Civ III Release Date Pool

[Lee Johnson]

Quoth Jeff:

I won't engage in any wild speculation about a date, which is ALL any release date you hear about is.

Of course, and I'm not expecting any sort of official response to this blue sky session. I just saw that reference to a 3Q 2000 ship date and thought, "They obviously aren't exercising any common sense!"
[This message has been edited by Lee Johnson (edited December 30, 1999).]

[Darkstar]

I'm living on planet earth, Harel. How about you?

You can go digging for where they had stated that. I'd thought it would have been 18 to 24 months timeline for things of Civ2 caliber (for a small group of people that work decently together).

However, I do have a few friends in the Game Entertainment business, and they assure me that everything they've ever been connected with had somewhere between 0 to 6 months of futzing about before the team was dragged in, and then typically 4 to 8 months to hard deadline. A couple of those games are/were decent PC sellers, so taking THEIR word for it (and I've never caught them lying to me about things programming related), I am inclined to believe that typical, and not untypical.

Now, you have to remember, that TECHNICALLY, Civ3 is been in the making since Brian Reynolds began considering how to make the sequel to Civ2. How long has that been? A designer or two CAN "futz" about, laying out basic design for a long time, I'd suppose, before the project was given a green light. And if Sid has been messing about with Dinosaurs since before he left Microprose, that means Dinosaurs has been in "concept" for a long time. When did he first consider the idea? All good apps start as thought projects by their developers... You don't get a team together and just go forward when making games, do you? We don't in the real world apps. We decide what we are after... a designer considers what's needed. Perhaps for quite a while (seconds, hours, days, weeks, months, years) before code starts. Teams formed, design's specked and tightened.

I really don't expect most games happen too differently... aside from there is a vaguer target when it's started, it's still code. Code is code. You design, test, debug, and repeat. You close in on your target, one small step per coder per pass... until the deadline that was so far off suddenly starts looming at least... {If you want to know what happens during Crunches, well, that's a Coder's Secret. I could tell you, but then you'd have to be chained to a computer here for the rest of your life...}

-Darkstarr
(just ranting along... it's a slow monday...)

[Lee Johnson]

Following the news of Brian's departure from Firaxis, my release date guesstimate for Civilization III is forthwith amended to 4Q 2001. I know that the people left behind are capable individuals, but you don't lose a major team member from a project without losing momentum--especially when he's the lead designer.

I'm just making this alteration in case somebody was planning to check my estimate next year.

[Adm.Naismith]

Hope you are right about 4Q 2001, because I have fear of some rush to 3Q 2000 with some CIV III cloned from SMAC and full of bugs!

I hope Firaxis is not playing dirty tricks, because I'm earing from another game company that "a game is not property of developer nor customer (!) but of the distributor, that can chose when to deliver it, finished or not!"

If the quote I red on italian games magazine is correct, I think someone is going crazy.
I pray it will not happen the same with Firaxis.

------------------
Adm.Naismith AKA mcostant

[Tim Train FIRAXIS]

FWIW, (and I apologize if this has already been answered elsewhere) this game will not release in 2000 and has never been slated for that timeframe. We're still a long ways from figuring out a release date. We plan to make Civ 3 a triple-A title in every category, including of course art, design, AI, and playbalance; unfortunately these things take time. But happily, when we're there, you will have the best incarnation of the series, and we won't release it until it is the best.

Hope this clarifies!

Tim

[MarkG]

This is certainly time for.... the NewsMaker Man!! Using his powerfull news script he...

Seriously, great to see some more info coming out from Firaxis. Also very good to see that the plan is to make Civ3 "triple A" game. Don't worry about time Tim, I think we've learned to wait instead of screaming "give it to me, give it to me!"

[This message has been edited by MarkG (edited February 08, 2000).]

[zaz]

I was planning on buying a new system this year, but with that statement ("We plan on making Civ 3 Triple- A in every category"), I fear that anything I could buy today will not be up to spec when Civ3 is finaly released. This may keep a large portion of the gaming public from being able to buy the game. My current system is only 2 years old and already I can't play half of what's out there.

[Hugo Rune]

Buy a new system.

No, but seriously, too good graphics would mean a hit on the customisability on which Civ2 mainly built its following.

What will the Departure of BR mean when related to the release date?

[Adm.Naismith]

Tim Train, just because you post right after my "fear of" post, I want to thank you for the nice reply. I feel better now!

Hoping you won't be fired for your effort to make CIV III "as good as deserve, using the time it needs to"

------------------
Adm.Naismith AKA mcostant

[NoviceCEO]

quote: Originally posted by Hugo Rune on 02-08-2000 12:53 PM No, but seriously, too good graphics would mean a hit on the customisability on which Civ2 mainly built its following.

OK dude. I've discussed this in another topic, so I will only give you a brief statement: Ain't Quake highly customizable?

[Biddles]

If it comes down to a choice between graphics and customization, graphics will win hands down. There will be a greater number of customers who lack either the skill or the will to customize the game, so they will be catered for with nice graphics. But that isn't so bad. Maybe Firaxis can make it so that you can download 3D meshes into the game files:

Loading 3D Studio Max R 2.5

Opening stormtrooper.max

Replacing infantry 3D mesh with stormtrooper.max


------------------
- Biddles

"Now that our life-support systems are utilising the new Windows 2027 OS, we don't have to worry about anythi......."
Mars Colonizer Mission

[ACEofHeart]

My guess it will be released DEC 14th,2000.
But it won't be from Firaxis !!!
It'll be released only thru the Internet at brianreynolds.com
It'll be titled "Gotcha"

[Lee Johnson]

Time for a mid-course correction. I am revising my ETA for Civ III from 4Q 2001 to 2Q 2002. If it ships before then I'll be ecstatic, but I don't think we'll be seeing it this year.

[EnochF]

Okay, my votes are on Bob Hope, Pope John Paul II, Milton Berle, Boris Yeltsin, Elia Kazan...

Wait a minute. This isn't the Civ 3 death pool.

[tniem]

Spring of 2002. Just in time for the summer season so that I can't work to pay for the college semester that I had just wasted waiting for Civ III.