Column #150; By MarkG

[Lancer]

Here's an absurd idea. We each kick in a few bucks, send them to Mark and Dan, they buy the rights to put out Apolytons' CTP 3, and pay ppl back w/ a good game in the mail. If Activision is seriously not interested, should be cheap enough...free money from an abandoned product line...

Apolyton and the folks that do the programming could even reap some profit instead of working for free.

I think I could personally swing $100 in March or so.

This would be a kick in the pants.

Mark, I thought your story was very well written too, all of it. Print it and hang it on a wall somewhere, don't lose it.

[Pyaray]

quote: Originally posted by Lancer on 01-22-2001 09:20 AM Here's an absurd idea. We each kick in a few bucks, send them to Mark and Dan, they buy the rights to put out Apolytons' CTP 3, and pay ppl back w/ a good game in the mail. If Activision is seriously not interested, should be cheap enough...free money from an abandoned product line... Apolyton and the folks that do the programming could even reap some profit instead of working for free. I think I could personally swing $100 in March or so.

While this is an amusing idea, you are severely underestimating how much money it costs even to do just a patch to a game like this. You're talking about hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. I assure you, if it was something inexpensive enough to be funded like this, Activision would have done it. But it's not that small of a project.

quote: Mark, I thought your story was very well written too, all of it. Print it and hang it on a wall somewhere, don't lose it.

He did hang it on a wall, an electronic wall, here.

Pyaray

[down th' pub]

Thanks again Mark, you said concisely what I (and I'm sure many others) felt.

There are some very good things about the game, it's pretty, I love the combat model, the interface is nice, some nice adaptions from SMAC.

But the downside is substantial, the AI is timid at best, stability is obviously an issue based on the system requirements stated and for crying out loud how hard would it be to fix the scoring?

Great work by the dedicated and talented fixing what shouldn't need fixing. How much are you guys going to bill Activision for your time?

I will play on, but only while the good guys finish Civ3.

[MarkG]

i dont want to sound bad, but all this over enthusiasm on civ3 could turn out a disaster....

[wittlich]

You're right Mark, it might turn into another disaster...but with the way CTP2 turned out, I believe CIV III couldn't possibly be any worse and has the Sid Meir influence of being much better.