New preview at Gamespy

[Mahdimael]

http://www.gamespy.com/gamespin/october01/gamespin26/

It's an interview with Soren Johnson:

Points:
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" In Civ III the worlds that are generated look much better. They have authentic looking coastlines, and so on. We even model plate tectonics so that mountain ranges and valleys make sense"
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" Does the AI cheat? Yes, but sometimes in favor of the player! Below Prince level it cheats for the player, and above Prince level it cheats against the player. At Prince level there is no cheating."
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"GameSpin: Any multiplayer?

Johnson: No. We're working on multiplayer but we're not ready to make any announcements about how it will be implemented. "
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That's the main stuff. Check it out

[ixnay]

It also says that no one at Firaxis has been able to win on deity...

[Pembleton]

Well isn't Emperor now the equivalent of Civ2's Deity, since the computer cheats above Prince? I believe King was the level in Civ2 where the playing field was the most even.

[connorkimbro]

connor's brief commentary. .

There are all quotes from the Soren Johnson interview. .

We also looked at some popular tactics like ICS -- infinite city sprawl -- that some players used to beat the AI in Civ II at Deity level. These won't work in Civ III.

Heh. . oh yeah? We'll see about that. We'll find a way to make them work, and if not, we'll find NEW ways to exploit the game. Just wait and see, Firaxis.

He was basically the lead designer and came up with the high level concepts like culture and borders.

LOL. IIRC, we came up with culture, read The List (any version) . . and borders was in smac and ctp so I hardly see how he "came up with it."

For instance, there are more units in Civ III than in Civ II. .

Cool, didn't know that.

Johnson: We're ready for something new. The RTS genre is stuck in a rut now.

Does this mean that you WILL do an RTS game to revive it, or WON'T do an RTS game for fear of poor sales?

[Stuie]

Re: connor's brief commentary. .

Originally posted by connorkimbro

He was basically the lead designer and came up with the high level concepts like culture and borders.

LOL. IIRC, we came up with culture, read The List (any version) . . and borders was in smac and ctp so I hardly see how he "came up with it."

I think they are referring to how the concepts work within the framework of Civ3. The fact other games did or did not have a similiar feature or that they were mentioned on some list is inconsequential to the actual work of designing the look, feel and interaction of the feature as it pertains to the new game being developed.

[connorkimbro]

I agree, that's what he meant, but that's not exactly what he SAID. He was SAID "came up with" on the "conceptual" level. Not just implementation. .

[Pembleton]

Re: connor's brief commentary. .

Originally posted by connorkimbro
There are all quotes from the Soren Johnson interview. .

We also looked at some popular tactics like ICS -- infinite city sprawl -- that some players used to beat the AI in Civ II at Deity level. These won't work in Civ III.

Heh. . oh yeah? We'll see about that. We'll find a way to make them work, and if not, we'll find NEW ways to exploit the game. Just wait and see, Firaxis.

He didn't say that the game couldn't be exploited. He admitted that gamers will figure out how to beat Deity eventually even though no-one at Firaxis has been able to beat it yet.

[Akron]

Originally posted by ixnay37
It also says that no one at Firaxis has been able to win on deity...

That sounds very promising! Hopefully, this ai will be good enough to keep most people interested until multiplayer comes out (it better be released as part of a patch).

[Pembleton]

Originally posted by Akron
That sounds very promising! Hopefully, this ai will be good enough to keep most people interested until multiplayer comes out (it better be released as part of a patch).

I don't think this necessarily means the AI is much better, although I'm hoping it is.

All they have to do is give the AI a ton of advantages and disadvantages to the player to make Deity extremely difficult.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

this is really promising... 20 more days ....

[FrostyBoy]

Looks like I will be playing Prince first then, I hate it when the AI cheats, things just don't seem right.

[Comrade Tribune]

Overall, this interview sounds good.
The game is not exactly full of new features, and even some old -MP- are missing, but at least what is there will be very highly polished, I believe.

[smellymummy]

no mp sounds like no hotseat or pbem...the most basic mp you can get!!

Instead of player takes turn, then ai... just add another player in the list! That's dissapointing. We're all going to be playing for hours on end in solitude

[jsw363]

I wonder how the AI cheats FOR the player. It must be REALLY good if they have to balance it like that. Maybe it won't make stupid diplomatic decisions anymore...

[JellyDonut]

Originally posted by smellymummy
no mp sounds like no hotseat or pbem...the most basic mp you can get!!

Succession games are more basic! All you need is the ability to save files! And if Civ III doesn't allow files to be saved...