Firaxis off on the wrong foot

[Harovan]

Don't get me wrong all, but the more I think of this, the better I can imagine that it would be a viable concept. That's me "rambling", so don't take it too serious, it's just an idea, which is far from being thoroughly reasoned:

Imagine, in the early game you are given only a very rough roster of, say, 40x40. You are able to explore, to grab land and place very rough tile improvements. In this phase, you found the centers of your provinces, or let's say in terms of the US, your states. The city radii ("state areas") will get borders, the location of which you can determine. Then, at some point in the game, the granularity doubles. Each tile is split in four (2x2), making it a 80x80 map. Your cities and first tile improvements remain, but the regions they cover double in size (or in terms of area, grow fourfold). Now, you can found smaller, secondary cities between the primaries, say, the centers of your "counties" in terms of the US. Your tile improvement capabilities will refine; what once was a pure irrigation (emphasizing food) or mining (emphasizing production), can now be changed in +2 food, +2 production, or +1 food, +3 production, etc. The trade network also has to be further developed. May be at some point, the granularity doubles again, to 160x160. You get the idea. Could work.

[Capt Dizle]

It's sounds like a mission based game to me. Anyhow, it clearly isn't civ. Civ is 4X and if you limit the exploration and expansion aspect artificially you can only move one way...towards linear gaming. I'll point out that Civ3 was and is infinitely more linear than previous editions of Civ. I for one detest this idea and really will not buy that sort of product.

This is clearly mission based whatever else you want to call it.

[Cookie Monster]

There is no way I'd buy a civ game that is mission based. That is just blasphemous. If they are trying to capture a different audience in an effort to boost sales they will lose. All the real civ'ers will be alienated and I for one would never buy this sort of crap.

Are you listening Firaxis? Don't alienate your core customers.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
It's sounds like a mission based game to me. Anyhow, it clearly isn't civ. Civ is 4X and if you limit the exploration and expansion aspect artificially you can only move one way...towards linear gaming. I'll point out that Civ3 was and is infinitely more linear than previous editions of Civ. I for one detest this idea and really will not buy that sort of product.

This is clearly mission based whatever else you want to call it.

I call it hyperbole

you need to reread that thread.

If that's mission based, then all civ is mission based. Build cities, discover advances, go to war, etc. Its the same game but on a much grander scale. More realistic in my opinion.

[steven8r]

Perhaps it was just a thought of a 'feature' that could be in the next game to attract those whom do like that sort of thing, but not necessarily one that 'die-hard civ fans' would have to play.

Kinda like the Conquest scenarios that come w/ C3C. They're fun. They're civish. They're not 'civ'.

Oh well. From what I can tell, Civ4 is still just a distant dream/vision--like when Kennedy said, "Our goal is to put a man on the Moon and bring him safely back to Earth by the end of the decade." It's a huge vision with an end in mind, but as yet, nobody knows what the 'journey' will look like.

Steven

[Alex]

jt clearly misinterpreted jesse's words... in the end, jesse mentions how this concept could interesting for the modders... he wasn't referring to this concept as being the heart of civ4.

[Sarxis]

I remember hearing about this. Not enough concrete detail to know exactly what Firaxis intends by this. I don't have a substantial opinion on it at the moment.

[Cookie Monster]

Still anytime Firaxis witholds information regarding a new game I get nervous. Hopefully the heart of civ 4 will remain true to it's genre otherwise the golden age of TBS games truely will be dead............

[Jaybe]

The mission concept sounds great! It might not be pure "civ" (as we know it). Perhaps an offshoot name would be good, similar to the way Call To Power was.

That way there could be 2 branches and I could play new versions of both!

[WarpStorm]

Originally posted by Cookie Monster
Still anytime Firaxis witholds information regarding a new game I get nervous.

Withholds? From what I've heard they have barely started it. I'm pretty sure that they haven't even nailed down what the big features of the game will be much less the details. After all, their biggest thrust right now isn't Civ.

As long as they don't try to make it into an RTS...

[DrSpike]

Wow, you scared me for a second there.

[JesseSmith]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
That's probably Jesse rambling rather than a definitive statement about Civ4 features.

Quite right Warpstorm

[ThePlagueRat]

I'm not scared of by silly rumors...

[asleepathewheel]

Thank you for the clarification.

[ThePlagueRat]

Colonization II is under development too. Some dude in a forum said they would make it RTS with the 3D engine from Warcraft.