Conquest Info at Gamespot

[JesseSmith]

We can't release final info on the traits because we have to balance it all first. There are currently 3 companies and hundreds of people working hard to make sure that this game is everything you want it to be! Though I must say that you guys are pretty demanding!! ;-) I like it!!

As for the placeholder art, those images are some of the last ones created. They take about 10 minutes each where the actual leaderheads can take a month. It may not seem like it - but they are extremely art intensive!

Thanks for all of the incredible support!

Trip: How do you get the time to play? You must be the fastest typer on the planet! I'll have to start sending you my bugs =) hehe

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by JesseSmith
Trip: How do you get the time to play? You must be the fastest typer on the planet! I'll have to start sending you my bugs =) hehe

Being able to type at 120 words per minute helps quite a bit.

Besides, finding bugs is easier than fixing them.

*Trip goes back to testing ******

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Hi there JS,

It's nice to see yet another member of the Firaxis/Atari team 'popping their head in' to let us know what's going on . I might be a little biased, because you guys seem to have adopted at least ONE of my ideas (which makes me VERY proud ), but it seems to me that you guys at Firaxis seem to REALLY want to make the fans happy, and take a genuine interest in all of the reasonable ideas being posted at sites like this one !!! This is, in my opinion, the mark of a truly great game producer !!! Anyway, thanks for the info JS.
Whilst you're in the neighbourhood, can I just ask if you have any intention of bringing Civil Wars back into the game? Also, is there any chance, either in C3C or future XP's, that it might be possible to make certain resources/luxuries 'prohibited'-therefore creating the possibility of a 'black market' trade system?
Anyway, any answers you can give would be GREATLY appreciated, though I understand that you sometimes have to be a little 'sneaky' and 'secretive' about such things . Oh well, I guess it just makes us salivate all the more .

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

p.s.: I agree, Trip seems to possess almost superhuman speed and endurance-good on you Trip, you're a LEGEND .

[JesseSmith]

Trip is definitely a legend! I'll send you the bug list tomorrow =)

Thanks for the nice comments! I spent a month going through the fan forums organizing everyones input and feedback into a list of do-ables, then got programmer info on timing, cut the list and cut the list and cut the list and cut the list (we are trying to have a bug free product so we can't go completely overboard!) until we had something manageable - and items that will offer a whole new experience and dynamic to the Civ3 experience. It was agreed to move forward and here we are!! Trust me when I say that we value all of your opinions and feedback and want more than anything to give you the game that will have you spend many hours of your life playing while in a state of complete enjoyment. The editor is there to allow you to keep those hours coming and coming and coming. Though, to beat all 9 Conquests with every Civ and the Core Game with every Civ will take a considerably LONG time =)

I can't give any more info on the changes or future items, but I can tell you that we are all working VERY hard (Firaxis, Atari, & Breakaway) to continue creating the games that you will love to play.

Thanks again! We are here because of all of you!!!!!

Jesse

[JesseSmith]

Originally posted by Trip

Besides, finding bugs is easier than fixing them.

Trip: You would be suprised - most people ignore the polish issues because they seem so obvious - finding a bug means nothing if you dont write it up clearly so it can be easily fixed. Most bugs with clear info can be fixed pretty quickly (unless tech probs occur).

The sooner an issue is documented, the sooner it can be fixed and removed. Tracking the major issues and the Polish issues is key to making sure C3C is what it needs to be.

Not that bug writing has ever been a problem with you!!

Jesse

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by JesseSmith
Trip: You would be suprised - most people ignore the polish issues because they seem so obvious - finding a bug means nothing if you dont write it up clearly so it can be easily fixed. Most bugs with clear info can be fixed pretty quickly (unless tech probs occur).

The sooner an issue is documented, the sooner it can be fixed and removed. Tracking the major issues and the Polish issues is key to making sure C3C is what it needs to be.

That's true. I'll say that some bugs are easier to find than to fix. Though in a way finding them leads to fixing them, so if you don't find them well enough you can't fix them.

Not that bug writing has ever been a problem with you!!

Jesse

I like to type.

[statusperfect]

Originally posted by Myrddin
Firaxis has a history of only releasing information on what they will deliver, which means that there may be more goodies to come

like multiplayer out of the box in civ3?

[player1]

Originally posted by JesseSmith
We can't release final info on the traits because we have to balance it all first. There are currently 3 companies and hundreds of people working hard to make sure that this game is everything you want it to be! Though I must say that you guys are pretty demanding!! ;-) I like it!!

And how are you planning to include new traits?

Will they be availabale for only new civs?
Or are they to be added to exsisting civs too?
And if added to exsisting civs, would they lose some of older traits or not?

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by player1
Or are they to be added to exsisting civs too?
And if added to exsisting civs, would they lose some of older traits or not?

The answer to both those questions is yes. It's mentioned in the Gamespot preview.

[Solver]

Aha! Trolling for Atari, now, are we?

Sorry, guys, there definitely have been issues with you so far. From what I know, the publisher is responsible for user manuals. And, as Firaxis said, it were you who are responsible for the fact that a certain patch took very long to get released in an European edition.

Jesse - thanks for the nice support from Firaxis . You guys remain great.

Oh, and a little phrase that is hard for me to resist, although no offense is intended to Atari. Creating a game is harder than the work of publisher - I am saying that because I have a good idea of how they are created. This is not to say that publishing is a cakewalk, but it's nothing like creating a game.

Oh, and I'm not complaining about the game or anything anyway, so .

[jaranyi]

Do you think they will go back and change England to seafaring or adjust any of the previous Civs to the new cultures?

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by jaranyi
Do you think they will go back and change England to seafaring or adjust any of the previous Civs to the new cultures?

i can't imagine them changing the rules for the basic game.
it would mean existing strategies for some civs would change.

maybe there'll be 2 "new games": classic civ3 rules and C3C rules ?!?

however, IF they do change current settings, it would be nice to see some changes for the existing traits.
e.g.
- make expansionist more powerful on smaller and standard maps and weaker on huge pangea maps.
- reduce dominance of industrious slightly
- make AI use traits better (e.g. attack more with militaristic, change governements more frequently for religious)

[Slax]

"Conquests will also include all of the content and features from the Play the World expansion"

So I don't need PTW to get the civs included with it?

WOW!

[sabrewolf]

exactly, you'll get all functions and civs from PTW (and probably even the newer versions of the scenarios)

[FrustratedPoet]

Do you think they will go back and change England to seafaring or adjust any of the previous Civs to the new cultures?

i can't imagine them changing the rules for the basic game.
it would mean existing strategies for some civs would change.

Funnily enough the answers to this are the same as when Solver asked them about 4 posts ago.

It says in the Gamespot preview that some of the existing Civs will have their traits changed to incorporate Seafaring and Agricultural (where appropriate). The UUs are also open to some tweaking.