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#145 WHY THE ALT. CIV. SECTION DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION (PT. 2) Ron Hiler wants to convince you that the playing field for TBS games has not been forgotten, but simply had a chance of venue. #144 THE GROWTH OF REAL TIME STRATEGY RTS games: AS takes a look at their evolution, before returning to his Civ game... #143 WHY THE ALT. CIV. SECTION DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION (PT. 1) Ron Hiler wants to convince you that the playing field for TBS games has not been forgotten, but simply had a chance of venue. #142 MEMO TO FIRAXIS: NOW THAT CTPII IS OUT Raingoon is back with a message to Firaxis: what to do and what not to in CivIII. #141 CIVILIZATION II ATE MY HAMSTER It's no laughing matter -- Lazarus & The Gimp talk about the continuous return to CivII. COLUMN ARCHIVE

Of course, we've all heard of Sid Meier's Sweep of Time Trilogy, or at least most us have. But for those of us who haven't, here is a quote from the Apolyton News Archive:

"This set of three games will include SMAC, Civ III, and a third as-yet unannounced title, all covering the entirety of human history (and future). What's more, while each is a stand alone title (and of course SMAC is already out), when combined into the trilogy you'll be able to carry over from one game to another!!"

On an updated notice, that third unannounced title is Sid Meier's Dinosaurs. And though SMAC is already out, I think the Sweep of Time Trilogy should extend to SMAC II; I'll explain why later in this article.

Still two unanswered questions remain in my mind: (1) When will each of these games pick up and leave off; and (2) What will happen to the 65 million years in between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the beginning of humankind?

Well, some answers to the first question regarding Dinosaurs, Civilization III, and SMAC II are obvious. Dinosaurs should end at 65 million B.C., when the greatest extinction on earth occurred wiping out all of the dinosaurs; and when should it begin, I don't know. Civilization III should end probably around 2100 A.D., after the solar system has become inhabited by mankind, the first landing on Alpha Centauri has occurred, the first contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life has just taken place, and all the nations of Earth have lost interest in fighting each other and have united with a common goal: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before (I must be watching too much Star Trek! He he!). Civilization III should naturally begin at the time the first human beings appeared on Earth, or even when our first human ancestors appeared 3 million years ago! This could be interesting for Civilization III because it would allow virtually all human tech advances that we know about to be discovered during the game. SMAC II, of course, should pick up where Civilization III leaves off, with the exploration of Alpha Centauri and the rest of the Milky Way (or at least part of it) to go, but with the presence of Extraterrestrial Civilizations to make things FUN!! And when should SMAC II end? Well. . . I don't know.

The answer to the second question is also rather obvious: either add another game to the series (yay!), or leave it out altogether (bummer). Such a game could be interesting, and of course, FUN!! I would imagine this game would be a lot like, though, of course, not exactly like, Maxis's SimEarth. In this game perhaps there could be more than one player, and each player has control of a group of animals, and the idea is to survive and control the evolutionary process, so as to be the first player to reach the ultimate goal of evolving modern man and winning the game! Sounds pretty cool, eh?

Now, one last thing I haven't mentioned--if SMAC II lacks the ability to explore the entire galaxy, then perhaps another game could be added to the series, and this time the goal is to make it to the Andromeda Galaxy. Sid Meier's Milky Way, maybe?

I faithfully hand over any ideas mentioned in the above document to Firaxis, and I'll just be waiting patiently for a response from them, as well as the members and administrators of Apolyton CS. . .

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About the author: "Future Computer Consultant and Businessman, Sailor. Likes: Computers, Video Games, Aviation. Dislikes: My game competitors that get away with winning!"

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The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.