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MarkG
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Grand Lord of Apolyton, Owner of all this land as far as the eye can see
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Apolyton's Civilization III Interviews Series
Jeff Morris, Civ3 Assistant Producer
The assistant producer for Civilization III opens our Civilization III Interviews Series. Jeff answers many questions and talks about the changes in the gameplay
Last edited by MarkG on 29-07-2001 at 19:40
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yin26
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This space reserved for Darkstar.
Apr 1999
time: 14:14
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(moved here because ANY discussion about Jeff's comments must stay in one thread, of course...)
"Ugly? Are you on about that again, Yin?" Well, unless that polish actually upgrades the graphics engine...
quote:
Graphic tasks right now are finishing the remaining overlay tiles (like poles and mines) and polishing screens. |
"Yin, you said buggy? How could you possibly know?" Well, Jeff told us:
quote:
An open public beta was originally planned, but that window I was describing never really opened. A closed public beta wasn't an option since don't they involve a large enough 'sample' for compatibility testing and requires immense manpower to manage. |
Now a closed public beta is too small to test compatibility issues, understood. So, compatibility issues will only surface AFTER THE GAME IS RELEASED. Write that one down, folks. Sure, we'll call all the bugs user-related bugs if you want.
We can only assume, then, most testing is being done by the programmers themselves and a small, insider group. Can anyone else see the computer completely failing to beat you AT ALL? No? How about this: Can you feel your system crashing to the desktop yet?
"Now this Civ 2.5 thing always sounded lame. What is it now?" Thanks to Jeff, I have a better word for it: 'Conservative Sequel.'
quote:
At first I wasn't a fan of a conservative sequel, though I'm a complete convert now. |
Well, I guess when you don't schedule/leave enough time for thorough testing, you're pretty much left NOT wanting to do something new, since doing something basically old is going to be hard enough.
Congrats, Firaxis. Looks like a real winner is lined up here. You think the graphics just need polish, you don't make testing a priority and you don't mind being conservative. After 10 years of Civ, you've thrown up your arms and said: "Well, the thing can't really be improved, folks. Hope your system is compatible, by the way, since you'll be paying $50+ to be part of our post-release public beta."
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Kautilya
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St Louis, MO
Feb 2000
time: 23:14
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I am kinda disappointed that no one asked a question about the AI. IIRC the poll a few months back showed this to be the no. 1 concern and there has been NO news from Firaxis about any efforts to improve AI.
Apart from that actually I agree with the "conservative" philosophy to game-design . I would actually prefer a Civ 2.5 provided that the designers use the extra time to improve the AI , interface and (less importantly) graphics.
But if the gameplay is conservative and there is no big improvement elsewhere then you can't help feeling short-changed.
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Nemo
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of no one.
Apr 1999
time: 23:14
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quote:
"Well, the thing can't really be improved, folks. Hope your system is compatible, by the way, since you'll be paying $50+ to be part of our post-release public beta." |
Well, I for one will NOT be a guinie pig!! After that interview in conjuction with the screen shots, I won't buy it until after it drops below the $30 mark (I was going to buy 1st day, but not anymore).
After that interview, I don't believe I will purchase it right away. Comments that were made sound too much like CTP situation, which is one thing EVERYONE has always asked "please take you time and do it right" --well, thats not happening, apparently. And I am not going to be burned CivIII like i was with CTP.
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Locutus
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ACS CTP1/2 Manager & Civ4 Co-Manager
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Hengelo, The Netherlands
Nov 1999
time: 06:14
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Well, my expectations were never very high to begin with, but after reading this interview it looks like I'm gonna have to lower them even more. I think Civ2.5 is being optimistic (no pun intended), it looks more like Civ2.2 to me (and after a few patches it might be Civ2.3)  This is good news for CtP (& MedMod) though, the series might not die at Civ3's release after all...
But I want to thank the Apolyton interviewers for organizing this interview anyway and to Jeff Morris for giving such straight answers  Your efforts are appreciated, if only to let me know not to buy the game as soon as it comes out.
El hidalgo,
More examples from CtP1: You could officially play with 8 civs in a single game. Unofficially this could be increased to 32. However, the science and diplomacy screens didn't support this, so you could only see the scientific developments of 8 opponents, even when playing with 16 or 32 civs. Same with diplomacy, you could only contact the first 8 players in the game, regardless of the number of players. Expect this sort of stuff in Civ3 as well...
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El hidalgo
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quote:
Originally posted by MarkG
an example: in ctp2 you could increased the selectable civs to 64. the "choose civ" screen though at the beggining of the map was created that way that it showed only the first 42. |
Thanks! So basically this means that you play with a maximum of 8 civs unless you go through the editor? I never played CTP (or SMAC, just Civ & Civ 2), but in Civ 2 there was only one screen where you picked your civs. I guess that's why the idea of multiple screens where you can select civs confused me.
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ASHBERY76
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ENGLAND
Jan 2001
time: 05:14
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MOO3
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MORON
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Vancouver, Canada
Jun 2001
time: 13:14
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YES, MOO 3
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Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS
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A quick clarification.
I'm not saying the game will be buggy because of not doing a open public beta. We're running a test plan specifically calibrated to catch the bugs that shipped in SMAC. In addition, while I'm sure an open public beta would help product compatibility, we've got two things in our favor. First, JACKAL (our game library) has been used in 4 shipped products so we know most of it's quirks. Second, Infogrames' compatability lab used be a company called PCTest, who specialized in this type of testing. We've done one of the three runs planned on the schedule and I've been very impressed with their lab diversity.
Compatibility testing would be the main benefactor of a public beta, not general bug fixing. Just because you can't blue sky everything, doesn't mean you simply give up. Civ III will be a very clean release.
Jeff
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Jon Miller
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Thank you Jeff
That is what I thought
I plan on purchasing (and prepurchasing) Civ3 and getting it the day it comes out
what people don't realise is that this is a large stride (sure hte graphics could be a little better, particularly the roads on mountains), particularly if the AI is better (as well as pathfinding and other algorithims)
Jon Miller
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29-07-2001 19:15
Ah! This is making more and more sense. I understand now. Never played CTP, so my lack of experience there is showing. Thanks! Actually, this sounds like bad news to me, but at least I understand it!
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