Civ3 Interview: JEFF MORRIS

[Ming]

See... there is a real reason to be optimisic. CivIII will be worth the money.... sign me up. And thanks for interview Jeff.
Some of CivIII's hardest critics post here... and they haven't even seen the game yet

Keep on Civin'

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Ming
See... there is a real reason to be optimisic. CivIII will be worth the money.... sign me up. And thanks for interview Jeff.
Some of CivIII's hardest critics post here... and they haven't even seen the game yet

Keep on Civin'

You're damn right hardest critics. I sure as hell ain't buying a Civ game if I don't see Elvis on my computer screen when I start up my first game.

No Elvis, No Civ3 !!!

j/k

[Locutus]

I for one am not worried about minor issues and bugs that can be fixed in patches. Need for patching is annoying but inevitable in the modern gaming industry. I'm not so much worried about lack of testing (though that would be bad) but much more about the 'big issues', things that can't be fixed in a patch: graphics, interface, AI, military system, absence of pw-system, government system, stuff like that. In other words, Civ3 really only being Civ2.5 (or less)...

[Jeje2]

About Beta-testing

Some clarifications needed from me apereantly...

First, right now I don't recall crying for a public beta?
What I have wanted is a similiar thing that SMAC had. (And a possibility to apply to it)

IMO it's not the beta.times responsibility to test it on n-systems. That's what the publishing house will do.

What IMHO the beta time is to do is:

• Give fresh feedback to the time. Most of FIRAXIS people have worked on this for a long time already. I'm sorry but you get blind to your own work and just a fact. So beta-time comes along and sees the final product, they aren't blinded by a long process. They do have opinions on how to improve the game.
• Try to crash it by playing different possibilities. No matter what Infogrames tests, the best test is pure playing. Sure SMAC can have given good hints into what to look for, but replaizing a human???
• Try to find illogicallities from the AI.
• Do playbalanzing.

OK, thats some things I could come up with right now. (There are more)

So I do think that Civ3 needs a beta-testing. Let it be closed or whatever, but before release Civ3 needs an outside group to playtest it.

Was the closed betatesting mentioned in the inteview?
If it was I missed it or then it was wirtten between the lines.
So?

FIRAXIS: Please, oh please let an outside group test it before release.


And yes I'm too glad that we got replys to questions - I just didn't like what we got. Let's just pray everything will go right in the end.

---

P.S. Someone should ask Sid how he really feels working an a sequel for first time in his lifetime. (The other sequels weren't his work.) Does he like? Any opinions? If he can choose between a sequel or a grand new thing after golf and Civ3 are made, what shall he choose? etc.

[korn469]

Apolyton: Will there be 7 civs in a game like civ2 and smac or more? We have heard almost any possible choice on this

Jeff Morris: Supported, there will be 7 civilizations in a game, 8 including the player. The editor allows you to adjust this, though many screens are setup only for this 8 civ limit.
(sidenote: when asked what the limit of the editor will be, Jeff responded that the tools are still in development and that the current limit is 16)

well is it just me or...

Firaxis redesign the screens so the game supports more than 7 civs!!! it take take effort but it would be worth it! and really how many screen would need to be redesigned?

i repect Jeff for one thing and that is he is always honest, and he never candycoats the truth...even when i don't agree with him

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Locutus
I'm not so much worried about lack of testing (though that would be bad) but much more about the 'big issues', things that can't be fixed in a patch: graphics, interface, AI, military system, absence of pw-system, government system, stuff like that. In other words, Civ3 really only being Civ2.5 (or less)...

AI was patched often in SMAC. The PW-system lost to a regular system on Apolyton 65%-35% two months ago. Graphics have always been modded, why can't they be patched?

The only thing that can't be patched is the basic game engine, you're stuck with that from the getgo, but apparently from Jeff's interview, they've been using the same basic engine (heavily modified) for a while now.

Listening to Jeff talk of their JACKAL system, I wonder if that's a limiting factor in getting truly innovative versus just iterative gameplay.

[Fidel]

a word from the so called 'realists' club

the interview is fine. we asked for info, we got some.
it's their company, their release, their make it or break it. whoever does not like it can really start reading books, watching tv or playing other games. alternatively, design an altciv. i am really a bit tired of people bashing firaxis. i will buy a game no matter what. if its buggy, they will patch it. there is no perfect game. we beta tested EU for several months and it still needed a couple of patches afterwards. if i waste the money, the whole franchise has given me so much fun over the years that i simply cannot hold any grudge.
there are so many games out there, people. if you do not like the way this one is shaping, buy another!
cheers!

[kittenOFchaos]

Well...I see that Yin the smeghead got posting early and has flavoured this thread with dismay!


Personnally I am pleased about the news given (limited as it is) especially as it is FAR TOO SOON to start hyping it up!

As a believer in putting the work in hours before a deadline I´m sure civ3 will be more than a civ2 2.5...the new features as outlined clearly in civfanatics.com look wonderful.


As for the no.of civs at the same time...8 as standard as so far 16 with the editor is for a darn good reason:

The more civs you have the more rapid tech advance is...thus 16 civs without a sensible alterative to the rate the tech advances will lead to modern techs VERY early along the timeline. Balancing such a tech paradigm for every number of civs combinations is very time consuming to get right.

With the experience they have of 7 civs and under in civ, civ2 and smac at the same time they can get the tech to advance roughly in time with history AND they have some greater idea of the resulting interactions between that number of civs.


Personnally I will want to see the graphics souped up and certainly no-more glitches with roads and mountains BUT otherwise I´m sure our hopes will be realised NEARER THE TIME.


As for korean gits like YIN, get fooked, just cos your civ ain´t in the game

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by korn469


well is it just me or...

Firaxis redesign the screens so the game supports more than 7 civs!!! it take take effort but it would be worth it! and really how many screen would need to be redesigned?

The number of civs in the game at a time is directly related to computing power. Only faster computers will be able to support 16 civs at once. I believe this is why they left it out of the screens. It allows them to keep the system requirements lower.

[Mister Pleasant]

How much do you want to bet the AI players won't be using aircraft carriers? Hope the AI knows what to do with resources (anyone else get the bad feeling resources will only limit the human players? - we'll never see an AI colony and such). Sorry to be such a pessimist guys but it seems to me that if gameplay has been enhanced, the AI would be the first thing the firaxis guys touted! The more complex diplomacy really gives me the willies though - anyone else recall pre-DaleDiplomod CTP2? Options look pretty but the AI always rejects . . .

For the most part though, I like the graphics and I like the idea that some tasks require resourses that may not fall within borders. Even civ-specific units and bonuses sound good (and can be turned off or modded out). Will wait wait for its release and more information before I decide whether to buy it or wait for the price to go down (sorry Firaxis, but after the actions of another software company known as Activision . . .).

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by Sabre2th
The number of civs in the game at a time is directly related to computing power. Only faster computers will be able to support 16 civs at once. I believe this is why they left it out of the screens. It allows them to keep the system requirements lower.

Computing power may be a perfectly good reason not to offer 16 civs in the default game, but hardly a good reason to design screens that are completely incapable of rescaling to handle them.

[H Tower]

some good

on the positive side, their still in alpha so maybe they'll add more. plus, they're working on overlay tiles (poles and mines), maybe that means they're still going to fix those damn roads!

other than that...

[MarkG]

the basic thing is that 16(more than 8 anyway) IS achievable by the game engine.

beyond that, the issue remains in three things

1) will it get too slow with more civs(that is also related to the player's machine)
2) will the game have bugs with more civs
3) how serious will the limitations in the modification tools be

now for #1, it depends on the coding of the engine and we dont know anything about it

for #2, it will be up to how much time, resources and willingness firaxis will have to kill bugs they really dont have to kill, since the supported number is 8

as for #3, firaxis keeps mentioning them, and Jeff talked continued after-release improvement on the tools, so things are looking good


what would be a great indication that more than 8 civs is actually something possible, is if Firaxis announced that one of the included scenarios will have more than 8 civs....

[MarkG]

Re: About Beta-testing

Originally posted by Jeje2
Was the closed betatesting mentioned in the inteview?

quote from the interview

A closed public beta wasn't an option since don't they involve a large enough 'sample' for compatibility testing and requires immense manpower to manage.

i dont know how the smac closed beta went, but i watched a similar effort for ctp2 closely and it partially failed. good stuff came out of it(a few suggestions made it into the game, a bmp-to-ctp2 map converter was created and released, and perhaps most importantly some of the mod creators knew the game very well by the time it was released so new mods came out quickly) but there werent big dramatic changes....

[Grumbold]

I was under the impression CtP2 suffered from being rushed to market and was known to be flawed on release. The closed beta might have delivered more if the timescales had been more flexible.