Civilization 3 Preview

When it first appeared in 1991, the game was an absolute hit on the strategy market and sold millions of copies. In 1996, its sequel only confirmed Meier's genius and made him one of the greatest names in gaming industry. Civilization is a turn-based strategy game in which you play the role of an immortal ruler which guides his people from the stone-age to modern times. This sequel will bring many changes in the gameplay which is now more focused on conquest than on starting a space program like previous sequels. The game will feature altogether sixteen nations: The Americans, The Aztecs, The Chinese, The Egyptians, The English, The French, The Germans, The Greeks, The Indians, The Iroquois, The Japanese, The Persians, The Romans, The Russians, The Zulus, and The Babylonians; each of them with unique design and strategy.

Cosmopolis looks like a nice place to live in.

Just a few more turns...

In the first part of civilization, diplomacy used to be very simple: you only had the option to declare war, sign a peace treaty or alliance, or pay off invaders. It was much the same in Civilization II, apart from the option to form an alliance with one computer player against another.

The third sequel introduces a whole lot of novelties here. According to the rumors, the AI is supposedly comparable to human players. Firaxis tried to bring us real-life diplomatic discussions, and in that sense introduced numerous new options: joint conquests, trade contracts, yearly taxes, truces, ally protection contracts, exchange of goods, and a number of other similar options.

In this sequel, the resource system gets to play a completely new role. Instead of the old food, gold, and forest fields, we are in for a far more complex element of the game. The resources are crucial for unit production; if you, for instance, have no steel, you won't be able to manufacture tanks, if you lack horses, you will have to make do without the cavalry, if you do not have bronze in store, you won't have any phalanxes, and if you by any chance have no uranium in store, say goodbye to nuclear weapons. There are other advanced resources, which increase population happiness and morale (luxuries). Apart from this, you will have to secure a constant influx of resources if you want to stay in power. Some resources will only be available to other nations, and you will either have to be very good at diplomacy, or war to acquire them. As peaceful politics pay better in the long run, international trade will closely be associated with diplomacy. You have practically no chance of having all the necessary res ources, and that implies that you start trading with all the friendly nations that possess the resources you require as soon as possible. Gathering resources available only on distant locations (several squares from the city) will be quite a challenge, as it will require building a small colony. Resources will also have strategic value. In the previous Civ. games, you only had to defend your cities, and here, you will have to defend your resource sites and supply lines or your economy will suffer. This is a far more realistic solution, as wars had been waged over resources all through the history.

You will have to pay solid gold for each and every one of your units. Military units will gain experience in combat and get ranks, the highest of them being great leader. The great leader status will let a unit lead several units grouped into a strong army. This will severely influence strategic planning. Certain units will be capable of attacking several times per turn. The catapults will be able to tear down city walls, and the artillery units set on higher grounds will have a larger targeting and site-range.

Wars will strongly influence the happiness and morale of your population. If you start a war against an old ally, the population will be embittered and furious, and if a war lasts for too long, the population's morale will plummet, regardless of your goals. Each nation will have a special unit which will be incomparably stronger than any other unit of its type. For instance, the Romans will have legions, the Greek will have hoplites, the Germans will have Panzer tanks, the British will have Man-o-Wars and the Babylonians will have bowmen, etc... The special units are tied to specific historical epochs in which the nation reached its peak in history.

That's my land!

My domestic advisor looks gay!

Government types available in the game all have completely different characteristics. For instance, if you choose nationalism for ideology, you will smoothly rip your people of all their belongings, and what's more, you'll have to pay only half of the price for any unit! Communism is another nice aggressively offensive system to use (perfect for conquering neighboring territories).

Culture posed as an important gameplay element throughout the Civilization serial. It is a perquisite for development and society modernization, which is the very essence of the game. Civilization III sticks to this idea, and broadens the issue even further. In the earlier games, citizens had no cultural background, and got immediately assimilated when a city was conquered. In Civilization III each nation has its own culture. This means that even after you conquered a city, you will have to somehow change the population's culture in order to prevent potential uprisings. There will also be a possibility to easily take over an enemy city by building your outpost in its vicinity and constantly hit on the population with your propaganda. The level of your people's culture will directly depend on the number of your temples, libraries, cathedrals, coliseums, courthouses... Each structure will grant you a certain number of culture points per turn. Another novelty is the fact that building effects will be cumulatie - the older the building the more culture points it grants. Wonders of The World will also give you culture points. City development will directly depend on culture level in that city as it determines its influence radius and hence the area it can spread on. This means that a city with strong culture attracts more people from surrounding areas, and grows faster.

The Advisor will be one separate option containing all the data advisors used to offer in previous Civ games, and the Civilopedia. The advisors will be totally customizable, and you will be able to download new pictures and options for them once the game is out. And as I am on the subject, the entire game will be utterly customizable: you will be able to change practically all rules and graphics. Just like its predecessors, the game will ship with a scenario editor.

The most obvious change, however, will be the redesigned graphics. According to the screenshots and developers' announcements we can really expect something impressive. All the units on the map will be fully animated, and it is expected that the game will feature over 15000 different animations. Special attention has been given to combat animations. The leaders of nations you talk to, will have animated faces which will depict their attitude towards you. Each of the leaders will have advanced algorithms and unique characteristics that will make discussions with them more interesting. All the advanced options can be managed automatically, if you do not wish to bother about them. The main screen and interface have gone through some heavy remodeling. There won't be any more annoying pop-up messages as all information now appears on the main screen in its own part of the interface. The city view has suffered a lot of changes and will be an integral part of the main interface, letting you more easily access and develop cities.