A presentation of the game by Mark Everson

(22.Sep.2002) I'm writing this article to get out the word about Clash of Civilizations. Clash is a whole-history TBS game that a team of us, based here at Apolyton, are creating! The game is designed completely from scratch, and isn't similar to any existing commercial product, although in terms of what the player does at a high level it's reminiscent of the Civilization series. Our two most important aims in Clash are killer AI, and vastly reduced micromanagement. We'll also add spice and immersive value to Clash with extensive scenario-creation and modding capabilities. You can already design your own scenarios as of Demo 7! And we've got a detailed Social/Government model that includes internal power struggles to give jaded players another challenge in creating and building their civilization.

The team is continually moving forward in crafting and implementing different aspects of the game. We don't just Talk about making Clash, we Do it! But there's one thing I'd like your help with...

The Clash development team is a small group, and we need a Lot of input from outside to make sure Clash don't fall prey to "small gaming company syndrome". That's where everyone on the project is so close to the design of the game that they don't see the holes you could drive a truck through ;-). That's what we need you for, to tell us what's lookin' good, and even more important, what seems terminally lame! I'll spend the rest of this article filling you in about where Clash stands as a game, and where it's going. To the many people in the Apolyton community that already have given the team your thoughts on our models and design approach, my sincere thanks! But please come back every once and a while to give us your read on the new features :-).

Clash Vision

The main goals of Clash are: reduced micromanagement; great AI; a somewhat realistic historical feel, especially in the area of governments and intra-civ power politics; extensive scenario and mod support; and that one-more-turn compulsion! The astounding level of required micromanagement, especially later in the game, is what killed my Civilization addiction. But to lose the micromanagement you really need the second item on the list, great AI. That's because if you're going to reduce micromanagement, and yet keep the depth of a game like Civ, you need to turn things the player doesn't want to do over to the AI. This breakthrough in the genre will allow players to handle, in as much detail as they want, the things that they love doing, and hand the rest off to Competent governors or whatever. I capitalized competent because a lot of games allow you to turn things over to governors now, but the governors are so pathetic that the option really isn't useful. I wrote a column quite a while ago on how reduced micromanagement and great AI go together, called Civilization and Its Discontents that you can check out if you'd like to see more on the topic. I could go on forever about AI, but since this is supposed to be a short article I will just give you a link to the AI Page on the web site if you'd like an overview of our AI approach. We think we can pull off an AI that actually plans, rather than stumbling through pre-cooked scripts! One disclaimer on this -- our revolutionary AI design hasn't made it to the coding stage yet, so don't expect hot AI in the demos to date. The true AI will make its debut in Demo 8 or 9.

I'll cover the other revolutionary aspects of Clash a bit more briefly, or this article is going to go on way too long. In terms of historical feel, we don't mean that the game should be historically straitjacketed like in EU. The goal is just to get verisimilitude in the type of history the player and the game interactively create -- the player needs to believe that that sort of thing could happen in an alternate world. The details will of course be wrong in many instances because realism should not be allowed to detract from the fun of the player. Our groundbreaking Social/Government model tracks the people and internal power blocks within civilizations. This will allow a Clash world to have nationalistic revolts by suppressed ethnic groups. Sometimes the player (as ruler) will have to engage in power struggles to change the character of society or government. The ruler may need the aid of power blocks representing the military, religious authorities, and other elements of society, each of which has its own desires for how society and the government should be run. Of course, you have the option to be authoritarian and control all the power yourself, but that gives serious penalties in terms of increased corruption and decreased innovation for your society. Not to mention the fact that if the military gets sick of you, you'll have earned your self a revolt!

In terms of modding capabilities, most of the details for Clash are read in using an XML file spec. This will make virtually everything but a few core game details modifiable. Right now we need to build the XML files by hand using the already-decent documentation... but in the future we will have an editor for all those characteristics. In terms of getting that just-one-more-turn feeling, the team thinks we're heading in the right direction, but we need you to provide a sanity check on that!

If you want more information on these aspects of Clash, please check out the web site link at the bottom of the article. The web site has an enormous amount of design documentation and other info on the project. If you want more details, or to provide suggestions, the Clash of Civilizations forum in the Alt Civs area is where you should go! Follow the “Discussions” link at bottom to the forum.

Status

The overall design of Clash is fairly far along, although there are still quite a few areas weak on smaller details. Coding is reasonably advanced in many areas like the Map, Military, Economy, Technology and coming along in Social/Government. Our latest demo to acid-test our game models and interfaces is available on the forum and web page. Please note the demos are to give the team and outsiders a Very early chance at commenting on the design, and are Nowhere Near the finished product!

Our three coders (all have been working more than a year on Clash) are now using a 'radical' programming/design approach where we will strive to release new versions frequently for comment and bug-hunting etc. This approach relies less on design docs, and more on a 'living' evolution of the game design as the coding progresses. A release with major new features is expected every three months or so. The code is in Java, which will allow us to deploy Clash to almost any platform. There are other advantages of Java, probably the most important of which is multiple thread support. What this means to you the player is that the AI can think while you're thinking! There doesn't need to be a long wait at the end of each turn while the AI gets its act together.

The game as it stands is not as far along as we'd like it to be. The demos are a bit of fun already, but we all want something Really playable. At the current rate of progress we'll be there in six months to a year. However, if we are fortunate enough to get additional team members with the right talents, it could be significantly earlier. What would most accelerate our progress is more Java coders and artists, but virtually any skill set can be put to good use working on Clash. As the demos progress, there are a lot of ways that good thoughts in the design area, including GUI function and layout, can still seriously influence the quality of the final game at this point. So we want to hear from you!

Check Clash Out!

This is your chance to comment on a civ-like game to someone who will Really Listen. Probably the most effective way for you to make sure Clash turns out the way you'd like it to, is to try the latest demo and give us your comments on it. There is a Demo 7 Comments thread at the top of the forum where you should start to find out important info on the demo, and to download it. As of Demo 7 we have a tutorial scenario called Dawn of Civilization that you should play first. It takes you painlessly through what’s in Clash up to this point, and how to use the interface.

One of the most important things you can give us feedback on is if the high-level approaches for how things like combat, economics, and technology work in the game. Are they fun, or a drag? One thing I need to warn you about is that many of our GUI elements in the demos are extremely primitive at this point. For example, I put together a crude GUI for economic orders just so that people could interact with the economics model, ordering builds and such. It's ugly, and not even as functional as one might hope for, but at least it lets you see what you can do with the economy. A new and improved version will be out in our next demo. The reason I'm giving you all these details is to make it clear that our demos are pre-alpha versions of the game, and don't in any way represent the final product look, feel, or functionality. In many cases we could use your comments on what a well-thought-out GUI for a particular aspect of the game should be. Those GUIs will be the ones players will use when Clash "goes gold" :-).

I hope that I've been able to intrigue you about what we think is a truly unique game in the Genre. Because we're trying so many novel things in Clash there are large risks that one or more bad game elements will hold the rest of the game hostage. I'm sure most of you have seen that in commercial games! But without risk-takers you get the same old clones of the same old games over and over with only minor variations. That is one aspect of the current commercial game environment that truly sucks, and we’re trying to change it! The Clash team needs your help to evaluate Clash Demos, and constructively criticize where it is, and if the plans for the future seem right to you. Intrigued playtesters, at this point in design, are our best early-warning system to ensure Clash isn't a "would have been great if only..." game. We really need you to help out playtesting, and will value your comments! There are Lots worse ways to be asked to help out ;-)

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope to see you on the Clash forum soon!

Mark Everson

P.S. If the particular combination of goals for the Clash project doesn't float your boat, please consider contributing to one of the other Alt Civs projects here at Apolyton. There is a wide range of approaches being taken between the different projects.

Clash of Civilizations Highlights and Contact Info

- Type of game: Whole-History 4x TBS
- Play types: Single & Multi- Player
- Design goals: Killer AI, Reduced Micromanagement, More Realistic Feel
- Distribution type: Shareware
- Current version: Demo 7.1
- Scheduled release date: Oct 2003? (but fairly playable even now, and getting better with every demo!)
- Platforms: All! (Anything that will run Java)
- Programming language: Java
- Need of help?: Yes, Clash can abuse your help in virtually any area ;-)
- Graphics: 8-bit
- Map: Isometric / Cylindrical
- Tiles: Square (polygons planned for the future)
- Unique/generic civs: Unique or Generic, depending on scenario design
- Victory types: Varies (player set)
- Number of max civs: Unlimited (player set)
- Simultaneous moves: Yes
- Customizable units: Yes
- Borders: Yes
- Tile improvement model: Similar to public works in CTP, but much more sophisticated
- Stacks/tactical combat: Stacks / automatic tactical combat that takes into account player orders
- Goverments: Detailed Government model including internal power struggles

- Contact: Mark Everson -- markeverson@comcast.net
- Web page: http://clash.apolyton.net/frame/index.shtml
- Mirror Web page: http://cullivan.com/coc/frame/index.shtml
- Discussion: Clash of Civilizations forum on Apolyton