Civ III Release Date Pool

[Darkstar]

We've had interesting talks with Jeff and Tim. And there are the chats with Brian around when people were asking him how long the development would take (like 18+ months), in which he laughed and said they'd be doing good to claim 9 months and end up using 12 to make it.

Release dates are EASY to find. Just look them up in game rags and with game retailers. Then slide the first set you come across around by one to two quarters back, and you generally in a realistic prediction for most games. Now, that's not saying that a lot of games wouldn't do better letting the development team slide it back even further, but marketting and economic pressures force the publishers to get nasty about contract dates and obligations and not getting any more money. Or so we hear from most developers.

Jeff said that they were ABOUT to go Beta, when he was talking about them discussing which Beta method they should use for Civ3. I only saw a snippet of the entire virtual conversation, but that with other things tends to add up.

Such as, Brian had originally said they'd stencilled in Feb 2000 back before they signed an OFFICIAL deal about it, seems to me that they are on track for a May 2000 release. Back ends (delivery dates) always slide, after you get past the framework and start getting into the meat, and discover it takes more time then you originally thought to get in all the requirements.

I'm not expecting anything revolutionary. Just evolutionary. And something a lot closer to SMAC then Civ2. After all, it's SMAC that has been based on... one that's been stretched, tweeked, improved, and otherwise modified. And I'm REAL curious how they did mountains... or if they use straight SMAC terrain. Guess I'll have to wait and see...

I haven't been following this as close as other things though, so I wouldn't suggest you bet your payroll on it.

-Darkstarr
(who had to edit a few spelling mistakes...)
[This message has been edited by Darkstarr (edited December 28, 1999).]

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Darkstarr on 12-28-1999 05:43 AM
Jeff said that they were ABOUT to go Beta

where???
I've only seen him saying
"I'm investigating how to do an 'open' public beta right now for both Civ III and Sid's game (versus a 'closed' or 'screened' public beta, like with SMAC)
just because he's working on it, it odesnt mean they are there yet...

Such as, Brian had originally said they'd stencilled in Feb 2000 back before they signed an OFFICIAL deal about it

again, where? when asked during this summer, Brian had said to us "early next millenium"

perhaps I'm lacking the correct links...

[Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS]

Civ III is about to go beta? I got to start paying attention at those Monday lunches!

jkm
firaxis games

[MarkG]

lol, I'll take it as a "no"

can you tell us at which stage things are now JKM???

[MarkG]

oh, I see you posted "Not even REMOTELY close"(to beta) in the other thread...

yes, a news item is coming any minute now...

[shimmer]

Let us also hope that Firaxis doesn't try (and I don't think they will)and push this game out for the Christmas rush next year. I just as excited to play the game as anyone else but I'd rather wait for a while then have a bug-ridden game.

[Darkstar]

Mark, yeah, I FOUND the original place of that. Oh well. At least we got an update out of it. So I don't mind being so wrong... I had originally recieved that in email, and had mistaked something the sender sent as part of Jeff's statement here at Apoly. My apologies, guys. That doesn't NORMALLY happen. (Must have been wishing on my part...)

Still doesn't mean the 5/2000 release date is off. Now does it? I'm sure Firaxis's ...umm... assistants in distributing the game will still pressure them as strong as they can.

Not close to beta? That's good news in my book. I can wait. As long as it's a good game, I'll like it. I'll try not to expect a game too fun. Somewhere between Civ2 and Civ. That's all.

Remember, bug ridden is a matter of personal opinion. But I'm sure that Firaxis will kill all they can. They'd rather not spend 6 months chasing bugs down after the release when they could be working on something new and interesting.

Thanks for the info, Jeff! As always!

-Darkstarr
(Just slightly embarassed...)

[Patriqvium]

Btw, Brian's mention about "early in the next millenium" may mean anything between 2001-2200...

[connorkimbro]

Did a bit of searching and found this. . dated mid-March of 99

"There's been a lot of discussion and design work done," he said. "It needs to be more than an evolution of Civ II. We don't want a new formula, but we want it to feel like a Civ III and not a Civ II with enhancements".

So apparently they've been working on it for ALMOST a year now already. . if they've got a good team, november of next year seems possible. .

[Theben]

That is good news. About the bugs, I wouldn't want Firaxis to chase down each and every one before release. True, I'd like them to get most and the worst of them, but companies have realized that gamers will find the rest quickly. That's what patches are for. If the choice is between getting a good game in May and a patch in July, or waiting until August for the game, I'll pick May.

------------------
Theben
Co-Moderator of the Civ3 Forums

[Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS]

It's so early it's hard to really categorize Civ III. I'd say we're still in the prototype phase, though signifigant design and art work has been initiated. I won't engage in any wild speculation about a date, which is ALL any release date you hear about is..

jkm
firaxis games
[This message has been edited by Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS (edited December 29, 1999).]

[FinnishGuy]

I'd say we're still in the prototype phase, ...

Very good news indeed (IMO). This means the List v2 suggestions also have a chance of making it into the game.

BTW jkm, any hint about how much the Lists (v1 and v2) are having impact on Civ3?

[L o k i]

I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE DAMN RELEASE DATE I WANT TO SEE THE SCREENSHOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zaz]

Game released on March 15,2001
4th patch released so the game is actually playable released Sept 1, 2001

[Harel]

Originally posted by Darkstarr on 12-28-1999 05:43 AM
We've had interesting talks with Jeff and Tim. And there are the chats with Brian around when people were asking him how long the development would take (like 18+ months), in which he laughed and said they'd be doing good to claim 9 months and end up using 12 to make it.
This message has been edited by Darkstarr

Where are you LIVING Darkstarr?!
Games don't take 12 months to complete!
Take, for example, Free-space2, which is after all just a re-vock of the old engine. It took more then a year, and they worked like crazy.
Games take 18 months normally, and we are talking about average companies and average games.
Strategy games take a lot longer. StarCraft took 26 pure months of work, and it wasn't a technological breakthourth. So does most other strategy games.
Civ III will take two years of development, like every respectable game from a respectable company takes.
The only difference is, that most companies only declare the new games publilcy when on advanced stages of the game.
What did you think? To make the basical engine for even a simple screen-shot is atleast 80% of the programming right there!
Firaxis told us about civ III when they just had the idea... It still way-way-way off, sadly...