Jeff Morris interview at civfanatics

isaac brock · September 13, 2001, 21:32

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Jeff Morris, Associate Producer for Civ III, took some time out of his busy schedule today to answer our questions about coastal bombardment, natural disasters, multiplayer, Great Leaders, and many other areas of Civilization III. We hope you enjoy reading it!

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CivFanatics: What do you do when you are not developing or playing games?

Jeff Morris: Wash my car, drink expensive beer and read.

CivFanatics: Are some terrain features animated? Such as oceans? Will it be possible to turn off unit (and terrain) animations?

Jeff Morris: Map cities animate to show different situations such as civil disorder and we love the king day.

CivFanatics: The recent GameStar video shows a destroyer bombarding a city. How does coastal bombardment work exactly?

Jeff Morris: All bombardment involves the use of a range overlay, which you can use to determine what you can hit. You then select the target that's within the grid..

CivFanatics: We heard Barbarians will have encampments on the map instead of appearing randomly. How will this change affect gameplay?

Jeff Morris: You can actively hunt down the sources of barbarians by hitting these camps. This allows the player to be proactive in dealing with barbarians, rather than simply weathering their assaults..

CivFanatics: What Wonders of the World are visible on the map, besides the Great Walls?

Jeff Morris: We experimented with this, but ultimately found the scale was too much of an issue. When you build a wonder a gorgeous "wonder portrait" pops up over the main map. The wonders are then visible on the city aerial view screen.

CivFanatics: How many Great Leaders are there in the game? Do Great Leaders live forever?

Jeff Morris: Each race has a stable of great leaders that are drawn from when you create one. They live until used for either rush building an improvement or building an army.

CivFanatics: Why were the historically insignificant Aztecs, Iroquois, and Zulus included, and the much more important Spanish and Mongols not?

Jeff Morris: The designers looked for an interesting mix of diverse civilizations. Since the amount of art generated for each civilization is significantly higher in Civilization III, we couldn't include as many as in Civilization II. Those civilizations that are represented are 'rendered' in much more detail than their peers in Civilization II.

CivFanatics: There were lots of resistance to the concepts of special units, Golden Ages, and different abilities for each civilization in the Civ community. Did you anticipate this kind of reactions when you decide to implement those ideas? Also, Dan wrote in the developer update on Wonders that Golden Ages are now triggered by Wonders. Does this mean special units no longer trigger Golden Ages?

Jeff Morris: No. We've actually gotten a lot of positive feedback from civ fans on these new features. Golden ages are still enabled by a victorious combat of your civ specific unit. [Two ways to trigger Golden Age]

CivFanatics: Will the AI be significantly improved and do they still cheat on higher levels?

Jeff Morris: The AI presents a very challenging opponent in all eras and all difficulty levels. Just like the AI is 'crippled' in easier difficulty levels, it is stronger at higher ones.

CivFanatics: What is the current status of multiplayer?

Jeff Morris: We're still working out all of the details around multiplayer and will give you more information later.

CivFanatics: Will the short-cut keys remain the same? (Fortify = F, Airbase = E, etc...)

Jeff Morris: In most cases they should be the same. We're still tweaking them and making sure they make sense with the increased functionality of Civ III, so some of them may change.

CivFanatics: Will the game include natural disasters? If no, why not?

Jeff Morris: No. While these could possibly add some new challenges, we felt that since you couldn't really play a certain way and prevent them from occurring, they were a little too random (and always destructive). Global Warming is an example of what we're talking about. While you can't solely prevent this from occurring (the AIs have a role as well), you can 'do your part' by moderating city growth and building improvements that directly combat the phenomenon. No such mechanism existed for, say, an earthquake.

CivFanatics: What has been the most challenging task in creating Civ3?

Jeff Morris: Never losing sight of what makes Civ great while integrating new systems and features into it.

CivFanatics: Lastly, what do you think is the single most important change from Civ2 to Civ3?

Jeff Morris: That's an easy one. Resources and trading. This is one of the main features that will challenge players of the previous games to significantly alter their strategies.

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A big thanks to Jeff Morris for taking the time to answer our questions! :-)

This is cool. I think they don't know what will happen with MP, or they're trying to fix it enough to fit it in. but I think its under control at firaxis.

jerkwaterbox · September 13, 2001, 21:36

Sounds good to me

Leonidas · September 13, 2001, 21:43

CivFanatics: What is the current status of multiplayer?

Jeff Morris: We're still working out all of the details around multiplayer and will give you more information later.

I guess this means MP won't make the Oct release. There's only a month left to go. . .

Otherwise great interview.

jerkwaterbox · September 13, 2001, 21:46

well this is the long debated question: crappy MP no wait, or sweet MP wait.

as a SP i don't care about MP, but i know many others do. if i ever did consider playing MP i would rather wait and get a sweet MP.

tniem · September 13, 2001, 21:49

Just like to mention that those who thought their might be wonder animation (i.e. seeing it built in your city) are going to be sadly dissapointed. And I hate to say I told you so but...

Nice to see some new news to talk about.

ixnay · September 13, 2001, 21:54

Quote:

Jeff Morris: Map cities animate to show different situations such as civil disorder and we love the king day.

I hadn't heard this before; sounds like a good idea to me!

jerkwaterbox · September 13, 2001, 21:54

i was hoping for wonder animations but over the last few weeks i knew there would be none...

Inverse Icarus · September 13, 2001, 21:57

told you there was no multiplayer.

::grumbles about muslim fanatics::

TechWins · September 13, 2001, 21:58

I like the bomardment feature. The rest of the info was pretty lame in my opinion. What I mean is that most of the info was not all that intriguing to hear.

When did this interview take place?

jerkwaterbox · September 13, 2001, 22:52

today

UKScud · September 14, 2001, 01:02

You mean someone involved in the development of the game is actually talking again to us fans...

Will wonders never cease! (Will Civ3 include Multiplayer?)

UKScud · September 14, 2001, 01:04

Also...any idea why the firaxis web site is offline?

Couldn't link to it from civ3.com

Zanzin · September 14, 2001, 02:11

An interesting interview. Pity about no wonder movies (from old info) - now we get a still picture instead. This is just stupid - they said wonder movies got old after you've seen them once or twice - and yes, they do - but still pictures will get old just as fast, and they're not half as special as wonder movies - so I'm thinking "lazy" is the real reason there aren't wonder movies in civ3.
Also a pity that some wonders won't overlay the map, but I guess it could have looked a bit out of place

LaRusso · September 14, 2001, 03:27

no random events sucks pretty badly.
'hunting down barbarians' and 'the countries that harbor them' is cool

RobC · September 14, 2001, 04:10

At least we now know more about Great Leaders -- the fact that they are 'used up' when you use them to either build an army or rush complete a wonder. Hmm...I wonder if an army disappears if all the units it 'carries' are killed? I would guess so, since it's wierd to have an 'empty' army, but on the other hand, didn't they say that when you first create an army, it's like an empty transport that you have to load with units?

CapTVK · September 14, 2001, 05:11

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CivFanatics: Lastly, what do you think is the single most important change from Civ2 to Civ3?

Jeff Morris: That's an easy one. Resources and trading. This is one of the main features that will challenge players of the previous games to significantly alter their strategies.

So this probably means resources and trading are the top improvement. I'm actually quite pleased with this because Civ3 seems to shape like Civ and RailRoad tycoon combined.

Still a shame that MP won't be in it.

Pggar · September 14, 2001, 08:24

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Originally posted by TechWins
What I mean is that most of the info was not all that intriguing to hear.

I couldn't agree more and it seems to me that JM avoided giving any real comment on MP.

Besides that the army issue never seems to become clear. Do i need a leader to create an army, or the number of cities is the only needed condition, or both?

MarkG · September 14, 2001, 08:52

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Originally posted by Pggar
Besides that the army issue never seems to become clear. Do i need a leader to create an army, or the number of cities is the only needed condition, or both?

the number of cities is not a condition, it's a limit

you need a leader to make an army
but you cant have more than 1 army if you have up to 4 cities(2 for 8 cities, etc)

OneFootInTheGrave · September 14, 2001, 09:01

It is now only one month to shipment in US and maybe 2 in the UK!!!

I can't wait ... to see how the game really plays.

At least it seems that you won't be able to change units in the army... that would make armies too powerful, but we will see...

Pggar · September 14, 2001, 09:17

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Originally posted by MarkG
the number of cities is not a condition, it's a limit

you need a leader to make an army
but you cant have more than 1 army if you have up to 4 cities(2 for 8 cities, etc)

Thanks Markos

I guess what confused me was the Military Academy (small wonder) concept, as stated by the civ team you can also build armies after you built the MA. Then your leaders will be useful only to rushbuying wonders. Unless the MA gives you only one army. Any way i guess i'm way off topic here, sorry.

Leonidas · September 14, 2001, 09:49

I kinda liked the wonder movies - they gave a sense of historical "wonder" to all the effort that goes into building them. It was kinda like re-living a little piece of history.

Deadlines. . . go figure

faded glory · September 14, 2001, 10:42

few questions!?

Guys, any idea what a barbarian encampment would look like? Could you make separate alliances with them(that would be awesome

). I would definetaly eradicate some, but leave others to piss my opponents off.Sort of like 'harboring' Terrorists

.

no word on MP? Typical

, but i guess its a little too late to expect anything else! I will have to practice on AI before delving into PBEM

!

Wonder Movies? I dont care about those. Big video files that get boring after showing 2 or 3 times. No big loss

Immortal Wombat · September 14, 2001, 11:02

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CivFanatics: Will the game include natural disasters? If no, why not?

Jeff Morris: No.

Something to add then, having put them into CtP2

isaac brock · September 14, 2001, 12:41

I'd like to thank mark for crediting me for the news. Its that kind of kindness that makes it all worthwhile. (

)

TechWins · September 14, 2001, 13:14

This is unrelated to the thread but then again it doesn't deserve a new thread. Since I'm usually at school (sick right now) on Fridays I don't know the exact time the Civ of the Week is updated but when does it usually update? I figured it would have been done by now but it's not.

Leonidas · September 14, 2001, 14:02

The new civ of the week is the India - with the War Elephant

MarkG · September 14, 2001, 16:11

Quote:

Originally posted by isaac brock
I'd like to thank mark for crediting me for the news. Its that kind of kindness that makes it all worthwhile. (

)

unfortunately i cant credit you for it, since i learned about it by visiting civfanatics directly. if you had sent a pm or something....

TechWins · September 14, 2001, 17:25

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I'd like to thank mark for crediting me for the news. Its that kind of kindness that makes it all worthwhile. ( )

Don't feel bad... I am the motivator behind the opening of the Civ3 - Civilizations forum and I haven't seen any credit for it.

Plus, there have been other news items where the info came from me and I didn't receive credit for it.

You know Mark, I'm starting to think that there is some kind of conspiracy against me.