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Computer Gaming World's Civ3 Preview
Today is truly a great day! I made three updates to the site and there is one more update that absolutely cannot be delayed! Firaxis's webmaster Dan Magaha posted in another thread in our Civ3 General Discussion forum that the May issue of Computer Gaming World magazine has a preview of Civilization III, this time with SCREENSHOTS!! Some subscribers have already received the magazine in the mail. In Apolyton's forum, shuttleswo posted some excerpts and 4 scanned images from the preview. I have reposted the exerpts to this thread in our forum. This is definitely the hottest Civ3 news so far!!! DON'T MISS THESE SCREENSHOTS!
===================
UPDATE(4/3/2001): <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3cgwciv3.shtml">READ THE COMPLETE PREVIEW: contains full text of the preview and higher quality scans</a>
===================
Old Scans from the CWG Preview: <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw1.gif">Image #1</a>, <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw2.gif">Image #2</a>, <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw3.gif">Image #3</a>, <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw4.gif">Image #4</a>.
[Note: messages below were originally posted by shuttleswo at apolyton's forum]
I've been lurking here a little in anticipation of the game, but I got my copy of the 05/2001 copy of computer gaming world today in the mail and it had a preview of CIVIII on the cover! the preview is complete with screen shots and detailed info from Sid. Some of it similar to his interview in GameSpot UK but way more detailed and with some early screen shots. here are some excerpts [i typed them in by hand so please excuse any typo's)
"now game worlds sport raw materials that when sitting within a city's sphere of influence can be used for the good of the player's civilization...in firaxis' design the raw map resources tie directly into the gameplay [as opposed to CTP] rather than functioning strictly as a source of revenue raw goods can be used to build certain types of units or to make your citizens happier. you can also use them to amplify your power, and possibly even win the game...
[with the addition of culture into the game] "Libraries and other city improvements accumulate culture points for a civilization expanding their borders and influence. The older the library the more culture you accumulate. The more culture you accumulate the easier it is to happily assimilate conquered cities."
"Settler units have now been split into two the original settlers and terrain-improving Workers, who can be captured by other players."
[the addition of great leaders] "any time a unit wins a battle and gets promoted to veteran status there's a small chance a leader will be spawned. When this happens get the Leader back to a city without being captured and you can use him for three tasks he can build an army (essentially a stacked unit that fights all at once), form a Military Academy (which builds armies), or accelerate the construction of one building in your empire.
Depending on how the idea comes through in playtesting the design team is also toying with allowing Great Artists, Explorers, and Scientists to be born out of cities leading in each category."
it also mentions how the design team is using Brueghel's "Tower of Babel" as a design template. and there is way more. if you can find a copy DEFANITELY get it.
here is an excerpt of a table i didn't see on the first run through:
"
What's in:
multiplayer
Diplomatic and economic victories
Raw materials and trade
cultural expantion
borders and zone of control for swift units
great leader units
armies
What's out:
Supporting military units with shield units (its only gold now)
The city view [note: this is odd since one of the screenshots in the article is a "improved" city view]
Fundamentalism
What's Changing:
Health points for units
the space race end game
advisers provide more useful info
tech tree (which can be queued up)
civolopedia
diplomacy is more complex and converstaional"
====
I just got off work and have some time to post some more from the article
"Material Goods
Each raw -good icon supplies an entire civilization with that particular good. Resources such as iron and uranium allow a civilization to produce certain goods. Luxuries such as ivory make the population happier. RULES One icon supplies all cities linked to each other by road or by harbor with that particular good. VALUE adds extra depth to the game's economic model in a tangible way. Allows players to create monopolies on certain goods within continents, in a sense becoming power brokers."
"Culture
Each civilization accumulates cultural points based on the types of city improvement built and how long they've been around. When one civilization takes over a foreign city a stronger culture rating will make the assimilation easier and avoid debilitating unhappieness. RULES If you build cultural improvements (a library, a wonder) early in the game these enhancements will generate cultural points the entire game. they may also expand your influence and your city boarders. Captured units retain their cultural identity. VALUE Creates extra tension and opportunity trade-offs around decision making. Gun-or-enhancement decisions become even more critical in the early game because of the cultural payoff. Also places more even emotional and functional value on older cities."
note that this was formatted oddly in the article. the words in capital seem to be some kind of catagorization.
==
Dan Magaha's reply:
If you were quick, you might have noticed that I alluded to this (magazine features) in an earlier thread. We were told the CGW issue would hit newsstands towards the end of April, so this is quite a surprise =)
If you've got it now, all the better for you. For those of you frothing at the mouth for screenshots, this will probably just whet your appetite, but nonetheless it should be worth the cover price.
Re: the quality of the screenshots: you're talking about images that were about 1.5" big in the magazine, then scanned in and blown up, so naturally they aren't going to look that great. =) I'm not sure if we're going to wait until the CGW issue hits the streets officially before we release screenshots or not, I'll let you know either way.
It's also worth stating just for the record that there is still a lot that needs to be put into the game, and things are changing all the time, so the standard disclaimer ("this product is in development and may look differently when it's finished") is very much in force.
Anyway, hopefully this has put to rest some of your fears about the game. As I've said for some time now, I think this game is going to be the best Civ game ever.
====
Thanks shuttleswo for posting these great info & the scanned images!
[This message has been edited by Thunderfall (edited April 03, 2001).]
Today is truly a great day! I made three updates to the site and there is one more update that absolutely cannot be delayed! Firaxis's webmaster Dan Magaha posted in another thread in our Civ3 General Discussion forum that the May issue of Computer Gaming World magazine has a preview of Civilization III, this time with SCREENSHOTS!! Some subscribers have already received the magazine in the mail. In Apolyton's forum, shuttleswo posted some excerpts and 4 scanned images from the preview. I have reposted the exerpts to this thread in our forum. This is definitely the hottest Civ3 news so far!!! DON'T MISS THESE SCREENSHOTS!
===================
UPDATE(4/3/2001): <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3cgwciv3.shtml">READ THE COMPLETE PREVIEW: contains full text of the preview and higher quality scans</a>
===================
Old Scans from the CWG Preview: <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw1.gif">Image #1</a>, <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw2.gif">Image #2</a>, <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw3.gif">Image #3</a>, <a href="http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/cgw4.gif">Image #4</a>.
[Note: messages below were originally posted by shuttleswo at apolyton's forum]
I've been lurking here a little in anticipation of the game, but I got my copy of the 05/2001 copy of computer gaming world today in the mail and it had a preview of CIVIII on the cover! the preview is complete with screen shots and detailed info from Sid. Some of it similar to his interview in GameSpot UK but way more detailed and with some early screen shots. here are some excerpts [i typed them in by hand so please excuse any typo's)
"now game worlds sport raw materials that when sitting within a city's sphere of influence can be used for the good of the player's civilization...in firaxis' design the raw map resources tie directly into the gameplay [as opposed to CTP] rather than functioning strictly as a source of revenue raw goods can be used to build certain types of units or to make your citizens happier. you can also use them to amplify your power, and possibly even win the game...
[with the addition of culture into the game] "Libraries and other city improvements accumulate culture points for a civilization expanding their borders and influence. The older the library the more culture you accumulate. The more culture you accumulate the easier it is to happily assimilate conquered cities."
"Settler units have now been split into two the original settlers and terrain-improving Workers, who can be captured by other players."
[the addition of great leaders] "any time a unit wins a battle and gets promoted to veteran status there's a small chance a leader will be spawned. When this happens get the Leader back to a city without being captured and you can use him for three tasks he can build an army (essentially a stacked unit that fights all at once), form a Military Academy (which builds armies), or accelerate the construction of one building in your empire.
Depending on how the idea comes through in playtesting the design team is also toying with allowing Great Artists, Explorers, and Scientists to be born out of cities leading in each category."
it also mentions how the design team is using Brueghel's "Tower of Babel" as a design template. and there is way more. if you can find a copy DEFANITELY get it.
here is an excerpt of a table i didn't see on the first run through:
"
What's in:
multiplayer
Diplomatic and economic victories
Raw materials and trade
cultural expantion
borders and zone of control for swift units
great leader units
armies
What's out:
Supporting military units with shield units (its only gold now)
The city view [note: this is odd since one of the screenshots in the article is a "improved" city view]
Fundamentalism
What's Changing:
Health points for units
the space race end game
advisers provide more useful info
tech tree (which can be queued up)
civolopedia
diplomacy is more complex and converstaional"
====
I just got off work and have some time to post some more from the article
"Material Goods
Each raw -good icon supplies an entire civilization with that particular good. Resources such as iron and uranium allow a civilization to produce certain goods. Luxuries such as ivory make the population happier. RULES One icon supplies all cities linked to each other by road or by harbor with that particular good. VALUE adds extra depth to the game's economic model in a tangible way. Allows players to create monopolies on certain goods within continents, in a sense becoming power brokers."
"Culture
Each civilization accumulates cultural points based on the types of city improvement built and how long they've been around. When one civilization takes over a foreign city a stronger culture rating will make the assimilation easier and avoid debilitating unhappieness. RULES If you build cultural improvements (a library, a wonder) early in the game these enhancements will generate cultural points the entire game. they may also expand your influence and your city boarders. Captured units retain their cultural identity. VALUE Creates extra tension and opportunity trade-offs around decision making. Gun-or-enhancement decisions become even more critical in the early game because of the cultural payoff. Also places more even emotional and functional value on older cities."
note that this was formatted oddly in the article. the words in capital seem to be some kind of catagorization.
==
Dan Magaha's reply:
If you were quick, you might have noticed that I alluded to this (magazine features) in an earlier thread. We were told the CGW issue would hit newsstands towards the end of April, so this is quite a surprise =)
If you've got it now, all the better for you. For those of you frothing at the mouth for screenshots, this will probably just whet your appetite, but nonetheless it should be worth the cover price.
Re: the quality of the screenshots: you're talking about images that were about 1.5" big in the magazine, then scanned in and blown up, so naturally they aren't going to look that great. =) I'm not sure if we're going to wait until the CGW issue hits the streets officially before we release screenshots or not, I'll let you know either way.
It's also worth stating just for the record that there is still a lot that needs to be put into the game, and things are changing all the time, so the standard disclaimer ("this product is in development and may look differently when it's finished") is very much in force.
Anyway, hopefully this has put to rest some of your fears about the game. As I've said for some time now, I think this game is going to be the best Civ game ever.
====
Thanks shuttleswo for posting these great info & the scanned images!
[This message has been edited by Thunderfall (edited April 03, 2001).]
