03-03-2003 19:33									#1
	It's a design decision Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I've got about sixteen hours on this game now. At least 200 turns in four games (got up to turn 100 in the first game).

While I agree that you have to play the game itself and not some idealized concept of what the game should be, I think the outcry against many of the design decisions is an indicator of real problems with the game, not just griping.

I've kept restarting because I remember hopeless starting positions from MOO II and keep seeing them again in MOO III.

However, I've come to a conclusion that many of the most annoying "design decisions" boil down to an attempt to make it easier to command a LATE GAME empire.

For instance, DEAs and Task Forces

But it just makes the early game PAINFUL. Hopefully the designers will do something to accelerate the early game.

In the end, my biggest gripe is with RESEARCH

It just doesn't make sense to research EVERY weapon type. Why not just eliminate the different weapon types and call them Phaser 1 through X? That you can't tell the researchers to STOP researching a weapon system is dumb. You should be able to set sliders on the individual research projects (including 0) just like you do for the different pure science areas.