Which civs should be in?

[Grumbold]

If 16 is a soft limit and modders can make every nation they ever thought of available to plug in then we don't have a problem. Having one new race available per week/month to download from the official website would be a nice touch. The just need to make sure they set the pick window to be scrollable, capable of holding a huge list and no-brainer stuff like that. Making new races available but having the computer unable to select any but the first 16 to use as opponents to you would be another classic mistake

[lord of the mark]

quote: Originally posted by cyclotron7 on 04-28-2001 10:57 PM What exactly is the problem here? Asssuming that Firaxis lets you choose your own Civ name and Leader as all previous Civ games, how does it matter at all that they decide to put in some civs and take away others? What is keeping you guys from just making your own custom civ?

The unique units (and any other unique civ advantages) the civ that gets panzers (or whatever else you choose to call the bonus armour unit) is the Germans, whatever you do with the leader name or city list. The more elaborate the unique civ attributes the more strongly this is true.

Which leads to dismal debates about which civs deserve to be in the game, like this one. This could easily have been predicted - didnt anyone here look at the AOK boards before AOK:TC came out?

Best solution - go back to generic civs!!!!!!

LOTM

[lord of the mark]

quote: Originally posted by Grumbold on 05-10-2001 06:55 AM If 16 is a soft limit and modders can make every nation they ever thought of available to plug in then we don't have a problem. Having one new race available per week/month to download from the official website would be a nice touch. The just need to make sure they set the pick window to be scrollable, capable of holding a huge list and no-brainer stuff like that. Making new races available but having the computer unable to select any but the first 16 to use as opponents to you would be another classic mistake

a new civ each week to dl. With unique attributes. and they are going to playtest a civ per week for balance? Nah, if you get new civs it will be after a year, in an xpack, and you will pay between $20 and $40 US for it. See the history of AOK

LOTM

[Cyclotron]

quote: JAPANESE(seem quite similar to the Chinese apart from modern politics)

Sir, I must protest! The Japanese are extremely different from the Chinese. It is a western misconception that they are somehow similar. They have fufilled different roles in history, have taken different paths in civilization and have always had a different culture. It is vitally important that the Chinese at least be in (one of the 4 major river valley civs), and the Japanese are also crucial!

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- Cyclotron7, "that supplementary resource fanatic"

[To_Serve_Man]

quote: Originally posted by Roman on 05-10-2001 06:11 AM BTW: I am an agnostic atheist and I am not a barbarian! Wait, maybe "Grrr, Hiiii, kill, kill, burn, pillage!"

More power to ya! Its good to see that religion is losing its hold on the people of earth!

[lord of the mark]

Yiddish civ

Unique units:
1. the yiddishe mama - armed with pot of matzah ball soup. Ignores city walls.

2. Uncle Jake - every city with a colisseum has odds each turn of generating uncle Jake. He cost 1 gold per turn, until the bookies get him.

3. Cousin Max the Red - can be built in any city with a library , university and harbor. Acts like spy, but can only bribe cities, no other spy functions. Can be used against any other civ even commie one ("didnt i tell you I broke with the Stalinists years ago!!!")

When computer advance is discovered all Maxes are transformed into yuppies, who add to the science and trade output, but require high levels of luxuries.


If capital is conquered, civ splits into "jewish" and "israeli" civs

Jewish civ is EXACTLY the same as American civ, but cannot go fundie.

Israeli civ has good military tech research capabilities, is exempt from happiness penalties when at war as a demo, but has low trade output until the development of the internet advance, when it becomes possible to build "silicon wadi"

Each turn some workers from jewish civ migrate to Israeli civ. They require very high luxuries, or they become very unhappy.

In turn some israeli workers migrate to jewish civ. They are happy with low luxury level, but they reduce jewish civ attitude toward israeli civ.

Occasionally some "yiddish" cities survive the split. However they no longer produce jakes or maxes, and mamas lose offensive capabilities, are only good for enforceing martial law. When in demo the leader is called "the lubavitcher rebbe" When in fundie the leader is called "the szatmar rebbe" and automatically declares war on Israeli civ.


LOTM

[Dhalsim]

Lord of the Mark

Quality post.

I still reckon the barbarians could be diversified.
Perhaps Vandals, Mongols, Thugs, Hun. From the 20th C on, Anarchists.
All with different abilities.ie, Anarchists cause extra pollution due to their fondness of dogs and 'punk rock' and aversion to soap.


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Yoga Flame

[Adm.Naismith]

quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark on 05-10-2001 07:23 PM a new civ each week to dl. With unique attributes. and they are going to playtest a civ per week for balance? Nah, if you get new civs it will be after a year, in an xpack, and you will pay between $20 and $40 US for it. See the history of AOK LOTM

Every week is unrealistic, to said the best, but looking to others succesful game experience, after a couple of months (and may be the first patch ) you'll need to keep the hype to the game every months and so.
"It's marketing, baby".

You can spend money advertising or using Internet leverage (forums, newsgroups, etc.) giving away some more food for them.
Balancing the civ can be a minor issue: first of all we don't know for sure about the relevance of unique attribute (if any) will be added to standard 16 civ, then consider that Firaxis could simply look at fan mods, chose the more interesting available (and mod author anf early players have surely tuned it a bit already) then take a professional graphic to draw and skin leader, units, cities, what's in game and need professional touch.

The xPack is more likely for Firaxis (looking back to SMACX) but I hope they change this habit. AOK is from Microsoft, it's their embedded nature to pack and sell "enhancements": see Win98, Win98se, WinMe ...


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Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

[Grumbold]

After the first month Firaxis will not have to make or playtest any Civ's if they don't want to, just cherry pick from the dozens that enthusiastic fans will submit. If a civ gets a high enough fan approval rating in the "unofficial download" section, port it into the "officially approved" download section with an acknowledgement to the creator. Firaxis happy, modder happy, fans happy ...or at least that seems to be the way Maxis have successfully managed it with their SimCity 3000 site.

Europa Universalis have done similar things, with their official site wholeheartedly offering all sorts of fan scenarios including the unofficial Grand Campaign for download which is a fan generated replacement to the official Grand Campaign scenario.

[Roman]

quote: Originally posted by To_Serve_Man on 05-10-2001 07:41 PM More power to ya! Its good to see that religion is losing its hold on the people of earth!

Unfortunately, my country is experiencing a religious revival since the fall of communism. I think getting rid of religion is the only good thing communism has done to Eastern and Central Europe, though I do not agree with the means they used.

[Sirotnikov]

quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark on 05-10-2001 08:42 PM Yiddish civ LOTM

ROFLMAO!!!



This is really good. I hope they take you up on that.

I think that it's a necessity that a jewish / israeli / hebrew / israelite civ appears as we effected lots of things! We gave you monotheism, we gave you enstein, we gave you circumcision!

For god sakes people, we rule the world.

I mean, no we don't. It's all nati-semitic propoganda

[Bereta_Eder]

quote: Originally posted by Sirotnikov on 05-11-2001 01:20 PM ROFLMAO!!! we gave you circumcision!

you can take it back !

[Krypter]

Why not allow the civilizations to change over the course of the game? That way the Babylonians could become the Arabs, the Romans could become Italians (and then the EU), and the Spanish could become the Mexicans if they conquered the Aztecs.

Let the player change the name of his civ during the game too. I always felt strange playing the Americans in 2000BC, or the Romans in 2020AD.



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:::Krypter:::
Sic Semper Tyrannis

[Antonios]

King Richard
You must take a book and learn history or please don't speak!You can't say that Alexander the Great was not a Greek but a Macedonian.Macedonia was and continues to be a part of Greece.Also you must learn that Greece had great empires in history like the empire of Alexander the Great and Byzantium.You can't say that you don't want a civilization that influenced all Europe in all times of history with it's great culture.You can't say that you don't want a civilization that created great cities in all Mediterrenian and achieved to go to North and South America thousands of years before Colombus did.You can't say that you don't want a civilization that created buildings like Parthenon or Pyramids before Egyptians built them.A civilization that made people start THINKING and love THINKING.You can't write history without having the knowledge of it.So first read and search or silence.

[Maxxes]

quote: ...and achieved to go to North and South America thousands of years before Colombus did