23-04-2005 20:07									#1
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There's an interesting preview of Civ4 in this month's UK PCZone magazine (the June issue).

There's a tiny interview with Sid, and a few screenshots. It's quite short on details, though.

Looks like they thought that the 550 turns for a Civ3 game was too long, and Civ4 will have more like 400 turns. But there will be three game speeds, "Quick", "Medium" and "Epic". They don't say what these settings do, but I'd guess they would in some way affect the number of turns required to complete the game.

The ETA for the game in the article is "End of 2005" - so that'll be next spring then.

	23-04-2005 20:26									#2
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If only it could be next spring

Firaxis has a great experience of putting its products on the shelf on time... At the expense that said products are rushed, and shoddy out of the box (Civ3 was sold with a bug that made planes completely unusable)

	24-04-2005 01:00									#3
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Spiffor, was it Firaxis who was responsible or was it their publisher? Because I know that their old publisher had this reputation of rushing unfinished products while their new publisher has the opposite reputation.

Also, notice that some interview with some Firaxis guy (Soren? No idea) mentioned that they thought they had pressured for Civ3 and wanted to do Civ4 differently (they were discussing the idea of including good modding for example).

	24-04-2005 01:55									#4
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quote: they were discussing the idea of including good modding for example

In the PCZone preview, they said this about modding (and I quote):

"...the new game will be fully modifiable using XML, Python and SDK."

Hmm, an SDK for modding the game, eh? Sounds cool.

	25-04-2005 04:18									#5
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GodSpawn, could you translate this to a non-programmer? Well I do know how to make sounds with QBasic... What's good/bad of SDK?

	25-04-2005 04:35									#6
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SDK stands for Software Development Kit and is a term that has over the years been horribly abused, particularly by the gaming industry, to refer to anything from a simple scenario editor to a full copy of the original source code and a whole suite of tools to modify it. So basically that throw-away comment in one magazine review doesn't really mean anything, at least until we learn more about it

Thanks for the heads-up on the interview though

	25-04-2005 18:40									#7
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And where are these screenshots then?

	25-04-2005 19:16									#8
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Yeah! Send 'em over, will ya?



Please?

	25-04-2005 19:30									#9
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus So basically that throw-away comment in one magazine review doesn't really mean anything, at least until we learn more about it

Wrong (well, in part). The quote is a confirmation that at least parts of the game will by available for those able to use Python and XML (i.e. highly moddable). Only the "SDK" part seems to be throw-away, although I imagine some kind of scenario editor will be included.

	01-05-2005 01:49									#10
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Oops missed this - there is a bit more detail which I put in a new post

	01-05-2005 08:47									#11
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor (Civ3 was sold with a bug that made planes completely unusable)

I always wondered where they dug up their so called playtesters.

	01-05-2005 13:52									#12
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Not quite

Someone had turned off the intercept ability for some reason, and forgot to turn it back on before release. Fixed in first patch.

	01-05-2005 18:59									#13
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor At the expense that said products are rushed, and shoddy out of the box (Civ3 was sold with a bug that made planes completely unusable)

I was not a bug, it was a feature.

	02-05-2005 02:04									#14
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Did they mention whether or not it would suck as bad as Civ3?

	02-05-2005 02:33									#15
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quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse Did they mention whether or not it would suck as bad as Civ3?

An unofficial letter from Sid Meier revealed it is not likely Civ4 will suck (from the words of the fans) as bad as Civ3. Sid Meier further mentioned there was consideration naming Civ4 instead - The Real Civilization 3 - but later decided against the idea for marketing purposes and infringment rights against Atari.

	02-05-2005 02:37									#16
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quote: Originally posted by TechWins An unofficial letter from Sid Meier revealed it is not likely Civ4 will suck (from the words of the fans) as bad as Civ3. Sid Meier further mentioned there was consideration naming Civ4 instead - The Real Civilization 3 - but later decided against the idea for marketing purposes and infringment rights against Atari.

WTF? Source?

	02-05-2005 03:30									#17
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus WTF? Source?

Taken from an imagination...

	02-05-2005 03:52									#18
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus WTF? Source?

	02-05-2005 04:42									#19
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Proving once again sarcasm doesn't work on the Internet

	02-05-2005 05:16									#20
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http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

	03-05-2005 14:49									#21
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Since Python is a part of the game, I guess it's a Python source editor.

	03-05-2005 19:21									#22
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quote: Originally posted by TechWins An unofficial letter from Sid Meier revealed it is not likely Civ4 will suck (from the words of the fans) as bad as Civ3. Sid Meier further mentioned there was consideration naming Civ4 instead - The Real Civilization 3 - but later decided against the idea for marketing purposes and infringment rights against Atari.

A rare bit of honesty, too bad its not true.

	03-05-2005 19:22									#23
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quote: Originally posted by Max Sinister Since Python is a part of the game, I guess it's a Python source editor.

Monty Python anyone?

Seriously though, will we need a compiler?

	03-05-2005 19:36									#24
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Python is a run-time language... no need to compile. One probably should install the proper version of Python in order to edit things though.

	03-05-2005 19:47									#25
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Didn't think of that. We will need to be careful about version compatability.

	04-05-2005 03:29									#26
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus Proving once again sarcasm doesn't work on the Internet

For your explanation due to the rolly eyes, that is not necessarily true if the comments of the person can be taken into context properly. Sid Meier calling Civ4 - The Real Civilization 3 - blatantly resembles sarcasm, as the probability of such an occurrence is very slim to nill. Good day.

quote: Originally posted by Locutus A rare bit of honesty, too bad its not true.

My thoughts exactly; Civ3 wasn't what it should have been, so Civ4 ought to be called The Real Civ3.

	06-05-2005 23:35									#27
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BTW: Guido van Rossum (the inventor of Python) really had Monty P. in mind when he invented the name!

	07-05-2005 09:07									#28
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quote: Originally posted by TechWins quote: Originally posted by Locutus A rare bit of honesty, too bad its not true. My thoughts exactly; Civ3 wasn't what it should have been, so Civ4 ought to be called The Real Civ3.

Isn't that quote from me and not Locutus?