Civ IV kinda' annoys me a little....

The Game Room
1

Civ IV annoyance

I just started playing Civ IV, and overall, I like the game, sometimes I go for the normal playing type, playing the country as they’re “supposed” to be played (Romans being Expansionist, India being Non-Violent Pacifists, etc…), but sometimes I just love playing against typecasting (Ghandi as a brutal, tyrranical dictator with first-strike nuclear capability and willingness to use it)

but one thing generally annoys me with this game…

the fact that no matter how hard I try, no matter how I avoid their work/research objects, something keeps cropping up, uninvited, unwanted, unneeded, and unloved in my cities…

it keeps popping up, like a cockroach, no matter what I do to try and suppress it, it insists on appearing and spreading, like a virus, or fungus

Religion!

I play my game from a hardline Atheist standpoint, no matter who I play, be it Washington, Gahndi, Elizabeth, Kahn (KAAAAAHHHHHNNNNN!!!), etc… I DO NOT want ANY religion in my game, I want to see what a simulated world geopolitical environment would be without the Opiate of the Masses

Any ideas how to keep my game free of silly superstitions, or at the very least, is there a way to introduce fun religions like I.P.U-ism, Pastafarianism, Frisbeetarianism, Og-ism, or Cthuluism?

any mods available, like a Zombie uprising, or Alien invasion?

2

Well you could go back to Civ 3… :eek:

As an atheist, I have no problem with religion in Civ 4.
The game idea is to roughly simulate the growth of Civilisation and (like it or not) religion has played a part for thousands of years.
The only effects of religion are to provided happiness, culture and knowledge (through Temples etc.) and to affect your relationships with other leaders.

If it really bugs you, I have two suggestions:

  • don’t be the first to discover a technology that founds a religion (e.g. meditation or Polytheism). (Use the F7 key to see when someone else has done this.) Don’t agree ‘Open Borders’ with anyone. (That can allow missionaries to sneak in and convert your cities.)
  • play the scenario ‘Barbarian Horde’. You’ll love it! :smiley: You start on the borders of the civilised (religious) world, with just a few troops and a steely determination to wipe out all civilisation (which would include religion). You will never have to worship anyone.
3

Pretty sure there are some mods available out there that would take it away. Look around at civfanatics.com

4

Heh, maybe I was a little over dramatic in the OP, the religion thing doesn’t annoy me too badly, I’d just prefer the game to not implement it unless I specifically research it

The Barbarian thing sounds kinda close to the Zombie Uprising idea, Heh, I can envision a scenario with Barbarians (Zombies) coming up against my nuclear arsenal, bye bye Barbarians…

So far my favorite strategy is to build up a nuke arsenal and once i’ve got enough nukes to obliterate my competitors, to use the “UN” to push for a Non-Proliferation treaty so that nobody else can have them, bwahaha, bow before my superior arsenal, puny ones!

Sorry, letting my megalomania show through there for a minute…

5

Ah, young Jedi, you have much to learn! :slight_smile:

Try for a fast military victory with Arab Camel Archers (need no resources; occur early on; move 2 with attack of 10), supported by Trebuchets. No nukes needed…

6

What annoys me the most is playing one of my best cultural victory attempts yet, switching to 100% culture and building defenders whenever I can spare them, building walls and castles in my cities and suddenly watching as with about 20 turns left to victory the enemy declares war on me, launches an immediate amphibious assult and places a few dozen nights in the neighborhood of my capital city which happens to be one of my three culture cities. After going 100% culture I was obviously falling behind in other areas, and my best units were a very few grendadiers, a decent stack of muskets and a ton of warriors. My cap had one gren, 2 muskets and 4 warriors ( I had no copper all game.)

That kinda thing is what pisses me off. Getting so close, yet being so far away. On an opposite note, I recently lost a competition game on another site in AD 260 and won a booby prize for lowest scoring defeat because I went completely warmonger and got out-teched big time, and my two enemies utterly stomped me. I’m good at extremes but not so good at blending them.

7

Camel archers just don’t have that Thermal Nuclear detonation flare to them.

8

Except my Camel Archers win the game befoe anyone even discovers gunpowder. :cool:

9

It’s kind of silly how Arab camel archers are about 90,000 times more powerful than Genghis Khan’s horse archers.

10

It’s true that history shows Genghis was on to something.

[nerd ON] But actually Camel Archers are just 1.67 times more powerful [nerd OFF]

11

Whenever I play Civ IV, one of my cities always ends up the greatest holy city for about every religion that pops up. I don’t pay enough attention to the religious aspect, so whenever my cities crank out new missionaries or whatever, I pretend they’re secretly spies so I can amuse myself. (Hah! Take that enemy, I made your city convert to Islam! :smack: )

I would love to know what it’s like to win a game of Civ IV, but about the time I get to the modern era my PC decides there’s too much going on for it to handle and crashes on me. :o

12

MacTech, do what I do, get Code of Laws first. To call Confucianism a religion is to stretch the definition to its breaking point, I think to even call it a religion is to misunderstand Eastern thought. It’s simply a political system with guiding moral and social principles (like any political philosophy). It concerned itself utmost in the here and now. Although it competed on a direct level for court supremacy with Daoism, the ancient Chinese felt no compulsion to pick one over the other, rather, they concerned themselves with entirely different spheres. A young boy would commonly take up the Analects and study the wise words of K’ung-fu-tzu in order to pass the national administration exam only to retire in the country 30 years later and reflect on the beauty and balance of nature with Daoism.

13

I’ve never played Civ IV or understand the idea of theology in the game, but I could just see myself playing this game, and getting that notification about one of my cities and going “SONOVA-!” and then cue the profanity.

14

We Buddhists would like to smash your face in for suggesting you should study Confucianism.
Oh wait - no we wouldn’t. :smiley:

15

Sitnam,

If you could take a look at the Mafia:Simpletown game thread, I’d appreciate it. I have no way of contacting you. Please turn on PM or email or something. The game has started!
Sorry for being off topic.

Though I love religion in Civ IV despite being an atheist in real life. The fact that religion is a way to make money (Great Prophet Building) and keep the masses happy is an interesting commentary (I think).

16

This is exactly what I do. Then I spend a good part of the game converting my allies and enemies to atheist Confucianists!

17

What good is all that Kung-Fu then?

18

I haven’t played any of the Civilization games, but I do have a fair amount of experience with strategy/war games of various stripes. And while they obviously differ greatly in theme, presentation, scope, purpose, etc., there’s one thing that they all, ALL have in common: You cannot do your own thing. No matter how much leeway you have in your decisions, the game invariably has strict parameters as to what helps you or what hurts you, and if you want to accomplish anything at all, you will do what helps you. Buck the system (or impose your real-world ethos on it, which is sometimes even worse), and you’ll soon see the foolishness of your ignorance.

Here, examples. Dynasty Warriors 4, Battle of Shi Ting. Two principals, Cao Xiu on the Wei side and Zhou Fang on the Wu side. Wu is running a defection ploy. On the Wu side, you must protect Zhou Fang and make the plan succeed. As Wei, you must expose Zhou Fang and prevent Cao Xiu from dying. If you think for a second that you can ignore this plot, that all you need to do is follow the usual strategy of knocking off officers one by one, you’d best get used to endless catastrophic morale hits and your forces getting slaughtered like rats.

Or Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown, where you play the titular character and attempt to wrest Engling from the iron fist of Prince John. Without even looking up a description of the game, see if you can identify which of these is the best strategy.
a) Raid caravan routes for gold, build your forces, then pick off the opposing leaders one by one before going after John.
b) Participate in jousts to build gold, land, and prestige (maybe raiding a caravan route every now and then) and gradually expand your influence until you’re powerful enough to take on John.
c) Raid only rich castles, get lots of gold, and build an army consisting of only knights (the most powerful troops) and a few catapults for sieges, then take England by storm.
d) Get the special items. They’re the key to everything.
e) Focus on taking castles, which are much easier to defend than unstructured territories, and keep them well-stocked with troops to make them virtually impossible to capture.
f) Focus on the special areas that reduce building costs, and also take over and fortifying the ports to protect you from John’s naval attacks.
g) Start out by attacking John and only John, immediately building the biggest possible castle on every one you gain and cramming it to the gills with every troop imaginable, until he has just his home castle left, then take the remaining territories one by one, fortifying them exactly the same as John’s former territories, making sure to retake the ports every time John launches a naval attack (don’t bother trying to protect them; it’s useless), and taking over each and every territory except John’s home castle, then sending the most titanic force possible (with 15 catapults minimum) to invade his home, and oh yeah, hope you’re really good with a sword, too.

I’m sorry…g isn’t the best strategy. It’s the ONLY STRATEGY THAT HAS THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS. You must keep John completely contained, and you must stay strong. Any tack that does not explicitly include keeping John as weak and helpless as possible is suicidal. He will attack you, and he will win and win and win until he has everything, and the moment this begins, nothing will stop him. Not enormous, impregnable castles crammed with ferocious crack troops. Not a dozen triumphs on the jousting field. Not bleeding him dry and taking out a hundred of his finest castle guards with raids. You keep him down for the entire game or you lose. There are no other possibilities.

So if the game wants to have religion, there will be religion. My suggestion is to let it happen and then figure out what its purpose is. Money-making venture? Prestige? More content populace? More leverage in negotiations? Culture? Find out what it’s good for, and when you do, USE it! I mean, if it bothers you that much, you can pretend that you’re humoring a bunch of pitiful fools who don’t even realize they’re getting played.

“I am eternally grateful for the share of the tithes you give me. Rest assured that I will use this funding only for virtuoso…virtua…vertical…virt…nicey-nice purposes. What? Oh, don’t be silly, how the heck am I going to wage a bloody, destructive war with a bunch of camels? Ah, glad you understand. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless you too.” :smiley:

19

Even before I converted to the legions of the religious, I loved religion in Civ 4.

Step 1) Found every religion in the world. Make this your number one goal.

Step 2) Use your Great Prophets to build the uber-temples in the originating cities. For every city in the WORLD (not just in your civilization, I believe) with that religion you get an extra money unit per turn.

Step 3) Sit back. At the point you have created every one of these temples (I usually manage this by the 17th century or so) you will be getting money for every city in the world with any kind of religion.

I suppose you had better include Step 0: Play Arabia or Spain.

20

If you can hold off on making a second city, you can get Bhuddism, Hinduism, and Judaism in on city. Then the great prophets to make the special temples for your Hindbudhjudaism in that one city, and make a frickin’ mint of cash.

If you can make it to Hindbuhconjusaism, it’s even better.