Sid Meier's Civilization Series: The Complete Reference (CivRef)

[Keygen]

Hi guys,

I've been thinking for a while to create a thorough guide/eBook, as a single source of information about everything regarding all iterations of Civilization, a primary source to go for all your needs regarding advanced strategies and tactics, quick references, resources, mods, history, trivia, cheats, hints and tips, interviews, and more. The digital form of the guide will include, along the text, plenty of pictures, videos, animations and sounds. It will be both beginner and veteran friendly by organizing some of the sections in a progressive difficulty level. There is no draft at the moment, just a growing list of what it will be included. I need to know if there is any interest in such an endeavor before I proceed to further depth. I estimate to price it somewhere between $5 and $10 and if I am encouraged to give it a go I will prepare a draft within the next few weeks, and most likely start a campaign in a crowdsourcing platform like Kickstarter.

This guide will cover Sid Meier's Civilization I through VII and will be kept updated for a year or two after release, to cover any updates to the latest iteration, VII. It will also cover Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. The guide will probably span across a couple hundred pages (or more) but will try to keep it as sort as possible and to the point but without compromising the wealth of information. I don't currently have any solid delivery timeline as it's in a very preliminary stage, but my goal ideally would be between six months to a year.

What are your thoughts?

Best regards,
Keygen

 

[RDomico]

Maybe digital if it is updated. Printed doesn't make much sense since the game is constantly changing

 

[Keygen]

If there will be a printed version it will be released after the last update on the digital one. Any future updates on Civ VII after that period will go to a website if the guide receives any updates after that period, but depending on its success it’s a possibility. The rest of the titles in the series I don’t think there will be any other update after a year or two, except on mods maybe.

 

[*CoughLies]

If you don't have ai spock doing the audio book then don't bother. Also you could call it the civilopedia, eh? I get mine for free now.

 

[stealth_nsk]

If you don't have ai spock doing the audio book then don't bother. Also you could call it the civilopedia, eh? I get mine for free now.

I'd really like to have civilopedia online, which I could check when not in game.

 

[Evolena]

I'd really like to have civilopedia online, which I could check when not in game.

If it had actually useful information.

Why not just contribute to the wiki?

 

[stealth_nsk]

If it had actually useful information.

Why not just contribute to the wiki?

I've seen some games in the past, which made their in-game encyclopedia in form of HTML files. So, they just copied them on their website without changes and you were able to look at the same information inside and outside without additional efforts. Contribution to wiki does require those additional efforts, especially with rapidly changing game like civ, so it would be great if developers made it that way.

P.S. And regarding my contributions - at some point I made Android app with encyclopedia for Total War: Attila, which contained information from game files, not available in official encyclopedia, like hidden stats for all units. I'm still proud of it - I created great ETL pipeline, which I ran after each patch, it automatically extracted information from game files, made all necessary transformations and output result files to the app folder, which I just had to build afterwards to create a new version.

 

[Menocchio]

If you haven't seen it already, the pdf guide for Old World might be kind of what you're looking for, as something of a foundation. It doubles as both a reference and a strategy guide, which is well above and beyond something like the Civilopedia (which does however have really nicely written flavour/historical text along with its reference info).

 

[Evolena]

I've seen some games in the past, which made their in-game encyclopedia in form of HTML files. So, they just copied them on their website without changes and you were able to look at the same information inside and outside without additional efforts. Contribution to wiki does require those additional efforts, especially with rapidly changing game like civ, so it would be great if developers made it that way.

Don't get me wrong, having the Civilopedia outside the game would be a good starting point. It's just that for Civ VII, I never find the information I'm searching for in it. Civ VI's one was useful.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Don't get me wrong, having the Civilopedia outside the game would be a good starting point. It's just that for Civ VII, I never find the information I'm searching for in it. Civ VI's one was useful.

It surely needs some improvements, but Civ7 civilopedia worked for me so far.

 

[The_J]

Why not just contribute to the wiki?

I would second that, but I'd also probably buy like 5 copies or so for some future contest here (if you'd ship it to Europe, and then would need to see how we distribute them).

 

[Keygen]

To clarify, the intent of this guide is not an enriched civilopedia. And it is not only about Civ 7. It is about all titles in the series, each one of them with their own section and with a wealth of information. Sure, part of it will contain sections similar to civilopedia or past official strategy guides, however special attention will be given on how they are presented, how you navigate through them, and further information will be added so there are no gaps in contrary to civilopedia. There will be sections with thorough tactics and in depth, advanced strategies that cannot be found on civilopedia, only on fora and YouTube, dispersed on several threads and channels. Only in this guide will be all gathered in one place, easy to find with minimal effort. All strategies will be thoroughly tested, repeatedly, on different conditions, both against AI and human opponents for validity, gaps and on how to counter them. Sections with the history of the series and titles will be included, facts about the people involved in their development, fragments of interviews, or entire interviews if permitted, facts about the communities surrounding the series and key persons, how to create mods for each title, online resources, animations and diagrams to visualize some concepts, and more.

I will also engage and keep updating whoever is interested in this guide providing I will eventually start developing it if there is expressed interest from the community.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I like the idea of strategy guides for each of the games. The raw information is already online in https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Civilization_Games_Wiki where that community continues to update it.

As a person who followed the Civ4 forums on this site for a while, I remember when the strong players moved from one set of strategies (cottage economy vs. specialist economy) to newer ones. You may need separate sections for Civ5, with and without the Vox Populi / community mod.

Good luck! it will be a challenging effort!

 

[Keygen]

Thank you for the info and wishes, appreciated