As I see Civ4 development is going on, I can't wait anymore, I must add my input to the New Testament.
I'm not much skilled in playing Civ3, but I'm a map maker, terrain graphics creator and mod maker combined, so my requests are made from my point of view:
- Please make everything customizable, nothing hardcoded. But I've read that you're doing this, so I'm satisfied.
- Add a script file like civ2 events.txt. It should include commands like
Create unit (x,y,civ,turn)
Delete all units (x,y,turn)
Join a civ in the game (civ,turn)
Delete a civ from the game (civ, turn)
Flip a city from one civ to another (civ1,civ2,x,y,turn)
Flip all the cities in a certain radius from a civ to another (civ1,civ2,x,y,radius,turn)
- When creating a scenario, AI often behaves in a way you don't want. For example, in a WWII scenario, I could desire Germany to attack Russia while it is still in peace, while instead it tries to send a settler to Iceland.
It would be really cool if it was possible to indicate a region of preference of expansion (x1,x2,y1,y2) and possibly more than one region. This makes sense in already made maps, of course.
- Include some test modes like 0 players, and take control of a player. Just like Civ2. Much more useful to understand what's happening, instead of looking inside the cities with embassies. A reveal map option would be useful, too.
- Cultural city flips: please no more only enable/disable but work around the problem. When you conquer a city next to the enemy capital you can get angry if you lose it together with your units inside. So, when a flip occurs, instead of converting suddenly, some enemy units should come out around the city - exactly as partisans in Civ2. Much more simple and realistic.
- Customization must include various barbarians advanced units and number of uprising units.
- Expand build often and build never sections with flags for each improvement, not for groups.
- Enable the possibility of having a leader name per each era.
- You're going to make a 3D world, I try to imagine it. I would like it to be like - do you remember UFO Enemy Unknown? There was a world, you can rotate it and zoom in and out. In case of the Earth, this will delete all the problems of sphere-to-plan projection. In case of a plan instead of sphere, rotate shouldn't be enabled.
- Include copy&paste buttons and resize, cut and shift functions, very useful for mapmaking. They can save a lot of time.
- Make reliefs (hills, mountains) an indipendent factor from vegetation - you can have forests on hills and desertic place 2000 meters high.
- Make possible importing the map or some of the rules from a BIQ file.
- Improve AI so that its primary thought isn't only building settlers
- Take care of the speed of game. We don't want to have cups of tea between turns
- Very important: in civ3 there's a strong relation between territory (number of cities) and population with power andscientific research. This relation must be altered because it doesn't reflect real life. Netherlands (small territory and population) is more advanced than India (large territory and population). And too large empires can be very inefficient and often collapse. Remember China during Imperialism...
I think there are some books, I don't remember the tile, that try to explain the reasons of European dominance.
- For the same reasons, make more forms of city conquests - not only civ flipping. You can just occupy a city for a number of turns, or put in protectorate (which would force a mutual protection pact). And protectorate should be something worth to trade.
- Try to put historical accuracy before fun. If I see invented units, etc. I lose my fun, and it's not just me: everyone who loves history.
- No more male-female equity, it doesn't make sense. Please no more Joan of Arc and Theodora. Please.
- I have read that you want to release it for early 2005. Isn't that too early? I haven't still played all the Conquests, and much of the mods are still in development. Take your time and satisfy our requests, please. There's no reason to hurry, we'll be playing Conquests for a long time.
I'm not much skilled in playing Civ3, but I'm a map maker, terrain graphics creator and mod maker combined, so my requests are made from my point of view:
- Please make everything customizable, nothing hardcoded. But I've read that you're doing this, so I'm satisfied.
- Add a script file like civ2 events.txt. It should include commands like
Create unit (x,y,civ,turn)
Delete all units (x,y,turn)
Join a civ in the game (civ,turn)
Delete a civ from the game (civ, turn)
Flip a city from one civ to another (civ1,civ2,x,y,turn)
Flip all the cities in a certain radius from a civ to another (civ1,civ2,x,y,radius,turn)
- When creating a scenario, AI often behaves in a way you don't want. For example, in a WWII scenario, I could desire Germany to attack Russia while it is still in peace, while instead it tries to send a settler to Iceland.
It would be really cool if it was possible to indicate a region of preference of expansion (x1,x2,y1,y2) and possibly more than one region. This makes sense in already made maps, of course.
- Include some test modes like 0 players, and take control of a player. Just like Civ2. Much more useful to understand what's happening, instead of looking inside the cities with embassies. A reveal map option would be useful, too.
- Cultural city flips: please no more only enable/disable but work around the problem. When you conquer a city next to the enemy capital you can get angry if you lose it together with your units inside. So, when a flip occurs, instead of converting suddenly, some enemy units should come out around the city - exactly as partisans in Civ2. Much more simple and realistic.
- Customization must include various barbarians advanced units and number of uprising units.
- Expand build often and build never sections with flags for each improvement, not for groups.
- Enable the possibility of having a leader name per each era.
- You're going to make a 3D world, I try to imagine it. I would like it to be like - do you remember UFO Enemy Unknown? There was a world, you can rotate it and zoom in and out. In case of the Earth, this will delete all the problems of sphere-to-plan projection. In case of a plan instead of sphere, rotate shouldn't be enabled.
- Include copy&paste buttons and resize, cut and shift functions, very useful for mapmaking. They can save a lot of time.
- Make reliefs (hills, mountains) an indipendent factor from vegetation - you can have forests on hills and desertic place 2000 meters high.
- Make possible importing the map or some of the rules from a BIQ file.
- Improve AI so that its primary thought isn't only building settlers
- Take care of the speed of game. We don't want to have cups of tea between turns
- Very important: in civ3 there's a strong relation between territory (number of cities) and population with power andscientific research. This relation must be altered because it doesn't reflect real life. Netherlands (small territory and population) is more advanced than India (large territory and population). And too large empires can be very inefficient and often collapse. Remember China during Imperialism...
I think there are some books, I don't remember the tile, that try to explain the reasons of European dominance.
- For the same reasons, make more forms of city conquests - not only civ flipping. You can just occupy a city for a number of turns, or put in protectorate (which would force a mutual protection pact). And protectorate should be something worth to trade.
- Try to put historical accuracy before fun. If I see invented units, etc. I lose my fun, and it's not just me: everyone who loves history.
- No more male-female equity, it doesn't make sense. Please no more Joan of Arc and Theodora. Please.
- I have read that you want to release it for early 2005. Isn't that too early? I haven't still played all the Conquests, and much of the mods are still in development. Take your time and satisfy our requests, please. There's no reason to hurry, we'll be playing Conquests for a long time.