Why is CIV IV so modifiable? Simple: COLONIZATION

[dearmad]

My guess is this:

Firaxis will release an "expansion pack" that will have a colonization mod (very extensive) that is basically COLONIZATION. Expect to pay (and rightly so) near full game cost for this. It'll include other goodies as well!

[sophist]

They could easily have made Civ4 this modifiable without exposing the innards to the general public.

[dearmad]

Yep. What's yer point?

I's jes sayin expect colonization to come out next.

[MarkG]

they could even do a smac2

[dearmad]

Heh. Could you imagine the orgasms people would be having is Firaxis released n expansion entitled:

Colonizalphacentauri.

Seriously though- there'd be wet pants around the globe if they released a pack that included BOTH of those games at once as expansive mods to the core CIV engine (LOADS of new art/etc..)

Total gaming overkill.

[Mao_Tse_Tongue]

Seriously though- there'd be wet pants around the globe if they released a pack that included BOTH of those games at once as expansive mods to the core CIV engine (LOADS of new art/etc..)

Man, that is a damn fine quote

There would certainly be one pair of wet pants here in New Jersey...

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Mao_Tse_Tongue
There would certainly be one pair of wet pants here in New Jersey...

And yet another reason to avoid Jersey....


Anyways, from a Gamespy interview with Sid Meier a few months ago:

GameSpy: What are you working on next?

Sid Meier: (smiles) You know I can't tell you. I will say that I'm working on two things, though. If everything goes right, you should see them in '06 and '07.

Could be that Col2 and SMAC2 are going to be released as X-Packs.


D

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by dearmad
Yep. What's yer point?

His point is in response to your assertion that Civ IV is so modifiable because Firaxis wants to come out with Colonization next, and that if that were the case, they wouldn't have any need to release the inner workings of the moddability to the public.

[conmcb25]

I think there will be a lot more effort in both these projects from the fansites.

Just go look at our AC forum

[dearmad]

Originally posted by LordShiva


His point is in response to your assertion that Civ IV is so modifiable because Firaxis wants to come out with Colonization next, and that if that were the case, they wouldn't have any need to release the inner workings of the moddability to the public.

Clearly there's a lack of understanding in concommitant occurances then. It IS modable to this degree due to what they will do next with it themselves. Wait and see.

Releasing the inner workings has nothing to do that.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by dearmad


Clearly there's a lack of understanding in concommitant occurances then. It IS modable to this degree due to what they will do next with it themselves. Wait and see.

Releasing the inner workings has nothing to do that.

Well, to its developer, a game is always moddable to any degree, whether they release the inner workings or not.

But I do hope we get a Colonization mod (not really a big fan of SMAC).

[Koriand'r]

Originally posted by MarkG
they could even do a smac2

someone should warn them they are heading for financial disaster competing with the c4ac team

[sophist]

Originally posted by LordShiva
His point is in response to your assertion that Civ IV is so modifiable because Firaxis wants to come out with Colonization next, and that if that were the case, they wouldn't have any need to release the inner workings of the moddability to the public.

Thank you.

Originally posted by dearmad
Clearly there's a lack of understanding in concommitant occurances then. It IS modable to this degree due to what they will do next with it themselves. Wait and see.

Your final sentence above is based on a false premise. Even if your conclusion is completely correct, your premise is still faulty. Firaxis clearly did not make the game this moddable in order to build Colonization out of it. There are several reasons to do it (in no particular order):
1) Building in this type of flexibility makes it easier to adapt the software for other games, such as Colonization
2) It also makes it easier just to develop Civilization4 (although it also makes some things more work). Read about the World Builder being available at any point in the game, about how you can dynamically change (some? all?) game elements as the game is running without requiring a restart, or how mods are packaged and separated. All of those things make it a lot easier to develop Civilization4 independent of the other reasons. Using a higher-level, interpreted language like Python rather than C++ for much of the game code also helps in this regard. In many ways, the tools and capabilities available to mod authors will be exactly the same as those that were available to in-house developers, or likely even better.
3) It makes the game more interesting to potential buyers because of the potential for mods. That increases their sales.

They've played up #3 the most, and you're pointing out #1 (though to the exclusion of the others). They haven't mentioned #2 much, if at all, probably because most people don't care.

Since they clearly derive benefit from all three of those reasons, your statement that Colonization is the sole reason for structuring Civ4 this way is at best unprovable, and at worst, wrong.

[dearmad]

Your cooccurance mentioned above is still not evidence of anything, interestingly, even *if* I am wrong.

[H Tower]

I don't want Firaxis releasing an XPack that is Colonization. It would be a drastic disservice to the title. Ditto for SMAC. If fans want to creat those mods on their own, fine, but I don't want Firaxis doing a half ass job on a Colonization mod for Civ4 when they could make a better game