Civilization III from Sid Meier

blitzrage writes "Here is some info on the long awaited Civilization III game from Sid Myer. Thankfully the patent got back to Sid Meier, after some games of hot potatoe with it. The story is on Neoseeker." Having large portions of my life to the original, II, Railroad Tycoon and Alpha Centauri, I'm not sure if I should be joyful about this, or fearful of the time I'll lose.

Patent?

It's not a patent, it's a license. If you're going to argue for IP rights for Napster/DVD/CSS, you should at least learn the terminology and apply it correctly, in all cases.

Re:Ahhh fond memories

As a programmer of CTP, I would like to thank you for revealing to me this previously unknown use of my program. It is always wonderful to hear how people find new and cool uses for the things you create. I am going to call my former coworkers from the marketing department at Activision (I'm not there any more, they still are) and tell them to start pursuing cross-licensing deals with crib manufacturers, Gerber's, etc. There's nothing that'll get 'em into a bigger frenzy than a brand new demographic. And what could be more natural than a new parent-world domination link? Not much, I think. Thanks again!

Joe

P.S. ;-)

Re:Ahhh fond memories

If it's as addictive as the very first one, you won't see your wife to MAKE the second kid! :)

Old news, but good news

This isn't really news ... Civilization III has actually had it's own website for quite some time. Check out http://www.firaxis.com/civ3/ [firaxis.com] for "Ask the Dev Team", faq, pictures, screenshots and some other neat stuff.

Looks like they aren't going to create a whole new game, just polish the ideas from the original Civilization and Civlization II. For instance, diplomacy and war will be greatly improved, the terrain/resources-system will be better and just about everything will be tweaked to make it better than the previous versions.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to this game. I really like how they are listening to the fans and adding features on request (to a limit, of course).

Ahhh fond memories

Hehe, I have such great memories. Even though it was Sid Meier, Civ Call to Power was pretty good and got me through the first two weeks of my first kid. I'd play for an hour, go feed him, go back and play for an hour or two, go feed him, hehehe. Guess I'll have to have another kid when III comes out :).

Re:Thing is...

Well, for starters...

a) implement air units in a _reasonable_ way -- find a way to let them fly OVER other units, for cryin' out loud. In SMAC you could block planet-busting missiles with a line of Chiron locusts...

b) less blatant AI cheating; even if they know exactly how much tech and money you have, and whether you have nukes, AI's really shouldn't *flaunt* it.

c) tech costs that are based on specific areas, and not just how many (of any kind) techs you already have

d) differentiate between "hard to kill" versus "likely to kill you if you try". Not all battles should end in a unit death.

e) a GOTO algorithm that actually handles a *round world* and doesn't try to go the long way around if you cross 0 longitude.

f) quality control. Please, fewer blatant bugs like infinite-range AI missiles, et al.

g) auto-engineers/formers that AREN'T so irritating, riding around rails in infinite loops, that I vaporize them out of contempt.

h) Interface improvements. e.g. ability to drag a line indicating multiple squares where I want a railroad to be built. CivII/SMAC both degenerate into massive amounts of inane micro in large worlds.

i) if they go with SMAC-style social engineering... make them fit. Morgan had the LEAST incentive to go Free Markets, for instance, because a mere +1 economy would suffice for the big boost rather than +2.

Re:Ask the Civ Team

That question has been answered in the FAQ.. (from http://www.firaxis.com/civ3/faq-general.cfm#q8 [firaxis.com]):

• Are there any plans for Civilization III to be made for the Mac, Linux or other gaming platforms?

The publisher, Hasbro Interactive, makes decisions regarding ports to other platforms. Since this is a major release, you'll most likely see ports to other platforms, but there are no commitments yet. We'll keep you posted.

Linus has,in fact,grown,and explosively-JonKatz

Potato not Potatoe

There is no 'e' in Potato. Didn't we learn anything from the Dan Quayle debacle some years ago?

Re:Who needs Civilization III ?

At the risk of sounding nasty, did you read the article? It pointed out a lot of nice enhancements, such as the development of culture, making diplomacy (and war) more complex, and allowing trade to be more all-encompassing. Also, one feature that I'm looking forward a lot to is now you have to have the correct resources to build stuff. It gave the example that you need iron to build the unit of "swordsmen", and if one player has a monopoly on iron then only they can build swordsmen. Much more accurate to real-life, as well as begging for all sorts of neato strategerie.

As for Civ 1 and Civ 2, sure the graphics got niftier in Civ 2, but in my mind the huge advance was the customizability. Civ 2 has sooooo muuucchh replay value, it's truly disgusting. I never ever play a straight game anymore, but every month or so I still go back to that game and either download a scenario I haven't played yet or just start a new one from a new side or using a new modpack. There are literally millions of ways to play Civ 2, or you can always just create your OWN. Yes Civ 1 had a little bit of this, but not anywhere near the online community or freely downloadable professionally done scenarios that Civ 2 has. I think that when Civ 3 comes out it's gonna be a helluva game....

It's a LICENSE not a PATENT!

Sid has the license (to use the Civ name,) patents (limited time monopolies on inventions,) have nothing to do with it!

C'mon /., half the articles are about copyright vs trademark vs patent. Try to at least get this right!

Who needs Civilization III ?

The basic principles of Civilization are always the same. Playing Civilization III will be the same thing as playing Civilization II or I. The only thing that does really differ is the graphic. Civilization is like chess: The game is always the same, no matter what type of chessboard you are using.
Ok, there are always some little changes and new technologies, but in the end, this is only a marketing gadget.
For me, freeciv [freeciv.org] is completly ok and a don't know why I should speed money on Civilization III. The graphic of freeciv also gets improved all the time, and if want some finetunning of the basic rules you could also do it yourself.

Even better than civilization

For all of those who spent so much time on civ.. And especially historical games freaks you might want to check Europa Universalis [europa-univseralis.com] The time period of the game is 1492-1792 (The age of discovery until the period just before the Napoleonic wars)

The game involves the entire world with many countries, which are all playable through a simple editing of a text file) military, navy, exploration, colonization, diplomacy.

The most interesting feature is that it's real time.. I hate RTS games.. despise them. but this is different, besides having a pause to issue some orders if you are too overwelmed, you can change speed settings, Real time doesn't harm the game but just makes it much more fun for multiplayer games.
IMHO the true heir for civ/civ2/colonization.