Here is where you submit YOUR ONE FIX for the Essential Civ 3 list. Guidelines for Fixes are self-explanatory. What's the ONE THING in Civ 2 (or SMAC?) that needs to be repaired or detonated altogether in Civ 3?

The Essential Civ3 Fix list will take submissions until 11:59 EST Wednesday March 1st 2000.

Your nomination will be numbered and given its own discussion thread. Current nominations are:

In CivII Democracy declaring war was very difficult and in SMAC way to easy.

For peace you must have more influence than in CivII. (Com on enemy sneak attack + meat my goernment an peace. Next turn all again.)

Though I'll also second the evolving nations and the more diplomacy options suggestions.

------------------
Anarchist Supreme of the Glorious PROT! :)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Audentior Independant Nation.

That would be for each civilization to have its own folder. Each folder would have the graphics files (i.e. leaders.gif, units.gif/sprites, cities.gif, people.gif, icons.gif, flags.gif, cityimprov.gif, etc.) and game files (like events.txt and rules.txt for advances, units, city improvements, wonders, city names, leader names, govt names and types, etc.)

that way each civilization would have it own culturally specific graphics and game parameters, and events, etc. Then everyone's riflemen could have special uniforms, planes each look different, samurais instead of knights, cities look different at all stages of advancement and their improvements look different, and you can special tech trees and events.

With a patch you could probably almost do it to Civ2 like how scenario folders are done, just make civ specific subfolders. This would make scenarios more fun and increase the number of units (and etc) 7 times (I do hope civ3 lets you up to more civs than 7, like 30).

My severest criticism of CivII is that the game is too easily won. (And I NEVER ever cheat, not in any way!) After about 1500AD when half of the turns haven't passed yet, its clear who is going to win.
I'm not interested in colonizing Alpha Centauri, and neither does world domination appeal to me. Let just plain SURVIVAL of your culture- not necessarily identical to political power- be the ultimate goal! It would be nice if at the end of the game the earth is still a habitable place.

Most readers will realize that some well-known problems are the cause of the easy wins: the Infinite City Sleaze and the Eternal China Syndrom, both related to the 21-square city structure and the fact that 'heads' are counted instead of people. I think all those problems are the result of one essential flaw in the basic structure of the game.

Above all, Civ is the very best game because it is so immersive. Immersion comes from the addictive story line, the ability to see something worthwhile come from your troubles, and a medium that is appealing to the senses.

But graphics - even wonderful, rich, soul-wrenching graphics can only do part of the job. Probably the best example is Myst and Riven. Both games were primarily visual, and yet the designers felt the experience would be lacking without a soundtrack. For mnay, the music was so good that Cyan even sold the soundtrack on CD!

Here are some other reasons:
- Music is an excellent way to suggest theme. Think of movies like Crimson Tide, the Hunt for Red October, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. Consider how razing the Death Star would feel if there was no music in the background.
- Music can help a Civ player experience that civ's culture, by listening to special tracks "written" by admiring citizens or during a parade in his/her honour.
- A frantic score can emphasize the feeling that you're behind on the powergraph. If another player is fast approaching, the music can foreshadow the struggle to come.

Many themes are age-specific. For example:
- In the beginning, life is lonely .. haunting, dark .. ominous. Players are fighting for knowledge of techs and landscape. There is a lot of music that generates this sort of mood. Eg. celtic (Enya's song "Hymn" comes to mind, or Enya's sister, Marie Brennan's "Gra De")
- During the renaisance, there is are more cavalier themes, including a whole new way to look at exploitation: Imperialism.
- After Imperialism came great conflicts and war on a global scale. As I suggested, works like Gustav Holst's "Mars" is a fitting score.

But there can be problems. BAD music is worse than no music at all! Music is bad when:
- it is overly repititous, or it overstates a theme.
- it is played at the wrong time. Once in CTP I was pummeling the last Viking city after a Blitzkreig-style war. Then came the bzzzt! Hoy Ya! Bong bong Tribal Drum song... That sure killed the mood...

- it is too removed from what the average gamer can stomach. Eg. The William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger Theme Song) would be silly.

quote: Make the graphics move fast. No slowdowns, none, no matter how many units or cities or whatever graphics items are on screen. FAST, get it? Thanks.

And to elaborate a bit...

quote: What are the strengths... Well, SMAC is an example how horribly sluggish graphics and interface can ruin an otherwise excellent game. I'd really want to like SMAC but whenever I start a new game, soon after the first few dozen turns it starts to feel more and more like a burden instead of fun. Every damn unit seems to take seconds to move! I don't understand how some people can play SMAC on huge maps with zillion cities and units, for me small maps are the largest tolerable. Consequently, I regard SMAC only a barely good game instead of brilliant. I'm glad to hear that the first thing Firaxis did when they started designing CIV3 was to throw out SMAC's graphics engine. My proposal is there to remind them that they should pay special attention to make the new graphics/interface really FAST and snappy, and in no case repeat SMAC's failure or be satisfied with mediocre solutions. I don't mean that overall game time should be extremely short or game elements like AI should be compromised. It'll be all fine with me if a game of CIV3 will take several evenings. I just want the graphics/interface to do its' job fast and smoothly so I can fully enjoy the game itself.

The title for the thread should be:
Fix # ______. An Age-Relevant, Immersive Soundtrack.

by Crustacian

quote: I would like to see an option where you could play a "equal start" game where players could choose a game with little or no luck involved at the start. Something to eliminate the need to restart untill host gets no freebee techs... Something to where all players can get an equal start if they want to... Something so that no player is right next to each other if they want... Something to allow a player to get back in a game if they are booted, yet keep an AI from taking over his Civ if he quits and just eliminate his civ if he quits... Maybe some way to keep the Ai from messing with your civ if you get booted. Can there be an option for any of this kind of thing? Hope so...