PAX-E VideoInterview with Dennis Shirk

[NeverMind]

Just found http://bit.ly/bEailD

Watching it, nothing new so far.

EDIT: Oops. Somehow I cant insert a correct link.
EDIT: Ok. BitLy helps.

 

[Shurdus]

Woot! Will definitely give it a look back home. Thanks!

 

[Willowmound]

All units can become a ship. So now we know.

 

[CTH]

Not much news that I could hear but still nice He mentiones Civfanatics also

 

[hclass]

All units can become a ship. So now we know.

Transformers?

 

[Abremms]

units become defenseless transports to cross water... interesting. think that will add alot. you'll really have to protect them by sending ships ahead to clear the way and escorting them with sub hunters and anti-air and such... i like it.

 

[CTH]

He said that the transports would be civilian units, so I guess you could have a military unit on top of them

 

[V. Soma]

He said that the transports would be civilian units, so I guess you could have a military unit on top of them

this sounds good and logical to me

 

[Newcomer24]

All units can become a ship. So now we know.

Well... I guess that for their quest to make the game simplier and accessible to the average monkey it's a good thing.

But unless it's going to cost you something to transform a unit into a ship and that the process requires at least a couple of turns I really do not see how a civ veteran could like this crap.
Limiting the number of transports you can have at a time by the amount of owned ports would also help a bit.

 

[deanej]

I hope this unit transforms into boat thing is undone at the earliest opportunity. It is SO unrealistic that we might as well get rid of the tech tree!

 

[V. Soma]

Well... I guess that for their quest to make the game simplier and accessible to the average monkey it's a good thing.

But unless it's going to cost you something to transform a unit into a ship and that the process requires at least a couple of turns I really do not see how a civ veteran could like this crap.
Limiting the number of transports you can have at a time by the amount of owned ports would also help a bit.

We don't know things... like WHERE you can do the transformation...

Only moving into water from port-city tile, maybe?

And yes, maybe it would take a ful turn to do so... who knows.

 

[deanej]

Only transforming in a port city and using up all movement to do so takes care of how the unit gets on the transport... but what about when it lands? Not every invasion went like the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs (the Spanish burned their ships to motivate the troops).

 

[CTH]

I think there is a few things about the automated-water-transport-trasformation-thingy we dont know about. He said that it was after you researched a certain tech, and we know that you aldready will have a limited amount of untits (resource based or something) and I guess that if you would have transports they wouldnt be able to transport more than 2 units at once because otherwise you would only need like 2 tranports for a pretty big attack force. (I am assuming that 8 units would be pretty powerful, it is not a bad force in civ 4 and should be much more powerful now) Transports could also create a problem when you unload the units, thinking about the 1 unit per hex here.

 

[Trias]

I hope this unit transforms into boat thing is undone at the earliest opportunity. It is SO unrealistic that we might as well get rid of the tech tree!

That depends on how it is implemented. I surely hope units cannot simply walk onto a water tile and become a boat. This should require the presence of either a port or at the very least the presence of another naval vessel. This would represent the effort to build a transport for the units.

More importantly, in a 1upt scenario what are the alternatives? Building a transport for every unit you want to transport? That sounds like an mm nightmare! Especially since you will probably need to beeld an escort for each transport as well.

 

[Jamesds]

Nice video. He mentioned putting all your treasury into a fledgling city to expand culture quickly - did anyone else get the feeling this could have been meant literally? I'm thinking in this case that your overall 'gold' would actually be the sum of the gold held in all your villages, and that to purchase things in a village you might have to ship over more gold from other villages. So each village keeps its own gold reserves that build up each turn with the amount of gold it produces.

That's probably total nonsense, as it seems it would just add a needless level of complexity to the game, but that's just how I interpreted it at first.

 

[Gre_Magus]

I'll have to see more of this "auto transport" concept before I feel okay about it. I can remember someone talking about how this worked in Empire Earth. They pointed out that, while it seems like a great way to "streamline" things, in the end it just negates the special characteristic of water, i.e., that it is a barrier to movement. If units can just "step" into the water any time the player wants, it could become very difficult to defend your territory once the enemy has discovered whatever tech allows them to do that.

 

[King Kalmah]

Even though everyone hates the "British Isles" arguement its gonna be painfully true if all units can turn into ships...

Imagine WW2 England would have never stood a chance if all the Nazi's had to do was turn into ships and cross the channel....

or also...did anyone notice battleships/subs can fire 5 tiles inland?!

Yep...no more India or Korea wiped out first....It'll be England out first cause of France or any country close by....

 

[Newcomer24]

in the end it just negates the special characteristic of water, i.e., that it is a barrier to movement.

Worst thing you could do in a strategy game.

 

[zarakand]

Worst thing you could do in a strategy game.

Not really. Rise of Nations used a similar concept and it worked really well. It takes away a useless unit (transport/galleon) and minimizes micromanagement. I am sure it will be linked to the tech tree in a logical manner and force you to defend those units with naval warships.

Overall I like the change, as there is nothing I hated more than spamming tons of galleons/transports to conquer the next continent. Of course, the feature could be broken once we play it...but it sounds good!

 

[Newcomer24]

Not really. Rise of Nations used a similar concept and it worked really well. It takes away a useless unit (transport/galleon) and minimizes micromanagement. I am sure it will be linked to the tech tree in a logical manner and force you to defend those units with naval warships.

Overall I like the change, as there is nothing I hated more than spamming tons of galleons/transports to conquer the next continent. Of course, the feature could be broken once we play it...but it sounds good!

In a RTS game like Rise of Nations it makes sense... because there are lots of things happening at the same time and you couldn't manage everything if certain aspetcs wouldn't be streamlined.
But this is a TBS game... a whole different story.