civ2, civ3, and the scenaro community - a thought

lord of the mark · July 24, 2001, 13:18

Ive only just recently gotten "into" scenarios, but it seems to me that the release of civ 3 soon does NOT come at a good time for the scenario community - let me explain what I mean.

The microprose releases, FW, MGE, and TOT did not significantly alter the gameplay of the original game. Therefore there is a sense that we are playing a 5 year old game, desperately in need of updating - its about time for the release of Civ3.

OTOH, the microprose releases DID offer steadily improving scenario tools. The FW/MGE scenario community is only now just fully utilizing(exhausting?) the tools of those games. And TOT came with yet more powerful options, and there are as yet only a few scenarios that take advantage of them. Angelo Scotto has only recently released his CSPL (Civ Scenario Programming Language, IIUC) and that is said to have great potential - and yet it has only just begun to be used. It would be a shame if the release of Civ3 were cut off the Civ2 scenario efforts, especially if civ3 did not prove an even more useful tool.

I fear what happened with AOE - the release of Age of Kings essentially dried up the Age of Empires scenario community - yet the AOK scen community was never the same as the AOE community, with a much greater focus on fantasy and fiction and less on history ( I must say that some of the AOE user designed historical campaigns were magnificent, not only far better than the campaigns that shipped with the game, but in some ways more interesting than most Civ2 scenarios - no offense meant)

LOTM

Inverse Icarus · July 24, 2001, 15:44

lord, i know your an active member so i wont be rude or anything like i would to a "settler" or "cheiftan" of this site

i think with culture and the new trade system, scenario builders would find a WEALTH of new options to mess with.

imagine a real-world scenario where the middle east holds a ton of oil, and a bunch of super-powers are buying it off them.

if u want to go fictional, make a small civ corner the uranium market

.

the way i see it, with official borders and resource trading, the scenario community will be having some fun

also, we asked but got no answer if the mapmaker would let people alter the resources in an area, but i assume (hope?) that it will.

lord of the mark · July 24, 2001, 16:11

uber, im not saying Civ should never be improved - just pointing out that from the scenario point of view things look different - Civ2 is not a 5 year old game, its a 2 year old game, since thats when the new scenario features in TOT were released. October 2001 is just a tad early for a new game. It would be just as well to see a delay to first or second quarter 2002, though i understand the business reasons for not wanting to wait that long.

LOTM

H Tower · July 24, 2001, 18:06

Quote:

Originally posted by lord of the mark
October 2001 is just a tad early for a new game. It would be just as well to see a delay to first or second quarter 2002, though i understand the business reasons for not wanting to wait that long.

so you want them to delay even further the release of civ3

Marko: can we put LOtM in :banned: :banned: for a while?

splangy · July 24, 2001, 21:18

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
lord, i know your an active member so i wont be rude or anything like i would to a "settler" or "cheiftan" of this site

whats wrong with settlers and cheiftons? just becouse they dont post 1 line answers dosent mean that you should ignore them! im a settler but ive been here for FOUR years i just dont post much. about being active, all that means is that you post alot of
"i agree", "good idea" and "i doubt it will work".

H Tower · July 24, 2001, 22:44

Quote:

Originally posted by splangy
whats wrong with settlers and cheiftons? just becouse they dont post 1 line answers dosent mean that you should ignore them! im a settler but ive been here for FOUR years i just dont post much. about being active, all that means is that you post alot of
"i agree", "good idea" and "i doubt it will work".

you tell him splangy!
and oh yeah, your a chieftan now so smile

Case · July 24, 2001, 23:23

I've been thinking about this as well - The imending release of Civ 3 has caused me to get off my arse and release some of the scenario's I've been sitting on

However, I'm really looking forward to Civ 3 in the hope that it will include new tools and methods for scenario creation. For example, it seems that the 'cultural points' will facilitate Gurrilla war type scenarios. Another BIG plus would be improved AI

If it comes to the worst, and Civ 3 is no good for scenarios, people will probably continue making them for Civ 2 (the Call to Power Games haven't stoped anyone from making civ2 scenarios).

connorkimbro · July 25, 2001, 01:14

Quote:

im a settler but ive been here for FOUR years i just dont post much.

That IS pretty impressive, considering that even Mark and Dan havn't been here for four years. .

. . now, if you mean the ultimate civ2 site or the greek site, than that's a different matter entirely. .

JellyDonut · July 25, 2001, 02:14

Quote:

Originally posted by splangy

whats wrong with settlers and cheiftons? just becouse they dont post 1 line answers dosent mean that you should ignore them! im a settler but ive been here for FOUR years i just dont post much. about being active, all that means is that you post alot of
"i agree", "good idea" and "i doubt it will work".

I agree.

Power to the chieftains!

BTW, how many posts until I get promoted?

Edit: Never mind. I'm a warlord now

Alex 14 · July 25, 2001, 02:31

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
lord, i know your an active member so i wont be rude or anything like i would to a "settler" or "cheiftan" of this site

If you be rude to a 'settler', they might start posting heaps and outrank you.

lord of the mark · July 25, 2001, 13:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Case
I've been thinking about this as well - The imending release of Civ 3 has caused me to get off my arse and release some of the scenario's I've been sitting on

However, I'm really looking forward to Civ 3 in the hope that it will include new tools and methods for scenario creation. For example, it seems that the 'cultural points' will facilitate Gurrilla war type scenarios. Another BIG plus would be improved AI

If it comes to the worst, and Civ 3 is no good for scenarios, people will probably continue making them for Civ 2 (the Call to Power Games haven't stoped anyone from making civ2 scenarios).

I may sound like a pessimist, but I do expect that Civ3 will be far better and make far more of an impact than CTP.

LOTM