Civiliza - work continues

[dexter4dxm]

i only know a few of the required menu items so far, but i would like to see whatever design you can come up with.


anyways, like i said before, i have been working on diplomacy (finally! ). here's a one of the pop-ups i'm using:

[dexter4dxm]

so much for 'global conflict'

http://www.games4charity.org/gc.htm

i was just about to use that name for the first beta release...

[dexter4dxm]

Good news, I'm releasing Beta 1 soon, probably within a day or two. There are some oddities due to the drastic changes Civiliza has gone through in the past week, but the game is very playable and I want to get it out for testing early. I just need to go over a few more things, pick a name, and prep it for release.
I'll have a full list of changes when it comes out, but here's basically what's new:

NEW! - City improvement auto-building (toggled in city window)

NEW! - Diplomacy! On a basic level now, but it's finally here.

NEW! - Higher resolutions! That's right! Civiliza now runs in four resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and even 1600x1200!

[dexter4dxm]

If I can make the AI players do something constructive by sending their un-used military units to the border and then sentrying them ( instead of just randomly moving like in civ3 ), I will most likely have no problem making bigger map sizes and doubling the amount of players in the game.

How about this: if the AI player is not at war with anyone, he will sentry his units along the border with the closest neighbor he dislikes, and if he likes all his neighbors he will sentry his units in his own cities. Then, once war is declared, all the units become unsentried. Actually, the sentry command will act like 'fortify' in this case, and those units' turns will be skipped. This way almost all moves the AI players will have to make will be military related, and only during times of war.

[Darkknight]

I like the idea of condemning people. I hate not being able to condemn people in civ.

[dexter4dxm]

i know what you mean darkknight, i always felt the civ series lacked in that kind of thing

[dexter4dxm]

i've changed my mind, i will do another demo release of civiliza with this new stuff. and btw, i meant quadrupling the amount of players, not doubling it. my mistake.

it takes a lot longer with 31 AI players, but it works, so why not have that be an option?

[Mark_Everson]

Hey there dex. Well, I tried demo 4d and got a Navajo blanket pattern in pink and black with a few random bits of actual terrain thrown in near the settler or whoever he was. At a guess this is because I'm not at 640x40x16. Since I don't like changing resolutions (messes up my icon positions on the desktop in win 98) I guess I'll wait for D5...

Looking forward to it!

[dexter4dxm]

Mark, I have seen this problem in the past. I don't think it's a problem with it being in 640x480, but maybe the 16 bit color depth. Are you using a Win '98 system?

[Mark_Everson]

Hi Dex, yeah its win98. I tried changing colors to 16 but my video card and / or win98 wouldn't let me go down to 16 without changing the resolution down to 640x480.

[dexter4dxm]

changes to desktop resolution size or color depth should not make any difference. civiliza changes to full-screen mode, sets the resolution to 640x480x16, and sets it back to your desktop resolution when you exit civiliza or when you press alt-tab. if your video card doesn't support that resolution, civiliza will give a display error and exit, so since you got to the game ok i don't think that's the problem. i believe the problem lies within the images themselves. I have not identified the fix for this yet, but I have dealt with this in the past and I know there is a work-around. I will try to get access to a Win '98 system soon and figure this out, thanks for reporting

[dexter4dxm]

i am still close to finishing the next release, but i'm working under a deadline for my job, so it might still be awhile.

also, i might be stopping by a friends house tonight who still uses win '98. if i remember to bring a disc with civiliza i can do some testing.

mark: would you happen to know what version of DirectX you are using?

[dexter4dxm]

drop-down boxes can be convenient, but i think they are annoying. it takes three times as many clicks with a drop-down box, than with something layed out properly.

here's the working of the new world screen. each civ is easily toggled on or off for that particular game.

[Mark_Everson]

Hi Dex: Its 8.0

[Miznia]

Dexter, what do you see as the role of "condemning" a war declaration? It's a brilliant idea...

Based on your last screenshot, I'd like to suggest that you not have "The" anything. Even if you're set on using country names (e.g. "Canada") instead of the adjective/people ("Canadian/s"), it would still look better to omit "the." "Assyria declares war on The Hittites" - that looks awful to me. I'd prefer "...declares war on Hittites."

Couple of spelling probs, too; "glorious" and "Scotland" at least...

I also have an attention-getting name for your conflict-centered game. The small number of civs on the board always makes it look like the players are really "civs" and not countries, so why not call such a game...

"RACE WAR: Cleanse The Earth!"

Miznia

(just a joke, by the way)