www.civ4.com signs

[Michelangelo]

I thought, let's try it, www.civ4.com, and it worked. I got the civ3 site though, but it shows they allready reserved that one. Is it a sign??

Tried www.civ5.com, but that's probably to much to ask for.

 

[sabo]

That's been there for about a year now, yeah they are reserving it.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Why are you even thinking of civ5? If they support civ4 like they did c3c, there won't be a civ5.

 

[warpstorm]

Watorrey, you should know better by now. A publisher's decision to fund a sequel has nothing to do with how they and their developers support their products, but entirely on how many copies the previous title sold and the developer's record for selling titles. Since Civ4 will sell tons (c'mon, be honest, you know you will buy a copy), I think that Civ5 will happen some day (probably around 2008).

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Yes, i should and do know better. The problem comes from just waking up and not enough coffee in me yet Remnants of bitterness still exist and show though at such times.

And yes... i will most likely buy civ4 asap.

 

[Moss]

Civ 4 will sell well as will Civ 5 so long as they are able to make great progress in the development of the game. A game like Civ could become very repetetive...if they can continue to come up with new ideas of gameplay than Civ will continue to grow in number of titles.

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Moved to Civ4 - I&S.

 

[dh_epic]

I think that worst case Civ 4 will sell as well as Civ 3. That's assuming they don't make any really dumb moves that would alienate the core audience, like switching to an RTS.

Also, assuming they don't spend much more on development, profits will still be solid.

I would like to see them branch out, though. And I think the casual fan -- the one who picks up Civ, sees Civ, tries Civ but doesn't buy Civ -- is attracted to it on the basis of a great history game but is a little disappointed. I still enjoy Civ, but trying to think back a long time ago to playing Civ 1, I loved the idea that I might be able to live out and change history. I don't feel as though Civ has met that promise, although I do think it makes steady progress.

Still, UI issues will be important. God knows a lot of people can't figure out where and why to move their settler, and what the point of the arrows and shields are.

 

[Stid]

if they're planning a civ5 then dont expect civ4 to be perfect.first rule of creating a new product is never make something you cant possibly expand on in the future.all they care about is money (me too ) bt they dont care about how good the game is so long as they sell miiiilions and can then make another adition to the series

 

[warpstorm]

Stid, I think that is a bit unfair. Knowing the guys at Firaxis, I'm sure that they'll do as good a game as they can given their time and money budget. Believe it or not they are not just in it for the money (no game developer is - they could easily make more money doing other types of work), but want to make a good game that they'll enjoy playing.

At this point nobody is 'planning' a Civ5. It is just wishful thinking on peoples' part.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Warpstorm, it seems i'm not the only bitter one... (oops, more coffee is required.)

Someone posted in alt.games.civ3 about how civ3 was made by Satan. Someone quickly suggested we ask Satan for a C3C patch!!

Loyal civ players are disappointed and bitter that there is no final patch for C3C. You're gonna be busy sticking up for them until at least civ5 comes out unless they do something to appease us.

Ok... i'll get more coffee now

 

[Jon Shafer]

Yes, it's clear that Firaxis is trying to make CIV the best game they posibly can. MP is already included, powerful mod tools, scripting and more. These are things that in the past have come with expansion packs, which is now coming with the core game. If they were really trying to milk the franchise they wouldn't include so much in the original game.

 

[dh_epic]

To be devil's advocate, Firaxis already has your money. Who needs a patch, especially when we're gonna rush out to buy Civ 4 right away.

But the answer my own retort, there's a difference between the loyal audience you've built, and the future audience you want to reach. Perhaps a reason they're not reaching further is because there's something missing from Civ -- in terms of what people expected.

The question becomes, what did people expect when they first played Civ, and why didn't it meet their expectations?

 

[plastiqe]

I dunno if there are any Diablo II players here, but the amount of support Blizzard gave that game amazed me. The 1.10 patch was more like a small expansion pack that added a ton of items, ladders and all sorts of gameplay changes. I am for sure buying World of Warcraft, just because I know they will give the same dedicated support that they did with D2.

Firaxis on the other hand, does not carry the same level of respect with me.

 

[Sirian]

Having been on the inside of the Diablo II expansion beta, I can tell you that Blizzard North did NOT live up to all of their promises. The expansion shipped on a hard deadline before it was ready, then they patched it once and dumped it. A lot of features stank -- like charges on items, something STILL not fixed -- and others did not get enough attention or were geared toward greed: especially uber items trying to suck in the item-hunter/trader addicts.

Diablo II did patch to 1.10 and that's great. They did a lot of good things there. But it was nearly THREE YEARS after the expansion first shipped.


Firaxis's record is MUCH MUCH better. Civ3 got patched numerous times and they didn't stop patching it until it was in good shape. In fact, that's the most impressive patch effort I have EVER seen. In my experience, no other game in Civ3's category in terms of how much patching it needed has ever gotten all the way to "wow, this works as promised now", but Civ3 did.

Now Civ3's expansions are another story. PTW tried to slap on multiplayer to a game not designed for it and they didn't get it right. However, they did get multiplayer working well in C3C, just that (much like Diablo II!) the expansion added a lot of goodies designed to sell copies but NOT designed to play well.

Look where that has left them, with fans like you out here unhappy. ::shrug::


And yet Firaxis did not make the second expansion. That got farmed out to a third party: Breakaway Games. Breakaway did a lot of things right, but no new AI code (or at least none worth its salt) got written for these new features, so players can exploit them to the max while the AI just stands there.

Since Firaxis, and not Breakaway, will be designing Civ4 (at least the core game!) I have high hopes for it. Why shouldn't I? Civ3's core game delivered sixteen months of intense, sometimes even addicted action for me. That's a long run for a discerning, demanding player like myself. Few games can match that. Diablo II didn't last that long for me. More like eleven months (which is still good, to be fair). I have to go back into the mid 1990s to find games like Descent and Diablo (the originals) that kept me entertained for multiple years, or games like Half Life that were so incredibly much fun, it didn't matter that they had a short run.

What will Civ4 hold? I don't know. But this much I do know: I'm pretty sure it will hold enough to be worth my money.


- Sirian

 

[PresidentMarcos]

I wonder; will Firaxis turn the Civilization series and franchise into another Final Fantasy? In other words, will they be making more and more new additions to the Civilization series until the end of time?

 

[Jon Shafer]

Conquests was a collaborative effort between Firaxis and BreakAway. The division of personell on the project was roughly 50-50 (or thereabouts).

 

[Milan's Warrior]

Someone posted in alt.games.civ3 about how civ3 was made by Satan. Someone quickly suggested we ask Satan for a C3C patch!!

You want Satan? there is one in Civ2 Fantastic Worlds (or whatever its name was)

 

[Sirian]

50-50? Hmm. OK, if you say so.

 

[Jon Shafer]

I was under the mistaken impression that BreakAway comprised most of the team but Jesse politely informed me otherwise a month or two before the beta began.