My first complaint is I don't like the overall looks very much. Now I've played a second game, and zoomed out, and that seemed to help, making it seem not so cluttered...somewhat. The 3D graphics are not awe inspiring.
My second complaint is that the battleship and destroyer cannot bombard other ships or land units (like in Civ3). Only bombardment abiltity they have is to destroy a city's defenses...that's it. Bombers however, have a button called "air strike", which pretty much allows them to bomb units, land or sea. I'm sure this may be able to be resolved through modding.
Combat bonuses aren't what I thought they'd be. Example, a destroyer having extra power versus a sub.
Graphics: No where could I find the game graphics. Not that I'd want to copy them anyway, but I'm looking at where would I add my own. Again, the move to 3D doesn't impress me. The units are as predicted, low poly and blocky. This is most noticable in ships where they should have smooth curved hull lines, but not in CivIV. I suppose that would eat up alot of processing power.
Now if you visit CFC, you'll read alot of Fan Boy reviews claiming how great CivIV is. However, I haven't come across any unit maker or mod makers reviews yet. There will be people who like this game, and that's great. As for me, and my tastes, I don't like what I've seen so far. Maybe in a year after people have been able to tweak and mod it, the game may be more like what I was hoping for.
Artillery in CivIV is fubar...or the use of. Arty now only has bombard against a city's defenses (like the BB or DD) but no bombard against units in the open. Back in ancient and medival times, seige weapons were used soley against fortressess and cities. However, in modern combat, arty is used against the enemy, preferrably outside of a town or city (too much collateral damage if used against a city). Arty in CivIV goes head to head with enemy units now. That is just silly. Arty is always kept behind the front to support the troops, whether it's a 155mm Howitzer or a MLRS. In spite of the "combat bonuses" in CivIV, I feel they somewhat went a step backgward with certain combat units.
It seems in the world of video games, some developers don't know how to keep the things that work untouched while attempting to make improvements in other areas. They seem to think they have to wipe the slate, and redo everything. I do not like the combat and, to a lesser extent, the graphics in CivIV. Although, I feel the AI may be noticeably improved in CivIV.
Now there are reports of the game crashing with Geforce video and ATI Radeon video cards, but this is unconfirmed at the moment.
I have been saying all along that Civcraft was going to FUBAR the Civ franchise. They are trying too hard to get in the RTS crowd, so dumbed down and removed the things they should have retained or made just a bit more realistic, the combat system, removing city unrest and pollution. It seems firaxis seems to think all those Love Canals and East German industrial wastelands no longer need to be cleaned up. And it seems they also think that unrest is no longer a concern.
The modding is going to require you to be able to modify the python scripting language, which rules out any casual modding unless you are a programmer. Then the units HAVE to be 3ds max models, which once again rules out most of the best civ unit makers that are currently making units.
Sorry for the long post, but I am far from impressed by civ 4, as it seems most folks are once again impressed by the blocky low poly units and buildings, sorry but that is the last item on my agenda.
Cheers Thorgrimm
