Apolyton CS: Civilization III: The List v1: Game Atmosphere (page 2)

GAME ATMOSPHERE
-Summarized by Yin-
namk26@hotmail.com

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6. INTERFACE/GAME REFLECTS CIVILIZATION/ERA    TOP

6.1) For each civilization a theme: "If I play an oriental civilization, I want this culture be reflected as often as possible - in names, in the city graphics, in different advisors, even in the interface and the background music!"

6.2) "The units and citizens should reflect in the graphics which civilization they belong to" (Depp).

6.3) "Why don't we have different announcer voices for each different age or different government? For example we could start with that woman's voice at the start and by the time we reached the end the voice has turned into a robot's voice to symbolize your technological advance. Or how about different voices and messages for each government? For example, Monarchy can have somebody saying 'Building completed, your Majesty'" (Monkey).

6.4) "Wouldn't it also add to atmosphere, when the interface changes with the government, or maybe in a religious government the units would report like: 'For God and the Pope!' or something similar, while the Units under a fascist government would report: 'For our Furer!'" (Atahualpa).

6.5) "While adjusted interfaces would be nice for cultures as well as for epochs, certainly both can't be done at the same time (20 civilizations multiplied by 5 epochs = 100 interface styles?). Personally, I'd prefer an interface influenced by my culture/civilization since it improves the identification factor (which isn't enhanced by epoch-dependent graphics, cute as they might be), the ideal being a editable interface for those hardcore gamers amongst us" (Ladonna of Thar).

6.6) "I would like to have the leaders pictures of Civilization I back (suitably up-dated of course) instead of the heralds of Civilization II or C:CtP. It almost felt like one was speaking to Lenin or Genghis Khan, and this added atmosphere" (Bubba).

6.7) "There should be multiple Leaders that change over time for the AI controlled civilizations (at least one leader for each age if a system such as C:CtP was adopted). Additionally, when there is a revolution a leader should also be replaced. Each of these leaders should have a different personality that would effect the game play (Washington [no alliances, allows slavery] different than Lincoln [no slavery] who is different than Teddy Roosevelt [foreign expansion, alliances])" (Bubba).

6.8) "Bring back the city national Flags of the scenarios. I loved these and they added atmosphere. Something else which would be nice would be to have smaller versions (or related versions) of these on ships" (Bubba).-

7. DELIVER THE NEWS!    TOP

7.1) The Civ1 Newspaper: "Give us the old CIV1 newspaper again - we don't want any sterile message boxes, but some personalized way of getting information" (Atahualpa).

7.2) "Newspapers: Yes, but they look anachronistic during most of the game. Maybe they could alter appearance as your civilization evolves: Ancient-clay tablets with cuneiform type. Medieval-rough paper with blackletter type. Industrial-ordinary newspaper. Information age-web-browser" (Ecce Homo).

7.3) "Yin's 3rd Regiment consisting of 2 light-armored tanks, a Stealth bomber, and 4 infantry engaged China's 53rd Elite Patrol Division, consisting of some rock throwers and a random guy with a small caliber handgun. The battle, which took place near Death Valley Ridge, lasted 3 days. Yin's 3rd Regiment lost its bomber when the random guy with a gun got a lucky shot, but the 53rd Elite Patrol is no more. In other news, Yin's Empire forces a heavy trading embargo on the Greeks, rendering the Greek war machine virtually powerless. The stock market continued to fall today at the news that Yin and China seem prepared for war" (yin26).

7.4) "I've always wanted each game of Civilization I play to construct a 'history' file which includes all the piddly little details of every game" (EnochF).

7.5) "The first regularly scheduled newspapers didn't come along until the 18th century (first in Saxony and Strasbourg, if you must know), so let's have 'news' appropriate to the period: In ancient times you'd get an image of a marble column in the forum/agora/market with inscriptions chiseled on it telling you what happened, or a Herodotus type sitting in the square declaiming news to the people while his assistant passed the hat. In Medieval times, it would be the Town Crier declaring that 'The War is Over!' etc. In early modern times you'd get a posted Broadside (news sheet) with early print; Modern would be the multi-point type screaming headlines (or a 'National Tattler' sort of sensationalist news for certain events). The Present and Near Future might have a web-site effect" (Diodorus Sicilus).

8. WHAT'S A CHALLENGE?    TOP

8.1) "Difficult game starts: In addition to the usual game-start options, such as map configuring, level, number of players, etc, there should be an option to start as a latter-day civilization. And not just like the Quickstart in Civilization II. You would actually be starting up your empire while the computer civilizations have already founded several cities, and would then have to play a really hard game of catch up from the beginning" (wheathin).

8.2) "The problem in many games right now is that the degree of cheating stays constant throughout the game. The result is an extremely tough early game, followed by an easy endgame as you march to victory. What we need is not-quite-so-overpowering cheating at the beginning (better AI would help a lot here), and then the level of cheating ramped up as things look worse and worse for the computer" (SnowFire)

9. REPLAY    TOP

One of the most sought-for improvements in game atmosphere is the improvement of the end-or-game replay sequence. Players would like to see an honest replay that recounts the rise and fall of nations in as detailed a manner as possible-or with the option of setting the replay detail.

10. THE GREAT LEADER    TOP

10.1) "A GREAT LEADER special unit/s for each civilization that MIGHT appear randomly throughout the game and that would have to effect of either a defensive bonus or offensive bonus while in a stack (like a General) or a happiness or scientific bonus for a city (perhaps like plus 5 happiness/science). These units could not be rebuilt once destroyed and would be specific to the age in which they arrived. Moreover they would last only as long as that Age to represent their life span (Modern, Renaissance etc.). Some of these could be for example, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Churchill, Wellington, Richard the III, Gandhi, Lincoln, Hitler, Shakespeare, Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Newton, Plato, Einstein, Lenin, Mao etc. In some senses this would allow one to get rid of some of the Wonders that are tied to people and in some ways is like Colonization, except that enemies could try to destroy these units. This would help to make every game special" (Bubba).

11. OTHER (Cold War, My Picture in the Game, High Council)

11.1) "It would be nice if Civilization III could replicate some Cold War features after nuclear missiles are developed, i.e. client state wars (low intensity conflict without the whole alliance jumping in), sponsoring Olympic teams, the space race (satellites, exploration, and getting to the moon!), and maybe standard of living. Something that would add to the atmosphere and add to war and strategy" (E).

11.2) In addition to having those in-game pictures that are shipped with the game, it would be quite cool if you could scan your own picture, and attach it to the diplomacy picture frame. So you would no longer be represented by for example an ugly, bearded fool, but by your own picture, which would add to the 'I am the leader' feel of a multiplayer game. It would take you one step closer to being truly and fully THE leader of your empire" (Shah of Persia).

11.3) Several players have called for the return of the High Council. Please see: MISCELLANEOUS/OTHER for more details.

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