More Caesar IV observations

Finally, a review of Caesar IV that sounds like they have actually played the game: 6 out of 10 at Eurogamer. Most of the other reviews I’ve seen hardly look beyond the fancy 3D effects. (Of course this is an industry where over 50% of all titles rate 4 out of 5 stars.)
I’m almost done with the Republic campaign (cities 6-12) and things are still pretty easy. Rebuilding Carthage isn’t challenging yet, though it helps to understand some basic principles of the city system. Here’s how I play it:

Read more

Caesar IV observations

Over the weekend I picked up a copy of Caesar IV for $30 at Fr-’s -l-ctr-n-cs. I played the demo a few weeks ago and was interested to see how some of the gameplay mechanisms were put together, since the new engine no longer uses “walkers” like in Caesar III.
Those walkers caused people a lot of problems in the previous game, myself included. Some walkers, like temple priests, would simply wander around at random, turning randomly at intersections. This meant that if you designed your streets where some houses had a small probability of getting a service over some interval, you would end up with these chaotic patterns where neighborhoods would devolve due to the lack of a service, and then the service would walk by and the houses would evolve upwards again. It was frustrating, but if you watched it long enough it would teach you something about randomness and probability.

Read more

Reading for September, 2006

I spent a number of hours last month playing Caesar III and the demo for Caesar IV. I did a little light reading:
Books by Robert Asprin:
* Another Fine Myth published in 1978
* Myth Conceptions published in 1980
* Myth Directions published in 1982
* Hit or Myth published in 1983
I also read about a third of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I wasn’t really enjoying it, so I left it in the back of my car where it remains.
Now reading: Sophie’s Choice by William Styron. This, too, I am not enjoying.