There are occasionally gifts from Civs that randomly like you, but never expect an alliance, ecopact, or anything else. Civ2 was better. Combat is another victim of this dumbing-down. Pikemen can easilly destroy stealth bombers and warriors can destroy battleships. City walls, a cheap improvment, can render a city inpregnable.
Terrain advantages can allow phalanx to destroy tanks.
When an advance is discovered, the game merely pops a dialog box reading 'You've discovered writing. In Civ2, their was much fanfare, and gave a good fell to the game. Also, you'll find the future units such as 'plasmaticas' and 'ecorangers' very stupid. The terrain and the units were well-drawn, but the animations were disgusting, and in addition to looking ugly slowed the game down, and on some occasions crashed the computer. The music is nice, but there are very few songs.