Requesting Input on Design of The Clash of Civilizations

[Mark_Everson]

I have seen a lot of good comments and criticisms of Civ games since I've been around at Apolyton. I'm in a project for a civ-like game (but Not a clone) called The Clash of Civilizations. We already have about ten designers, programmers and artists at latest count, although a few wear two hats . All of us are part time, probably 10-20 hrs/ week. If you are interested, I would like to hear whay you think about the design as it stands so far. Suggestions for your own thoughts on design / features are also welcome.

One of our Main goals, in every aspect of the project, is to require less micro-management from the player (player can still do it, but its not mandatory). One benefit of this would be the 4-hr game where you'd go from BC to the present making only broad decisions. These might vary from player to player, but would be something like: your civ's diplomatic stance with respect to your neighbors, direction you want to try to move the economy, culture and government in, and overall military strategy. If we can make it so that this game is possible, and so that the player can "drill down" into any area to a fairly fine level of control, we'll have succeeded.

Clash has an emphasis on better handling of the government and intra-civ political effects. Another distinction of Clash is to include some effects of culture, ethnicity and their ramifications. And, of course, better AI than the complete junk (IMO) the commercial games are giving us for adversaries.

If you're interested check out the main site at:
people.mw.mediaone.net/markeverson/clash_m.htm

Our Forum for suggestions and working out a design spec is Right Here. However, there is a lot of stuff at the Old main BB, which is at:
www.sitepowerup.com/mb/view.asp?BoardID=101846

There are other sub-BBs accessable from there.

We are hoping to finish the overall design by the end of May. There are a lot of ways that good thoughts in the design area could
seriously influence the final game at this point.

This is your chance to comment on a civ-like game to someone who will Really Listen

Note: I have already looked over virtually all of the old "Civ3" or early CTP requests for features, so there's no need to duplicate them here. For people who aren't familiar with Apolyton, there are a Lot of good ideas for changes in civ-like games in the other forums I've mentioned. If you look at posts for the last year you'll see a Lot of interesting suggestions.


Regards,
Mark Everson


[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited May 02, 1999).]

[Mark_Everson]

This is a SPAM Post just to keep this thread on the 10-day radar screen. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...

[F Smith]

The phrase is -- "Bump!"

When you want to bring a thread back up to the top of the 'recent' list, just post "Bump!".

[Harun ar Rashid]

I hope this is the right topic to place my subject, if not please forgive me. On the old BB I made the promise to elaborate upon my ideas about intelligence. It took a while, but now I am able to present a sketch.

My motivation is the bad implementation of intelligence in civ like games (with the exception of Master of Orion). At least that's my point of view.
'My' intelligence model would reduce micromanagement and add some new elements to strategic gameplay. To be honest, 'my' intelligence model is a conglomerate of what I've read so far, seen in other games and some ideas of my own.

No spies?
There won't be spy units visible on the map. Every civilization has an intelligence agency which must be funded from treasury. It is divided into internal security (isec) and departments for each civ. The player can decide which departments get certain amounts of money. Here is an example how it works:
Imagine you are the Romans and you have 100 CC to spend every turn. Then there are the Carthaginians and Macedonians, too. Of course you want to know about their plans. You decide to put 50 CC into isec and because of some special reason you give 30 CC to the Carthaginian department and 20 CC to the Macedonian department.
That's the way it works in Master of Orion, nothing new so far.

What does intelligence do with your money?
After adjusting the fundings the player need not build any spies. They are hired by the intelligence agency. The maximum number of spies in each department including isec depends on the funding. Spy activities grow slowly so there has to be a certain time before the maximum number of spies is reached. Losses should also be taken into account. Once a spy network (at least one spy, numbers are abstract) has been established in a foreign civ or as isec the spies will send their reports to the capital.
Also not very innovative, but let's see.

Establishing spy networks and reports
Spies can always get caught or killed by enemy agents. So while operating in a foreign civ the enemy isec has a chance of catching/killing each spy. This chance must be calculated based on the number of spies in isec. An isec agent can also be 'removed' by enemy spies operating in his country.
The following list contains the information that may be obtained by spy reports. It is not complete.

Reports on foreign countries

[*]tech status