News: civ4 features

[cassius84]

check the March 27 entry...

http://www.frictionlessinsight.com/

[soren]

Here's what it says:

Tentative Civ IV Feature Changes 3/27/04

Civilization fans may be eager to know that Soren Johnson of Firaxis games made a few comments about Civilization IV in his talk on game franchises at the Game Developer's Conference. All the features under consideration are tentative, and given the game's long development schedule may or may not make it into the final version. Still, the focus of Johnson's talk was on removing "unfun" aspects of games to create sufficient conceptual room for improvements. Some of the features under consideration are:

Improved interface and help screens
Replacing game concepts such as pollution, rioting and corruption with more entertaining concepts that maintain game balance (he described the current pollution model as "playing whack-a-mole").
Adding concepts of religion and civics
Introducing more sophisticated concepts of unit experience and upgrades.
Johnson emphasized that the game is still a long way off, and is being coded from scratch to produce a better final experience. He also mentioned that the team is paying attention to a list of suggestions submitted by fans that is longer than the New Testament. He didn't say how long it took the Firaxis team to slog through it.

[Gengis Khan]

For the people that don't feel like scrolling... [edit- Curse you soren!! Beat by a minute.]


"He described the current pollution model as 'playing whack-a-mole'." I couldn't say it better myself!

[Chieftess]

Thanks for the info!

[soren]

I suggest for the webadmin(s) to post this on the main site.

EDIT: once I think about it, it's kind of strange that people post civ IV (better yet, cIV ) in a civ III board. Perhaps the mods might consider starting a new one. Subforums may include ideas, others news...

[Chieftess]

Already done.

And yes, I DO agree that pollution is like playing, "whack-a-mole".

EDIT: once I think about it, it's kind of strange that people post civ IV (better yet, cIV ) in a civ III board. Perhaps the mods might consider starting a new one. Subforums may include ideas, others news...

I was just talking to Thunderfall, and he said he might do that.

[Turner]

Yeah, lot of Civ4 stuff coming up. So much for one thread.

[Mr Black]

Originally posted by soren
I suggest for the webadmin(s) to post this on the main site.

EDIT: once I think about it, it's kind of strange that people post civ IV (better yet, cIV ) in a civ III board. Perhaps the mods might consider starting a new one. Subforums may include ideas, others news...

Are you 'Soren Johnson' the 'A.I. guy'???

Religion concept sounds great, finally!

[soren]

Originally posted by Mr Black


Are you 'Soren Johnson' the 'A.I. guy'???

No, I'm not.

(And even if I were, I'd be hesitant in admitting so, since AI critisim runs rampant these days.)

[Aussie_Lurker]

Heres hoping that they also introduce the idea of banned resources (i.e. contraband and the black market), as well as a much MUCH better naval game system (with proper trade routes, piracy and embargoes!)
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg for me !

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

[steviejay]

you can get embargoes already in Civ3.

I'm curious as to what exactly the whole 'religion' thing will work out. Would that mean you can choose a religion for your Civ? if it does that brings up the whole idea of crusades and holy wars

But its groovy we're started to get little bits and pieces about what cIV (I think that way's better to ) will look like, and I also like the idea of a new cIV thread

[kryszcztov]

Mmmh, it will be a long way before I'm getting really interested in what they say about Civ4 (what I'd like is a really good last C3C patch), but I want to say this : I'm feeling good that they start the writing from scratch. I don't know how that may turn out in terms of gameplay, but I have kinda enough of the current game, I want another Civ experience. I wouldn't want a game really far from what it is right now, but some deep change could be welcome. And I'm happy they consider religion as a future feature : Civ3 culture was the beginning for this, now they have to really set up a religious system. Lastly, good to hear that some boring aspects will be gone or reworked. Indeed, this pollution system is weak, and I have had enough dealing with it since Civ1 (10 years for me now).

Let's hope some good news later, though, as I said, I'm not in a hurry ; I want some C3C stuff now. And I hope the game will be widely tested for months ; Firaxis should consider extending the beta testing phase, to a point never seen before.

[steviejay]

I think they should extend the beta testing phase to places other than America

[Nightrebel]

Anyone have an idea if allowing fixed government traits will be incorporated? The rut of all civilizations being Democracies is really old.

[genghis_khev]

I think cIV should be changed to a platformer with each tech a new pick up to allow better jumping, faster speed, etc to finally overthrough the evil Montazuma (or leader of your choice). Each new level is a new era with new enemies and a new civ leader as end of level boss.

Just Kidding!

Religion, yeah cool, but as discussed on SEVERAL posts it needs to be handled in a Non-inflamatory way, obviously. Some people will think "yeah, whatever, another scared over-reactionist" to this post but given current global events, and the constant mis-understandings on all sides, I just think a little caution is needed.

Don't get me wrong, I would like to see religion playing a greater part in the Civ series. However, there was a suggestion on the civ 4 that civs could be (mainly negatively) bias between different religious groups would be somewhat ill-advised.

To be fair though, Sid and his "crew" have managed to steer us OK so far, even including fascist governments. I'm sure they will do this religion thing correctly.

[steviejay]

I think religion will be ok in this sense. I mean, its a computer game isn't it?? its fantasy. I think for that reason the Isralli's (sorry not sure if thats spelt right) should be in the next game.

As Genghis Khev said, Fascism is now part of it, nd there's other things. There is the possability that people will complain about religion because of the whole possibility of a Jihad or crusade or whatever but this game's about Civilization (hence the name no?) and religion has been important to every civilization that I can care to think of, so a religious element should be in it.

It'd be groovy in my opinion

[wotan321]

It has to have EVENTS in the scenario building tools.

[MarineCorps]

the team is paying attention to a list of suggestions submitted by fans that is longer than the New Testament

Intesting.

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by kryszcztov
And I hope the game will be widely tested for months

C3C was widely tested (hundreds of testers) for over 6 months before release. One of the problems is that games development was still going on till the last minute.

Originally posted by steviejay
I think they should extend the beta testing phase to places other than America

In both PTW and C3C there were quite a few non-Americans on the beta test. I don't know where this idea comes from.

[fazzoletti]

Religion is actually already included in the game, disguised as culture. -> You build Temples etcetera hence people start believing in your religion (and/or way of life) and become eager to die for you, or pledge allegance to you. At risk of starting a painful subject; aren't those Northern Irish folks who resist the English (such as IRA) doing so partly because they are catholic and therefore want to join Ireland? Sounds like a culture flip to me...