29-09-2001 08:12									#1
	Summary of Replay Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

okay, my current hobby horse is the naming unit/army thing... but I've just decided to expand it a bit to take a look at the summary of replay... this is based on the screenshot from page 4 of the civ3 gallery so it may be outdated but just looking at it - it looks kinda boring.

For those who had looked at the battle honours idea, you'd know i was referring to a feature that tracks the HISTORY of a unit, which comes from the idea that every unit has its own identity beyond simply being a chariot, rifleman whatever.

But I just want to expand the concept of History a bit further.... I mean, after all, when we play Civ what we're doing is History in the Making... so wouldn't it be much better if the summary actually kept track of history rather than a rather bland "konig settled.. koenig destroyed... rome settled... rome destroyed... "


While Civ3 focuses on gameplay, some players may find the game more interesting (more like The Sims) if they can choose to do some paperwork as they play.

The battle honours system is just extra paperwork that they can ignore (and can be handled in a simple manner as i've suggested before by the computer without any extra information)

But what about the summary of replay ? History is more than just about cities founded and destroyed. It is also about wars/battles fought, won and lost (Roman Army annihilated in the Teutonbourger Forests by Germans !") great population movements ("Settlers from Greece begin colonizing Egypt !) and significant moments in history (The Americas Discovered !)

We can't of course expect the computer to handle all of this on its own.. what we humans consider important the computer may have no idea of. But when load up a save game now, all we see is just... the world's state at a certain point in time. It doesn't say how it got to that state, what wars were fought and lost, and what your plans had been (your attempt to transport 8 settlers to a new continent sunk by passing German warship perhaps)

This is one reason I think why scenarios are popular - they tell a STORY... and give you a background. Without a background, it's just another bloody map full of pesky Mongolian chariots... rather than a full on mongolian horde invading ! (and would you remember your brilliant military campaign to defeat the mongolians after you played a few other games ?)

In conclusion, I think it should be important for the game to support the keeping of a "logbook" which can be incorporated into the summary of replay..... (much like the photo album in the Sims) so some of the players with more imagination can write their own world history....