GameSpot's Civ3 Preview (5/16/01)

<img src="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/luxurygoods.jpg" align=right border=1>Giancarlo Varanini has written a very good 4-page preview of Civilization III over at <a href="http://gamespot.com" target=link>GameSpot</a>. The preview contains pretty much all the screenshots seen in other previews. However, this <a href="http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/screens/0,11105,454261-30,00.html" target=link>city management screen</a> deserves some attention because it's the best screenshot of the city management window so far (in 1024x768 resolution!). The preview also thoroughly explained many of the new concepts and discussed the current development status of Civ3. The new info from the preview are listed below:
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[*]<u>Peaceful assimilation of enemy cities</u>
<font color=brown>If a border city of the opposing culture has very few cultural points, there's a strong chance that it will be assimilated into the dominant culture as the game progresses, eliminating the need for a military force to move in and conquer it. </font>
[*]<u>Nationality comes into play</u>
<font color=brown>"Every population point that gets built in Civilization III has a nationality. If you're France, every person that's born in one of your cities is French," Briggs explained. "Suppose I capture a German city. That city will have German people in it, and so they have cultural ties to Germany. They're more likely to go back to the German side, and they're probably going to revolt." Regardless of how strong your culture is, there is always the possibility that a smaller captured city with fewer cultural points will revolt if its ties to the opposing civilization are too strong. </font>

[*]<u>Secret of writing</u>
<font color=brown>Interestingly, technology has an influence on diplomacy because diplomatic and trade agreements cannot be made unless a civilization has the writing skill. </font>
[*]<u>Queue units. queue technology!</u>

<font color=brown>You can also queue up items in the technology-tree screens so that the menu doesn't appear after every few turns, but if necessary, it's possible to change the queue and learn different skills. </font>

[*]<u>Development status</u>
a) <font color=brown>
The military side of the Great Leader unit is in place, but Firaxis is currently debating whether or not to apply it to other areas of a civilization in addition to the military.
<font color=black>b) </font>
Another feature that isn't in the game as of yet is multiplayer. Firaxis is still deciding how it wants to incorporate multiplayer into the game, and before it does so, the development team wants to make sure that Civilization III's single-player mode is as good as it can possibly be. </font>[/list]
According to GameSpot, Firaxis and Infogrames are currently aiming for a winter 2001 release for Civilization III.


>> <a href="http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2760837,00.html" target=link>Read the full preview</a>

[This message has been edited by Thunderfall (edited May 16, 2001).]

Peaceful assimilation of border cities!?! Cultural points. Stratetic resources. I know some people who are going to have to rethink their dominant strategies in playing Civilization <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/wink.gif" border=0> The more I read the more I can't wait!

[This message has been edited by Leowind (edited May 16, 2001).]

Yes, sounds like 'super growth strategy' users will get croaked in this game as the perfectionists swallow their cities piecemeal!

So much for conquering by force. *sigh*

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<IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/image_uploads/goodbye3.jpg" border=0>
<FONT COLOR="blue">You move like I want to, and sing like your eyes do.</FONT c>

Originally posted by Magnus:
Yes, sounds like 'super growth strategy' users will get croaked in this game as the perfectionists swallow their cities piecemeal! <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/mwaha.gif" border=0>

Click to expand...

Sounds good to me

That's the way I like to play it anyway

But it could make for much longer, slower games, as people try to consolidate their territory. Or on the other hand, it might be better to expand quickly at first, when no-one has much culture, so that when all the borders meet, your border cities will be strongly attached, and you can fill in the interior of your territory with newer cities, that won't have contact with the enemy. Hmm, could be interesting

Yea I've always been a "super growth person" in AC and civ. the culture in Civ3 seems like it takes alot of the power out of it, but I cant wait to try it in Civ 3.
Yea i am literally itching my skin to play this game.
VIVA SID

Looks like everyone is going to need to rethink their favorite strategies. Peaceful assimilation, an interesting twist to the game. Not being able to build certain units unless a resource is available will be interesting. Maybe this will keep other civs from being able to build units which they did not have to expend shields or gold get a wonder or new tech advance. It will be interesting to see what the final game will be like.

Sounds like being #1 in Culture will be as important as being #1 in Science is now.

the super culture strategy...

Winter 2002 not 2001 ...Civ3 return into the future release.

I like how you now need certain recources to build things. This should make Civ's more interdependent on each other. (Though if I'm going to need to trade with them more, I hope they are less hostile than they are in MGE) It's like Germany in WWII, they started to run low on recources, and that's why they went for the Caucases.

I don't get how the great leader would train armies. Don't barracks do this? And I like my barracks. (Ok, I never build them until I want to fight, but they are nice and cheap.)

The culture has me kind of nervous. I like how it would now recognize what the people of cities think more, but I worry it could destroy the military structure of the game. Now, perhaps they would only revolt if I only have a lightly trained rifleman in the city, instead of 10 tank divisions. And perhaps they would grow to like their "benificent" rulers over a certain time frame. Reminds me of morale Birth of the Federation. The cities defecting would be cool, just as long as it doesn't happen every couple of turns.

Sweet - armless victory. This means I won't have to intrerupt my engeneer's "flatten and farm or mine every and rail every square of land i own" because of some bastard zulu causing trouble. I can just keep builidng up my infrastructure and make all his cities my personal culture *****es.

yes

I like all of these ideas overall, but one thing has me a bit worried:

If border cities are in greatest danger of being assimilated, it will become natural strategies to 1) build your border cities first and *then* fill in the interior just as Supernaut suggests, and 2) to build whatever city improvements increase 'culture points' in all your border cities, not worrying so much about the interior. Both of these seem to run counter to what happens in reality.

Typically a civilization grows outward, the centre being naturally the point of greatest cultural value.

I was under the impression at first that culture points were at a civ-wide level. It now looks as though culture is per city. Maybe it is a combination of the two Mr Bond ie each cities culture rating is made up of the rating for the civ plus the rating for the city. If this were true it would partially reduce the realism problem that you have forseen. The military presence in a captured city should count for something though, you are right.

Originally posted by BlueMonday:
So much for conquering by force. *sigh*

Click to expand...

Oh NO!! Oh NO!!
Just think about the possilities! Armies waiting impatiently for the start of a blitzkrieg, while spies sabotage the essential traderoutes and roads to essential resources of your enemy! In the meantime diplomatic activities with other parties to 'buy' their alliances, for a while...

Force and war will be more fun than ever. You have to prepare in a better, strategic way, though.

I wonder how 'reputation' will be changed as a result of culture.

I have read some concerns about the border and culture idea, with one maybe forming a border before a hub in relation to cities.

This is possible but I think you would find it infact ending up not working, your cities will be so spread out you will be open up easily for attacks and bribing by others Civs. Co-ordination would also be harder, for instance rush building wonders, the effect of your capital on other cities, road and trade networks.

I think you will find that it probably will end up with a hub type growth, just the speed of that growth reflects your ability, strategy and the strength of your Civ.

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"It is a well known fact that a bird does not fly on one wing"

How biased! There has been diplomacy of magnicant scale done long before writing EVER came into existance. This suggests that all of the wonderful civilizations that came into existence and had to deal with each other befroe the advent of writing were incapable of diplomacy! This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Some of the most important treaties in even recent history were'nt written! They need to undo this Western predjudiced aspect before before it goes any further into the design.

Flak, could you mention one wonderful civilization in the real world which didn't have writing? And what are these recent treaties which were not written down?

okay i'm new to this Civ3 stuff however, i am
a civ and civ2 vet. But what is to prevent
fostering a military society loyal to its ruler. I doubt the Spartans would have sucumbed to Atheian culture.

Originally posted by Xenophon:
okay i'm new to this Civ3 stuff however, i am
a civ and civ2 vet. But what is to prevent
fostering a military society loyal to its ruler. I doubt the Spartans would have sucumbed to Atheian culture.

Click to expand...

You are certainly free to do just that! The thing about culture is that it levels the playing field a bit and gives the more pacifistic player a viable shot at winning without resorting to conquest.

The main thing about culture is that building a strong culture will really help you run your empire more smoothly and will give you an advantage when conducting diplomacy with your neighbors. If you want to follow a scorched earth policy and pulverize everyone, chances are you're not very interested in diplomacy anyway =) so culture isn't going to be a big boon for you.

Of course, if you capture an enemy city and try to subjugate the foreign nationals that reside in that city, your relatively low culture value won't be doing you any favors, either. High culture helps reduce the effect of resisters and speeds up the cultural assimilation process. Without it, that German city you just occupied is likely to revolt constantly and will likely not be of much use to you.


Dan
Firaxis Games, Inc.