At the beginning of this Spring I went on a ski trip to New Zealand. Queenstown actually. What a gorgeous town. Being the tourist that I was, I took a few photos. If anyone is interested, here they be..

http://spaces.msn.com/members/StephenHur...photoalbum

Hello, new member here! I was directed to this forum via Sullla's Civ site. I loved reading his game reports, and seeing how he faced up to his challenges as imposed by the epic rules. I noticed that he several times referenced 'others's games', and I became intrigued. I mean, a whole community of folks like Sullla? Gee, I have to join now!

Although I am still somewhat of a 'newb' at Civilization, I am eager to get started on some epic games as soon as I get Civ 4 (Which could be as late as by Christmas...). I have Civ 3, but I don't know if you guys still do epics for that.... Do you?

As a person, I lean a bit to the quiet and serious type. I generally will not be spamming or anything of a 'youthful' (despite my tender age of 15 :P). That's not to say I am mature-no sir! I am quite childish in many ways... I'm just too serious and stuffy to express it all the time.

I notice that these forums seem somewhat barren... Why is that?

Anyways, I am quite excited to be here. Hurray!

Y'know, I can normally rely on the game's website to publish the system specs for a game, but frankly the Civ4 website is a triumph of style over content.

I've poked around a few other sites and... Can't find squat. I'm interested in Civ4 mainly for completion (Got Civ2-3+packs, as well as AC and CTP2 in my collection), and it's actually a Civ game I might actually start playing with the same zest that I reserved for Civ2.

But from the screenshots I can't tell if it's going to be a system hog or not. Everything I've seen has ping-ponged between "looking a bit like a posh Civ3" and "insanely detailed".

So... Yeah, what do the specs on the box say? Got at least another week 'fore it reaches these shores.

Installing DirectX from the Civ4 discs is ESSENTIAL. Remember, this installation step is essential even if you think you already have DirectX 9c installed.

A fresh install of the latest Catalyst drivers (5.10) is also essential.

If you follow these steps and still have problems, please reply to this thread with your details. Thanks.


- Sirian


EDIT: see next post for more info!

In winter 2004, I invested significant energy in to spawning an MOO1 revival. I launched a site, wrote a tutorial, genned up interest in a tournament, launched the tournament, and provided a home for fellow fans to actually play the game together.

Then, just as suddenly, support from me dried up later in the spring. Why?

Sometimes we have to make choices. Many times, I have worked at things involving games that would benefit dozens or maybe hundreds of my fellow gamers. The Imperia and the MOO1 revival were one of these occasions. I still love the game. I'm glad that I helped spark renewed interest in it and that many of you had a good time with it. I had the opportunity, however, to choose to invest my time in to a game in a way that would affect hundreds of thousands of my fellow gamers. The opportunity came unexpectedly, and it required my full attention.

I made the choice to abandon my MOO1 activities and commitments, and I also chose not to reveal that I was doing this or to explain why. I feel I owe some of you an apology for not explaining, and for not making a move to let someone else have the chance to take the leadership reins for RBMoo.

I am willing to do that now, though. If one of you wants to revive the tournament in the near future, we can talk it over with Griselda and see what we can arrange. If all of you are going to give Civ4 a try, then we will likely shut down the Imperia -- they've been shut down de facto for more than a year anyway.

Who knows. Perhaps at some point I will be in position to help make a new Master of Orion game, or a game that embodies some of its best gameplay elements.

Thanks to everybody who joined in on my all too brief MOO1 revival.

Now I'm off to give my full attention to RBCiv.


- Sirian

Well, if you've read the new Intro for RBCiv that Griselda put up this morning, you'll know that several of us having been working on Civ4 for quite some time. To celebrate this release week, I've put together a presentation called the Civ4 Walkthrough. This simply consists of demonstrating what a typical game of Civ4 looks like, amply illustrated with screenshots and commentary (the model was Sirian's Tutorial for Master of Orion, which some will have read).

The first part of this Walkthrough has been posted on my website, which has been updated for Civ4 (you can see the new section at http://www.kalikokottage.com/civ3/sullla/civ4.html ). An additional part will be added each day for the next seven days, until it is finally completed next week. This was done to space out the excitement of the new game throughout the entire first week of release (and to avoid giving everything away on the first day).

I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think.

Wow, we are getting slammed here by the low pressure spawned off the back side of Wilma. (Nothing like the folks in Florida -- this is a SNOW event!) I've got a (relatively small) tree down, with the leaves still on it and all the snow sticking to it. HUGE flakes. I thought the forecasters were kidding when they showed me in the middle of the "heavy snow" band, but they weren't!

Probably won't be a ton of accumulation, though. (All of it from last night was melting on contact, but it's heavy enough to stick now, even though the ground is still way warm).

Anyway... That's the latest weather news from here. Now back to you!


- Sirian

To those of you who are new, and to all of the returning players, welcome! We're glad to have you here.

We're happy to announce the opening of our Civilization IV section, but please do watch out for wet paint (or at least let me know if you find something not working correctly).

With our grand-reopening comes an announcement, which should do quite a bit to explain why it's been so quiet around here lately. Please read our updated Welcome page for more information.

(what you might look like as you read!)

We've been working on this for a long, long time. Thanks for stopping by!

-Griselda

The new forum is up at CFC. I launched a discussion thread there. Sulla and I are laying claim to RB1 SG. Game will start later this week.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=132415

Discussion (and hellos, "got my copy", etc) can be held there or here. I imagine many people will want to play the game solo first, but if any want to wet their feet in full view of the public, that's OK too.


Later this week, Gris and I will have a few more announcements to make.


- Sirian

Twins!

Let's take this from the top - I started a new Mo character, got the Poor Tenant quest, then the rescue Gwen test when I stepped into Lakeside. I also triggered the Gift for Althea quest (Getting Osric and Rurik to talk) with plans of getting it later.

So, I run to Gwen and pick her up. I decide that I was close enough to Ashford to run and complete the Poor Tenant quest, I also get the Feather and Pearl for the Gift quest. I pick up the Little Thom quest, then decide to risk it to get the Pendant from the bandits. Done. I plan on farming Bandits to get belts for the belt pouch, decide this isn't a good idea without some self-healing, and instead drop Gwen off at the gates for my skill rewards.

I get back to the gates, getting and finishing the Gift for Althea quest, drop Gwen off for that quest, then head off to Lina (Who, incidentally changes ethnicity by the time you see her in the Crystal Desert - The sun makes her skin paler) just to start the Ally quest.

Wait, who's that prancing around behind the res shrine? 'tis Gwen, who is also standing behind me.

They're multiplying. My god, Gwen is a virus.