The most glaring civ omission from Civ II was the ARABS. I do hope Firaxis corrects this in Civ III.

I am distressed that:

1) I have heard that Firaxis will only include 16 civs in Civ III -- even less than the 21 included in Civ II, and

2) The CELTS and ARABS are not yet known to be among them.

So, my question is about custom Civs. Will customizable civs in Civ III be:

a) possible?

b) easy to do?

c) savable?

and d) multi-playable?

Also, however many civs there are in the end (both in game and custom), can any combination of civs be chosen for a game, are will they be rigidly and stupidly grouped by color as in Civ II? (Example: In Civ II, you could never play a game with both the Celts and the Russians, as they were both arbitrarily defined as WHITE!). Hopefully Civ III will be designed so that we can pick any civ and assign it to any or the available colors up to the maximum number per game. Please tell me this is so.

I agree, the Arabs have done much more for the world than the Celts.

can any combination of civs be chosen for a game, are will they be rigidly and stupidly grouped by color as in Civ II?

Probably custom selection is Firaxis' approach.

1)Russians
2)Romans
3)Greeks
4)Mongols
5)Chinese
6)Zulus
7)English/name change to Americans if revolt
8)Germans
9)French
10)Spanish
11)Egyptian
12)Babylonian
13)Indian
14)Aztec
15)Arabs
16)Japanese

Additionally, on the Earth map, the America's should be packed with Barbarian cities (we know for a fact that Barbarians will have cities), Australia should be packed with Barbarian cities, and Africa between Egypt and Zulu's should be packed with Barbarian cities.
The worst thing about CTP was the ridiculous civs - eg. Ethiopians, Polynesians...

Let's see, what is the minimum number of in-game Civ's that would encompass all the major ancient/medieval/modern ethno-cultural/imperial blocks?

Ancient/Medieval:

1) Egyptian
2) Babylonian
3) Persian
4) Roman
5) Aztec
6) Incan

Ancient/Medieval/Modern:

7) Greek
8) Celtic
9) Israeli
10) German
11) Indian
12) Chinese

Medieval:

13) Mongol

Medieval/Modern:

14) Vikings
15) Arab
16) Turk
17) English
18) Dutch
19) French
20) Spanish
21) Portuguese
22) Russian
23) Austro-Hungarians
24) Italians
25) Zulus
26) Polynesians

Modern:

27) Iroquois
28) Americans
29) Yankees
30) Confederates

There! In a mere 30 civs, you would have every imperial/ethno/cultural conflict possible built in and available to choose from. Firaxis should strive to include them all!

quote: Originally posted by Henrik on 05-19-2001 03:34 AM thus every significant conflict isnt going to be possible

The key then will be customizable civs which can be ADDED to the built in Civs and be fully integratable with them. This means that they must be:

a) savable

b) choosable,

c) and multiplayable.

Has Firaxis said yet whether this will be the case?

quote: Originally posted by Arator on 05-19-2001 01:12 AM 1) I have heard that Firaxis will only include 16 civs in Civ III -- even less than the 21 included in Civ II, and

My friend Arator,

Read the thread civs included. Just the facts madam to see about the maximum number of civs. The bottom line is Firaxis said they made NO official announcement on the matter of the number of civs. Everything is open. (although as Serapis has said each civs will take a large amount of effort (uniques, leaders, balance etc) so it cannnot be too many)

Because the Latin for Celts is Celtoi which basically means "barbarian". In other words, Celts to the Romans were "everyone else", those who didn't have a central government anyway. Many bands & tribes fell under the title Celt.