Why only 18 civs?

[GeneralX]

Perhaps the developers have decided to make the game so “modable” that they have given us 18 to start with and then will allow us to develop any more that we see fit. That way you get the game you want. I also think that there are marketing considerations involved and they will want us to buy expansion packs every 6-9 months.

 

[ranLR]

In that case there would be no eastern ones (other than japan) and none that dont exist today. And as for chucking out arabia -> yeah lets just pretend a civilization doesn't exit because there is a war over there. I'm sure that money plays some part but hopefully not that much

Then how would you explain Hebrews not being in? They were around a lot earlier then most others, they had written languahe, agriculture, religion, great monuments etc. etc.
its all political and economical

 

[obscenename]

Portraits do not take up that much spaces, thats a simple fabrication, It'smoney plain and simple.

 

[Urederra]

Just a question from a person who does not know much about Hebrew culture. If Hebrews were in, which city names you will add? As far as I know, they always have been a nomad civ, but not many own built cities, I think.

 

[yoshi]

The reason Civ3 only has 31(2) civs is because of performance problems resulting in the slow games everyone complains about. Even adding a few more than 8 civs apparently already causes a jump in turn-rate lag.

From what I can tell, Civ4 will have double if not triple the requirements that Civ3 does. So if anything, the limit is performance-related.


Although, AFAIK Firaxis has only said that there will only be 18 civs IN THE VANILLA GAME. I don't think they've confirmed that a higher number won't be supported for modding purposes (i.e. that you won't be able to ADD more civs). [Pardon me if they have in fact said that 18 civs is the maximum limit--I just haven't read it anywhere...but then, I haven't been keeping much track since they siad they'd be using Python (which means that there won't be much in terms of limits otherwise).]

 

[Ramalhão]

Making a second leader for a civ is roughly the same amount of work as making a new civ. The question shouldn't be how many civs, but rather how many leaders (as they have the distiguishing charateristics (not civs) if I am reading right).

Possibly they are using a "3d skeleton", just adding skins and doing the same movements, avoiding to waste time. If this "3d skeleton" ships with the game, it can be easier to create new leaderheads.

Civ3 came with 16 civs, used all space in CD, but there's not a single wonder movie, and we know that Civ4 will come with these movies. No one said anything yet, but I think Civ4 will come in 2 CDs, using around 1,5 GB on hard drive.