Sid Meiers New Game

[L o k i]

Now, I know that this game isn't civ3. But what I think I know is that the game will be a part of Civ3. And it is now clear that it will come before Civ3.

So it will go in the order of Dinosaurs to Civ3 to Alpha Centauri. Fits in nicely!

The reason I'm saying this is because there doesn't seem to be anywhere to discuss it.

I want to hear some of your views and opinions about the idea of a dinosaur game and then merging(?)into civ3.

[Thall]

I'm not sure if I like the idea of starting off in the Dinosaur age (or whatever). I mean, the game is called 'Civilization', and Civ 1, Civ 2 and Civ CTP have IMHO done the completely right thing in starting where it ought to start - when a tribe is out looking to start a new civilization.

[MarkG]

well, it's about time we try to see why dinosaurs failed

imagine it: start up as one dinosaur, make a whole dinosaurian civilization, lose, then start with humans on civ3!!

Sid, please dont drive us crazy!
[This message has been edited by MarkG (edited December 07, 1999).]

[johnmcd]

If Technophile had posted this as a scoop, I know what I'd be thinking. It seems to horrible to be true. How can something so purposeless as evolution be made into a strategy game? If our thought are confirmed I'll be wishing it that egg had been a tamagotchi after all. NO, the correct way for Sid's Next Big Thing to go is a Pokemon RTS. Anyone fancy making a Pokemon mod pack?

[Zulu Elephant]

C'mon Sid wont come up with a dog of a game.
He'll have thought this through - and who says it's going to be a civ style game anyway?

Also what if it isn't set in the age of the dinosaurs - Maybe it'll be a Jurassic Park style sthing where dinosaurs are brought back to life and battle it out with humans
(just an idea - I'm sure other people could improve on it)

[Thall]

Earlier I posted:

I'm not sure if I like the idea of starting off in the Dinosaur age (or whatever). I mean, the game is called 'Civilization', and Civ 1, Civ 2 and Civ CTP have IMHO done the completely right thing in starting where it ought to start - when a tribe is out looking to start a new civilization.

Sorry, I misunderstood Loki's post. I thought Loki was saying how Civ 3 itself could start in the Dinosaur age, and I answered accordingly.

I like the idea of a Dinosaur type game. It'd be interesting to see how it goes with the rest of the series.

[MarkG]

mischievous conclusion: so now the ai is justifiable to be dumb. what kind of intelligenece did dinosaurs have?

[Biddles]

More on this in 'I practically froze ...' thread.

Maybe people are jumping to conclusions in assuming that this is a dinosaur game.
Remember, dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago (along with 85% of species). So if the game goes for 65 million years (as the fifth banner suggests) than it would start 65 million years ago, at a time when there was no dominant species.

Banner 3:

[quote]Requires a brain bigger than a walnut.[quote]

Most dinosaurs had brains bout the size of walnuts. This would suggest we are not dealing with dino's.

Banner 6:

[quote]Big feet. Small arms. And everything in between.[quote]


It's the last sentence that make me think. It's already been stated that dinosaurs have big feet and small arms, but this suggests everything else as well.
If I had to make a geuss I would say that this is a game that begins just after the asteriod impact that killed off the dinosaurs. There is a level playing field because all the dominant species were killed. I would geuss that it involves the player picking a class of animal (mammal, bird, fish, reptile) (or even more specific: monkey, bear, cat, crocodile, lizard etc.) and guiding that species to the present day while avoiding being pushed out by the other species. Each of these species has the possibility of becoming intelligent but maybe the world is only big enough for one intelligent species and the goal is not to be one of those that become extinct.

Looks like 'tech advances' would be replaced by 'evolutions' or if 'tech advances' are still used there would be some other system by which your species evolves.

Just my view but I think it fits better than a dino game would.

- Biddles

[johnmcd]

I think Biddles has done some very insightful lit-crit on the advert. I think hes right. BTW my earlier post was mostly a joke, I can't imagine Sid doing a bad game but nor can I imagine a good dinosaur strategy game.

[Maniac]

Damn, I hoped it would begin with the first humans spreading out of Africa, and your goal would be to evolve your people with things like Fire and Dog Domestication to a city state, where Civ3 would begin.

I can't possible imagine what can be fun in a 65-million-to-now evolution game.

[L o k i]

"65 million years in the making."

Is this saying that AFTER the MAKING of 65 million years ago, we begin to start playing?
That's what it's saying right?

Do you wonder if these people at Firaxis over-looked at what these banners actually say? They probably got some of it wrong.

And biddles, when it's saying "requires a brain bigger than a walnut". It's obviously not talking about what's in the game, but whose playing it. But the clue in there is saying that we are probably dealing with Dinosaurs.
Still, it is confusing.

[Gyromancer]

I remember years ago reading some post on the usenet about how cool it would be to start a game of SimEarth, follow it through to the rise of civilization, import the game state into a game of CivII, follow it through to the Alpha Centauri ending, and then import the game state into MOOII (This was before SMAC came out...) From the things I have read from Firaxis (go back and read the press releases for CivIII-namely the "Sweep of Time" stuff) I think that Sid is plotting something like this.

[Biddles]

Is that possible with SMAC? The other two haven't been made yet so that could still be implemented in them. It would be great if you could.

[L o k i]

I think they said they're going to upgrade SMAC to todays standards aswell.

[johnmcd]

I think they should start by upgrading SMAC to yesterdays standards so it might at least be fun...