Description of App
The BC4000 APP is a turn-based strategy game. The game has an online mode, a hot seat mode and a single player mode. You take on the role of the ruler of a civilization, attempt to build an empire in competition with other civilizations. The game begins in 4000 BC, before the Bronze Age, and can last through to AD 2100 with Space Age.
Along with the larger tasks of exploration, warfare and diplomacy, you have to make decisions about where to build new cities, which improvements or units to build in each city, when to expand your empire by new settlers, and how to transform the land surrounding the cities for maximum benefit. From time to time your cities may be harassed by units from other nations or barbarians. You should protect borders and maintain zones of control.
You can gain a large advantage if your civilization is the first to learn a particular technology and put it to use in a military or other context. Since only one technology may be researched at any given time, the order in which technologies are chosen makes a considerable difference in the outcome of the game and generally reflects your preferred style of gameplay. Please carefully consider about forms of government, tax rates and research priorities.
You can also build Wonders of the World after obtaining the prerequisite knowledge. These wonders are important achievements of society, science, culture and defense, ranging from the Pyramids and the Great Wall in the Ancient age, to Copernicus' Observatory and Magellan's Expedition in the middle period, up to the Apollo program in the modern era. Each wonder can only be built once in the world, and requires a lot of resources to build, far more than most other city buildings or units. Wonders provide unique benefits to the controlling civilization. For example, Magellan's Expedition increases the movement rate of naval units.
The game can be won by conquering all other civilizations or by winning the space race by reaching the star system of Alpha Centauri.
The strategy logic and user interactive concept are inspired by the original Sid Meier's Civilization. Most graphics, music, map and text materials come from public domain licensed by Creative Commons License or General Public License.
Comments
I'd really love to play
I really enjoy strategy games.
I loved playing the original Civilization I and II back in the day on my computer.
I tried to find an email to contact the dev to let him/her aware of the accessibility issues with this app but I could not find an email or contact form.
Only social media to contact the dev and I'm not on FaceBook nor twitter etc.
It would be really awesome if a civilization type of game was fully accessible.
how about review?
i am planning on writing review.
hope the developer fix those problems.
Contacting the developer
Has anyone manage to contact the developer about adding support for Voice Over in their games? I notice that all of this developer games are the same just base in different time period.
Messenger
I found him on messenger and he said he would like to add accessibility to the game. He didn’t say if he would however. Can’t blame him if he doesn’t. I imagine it would take him some time and effort to do it and he has no incentive beyond humanitarian reasons. Even so, it’s a pity because this game is so close to being fully playable using VO. The only things that are missing are buttons on the tiles and maybe a way to tell distance between tiles. Still, I don’t know how hard it is to do that. Maybe if many of us could contribute to his efforts it would be worth his time but I don’t know anyway to do so. After all, there might be a niche in the market here since no accessible strategy game whatsoever exists out there. I know that I would pay good money for this game if it was accessible.
Agree
I'm of course willing to help with testing etc and paying for an accessible version is no prob.
If the dev is interested please let him/her know about this forum and this topic.
He should also have an email to contact him/her or a contact form.
Anyways, keeping my fingers crossed that accessibility is implemented soon.
I guess it takes some effort making the game accessible but that also depend on how the current game is coded, especially regarding the map.
I will be interested to see
I will be interested to see how this goes. From what I could tell from playing the game yesterday, it seems like the developers put a lot of thought into the storyline and how the game works. It seems like a really really awesome game! I may message him myself at some point, or her, and let them know about my podcast and see if they be interested in coming on the show if nothing else, they could get their game out there to more people by talking about it!
More from the developer
First of all the developer seems very willing to help. He said that he has tried some accessibility experiments about the map tiles. It is not very easy but it should be doable. The project is his hobby work, so it is totally free and supported by advertisements embedded in the game.
Furthermore, after I asked if there is anything that we could do to help him, he said that it would be good if someone would like to help promoting the game to more audiences and improving the pixel arts, it will be very great to boost the advertisement performance.
So having in mind how good this game is and the absence of any other strategy game that comes even close to this one, I think that we should help him in order for him to help us.
Since I have no way to promote the game it’s up to this community to finally get us a civilization like strategy game that’s worth playing.
Do your best guys
I just got your private message to the previous poster
To the previous poster, I’m not sure how to pronounce your name, I got your private message and I will be messaging you back with my email address. If you could please pass that along to the developer so that he can get in contact with me, that would be great! I’d love to have him on my life podcast on Clubhouse to talk about the game!
The other games by this developer
I have notice when you look up this developer in the app store his other titles play the same just base in different places. Hopefully he will add support for accessibility for the blind in his other games.
Got it
Great! I will let the developer know tomorrow.
In-app purchase
Please ask the developer to add an In-app purchase to remove ads.
I hate ads popping up and if I like the game I'm happy to pay to get rid of ads.
Update from the developer
OK the guy apparently is incredible. He said that the voice over update will hopefully be released next week.
wow? Nice! I might also…
wow? Nice! I might also maybe record something if I can do it as well as I did the swordy quest series.
The developer is awesome
The developer responds quickly to email. He is planning on adding Voice Over support to all of his games.
I tired the game and I have…
I tired the game and I have ot say it looks almost completely inaccessible. I can't really plant my city, I can't really add personal. and ther are a lot of unlabeled buttons at the bottom of the page where the game begins. How can anyone begin this game at all?
It is doable.
To plant your city you must first make sure that your settler is selected. The selected unit is indicated on the small panel on the bottom left corner of your screen along with other information such as the tile on which the selected unit is currently on, your gold, your income, your research points etc. the settle button, the build road button, the build irrigation button, the sentry button, the fortify button, the load and unload unit button, the wait button, the done button and the more button are all labeled. Concerning the unlabeled buttons, when you swipe right from the top of the screen to the bottom, those buttons are as follows. First move unit diagonally up and left. Second move unit up. Third move unit diagonally up and right. Fourth move unit left. After that there is a button which to my device reads add and which centers the selected unit on the map. Fifth move unit right. Sixth move unit diagonally down and left. Seventh move unit down. Eighth move unit diagonally down and right. So to come back to where I started, select your settler, use the unlabeled buttons as indicated to move, choose a tile of your liking by using the information on the panel which is located on the bottom left of your screen and when satisfied press the build city button.
Further more when choosing which technology to research, make sure to scroll up and down with three fingers on the screen because by swiping left and right you might miss some technologies.
Anyway I’m not saying the game is accessible it’s just somewhat playable as of today. There are other tricks you can use but they are too many to list without a specific question. In any case I have managed to successfully conquer a nation on easy mode.
PS. It’s better to use the world map because you’re starting point depends from the nation you selected to play with. For example if you select English you will start in England, Greeks in Greece, Portuguese on Portugal etc. This is very helpful in order for you to find your bearings on the map.
I did all of that but there…
I did all of that but there was no build city button. there was not even an add seteler button. I did use the info on the left but yeah I was stuck at 49 58 or something in america. Accessibility really needs to be improved. I can't read wit hall of those pictures like th epeace simbol, or what not. Thsi game is like I said not very doable. I'm totally blidn so this is not helping.
The developer did say
The developer did say, that he was planning to release an update this week addressing some of the VoiceOver issues. I’m also going to have him on my live show on Clubhouse next week to discuss this game. He does have plans to improve accessibility. Among the questions I’m going to ask him will be what can we as a community do to help him? Honestly, if he is willing to make this game accessible and try to make strides towards implementing VoiceOver, I think it’s only fair that we step up and help him where we can.
A few questions
Is this a single player, or a multiplayer game? Are you constantly harassed by other players, or are you left to your own devices for most of the time? I don't like games where I have to be on the defensive constantly. While I don't mind fighting, I personally like for it to be a mutual agreement between players.
Answers
ATM this is a single player game. I haven’t tried it on the higher difficulty levels but in easy mode you can expand in peace without harassment from the computer.
Also I totally agree with firefly. We as a community should put our strength in numbers at work and do our best to help the developer any way we can. It’s only fair after all. :)
Accessibility update available on the App Store
He did it guys! Game is fully playable using vo. Hats off to this incredible guy!
Just checked out the game and
I love it! The only question I have is, how do I end my turn when I’ve made all the moves I want to make?
comments so far
I like the accessibility except I can't " tap the center of the map for food max stuff? per the hint. Also I'm supposed to research my next technology. That is a bit confusing. also why when I have 12 out of 30 settlers do I still have a population of 1 under improvements?
Thanks for the answers.
Will check it out.
Wow
I used to play the original version on a DOS-based PC clone back in the 1980s. I must admit this is tempting. Thanks for posting about it.
maxing food etc.
yep, I cannot really max food as I tap a square on the map, it says "our territory or unclaimed territory, and when I go to tap the max food button on the city I still am stuck with this hint. is ther no way to complete this? my settlers still have a population of 1 but I have 46 of 38 people.
End turn and food
There is a button. If you can’t find it first tap on the panel that is situated on the bottom left corner of the screen and swipe right from there until you find the button that is labeled turn done. Otherwise search for the button somewhere on the top right corner of your screen. To end the turn all units need to have taken an action for the turn done button to appear.
I also have some problems with the food situation as of yet but if you build your city correctly you need not address this problem until your city has grown to size 30 or something. The problem is when my units find friendly cities on auto explore mode and thus the new city appears in the middle of nowhere. Just try to plant your cities on planes close to the shore, build a harbor and irrigate your tiles.
There is also an issue when loading units on ships. The game crashes then but I will check again after I have updated my iOS to the latest version. Even now however there is a workaround but I can’t remember how I did it.
How to maximize food output of a city
1. There is a mini city map in the top/left corner of city controller. For the description "Tap the center of map to place citizens for maximum food output,...." the map means the mini city map in the city controller.
2. Tapping anywhere in the world map only shows terrain/unit/city briefing information, it does not change the city production output.
3. The action of tapping "Maximize Food" button in city controller is equal to tapping the center of mini city map. A response message should be shown after button tapped in the future version.
How to end turn
1. If no any more order need issue to the current focus unit, there is a button 'Order unit to done with this turn' in the bottom/right of screen. Tap it to mark this unit done.
2. The "end turn" button will be shown in the right side of screen after all units marked done for this turn.
I do tap the max food button…
I do tap the max food button but I don't see any changes on the screen after I do this. I see the turn end button. so how will I preceed if I'm constently told to max my food. I'm on turn 14 I believe and my food is getting less. Here is a mini demo. Notice taht when I tap the max food button nothign appears to happen. I really don't know what to do at this point and how to get more than 20 units of food.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6w1ct3qmk8jrutf/AABRNnnNaGmqo9C45IWN63Jfa?dl=1
I'm very very confused.
Someone needs to record a demo.
Ok, I did make piece with…
Ok, I did make piece with some of the tribes but still can't really do much of anything yet. I told some of my workers to open up mines and stuff but why are they not building irrigation stuff and why can I not easily place people.
I don't know what I'm doing most of the time either.
Where to start, what to do, who to move, what to build, where to double tap, it's all so weird with all these options. Yet I'm having a blast. I'm currently just playing by myself with no opponents, just to try and get the hang of things. Might take a while yet. I don't feel ready for any challenge at this point.
Is there any way to locate units faster?
Let's say some of my units are auto exploring. Is there anyway to locate them faster without poking around on the map?
I’ll try to explain
First turn
First of all it’s important to know that when you start a game on the world map, your starting point depends from the nation you selected. So it is best you select a nation with the geography of which you are already familiar so that you can have a good idea of what to expect from the map around you.
On the 500/250 earth map, you start with 2 settlers 1 explorer and 1 diplomat. So on the first turn try to find a spot on the map with good terrain. When you tap on the bottom right part of your screen with one finger, VO will read the tile information and the coordinates of the tile on which the active selected unit is located. For example, planes, 1/1/0, 280,86, settlers. That means that your active unit is the settlers which are situated on the coordinates 280,86 and that this tile is plains with 1 food 1 production and 0 trade. You can also access this information by tapping ones anywhere on the information panel which is located on the left of your screen and then by swiping right with one finger until you reach this info which is the last item after which you can’t swipe anymore. The best terrain is plains with something on top. That is either buffalo, wheat etc. I also prefer that some ocean tiles are next to my city because by building a harbor the food production is increased.
It is also best that you move your explorer before you choose where to build your city because by moving your explorer more tiles will be revealed on the map. After building your city move the diplomat into it and forget about him for a while.
Map and navigation
The best way to navigate on the map is to first press the scroll map on the selected unit, then tap once on the middle of your screen and then swipe left or right with one finger to move to the adjacent tiles. To move up or down, select vertical navigation on your rotor and then swipe up or down with one finger. Note that the coordinates numbers on the vertical axis move up the farther you move to the right and on the vertical axis the numbers move up the farther you go down. So from west to east the coordinates go up and the same thing goes from north to south. For example the 280,86 tile is on the left of the 281,86 tile and the 281,87 tile is under the 281,86 tile.
To move a unit around there are three ways. First you can move your units one tile at a time by using the move north east, move north, move north west etc. buttons. The second way is to first double tap on the move to location button and then you must select a destination tile on the map and double tap it. Note that when pressing the go to location button, the information panel which is located on the left of your screen disappears and the map occupies The whole of your screen. The third way is to select the go to city button and then select the destination city from the list. You can also airlift your units providing you have built airports both on the city of origin and the destination city. By double tapping on the more orders button of the active unit, you can also set this unit on auto explore mode. This works best with explorers and with the military units that you find on your way.
Expansion
After you have built your first city you must build improvements both in the city and on the tiles around it. The production of warriors is automatically selected as the first production of your new city. To change it, press the cities button which is located somewhere on the top of your screen between the game and nation buttons. Then select production overview, press the change button which is on the bottom and slightly right and select a building from the list. To access the cities menu you can also swipe up with two fingers and go on from there.
To improve the tiles around your city you must first build workers. When they are ready, move this unit on the tile which you want to improve and either select build irrigation, open mine or build road. When building buildings, in the beginning you must focus on food buildings. First you must build the granary which helps your city grow beyond size 4. Harbor also helps a lot with food. However you need to research the appropriate technology for both of these buildings. Another thing is that when you select the production overview from the city menu, the game tells you what is being built in each city. For example if you are building a settler, the game will tell you the name of the city and then settlers 12/30. That means that the indicated city is currently building settlers and that the progress is 12 out of 30. When this number reaches 30 out of 30 the settlers are finished. How much progress you make from one turn to another depends from the production rate of your city. For example city with 5 production will build a settler in 6 turns, A city with 10 production will built a settler in 3 turns etc. you can also check the production rate of each of your cities from the production overview menu along with other info such as food. Just open the production menu and swipe until you reach the city you want. The game will read you all the available info in one go.
About technology
When you start the game a research is automatically selected. You can see what is your current research project from the information panel which is located on the left of your screen. Thing is that you must select your next research project before the current project is over. The game automatically tells you to select a research when it is time for that. However you can access your research overview and change your next research project by selecting the nation button which is located on the top of your screen between the cities and world buttons. Then press research overview, select a technology and press done on the bottom right corner.
About food
When you select the production overview from the cities menu and you double tap on the city there is a button which is labeled maximize food. If your food situation is not improved after pressing it something else is wrong. You can remedy your food problems either by building the appropriate buildings or by improving the tiles around your city by building irrigation using your workers. However if you build your city on the wrong terrain, let’s say glaciers or hills surrounded by other hills or mountains, your food situation might be irreversible and your city might only reach a certain size after which it will grow no more.
Finally, on the right of the world button on the top of your screen there is the encyclopedia button. There you can find specific information about many aspects of the game.
Bottom line is that a game that is so good has a level of complexity but if I can manage then you can manage.
Yes and no
If the exploring unit was built in one of your cities you can access this unit by opening the menu of the city in which the unit was billed and then select supported units and select the unit. When you double tap on the unit you want, a menu will appear which will indicate the current coordinates of this unit and below that there is a list with some actions. If you double tap on the coordinates, the game will select this unit as the active unit and will center it on the map.
I haven’t found a way to locate units that were found by other exploring units because those units aren’t supported by a city. In any case I think this is The state of things. Might be that even the units that are found by other exploring units are automatically supported by a city and thus will appear in the appropriate menu. I haven’t checked.
So far
So far, I am loving this game. I had to go with it yesterday, though I managed to have a horrible outcome, by losing all of my cities which leads me to my question, how do you know when the game is over basically when you lost your one? Without spoiling too much? Also I cannot wait to build railroads and airports and to take on everyone else in the world! LMAO!
You can't play this game…
You can't play this game online. Just letting everyone know this before there is even more confusion.
thanks all.
so I'm confused. I don't yet…
so I'm confused. I don't yet know how to build another city. and no my food is not being maximized. that miini map at the top left is confusing as all get out. and the thign that is suposed to say the location to the right is not there, not on my screen. It looks a bit different that the layout the poster described.
The developer wants to know
I have been speaking to the developer through email. We talked about adding Voice Over support to his other iOS games.
He would like to know what other game that he has made should get Voice Over support next? So if you would please send him a message by email or Facebook to share what game you would like to see him add Voice Over support.
I suggested the city manage game.
Better tutorial
So I have never played a game quite complex as this, so I'm excited about it. I think I'm probably going to try it on my iPad instead so I can use a bigger screen for the map. Still, I wish the game had a more in depth tutorial. There are so many buttons, menus, and things to keep track of! It's very overwhelming!
So many
So many buttons to keep track of and so many details, I quit on the first 30 minutes lol
Just play alone.
This way, you can build and explore without getting attacked, good for learning.
A small suggestion
Would it be possible to implement an option to delete saved files? My saved files are really piling up do to many tries and retries.
My comments and a question
So I downloaded this game and have spent about five minutes with it. To be completely honest, I do think some work still needs to be done. The interface is not the most smoothest experience in the entire world. Does anyone have the email address of the developer? I would like to give him some suggestions. I think the ability to delete save files would be a good idea. Also, what exactly is the difference between new history and new planet? Last, I can’t believe they actually allow us to play as the Zulu. That is so awesome.
If any of you are a part of
If any of you guys would like to be part of the live show that I am doing with the developer next week, it will be on Clubhouse. It will be an open public room, all you have to do is download Clubhouse and create an account all of which is free! The room will be recorded for use in my podcast. And the show will take place next Wednesday at 3 PM US Eastern time.
New planet and new history
On new planet mode, you literally begin from scratch and it's also a bit of a sandbox mode where you can choose exactly how many nations will be participating. If you have trouble, you can select to be the only nation in the game and play by yourself peacefully. When you select the new history mode, you must select a nation and compete against other nations. Also, you will need to choose the time period in which you wish to play, so you will be able to toy with some great technology from the get go.
I’m a little confused
Does this mean that new planet is basically the beginning of the game? Which mode should I play if I wanted to start from the beginning of the game and wish to play up until the end?
New planet
To start from the beginning, select new planet. To start in different time periods, select new history.
But wait
You must consider that two weeks ago this game was almost inaccessible and the developer implemented accessibility with lightning speed. In fact he is still working on it. Just yesterday he fixed a bug which caused the game to crash when loading units on ships. You must also take in account that this is a side project for the developer and he does it just for fun.
Furthermore I think that we shouldn’t bombard him with emails and messages. Firefly is talking with him and he also reads those comments when he has got the time. So my humble opinion is that we post our suggestions here and give some space to this fantastic guy.