Civilization III update

Firaxis Games has released some new information about its upcoming turn-based strategy game, Civilization III. The game is the next installment in the successful Civilization empire-building game series, in which players assume control of an infant nation and guide it through technological advancements, conflicts and trading with other nations, and social reform. The next game in the series will feature a number of improvements on the previous games. The new details released today deal specifically with the diplomacy system featured in the game.

The diplomacy system is used to make agreements with leaders of other nations. Firaxis is enhancing the system found in the previous games to make it more flexible, but wants to keep the easy-to-use conversational interface. The team decided to use two systems--a basic conversational diplomacy interface, as well as a more advanced "bargaining table" interface. The more advanced system lets players negotiate detailed agreements by trading almost anything, including gold, resources, technologies, cities, units, and more.

In addition, a variety of new agreement possibilities have been added. The game will include mutual protection agreements, right of passage agreements, and trade embargoes in addition to the standard peace treaties.

Firaxis also released new 3D renderings of some of the leaders that will be featured in the game. For more information about Civilization III, take a look at our previous coverage of the game and visit the official Civilization III Web site. No official release date for the game has been announced.