Civilization III Q&A
Legendary designers Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs sit down with us to talk about this highly anticipated game.
It's been a long time coming, but Civilization III is finally completed, and the collective cheers of game strategy fans everywhere is nearly audible.
There's no question as to how this series has shaped the strategy genre--even the entire face of PC gaming--in the ten years since its release, and to this day, the original Civilization games are being played on a regular basis.
Firaxis president and CEO Jeff Briggs and company chairman and director of creative development Sid Meier, both of whom were instrumental in the design of Civilization and Civilization II, sat down with GameSpot to give an inside look at their latest development.
GameSpot: What did Firaxis set out to accomplish with Civilization III in revisiting one of Sid Meier's best-known games?
Sid Meier: We felt that technology and game design had advanced to the point where we could give form to the vision we've had for Civilization for some time, as well as incorporate some of the great feedback we've received from Civilization players over the years. We wanted to take the game to the next level and create the ultimate Civilization experience...and we have!!
GameSpot: What game elements have seen the most change since Civilization II?
Jeff Briggs: We've made many significant improvements to existing systems in Civilization, as well as added some amazing new elements to Civilization III. The features we're most excited about are the enhanced trade system, more powerful combat, the new concept of culture, greatly expanded diplomacy, a unique and innovative world map generator and the beautifully detailed art, animations and sound.
With all of the new and updated systems we've put in Civilization III, veteran players will find a very familiar, yet completely new game experience. All of the systems are intertwined so that players will need to come up with new strategies from those they used in Civilization and Civilization II, in order to accommodate these new game play elements.
GameSpot: In what ways are the technologies, units, and wonders different?
Jeff Briggs: One of the most noticeable differences between Civilization III and its predecessors lies in the Technology tree. First of all, a fully interactive tech tree can now be found in the game. The tech advances have been re-structured, with new technologies (free artistry, ecology, integrated defence, etc.) added, the requirements for research for many advances altered, and in some cases the benefits dramatically changed. The "age" that a civilization has reached is now closely tied to the tech tree, with certain advances required before that civilization can move into the next age; so, portions of the tech tree will be closed until the player can reach the appropriate age.
Since Civilization III is a tightly integrated design, this revamping of the tech advances brought some significant changes for the wonders. There are now two types of wonders: great and small. Great wonders are those that can be built only once; once one civilization has built it, no other can construct that wonder. Many of these great wonders will be familiar, however, some have been removed (such as Marco Polo), others added, and many have somewhat different effects. The Small Wonders like the heroic epic, Wall Street, Pentagon and Apollo Program, can be built by each civilization and are available only when specific non-Technology requirements are met (battlefield medicine, for instance, requires that a civilization have five hospitals built before it can be constructed). While each of the Wonders is an advantage, players should be highly selective as to which of these they commit resources, since each one represents a considerable production investment.
Some radical improvements have been made to the units. At the very start of a game of Civilization III, players will notice that there are now workers and settlers, separating the functions of settlers in the previous games. Now, settlers settle and workers work. The values of most of the combat units beyond the basic Warriors, Spearmen and Swordsmen have been altered. And now there are the special units ... "special" in the fact that each of these (such as the Greek Hoplites, Japanese samurai, English men-o-war, and German Panzers) is unique to a specific civilization. In effect, these special units are upgraded equivalents of combat units that other nations can build.
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- Atari
- Firaxis Games
- Historic Turn-Based...
- Release: Oct 30, 2001 »
- ESRB: Everyone
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