Patch 1.20

[Antrine]

Vanilla is DEAD!!

Long live the great big editor in the sky!

-UNIVERSAL GAME EDITOR
-Access/Programable AI routines (sometimes referred to 'Intelligence')
-A smooth running 'event schedular' or easy to manipulate 'triggers'.

By late this summer this will be on the market and this trend will sweep all vanilla ice cream thinking machines away...

Also add, being better able to manage the 'processing load'.

By the way in one of my 'other' life's, I am a prophet.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
...and not eliminating entire techs (which was uncalled for, as far as I know).

I agree. There's so many things that could be addressed in the game as is that tinkering with the tech tree at this point seems counterproductive. I'd rather see that time and energy spent on other areas.

[Willem]

Originally posted by ducki The marketing machine for C3C is dead, so any effort expended here is for the folks that have already paid for the product.

I'm not so sure about that. If an effort was made at issueing expansion packs that really added something to the core game, Firaxis/Atari could still reap some financial benefits.

Personally, I'm not sure at this point whether I'd be interested in a Civ 4 release. I see so many things now that feel unfinished that I don't think I'd be prepared to hand over any more money on a completely new game.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Jaybe

For less strain on such settings, check out CFC-Rhye's of Civilization (for 1.15beta).

I am amazed at the effort some have put into their mods. Looks good, but I think I am cured from huge maps for awhile.

[BigFree]

Originally posted by JesseSmith

* We need to be focused on Civ IV.

Jesse Smith

Producer, Firaxis Games

Let's see...

PTW still has some issues but Firaxis felt it was neccessary to move onto C3C.

C3C still has some issues but Firaxis feels that it should start shifting its focus to Civ IV.

When Civ IV comes out how long will it be before you brush aside its issue's to allow you to "be focused" on the next installment of Civ?

I don't like they way you made things sound at all. "We got our money for Civ 3 already; time to move onto selling Civ IV."

Who else is happy with this? Who else sees this pattern as disturbing?

I know not every piece of software will ever reach perfection, but C3C is needs a lot more TLC before I'll ever consider it done. I promise you it won't be me who won't buy Civ IV, because I'm an addict, but there will be plenty who will be turned of from it because of a bad track record of providing needed/wanted patches/features that will be reported by gaming sites.

Firaxis could be shooting itself in the foot here.

[Jarred]

That's my point exactly-I don't see much possible difference for Civ 4, so they better be extremely creative...

And I'm not so sure I want to buy yet another unfinished and never finished game.

[Rommel2D]

I have no idea what the state of the code actually is, but the story goes that Civ3 is built upon the code for SMAC, which is built upon the code for Civ2. All this legacy code is supposedly what makes simple changes like fixing the sub bug or adding new editor features a difficult process likely to mess up other parts of the program. I'd suppose the more whinging (thanks for the new word, Doc :-) about these problems here, the more reason Firaxis has to abandon Civ3 and focus on 4 (written from scratch), since it does actually offer alot of promise to break the deathspiral pattern of buggy code and prolonged beta testing.

Word was a couple weeks ago that after the public patch, the next beta would heavily focus on editor enhancements, but Jesse's post could be read to indicate it isn't a big priority anymore. I don't think its Firaxis that's shooting itself in the foot...

I'm trying not to feed the rumor mill , but krikey, some people are taking his message and drawing alot of conclusions from it.

Follow The Gourd!

No, The Shoe! Follow The Shoe!

[Harovan]

Most of us have done so the past 2 1/2 years. We have shown a lot of patience. We are those who were called fanboys two years ago. We didn't leave it, we stuck with the game and tried to make the best out of it. So what's the situation now? Conquests looked promising, when it came out. I thought, just a bit and we have the perfect game. The countrary happened. The game has been ruined with rampant corruption, resource scarcity, the stealth units (which play a big role now in the game and especially the conquests) are completely broken, ditto the units with hidden nationality. I still cannot close the game by using my keyboard, even this is broken.

I don't want to "whinge" (what an atrocious new word that is). All I want is a playable, enjoyable game while waiting for Civ4.



Ah well, I have BG2, NWN and many others. And I'm not really waiting for Civ4 anymore.

[notyoueither]

Very sorry to hear that, Sir Ralph. I am not really playing ATM. Revisiting MoO3 with patch (call me a glutton if you will ). But not looking forward to the next Civ? I couldn't imagine that.

[vmxa1]

NYE how is it with the patch? I have been trying to get back to try it.

Sir Ralph it is sad to see you not playing.

[notyoueither]

It works! It is still hideously complex. I think the complexity is what turned most people off.

The goal was to reduce Micro. The effect was to make it very difficult to figure out what was 'optimal' for any given move. Combined it makes it impossible to build the 'perfect' empire.

However, since it moves generaly in the direction I push it, I feel less frustration. And the matter of the game killing bugs being fixed (that I know of) make it engrossing in all the detail. alexman could lose 5 years in this game, I would warrant.

[player1]

Well, I played MOO3 onlt with patch.
And I liked it.

But, I don't think that's its game for eveyone.


EDIT:
My gripes:
Why are humans so weak?
Why is ship model upgrading such pain?

[Harovan]

Speaking of fanboys , Civ3 could use some votes in the 4th Official Top Games Poll in the Other Games forum. At the moment, CtP2 is in the lead after some heavy advertising, so I have no qualms to advertise here too. I won't vote myself, as I'm too mad at Civ3 at the moment, though I still love it.

[MyOlde]

Originally posted by Willem


Personally, I'm not sure at this point whether I'd be interested in a Civ 4 release. I see so many things now that feel unfinished that I don't think I'd be prepared to hand over any more money on a completely new game.

I agree with Willem. If Conquests is the end of the line for Civ3 then that's the game I'll stay with. A few new Civs won't cut it for me.

I'd like to add that, while Civ 3 may be described as a 2-year-old game, PTW and Conquests certainly can't be. I got Conquests last October, pretty close to the time it was released. That's a new game as far as I'm concerned. (In the advertising biz, you can call a product "new" for a year.) If they want to plow ahead with Civ 4, fine, but someone should be left in the shop to make sure the original works as advertised.

[player1]

Well, I'm pretty sure that we won't expect Civ4 before 2006 (or late 2005 at best).

You need more then 2 years to make complete new game.

So there is enough time to play Civ3.