Firaxis - speak to us!

[Slax]

Its been a long time since Soren's CIV4 presentation, and I think its about time we got either an update, or some nugget of information about the upcoming CIV4.

Isn't there something new Firaxis can tell us at this point?

What decisions have been made?

Anything?

Please?

 

[Jon Shafer]

(Sid Meier): No!

 

[warpstorm]

The problem that bit them before (and they learned from) is that anything said before the game ships will be construed as "promises". When they later change their mind on a feature, this is construed as "breaking their promises". This is why they aren't talking about stuff. I wouldn't expect them to talk much about it here for at least another 6 months if not longer (whenever the media hype blitz for it starts).

 

[dh_epic]

Yeah, that's the unfortunate reality of the game industry. The company I work at (no names named) has a pretty active set of user forums that the developers, including myself, talk on. It's part of our company policy to stay as quiet as possible, not because we don't want to tell them or because we want to be secretive, but for the reasons you just said. We can't say "we've been working on this!" Only to say later "we decided this isn't working!" (Which happens more often than you'd think.) People feel betrayed, like they've encountered broken promises.

 

[Davidizer13]

Oops! i clicked the post button twice, and this is a mistake post! Sorry!

 

[Davidizer13]

Maybe something ultra-secret is going on! Like Will Wright (The Sims and Sim City guy) and Sid Meier are teaming up to make Civ4! That means it could be the most brilliant game ever made (besides Sim City and Civilization)! They are both so smart!

 

[Slax]

I realize very little can be said in a definitive way, but even a vague update on how the new game engine is working would be something. What has been gained from reprogramming from scratch? Is there a working prototype with features different from CIV3 (without telling us what they are)?

 

[Jon Shafer]

I'm sure that they have plenty working, after all, they were playing 4-hour+ MP games many months ago.

Maybe something ultra-secret is going on! Like Will Wright (The Sims and Sim City guy) and Sid Meier are teaming up to make Civ4! That means it could be the most brilliant game ever made (besides Sim City and Civilization)! They are both so smart!

Right.

Or maybe it's because of what WS and dh said.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Well, one thing I think they could tell us is how much of the engine they will expose to modders through the use of Python scripts, I bet they have that much decided by now. It would be very nice if the unit abilities were all implemented as classes, this would allow for an enormous range of interactions between units. I wonder, though, exactly how much all those scripts are going to slow down the turns.

 

[warpstorm]

Maybe something ultra-secret is going on! Like Will Wright (The Sims and Sim City guy) and Sid Meier are teaming up to make Civ4! That means it could be the most brilliant game ever made (besides Sim City and Civilization)! They are both so smart!

Wow, maybe they could make SimGolf.

 

[microbe]

I'd love to see some screenshot. I love 3D.

 

[Teabeard]

Relax guys, the game is probably more than a year away. I think we'll start hearing more updates as we approach the release date, which will probably be around this time next year.

 

[Sirian]

Isn't there something new Firaxis can tell us at this point?

When Diablo II was coming out, I deliberately avoided the steamrolling Blizzard Hype Machine (TM). As much hope as I had for the game, I just didn't want to know too much. I did not want to torture myself, nor get my hopes and expectations raised too much, nor entering into a frame of mind of "waiting for the game". As often as expected release dates slip, it's like asking for heartache.

I did the same with Civ3. I waited until it went gold to check out its features. I saw some exciting things in there, and my own excitement was still new and fresh when I got the game into my hands. I had a great time with it in those early months.

I can understand the longing for a good game. But it's going to take as long as it takes, right? We can't do anything about that. My two bits.


- Sirian