Civ3's biggest failure is it's lack of scenario "events.txt"

[H Tower]

has firaxis done sim golf yet? they're either working on that begining some other stupid project

[ColdWizard]

simgolf's been out for over a year

[hexagonian]

Well, here's a quote that may clarify things...

"I don't believe in giving scripting languages because the only additional power they give users is the power to create bugs." - Mike Breitkreutz, Firaxis

...pulled from Immortal Wombat' s sig. Don't know where he got it from, but I trust that is is accurate.

Maybe Firaxis will have a change of heart - it remains to be seen.

See my sig below for what can be done in a civ-style game with a scripting language. And yes, WOTR has scripted events, not merely new units/techs.

[Demerzel]

pay for another XP when it should have been in the original game?

[pedrojedi]

That's a sad true precedent.

[Jon Shafer]

To be honest, I'm actually quite amazed that the same company made Civ 2 as made Civ 3. Civ 2 was so incredibly rich with scenarios, mods and tweaks, it was quite amazing. Even if some of the scenarios could have used a bit more balancing (), there was still quite a bit there. Civ 3 just seems incredibly lacking in that regard, and without a major overhaul of the creation capabilities with Civ 3, it simply won't be the same. Diplomacy will probably be added eventually (I hope), but I really don't see anything beyond that.

[x Krelian x]

The only reason I didn't buy PTW is because it didn't have a proper scenario editor. Instead, I reinstalled Civ2.

[WarpStorm]

But Mike also said that there are other ways to achieve scripting than to make a scripting language.

If events are to be added into Civ it would almost definitely be in an expansion rather than a free patch. Something like that would cost a large amount of money to build.

[Kuciwalker]

There are an ENORMOUS number of things you can do with even a bad scripting language (like civ2's) that you cannot do without one. Even if there are workarounds, it doesn't work nearly as well. And even if civ3 WASN'T made for historical scenarios, these are very good for fictional ones as well (anyone play Kobayashi's Star Trek scenarios, especially the DS9 one, for civ2?). In fact, almost every fictional scenario, especially SF, had events.

Heck, I'd even pay for a second expansion pack just for events. I don't care about MP. I WANT MY EVENTS WAAAA!

[Theseus]

Firaxis would be *extremely* foolish not to invest the money required to deliver this.

They clearly are not done with Civ3 (otherwise why the newly announced patch), and it's been more or less proven, including by Civ2, that creating an 'engine' and opening it to modders is a critical success factor in the life of a given game / series.

Perhaps in the gold edition XP.

[Spiffor]

The lack of events is a big shortcoming of Civ3, and I wouldn't consider the game complete without them.

But there are other ways than a scripting language or an events.txt to allow the scenario makers to create events. For example, the rules editor is nothing more than a rules.txt with a convenient and easy to use interface. Does anybody complain the rule-modding isn't in the form of a rules.txt ?

By the same token, I sure hope there will be events in the next expansion (well, there will be events if there is a future expansion), but I would really prefer a good interface than an ugly .txt, if the interface gives as much power to the user.

[x Krelian x]

I'd rather have a .txt now than a good interface later.

And besides, .txt gives you more freedom. In Civ2 there's things you can do in the .txt that you can't in the in game editor.