PC PowerPlay - Exclusive preview

[Black Fluffy Lion]

Good, good.

need more civ3 info....

[The Rusty Gamer]

OMG!

OMG! What have I started? Hmmm...so, from what I can gather, none of you knew about it then.

Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner. There's one at work but since I only do a small bit of part-time work now and only when I'm called in, that doesn't help much. Plus, it's some fiddling around isn't it?

I suppose the big question is, just what do you want to know about? Since I'm not sure just what's been said here already, I may just double up on information.

Perhaps I could just quote some of the stuff that is in bold in the article to begin with. The quotes are in green below.

Perhaps the most revolutionary change to the world of Civilization is the cultural aspects of controlling an empire. While making armies to squash your trade partners is always a sign of progressive government, military might isn't everything: just think of the Pyramids or Greek theatre. A culture has influence according to all its achievements, so Firaxis have made culture much more integral to Civilization. The traditional benefits of a stronger, happier, more productive population still result from building granaries, temples, and other improvements but national borders are now created as a result of the level of culture in each civilisation. Accordingly, cultural power and military power are connected.

Culture's impact on territory affects not just military might but resource gathering as well. The larger the city radius, the more land and resources are available. These resources fuel civilization growth: trade, research, production. Civilization is one big circle.

Trade is another facet of Civilization III that has changed significantly. Resources within your city radius need only a road to the city to be available for use. Then that resource can be used for unit production and trade. In fact, without certain resources, producing some units is impossible.

BRIGGS SAYS: "You may remember that you had a luxury slider bar that you allocated a certain amount of money to keep people happy. Well that slider bar is gone and has been replaced by the trade system."

The last area of significant change in the mechanics of Civilization is in the diplomatic arena. For the first time, a robust diplomatic system has been introduced to Civilization. Briggs reveals the interest in this facet of the game: "I can't tell you how many letters we've got from people saying how they wished diplomacy was more flexible, open-ended, more agressive (If the player wants to be agressive through the displomacy system). And we've worked on all of those things."

Firaxis has updated the visuals in Civilization III while maintaining the familiar look and feel that is so central to the Civilization experience. The world screen is extremely detailed with some 1200 different tiles being produced for the game. Individual units are now rendered in 3D and feature unique animations for movement and battle. The result is a livelier, visually exciting screen. The image of turn-based games being static has been subverted.

Wonders have been revisited with the result being some have had their effect lessened, some have been split into lesser Wonders that effect only one empire.

STOP THE POP: Pop-up screens were one of the best arguments that Civlization II was imperfect. Briggs explains how Firaxis imporved this element with Civ III: "We broke all popups into three categories. Those localized to an area, but require no user input, now appear on the map itself, near the area of focus. Those that were not localized to an area, but still didn't require user interaction became advisor messages. The last kind, those that require some user interaction (such as picking a new advance to research), still stop the game. The boon of this system is that approximately 2/3rds of the game stopping information windows no longer stop the game."

SID SAYS: "Our historical research for Civ III received revolved around the new features we've put into the game like new technologies, culture, expanded diplomacy, more intricate trade system, more powerful combat options, and how the interaction of all of these elements has impacted civlizations throughout history."

SID SAYS: "Our primary focus is always on making the gameplay fun. We use the latest bells and whistles only if they enhance gameplay. We built an entirely new graphics engine for Civ III through which we've created the best visual experience ever."

DEATH OF WONDERS MOVIE: Nick Rusko-Berger, Lead Artist, Firaxis Games: "We decided not to have wonder movies in Civ III mainly because we've spent a lot of time creating this beautiful immersive world and the wonder movies take you out of the world and interrupt gameplay. The decision was influenced by feedback from Civ players. There will be some very cool in-game visual rewards when you build a wonder. The rest of the game is chock-full of beautiful character animation."

THE SOUND OF PROGRESS: Mark Cromer, Sound Designer, Firaxis Games: "Audio for Civ III has been much improved from audio for Civ II. Units will have sfx that are mixed on the fly with pitch and volume randomization so they sound different and time perfectly. There is much more music than in Civ II and the music starts interactive with a new game. For example, each time the player builds a city or a unit, the music changes to reflect this."

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll see if the specifics are in the article.

[Black Fluffy Lion]

I think we already know most of that. The new things to me were about the pop-up windows and about the sound. Thanks for the info

[Ralf]

STOP THE POP: "We broke all popups into three categories. Those localized to an area, but require no user input, now appear on the map itself, near the area of focus. Those that were not localized to an area, but still didn't require user interaction became advisor messages. The last kind, those that require some user interaction (such as picking a new advance to research), still stop the game.

My italics. The game stops automatically for anything that actually requires player interaction. Good! Above includes new unit/city-orders requirements as well, I presume. No manually clicking forward, as in CTP/CTP-2.

[Crouchback]

Re: OMG!

Originally posted by Russell

Trade is another facet of Civilization III that has changed significantly. Resources within your city radius need only a road to the city to be available for use. Then that resource can be used for unit production and trade. In fact, without certain resources, producing some units is impossible.

BRIGGS SAYS: "You may remember that you had a luxury slider bar that you allocated a certain amount of money to keep people happy. Well that slider bar is gone and has been replaced by the trade system."

So no more simply paying your trouble makers off, now we're going to have to think about making people actually happy. I thought culture was going to be the only big innovation, but it looks like the overhaul of the trade system could be bigger.

Can't wait to play the game. Well done Russell, go soak those tired fingers.

David

[FrostyBoy]

hey! I grabbed that mag just today! (I am from chch too, got it from the palms mall while getting my groceries)

I only had a chance to flick through it, it has a nice large picture of Shaka Zulu, do you have a scanner Russel?

[The Rusty Gamer]

Originally posted by Sn00py
hey! I grabbed that mag just today! (I am from chch too, got it from the palms mall while getting my groceries)

I only had a chance to flick through it, it has a nice large picture of Shaka Zulu, do you have a scanner Russel?

Only at work which I go to very seldom now.

[GodSpawn]

Originally posted by Russell


To quote from the article:

PCPowerPlay has been fortunate enough to play an entirely exclusive pre-release version of Civilization III - the only copy in Australia. While only 70% complete, this playtest proved that the spirit of Civ is recreated in all its glory.

I'm currently in the process of compiling some bits of the article which I'll then post.

Interesting about the 70% complete. I wonder how old the copy was that they got to play with? If it was, say, end of August, and it was 70% complete then, could they really have completed 30% of the game in just over a month (assuming the rumours about it going gold soon are true...)

[Father Beast]

Good gosh, Sometimes I don't know what to believe. We garnered from some old screenshots that there is no luxury slider.

Then they release a domestic advisor screenshot 28 Sep that has a luxury slider.

Then this preview says there is no luxury slider.

so which one is old news? the screenshot released just last week, or the hands on preview from when it's 70% done?

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, I was thinking that I noticed a luxury slider bar somewhere, yet heard that there was no luxury slider. I wonder what is going on

[Viking Ship]

Russell: Many thanks for taking the time to provide us with a good scoop! Much of what you wrote here was just the usual game overview material, though. What does the magazine say about the actual gameplay experience the previewers had? Kudos!

[Inverse Icarus]

[JellyDonut]

Does anybody in Australia/NZ have a scanner? Is there a Kinko's anywhere down there? I want to see the big Shaka!

[java4me]

Makes me want the game even more!!! But Father Beast did bring up a topic, there was a luxury slider in that screenshot. Maybe they are planning on deciding how many luxury resources go to each city or people.

[Nemo]

Thanks for the update Russell!

Nemo hand Russell a few cookies


Enjoy!

you'll get more cookies with future updates