Summary of the IGN preview (from Civfanatics)

Hagbart · August 29, 2002, 13:32

Jeff Yu posted this at Civfanatics:

Quote:

Ok, here's some info from the IGN preview.

Multiplayer options
-8 player support
-option to turn off barbarians or restrict them to huts
-option to double food, production, and trade
-option to respawn defeated AIs
-option to toggle culture flipping
-option to toggle culturally related starts
-option to toggle random seed

Interface Improvements
-arrows at right corner to scroll active units
-arrows at right corner to scroll cities in disorder
-stacked movement for units
-rally points for units
-automated bombardment

New City Improvements
-Civil Defense provides bombardment defense
-Stock Exchange provides tax boost and replaces Banks as Wall Street prerequisite
-Commercial Docks add trade to sea squares
-Internet counts as Research Lab on each city in continent, and provides Golden Age if civ hasn't already had it

Worker Commands
-New automation commands: trade network, colony building, automating for specific cities
-Turn a worker into an airfield in neutral land or your own land where you can land planes
-Build Outpost for increased line of site
-Build Radar Towers for increased defense

Civs
-Carthiginians: Commercial/Industrius, UU is Numidian Infantry, spearman with increased attack/defense and no special resources
-Koreans: Commercial/Scientific, UU is Hwacha, cannon with increased bombard and requires less special resources
-Mongols: Militaristic/Expansionist, UU is Keshik, cheaper Knight that requires less special resources
-Vikings: Militaristic/Expansionist, UU is Berserker, Longbowman with increased attack, defense, AND amphibious attack
-Spanish: Religious/Commercial, UU is Conquistador, weak, cheap, requires almost no special resources, treat all terrain as roads, and doesn't replace anything
-Celts: Religious/Militaristic, UU is Gallic Swordsman, swordsman with faster movement
-Arabs: Expansionist/Religious, UU is Ansar Warrior, replaces Knights, and are faster and cheaper
-Turks: Industrial/Scientific, UU is Siphai, a better attacking Cavalry

Generic Units
-Medieval Swordsman, comes with Feudalism, requires Iron to build
-Guerilla, cheaper infantry that don't require special resources

New Victory Conditions
-Elimination: Civ loses if it loses ANY city
-Regicide: Civ loses when its king is killed
-Capture the Flag: Point-based victory, capturing and holding a zone adds points to score each turn
-Capture the Princess: Princess starts in capitol and can't move, attack, or defend, enemies must capture, and move back to own palace for points, once they do, new princess respawns in palace, if enemy has no palace left, respawns in new city, and player gets big bonus

Multiplayer modes
-Regular: Players set production while other players take turns
-Simultaneous: All players play at the same time, and resolves them all at once
-Turnless: The game runs on a clock. The game takes place at intervals, and upkeep, production, unit moves, citizen happiness, etc updates every interval, with teh intervals being longer as teh game progresses
-Turn-based: traditional turn-based mode, hotseat option, and play-by-email
-The play by email option has no file manager and no mail client access. You have to load, play your turn, exit, and send the file. When you get it, you have to find the folder, move it to Civ 3, and turn on the game again.

Improvements
-Diplomatic and Espionage options are on a single screen now, with list of missions, opponents, and their cities
-You can no longer force an opponent to make you an offer during diplomacy
-You can talk through the chat browser, or Microsoft Directvoice

Hagbart · August 29, 2002, 13:33

Many good news, I'll buy PTW!

Adagio · August 29, 2002, 14:05

Quote:

You can no longer force an opponent to make you an offer during diplomacy

I hope this is only to MP games...

CivGeneral · August 29, 2002, 16:15

Quote:

Originaly posted by Hagbart
Many good news, I'll buy PTW!

News so good, Even I cant wait fo the releace

Gangerolf · August 29, 2002, 17:09

ixnay · August 29, 2002, 18:36

Very nice. I'm glad I've got my copy preordered.

dnassman · August 29, 2002, 20:51

Are new victory conditions only for Multiplayer or are available for single player as well.

asleepathewheel · August 29, 2002, 22:59

This is awesome, can't wait.

I think the Celts or Arabs will become my civ of choice.

The Gallic Swordsman sounds very dominating. Better than the MW's-one less tech to research and one more defense point. great. Granted, iron is more finicky than horses, but still, wow.

everything sounds great to me

Switch · August 29, 2002, 23:13

Indeed!

To quote from someone's sig,
"switch want pack. Switch Want Pack. SWITCH WANT PACK!"

Thank goodness I just recently got a job [phew]

sprucemoose3311 · August 30, 2002, 00:15

waaaaaaaaaaaaa

no govt types????

good bye fascism, theocracy, fundamentalism, and coporate republic

Lord Merciless · August 30, 2002, 01:22

Mostly good news. But I have several concerns:
- The Viking Berserker is too powerful: Longbowmen with improved attack and defense, plus amphibious capability!

- Turks being scientific/industrious: I'm not aware of any major scientific breakthroughs and constructions by them. Even militaristic/expansionist fit them better.

- The choice of Turkish UU is also strange. It was fairly well known that the Ottoman elite unit were the Janissaries. Maybe the Turks in Civ3 also include Seldshuks? Or maybe Firaxis just didn't want to follow Emsemble Studios?

The_Aussie_Lurker · August 30, 2002, 02:13

Lots of good news here !!!

Unfortunately, not a single thing about new Editor features, especially those parts needed for Scenarios (like event scripting and setting diplomatic stance!)
Oh well, hopefully the guys from Firaxis will let us know those kinds of details during September!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

Nubclear · August 30, 2002, 02:14

Hmm....Many of the issues I wanted resolved dont look like they'll be resolved.

Hopefully, more fixes and stuff will be added when its actually released (Which is highly unlikely, however possible yet still).

dnassman · August 30, 2002, 02:58

Also think the Turks and Arabs have been mixed up a bit in Civ spec abilities. Turks should be Expan/Milit while Arabs Sci/Rel.

Robert Plomp · August 30, 2002, 03:11

The way they did the turnless mode sounds really innovative! I'm not sure if I'll use it much though. I think I'll stick to the old fashioned turn-by-turn week-by-week mode

alva · August 30, 2002, 07:27

Quote:

-The play by email option has no file manager and no mail client access. You have to load, play your turn, exit, and send the file. When you get it, you have to find the folder, move it to Civ 3, and turn on the game again.

This doesn't sound too promising either, pfff.
Shouldn't it be easier than this???

Andrew_Jay · August 30, 2002, 11:16

That's a lot of great info.
Hopefully there will also be a whole bunch of new stuff in the editor as well.
I also find the new units to be pretty messed up. I mentioned this earlier, but will again here. These 8 new UU completely throw away the old norms for the first 16. Only the Turk, Celt and Korean UU seem normal. Now we have extra Attack and Defense in the same unit, completely new units, and units with different costs. And some do seem pretty strong, like the Beserker: 5/2/1 and Amphibious? That's one swordsman we won't want to go away even in the industrial age

And the Numidian infantry (which is kind of funny, because that's a unit I gave the Carthaginians in my Rise of Rome scenario through the "Numidian" resource I stuck under one of their cities), isn't that more or less a swordsman? 3/2/1?

Also, it does seem to me that the expansionst and scientific traits of the Turks and Arabs got mixed up. However, I guess they didn't just want to make the Arabs identical to their geographical ancestors, the Babylonians. Kind fo boring, exact same region, and exact same traits.

Also, is giving up a worker for an airfield worth it, or was everybody hoping it was just a job they'd do? Though I guess it does provide a good limit to building LOTS of airfields.

player1 · August 30, 2002, 13:19

Maybe some of those "uber-powerfull" UUs would also have cost risen a little.

For example 2/3/1 Numidian infantry could cost 30shield comparing it to Hoplite.

Also, maye galic sworsmen have cost of 40 since it's much more powerfull then iroques UU,

P.S.
Anyway, values are still tweaked by Firaxis.

Darkworld Ark · August 30, 2002, 15:52

Berserkers seem strange, why are they based of of Longbowmen? They don't have bows, they have giant axes!

player1 · August 30, 2002, 16:29

Samurai were not Mounted units, but they replace Knight.

Similar thing with Bezerk.

Darkworld Ark · August 30, 2002, 18:05

Quote:

Originally posted by player1
Samurai were not Mounted units, but they replace Knight.

Similar thing with Bezerk.

Samurai were the Japanese versions of Knights, & on occation were mounted, Berzerkers on the other hand are not the Viking version of Longbowmen, & didn't come around with "Invention"

player1 · August 30, 2002, 18:15

There is something from Gamespot prew. too:

Quote:

The new civilizations are the Arabs, Carthaginians, Celts, Koreans, Mongols, Ottomans, Spanish, and Vikings. The Arabs are expansionist and religious, and their unique unit is the ansar warrior, a replacement for the knight with less defensive strength, lower cost, and faster movement. The Carthaginians are commercial and industrious and have the numidian mercenary unit, which is a spearman replacement. It has better offense but is more expensive. The Celts are militaristic and religious, and their unique unit, their faster gallic swordsman, replaces the regular swordsman. Koreans are commercial and scientific, and their hwach'a is more powerful and less costly than the regular cannon it replaces. The Mongols are expansionist and militaristic, and they replace the knight with the much cheaper but less defensive keshik. The Ottoman tribe, meanwhile, is industrious and scientific and offers the sipahi unit, which replaces cavalry. The Spanish are commercial and religious. The conquistador is their unique unit, and it adds to the Spanish arsenal rather than replacing any unit. Conquistadors are cheaper than cavalry and less powerful, and they treat all terrain as roads. Finally, the Vikings are militaristic and expansionist. Their unique unit is the berserk, which replaces the longbowman. They are much stronger offensively and defensively than longbowmen, and they can also make amphibious attacks.

Andrew_Jay · August 30, 2002, 22:42

I didn't notice that at all Darkworld Ark, bringing along Beserkers with Invention makes very, very little sense.

WarpStorm · August 31, 2002, 08:40

Logical sense, no. Timeframe sense, kinda. It points them at a time when they would be effective, but way too effective. They will probably be a favorite UU. Amphibious early will be killer. Nobody builds navies early, so I'll be able to capture coastal cities with no counter attack.