Civilization 4

This game5 is played on a large grid of tiles, with each tile representing a different type of terrain that provides different benefits. Players take on the role of guiding their

civilization to victory in different ways such as culturally, diplomatically, economically, militaristically, or scientifically. Players do this by directing individual units around on the grid in order to explore, defend, or attack an opponent as well as build cities to provide a source of income and area of production for new units. Players must also manage their resources, to ensure they have a steady income and to provide enough funding for research to increase the effectiveness of their civilization.

5

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword copyright 2005 – 2009 Firaxis Games and Take-Two Interactive Software. All Rights Reserved. Screenshots courtesy of Firaxis Games and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Figure 3-4: The main game screen for Civilization 4. The city in the center provides information about its size (9), what it is building (stables), and any defenders (currently one archer). Special resources are highlighted and gridlines are turned on

to ease distance calculations for the player.

One of the primary patterns in this game is the arranging pattern. Players arrange units around on the grid to further various goals. However, players do not normally need to find a route for their units as the game always shows the shortest route to the grid destination the player selects. Given that exploration plays an important role, especially early in the game, searching is another important pattern that exists. Players must search through the world to find good locations to build, to find their opponents, and to find other bonuses that may be hiding.

In order to move any unit around on the grid, the player must select the unit. The

selection pattern can be seen when the player selects a unit, as the unit becomes marked to remind the player about which unit is currently selected. Players can direct the selected unit around, but the unit can also be assigned specific instructions. Players can choose to

have a unit automatically explore the map, to try to build roads between their cities, defend a location, and so on. This is an example of the assigning pattern.

To build a city in the best location players must take into account what resources are close by, how far away the resources are from the city, what benefits the terrain around the city gives, and if there are any strategic advantages to the location. The same tiles that contain this information also contain cities the player has built and units that the player controls, as well as cities and units of the opposing players. Thus, the comparing pattern is used here. Players compare various tile locations in order to determine the optimal location for a city. Players also compare the strength of their civilization with the strengths of their opposing civilizations in areas such as military strength, scientific progress, financial prowess, and so on.

Figure 3-5: The same location as in Figure 4, except an economic filter was turned on. Each tile now shows what economic bonuses it provides at a glance, so players do not have to examine each tile to see what is provided. In contrast to Figure 4, the

When all the terrain information is displayed it can be very difficult to see where different units are, particularly opposing units. The filtering pattern is available in this game through various filters the player can turn on and off. By using these filters, players are able to see the information they require when they want it and can turn off extra information when it begins to clutter the screen. Probing can provide extra information that may or may not be available through the filters. Players can probe individual units for extra information, such as probing an archer unit to investigate what other units it could upgrade to. Players can also probe their own cities to get extra information about its production, its resources and income, and so on. The probing functionality is also linked with the in-game help, so that players who require more information on how to use a certain unit can easily access that information.

Figure 3-6: The same location as in Figure 4, but all the filters are turned off except the terrain filter. Now the player only sees the underlying terrain and its improvements, such as roads and the city. The player’s units, economic information

Thus, Civilization 4 contains the arranging, assigning, comparing, filtering, probing,

searching, and selecting patterns. No individual pattern is a primary pattern in this game, as the patterns complement each other and are interconnected. In order to achieve the best score, players should take advantage of the various features each pattern gives –

particularly the comparing, filtering, and probing patterns – but the game can be played without significantly considering the assigning, filtering, and probing patterns.