will have to start from scratch. However, the temple stays in the building queue and retains its previous progress, aside from some decay over time. As an ancillary rule, if one culture is building a World Wonder but another empire completes it first, the losing culture is compensated with gold proportional to the amount of Production points lost. Religion The concept of separate Religions is new to Civ4. In previous games, players could build temples and cathedrals, but the religion was just a generic feature of happiness and culture. There are now seven distinct religions in the game — Buddhism , Christianity , Confucianism , Hinduism , Islam , Judaism , and Taoism . In order to prevent anyone from being offended because of an issue related to their religion while playing, there are no bonuses or traits specific to any religion, except that each religion is tied to a specific technological advance, and the four later religions (Christianity, Confucianism, Islam, and Taoism) begin with a free missionary; however, this is more for game balance than anything else. If a player is the first to discover a certain religion on the tech tree, they can "found" the new religion; a city with no religion or the newest city in that civilization's empire becomes that religion's Holy City . As the game progresses, both the players' and the AI's religions will slowly spread by themselves, especially to cities that do not yet have formal religions. Players and the AI can also greatly accelerate the process through Missionaries , Monasteries , Shrines , other buildings and units, and acts of diplomacy such as asking another nation to convert to one's religion. If a player controls the holy city of a religion, they are able to have line of sight in cities that share that religion, and can also build holy structures that inspire foreign citizens to send gold to that player's coffers by means of expending a Great Prophet in the holy city. Two civs with the same religion (ie. the player and an AI civ) will be more friendly to one another in trade and diplomacy; those with different religions will display varying degrees of hostility. These effects are amplified for civilizations controlling their religion's holy city. The new civics model of government also has a strong effect on religion: players can found a state religion, declare religious freedom, or take other actions that have profound impacts on the religious lives of their subjects. If a civilization has no declared religion, they are exempt from diplomatic advantages/disadvantages through religion. Civilizations and leaders Eight of the eighteen civilizations have two leaders. Each leader offers bonuses based on what conditions were exceptional during the historical reign of that leader, and each leader acts as differently as if they were a separate civilization and have distinct personalities. Several historic figures not used in previous Civ games are , Cyrus II , Franklin D. Roosevelt , George Washington , Hatshepsut , Mansa Musa , Kublai Khan , Peter The Great , Qin Shi Huang , Saladin (though Saladin was a hidden leader in Civ 2 ), and Queen Victoria . All civilizations have some element of uniqueness and all leaders have certain traits based on their achievements in real life. While these are limited, they have some affect on a player's game plan. All civilizations also have a unique unit which can be military (such as Persian Immortals ) or economic (such as Indian Fast Workers). Below is a summary of the unique features of each civlization. Technologies As in prior versions of Civilization, there are technologies for the civilizations to discover. There are a total of 86 technologies in the game, up from 81 in '' Civilization III ''. Technologies have many uses, they can be used for trade, they can be used to allow the building of new wonders, they can be used to found new religions, they can be used to develop new forms of government and they can be used to acquire the ability to build new wonders. To discover modern technologies, it is first necessary to discover the technologies that lead up to it (for example, Democracy can only be discovered after the Printing Press ). bonus for each future tech discovered. In single-player games, the discovery of each tech during the game is accompanied by a famous quote from history which is voiced by Leonard Nimoy of '' Star Trek '' fame. Some of the quotes come from Buddha , Charles Darwin , Brillat-Savarin , Steve Wozniak , Henry Ford and the Bible . Scoring System In ''Civilization IV'' the leadership skills of players are compared to a subjective list of twenty of the best or worst leaders in history, similar to the list in '' Civilization I ''. The score is based on a number of factors, including military growth and success, technological advancement, construction of wonders and economic growth. The game abandons ''Civilization III'' NEW FEATURES Gameplay Many aspects of ''Civilization IV'' are new to the series. These include:
Interface improvements .]]
Audio-visual
CUSTOMIZATION ''Civilization 4'' is much more open to modification than its already mod-friendly prequels. Game data and rules are stored in XML files, a Software Development Kit was released in April 2006 to allow AI customization and, finally, major parts of interface, map generation, scripted events, etc are written entirely in Python . Four levels of modification are possible: Map Editor The map editor, called ''World Builder'', is accessible within the main GUI . It allows a player to create a map from scratch or to take any in-game situation as a jumping-off point for a new scenario. Terrain can be modified; resources, improvements, and military units added or removed; and cities built, erased, or altered. A bitmap importer allows the use of satellite data, and of other real-world (and imaginary) terrain maps. The player can also choose what technologies are being researched, and the status of diplomatic and military ties. XML More game attributes are stored in XML files, which must be edited with an external text editor or application. Barry Caudill, a senior producer at Firaxis Games, said {Link without Title} in September: "''Editing these files will allow players to tweak simple game rules and change or add content. For instance, they can add new unit or building types, change the cost of wonders, or add new civilizations. Players can also change the sounds played at certain times or edit the play list for your soundtrack. NOTE: You can have custom soundtracks simply by adding music to the custom folder. You only need to edit the XML in order to assign certain pieces to specific eras or remove certain pieces."'' Python The game uses Boost.python to allow the Python Programming Language access to many parts of the game (including the style and content of all interface screens). Python can also be used to modify random map generation and to add complex scripted events. Software Development Kit The highly-anticipated Software Development Kit was released on April 13 2006 to co-incide with the release of the v1.61 patch. The kit allows players to view, modify or completely re-write the game's DLL Source Code , enabling the modification of the game's AI and other integral parts of the game. {Link without Title} LAUNCH PROBLEMS The release of ''Civilization IV'' has not gone smoothly. Technical, production and shipping problems have marred its product cycle.
Despite all of these problems, many newer computers run ''Civilization IV'' quite smoothly. PATCHES
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