Civ3 Interview: JEFF MORRIS

[MarkG]

Apolyton's Civilization III Interviews Series
Jeff Morris, Civ3 Assistant Producer

The assistant producer for Civilization III opens our Civilization III Interviews Series. Jeff answers many questions and talks about the changes in the gameplay

[Eli]

Cool.

[Eli]

After reading the interview... I think I should move to the pessimistic civers club.
There was some new valuable info there, but I expected for more.

[MarkG]

share your pain with us in the chat room eli

http://apolyton.net/misc/chat/room.shtml

[Eli]

Originally posted by MarkG
share your pain with us in the chat room eli

http://apolyton.net/misc/chat/room.shtml

I tried, but you kicked me out of there.

[El hidalgo]

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.

OK, what exactly does it mean that "many screens are setup only for this 8 civ limit"? What does a "screen" mean in this context?

[yin26]

(moved here because ANY discussion about Jeff's comments must stay in one thread, of course...)

"Ugly? Are you on about that again, Yin?" Well, unless that polish actually upgrades the graphics engine...

Graphic tasks right now are finishing the remaining overlay tiles (like poles and mines) and polishing screens.

"Yin, you said buggy? How could you possibly know?" Well, Jeff told us:

An open public beta was originally planned, but that window I was describing never really opened. 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.

Now a closed public beta is too small to test compatibility issues, understood. So, compatibility issues will only surface AFTER THE GAME IS RELEASED. Write that one down, folks. Sure, we'll call all the bugs user-related bugs if you want.

We can only assume, then, most testing is being done by the programmers themselves and a small, insider group. Can anyone else see the computer completely failing to beat you AT ALL? No? How about this: Can you feel your system crashing to the desktop yet?

"Now this Civ 2.5 thing always sounded lame. What is it now?" Thanks to Jeff, I have a better word for it: 'Conservative Sequel.'

At first I wasn't a fan of a conservative sequel, though I'm a complete convert now.

Well, I guess when you don't schedule/leave enough time for thorough testing, you're pretty much left NOT wanting to do something new, since doing something basically old is going to be hard enough.

Congrats, Firaxis. Looks like a real winner is lined up here. You think the graphics just need polish, you don't make testing a priority and you don't mind being conservative. After 10 years of Civ, you've thrown up your arms and said: "Well, the thing can't really be improved, folks. Hope your system is compatible, by the way, since you'll be paying $50+ to be part of our post-release public beta."

[Kautilya]

I am kinda disappointed that no one asked a question about the AI. IIRC the poll a few months back showed this to be the no. 1 concern and there has been NO news from Firaxis about any efforts to improve AI.

Apart from that actually I agree with the "conservative" philosophy to game-design . I would actually prefer a Civ 2.5 provided that the designers use the extra time to improve the AI , interface and (less importantly) graphics.
But if the gameplay is conservative and there is no big improvement elsewhere then you can't help feeling short-changed.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Kautilya
I am kinda disappointed that no one asked a question about the AI.

this is only the first of hopefully more civ3 interviews

besides, it's more suitable to ask one of the programmers about the ai....

[Nemo]

"Well, the thing can't really be improved, folks. Hope your system is compatible, by the way, since you'll be paying $50+ to be part of our post-release public beta."

Well, I for one will NOT be a guinie pig!! After that interview in conjuction with the screen shots, I won't buy it until after it drops below the $30 mark (I was going to buy 1st day, but not anymore).

After that interview, I don't believe I will purchase it right away. Comments that were made sound too much like CTP situation, which is one thing EVERYONE has always asked "please take you time and do it right" --well, thats not happening, apparently. And I am not going to be burned CivIII like i was with CTP.

[Solver]

Good job by us guys, and good interview!

[TCO]

We're in tha chatroom. There are 6 of us.

[yin26]

Yes, I do applaud the efforts of the Apolyton team and Jeff for agreeing to do it. I don't think I'll buy Civ when it is released based on some of this info, but that in and of itself will no doubt help save me a lot of time and hassle. Honestly, it was a helpful interview. Thanks, guys!

[MarkG]

Originally posted by El hidalgo
OK, what exactly does it mean that "many screens are setup only for this 8 civ limit"? What does a "screen" mean in this context?

an example: in ctp2 you could increased the selectable civs to 64. the "choose civ" screen though at the beggining of the map was created that way that it showed only the first 42.

[Grumbold]

Well I think this about concludes any hope I had of being able to constructively contribute to Civ 3 discussion. Jeff has shot down any hope I had that at least some genuine progress was going to be made on any front apart from the oft-quoted culture and trade.

- No public testing, open or closed, because of company deadlines.
- No support for more than 8 civs in standard games, even in mod games some screens won't be able to handle it.
- No major changes to the currently exhibited graphics style.
- They are taking a conservative approach to evolving a 5 year old game which has been considerably improved upon by other rivals in the meantime, so we should assume that nothing is new unless they have already announced it.

I think I can rely on Yin to uphold the pessimists view and quietly slide off to spend time on the Arcanum and Morrowind websites. Neither of them are going to be the best strategy game ever, but at least they should be good fun to play instead of the same tired old game under a new skin with new bugs. IMO only the top-secret "cool new ideas" for multiplayer can save Civ 3 now.