Combat

[Phalanx_TS]

I think the combat aspect of the civilzation series is appalling, it leaves nothing to change or intellegence for that matter, all you actually see is basically the better unit winning.

Has anyone here played Masters of Magic, well if you haven't i don't blame ya because it is a really old game. The only good thing about the game was that it had a brillant combat aspect to it. Masters of Magic had a very similar layout to civilzation 1 and 2. The good thing about the combat system in Masters of Magic was that it took you to a battle ground screen and from that you moved all your pieces around the battle ground trying to outflank the enemies unit, and of course each unit got his turn but you were able to employ morale boosting units, lets range units shoot from a distance and so on, if this could be implemented into civ 3 i can see a whole new level of gaming and future for the civs

[airdrik]

What you describe is called a tactical battle screen. If you think of the time frame of civ 3 and the number of battles that will take place, it is not likely that any sort of battle system other than your unit attacks their unit, damage is done and the winner wins, will be implemented.

Of course there is also the possibility (though not likely to be a very big one) to be able to switch on a tactical battle screen for one battle and it turns itself off after that battle, thus allowing an iffy battle become more decisive and allowing a small portion of player skill to be involved. But even that is not likely.

[Lord_Davinator]

wouldn't work in a game like Civ.... I mean think of how many times you'll have to go to war... If you had to control all of them on your own or be it clicking "no automate it" option itself would take a huge amount of time...I have played games like the one you mentioned... try shogan:total war... its good but you get bored really soon... ceaser3's a bit better but both of them pale when you compare the time you have to spend in Civ.

[Il principe]

Phalanx_TS I agree with you that the suggested combat system is not developed enough, but your solution isn't appropiate for this kind of game. It would simply suck up to much time.

A factor for the difference in sizes of the two armies needs to be added to the calculation, but I can't imagine that Firaxis wouldn't figure this out by themselves. Furthermore the combat system of Civ I, Civ II and SMAC already incorporated an element of chance, so undoubtedly this will be included in the Civ III version.