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PC Games (Games)

More Details On Civ IV Moddability 59

Posted by Zonk from the build-your-world dept.
dfrankow writes "Gamespy has a preview of the upcoming Civilization IV title, where they go into more details about the moddability of the game. From the article: 'Civilization IV promises to be the most moddable game in the franchise yet. It'll ship with an in-game worldbuilder that allows you to shift units around and redraw the map, similar to a scenario editor. More hardcore modders can jump into XML files and tweak all of the unit stats and variables in the game. Beyond that, users who know the Python scripting language can actually go in and set up scripts and triggers to make game events happen or alter the way the game plays, while a Game A.I. SDK that'll be available shortly after the game ships will allow players to completely change the way the A.I., combat system, or game rules work.'"
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More Details On Civ IV Moddability More

More Details On Civ IV Moddability

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  • And then every battle will be a little FPS shooter with whatever the applicable weapons should be.

    *That* would be a kickass mod.
    • Sounds almost like Archon.

  • Sweet! For Firaxis, that is (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @03:59PM (#12915594)
    This means that Firaxis won't have to put a lot of work into pesky issues like game balance, scenario creation, and AI behavior, because the hordes of mod fans out there will fix all those problems for them.

    You know, kinda like this. [twcenter.net]
    • From this day on, Spearman shall always prevail when faced with the terrible might that is...the tank!

      Perhaps soon we shall have the legendary battles of "Warrior vs. Tank" or "Worker vs. Mechanized Infantry?"
    • Cough. Hardly. Civ has been moddable to a varying degree for almost 15 years, and the core modules have never been replaced by amateurs. (Amateurs have provided replacements, but the Microprose/Atari/Firaxis/whoever core game has always remained the core dominant.)

      Firaxis in their various forms have always taken the balance of their core games very seriously.
  • And I, for one, am glad this will not be available for Linux.

    I've lost too many hours to CivCTP as it is, and I don't need another addiction.

    So you Windows people can keep your games, and we will keep our productivity.

    After all, all Windows is good for is games, right?

  • They have obviously learned from the experiences of games like Stronghold and Stronghold 2 that it is necessary to include such moddability. Indeed, the inclusion of the map and scenario editors will allow for online modding communities to form and flourish. This in turn will lead to increased sales of the game, and increased profits.

  • Smartening up but dumbing down (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Haeleth ( 414428 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @05:56PM (#12916233) Journal
    So they're introducing loads of new concepts, like religion and famous people. That's good. More depth is only going to be a good thing. (Maybe they could introduce "fundamentalist" units, which you can infiltrate into opposing civilisations in order to slow their science rates...)

    But at the same time, they're dumbing other aspects down to the degree that units only have one combat stat, instead of separate attack and defence ratings?!

    I'm really not sure I like that. Half the strategy of the early game comes from trying to keep a balance between fast-moving, hard-hitting units like chariots, and the slow but tough units like phalanxes that you need to hold onto the cities you capture with them. What's going to be the point of a phalanx in a game where a chariot has the same defensive ability and (presumably) moves twice as fast?

    I really don't see the rationale behind this particular change. Did anyone really find the two-stat system to be hopelessly complicated?

    • Re:Smartening up but dumbing down (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mnmn ( 145599 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @07:07PM (#12916636) Homepage
      Yeah thats game theory. Something that causes the player to decide between two different paths each of which apparently has equal chances of success. Thats what makes chess so complex.

      I'd like the decision to use a unit to be difficult... cost vs attack and defence stats vs speed vs speed of manufacturing etc. The samurai in civ III if youre janapese, were too strong compared to other units, so you just make hundereds of samurai and youve won the game.

      Real life is more complex and you have to balance many other variables. The most successful armies have a large diversity of units to succeed, and that should be reflected in civ.

      Theres another thing that I've been wanting in the civ series for a while. You can make 'armies' in civiii but thats limited. You should be able to group units like in tiberian sun, make military units, and movement formations like in kohan, and do much more with a group of units than just select each and give them a destination.

      Alexander's army was successful because of their direct attacks into enemy units with a blitz. But Genghis was successful because he would attack, and withdraw, pulling enemy units out of their formation and stretching and confusing them. All these should be doable.

      Another thing I would suggest in civ is the diplomatic alliance. The alliances should allow cold-war type superpowers to indirectly control other civilizations and get them to fight each other. And to implement embargoes against other civs to kill their economies and science.

      Maybe someone can do all this with some fancy python scripting. Why didnt they use perl anyway?
      • Besides being a tactical genius and know when and where to attack, Alex had a number of basics working for him:

        1) Combined arms. He had very tough infantry that he could rely on to be an anvil, and very tough cavalry that worked well as a hammer.

        2) Strategic intelligence. Alexander brought scholars with him and looked for all information that would help him know his enemy. Geography, whether, customs, whatever.

        The latter is obviously outside the scope of this, but combined arms won't work in civ unles
      • Yeah thats game theory.

        No. Game theory is the branch of economics devoted to agent behavior and best-course actions (minmax trees, ply trees, risk minimization, saddlepoint grids, quanta, that sort of stuff.) This is game design and game balance.

        The samurai in civ III if youre janapese, were too strong compared to other units, so you just make hundereds of samurai and youve won the game.

        You need more skillful opponents. The samurai is too expensive to overweight the game. If you're able to flood t
        • Game theory is the branch of economics devoted to agent behavior and best-course actions (minmax trees, ply trees, risk minimization, saddlepoint grids, quanta, that sort of stuff.)

          Game theory may be more accurately described as a branch of mathematics [wolfram.com], which has applications in many areas, including economics... and military theory.

    • So they're introducing loads of new concepts, like religion and famous people.

      Actually, these are being incorporated from Call to Power and Master of Magic, both of which were Microprose/Hasbro games (ie, they were one of the early Sid split off teams.) It can be argued that Sid is simply taking these mechanics back.

      (Maybe they could introduce "fundamentalist" units, which you can infiltrate into opposing civilisations in order to slow their science rates...)

      In Civ:CTP and Civ:CTP2, there are units
    • Looking at this [ign.com], they go at it a different way.

      Units will have strengths and weaknesses against other types of units. For instance, pikemen will have a decided advantage over mounted units and axemen will be especially good against melee units.

      [...] the promotions will add this type of customization in a much more fluid manner since the units are upgraded "on the fly" (i.e. with each new promotion) and you don't have to have researched a certain tech to gain access to them all. Some of the promotions incl

  • I made over a dozen scenarios for Civ2 [darthveda.com] and not a single one for Civ3. Needless to say when Civ3 shipped I was very disappointed with the lack of both solid mod support and multiplayer.

    Good to see they're shipping with much more solid support.

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