Chat Logs

[pawpaw]

Originally posted by FlakJacket
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the scientific leaders being possibly pretty unbalancing. Granted, its not guarenteed since their appearence is random, but if you're already ahead and then you also get a twenty-five percent boost in your research for the next twenty turns, sounds a bit like SETI used to be back in Civ2. :/

pro and con, if your playing at a higher level you may not be ahead of the A I and this gives you a chance to catch up

 

[FlakJacket]

Do we know anything more about the bonus Austrians? What their UU might be or who the leaderhead is going to be? Either way, this is good for me since it means I can use them for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in my 1910 scenario.

 

[Mr Black]

<Thunderfall> <Mr. Black>: You guys are awesome, but will navy ships lose movement, due to losing Hit Points, like in Civ II?
<Firaxis-Ed> Mr. Black- No
<Jeff_ATARI> @Black: pretty sure navy ships do not lose movement if they're hurt.
<bobT-BA> no loss of movement


Well that SUXXXORS! On the other hand……….


<Chieftess> <Paalikles> will conquests put more emphasis on naval operations?
<Merepatra> yes to the naval operations
<bobT-BA> Conquests has an extensive naval scenario WW2 Pacific
<Firaxis_Jesse> Naval combat in Civ can be a lot of fun - we've certainly been looking to improve naval where-ever possible


The only improvement mentioned was the AEGIS anti-aircraft ability. But it seems that there are more improvements. Or at least they hinted toward that.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Originally posted by FlakJacket
Do we know anything more about the bonus Austrians? What their UU might be or who the leaderhead is going to be? Either way, this is good for me since it means I can use them for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in my 1910 scenario.

Since civs were chosen based on need in a scenario, I figure Austria was needed to fight Napoleon. They created the leaderhead and units, but they couldn't get around the hard-coded civ limit.

I figure the Austrians would be the Austrians of this time period. It actually had more influence on the German States, and, if it wasn't for Bismark, they would have stayed more powerful than Prussia/Germany. UU and Leaderhead would match accordingly.

But this is all speculation.

 

[Portuguese]

Do you have any idea on how Naval will be improved?

 

[bobT]

I don't think I'm breaking my NDA when I say that MP received extensive testing. Many bugs were written up against MP (and fixed, too ). I'm not really into MP, but I got very used to discussions about OOSes, lag times, etc.

Your safe

And yes, in support of this reply, there has been extensive MP testing and a number of issues have been resolved. Hopefully you will all enjoy the work we have done to improve your MP experience a great deal.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Hmmm, if I had to pick one thing I'm DISAPPOINTED by, from the chat transcript, it's that there is not really much that is new in Diplomacy ! This is a great shame, given how much they were playing up the diplomacy changes over the last couple of months!! I'm sorry, but locked alliances and war just aren't enough to justify I comment like: 'Significant changes to diplomacy'!!! Significant would be Unit Trading, Protectorates, Science and Environment Pacts, and multilateral Alliances, ROP's and MPP's!!! Many of these diplomacy changes are especially vital in the Modern age!!!
Also, I seriously hope you are wrong, Louis, and that they are referring to something OTHER than units which can ONLY be built be certain wonders!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Novaya Havoc]

Maybe the Austrians will be led by Maria Theresa to add a female leader.

Of course, it will probably be one of the Josefs to fit into the Napoleonic Era.

-Ben

 

[durfal]

You shouldn't be amazed if they were led by Sisi.

 

[Mr Black]

Originally posted by Portuguese
Do you have any idea on how Naval will be improved?

Two more things:
I forgot about the stealth attack (for submarines), and the ability to hit ships while in port. This will improve the combat, even if there is NO combat modifier.

But in the end, the warships in the game, will still be a luxury, instead of a necessity, unless we can attack TRADE.

One of the BIG reasons nations have navies, is to protect their TRADE routes. Hopefully the blockades have been made easier to implement. Personally, I’ve never seen an actual Naval Blockade in the game.

What I’m hoping for, is the ability to attack Trade. Somehow, someway, people who don’t build navies MUST PAY.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I couldn't agree more, Mr Black. Whether the trade routes are now physical structures which can be 'attacked' (a la CTP), or even if you can interdict a trade route with greater ease (one unit interdicts ONE trade route), then I'll be happy! You're right that, anyone who has overseas trade routes, and no navy with which to protect them, should pay a VERY high price!!

Here's a very SIMPLE idea: if you end your turn with a ship within about 4 tiles of a coastal city which is a part of a Civs overseas trade routes, then your domestic advisor should appear to inform you of the fact, and ask if you wish to a) leave the route alone b) begin an embargo or c) pirate the route. If you choose a, nothing happens, if you choose b) the trade route is BROKEN and if you choose c) then the trade route remains intact, but you gain X gold every turn you're on the route (and the civs either lose an equal amount of gold or, if it's trade in resources/luxuries, they lose access to the resource every turn!) A more complicated option, for luxuries and resources, would be that, instead of gold, you are considered to have the resource/luxury you are 'pirating' every turn your ship interdicts the trade route. One ship can, at most, only interdict ONE trade route! Anyway, let's hope they've dealt with such matters, considering that the Age of Sail is going to be such a Naval dominated Scenario !!

Aussie_Lurker.

p.s. Any Firaxians/Breakaway Games people want to confirm or deny any of these hypotheses !

 

[Evie]

I like the idea, though I think the "Pirate Trade Route" and "Blockade" should be commands, and of course they wouldn't always work (depending on the power of the ship and some other factors). It's hard to convince trade captains in the modern age to capituldate and give you the booty if all you have is a trireme...

 

[Tavis]

You will find that MP has advanced immensely!! It is unfortunate that there really was nothing that we could do about making an 8 player game with a 28k modem host much faster, but we have been able to eliminate a lot of the problems with OOS & crashes. Modem to modem games work smoothly, broadband to broadband games work smoothly. Modem to broadband can cause the broadband player to receive lag from the modem user. This is not an issue that can be resolved through programming - it can only be solved by patience within the broadband user or through upgraded internet connections. Even with broadband to modem 4 players or less works really well.

For connectivity, you should find significant improvement - but if you have a firewall and do not configure it to open the ports (included info is in the manual - please be sure to check the readme as well) then you MUST be the last player to join a multiplayer game AND THE ONLY Closed Firewall user in the game. As long as you are last then you can play. DirectPlay is greatly affected by firewalls...!!!

As for Naval, trade attacking/blockading has not been improved beyond Civ III & PTW. However, improvements such as harbors, offshore platforms, airports, etc have a higher % of being destroyed when bombarded - even if there are land, naval, & air troops in the city. No port = no trade. 2X damage to ships in ports and the lethal air bombardment makes recon of enemy naval operations vital for quick elimination of key units as they enter cities to heal.

My favorite addition to naval operations is the curragh. This ancient era-available to everyone- naval scout is the perfect solution to island map starts. With the changes to map and communications trading, you will find that this unit quickly becomes extremely useful. As a Seafaring nation the reduced risk of sinking in Ocean tiles can give you that extra edge when trading with the higher level AI's.

Just some teaser information - we can't give away all of the surprises!!

Jesse
C3C, Producer - Firaxis

 

[John Falkner]

Thank you Jesse, for the words about MP. The MP theme was a bit short in the chat, i think. At the moment with PTW 1.27, the game is unplayable on great maps with thousands of units, with broadband on both sides (if you want to drag a (blitz) unit, the computer jumps randomly to another one and you can´t finish your attack with this unit). The PBEM games are not useful, because you have no replay so you can´t see what your opponents have done! Maybe you will work on that, too?

 

[Inhalaattori]

I wonder what was the most stupid question in that chat.
One of my questions was quite weird:

<Thunderfall> <Inhalator> Is there Varjag- Guard- unit in Middle- Ages scenario?
<Gobi> The Varangian guard, is that the question?
<Gobi> Very interesting one.

Varangian is Varjagi in finnish, and I didnt find that word from my English- Finnish wordbook, so I had to guess.

 

[Rowain deWolf]

Originally posted by Novaya Havoc
Of course, it will probably be one of the Josefs to fit into the Napoleonic Era.

No Josef at that time To fit Napoleon it has to be
Franz II. (I.) the one who ended the German Empire and created the Austrian Empire.

Originally posted by Novaya Havoc
Maybe the Austrians will be led by Maria Theresa to add a female leader.

Well Maria Theresia was the female Leader(for Germany) in Civ2
so maybe you are right here.


rowain

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Hi Guys,

I'd also like to thank Jesse for clarifying the Naval situation ! The news I hear, overall, is good, but I still have a couple of questions for the Firaxians, whilst they are around the place !!

1) In PTW (Only have CivIII, I'm afraid !) how HARD is it to interdict an enemy's trade route? i.e., how many ships are required, and how close do the ships have to be from a coastal city to be considered 'interdicting' the trade route(s)?

2) From a programming perspective, how hard would it be to implement my idea for piracy and interdiction in a future patch or XP? Better still, how difficult would it be to implement the CTP style trade routes? I'd REALLY love to see one of these stlyles of 'trade war' implemented into CivIII, at some point in the future !!! I have to say that, from the outset, naval operations have been LIGHT years ahead of what it was in Civ2, and seemed to get better after each patch !! Now, of course, it sounds like it will be even MORE brilliant, but I still feel that one of my suggestions would prove to be the icing on the CAKE !!!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Mr Black]

I can answer the first question, kind of.

You can blockade a rival civilization if you are at war with them. You have to position your ships in EVERY sea square surrounding an enemy Harbour, and no trade can get through.

What is not clear though is.... If the blocked civ, shares a continent with another civ WITH Harbours, will the blocked civ be able to use their neighbors Harbours?????

Can anybody answer that question, I really don't know.

If the answer is Yes, then the NB are quite useless.

 

[Pirate]

Originally posted by Mr Black
I can answer the first question, kind of.

You can blockade a rival civilization if you are at war with them. You have to position your ships in EVERY sea square surrounding an enemy Harbour, and no trade can get through.

What is not clear though is.... If the blocked civ, shares a continent with another civ WITH Harbours, will the blocked civ be able to use their neighbors Harbours?????

Can anybody answer that question, I really don't know.

If the answer is Yes, then the NB are quite useless.

Can you use your neighbors harbors if you are connected to them and you have no harbors of your own? No. So I don't think they'd be able to another civ's harbors.

However, if one civ has multiple connected cities with harbors, you will need to blockade all the harbors, not just one city.

IMHO, I think the current system is a good way to do it. Being able to stop a trade route with ONE ship is a bit unrealistic and too easy. You could stop one shipment, maybe priate a little gold out of it, but to completely break a trade route you should have to have a formidable navy in very strategic positions - i.e. surrounding all coastal cities.

 

[Mr Black]

Originally posted by Pirate
Can you use your neighbors harbors if you are connected to them and you have no harbors of your own? No.

Actually, I think the answer to that question is, YES.

Arrrrgh, but I'm not really sure.