Comparing Rise of Nations' civs to Civ 3's

[WarpStorm]

Actually, Brian was lead designer, Tim was producer, and Jason was lead programmer on Civ3 before they left. I dare say they had some impact on it.

[monkspider]

Originally posted by Locutus
but at least they got Africa right (which had a much richer history than most people realize, and I still maintain that the Zulu are NOT a civ).

Loc, you're on the right track here. I too feel that Firaxis has botched Africa horribly, but I feel that RoN has done the same, albeit to a lesser exent.
Nubia could arguably be grouped with Egypt, and even if not they are not a very noteworthy civ compared to say, Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana, Songhai, and so forth. Bantu is sort of mystifying in that I have always considered it more of a language than a civilization. It is good that BHG has tried to give Africa decent representation, but it is a shame that they have done so in such a poor manner.

[Peter Triggs]

Warpstorm,

Along these lines, here's a gem from one of Rohag's newsletters last week:

Impress GameWatch Japan has an interview with Brian Reynolds! Shou, a dedicated fan of Rise of Nations associated with the Stack-Style site, directs our attention to an interesting comment Brian Reynolds makes about RoN's graphic engine:

" ... We did not create it [RoN's graphic engine] from scratch. The graphic engine of RoN is based on the engine of 'Alpha Centauri', and we started working on creating a new 3D engine from SMAC's 2D one just before from we began development of 'Civilization III' ... "

Shou therefore suspects an early version of RoN was one of the prototypes of Civ3.

Impress GameWatch Interview with Brian Reynolds:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20030212/ron2.htm

Or vice-versa.

[WarpStorm]

Well, I got my info from those who would know

[HuangShang]

i always thought there were far more civs in Civ3....

[Locutus]

Originally posted by monkspider
Nubia could arguably be grouped with Egypt, and even if not they are not a very noteworthy civ compared to say, Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana, Songhai, and so forth. Bantu is sort of mystifying in that I have always considered it more of a language than a civilization. It is good that BHG has tried to give Africa decent representation, but it is a shame that they have done so in such a poor manner.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I made those same points myself in this very forum a few months ago. However, I don't know ANY game which represents Africa better than RoN is doing, so you don't hear me complaining (too much )...

Anyway, Mali, Ghana and Songhai (as well as to a lesser extend Kanem-Bornu) are more logical to group together than Egypt and Nubia. I would prefer to use Zimbabwe, Benin or Swahili(/Kilwa) instead of several Sahelian Empires. But I certainly don't think Nubia is less noteworthy than any other African civ. It's probably the oldest civ in Africa (older than Egypt) and it continued to exist and prosper long after Egypt was incorporated in the Roman Empire (the last of the Nubian kingdoms still existed in the late 15th century, possibly even later). But I do agree that for variety's sake, Mali/Songhai or Ethiopia would be preferable above Nubia.

[bigfree1]

Civ 3 was supposed to come (originally) with MP out of the box; but we had to wait for the XP. After release they (Firaxis) were unclear whether or not it was to be a downloadable option or an add-on for $$!

It looks like RON won't pull the same stunt.

[WarpStorm]

Well, as RON was designed to be a primarily a multiplayer game from the beginning, I would hope not.

(PS, I'm still waiting for someone to show me a credible source for this rumor that Civ3 was supposed to come with MP and it was somehow taken out. I've been trying to track down the source of this rumor to no avail. Links anyone?)

[Alex]

Warp: from a Gamespy preview (E3 2001):

There is multiplayer planned for Civilization III, but unfortunately at this point Firaxis isn't quite sure to what extent. "Don't worry, there will be multiplayer capability over a LAN and Internet, but we are working on some other multiplayer features that will be revealed in due time."

Link:

http://www.gamespy.com/e3/civ3/index2.shtm

[WarpStorm]

That doesn't say that it would be packed in or done as a free patch, just that they weren't sure what or how.

Every Firaxian I've asked has sworn that they never said it would be included for free. A MP expansion was apparently the plan from the start (like the previous 2 civs).

[Alex]

I admit that Jeff's words are purposely vague and that he apparently did not say anything about MP being included in the original Civ3, but... I'll search for more sources...

[WarpStorm]

I do have to admit though, that one sentence does seem to imply that it'd be included.

[WarpStorm]

Back on topic (imagine that)

How different will 2 civs be in RON? Can someone please do a compare and contrast between two very similar civs and two radically different civs?

[monkspider]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
Back on topic (imagine that)

How different will 2 civs be in RON? Can someone please do a compare and contrast between two very similar civs and two radically different civs?

Good question Warp. However, are you talking about two geographically or culturally similar civs, such as France and Germany, or two civs with similar attributes?

[tniem]

As I recall, it was in their FAQ before the game shipped. Something along these lines:

Will there be MP in Civ III?

Yes. We are going to have LAN, hotseat, and something else that we have been working on. Unfortunately we are not ready to talk about MP at this time.


While not explicitly its in, it was definitely implied. I will try to run some searches on the archives to see if anything comes up where we discussed this directly.