Who will buy...

[solo]

1) I pre-ordered it long ago.

2) I think CivIII will be better for a few reasons:

a) Many things that distorted CivII, making it too easy to beat, have been eliminated or diminished in CivIII, such as 1) Fundamentalism as a government type. 2) ICS or strategies based on accumulating as many cities as quickly as possible. 3) Unit bribery. 4) Diplomats and Spies. 5) Caravans, and the many manipulations based on them. 6) Cheat mode.

b) Most of the mysteries in CivII have been unraveled by the players here. Hopefully, things like Oedo years, key civs, etc., will NOT apply to CivIII, too, and we will have a fresh set of mysteries to solve. I think the introduction of culture, plus the new implementation of map resources and the new trade and diplomatic systems add more depth and will present players with an even better challenge than CivII.

c) According to Firaxis, Sid was the chief playtester during the development of the game, and according to him, FUN was #1, so I will take him at his word that the best quality of CivII, it being immense FUN, has been enhanced in CivIII.

d) The delay of MP is the only disappointment, as far as I can see.

3) My predicition is that not too many will be still playing CivII a year from now, unless MP is delayed. While waiting for CivIII, I have been trying, of all things SimCity (should have been called SimpleCity, since there is not much strategy to it!). Now there's a game worth complaining about! It only took 3 tries and 3 cities to figure it all out!

[Carolus Rex]

Thanks for that comforting post, solo!

BTW, what do we know about MP in Civ III? Is it a fact that it will be developed and released later on? Or is it a clever marketing trick to induce us to buy a copy now and then we will be let down as Firaxis lets go of any MP plans due to "unforeseen" events?

Carolus

[DaveV]

Carolus - from what I've read, Firaxis is working on multiplayer. They had hoped to have it included in the October 30 release, but couldn't finish it in time. Until multiplayer is actually released as a product, it's subject to being cancelled without notice (cf. the Dinosaurs game, or CTP II). My advice to anyone contemplating the purchase of Civ III is to consider it exclusively a single-player game.

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by DaveV
Carolus - from what I've read, Firaxis is working on multiplayer. They had hoped to have it included in the October 30 release, but couldn't finish it in time.

That's correct, Dave.

Firaxis has been working on MP since August,
but they said that they won't include it,
if they don't get it working JIT before the deadline.
So they are not trying to makes go berserk,
they're just trying to make a MP concept that
would actually work. At least I can understand this.

[SandMonkey]

a dilema!

Do I buy CivIII, or a new graphics card? Either one will set me back too much to afford the other one. Of course, I might not have the slot for the card, so then the choice would be easy

so:

I) buy
II) Yes
III) Yes

[cavebear]

Carolus, yes, no, yes.

1. The cost of the SP game is irrelevent. I lose that much small change in a month. I object in principle, but have realized I will want to learn how to play the game by the time the MP version comes along.

2. I think it will probably be an improvement over Civ2. It will add complexity, and that is what we all mostly enjoy. We need the challenge. We are problem-solvers, and we have pretty much run Civ2 dry. There are still details for civ2, but not enough.

3. We will probably still play civ2 for a while. It has MP. we have groups we know are somewhat equal, and we know the game. I'd give civ2 at least 2 more years of viable competition.

[Scouse Gits]

1. Yes
2. I do hope not
3. I'll still be here in twelve months time

[Messer Niccolò]

a) no
b) some
c) yes

[Sarxis]

Re: Who will buy...

Originally posted by Carolus Rex
...Civ III?

I know, I know. Wrong forum, but I want to hear what the people posting here expect of Civ III.

i) Will you buy/not buy Civ III?

ii) Do you think it will be a disappointment?

iii) Will we still be playing Civ II a year from now, waiting for the next rip-off attempt (Civ IV or Call to (Consumers' Purchasing) Power III )?

My own answers:

i) Buy

ii) Yes

iii) Yes

Carolus

I think you are going to get very lonely playing CivII all by yourself.

Buy
No
No

Actually, I haven't played CivII since I got Alpha Centauri two years ago- even SMAC puts CivII to shame.

[drake]

Actually, I haven't played CivII since I got Alpha Centauri two years ago- even SMAC puts CivII to shame.

Uhhhhh.......NO!

If you liked AC better than civ 2 youre probably going to like ac better than civ 3. Fundamentally, it's not going to be that different. Game play wise I expect it to be very similar to civ 2.

Course you might not be interested in game play, rather the bells and whistles

[Julius Brenzaida]

1) Yesterday I went to a computer shop and reserved a copy of civ3. Cool
2) I'm sure there's going to be some good improvements. But of course that it won't be perfect. Civ I was great and Civ2 was great too, with nice improvements and a very few letdown (the history at the end of each game does anyone know if there's going to be one ?). What I liked in civ2 was that the spirit of civ1 was still there with more possibilities to play and enjoy the game. May it be the same with civ3 !
3) Of course, that I am still going to play civ2 and hang around in the forum for some times. Hey, you don't forget years of your life like that !
Besides, yesterday I made some efforts to make my computer play NHL95

[fittstim]

i) No, I won't buy it - but then again I would never pay the price that companies are presently asking for new releases. I'll just hop on the ferry over to Estonia or Poland and acquire it magically like I did with CivI and CivII...

ii) Yes, of course it's going to be a disappointment. Think about how long we've waited (5 years) and the amount of build up over the last year.

iii) No, after years of "never being tired of CivII", I've actually become bored. The only way to enjoy the game is to play other humans. Otherwise it's so pathetically easy to win - even in Deity mode - because the strategies and techniques used to win remain the same even when the land and opposing civilizations change.

[Blaupanzer]

1) Yes
2) No
3) No, although MPers will still be playing Civ II.

Julius, one of the screens seems to show a recap of some kind, noting what was built and what was destroyed. Hopefully, that means the replay is back. The replay was a specific question addressed about a year ago, when Firaxis said they would put it in. Of course, at that same time the company indicated MP was in. Here's hoping.

[KrazyHorse]

DP

[KrazyHorse]

Yes
No
Yes

I still play CivI on occasion. Love the chariot rush.

I think Civ3 will be a better game than Civ2 was. Many of the annoyances I had in Civ2 were fixed, and the fascination with caravan building isn't so necessary. The game seems to have been "rationalised" a lot. How do I explain what I mean? Hum...not that there are flaws which Firaxis has attempted to explain away, just that the things you should have been able to do in Civ3 have been enabled, and the things you shouldn't have been able to do have been vapourised.