This "War Stories" video explores how <em>Civilization</em> almost wasn't a turn-based game.
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Video: Ars talks Civilization with the man himself: Sid Meier
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Ahh, I believe I can ruin your day by taking away all your free time. What you are looking for my friend is FreeCiv. http://freeciv.org/
It's an open source Civ style game with many different graphic packs to satisfy your nostalgia or provide something more modern, and rulesets to play Civ 1 or Civ 2 style games.
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Oh wow. I haven't played Fall From Heaven since Civ 5 came out. Nice to know it's still going!jackal1234 said:
It's really tough for me to go back to Civ 4 and the stacks of doom though. I find the latest Civ much more fulfilling tactically when you really have to worry about terrain affecting your conquest and the global warming, flooding and storms in the latest expansion are that much more interesting.
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Civilisation has an incredibly cool concept.
A few years back, I tried to play the first one but you know how the old-school rogue games had everything represented by ASCII characters and you had to have a visual key at all times lest you tread on something you shouldn't and immediately die? That's how inscrutable the icons are in the first game to me.
While I've whiled away many an hour trying to play Civ games, I am never any good at them. I believe I get killed by barbarians approximately 100% of the time, which is the main reason no one's ever voted me in as king anywhere IRL.
I am startled to discover that 4X does not mean "FOREign eXchange," which is what I'd thought lo these many years. It's amazing what one learns from reading the words under the headlines.
A few years back, I tried to play the first one but you know how the old-school rogue games had everything represented by ASCII characters and you had to have a visual key at all times lest you tread on something you shouldn't and immediately die? That's how inscrutable the icons are in the first game to me.
While I've whiled away many an hour trying to play Civ games, I am never any good at them. I believe I get killed by barbarians approximately 100% of the time, which is the main reason no one's ever voted me in as king anywhere IRL.
I am startled to discover that 4X does not mean "FOREign eXchange," which is what I'd thought lo these many years. It's amazing what one learns from reading the words under the headlines.
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I'm playing it on a 7 year old MBP (in window mode, not full screen) with no problems.
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I always find it odd that there is never talk of Francis Tresham's 1980 Civilization board game as an ancestor of the Civ series.
While Sid Meier's Civ wasn't a reimplementation or anything, it clearly had some influences from the turn based board game.
Tresham's other big creation was the 18xx series of railroad ownership and track building games first released in the U.S. in 1986.
While Sid Meier's Civ wasn't a reimplementation or anything, it clearly had some influences from the turn based board game.
Tresham's other big creation was the 18xx series of railroad ownership and track building games first released in the U.S. in 1986.
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I guess I am not the biggest Civ Fan. I think I only played Civ 1 on the Amiga.
But I love Alpha Centuri. It's still fun.
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"I ain't your scout, and we sure ain't no damn militia!"
Playing Civ 2 with friends in high school was always a treat (not multiplayer, just playing a game together - and James insisted on doing fuck-all with "his" precious militia).
Playing Civ 2 with friends in high school was always a treat (not multiplayer, just playing a game together - and James insisted on doing fuck-all with "his" precious militia).
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I believe he still maintains the fiction that any similarities are entirely coincidental.
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Civ 1 had far too many bugs that basically made it a highest point based game. Civ 2 was nicer, but slowed down gameplay, even when you turned off all optional animations. Civ III in my mind was a better Civ2 and Civ 4 was a refined 3 with some additions IIRC.
Just recently played Beyond Earth. If it wasn't for me already liking the genre, this game is so SLOW it might just have turned me off completely. Either way in a single game I finished all 5 win scenarios by saving around turn 280.
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Great as Civilization was, Sid's Alpha Centauri was better by far. I still play it every other month or so.
But where, oh where, is the reboot? Don't tell me it was Civilization: Beyond because it most emphatically was NOT!
Don't even need to change the game, just upgrade the graphics and perhaps the interface a bit. Make any other changes optional at the acceptance of the player.
But where, oh where, is the reboot? Don't tell me it was Civilization: Beyond because it most emphatically was NOT!
Don't even need to change the game, just upgrade the graphics and perhaps the interface a bit. Make any other changes optional at the acceptance of the player.
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Can't admit to a firsthand relationship with Civ, but I did waste SO much time with RR Tycoon that it hardly matters. Still do. The 2KGames release is OK on a fast computer, but the original running under DOSBox works better. Yes, if you didn't make your a backup many years ago, you'll have to find a working 5 1/4" (or, if you're lucky with when you got it, 3 1/2") floppy...
2K Games seems to have a lot of Sid Meier stuff.
2K Games seems to have a lot of Sid Meier stuff.
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My Civ1 was the CD release for DOS. I still have copies of it (and the original CD; somewhere) on various devices and have played it regularly for the past ~20 years or so (I'm currently in the middle of a play-through). I love Civ2 as well, adding a bit where 1 was lacking and changing some of the mechanics to make it just different enough. I also own 3-6, but haven't really played them that regularly.
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I have dumped so many hours into Sid Meier's games over the years. Thanks Lee & Co for bringing us a few moments with an industry icon.
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"Forex" does indeed mean what you thought it does, but it's primarily used in financial circles. Context is king!
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It’s in copyright hell.
It was published by EA, who retains the rights, but lacks the studio (or interest) to make a new one. Firaxis (now owned by 2K) has the skills, but no rights, and no Brian Reynolds who wrote all the lore. Reynolds himself apparently doesn’t like the game that much (which absolutely broke my heart to hear) and isn’t interested in 4Xes anyway anymore. He did leave the window open to making some other game in the same universe that wasn’t a 4X, but he didn’t seem particularly interested in that either.
Firaxis did the only thing they could - Beyond Earth. For all that it was nowhere near the original, the expansion made it a quite enjoyable game. Worth another try if you haven’t played it since that came out. It isn’t SMAC, however.
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I don't remember if I ever came across that particular one in my playthroughs, but Civ 1 was the first game I ever found my own cheese strat for which did result in a different integer bug.
Diplomats had no support cost, so you could crank them out endlessly. Then I would just surround enemy cities with my army of Abe Lincoln impersonators, and when they'd starved down to 1 or 2 pop, send one in to incite a rebellion and convert them to my side. Then I use the Great Wall/U.N. wonder to force them to accept a peace offer. Every once in a while the math to determine the rebellion cost would go hugely negative, so instead of having to pay them, they'd pay me like 11 thousand gold. Also got a tank unit that way once.
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The face of a man who changed my life. I never knew what TBS was until Civilization. Nor where Campeche or Santo Domingo resided on a map until he taught me. Many others worked on the teams that I've spent hundreds of hours with. I'm still a little sad I never pursued working for them.
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If I was stuck in an island with only one game, Civilization IV would be the game I pick. It's my happy place.
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I liked Railroad Tycoon quite a bit. The best part was being able to 'change history' by not running a rail line to some obvious places from real history; therefore they stayed small towns instead of becoming cities.
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I mean, I thought it meant FOREign eXchange in games, too. Buy/make things to trade with other countries. You know, like Mount & Blade.
Then you'd write it with a number four (4) and the letter X in order to make it cool and elite.
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This is strange to me, because I always assumed Civilization was a direct descendant from the old mainframe-and-terminal game, Empire. I thought it was basically Empire tarted up with graphics and ported to a home computer.
Just to be clear, I've never played those mainframe versions of Empire myself. However, before I became hooked on Civilization, I was hooked on Empire: Wargame of the Century. E:WotC was pretty similar to Civ in concept. It was Empire given some graphics and a GUI, but -- unlike Civ -- it was greatly simplified and reduced to more of a pure wargame. There was no founding of cities; you played on a map sprinkled with neutral cities that you could go out and conquer. There was no technology advancement, no money, no happiness, no buildings to improve your cities. You just captured a city and chose what military units you wanted to produce there. (It was oddly navy-oriented, with only one land unit, one air unit, and five different kinds of ships!) The map consisted of two terrain types: land and sea.
As bare-bones as Empire: WotC was, it was highly addictive. Sometimes when I'm playing Civ -- any version of Civ -- I find myself missing that, and I get tired of being mired in all the micro-management of every fiddly thing. Sometimes I just want to go out and fight a war already, and Empire: WotC was great for that.
Just to be clear, I've never played those mainframe versions of Empire myself. However, before I became hooked on Civilization, I was hooked on Empire: Wargame of the Century. E:WotC was pretty similar to Civ in concept. It was Empire given some graphics and a GUI, but -- unlike Civ -- it was greatly simplified and reduced to more of a pure wargame. There was no founding of cities; you played on a map sprinkled with neutral cities that you could go out and conquer. There was no technology advancement, no money, no happiness, no buildings to improve your cities. You just captured a city and chose what military units you wanted to produce there. (It was oddly navy-oriented, with only one land unit, one air unit, and five different kinds of ships!) The map consisted of two terrain types: land and sea.
As bare-bones as Empire: WotC was, it was highly addictive. Sometimes when I'm playing Civ -- any version of Civ -- I find myself missing that, and I get tired of being mired in all the micro-management of every fiddly thing. Sometimes I just want to go out and fight a war already, and Empire: WotC was great for that.
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The only time I showed my dance moves to the ladies was on Sid Meier's Pirates.
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I played Beyond Earth twice, and was so very disappointed. I did not, however, realize there was an expansion that improved the game. I think I will have to give it another whirl... right after I get tired of Satisfactory.
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I disagree with calling Civ III iterative. It did much more than add strategic resources and great people. Diplomatic victory, cultural victory (heck culture period), borders, national wonders (called small wonders in Civ III) all debuted with Civ III.
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The integer rollover bug here is the one that turned Gandhi into a warmonger. He was supposed to be ultra peaceful, but the rollover would cause that to wrap around into aggression.
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Oh yeah, sorry. I know about the bug. Just never actually had it happen in a game.
Or I did and because I was in like, 4th or 5th grade didn't notice.
Probably that second thing.
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It's kind of hard not to notice. You and Gandhi are friends with plenty of trade for hundreds or even thousands of years. Then out of nowhere, Gandhi nukes 4 of your cities and starts invading.
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See when I was a kid and playing Civ1, I'd be rolling tanks after building up my forces for hundreds of years on the other side of the map and all brought over to the other side in one turn via rail. There's no chance for anyone to ever nuke me because I'd absolutely go to war to stop them.
Come to think about it, I still do this.
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I have spent, by far, most time playing games that Sid Meier worked on, than by any other developer. The man is truly a treasure, and we are all better off for having him in our world.
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Yeah. I never experienced this bug because anyone (but me) building nukes led to an immediate invasion. At least until SDI defense, which I then bought in all my cities.
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I still play IV, but i was never good at it.
I also remember playing Civ 1 on the Amiga 500 where saving was impossible so a friend of mine and I took turns playing, one sleeping, other playing etc. Fun times!
I also remember playing Civ 1 on the Amiga 500 where saving was impossible so a friend of mine and I took turns playing, one sleeping, other playing etc. Fun times!
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Borders are from SMAC. Diplomatic victory is from SMAC. Culture I suppose is new, but the same loyalty mechanism existed before - all they did was make it obvious and tie a new victory condition to it. National wonders? Wow, impressive game-changing idea. No, Civ III is not particularly new. It uses the SMAC engine with dumbed-down combat and a historical skin. There is a reason that game didn't sell.
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Civ III sold more copies in its first two months than SMAC did in its first year. Also culture is a huge part of Civ from III on, and that's true no matter how good Alpha Centauri and Civ IV are.
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I too started my love affair with Civilization on an Amiga 500. I soon learned you could skip the intro by pressing space bar, I think, and as soon as the world map was generated it take you into the game.
I broke my wrist one school summer holidays and with my arm in plaster up to the elbow, spent the next few weeks mostly playing Civilization. I saw the "Playername will return!" screen quite often at the start of the holidays but quickly got better...
What I remember finding very frustrating is how the AI cheats to win. You could save your game, an enemy unit would appear from nowhere from the map you couldn't see and defeat you. Reload the game and the enemy unit that had previously defeated you was nowhere to be found.
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