E3 2002: Jeff Morris Interview @ Gamespy

[Thunderfall]

There is a new Jeff Morris interview on Gamespy about Play the World. The interview contains lots of interesting stuff and I recommend everyone to read it. Here is a summary of the new info:

• New game types such as Capture the Flag and Regicide can be played in single-player. For the Capture the Flag mode, the "flag" could be a flag, a relic or an artifact. You need to take it from their city and take it to your own. Regicide puts that Civ's leader in one of their towns. If you take the town, you take the leader out and win the game.
• Autobombard effectively orders a cannon or bomber to auto-bombard a square or city. You can do that with a stack of units, effectively ordering a stack of bombers to keep attacking the same square every turn.
• Better stack movement, so you can marry a settler and a warrior or a warship and a transport together.
• Spanish conquistador unit replaces calvalry, but doesn't need gunpowder.
• Two units in the same character is now possible. This opened the door to adding units to existing character like catapults. Now you'll see guys falling down when the catapult is destroyed.
• Play-by-email games have player passwords and admin passwords. If someone quits halfway through a long game, the admin can replace them with an AI or another player.
• Players can set victory conditions so you can win a game by capturing a single enemy city -- first one to lose a city loses the game!
• Victory Points: Some locations can be worth more than others. If you hold them at the end of the game the one with the most points wins.
• Once again, the scenario editor WILL be released in June as a free download.
• Balanced Multiplayer Scenarios: You can specify detailed things like "everyone gets six grasslands, all irrigated and with roads."
• The game will shipped with 10 multiplayer scenarios.
• World Map with Historical Start Locations for Civs will be included in the June patch!

These are all great stuff! The only disappointing thing is single player scenarios such as World War II may not be included. "Rather than take that upon ourselves, we're letting the people who really love the history of the eras do it. We're giving them the tools to do it", says Jeff Morris.

http://www.gamespy.com/e32002/pc/civ3interview/

 

[Exile_Ian]

Aargh TF posted thread same time as me! (I'll repost my comments here instead).

So finally - we get defined starting positions.
And YES! the scenerio editors etc. will be a free download next month!

 

[Thunderfall]

Jeff Morris: Yeah, the problem with [single scenario] is the modified tech tree, artwork and how it heavily modifies the game. Turns in a WWII scenario don't really work if one turn represents a year.

Well, it worked in Civ2. In Civ2, I think it was possible to change the date to monthly instead of yearly (correct me if I am wrong).

Edit: Now that think about it... Not including pre-made single player scenarios may not be a bad thing. They have more time to focus on MP and other more important things this way. I am sure players will create some WW2 scenarios in no time. The best Civ2 WW2 scenarios were made by players.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

WOW!!!!

And the scenario editor is gonna be free!!!!!!!


WOW! let`s party!!!!!
[dance]

 

[Thunderfall]

GameSpy: Tell us about Regicide and CTF. I mean, how does CTF work in a game like Civilization?

Jeff Morris: Well, it's not necessarily a flag. It could be a relic or an artifact. You've got to get it from their city and take it to your own.

I don't get this one... If you need to capture an enemy city to acquire the artifact, doesn't capturing the enemy city containing the artifact automatically put that artifact in your own city, since the captured city becomes your city?

 

[Jason Fox]

Originally posted by Thunderfall

I don't get this one... If you need to capture an enemy city to acquire the artifact, doesn't capturing the enemy city containing the artifact automatically put that artifact in your own city, since the captured city becomes your city?

Maybe he meant your capital.

 

[-proletarian-]

Hmm. All of that being available for free download should please a lot of people who felt that should have been included in the original game.......but me? I'm going to buy the XP anyways, so I couldn't care less.

 

[CrazyDuck]

hooray for firaxis

 

[philippe]

im going to post a poll:will you buy PTW now there is news that the scenario editor will be free?

 

[Exsanguination]

Originally posted by Thunderfall

I don't get this one... If you need to capture an enemy city to acquire the artifact, doesn't capturing the enemy city containing the artifact automatically put that artifact in your own city, since the captured city becomes your city?

The relic/artifact would probably be like a worker. You capture it, and probably have to it back to your capital.

 

[kring]

The next patch is coming out on schedule. They have been sending out one about every two months.

Whether I buy XP will depend on its actual released features. I know that have said a lot of what is supposed to be in it, but the same can be said about Civ 3 before it was released. Even if it has everything they said in it, it will still depend. This next patch will hopefully give people a better idea about what will be in it for the MP aspect.

Jusr remember to shut off the autobombard after the territory becomes yours. lol

Good article, I read the whole thing. I thought it was strange that he would not list all 8 civs. I wonder if they have detailed all of them, or if they are waiting to see what we, the fans, want most for the last 1 or 2; OR they are trying to tease and will release a little about them between now and then.

Anyone want to guess if we will get the next patch in August or not, maybe not due to the XP being shipped in October, based on several different sources now.

 

[shamu]

Once again, the scenario editor WILL be released in June as a free download.



i'm very thankful something is for free.

 

[Evie]

"Interestingly, we did a lot of research on the conquistador and we found they favored spears because the humidity made their muskets useless in the New World. So we made them a replacement for cavalry in the Spanish tech tree and removed the gunpowder pre-requisite from their queue. Also, they used deerhounds, which were these huge massive dogs that were used as terror weapons against the Native Americans. We presented this to the art team as a challenge; they had to animate two dogs in the special conquistador cavalry unit we had them design. They were up to the challenge. This was the first time we had them use two units in the same character, and this opened the door to adding units to existing character like catapults. Now you'll see guys falling down when the catapult is destroyed. It really opened the door for the new unit packs we're adding to the game. "

Very interesting note. So, the conquistador is a weaker cavalry which does not require Gundpowder from the tech queue before developing military tradition? Weird...I wonder how they do that? Aside from making Gunpowder a free tech for the spanish, anyway...

Perhaps he meant "saltpeter" instead of gunpowder. -1 attack in return for not requiring Saltpeter...Or perhaps it's a combination of both *shrugs*.

Anyway, rather interesting.

And it also clear out the business of why the conquistador were made as they are.

 

[Akka]

Good news.
I said earlier that I would not buy the expansion and that I would get a warez version.
Well, if the editor is coming for free, I think I can think twice about this former opinion.

 

[6ajax9]

It seems like firaxis have pulled a smooth one... the editor available for a free down load is a masterly public relations stroke...

maybe there has been method in the marketing madness!..

 

[Tyndale]

I wonder if they are going to add a new civ attribute in addition to religous, commercial, etc so that there will be less repeated combinations with the new civs?
E.g 1 more attribute allows 6 more combinnations

Aside from that the XP looks very good, there some imaginative features in there

 

[Paalikles]

Originally posted by Tyndale
I wonder if they are going to add a new civ attribute in addition to religous, commercial, etc so that there will be less repeated combinations with the new civs?
E.g 1 more attribute allows 6 more combinnations

Aside from that the XP looks very good, there some imaginative features in there

Sounds like a good idea to me. To have 24 civs defined to being militaristic, expansionistic, religious, commercial, scientific, industrious - not bad at all, but it would be nice to see other attributes to a civ...if it's possible to add more
IMHO with 24 civs it would be nice to have more traits that makes each civ differ from another. Wonder if they'll include more global cultures.

 

[Selous]

Originally posted by 6ajax9
It seems like firaxis have pulled a smooth one... the editor available for a free down load is a masterly public relations stroke...

maybe there has been method in the marketing madness!..

hehe ... what is that? release a beta project ... poor support for 6 months ... release editor for free 9 months later then release xp 12 months later ... and hopefully all those grizzled fans will still buy the xp after being buttered up with the game that should have been

sounds like a masterly public relations stroke to me ... bastards

but it is still madness!! even if it is maximum profit for minimum work ... bastards

 

[Jason Fox]

Originally posted by Tyndale
I wonder if they are going to add a new civ attribute in addition to religous, commercial, etc so that there will be less repeated combinations with the new civs?
E.g 1 more attribute allows 6 more combinnations

I'd like to see two more attributes, giving each civ 3 of 8. That would really open it up for additional civs we'll eventually be able to add.

And hopefully we can play with more than 16 civs at a time.

 

[Homie]

Why is there no grouping action for workers. Like if you could group together 10 workers for cleaning pollution in the mountains
and a group of say 3 for building mines etc... This would save a lot of time dealing with the workers.