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Note on the nicknames: in orange are the nicks of the members of the CTP team: William Westwater (Pinkbelly), James Farley (Farside), Jason Feffer (Necro), Brad Santos (Dr_No) and Winnie Lee (Lemur). In black are the operators, who asked the questions: MarkG (Markos Giannopoulos), DanQ (Daniel Quick), and the rest of the people who asked questions on the unmoderated part of the chat.
*** MarkG sets mode: +m
[MarkG] The channel is now in moderated mode
[MarkG] This means that only operators and the people from Activision can talk
[MarkG] Please send any questions to me or DanQ
[MarkG] Well, this is the CTP Designers Chat
[MarkG] The participants are William Westwater(Pinkbelly)
[MarkG] James Farley (Farside), Jason Feffer (Necro) and Winnie Lee (Lemur)
[MarkG] Well, welcome...
[Farside] And Dr_No
[Farside] Brad Santos (Dr_No)
[MarkG] Ooops, you're right
[MarkG] sorry for that
[MarkG] Let's start with your jobs on the team
[MarkG] You're the designing team, which means....
[Pinkbelly] We're the designing team, which means that we're in charge of making the game fun.
[Pinkbelly] That means balancing the unit, coming up with the idea... you name it.
[Farside] And we get to play lots of Civ:CTP
[Dr_No] A large part of our job involves creating new user interface that is simple and efficient
[MarkG] Sounds fun... what are the main goals of CTP?
[MarkG] What's the new stuff?
[Pinkbelly] Space and sea. The future
[Dr_No] New governments and whole lot of special units
[Pinkbelly] We're also trying to add a whole new unconventional war to the game.
[Pinkbelly] Religious conversion for example.
[Necro] We realized the immense micro-management of Civ2 created many problems. We have spent a great deal of time making the interface and gameplay efficient, to save gamers a lot of time clicking and more time playing.
[Dr_No] Our resource system is differnet from that of Civ1 or 2. We needed to beging balancing from the ground up.
[MarkG] You spoke of the unconventional units...
[MarkG] It's a really hot topic on our forums
[MarkG] It seems that some people don't like the idea
[Pinkbelly] Right from the beginning of the game we give you new ways to attack...
[Pinkbelly] religious converstion and slavery are two big ones
[Lemur] We wanted to add another dimension battle that doesn't depend on brute strength alone
[Pinkbelly] What do you think of conversion, Farside?
[Dr_No] Many of the special units are stealthy...invisble to the enemy
[Farside] Very fun, but limited to only one government type.
[Dr_No] Yes, Theocracy
[Pinkbelly] Only Theocracies can convert the enemy with Clerics.
[Farside] Most governments have some special advantage for that governemtn only
[Dr_No] A government of the ancient age
[Dr_No] Our game is divided into five distinct ages...Ancient, reniassance,modern, genetic, and diamond
[DanQ] What made you decide to divide the game into five stages?
[Pinkbelly] That's a great question. Well the game is about 500 Turns and 100 Turns an Age felt right.
[Dr_No] Each stage has a distinctive feel
[Pinkbelly] Also, the game has five dramatic parts...
[Necro] Different sprites, etc...
[Pinkbelly] Expansion first...
[Pinkbelly] Then sea colonization and basic warfare...
[Pinkbelly] Opppss.. sea exploration...
[DanQ] What's meant by the "diamond" age?
[Pinkbelly] Then, the modern age -- planes -- etc...
[Dr_No] as in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
[Pinkbelly] Then the beginning of undersea cities and space colonies (age four)
[Dr_No] ie. Nano-technology
[Pinkbelly] And finally Age Five -- the discovery of Alien life...
[Pinkbelly] So five just seemed right.
[Pinkbelly] As for diamond age -- it is a reference to nanotechnology
[Dr_No] You can do all kinds of wacky things in the Daimond Age....Terraform the earth, Build space Cities, brainwash the worlds population
[DanQ] Are the ages all going to last the same amount of time? (In Civ 2, the modern age had 1yr turns vs. 20yr in ancient times)?
[Farside] Diamond Age is where you start getting the Star Trek type (i.e. Magic) technology
[Dr_No] Each age is 1000 Turns, the number of years varies
[Lemur] 100 turns
[Pinkbelly] Each age is 100 Turns -- the years that pass for each Turn varies.
[Pinkbelly] Years pass quickly near the stone age.
[Pinkbelly] But slow down as you reach the modern age.
[DanQ] A member from our auidence has asked if you can change it so that the turns last all years, instead of it "skiping years".
[Pinkbelly] Well, if you played every single year, you'd have a game that lasted 7000 Turns.
[Pinkbelly] That is going to take a month to play.
[Dr_No] It would require a much bigger map!
[Pinkbelly] But, you could do that (the text files let you)...
[Necro] We thought of making it real-time...each turn lasted 1 year to play, but...
[Lemur] it would be a very slow game, though
[Dr_No] Our game should proabably not take as long to play as Civ 1 or 2. (on average)
[Dr_No] Maybe 10-12 hours
[DanQ] A member from our audience would like to know the the types of governments in the game.
[Necro] The 1st government is Tyranny.
[Pinkbelly] The game has eleven governments.
[Necro] Then there are 3 ancient age govt's
[Pinkbelly] Tyranny, Monarchy, Theocracy, Republic, Communism, Fascism, Multinationalism...
[Necro] Each government has its own feel.
[MarkG] Multinationalism?
[Pinkbelly] Democracy, Technocracy, Ecotopia, and Virtual Democracy.
[Pinkbelly] Multinationalism represents the time in the near future when corporations form their own governments.
[Necro] Players should pursue a single strategy and advance through the govt's that are of the same kind
[Farside] My fav right now is Multinationalism.
[Necro] But, they are free to switch gov't to a radically different strategy, as if in a coup.
[MarkG] Benefits of Multinationalism?
[Pinkbelly] Imagine a world where GM, Toyota, and Volkswagen got together and formed a single government.
[Farside] Money Money Money!!
[Necro] But, there's always Theocracy and Technocray, great unconventional warfare govenments
[Farside] Its a big cash and production governemnt, a little low on sicence
[Lemur] or Microsoft and Sun
[Farside] and bad for the environment
[MarkG] Benefits of Virtual Democracy?
[Necro] Some governments allow special units that other governments cannot produce -- cleric, fascits, televangelist...
[MarkG] Goverment specific wonders?
[Farside] VD is the Science Government. If you want all Dimond age science you may need VD.
[Necro] Some govt's are better at production or expansion, but have less science advancements.
[Dr_No] My favorite is Technocracy...build the AI entity and turn the people into mindless slaves!!! Great for Production too.
[Pinkbelly] In Virtual Deomcracy, your people are truly free and equal. It is a very happy, creative government.
[Pinkbelly] Naturally, the happy, creative citizens make for rather poor soldiers.
[Farside] Technocracy is good, but I want my Citizens to love me.
[MarkG] Mindless slaves in Technocracy? I thought is was about science?
[Dr_No] yes and production
[Dr_No] its a less friendly gov than VD...ideal for the AI entity Wonder
[Farside] That with a wonder of the world that turn them into Mindless Slaves.
[Pinkbelly] In technocracy, the rich are very happy -- the poor are implanted with behaviorial circuit controls.
[Pinkbelly] Who wants to hear the poor complaining anyway??
[Dr_No] Exactly
[Necro] It's fun to play the game using the same map and try to win the game using different strategies and different governments. Our save map feature allows you to play many "what-if" scenarios.
[MarkG] Does each gov have a specific units?
[Pinkbelly] No.
[Pinkbelly] Fascists have the Fascist.
[Dr_No] Some do, like fascism
[Pinkbelly] Theocracy has the Cleric.
[Dr_No] Ecotopia has the EcoTerrorist
[DanQ] Why is virtual democracy called "virtual"?
[Dr_No] He has a great looking outfit
[Pinkbelly] Theocracy also gets the Televangelist.
[Necro] Irony
[Pinkbelly] Virtual Democracy is virtual in the modern sense of an interconnected world.
[MarkG] What does the Fascist do?
[Dr_No] Fascist can use military Units to suppress the population into obedience
[Dr_No] The Fascist unit is a good choice for this
[Pinkbelly] In Virtual Democracy, the government is composed of all people -- they vote and participate through automated personalities that reflect their likes and dislikes.
[Necro] The Fascists kicks ass. Don't piss him off.
[Pinkbelly] It is like having a congressman who is just like you.
[MarkG] Aha! Difference between Cleric and Televangelist?
[Dr_No] Televeangelist has the power of mass media....hes more effective
[Necro] Doubles the effect if City has a TV.
[Dr_No] a real money maker
[Farside] But better in cities with TVs
[MarkG] What are TV's? City improvements?
[Pinkbelly] TV's are the funny boxes the people worship for hours every day.
[Dr_No] yes, like a TV studio that allows the Player to milk tons of Gold from his people
[MarkG] Interesting... I hope the new units are not to powerfull...
[Dr_No] Especially effective when combined with the Wonder of the world Hollywood!
[Pinkbelly] We have to be careful about balancing the units.
[Lemur] that's part of balancing - keeping the units' strength in check
[Dr_No] Our best men are working on it right now
[Lemur] hey
[Farside] We are going to balance it so you should have a mix on special and conventional unit to realy kick.
[Necro] ...and woman.
[Dr_No] my bad
[MarkG] For example the Park Ranger can vanish a city!
[Dr_No] did we mention that many of the units are female?
[Lemur] but you can only use the ranger once
[MarkG] What's the percentage?
[Pinkbelly] We make the Park Ranger slow and expensive to make up for its awesome power.
[Dr_No] about a third
[Lemur] I'd argue the word "many"
[Necro] Unconventional units are mostly stealthy, but cannot defend themselves. That's all part of the balancing.
[Farside] 100% For the Park Ranger.
[Dr_No] The Plasmatica is an ass-kicking diamond age cyber warrior
[Farside] But, you can stop it before it reaches a target.
[Dr_No] and shes a girl
[MarkG] How did you come up with the name for Park Ranger?
[Farside] ....
[Dr_No] no comment
[Pinkbelly] The name Park Ranger is meant to be funny. I mean, he's this super powerful weapon of destruction that the ecological fanatics of the future thing of as a nice, warm, happy thing.
[Lemur] she's mostly android tech
[Dr_No] sexy
[Pinkbelly] Are you laughing?
[Lemur] with big guns
[MarkG] Any chance of renaming it? Lots of people are that the very first thing they are going to do is modify the name!
[Dr_No] yes!!
[Necro] Different groups Uncon units can see each other. Diplomats and Spies can also spot approaching Uncon units, which may give a City time enough to send out a Lawyer or military unit to quash the.
[Farside] I may happen.
[Necro] Eco-Ranger??
[Lemur] there's usually a working name before it goes out
[Dr_No] We'd love to hear some suggestions
[Lemur] id called the Iron Maidens "chicks" before quake II went out
[MarkG] Yes, Eco Ranger seems to be the one most people support... There are suggestions in our forums...
[MarkG] I got one now for eggdood, Flower Child
[MarkG] Also, some people say that the new units are unrealistic, your response?
[Dr_No] I like it
[Farside] What units?
[MarkG] The unconvetional ones
[Dr_No] We have to speculate about the future...many of our units are drawn from popular fiction
[MarkG] Park Ranger, Lawyer, Cleric...
[Farside] Lawyers have proven their power in the real world.
[MarkG] FYI, Akula is our irc man...
[Dr_No] just ask Farside's x wife
[Farside] HEY!!!
[Necro] Clerics have played a major factor in the development, colonization and shaping of many Civs over time. Missionaries sent to convert the natives abroad played an integral role on North America's history
[Pinkbelly] Unconventional combat is a big part of our lives today. The wars fought with money or with propaganda are probably more common than any others.
[DanQ] Is the lawyer unit government specific?
[Pinkbelly] As for slavers -- I think few in the world could miss their impact on history.
[Pinkbelly] Everyone can hire lawyers -- those money grubbers!
[Necro] We designers know very well about slave drivers...
[Pinkbelly] Down boy!
[Farside] Hired guns of the corp world. (Lawyers)
[MarkG] About slaves [eggdood] when u take over a city, can u turn a percentage of the population into slaves...like the romans did
[Necro] That's not nice
[Dr_No] You can only capture slaves..otherwise it would be cheesy
[Lemur] you also don't want to have too many slaves around
[Pinkbelly] If you have a Slaver in your army and you win a battle against the enemy, you take some of the enemy as Slaves.
[Dr_No] slaves require no wages and only half food
[Lemur] they might revolt
[Necro] And, while we have dairy units - the cow - we don't like cheesey things in our game
[Pinkbelly] The danger with Slaves is the Slave Revolt.
[MarkG] When does this hapen?
[Dr_No] thats where the abolitionist comes in
[MarkG] New unit?
[Dr_No] shes a special unit that can start a slave revolt in an enemy city
[Lemur] she can also smuggle slaves out through the underground railroad
[Dr_No] could cause big problems for the bad guysd
[Pinkbelly] If your Slaves are unguarded or the City starves, the Slaves have a chance of revolting. If they succeed, they form a new Civilization that controls the city and will do everything they can to destroy you.
[Necro] ..and Emmancipation Proclamation Wonder
[MarkG] Necro, a what?
[Pinkbelly] The Abolitionist and Emanicipation Proclamation can also free Slaves.
[Dr_No] frees every slave in the world
[Necro] The EP is a Wonder that ends Slavery worldwide.
[Pinkbelly] The Emanicpation Proc frees all of the Slaves in the world.
[MarkG] And what do they become?
[Farside] City walls can protect your city for Slave Raids.
[Dr_No] causes major unhappiness for those cities with slave pop
[Dr_No] The slaver is a tricky unit..is invisible and can take your settlers easily
[Pinkbelly] If you build it, you Slaves become Citizens without any bad effects. Everyone else suffers Riots as their societies adjust to freedom.
[Lemur] but other slavers can see him, and he's weak in battle
[Pinkbelly] Settler poaching is a great tactic!
[Farside] All special units have a counters. Place a military unit with a settler to guard them.
[DanQ] Can cities declare independence/break away from your empire?
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Dr_No] yes..if there Happiness gets too low
[DanQ] I bring this up now since this does tie into government types/practices.
[Dr_No] or if enemy agents subvert the population
[Pinkbelly] When Cities get very very very Unhappy, they have a revolution -- like the American Revolution.
[Pinkbelly] And, just like the French helped the Americans to fight against the British, you can use spies to have foment Revolutions in your enemy's Civilization.
[MarkG] It must a require a very special spy unit, or not?
[Lemur] the Spy unit
[Dr_No] just a spy, or a cyberninja!
[Dr_No] my personal favorite
[DanQ] If the citizens do revolt, do they become an new civilization, join another or...? Can more than one city revolt at once?
[Lemur] they start a new civilization
[Pinkbelly] In a Revolution, the City leaves to for a new Civilization. The City also influences neighbors to try to get them to revolt as well.
[Lemur] theoretically, all of your cities could revolt at once if you treat them badly enough
[Pinkbelly] Well, not all...
[Dr_No] safer to turn them into mindless slaves
[Necro] It's a very dynamic world we live in, and we did our best to recreate that in CTP.
[MarkG] How can you get an indepedent city back?
[Pinkbelly] I love mindless slaves.
[Pinkbelly] Right team?
[Dr_No] we obey
[Necro] WHATEVER YOU SAY...
[Farside] Take it back!!
[Pinkbelly] You can conqueror it.
[Lemur] you can recapture a city with military units
[DanQ] How is what type of government this "new Civ" is determined immediately after independence? (i.e. breaking away from Republic, does the new Civ automatically still be a Republic)?
[Lemur] anarchy
[Pinkbelly] The Civ becomes an AI and picks an appropriate government.
[DanQ] Makes sense!
[Dr_No] I apologize for my spelling
[DanQ] Anything else you guys wish to add about governments?
[Pinkbelly] Hey Dr_No you just missed a period.
[Necro] The Computer is your friend!
[Pinkbelly] Long live the computer.
[Lemur] technology is good
[Dr_No] No one Gov is the end-all. Each will porvide an interesting and different experience
[Lemur] geez Dr_No
[DanQ] When a city breaks away and becomes a new Civ, do they retain all the technology of their former empire?
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Pinkbelly] They were a part of the old Civ so they know what their comrades knew.
[DanQ] One individual desperately wants to know if the Celts are a Civ in CTP.
[Necro] The who?
[Lemur] Celts
[Necro]
[Dr_No] uhhh...thats why we have the custom civ feature
[Pinkbelly] The Welsh are.
[Dr_No] and the Scots
[Necro] There leader is Larry Bird.
[Dr_No] and the Irish
[Pinkbelly] We've also got Brits.
[MarkG] A total of?
[Pinkbelly] 40
[Necro] 40 or so
[DanQ] Awesome!
[MarkG] Greeks or Athenians?
[Necro] Greeks
[MarkG] Thank God
[Pinkbelly] 40 or so -- not all related to England of course.
[DanQ] Ok, onto combat...
[Necro] Thank Zeus
[Dr_No] only 36 are English affiliated
[Dr_No] one Civ is Jamaica, the King is Bob Marley....seriously
[Farside]
[DanQ] Ready?
[Pinkbelly] Sure.
[DanQ] How are combat resolution going to be handled and the overall strategic combat AI?
[Dr_No] Pinky?
[Pinkbelly] Well, those are two very different questions.
[Dr_No] Units have differnt stats than they difd in Civ2
[Necro] So Pinkbelly is preparing 4 totally different answers..
[Pinkbelly] Combat resolution is something that is the same for AI and for the human.
[Dr_No] We have introduced the concepts of stacked combat and ranged attacks
[Pinkbelly] Combat is pretty simple -- your stack fights against your opponents stack.
[Dr_No] On the ZOOM Battlefield!
[Lemur] or they can gang up on lonely units
[Lemur] and beat the poop out of them
[Pinkbelly] Your army is divided into a front line and a back line. If your soldiers have short range weapons for their time (swords for example), they fight in front. If they have long-range weapons for their time (like bows), they fight in back.
[Necro] This system makes combat more realistic and reduces micro-managing your units like you had to in Civ2.
[Dr_No] A mix of ranged and close assualt is best...like artillery and tanks
[Pinkbelly] The best army has a solid front line (pikes or swordmen) with supporting archers.
[Pinkbelly] Or in the future, tanks and artillery.
[Pinkbelly] Or in the far future, plasmatica and war walkers.
[Farside] There is also Air Support from the back line.
[Pinkbelly] Bigger, higher technology armies usually win.
[MarkG] Can you automize the process of sorting out who is in the front line and who's back?
[Pinkbelly] And the whole combat is resolved at once.
[Dr_No] But a smaller force can win if they are dug in at a good defensive position
[Pinkbelly] IT is completely automated.
[Necro] We also have bombard. That allows you to attack from a distance.
[Pinkbelly] The computer knows who is your best front line soldiers and puts them there. Your back line soldiers (archers) only go to the front if they have no one to protect them.
[Dr_No] Special Units go to the back also
[Farside] You can now seige a city and use a special bombard attack that damages the city and defenders with no chance of you taking losses.
[DanQ] Are civs are colored coded, like in Civ II or..?
[Necro] A city can defend itself from a siege by attacking the surrounding enemy units from behind City Walls with a Cannon or Artillery. Battleships can bombard a coastal City or land units that are unfortunate enough to be within range of their 16" guns.
[Pinkbelly] Special Units are any unit with zero attack. Like a cow. (Who every heard of a cow protecting an archer, really?)
[Lemur] Yes, civs are color coded
[DanQ] Can a unit with much higher technology "scare away" units with much lower technology?
[DanQ] i.e. Phalanx sees battleship and runs for its life!
[Pinkbelly] We aren't doing anything with morale or fear. You just get to kill the enemy.
[Pinkbelly] Killing is fun
[Lemur] it's not as afraid of the technology as it is of its firepower
[Pinkbelly] Killing is good
[DanQ] Goodie! {grin}
[Pinkbelly] We like killing.
[Farside] Only that Ancient units will not attack Air Units.
[Lemur] not tall enough
[DanQ] Can units 'retreat' in the middle of combat?
[Dr_No] Nope
[Farside] Always Winne with the tech talk.
[Pinkbelly] No. We went for simplicity on that one.
[Pinkbelly] Once you're committed to battle, you're stuck.
[Dr_No] There is no Winnie, there is only Lemur
[DanQ] Ok, next question is regarding a unit that's one everyone's mind...
[DanQ] The Park Ranger.
[Dr_No] Oh jeez..
[DanQ] Love 'em or hate 'em, it has sparked a lot of discussion in recent weeks.
[Pinkbelly] So I can see.
[Necro] Stealth bombers and subs and other units can carry Nukes, just like Carriers can carry planes. This allows units to get nice and close before launching a nuke. Makes it more personal.
[DanQ] Here's what people want to know: what exactly IS the Park Ranger and are there any defences against 'em?
[Lemur] the park ranger is mobile nanite bomb
[Pinkbelly] The Park Ranger is a nanotechnology bomb.
[Dr_No] Its an invisble hover Van (VW) with a ludicrously powerful weapon inside
[Lemur] you defend against them by running and screaming in the other direction
[Lemur] j/k
[Necro] The Park Ranger gives a hoot.
[Dr_No] YTou can spot it with a spy, and kill it easily with any military unit
[Lemur] it has almost no defense
[Farside] AND it cost a bunch!!
[Pinkbelly] You spot them with Population Monitors or other special units and can kill them easily with any military unit.
[Lemur] AND you can only use it once
[Dr_No] It also destroys all tile imporvements and Units adjacent to the target city
[Lemur] pinky, I hear an echo
[Dr_No] pinky, i hear an echo
[DanQ] hehheh...
[Lemur] the Comedy Club's on Sunset, No
[DanQ] Will some units have something like the "overrun" feature tanks have in Panzer General 2, in which tanks can just roll over and destroy weakened enemy units and keep going?
[Dr_No] Im here all week
[Pinkbelly] All day, every day, more like.
[Pinkbelly] As for overrun... nope.
[Lemur] are we talking about slave drivers again?
[Pinkbelly] We think the combat takes place on a wider scale than PGII.
[Farside] You do have Overrun on the zoom battlefield. Weak frount row unit can be ran over to get at the second row units.
[Necro] Getting TOO detailed with Overrun, morale, fatigue, etc... would greatly diminish the macro that is CTP.
[DanQ] How fast do the units move when their stacked in a group?
[Lemur] as fast as the slowest unit in the stack
[Lemur] they have to wait up for the slow unit
[Pinkbelly] You can break up your army though to keep moving the faster units.
[Necro] Unless you "carry" the unit by means of transport (carrier, troop ship, space plane).
[MarkG] What is the patrol mode?
[Dr_No] Its cut
[DanQ] Is there a technology, building, or wonder that allows you to see everything on the map (like Apollo Program)?
[Lemur] yes
[Lemur] the globsat
[Pinkbelly] GlobSat gives you worldwide radar. Space lets you see the ground.
[Dr_No] You can canvas the earth from space in a couple of Turns
[Pinkbelly] Unless someone shoots your space ships down.
[Farside] Anyone with a space unit.
[DanQ] Can you stack naval units?
[Necro] Yes.
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Dr_No] sure
[DanQ] Another question from the audience: what is the troop ship? Does this allow you to transport units through the air?
[Dr_No] no, its a sea unit
[Necro] Its a naval ship. Ala Queen Mary or QE2
[DanQ] Last call for unit questions, folks. We're moving onto multiplayer very soon...
[Dr_No] there are transport aircraft though
[Dr_No] Cities wuit haairports can airlift a Unit every turn
[DanQ] Can helicopters carry troops?
[Lemur] you're getting better at your spelling, No
[Dr_No] uhh..with airports
[Pinkbelly] The hairport is an advanced device.
[Dr_No] like the floby hiarcutting vacuum
[Dr_No] haircutting
[Lemur] flowbee
[Dr_No] there are no helicopters in CTP
[Pinkbelly] p.s. we have no helicopters...
[Necro] We have paratroopers to remove the micromanagement of loading units into helicopter.
[DanQ] Ah ok.
[DanQ] (re: helicopters)
[DanQ] Someone wants to know why you cut patrol. Comments?
[Dr_No] We needed to save space on the control panel
[Dr_No] it wasn't that important
[Pinkbelly] Well, no one was using it.
[Lemur] i was
[MarkG] Ok, moving to multiplayer...
[MarkG] How long does it take?
[Dr_No] sorry?
[Necro] Well, it takes Pinkbelly on 30 secs or so...
[DanQ] Just to interject... if you have any further questions on topics that have already been covered, you will have the opportunity to answer them during the "unmoderated period".
[Farside] We play with a little as 20 second turns.
[Pinkbelly] It's very addictive and fast.
[Dr_No] we also have a carryover option...like a chess clock.
[MarkG] So, an average mp game can take.... ?
[Pinkbelly] Unless you turn off the timer... then it's slow and contemplative.
[Dr_No] you can save time for the next turn
[Lemur] game time depends on map size and number of players
[Farside] Carry Over transfers the unused time to the next turn.
[Necro] There is no "average" MP game. Each can take as long as you have connection and your Civ is still alive.
[Farside] So you have it when you need it.
[Dr_No] You can start the game with any technologies you want
[Dr_No] To speed things up
[MarkG] does the time each turn takes changes through different ages?
[Necro] You can set a small map for short, get-down-and-dirty game, or large map on a LAN to play all day.
[Dr_No] You can also exlcude Units, Wonders , Improvements
[Lemur] yes
[Pinkbelly] We have an option so that your time changes based on the number of Cities that you have.
[Lemur] holy Webster's, No
[Dr_No] gud idea
[Necro] You can play multiple human with additional Ai or just Human.
[MarkG] Can you "freeze tech" so that there would be no more advances?
[Dr_No] yes..you can set a tech cap
[Farside] A tech cap by Age.
[MarkG] Do you have modem-to-modem? Serial connection?
[Lemur] no
[Farside] I like playing Modern and Genetic only.
[Dr_No] but then farside always was a little strange
[Lemur] whaddaya mean "was"?
[Farside] Thats when warfare is its best.
[Necro] He also likes playing with himself only.
[Dr_No] who doesn't
[Lemur] back to multiplayer...
[Necro] I meant MP.
[Farside] Dr_No is a peacenik
[Dr_No] alright guys...keep it clean!
[MarkG] Hotseat mode?
[Lemur] yes
[Lemur] hotseat mode is good
[MarkG] So, will you have a system for finding players?
[Pinkbelly] We'll have Activnet.
[Pinkbelly] Activlink
[Lemur] through activenet, you can see all of the players connected to the server
[Necro] We have units that can explore for enemy players Then you kill them.
[Necro] Where did Activlink get its name?
[Necro]
[MarkG] Chat during the game? Other mutliplayer options?
[Farside] Activision + Link
[Lemur] it was going to be idvision, but that didn't pan out
[Farside] = Activlink
[Necro] You can chat in MP.
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Dr_No] You can handicap Players
[Necro] There is also diplomacy to exchange technology, maps, etc...
[Lemur] much more colorful than diplomatic messages
[Pinkbelly] You can also kneecap them.
[Dr_No] Set teams (sharing Line of sight)
[MarkG] Allied wins?
[Farside] You can also do almost all city management when the other players are moveing.
[Dr_No] yes
[Farside] So 20 sec. turns for an 8 player game are very do-able
[Necro] There is little or no down-time during another player's turn.
[MarkG] Times passes quickly...
[MarkG] What's going on with the release date?
[Necro] Time flies! Well, at least in the modern age.
[Pinkbelly] After the release date, we're planning a big party!
[Farside] A Big Big party!!
[Dr_No] uhh..maybe you should speak with a marketing representative
[Lemur] we're going to Disneyland!
[Necro] And we'll all be avail to play MP to teach you guys a thing or two!
[DanQ] Everyone is invited? :-)
[DanQ] hehehehe...
[Lemur] absolutely
[MarkG] Ok, ok but when is it coming out and why was it delayed?
[Lemur] aliens
[Dr_No] Soon.....very soon
[Pinkbelly] More seriously, we're hard core balancing right now...
[Lemur] and the aliens
[Necro] It will come out when it's done. We won't release a buggy game just to make the date.
[Pinkbelly] as usual, you guys'll be the first to know when we have the exact date.
[Farside] This game will not need a patch on its release date!!
[MarkG] of course
[Lemur] down, boy!
[Dr_No] I gaurantee it
[DanQ] {clapping} :-)
[Dr_No] no patch!!
[Necro] Yeah, Dr_No gaurantees it!
[Lemur] and Bill Gates will buy Norway for us
[Pinkbelly] Just no promises on spelling.
[MarkG] Well, it's about midnight in Greece and I'll have to return home..
[MarkG] We're going to unmoderated mode for the last minutes of the chat
[Necro] And we're planning to ship internationally on same date!
[MarkG] Behave yourselves
*** MarkG sets mode: +m
(The unmoderated part of the chat has been edited so that the questions that were answered are along with the answers and to remove the "noise" )
[DanQ] This channel is now unmoderated.
[Dr_Fubar] AI! What's the AI like ?
[Pinkbelly] The AI is a tiger.
[Lemur] AI has different personalities and different gameplay strategies
[Farside] Sometimes a Cat!
[cab] Another question. Are the cost to support the units the same for all units as in CivII?
[Pinkbelly] The costs are all different from Civ II.
[Civ-Wonder] and what about city-states?
[Necro] No City-States. That was an early Gov't that is now Republic.
[Civ-Wonder] any improvements on the republic?
[Necro] _Everything_ is improved
[eggdood] Are the entertainers still in? and if so...are they jimi henrix's insted of elvis'
[Necro] We have multiple Entertainers.
[Necro] Different Buidlings/Improvements give you different classes of Entertainers.
[Lemur] bards, actors, drunk people
[Dr_Fubar] Can you raze enemy cities to the ground, like Rome did to Carthage ? I doubt Carthage wa a population 1 city.
[Dr_No] thats a good idea...unfortunately no
[_CD_] I was wondering about economics and if the system of trade will be the same and if there will still be a ceiling of 30000 gold for a civ
[Pinkbelly] There is no ceiling.
[Farside] No gold ceiling.
[Farside] We do have a trade route limit per city.
[eggdood] so tv gives u....say drew cary
[Pinkbelly] TV gives you lots of gold.
[Metamorph] I'm interested in learning whether or not the basic model for city production is similar at all to Civ1 and Civ2, in that you have cities with population which works the city tile itself and tiles around it.
[Necro] Yes. Same concept of City Porudction
[Lemur] yes, city pops work the tiles in their radius
[KDP] Have you thought about allowing mine-fields? It would open up for new defence strategies.
[Farside] We played around with land mines and they didn't work out like we wanted.
[RyanG] Can I ask why you don't have Modem-to-Modem, I mean, Is that not so hard to add??
[Lemur] yes, modem-to-modem is hard to add
[Civ-Wonder] canadians shouldnt be in it
[Dr_No] Canadians are in
[Necro] Gretzky is the Canadian ruler.
[Civ-Wonder] is there a way to del the candains
[Farside] You can add and delete any civ through a text file.
[AGM] portuguese?
[Dr_No] yes ! Portugese
[eggdood] Israelis?
[Dr_No] Israelis are in also
[Necro] We have Borg.
[Necro] hebrews.
[Kurasai] Are engineers back and can they modify any new terrains (i.e water)? Also, are there any new terrains like volcanoes?
[Lemur] underwater volcanoes
[Dr_Fubar] What about global ecological disasters ?
[Necro] Yes. We have Ecological disasters, but you can switch that off if you wish.
[Pinkbelly] We've got two major ecological disasters -- global warming and ozone loss.
[Pinkbelly] Global Warming first alters the climate -- so that forests become grasslands and such. Then, if things get really bad, the ice caps melt and the coastlands all flood.
[Dr_Fubar] What happens in the Ozone loss disaster?
[Necro] Tiles get damaged and people get unhappy.
[Pinkbelly] With ozone loss, the northern and southern ends of the world lose ozone protection first. As this happens, the plants and animals beneath the newly formed ozone holes are killed.
[KDP] Does it cost anything to move on railroad or do you have unlimited movement?
[Farside] Railroads cost movement, we also have mag levs trains in the future.
[MarkG] How customisable is it? How easy is it to change graphics?
[harlan22] Yeah, I want to know about customisability too. How does one change the unit graphics?
[Lemur] can't change graphics - they're animated
[Pinkbelly] The game is very customizable. You could even make your own graphics, but you'd have to create animations of the units by hand or with Softimage.
[Civ-Wonder] So, again, does it take as long to build units as in Civ 1 or 2
[Necro] Building units takes different lenghts, of course, and can be 1-50 turns. Average is 5 or so.
[eggdood] does religion have a big part in the game?
[Necro] Theocracy and Clerics can be a major part. Most Civs will want to build temples, Cathedrals and such to keep people happy. TV is another religion of sorts that we have.
[Civ-Wonder] is it easy to hack CTP?
[Necro] "is it easy to hack CTP?" we are working on that for you.
[Necro] Civ City size limit answer is on the way.
(Note by MarkG: I couldn't find the question to that by here goes)
[Farside] Each government type has a Max Empire Size limit. You can go over it, but you people get a little more unhappy with each city. The number is around 10 for Ancient governemtns.
[Metamorph] A common problem in civ1 and civ2 games is the 'infinite cities trick', whereby you simply plop down cities every two or three squares to take advantage of the economic curve insofar as a city of size 1 producing on 2 squares. Does your game's economic model address this?
[Farside] You will not be able to to the infinite cities trick.
[Gerfang] lumpkin: in civ II just build cities (No buildings) if you do it right, you can launch your spaceship around 100 AD.
[Necro] well, we hope to avoid that with all the balancing we're doing now.
[Metamorph] Farside: Then doesn't the danger of rapidly constructing enormous numbers of cities still exist? Are there other features that take this possibility into account?
[Farside] You can't throw up the improvements fast enough.
[Pinkbelly] Actually building too many Cities is limited by your government. To get tons of Cities your need high-tech govs, which takes time.
[Metamorph] Another, similar 'trick' in civ1 and civ2 was to focus technological research toward achieving a more advanced form of government early in the game. Is this possible, and if so, can this affect the city-trick model?
[Necro] We have made the tech tree so you can't get Virtual Democracy or anything before, say, Writing.
[Metamorph] Civ2 is also designed in a method to force you to gain certain 'basic techs' before getting to the better government types. Nevertheless it was still possible to skip military and economic techs and go straight for a government tech, very early in the game. Was this possilibility realized in c:ctp development and countered?
[Farside] You can still go for the governements. But its not always the best thing to change unless your have the right econimic situation.
[Metamorph] Farside: Then I still remain extremely apprehensive that players will be able to 'rush' to a high government tech and perpretrate the infinite-cities-trick in some fashion. Do you have any other comments that might help soothe my worries?
[Necro] Yes. You can't do that.
[Metamorph] Necro: Can you, uh, be more specific? I hate to press the issue, but this aspect of civ-type games absolutely ruined Civ1 and Civ2 for our gaming group.
[Farside] You will only have the ability to build very large number of cities with VD. All other governmetns will be limited. You won't be able to survive if you just rush for science all through the game.
[Necro] you have to complete a whole lot of techs to get to advanced Gov'ts. If you try to get there directly, it will still mean you HAVE to research enough Pre-reqs to make it not a "cheese".
[eViL_SunZ] Are there more technologies than in Civ2?
[Necro] 100+ tech!
[lumpkin] if one civ takes over another civ's city, will the populace of the conquered city be more unhappy then they would be if they were citizens of the conquerors' nation?
[Necro] Yes.
[swor] what is the estimated price of C:CTP?
[Lemur] 49.95
[MarkG] What exactly is the wormhole?
[Pinkbelly] The Wormhole is a connection to another universe discovered near the year 3000.
[MarkG] The Wormhole is the way to make contact with aliens?
[Pinkbelly] Yes, you must send a robotic ship through the wormhole to recover Alien cells for cloning. Then you can create your very own psonic alien.
[swor] can you bombard an under water city with say a battleship?
[Farside] You can bombard under water cities.
[Farside] But, they are hard to invade.
*** MarkG sets mode: +m
[Necro] We have to get back to making the game.
[MarkG] We're back to moderated mode
[MarkG] It's to finish the chat...
[Pinkbelly] Time to get going folks.
[MarkG] I would just like to thank everyone from the team
[Necro] It's been helpful to talk to you all,.
[MarkG] for coming today...
[MarkG] A transcript will be available in the next days...
[Farside] Thanks too all, its been fun talking to you about a game we love!!
[MarkG] Well, see you on the next chat
*** MarkG sets mode: +m
[MarkG] The channel is now in moderated mode
[MarkG] This means that only operators and the people from Activision can talk
[MarkG] Please send any questions to me or DanQ
[MarkG] Well, this is the CTP Designers Chat
[MarkG] The participants are William Westwater(Pinkbelly)
[MarkG] James Farley (Farside), Jason Feffer (Necro) and Winnie Lee (Lemur)
[MarkG] Well, welcome...
[Farside] And Dr_No
[Farside] Brad Santos (Dr_No)
[MarkG] Ooops, you're right
[MarkG] sorry for that
[MarkG] Let's start with your jobs on the team
[MarkG] You're the designing team, which means....
[Pinkbelly] We're the designing team, which means that we're in charge of making the game fun.
[Pinkbelly] That means balancing the unit, coming up with the idea... you name it.
[Farside] And we get to play lots of Civ:CTP
[Dr_No] A large part of our job involves creating new user interface that is simple and efficient
[MarkG] Sounds fun... what are the main goals of CTP?
[MarkG] What's the new stuff?
[Pinkbelly] Space and sea. The future
[Dr_No] New governments and whole lot of special units
[Pinkbelly] We're also trying to add a whole new unconventional war to the game.
[Pinkbelly] Religious conversion for example.
[Necro] We realized the immense micro-management of Civ2 created many problems. We have spent a great deal of time making the interface and gameplay efficient, to save gamers a lot of time clicking and more time playing.
[Dr_No] Our resource system is differnet from that of Civ1 or 2. We needed to beging balancing from the ground up.
[MarkG] You spoke of the unconventional units...
[MarkG] It's a really hot topic on our forums
[MarkG] It seems that some people don't like the idea
[Pinkbelly] Right from the beginning of the game we give you new ways to attack...
[Pinkbelly] religious converstion and slavery are two big ones
[Lemur] We wanted to add another dimension battle that doesn't depend on brute strength alone
[Pinkbelly] What do you think of conversion, Farside?
[Dr_No] Many of the special units are stealthy...invisble to the enemy
[Farside] Very fun, but limited to only one government type.
[Dr_No] Yes, Theocracy
[Pinkbelly] Only Theocracies can convert the enemy with Clerics.
[Farside] Most governments have some special advantage for that governemtn only
[Dr_No] A government of the ancient age
[Dr_No] Our game is divided into five distinct ages...Ancient, reniassance,modern, genetic, and diamond
[DanQ] What made you decide to divide the game into five stages?
[Pinkbelly] That's a great question. Well the game is about 500 Turns and 100 Turns an Age felt right.
[Dr_No] Each stage has a distinctive feel
[Pinkbelly] Also, the game has five dramatic parts...
[Necro] Different sprites, etc...
[Pinkbelly] Expansion first...
[Pinkbelly] Then sea colonization and basic warfare...
[Pinkbelly] Opppss.. sea exploration...
[DanQ] What's meant by the "diamond" age?
[Pinkbelly] Then, the modern age -- planes -- etc...
[Dr_No] as in the Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
[Pinkbelly] Then the beginning of undersea cities and space colonies (age four)
[Dr_No] ie. Nano-technology
[Pinkbelly] And finally Age Five -- the discovery of Alien life...
[Pinkbelly] So five just seemed right.
[Pinkbelly] As for diamond age -- it is a reference to nanotechnology
[Dr_No] You can do all kinds of wacky things in the Daimond Age....Terraform the earth, Build space Cities, brainwash the worlds population
[DanQ] Are the ages all going to last the same amount of time? (In Civ 2, the modern age had 1yr turns vs. 20yr in ancient times)?
[Farside] Diamond Age is where you start getting the Star Trek type (i.e. Magic) technology
[Dr_No] Each age is 1000 Turns, the number of years varies
[Lemur] 100 turns
[Pinkbelly] Each age is 100 Turns -- the years that pass for each Turn varies.
[Pinkbelly] Years pass quickly near the stone age.
[Pinkbelly] But slow down as you reach the modern age.
[DanQ] A member from our auidence has asked if you can change it so that the turns last all years, instead of it "skiping years".
[Pinkbelly] Well, if you played every single year, you'd have a game that lasted 7000 Turns.
[Pinkbelly] That is going to take a month to play.
[Dr_No] It would require a much bigger map!
[Pinkbelly] But, you could do that (the text files let you)...
[Necro] We thought of making it real-time...each turn lasted 1 year to play, but...
[Lemur] it would be a very slow game, though
[Dr_No] Our game should proabably not take as long to play as Civ 1 or 2. (on average)
[Dr_No] Maybe 10-12 hours
[DanQ] A member from our audience would like to know the the types of governments in the game.
[Necro] The 1st government is Tyranny.
[Pinkbelly] The game has eleven governments.
[Necro] Then there are 3 ancient age govt's
[Pinkbelly] Tyranny, Monarchy, Theocracy, Republic, Communism, Fascism, Multinationalism...
[Necro] Each government has its own feel.
[MarkG] Multinationalism?
[Pinkbelly] Democracy, Technocracy, Ecotopia, and Virtual Democracy.
[Pinkbelly] Multinationalism represents the time in the near future when corporations form their own governments.
[Necro] Players should pursue a single strategy and advance through the govt's that are of the same kind
[Farside] My fav right now is Multinationalism.
[Necro] But, they are free to switch gov't to a radically different strategy, as if in a coup.
[MarkG] Benefits of Multinationalism?
[Pinkbelly] Imagine a world where GM, Toyota, and Volkswagen got together and formed a single government.
[Farside] Money Money Money!!
[Necro] But, there's always Theocracy and Technocray, great unconventional warfare govenments
[Farside] Its a big cash and production governemnt, a little low on sicence
[Lemur] or Microsoft and Sun
[Farside] and bad for the environment
[MarkG] Benefits of Virtual Democracy?
[Necro] Some governments allow special units that other governments cannot produce -- cleric, fascits, televangelist...
[MarkG] Goverment specific wonders?
[Farside] VD is the Science Government. If you want all Dimond age science you may need VD.
[Necro] Some govt's are better at production or expansion, but have less science advancements.
[Dr_No] My favorite is Technocracy...build the AI entity and turn the people into mindless slaves!!! Great for Production too.
[Pinkbelly] In Virtual Deomcracy, your people are truly free and equal. It is a very happy, creative government.
[Pinkbelly] Naturally, the happy, creative citizens make for rather poor soldiers.
[Farside] Technocracy is good, but I want my Citizens to love me.
[MarkG] Mindless slaves in Technocracy? I thought is was about science?
[Dr_No] yes and production
[Dr_No] its a less friendly gov than VD...ideal for the AI entity Wonder
[Farside] That with a wonder of the world that turn them into Mindless Slaves.
[Pinkbelly] In technocracy, the rich are very happy -- the poor are implanted with behaviorial circuit controls.
[Pinkbelly] Who wants to hear the poor complaining anyway??
[Dr_No] Exactly
[Necro] It's fun to play the game using the same map and try to win the game using different strategies and different governments. Our save map feature allows you to play many "what-if" scenarios.
[MarkG] Does each gov have a specific units?
[Pinkbelly] No.
[Pinkbelly] Fascists have the Fascist.
[Dr_No] Some do, like fascism
[Pinkbelly] Theocracy has the Cleric.
[Dr_No] Ecotopia has the EcoTerrorist
[DanQ] Why is virtual democracy called "virtual"?
[Dr_No] He has a great looking outfit
[Pinkbelly] Theocracy also gets the Televangelist.
[Necro] Irony
[Pinkbelly] Virtual Democracy is virtual in the modern sense of an interconnected world.
[MarkG] What does the Fascist do?
[Dr_No] Fascist can use military Units to suppress the population into obedience
[Dr_No] The Fascist unit is a good choice for this
[Pinkbelly] In Virtual Democracy, the government is composed of all people -- they vote and participate through automated personalities that reflect their likes and dislikes.
[Necro] The Fascists kicks ass. Don't piss him off.
[Pinkbelly] It is like having a congressman who is just like you.
[MarkG] Aha!
Difference between Cleric and Televangelist? [Dr_No] Televeangelist has the power of mass media....hes more effective
[Necro] Doubles the effect if City has a TV.
[Dr_No] a real money maker
[Farside] But better in cities with TVs
[MarkG] What are TV's? City improvements?
[Pinkbelly] TV's are the funny boxes the people worship for hours every day.
[Dr_No] yes, like a TV studio that allows the Player to milk tons of Gold from his people
[MarkG] Interesting... I hope the new units are not to powerfull...
[Dr_No] Especially effective when combined with the Wonder of the world Hollywood!
[Pinkbelly] We have to be careful about balancing the units.
[Lemur] that's part of balancing - keeping the units' strength in check
[Dr_No] Our best men are working on it right now
[Lemur] hey
[Farside] We are going to balance it so you should have a mix on special and conventional unit to realy kick.
[Necro] ...and woman.
[Dr_No] my bad
[MarkG] For example the Park Ranger can vanish a city!
[Dr_No] did we mention that many of the units are female?
[Lemur] but you can only use the ranger once
[MarkG] What's the percentage?
[Pinkbelly] We make the Park Ranger slow and expensive to make up for its awesome power.
[Dr_No] about a third
[Lemur] I'd argue the word "many"
[Necro] Unconventional units are mostly stealthy, but cannot defend themselves. That's all part of the balancing.
[Farside] 100% For the Park Ranger.
[Dr_No] The Plasmatica is an ass-kicking diamond age cyber warrior
[Farside] But, you can stop it before it reaches a target.
[Dr_No] and shes a girl
[MarkG] How did you come up with the name for Park Ranger?
[Farside] ....
[Dr_No] no comment
[Pinkbelly] The name Park Ranger is meant to be funny. I mean, he's this super powerful weapon of destruction that the ecological fanatics of the future thing of as a nice, warm, happy thing.
[Lemur] she's mostly android tech
[Dr_No] sexy
[Pinkbelly] Are you laughing?
[Lemur] with big guns
[MarkG] Any chance of renaming it? Lots of people are that the very first thing they are going to do is modify the name!
[Dr_No] yes!!
[Necro] Different groups Uncon units can see each other. Diplomats and Spies can also spot approaching Uncon units, which may give a City time enough to send out a Lawyer or military unit to quash the.
[Farside] I may happen.
[Necro] Eco-Ranger??
[Lemur] there's usually a working name before it goes out
[Dr_No] We'd love to hear some suggestions
[Lemur] id called the Iron Maidens "chicks" before quake II went out
[MarkG] Yes, Eco Ranger seems to be the one most people support... There are suggestions in our forums...
[MarkG] I got one now for eggdood, Flower Child
[MarkG] Also, some people say that the new units are unrealistic, your response?
[Dr_No] I like it
[Farside] What units?
[MarkG] The unconvetional ones
[Dr_No] We have to speculate about the future...many of our units are drawn from popular fiction
[MarkG] Park Ranger, Lawyer, Cleric...
[Farside] Lawyers have proven their power in the real world.
[MarkG] FYI, Akula is our irc man...
[Dr_No] just ask Farside's x wife
[Farside] HEY!!!
[Necro] Clerics have played a major factor in the development, colonization and shaping of many Civs over time. Missionaries sent to convert the natives abroad played an integral role on North America's history
[Pinkbelly] Unconventional combat is a big part of our lives today. The wars fought with money or with propaganda are probably more common than any others.
[DanQ] Is the lawyer unit government specific?
[Pinkbelly] As for slavers -- I think few in the world could miss their impact on history.
[Pinkbelly] Everyone can hire lawyers -- those money grubbers!
[Necro] We designers know very well about slave drivers...
[Pinkbelly] Down boy!
[Farside] Hired guns of the corp world. (Lawyers)
[MarkG] About slaves [eggdood] when u take over a city, can u turn a percentage of the population into slaves...like the romans did
[Necro] That's not nice
[Dr_No] You can only capture slaves..otherwise it would be cheesy
[Lemur] you also don't want to have too many slaves around
[Pinkbelly] If you have a Slaver in your army and you win a battle against the enemy, you take some of the enemy as Slaves.
[Dr_No] slaves require no wages and only half food
[Lemur] they might revolt
[Necro] And, while we have dairy units - the cow - we don't like cheesey things in our game
[Pinkbelly] The danger with Slaves is the Slave Revolt.
[MarkG] When does this hapen?
[Dr_No] thats where the abolitionist comes in
[MarkG] New unit?
[Dr_No] shes a special unit that can start a slave revolt in an enemy city
[Lemur] she can also smuggle slaves out through the underground railroad
[Dr_No] could cause big problems for the bad guysd
[Pinkbelly] If your Slaves are unguarded or the City starves, the Slaves have a chance of revolting. If they succeed, they form a new Civilization that controls the city and will do everything they can to destroy you.
[Necro] ..and Emmancipation Proclamation Wonder
[MarkG] Necro, a what?
[Pinkbelly] The Abolitionist and Emanicipation Proclamation can also free Slaves.
[Dr_No] frees every slave in the world
[Necro] The EP is a Wonder that ends Slavery worldwide.
[Pinkbelly] The Emanicpation Proc frees all of the Slaves in the world.
[MarkG] And what do they become?
[Farside] City walls can protect your city for Slave Raids.
[Dr_No] causes major unhappiness for those cities with slave pop
[Dr_No] The slaver is a tricky unit..is invisible and can take your settlers easily
[Pinkbelly] If you build it, you Slaves become Citizens without any bad effects. Everyone else suffers Riots as their societies adjust to freedom.
[Lemur] but other slavers can see him, and he's weak in battle
[Pinkbelly] Settler poaching is a great tactic!
[Farside] All special units have a counters. Place a military unit with a settler to guard them.
[DanQ] Can cities declare independence/break away from your empire?
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Dr_No] yes..if there Happiness gets too low
[DanQ] I bring this up now since this does tie into government types/practices.
[Dr_No] or if enemy agents subvert the population
[Pinkbelly] When Cities get very very very Unhappy, they have a revolution -- like the American Revolution.
[Pinkbelly] And, just like the French helped the Americans to fight against the British, you can use spies to have foment Revolutions in your enemy's Civilization.
[MarkG] It must a require a very special spy unit, or not?
[Lemur] the Spy unit
[Dr_No] just a spy, or a cyberninja!
[Dr_No] my personal favorite
[DanQ] If the citizens do revolt, do they become an new civilization, join another or...? Can more than one city revolt at once?
[Lemur] they start a new civilization
[Pinkbelly] In a Revolution, the City leaves to for a new Civilization. The City also influences neighbors to try to get them to revolt as well.
[Lemur] theoretically, all of your cities could revolt at once if you treat them badly enough
[Pinkbelly] Well, not all...
[Dr_No] safer to turn them into mindless slaves
[Necro] It's a very dynamic world we live in, and we did our best to recreate that in CTP.
[MarkG] How can you get an indepedent city back?
[Pinkbelly] I love mindless slaves.
[Pinkbelly] Right team?
[Dr_No] we obey
[Necro] WHATEVER YOU SAY...
[Farside] Take it back!!
[Pinkbelly] You can conqueror it.
[Lemur] you can recapture a city with military units
[DanQ] How is what type of government this "new Civ" is determined immediately after independence? (i.e. breaking away from Republic, does the new Civ automatically still be a Republic)?
[Lemur] anarchy
[Pinkbelly] The Civ becomes an AI and picks an appropriate government.
[DanQ] Makes sense!
[Dr_No] I apologize for my spelling
[DanQ] Anything else you guys wish to add about governments?
[Pinkbelly] Hey Dr_No you just missed a period.
[Necro] The Computer is your friend!
[Pinkbelly] Long live the computer.
[Lemur] technology is good
[Dr_No] No one Gov is the end-all. Each will porvide an interesting and different experience
[Lemur] geez Dr_No
[DanQ] When a city breaks away and becomes a new Civ, do they retain all the technology of their former empire?
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Pinkbelly] They were a part of the old Civ so they know what their comrades knew.
[DanQ] One individual desperately wants to know if the Celts are a Civ in CTP.
[Necro] The who?
[Lemur] Celts
[Necro]
[Dr_No] uhhh...thats why we have the custom civ feature
[Pinkbelly] The Welsh are.
[Dr_No] and the Scots
[Necro] There leader is Larry Bird.
[Dr_No] and the Irish
[Pinkbelly] We've also got Brits.
[MarkG] A total of?
[Pinkbelly] 40
[Necro] 40 or so
[DanQ] Awesome!
[MarkG] Greeks or Athenians?
[Necro] Greeks
[MarkG] Thank God
[Pinkbelly] 40 or so -- not all related to England of course.
[DanQ] Ok, onto combat...
[Necro] Thank Zeus
[Dr_No] only 36 are English affiliated
[Dr_No] one Civ is Jamaica, the King is Bob Marley....seriously
[Farside]
[DanQ] Ready?
[Pinkbelly] Sure.
[DanQ] How are combat resolution going to be handled and the overall strategic combat AI?
[Dr_No] Pinky?
[Pinkbelly] Well, those are two very different questions.
[Dr_No] Units have differnt stats than they difd in Civ2
[Necro] So Pinkbelly is preparing 4 totally different answers..
[Pinkbelly] Combat resolution is something that is the same for AI and for the human.
[Dr_No] We have introduced the concepts of stacked combat and ranged attacks
[Pinkbelly] Combat is pretty simple -- your stack fights against your opponents stack.
[Dr_No] On the ZOOM Battlefield!
[Lemur] or they can gang up on lonely units
[Lemur] and beat the poop out of them
[Pinkbelly] Your army is divided into a front line and a back line. If your soldiers have short range weapons for their time (swords for example), they fight in front. If they have long-range weapons for their time (like bows), they fight in back.
[Necro] This system makes combat more realistic and reduces micro-managing your units like you had to in Civ2.
[Dr_No] A mix of ranged and close assualt is best...like artillery and tanks
[Pinkbelly] The best army has a solid front line (pikes or swordmen) with supporting archers.
[Pinkbelly] Or in the future, tanks and artillery.
[Pinkbelly] Or in the far future, plasmatica and war walkers.
[Farside] There is also Air Support from the back line.
[Pinkbelly] Bigger, higher technology armies usually win.
[MarkG] Can you automize the process of sorting out who is in the front line and who's back?
[Pinkbelly] And the whole combat is resolved at once.
[Dr_No] But a smaller force can win if they are dug in at a good defensive position
[Pinkbelly] IT is completely automated.
[Necro] We also have bombard. That allows you to attack from a distance.
[Pinkbelly] The computer knows who is your best front line soldiers and puts them there. Your back line soldiers (archers) only go to the front if they have no one to protect them.
[Dr_No] Special Units go to the back also
[Farside] You can now seige a city and use a special bombard attack that damages the city and defenders with no chance of you taking losses.
[DanQ] Are civs are colored coded, like in Civ II or..?
[Necro] A city can defend itself from a siege by attacking the surrounding enemy units from behind City Walls with a Cannon or Artillery. Battleships can bombard a coastal City or land units that are unfortunate enough to be within range of their 16" guns.
[Pinkbelly] Special Units are any unit with zero attack. Like a cow. (Who every heard of a cow protecting an archer, really?)
[Lemur] Yes, civs are color coded
[DanQ] Can a unit with much higher technology "scare away" units with much lower technology?
[DanQ] i.e. Phalanx sees battleship and runs for its life!
[Pinkbelly] We aren't doing anything with morale or fear. You just get to kill the enemy.
[Pinkbelly] Killing is fun
[Lemur] it's not as afraid of the technology as it is of its firepower
[Pinkbelly] Killing is good
[DanQ] Goodie! {grin}
[Pinkbelly] We like killing.
[Farside] Only that Ancient units will not attack Air Units.
[Lemur] not tall enough
[DanQ] Can units 'retreat' in the middle of combat?
[Dr_No] Nope
[Farside] Always Winne with the tech talk.
[Pinkbelly] No. We went for simplicity on that one.
[Pinkbelly] Once you're committed to battle, you're stuck.
[Dr_No] There is no Winnie, there is only Lemur
[DanQ] Ok, next question is regarding a unit that's one everyone's mind...
[DanQ] The Park Ranger.
[Dr_No] Oh jeez..
[DanQ] Love 'em or hate 'em, it has sparked a lot of discussion in recent weeks.
[Pinkbelly] So I can see.
[Necro] Stealth bombers and subs and other units can carry Nukes, just like Carriers can carry planes. This allows units to get nice and close before launching a nuke. Makes it more personal.
[DanQ] Here's what people want to know: what exactly IS the Park Ranger and are there any defences against 'em?
[Lemur] the park ranger is mobile nanite bomb
[Pinkbelly] The Park Ranger is a nanotechnology bomb.
[Dr_No] Its an invisble hover Van (VW) with a ludicrously powerful weapon inside
[Lemur] you defend against them by running and screaming in the other direction
[Lemur] j/k
[Necro] The Park Ranger gives a hoot.
[Dr_No] YTou can spot it with a spy, and kill it easily with any military unit
[Lemur] it has almost no defense
[Farside] AND it cost a bunch!!
[Pinkbelly] You spot them with Population Monitors or other special units and can kill them easily with any military unit.
[Lemur] AND you can only use it once
[Dr_No] It also destroys all tile imporvements and Units adjacent to the target city
[Lemur] pinky, I hear an echo
[Dr_No] pinky, i hear an echo
[DanQ] hehheh...
[Lemur] the Comedy Club's on Sunset, No
[DanQ] Will some units have something like the "overrun" feature tanks have in Panzer General 2, in which tanks can just roll over and destroy weakened enemy units and keep going?
[Dr_No] Im here all week
[Pinkbelly] All day, every day, more like.
[Pinkbelly] As for overrun... nope.
[Lemur] are we talking about slave drivers again?
[Pinkbelly] We think the combat takes place on a wider scale than PGII.
[Farside] You do have Overrun on the zoom battlefield. Weak frount row unit can be ran over to get at the second row units.
[Necro] Getting TOO detailed with Overrun, morale, fatigue, etc... would greatly diminish the macro that is CTP.
[DanQ] How fast do the units move when their stacked in a group?
[Lemur] as fast as the slowest unit in the stack
[Lemur] they have to wait up for the slow unit
[Pinkbelly] You can break up your army though to keep moving the faster units.
[Necro] Unless you "carry" the unit by means of transport (carrier, troop ship, space plane).
[MarkG] What is the patrol mode?
[Dr_No] Its cut
[DanQ] Is there a technology, building, or wonder that allows you to see everything on the map (like Apollo Program)?
[Lemur] yes
[Lemur] the globsat
[Pinkbelly] GlobSat gives you worldwide radar. Space lets you see the ground.
[Dr_No] You can canvas the earth from space in a couple of Turns
[Pinkbelly] Unless someone shoots your space ships down.
[Farside] Anyone with a space unit.
[DanQ] Can you stack naval units?
[Necro] Yes.
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Dr_No] sure
[DanQ] Another question from the audience: what is the troop ship? Does this allow you to transport units through the air?
[Dr_No] no, its a sea unit
[Necro] Its a naval ship. Ala Queen Mary or QE2
[DanQ] Last call for unit questions, folks. We're moving onto multiplayer very soon...
[Dr_No] there are transport aircraft though
[Dr_No] Cities wuit haairports can airlift a Unit every turn
[DanQ] Can helicopters carry troops?
[Lemur] you're getting better at your spelling, No
[Dr_No] uhh..with airports
[Pinkbelly] The hairport is an advanced device.
[Dr_No] like the floby hiarcutting vacuum
[Dr_No] haircutting
[Lemur] flowbee
[Dr_No] there are no helicopters in CTP
[Pinkbelly] p.s. we have no helicopters...
[Necro] We have paratroopers to remove the micromanagement of loading units into helicopter.
[DanQ] Ah ok.
[DanQ] (re: helicopters)
[DanQ] Someone wants to know why you cut patrol. Comments?
[Dr_No] We needed to save space on the control panel
[Dr_No] it wasn't that important
[Pinkbelly] Well, no one was using it.
[Lemur] i was
[MarkG] Ok, moving to multiplayer...
[MarkG] How long does it take?
[Dr_No] sorry?
[Necro] Well, it takes Pinkbelly on 30 secs or so...
[DanQ] Just to interject... if you have any further questions on topics that have already been covered, you will have the opportunity to answer them during the "unmoderated period".
[Farside] We play with a little as 20 second turns.
[Pinkbelly] It's very addictive and fast.
[Dr_No] we also have a carryover option...like a chess clock.
[MarkG] So, an average mp game can take.... ?
[Pinkbelly] Unless you turn off the timer... then it's slow and contemplative.
[Dr_No] you can save time for the next turn
[Lemur] game time depends on map size and number of players
[Farside] Carry Over transfers the unused time to the next turn.
[Necro] There is no "average" MP game. Each can take as long as you have connection and your Civ is still alive.
[Farside] So you have it when you need it.
[Dr_No] You can start the game with any technologies you want
[Dr_No] To speed things up
[MarkG] does the time each turn takes changes through different ages?
[Necro] You can set a small map for short, get-down-and-dirty game, or large map on a LAN to play all day.
[Dr_No] You can also exlcude Units, Wonders , Improvements
[Lemur] yes
[Pinkbelly] We have an option so that your time changes based on the number of Cities that you have.
[Lemur] holy Webster's, No
[Dr_No] gud idea
[Necro] You can play multiple human with additional Ai or just Human.
[MarkG] Can you "freeze tech" so that there would be no more advances?
[Dr_No] yes..you can set a tech cap
[Farside] A tech cap by Age.
[MarkG] Do you have modem-to-modem? Serial connection?
[Lemur] no
[Farside] I like playing Modern and Genetic only.
[Dr_No] but then farside always was a little strange
[Lemur] whaddaya mean "was"?
[Farside] Thats when warfare is its best.
[Necro] He also likes playing with himself only.
[Dr_No] who doesn't
[Lemur] back to multiplayer...
[Necro] I meant MP.
[Farside] Dr_No is a peacenik
[Dr_No] alright guys...keep it clean!
[MarkG] Hotseat mode?
[Lemur] yes
[Lemur] hotseat mode is good
[MarkG] So, will you have a system for finding players?
[Pinkbelly] We'll have Activnet.
[Pinkbelly] Activlink
[Lemur] through activenet, you can see all of the players connected to the server
[Necro] We have units that can explore for enemy players
Then you kill them. [Necro] Where did Activlink get its name?
[Necro]
[MarkG] Chat during the game? Other mutliplayer options?
[Farside] Activision + Link
[Lemur] it was going to be idvision, but that didn't pan out
[Farside] = Activlink
[Necro] You can chat in MP.
[Pinkbelly] Yes.
[Dr_No] You can handicap Players
[Necro] There is also diplomacy to exchange technology, maps, etc...
[Lemur] much more colorful than diplomatic messages
[Pinkbelly] You can also kneecap them.
[Dr_No] Set teams (sharing Line of sight)
[MarkG] Allied wins?
[Farside] You can also do almost all city management when the other players are moveing.
[Dr_No] yes
[Farside] So 20 sec. turns for an 8 player game are very do-able
[Necro] There is little or no down-time during another player's turn.
[MarkG] Times passes quickly...
[MarkG] What's going on with the release date?
[Necro] Time flies! Well, at least in the modern age.
[Pinkbelly] After the release date, we're planning a big party!
[Farside] A Big Big party!!
[Dr_No] uhh..maybe you should speak with a marketing representative
[Lemur] we're going to Disneyland!
[Necro] And we'll all be avail to play MP to teach you guys a thing or two!
[DanQ] Everyone is invited? :-)
[DanQ] hehehehe...
[Lemur] absolutely
[MarkG] Ok, ok but when is it coming out and why was it delayed?
[Lemur] aliens
[Dr_No] Soon.....very soon
[Pinkbelly] More seriously, we're hard core balancing right now...
[Lemur] and the aliens
[Necro] It will come out when it's done. We won't release a buggy game just to make the date.
[Pinkbelly] as usual, you guys'll be the first to know when we have the exact date.
[Farside] This game will not need a patch on its release date!!
[MarkG] of course
[Lemur] down, boy!
[Dr_No] I gaurantee it
[DanQ] {clapping} :-)
[Dr_No] no patch!!
[Necro] Yeah, Dr_No gaurantees it!
[Lemur] and Bill Gates will buy Norway for us
[Pinkbelly] Just no promises on spelling.
[MarkG] Well, it's about midnight in Greece and I'll have to return home..
[MarkG] We're going to unmoderated mode for the last minutes of the chat
[Necro] And we're planning to ship internationally on same date!
[MarkG] Behave yourselves
*** MarkG sets mode: +m
(The unmoderated part of the chat has been edited so that the questions that were answered are along with the answers and to remove the "noise"
) [DanQ] This channel is now unmoderated.
[Dr_Fubar] AI! What's the AI like ?
[Pinkbelly] The AI is a tiger.
[Lemur] AI has different personalities and different gameplay strategies
[Farside] Sometimes a Cat!
[cab] Another question. Are the cost to support the units the same for all units as in CivII?
[Pinkbelly] The costs are all different from Civ II.
[Civ-Wonder] and what about city-states?
[Necro] No City-States. That was an early Gov't that is now Republic.
[Civ-Wonder] any improvements on the republic?
[Necro] _Everything_ is improved
[eggdood] Are the entertainers still in? and if so...are they jimi henrix's insted of elvis'
[Necro] We have multiple Entertainers.
[Necro] Different Buidlings/Improvements give you different classes of Entertainers.
[Lemur] bards, actors, drunk people
[Dr_Fubar] Can you raze enemy cities to the ground, like Rome did to Carthage ? I doubt Carthage wa a population 1 city.
[Dr_No] thats a good idea...unfortunately no
[_CD_] I was wondering about economics and if the system of trade will be the same and if there will still be a ceiling of 30000 gold for a civ
[Pinkbelly] There is no ceiling.
[Farside] No gold ceiling.
[Farside] We do have a trade route limit per city.
[eggdood] so tv gives u....say drew cary
[Pinkbelly] TV gives you lots of gold.
[Metamorph] I'm interested in learning whether or not the basic model for city production is similar at all to Civ1 and Civ2, in that you have cities with population which works the city tile itself and tiles around it.
[Necro] Yes. Same concept of City Porudction
[Lemur] yes, city pops work the tiles in their radius
[KDP] Have you thought about allowing mine-fields? It would open up for new defence strategies.
[Farside] We played around with land mines and they didn't work out like we wanted.
[RyanG] Can I ask why you don't have Modem-to-Modem, I mean, Is that not so hard to add??
[Lemur] yes, modem-to-modem is hard to add
[Civ-Wonder] canadians shouldnt be in it
[Dr_No] Canadians are in
[Necro] Gretzky is the Canadian ruler.
[Civ-Wonder] is there a way to del the candains
[Farside] You can add and delete any civ through a text file.
[AGM] portuguese?
[Dr_No] yes ! Portugese
[eggdood] Israelis?
[Dr_No] Israelis are in also
[Necro] We have Borg.
[Necro] hebrews.
[Kurasai] Are engineers back and can they modify any new terrains (i.e water)? Also, are there any new terrains like volcanoes?
[Lemur] underwater volcanoes
[Dr_Fubar] What about global ecological disasters ?
[Necro] Yes. We have Ecological disasters, but you can switch that off if you wish.
[Pinkbelly] We've got two major ecological disasters -- global warming and ozone loss.
[Pinkbelly] Global Warming first alters the climate -- so that forests become grasslands and such. Then, if things get really bad, the ice caps melt and the coastlands all flood.
[Dr_Fubar] What happens in the Ozone loss disaster?
[Necro] Tiles get damaged and people get unhappy.
[Pinkbelly] With ozone loss, the northern and southern ends of the world lose ozone protection first. As this happens, the plants and animals beneath the newly formed ozone holes are killed.
[KDP] Does it cost anything to move on railroad or do you have unlimited movement?
[Farside] Railroads cost movement, we also have mag levs trains in the future.
[MarkG] How customisable is it? How easy is it to change graphics?
[harlan22] Yeah, I want to know about customisability too. How does one change the unit graphics?
[Lemur] can't change graphics - they're animated
[Pinkbelly] The game is very customizable. You could even make your own graphics, but you'd have to create animations of the units by hand or with Softimage.
[Civ-Wonder] So, again, does it take as long to build units as in Civ 1 or 2
[Necro] Building units takes different lenghts, of course, and can be 1-50 turns. Average is 5 or so.
[eggdood] does religion have a big part in the game?
[Necro] Theocracy and Clerics can be a major part. Most Civs will want to build temples, Cathedrals and such to keep people happy. TV is another religion of sorts that we have.
[Civ-Wonder] is it easy to hack CTP?
[Necro] "is it easy to hack CTP?" we are working on that for you.
[Necro] Civ City size limit answer is on the way.
(Note by MarkG: I couldn't find the question to that
by here goes) [Farside] Each government type has a Max Empire Size limit. You can go over it, but you people get a little more unhappy with each city. The number is around 10 for Ancient governemtns.
[Metamorph] A common problem in civ1 and civ2 games is the 'infinite cities trick', whereby you simply plop down cities every two or three squares to take advantage of the economic curve insofar as a city of size 1 producing on 2 squares. Does your game's economic model address this?
[Farside] You will not be able to to the infinite cities trick.
[Gerfang] lumpkin: in civ II just build cities (No buildings) if you do it right, you can launch your spaceship around 100 AD.
[Necro] well, we hope to avoid that with all the balancing we're doing now.
[Metamorph] Farside: Then doesn't the danger of rapidly constructing enormous numbers of cities still exist? Are there other features that take this possibility into account?
[Farside] You can't throw up the improvements fast enough.
[Pinkbelly] Actually building too many Cities is limited by your government. To get tons of Cities your need high-tech govs, which takes time.
[Metamorph] Another, similar 'trick' in civ1 and civ2 was to focus technological research toward achieving a more advanced form of government early in the game. Is this possible, and if so, can this affect the city-trick model?
[Necro] We have made the tech tree so you can't get Virtual Democracy or anything before, say, Writing.
[Metamorph] Civ2 is also designed in a method to force you to gain certain 'basic techs' before getting to the better government types. Nevertheless it was still possible to skip military and economic techs and go straight for a government tech, very early in the game. Was this possilibility realized in c:ctp development and countered?
[Farside] You can still go for the governements. But its not always the best thing to change unless your have the right econimic situation.
[Metamorph] Farside: Then I still remain extremely apprehensive that players will be able to 'rush' to a high government tech and perpretrate the infinite-cities-trick in some fashion. Do you have any other comments that might help soothe my worries?
[Necro] Yes. You can't do that.
[Metamorph] Necro: Can you, uh, be more specific? I hate to press the issue, but this aspect of civ-type games absolutely ruined Civ1 and Civ2 for our gaming group.
[Farside] You will only have the ability to build very large number of cities with VD. All other governmetns will be limited. You won't be able to survive if you just rush for science all through the game.
[Necro] you have to complete a whole lot of techs to get to advanced Gov'ts. If you try to get there directly, it will still mean you HAVE to research enough Pre-reqs to make it not a "cheese".
[eViL_SunZ] Are there more technologies than in Civ2?
[Necro] 100+ tech!
[lumpkin] if one civ takes over another civ's city, will the populace of the conquered city be more unhappy then they would be if they were citizens of the conquerors' nation?
[Necro] Yes.
[swor] what is the estimated price of C:CTP?
[Lemur] 49.95
[MarkG] What exactly is the wormhole?
[Pinkbelly] The Wormhole is a connection to another universe discovered near the year 3000.
[MarkG] The Wormhole is the way to make contact with aliens?
[Pinkbelly] Yes, you must send a robotic ship through the wormhole to recover Alien cells for cloning. Then you can create your very own psonic alien.
[swor] can you bombard an under water city with say a battleship?
[Farside] You can bombard under water cities.
[Farside] But, they are hard to invade.
*** MarkG sets mode: +m
[Necro] We have to get back to making the game.
[MarkG] We're back to moderated mode
[MarkG] It's to finish the chat...
[Pinkbelly] Time to get going folks.
[MarkG] I would just like to thank everyone from the team
[Necro] It's been helpful to talk to you all,.
[MarkG] for coming today...
[MarkG] A transcript will be available in the next days...
[Farside] Thanks too all, its been fun talking to you about a game we love!!
[MarkG] Well, see you on the next chat