Looking at the features of Civ3 that are confirmed already, I recognize quite a lot of things that made SMAC a worthy successor of Civ2 for me (even though I don´t like Science Fiction that much). Borders, enhanced diplomacy, alternate paths to victory, ranged weapons, build queues, a visible fog of war ... they´re all in. Okay, the unit workshop didn´t make it, and we don´t know for sure what steps Firaxis has taken towards SE or unique civilizations (apart from special units), but the first two items smacked of SciFi for me, anyway. So, there´s good reason to expect Civ3 to be the best Civ-style game so far. Apart from that, there will be ressources, culture, armies ... man, I WANT that game!
And suddenly I remember the little things that made me enjoy playing SMAC or simply fixed a loophole in Civ2. Things that no one confirmed to be part of Civ3 (or at least I didn´t notice). In particular:
Again, I didn´t fall in love with the SMAC setting, but with the little details of the gameplay. And while I´m already impressed by Civ3 so far, I really hope the above features make it into the game. (Perhaps the new Civ site will tell.)
And suddenly I remember the little things that made me enjoy playing SMAC or simply fixed a loophole in Civ2. Things that no one confirmed to be part of Civ3 (or at least I didn´t notice). In particular:
- Unit upgrading. While I know that this feature could be exploitet in SMAC to get units for a fraction of their proper costs, some kind of upgrading makes perfect sense also in Civ gameplay terms. Any player should be able to spend his treasury for the kind of upgrading Leonardo´s workshop does for free. (Okay, get rid of 'in-the-field'-upgrading). Why not change Leonardo´s to a minor wonder?
- Utilizing of excessive shield production. I won´t micromanage a citizen to a specialist for one turn and save two shields otherwise lost. In Civ2, that didn´t help my AI opponents, but had I ever played multiplayer (I´m intending for Civ3), I´d probably have been in trouble. On the other hand, does this 'feature' ever add to the overall game experience? Please change!
- In-game power graph. (No comment. Maybe I´ve just ignored it all the time in Civ2?)
- The scoring system. While you could boost your score in Civ2 simply by squandering money for luxuries in the final stages of the game, this was eliminated in SMAC. 1 citizen equals 1 point. Adopt!
Again, I didn´t fall in love with the SMAC setting, but with the little details of the gameplay. And while I´m already impressed by Civ3 so far, I really hope the above features make it into the game. (Perhaps the new Civ site will tell.)
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