Man this forum has been rough on the artists at Firaxis.
All the 'ugly ass terrain' comments, worst looking game . . . ever (bring in the Simpson's comic book store owner) and all. But I'm not so sure insults are going to get the kind of response the critics are looking for.
Personally, I think the game is looking great.
Heretical to say, I realize, but I like the games' look. It's lush, rich and not as cartoony as CTP. A lot of people hearing this are going to want to get out some rope and find a tree for me.
Sure, there are some issues still to be worked out (city names hard to read so far, resources appear variously over and under roads in the screenshots, for example), but on the whole I like it; it is a work in progress after all. The industrial age cities may be a little dark, but that's not a big deal. WIth the tiled terrain system they're working with, and it's limited nature (no hills with trees, half-height hills, half-mountains, etc), it's going to be hard to create totally realistic terrain. Stylization is going to be necessary.
I think the units are look fabulous, and the animations are stunning. The barbarian dude is expesically cool.
It must be remembered that there are constraints that the Civ team is working under.
The text at the back of the Civ II manual said they had attempted to bring tactical/battle combat into Civ II but found it interrupted the flow of the game. I'd guess the Civ team has probably brought in and tried numerous suggestions made on this board but found they didn't gel in the end. CTP brought in a bunch of innovations, some of which I liked, but that game just didn't come together the way Civ I and II did.
I think a little more civility might be shown on this forum to the team that is working on Civ III. Constructive criticism is often helpful, but just dumping on the Civ team, threatening to hold your breath, or not to buy the game, or some such is just not going to do anybody any good. The game should be a fun experience, not an acrimonious one of mud slinging and bitterness.
The early reviews of the game had me a little worried. They seemed to imply the game was not much of an evolution over Civ II, but I wonder: the resource system alone should be a major addition to the game. Radical changes may wind up making a game that is too complicated for AI to handle. The AI in CTP sure couldn't handle the army stacking stuff (often hitting my 9 unit stacks with 3 or 4 unit stacks and getting clobbered). Having armies more like mobile fortresses might make it possible for the AI to handle it as well as a human. This is probably why combat has been kept fairly simple.
I'm hoping many of the new features make it into the game: the AA guns look cool, as do the civ specific units, and I'm encouraged to hear about the expanded diplomacy and culture. For the rest of it, Firaxis has been playing it all pretty close to their chest. No word if leaders are in or out, no details how this lessened/improved blocking ability by units works. Perhaps everything is up in the air or development has hit an impasse. Development isn't always smooth. They might be holding off revealing information until they balance things and finalize the content.
In an effort to provide some info, any info, here are tidbits I've picked up:
I'm certain Japan is in the game (samurai and leader pic).
America has a chariot in one of the screen shots so it probably isn't the Egyptian special unit (no idea what would be then).
Coastal waters are a lighter colour which will help avoid the accidental and fatal move to deep sea of triremes.
Some units now have 0 ratings for defense instead of the default 1 (scout, settlers, diplomats?).
I never got Alpha Centauri but understand they had a kind of global council. Sounds like a neat equivalent of the UN; hope they bring this into the game somehow.
Others have speculated that the majority of special units will be from earlier rather than later. I think they're probably right but China might get a cheap infantry unit or something along that line.
Unit strengths seem to have been increased a bit (knight attack value now 5). Perhaps the modern units will have higher values than before (if the dragoons are in they must have an attack value higher than 5).
Don't think any of the screenshots so far have shown a leader or an army, which I find curious. Shots include industrial age cities with older age units (placeholders till the newer units done perhaps?). I am curious to know just how far along they are in development.
Elephants are in (they're in one screen shot, really fuzzy).
The Great Wall of China and wonders of that sort will be on the map (if I remember correctly).
Nothing wrong with speculating. No need to be slavishly devoted to Firaxis, but no need to be nasty either.
There are 3 tanks in the game and 1 mech inf unit (early tank, abrams tank, panzer). The one thing that confuses me a little here is the American and Russian special unit: the F-15 and the MiG. If the Americans get the F-15, the other civs would get a generic jet fighter of some kind. But French, British, and German fighters are generally BETTER than Russian MiGs. Would the Russians get a less effective special unit? Perhaps the MiG will be really cheap to build.
No sign yet of stealth fighters or bombers. If they're in, I wonder if they'll make the F-15 obsolete or if the F-15 will be comparable to a generic stealth plane.
They may also be holding on to info so they can get magazine covers and articles closer to the release date. But cripes I'm getting curious with so little new info leaking out!
Keeping me fingers crossed,
Phutnote
