*Neutral* observations after playing...

[Patrick Dawson]

Originally posted by FexFX

My biggest gripe is about the Q feature and its difficulty of use.
Holding down the shift key is annoying, but not my real gripe. My real gripe is that there appears to be no way to remove an item from the Q...The only work around has been to Q up something else in that slot..which is not the same as clearing the Q...which I can find no way to do.

There Should be a button to take you to the advisors screen on the City screen, because quite often I find myself wanting to go directly from one to the other. There should also be a way to get to the Civlopedia entry for a Q item fromthe city screen which there is not.

For the queue issue, highlight the item you want deleted, and then hit the 'Delete' key. If you want to clear the queue entirely, hold down 'Shift' and hit 'Delete'.

If in the city screen, just press the function key of the advisor you wish to view. F1 for Domestic, F2 for trade, etc. From certain advisors (Domestic for example) simply double click on the city name to zoom to that city's cityview.

Theres also lots of other cool advisor screen features, like double clicking a leader on the foreign advisor will take you to diplomacy with him/her, right clicking on what you are producing in the Domestic advisor allows you to change production (a useful 1-stop shop to universally change production quickly), and you can also determing the location and orders (as well as the ability to upgrade) your units on the Military Advisor.

-- Patrick Dawson

[FexFX]

Wow those are some neato features...Kinda makes me wish the BOOK explained all this...hehehe
I guess I just want too much...heheh
I am not asking for a perfect scenario editor...or MP support...
Just instructions that tell me how to use the interface fully and completely...hehehhe...
Shouldnt be such a huge thing to ask.

[Grim Legacy]

Originally posted by Soren Johnson Firaxis


Actually, Monarch is not really much different from Regent. The experienced players here can beat Regent most of the time, so Monarch is intended to be the level which will give a consistent challenge to most players. Thus, the AI only gets a 10% food/shield/lab bonus in Monarch... if you want to know what the levels are, just do an Investigae City at the different difficulty levels...

btw, I have seen people make suggestions about the AI having a combat bonus, and I just wanted to be clear that the AI gets NO combat bonuses of any kind against the human at any difficulty level. We believed that would have been too obvious, making the game unfun.

I see. Thanks for the info.

Regarding the combat: that's very nice, and a divergence from Civ2 style IIRC.

Some additional observations regarding combat and 'luck'.

1) Combat seems to be a pretty pre-determined affair. I have been unable to get 'luck' on my side by trying the same battle a few times over (saving/loading). Invariably, the outcome was the same. Interestingly, the only way to change the outcome of a battle was to pause for a turn or do some needless moves. The same principle applies to the contents of goodie huts.

2) Conquest has become very difficult. Conquered cities are prone to reverting to their former possessor and city defense by using offensive units is very difficult. This is because a succesful attack makes the assaulting unit move to the enemy's square by default -thus leaving the city!

3) City resources are far more plentiful than in Civ2. The science/luxury sliders are more flexible for government type than before, but research is more difficult still.

4) Exploration is easier, units can see farther and your empire is protected from enemies by borders and the default "at peace" status that opponents have towards you. Also, the barbarians aren't gifted with combat bonuses either, and it shows -they can often be easily dispatched with reasonable defenses. They are also less likely to pillage all the time, often preferring terrain defense bonuses over pillaging grasslands.