08-05-2002 19:22									#1
	Firaxis support for the ability to customise Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: [King_of_Camelot] Why is it taking you so long to remove the art limitations related to adding new units? With the old hacked editor there seemed to be no problem with adding new units, but you say there are limitations? [Jeff_Morris_FIRAXIS] Chances are you'll be able to add units again once some of the fan tools get up to speed with v121. Official firaxis support of that feature however isn't ready for prime time [Mike_Breitkreutz_FIRAXIS] One example of a limitation that we removed was the fact that you couldn't have more than 24 resource icons. And there are numerous places in the code with similar issues. [Jeff_Morris_FIRAXIS] Well, to be fair civ2's scenario capabilities evolved over numerous products...Matching what civ2MPGE had at launch with Civ3 was beyond our capabilities [Jeff_Morris_FIRAXIS] and resources [Jeff_Morris_FIRAXIS] These things take time, especially with an engine that wasn't necessarily designed with them in mind... [Jeff_Morris_FIRAXIS] We've spent substatial time and talent on the editing tools...I think we created a great editor for the game "WE" made. An editor to allow you guys to make your own games...well that stuff is different

/rant on
Is it only me that feels like banging my head against a brick wall here? Customisation was a hot topic even back before Civ III was first being drafted and the one key request was generous room for expansion to accommodate the ability to add content. With a game under development you wouldn't even know what limits you yourselves needed so its even easier to define things that way. These fixed limits with zero room for expansion must have been deliberately inserted later once the content had been frozen. Even a little thought would have allowed them to be set at higher values if unlimited was too awkward to support.

Looks like Civ III could be staying off my hard drive for a long time. I'm certainly not going to pay for a Firaxis expansion set which adds fluff like more Civs when I can't play an enjoyable game with any Civ and we're still waiting for customisation tools that stand some chance of fixing that.
/rant off

	08-05-2002 19:59									#2
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Just like Civ 2...

	08-05-2002 20:08									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: These fixed limits with zero room for expansion must have been deliberately inserted later...

yes, it's an evil, evil world....