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**Spiffor** · April 20, 2002, 02:03

(YuMMz) Firaxis: Does it make a difference if you get a goodie hut with a Settler/Worker or a Military unit. Might be coincidence but I have gotten Settlers almost 50% more often when I use a worker to get the hut
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) yummZ: no difference

(jimmyhealey) I can add units in my editor, but now the sav's are compressed it'll be a while longer before I can use it with the latest version
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy-no promises. it's a messy format.

(Spiffor) Jeff_Morris_FIRAXIS : In general, are Firaxians reading seriously wishlists from the fans, or do you make the game progress only as on your agenda ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor- Both.
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) spiffor: Firaxians view Apolyton and, uh, that other civ site (sorry Mark) regualrly

(Spiffor) Mike_Breitkreuz_FIRAXIS : My question is about fixed starting positions : although the editor has many more features now than 6 months ago, this one is still not present. Why ? Is it not a priority, or is it especially difficult to implement ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor- re: start locs: The biggest thing holding that back was getting the concept of the "player" into the editor, which you'll note is now something you can customize...

(m_m_x) firaxis-why u guys aint gettin rid of that cd security thing, it dosent help preventing hacking and cracking the game,and it casues lots of problems..?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) m_m_x - That's Infogrames' call, not ours.

(allow_us_to_speak) does the fortress supply interdiction fire to any defending unit?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) fortresses give ZOCs to combat units inside them

(Spiffor) Soren_Johnson_FIRAXIS : About trading units with the AI : does Firaxis consider implementing unit-trading, or is it sure it will never happen ?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) spiffor: we have discussed it... no decision has been reached

(LoQtS) I understand that, Mike, but I'm curious if there's anything that made this mod special?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) LoQtS-I liked the zombie theme.

(Guest57927) Can the manhattan project be edited to change it into a small wonder?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Guest-I don't think so.

(AmesJustin_yet_again) Will there be a CIV 3 Expansion?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ames- no comment

(YuMMz) Firaxis: Any chance that Roman Legionares might be upgradeable?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) yummz: only if swordsmen become upgradable, and i don't see that happening. That path of the upgrade tree was meant to end.

(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) ...speaking of beer, BRB
(ACS_MarkG) so you're starting to "get there" mike?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) we are always starting to "get there"

(draz3) In what way did the AI change in the latest patch? Soren?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) draz: the AI's flexibility in using units and hurry/draft decision have been improved.

(AmesJustin_yet_again) Will the dino game ever be brought back to life?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ames- That's a Q for Sid

(patlasch) Soren, why the focus on closing exploits, if that how I enjoy the game why not let me do it that way. There's many things the ai can't do why "fix" what isn't broken?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) patlasch: I don't think we are focusing on closing exploits anymore. I think we did that with the first couple patches, and with this patch we are sort of rebalancing to improve the fun.
(ACS_MarkG) soren how many projects are you guys working on now?
(ACS_MarkG) dinosaurs!
(ACS_MarkG)

(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Mark: Too many

(theGreyFox) Soren: About the new AI tactics. Will e.g. French use this much as they already build alot of defensive units.
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: yes, the French will use it. if they lack horses, they might even use the musketeer as their primary offensive unit

(theGreyFox) Soren: Will the AI use Marines and Paratroopers at all now? If so effective? Why do these two units have so low values, for their cost?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: paratroops and marines both do something no other unit can do, so their cost has to go up. and yes, the AI does use them in certain circumstances.

(ZeFalor) Firaxis: When will Anthrax be added to the game? It would be a wonderful thing to be able to 'thrax the other civilizations to death.
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) zefalor: don't hold your breath
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Anthrax? We wanted more of a Kenny G feel... Oh you weren't talking about the band?

(allow_us_to_speak) Will the AI use artillery now?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) allow: the AI's use of artillery has been increased...
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) ...although it's not a primary strategy because it takes a little more finesse.In general, the AI leans towards "safe" strategies.

(theGreyFox) Q: Will the compression/decompression format be released? So that Utilities that use the saves can be used?
(chiefpaco) they answered that: We used the commercial version of the PKWare data compression library

(YuMMz) Firaxis: Any chance for a popup window to tell you that a city is going to go into disorder next turn?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) yummz: i believe the "manage moods" governor will take care of this a turn ahead for you now

(player1) Soren, how are bombard chances claculated when bombing cities?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) player1: i believe there is a 50% chance of targeting units, 25% chance of targeting buildings, and 25% chance for population

(Spiffor) Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS : is it a chance that patches get released every 2 months, or is this schedule planned in advance ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor : chance.

(theGreyFox) Q: Why do you need Horses to upgrade e.g Chariots to Horsemen, or Horsemen to Samurai's?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: huh... i never thought of it that way...

(notyoueither) Repeat: Mike or Soren. Can you add a Fortify All function, or Sleep all?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) nye- Not sure. I'll look into it.
(notyoueither) Greeaaaat! It would really help late game.

(SirRalph) Mike: Is there a chance to tell the domestic advisor not to ask about aqueduct and hospitals? may be as preference?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) SirRalph-I'll look into it

(theGreyFox) Question: Why was Pop-Rushing made so un-usable in 1.17? And why change back now?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: well, it was the only dominant startegy that emerged, so we devalued it in 1.17, but we went too far, so we pulled it back a little less. no big conspiracy.

(Spiffor) Soren_Johnson_Firaxis : While you Programmers and QA are working on the patch, what are the artists doing ? Do they work for future development of Civ3, do they work for other Firaxis projects, did they lose their job at Firaxis after the release ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor- They're still here working on unannounced projects

(alexman) Could you save me some trouble? :-) Do courthouses affect corruption from number of cities now, or is their 1.17 effect just strengthened?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) alexman, courthouses (and police stations) do affect the # of citys value for corruption...
(Theseus) Why is there no way to adjust corruption due to number of cities?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) theseus: you can via the editor
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) or in the game, build FP, courthouse, police station, be a democracy, be in WLTKD, be a Commercial civ.
(theGreyFox) Question: How much does, and how does Courthouses and Police stations affect corruption? Different between Waste and Corruption?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: it is the same effect for both waste and corruption... they basically cut the difference in half and add 1/4 of the optimal # of cities (which would be 4 on a normal map)
(theGreyFox) Question: Each of the buildings add 1/4 to the Optimum number?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: yes.. the FP and being Commercial has a similar effect (not sure about their values)
(theGreyFox) Firaxis: Oh, I thought you meant that Courthouses & Policestations Added 1/4 of the optimum... silly me...
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) greyfox: no that is what I meant (i think)... if a city has no courthouse or police station, the optimum cities value is 16. If it has both, the optimum value becomes 24.
(Aeson) For only that city right Soren?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) aeson: right
(panag6) but courthouses also affect nearby city's , right ?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) panag: courthouses only effect the city they are in
(panag6) and policestations ?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) same

([m]ike) Are there any efforts at making the larger maps more playable? I have heard it is something in the culture routine that slows down turns on huge maps.
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) mike: it is the pathfinding which slows down the larger maps...

(player1) Can we more chats, not just one after release of patch?
(ACS_MarkG) we'll try player1

(AmesJustin_yet_again) Would it be possible to add negative values for things like defense and pollution?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ames- some things do allow negative values

(|Sn00py) I find it strange that patches seem to fix some things but screw up others? Are you really Microsoft in disguise?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) snoopy: well, we didn't have a good patch-testing process before. We are much more confident about 1.21.
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) the beta testers helped a great deal
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Yeah. Go beta team!

(Hagbart) Who's working on the editor?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Hagbart- Me

([m]ike) It might be cool if great leaders could remove corruption from any city they are stationed in. Has anyone considered this?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) interesting idea
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) i really need to emphasize, though, that the bad reputation of the previous patches happened because we tried to fix too much, so new ideas have to be OUTSTANDING before we would consider putting them in the standard game at this point

(AmesJustin_yet_again) Why did you remove resources like gold from building requirements? I had a mod in which granaries required wheat which died when I upgraded...
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ames- Because it didn't work in the game. You could require it in the editor but the game wouldn't have allowed it.

(Gzint) Mike, Soren: Is there a list somewhere of the options that can only be set in the Civilization3.ini file? Like using the system's resolution?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Gzint- Not sure....

(patlasch) any possiblity of displaying turns remaining on trade deals anywhere besides the diplo screen?
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) umm...
(Soren_Johnson_Firaxis) sorry, gotta go...
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(panag6) mike , ya staying ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) for a bit
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) until I get overwhelmed

(player1) Will there be more MODs on www.civ3.com ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) player1 - Yes

(Hagbart) So, will it be possible to make a trade-screen, with infos like who is trading and how many turns is left of the deals?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Hagbart- probably not

(AmesJustin_yet_again) If we have a mod, who do we send it to to post at www.civ3.com ?
(ACS_MarkG) ames, it's best to post on a site first
(theGreyFox) Q: So do you choose which Mods that will be published at different websites, or from MODs sent to you?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) GreyFox- I don't know. Barry (SpeedBump) and Jeff Morris handle that.

(|Sn00py) Civ3 seems to have less intelligence reports on a civilization than Civ2, am I right? WHY!?!?
(|Sn00py) Many times I have wanted to know the size of their population.. government.. etc!
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Sn00py - I was not very involved with the design of the game but if I had to guess I would say because they wanted to tone down the amount of information thrown at the player...

(Ladnek) mike, can you guys leave the size of the maps alone, I like the huge maps
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ladnek - You can still use any size up to 256x256 by using the editor.
(APerfectGimp) They only changed the default

(ImmortalWombat) Is it possible for scripting without a language to be as powerful and adaptable as scripting WITH a language?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) IW: Yes. Just less typing for the user.
(ImmortalWombat) Mike: how? Like AoK but better?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) IW- Yes.
(LoQtS) how exactly would that work then? what would you improve compared to AoE?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) LoQtS- You'd need a lot more control than they give you in AoK -- and a better interface.

(|Sn00py) Mike are you at home or at work right now?
(ACS_MarkG) me thinks he's still at work
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Sn00py- I'm still at work -- multitasking between coding and chatting

(Hagbart) What are u coding??
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Hagbart - no comment!

(GER-Hendrik_the_Great) @MIKE: I was wondering. Are you satisfied with the way Civ3 turned out or would you have liked to do something differently??

(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Hendrik- I think for the most part I'm pretty atisfied. As a developer I would always like more time to work on things... but then they'd never get finished.

(theGreyFox) Question: Why did you take away the Multi-cheat?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) GreyFox - Because we didn't put that in (leftover from extremely early build) and it caused lots of bad things to happen behind the scenes.

(player1) Mike, has anybody in team (exept Speed Bump) played my MOD?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) player1- I haven't but I can't answer for anyone else.

(Guest66137) G(R)EEK: I hope this isn't in Bold letters, single thing you are most proud of Civ 3, Firaxis
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Guest- Limited or not, I'm most proud of the editor. You should have seen it before I got my hands on it....

(jimmyhe) Mike: Is the file appnote.zip at http://www.pkware.com/download.html enough to uncompress the save files???
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- probably but I'm not sure. I didn't do anything special to it.

(APerfectGimp) Hey Firaxis guys, what did you think about that guy's rant about how the Theory of Evolution shouldn't be in Civ3?

(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Gimp- didn't read it

(Free_Mumia) what civ would you like to have included in Civ3, but didn't?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Mumia- Vikings

(AmesJustin_yet_again) MIKE - Has date-altering already been addressed? this would be very useful to set a scenario timeframe?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ames- not yet

(Spiffor) Question Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS : is it imaginable, in the editor, to edit city-specialists producing something else than money-science-happiness (like culture or shields) ? Or is the limited role of specialists definitely hardcoded ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor- A good idea but I doubt we'd make a change like that now.

(SirRalph) Mike: why is a simple add of city and leader names considered a "rule change", including a warning box popping up when I start a game?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) SirRalph- because that info is stored in the rules.... You can change that now with the use of player properties -- where it won't be a rule change.

(Hagbart) Can u tell us anything about the future of Civ3, which is not classified?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Hagbart- no

(AmesJustin_yet_again) MIKE - Any chance of you posting some scenarios YOU created?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Ames- I've only had time to do that one map so far...
(AmesJustin_yet_again) Played it... pretty good....
(Hagbart) Your Ringworld map is nice
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) That was my test of the map editor...

(GER-Hendrik_the_Great) @Mike_Breitkreutz: What other Civ-Communities in the web do you visit from time to time other than Apolyton?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Hendrik- CivFanatics and CivGame

(panag6) Mike , we want a world map , ..............255x255 , please
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) I think Marla's Earth map is that large. It's pretty nice too.
(panag6) Mike , what about 500x500 , possible ?????
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) panag - No chance
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Do you have any idea how slow the game would be when you quadruple the map size???

(ZeFalor) Mike: When you get a chance, what other games do you enjoy playing?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) ZeFalor- I've been playing Dungeon Siege, Brood War and Rogue Leader

(Spiffor) Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS : What was the most difficult to implement in the 1.21 patch ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor- Player properties in the editor

(notyoueither) When are you moving the server Mark?
(ACS_MarkG) nye: no comment

(ACS_MarkG) we'll announce things when things are definite

(|Sn00py) MarkG, when are you going to get that download issue on the forums fixed?
(ACS_MarkG) snoopy, i think there are no problems with ie5.5
(NL-mart) none with 6.0 either
(ACS_MarkG) i'm planning an vbulletin upgrade asap
(ImmortalWombat) zips save simply as "attachment" (no file ending) and I cannot save animated gifs off Poly
(ACS_MarkG) wombat, you have to rename them properly

(Spiffor) Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS : did some changes in the 1.21 need a deep modification of source code ? (i.e, were there difficult hardcoded obstacles)
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Spiffor- There are far too many hardcoded obstacles

(jimmyhe) Mike: PKWARE has about 10 methods of compressing which method do you use?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- Where are you looking at these methods?
(jimmyhe) http://www.pkware.com/support/appnote.html
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- if you're talking "compression method", I believe it's 10 - PKware data compression library imploding

(GER-ColdFever) Mike - there are some people here in Germany waiting for the "final" 1.21 download with the fixed Editor inside. Perhaps you are able to get the final package ready for download from Firaxis this weekend? I have to get some sleep now. Thanks for the nice job. Civ3 will "spoil" my weekend once (Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) ColdFever- You can download the 1.21f editor from Aployton and CivFanatics. And you have it already...again. Bye!

(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- I don't think so
(jimmyhe) Who implemented the compression?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- I did but it was all in a library. I just called a function basically
(jimmyhe) I take it this is an internal library that you use.
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- We have the pkware compression library... I just used the library provided with it.

(|Sn00py) Hey, when I add a sound file to the ambience directory, and rename it to one of your sounds, how come it doesn't play?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Sn00py- I think our sound files have special formatting codes
(Gramphos) Is it ASCII or Binary compression?
(Gramphos) Dictionary size? 1, 2 or 4k?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Gramphos-4K
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) Granphos- and Binary

(jimmyhe) I'm guessing you need lisence to have the PKWare compression library?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) jimmy- I'm pretty sure you can download the format details...

([m]ike) if we do a complete reinstall of the game do we need to install all of the old patches or is it safe to put in 1.21f only?

(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) mike- 1.21 includes all previous patches
(panag6) so , if there is a error from 1.16 it just stayed
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) panag-- well, no we fixed bugs we found in previous patches but all changes include previous changes aswell.
(panag6) no , because the errors are only with 1.21
(panag6) Mike ya want the register code ?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) panag- no probably wouldn't help

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**lockstep** · April 20, 2002, 06:02

Many thanks, Spiffor!

(BTW, Firaxis obviously said a lot more than 'no comment'. The part about corruption was especially interesting.)

**Locutus** · April 20, 2002, 07:52

(LoQtS) I understand that, Mike, but I'm curious if there's anything that made this mod special?
(Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS) LoQtS-I liked the zombie theme.

You left out the first (and more interesting, IMHO) part:
I (Locutus == LoQtS) asked if the Firaxians had played any of the fan-made mods. Mike answered that he hadn't yet (no time) but that he had downloaded Ed O'War's zombie mod (available at CFC).

**Zachriel** · April 20, 2002, 09:23

A lot of great info, especially about corruption. Thanks Spiffor.

**player1** · April 20, 2002, 09:59

I like info about bombard chances: 50% target unit, 25% target building, 25% target population.

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