another preview

[Jer8m8]

There isn't much, but its another preview of civ

http://compstratgames.about.com/games/compstratgames/mbody.htm

[SerapisIV]

The game will be divided into eras. Before advancing to a new era, a civilization must research all the advances of the prior era.

This is new, or at least more definite then past comments

[SerapisIV]

*The economic victory condition has been removed from the game.

This is new, kinda sucks, but even Micro$oft can't take over the world, yet.

*Civilizations which began close together in the real world (e.g. Greeks and Romans), will be placed in close proximity in the game world. The game world will be more continental in nature, and civilizations which start the game on the same continent will share similar architectural styles and other features.

I like this idea, makes opposing civ rivalries more noticeable in CivIII, hopefully it'll create more personality to the Civs like SMAC was able to (even if you didn't like the game, the leaders had great personality and agendas)

*Civilization III will feature sixteen civilizations and five distinct cultures

Another preview says 16 and it sounds like this guy heard it from Firaxis at E3

*Wars will be devastating to the continent on which they occur. Among other things, trade will be disrupted and culture will suffer.

Will it effect the landscape?

*New combat options include the use of leaders, conscription, air missions, and withdrawal from battle

Interesting how this will be implemented. Nice ideas, hope they are easy to use, no real idea how conscription and air missions will work.

[Buck Birdseed]

Loads of goodies on Page 2 of the preview, so I'm writing up an item...

[The diplomat]

I noticed some new info that is very interesting:

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There will now be small wonders which are available to each civilization and are not exclusive to the first builder. These small wonders will be geared towards a civilization's playing style, though, and can not all be built without restriction. For example, to build a military academy, a player must have built barracks in at least five of his/her cities.

Obsolete wonders will continue to generate culture in a civilization long after their special effects have been eliminated.

Civilizations which began close together in the real world (e.g. Greeks and Romans), will be placed in close proximity in the game world. The game world will be more continental in nature, and civilizations which start the game on the same continent will share similar architectural styles and other features.

Civilization III will feature sixteen civilizations and five distinct cultures.

Wars will be devastating to the continent on which they occur. Among other things, trade will be disrupted and culture will suffer.

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[Ralf]

Website quote:

These small wonders will be geared towards a civilization's playing style, though, and can not all be built without restriction. For example, to build a military academy, a player must have built barracks in at least five of his/her cities.

Above is good news!

Each of the 24 small Wonders are only available as a result of how you play the game. This should deter Civ-2/SMAC-style "Wonders collecting" somewhat, thus giving the AI-civs more of a sporting chance. I hope they tweak it so that becomes more or less impossible to build all the mini-wonders.

[Zanzin]

All this info sounds very positive.

EXCEPT - still no definate word on combat...please god I hope Firaxis will implement stacked combat ala CTP....not what we've heard rumors of where it's one unit vs. another

[korn469]

ok from all of the E3 previews of Civ3 it seems that Civ3 is going to have 16 civs, with the English, French, Zulu, Americans, German, and Chinese amongst them. However i have not heard a single thing about minor civs in any of the previews, so does this mean minor civs are out? Yes there are 16 civs in Civ3 but how many will actually be in the game at the same time? From the previews it really seems like it will be 7 civs at a time...has firaxis clarified this, or is it still no comment?

Also can anyone clarify these two points...

Wars will be devastating to the continent on which they occur. Among other things, trade will be disrupted and culture will suffer.

Does this mean that if i'm setting in Western Europe as France and a War is raging between Germany and China in Eastern Europe (but still on the same continant) that my trade routes are going to be disrupted? What happens when culture suffers? Will borders shrink or what?

New combat options include the use of leaders, conscription, air missions, and withdrawal from battle

Could someone at firaxis elaborate on these things a little...does air missions mean that air units are going to get a major overhaul or will they work the same way as in civ2? What exactly is conscription? Will all units be able to withdraw from combat or what?

[Grumbold]

Personally I hope the effort to situate nations near others of the same culture will be another switchable option. After dozens of games of finding the same sort of people as my next door neighbours it would be nice to have a change.

I am guessing, after a previous comment that the setup would be 4 groups of 4 nations with their own unique cultural /
architectural styles that the 5th culture might be the barbarians. That would make sense if you have to absorb the barbarians into your culture rather than having them convert by default to the first culture which captures them.

The loss of culture arising from war I would have thought would be a dynamic thing rather than fixed by continent. A nation at war will be attempting to occupy their enemies special resource sites, destroy roads etc and the same will be done to them. That is bound to have an impact on any trade they have with other uninvolved nations as well as their own internal supply. If they lose their spice they cannot trade it for your gemstones. Depending how the model works you may need 3 types of luxury goods to go past a culture rating of 60 and deprived of one of those you may fall backward slowly or swiftly to that limit. Quite what that does to your borders I dread to think but this could be a small nod toward the concept of the rise and fall of empires.

The mini wonders sound very interesting and are certainly something that has been suggested as a good idea. I just hope that your ability to build them will not be based on empire size. I.e. a military wonder should demand that 75% of your cities have barracks, not a fixed amount like 5 cities. The major wonders still acting as cultural boosters once their main effect expires is exactly what I had hoped for.

The need to research all the advances of an entire era before progressing I can accept as an artificial way of countering the player tendency of optimising their research path. No more rushing from Despot to Republican before you've learned archery or mapmaking.