The Expansions

[Brent]

Civ2 had 2 of 'em, Civ 3 had 2 of 'em, you know Civ 4 will have 2 of 'em. Maybe they'll also do something a little akin to Test of Time.

What sort of expansions? Possible sorts I can think of:

Civ Library. At least 19 more civs in each of one or two volumes. If they can't do that many leaderheads, give us a tool to do leaderheads for ourselves

Scenario Library. Preferably at least 40 scenarios per volume. Include historical, mythological, fantasy, alternate history, and future (including interstellar and alien worlds), but 80% historical. I hope it would be reasonable to expect 40 Firaxis-designed ones per volume, and it would be cool to have 100 or so fanmade ones in one volume too.

Superscenarios. Maybe 10 per volume. like Conquests. Include 50 or so fanmade regular scenarios in at least one of these.

Simplified Editors. (one expansion)

New options for main game models, like religion, science, combat, etc. (probably one expansion)

Or something much better than anything little old me can think of.

Or some hybrid: Civs plus Scenarios: preferably 19 civs per volume plus 40 scenarios per volume. Can inlude one or two special editors and/ or one or two main model swapouts.

Or first expansion could be 30 new civs, and second could be 40 Firaxis- made scenarios plus 100 fanmade ones.

And of course there should be plenty of new civs added for any scenarios in any of the above anyway, which had better be playable in the main game.

Thoughts?

[Xorbon]

I like the idea of a leaderhead design tool. I picture it as being a sort of "Mr. Potato Head" type of thing where you could pick from various facial shapes, body types, skin colours, noses, eyes, mouths, etc. And you could have different hair and clothing styles, and backdrops for each era. User-made backdrops could easily be made and imported into the tool.

Of course, a unit editor would be cool too.

I'm not holding my breath on either of these though.

[Nikolai]

I hope the leader heads are all gone in cIV.

[Spiffor]

Why would they waste precious resources creating a tool for CG graphics, since they use some excellent software already? And why would any leaderhead creator want to use such an aside-program over 3DSmax or Poser?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Spiffor
And why would any leaderhead creator want to use such an aside-program over 3DSmax or Poser?

Because they don't know how to use 3DSmax or Poser?

[Adagio]

Why talk about expansions before we even know anything about the game? The little we know isn't much to base an expansion pack on.
You say Simplified Editors, but we don't even know of there's and editor in the game and if there is then we still have no idea how simple it is

And then you say they should at least have 19 new Civs for each expansion but why already talk about this now? Sure, I believe everybody wants more Civs in the game nomatter how many there are, but why exactly 19? Just because the game comes with 19 Civs? The number of Civs I want added should be based on which important Civs are missing, not just because the game came with x Civs

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Adagio
Why talk about expansions before we even know anything about the game?

Because people know in their hearts that the game is going to suck when it's released.

[Adagio]

Yes, but we don't know which parts suck yet. We have to wait for the final release to see if it's the editor that sucks for not being simple/advanced enough or if it's the chosen Civs that is to blame

[Brent]

Preferably, of course, the leaderheads would be gone, at least animated ones. But I don't think that will happen.

By Simplified editors I mean something simpler than the raw scripting.

I guess I want approximately 19 added because I want the number approximately doubled. One thing I know is 19 isn't enough for me because that is s ure to leave out ones I want. Approximately 40 would ensure some new ones, and approximately 60 would probably include some new ones I'd be interested in. And I think it does make sense to simply know how many choices I want regardless of which ones they are.

I'm pretty sure the original release will be great. hopefully it won't have any bugs. I know it won't be all it can be though, and I'm sure there will be expansions, and I think we do know enough about the original release to say something about expansions. It's true though that the editor may or may not help a lot, but I still like the pros to do more work for me.

[Max Sinister]

In "The Sims" it's possible to make new faces for your sims. If you want your sims to look like Cindy Crawford / Brad Pitt, no problem. Making them looks a bit funny, but it seems to work...

[Addled Platypus]

Originally posted by Xorbon


Of course, a unit editor would be cool too.

Lets start holding now...I have been hoping for this since civ2

[Xorbon]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex



Lets start holding now...I have been hoping for this since civ2

Well, Civ 2 did have a basic unit editor. Unfortunately, since Civ 3 intoroduced animated units, making your own units has been a bit more complicated.

[Adagio]

By unit editor I don't hope you mean something like the one in SMACX because that one just makes it much worse

[alva]

Not going to be in, don't worry. (the smac-style unit editor I mean)

[alva]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Why would they waste precious resources creating a tool for CG graphics, since they use some excellent software already? And why would any leaderhead creator want to use such an aside-program over 3DSmax or Poser?

I think he means with prerendered facial parts.
So you can have face X but change it's eyes with that of face Y or change it's glasses and so on.