We had a chance to take a look at the upcoming expansion for Civilization III that's currently in development at Firaxis, which took a three-pronged approach in designing the expansion. The first was to integrate a multiplayer aspect, but to do it in such a way as to not make it seem like it was simply tacked onto the original game. So the developers looked at some older games within the Firaxis library and looked at what worked best. The second approach was to improve the single-player game by adding new civilizations that fans have been requesting, to address some of the micromanagement problems in the original game, and to give a little more flexibility to the gameplay. Lastly, there's the editor support. Since the last Civilization III editor release, fans have been creating numerous scenarios, and not only does Firaxis plan to integrate some of the more popular mods into Play the World, but it also hopes that the editor included with the game will spawn even more support.

The biggest problem with putting an online multiplayer feature into a turn-based strategy game is that other players must wait while a player is completing his or her turn. To help rectify this, Civilization III: Play the World enables you to complete other tasks while waiting for a player to complete his or her turn, so you can engage in diplomacy and take care of some general civic duties. In addition, turn clocks will be used to time your actions for different parts of the game, so the game has a real-time feel to it, but it's still very much turn-based.

Another problem with multiplayer turn-based games is length--a typical turn-based strategy match can last well over a few sessions. To give some alternatives, Firaxis has added new mechanisms for winning a multiplayer match. There's a new mode called regicide, where the only objective is to kill an opposing player's king, so you don't have to worry about wiping out an entire civilization. There's another mode where the civilization with the first city to fall will lose the game. But perhaps the most drastic addition is that of victory points. Whenever you perform a certain type of action in the game, such as controlling a certain part of the map for a particular time period or some other similar action, you'll be allotted victory points. If you set the multiplayer match to a one-hour time limit, then the player with the most victory points at the end of that period is declared the winner. As for those who play by e-mail, a new administrative feature has been added so that players who don't respond after a certain amount of time can have their civilization controlled by the computer, or a different player can take it over entirely.

Firaxis is also stressing how the different ages will factor into these modes. For example, playing regicide in one of the later ages won't be quite as complex, since players can just constantly bombard a city with ICBMs. But in some of the earlier ages, it takes a significantly longer time.

In the single-player campaign, eight new civilizations have been added, including the Mongols, the Spanish, the Koreans, the Ottomans, and the Celts. There are also some new wonders, as well as new civic buildings, like the stock market. Of course, new civilization-specific units have been added, but some general changes have also been made. The swordsman can now transform into the guerrilla fighter, which was done to correct the problem of having swordsmen running around on the map during the late 1800s. You can also stack units so that they all move at the same speed and in the same direction, which is helpful for escorting weaker units, like settlers. An auto-bombard feature has also been added, allowing you to attack the same square during every turn. Radar towers can now be built to give your units offensive as well as defensive bonuses when they're located within a particular radius, and there are even some new landscape features, such as airports. Lastly, you can now cycle through specific types of units and cities. For example, if you only want to see cities that have civil disorder, then you can set the game so that you'll cycle through only those cities. Similar customizations can be applied to units as well.

A few small changes have been made to the visual aspect of Civilization III. There are new animations that indicate when you've missed a target--these are especially apparent in naval battles, which show ammunition splashing into the water as opposed to hitting its target. A new winter tile is also a part of the expansion, but it doesn't have any sort of drastic effect on the gameplay.

The editor will be a big part of the Civilization III: Play the World package. Firaxis already has a few new units built specifically for the editor, including World War II units and a few cool-looking dinosaur units. It will also include an easy-to-use importing feature for mods that will give you general information on each mod and whether or not the creator has made any changes to the traditional set of rules.

Civilization III: Play the World is scheduled for release in late October.