Slashdot Mirror

Why wouldn't they? It was a unique Firaxis product. That's like saying MS doesn't have the rights to Windows. You're confusing it with Civ itself, which used to be a MicroProse IP.

http://www.firaxis.com/company/faq.php

Question :
I really loved Alpha Centauri! Are you planning to make Alpha Centauri 2?

Answer:
We’re all big fans of Alpha Centauri as well. However, the rights to that game are owned by Electronic Arts (we were making games for them at the time) so any decision to make a sequel is up to them..

even though they're being developed by different companies

Actually, Firaxis developed Civ 4 and is developing Civ 5.

Since we're on the topic of games

ArenaNet (Guild wars): http://www.arena.net/contact.php

Ironclad Games (Sins of a Solar Empire) http://www.ironcladgames.com/contact.html

Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft) http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml?gameId=0

Firzxis (Civilization IV) http://www.firaxis.com/support/

Electronic Arts (lots of games) http://www.info.ea.com/company/company_prlist.php

Valve (Steam: Counterstrike, other games) http://www.valvesoftware.com/contact.html

Activision (Gun) http://www.activision.com/index.html#contact|en_US

And code for WINE.

ArenaNet (Guild wars): http://www.arena.net/contact.php

Ironclad Games (Sins of a Solar Empire) http://www.ironcladgames.com/contact.html

Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft) http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml?gameId=0

Firzxis (Civilization IV) http://www.firaxis.com/support/

Electronic Arts (lots of games) http://www.info.ea.com/company/company_prlist.php

Valve (Steam: Counterstrike, other games) http://www.valvesoftware.com/contact.html

Ask for either native Linux port or Wine-compatible Windows binaries.

While I'm all for open source and regarding hardware drivers I wouldn't want it any other way, let's not forget that open source does not have to be pushed around at the application level at the expense of usability. Professional-level applications are critical for the use and expansion of Linux, and proprietary software vendors should be encouraged to develop their software for Linux, not alienated by being badgered to give away their source code. Currently, there is a heated discussion on the Debian list regarding PCB and CAD software availability. One camp (me) is encouraging users to write to software houses and to request that they port their software to Linux, with the other camp rejecting all contact with proprietary software vendors unless it is a demand for the source code. Currently, myself and other engineers cannot use Linux at work because we must run proprietary engineering software, such as Solidworks in my case. For those who want to help, please write to these companies and let them know that we are interested in their software on Linux:

Intuit (Quicken, Quickbooks) http://www.intuit.com/contact/ (requires registration)

Adobe (Photoshop, Flash CS3 Professional, Captivate, Dreamweaver, Studio) http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

Sony (Vegas Studio) http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/corporate/contacts.asp

Autodesk (Autocad) http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1073074

SolidWorks http://www.solidworks.com/pages/company/SolidWorksOfficeWorldwide.html (requires registration)

Sage (Act!) http://www.act.com/company/contactus/

Nuance (Dragon Naturally Speaking) http://www.nuance.com/help/contact/

hardin-soft (BM-Win Plus (mailing address correction software)) http://www.hardin-soft.com//forms/feedback.html

Daz (Bryce (3D modeling and animation)) http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/support/rnlogin/-/?p_sid=vOwOJN6j&p_accessibility=&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=&p_li=&p_next_page=std_alp.php (requires registration)

ArenaNet (Guild wars): http://www.arena.net/contact.php

Ironclad Games (Sins of a Solar Empire) http://www.ironcladgames.com/contact.html

Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft) http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml?gameId=0

Firzxis (Civilization IV) http://www.firaxis.com/support/

Electronic Arts (lots of games) http://www.info.ea.com/company/company_prlist.php

My personal problem is that I need Solidworks, so for emphasis I'll repeat their address here:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/company/SolidWorksOfficeWorldwide.html

Please write to these companies and let them know that we need their products on Linux. Copy the list and write to one company a week. Thanks.

Do you write to the game developers and let them know that you need support for Linux? Here are a few addresses to get you started:
ArenaNet: http://www.arena.net/contact.php
Ironclad Games: http://www.ironcladgames.com/contact.html
Blizzard Entertainment: http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml?gameId=0
Firzxis: http://www.firaxis.com/support/
Electronic Arts: http://www.info.ea.com/company/company_prlist.php

Just some corporate branding by Firaxis.

When we were younger we had lots of time for games but little money. Now we have the money for games (but much less free time).

I haven't seen any ads that target the adult gamer segment specifically; I guess they figure ads that work for a 17-year-old will work just as well for someone twice that age. But soon enough we will probably see ads: "Forget the Civ games! I play Oasis because I can get in several games between feeding the newborn and changing his diaper."

BLATANT PLUG: If you are a member of The Video Game Generation and you have money now, why not bid on my auctions to benefit Child's Play?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =170059988064
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =170059999729
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =170060001967

steveha

That is a quote from Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights." See more about the Commissioner here:

http://www.firaxis.com/smac/lal.cfm

We don't have the comm addresses of all the factions yet.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri , is one of the few games I truly enjoy to play over and over again.

If you like turn based stategic games, pick it up, its a great game.

http://www.firaxis.com/smac/

There is also an expansion, Alien Crossfire.

I wanna see the Mac user list of top ten disappointments....
6. No Civ IV

Ask and ye shall receive. The Mac OS X version is scheduled to be released in February or March.

Anyway, I'm sad to say that not getting to play Civ 4 yet on the Mac isn't such a tragedy. I've been playing it on PC, and I have been underwhelmed (religion ... WTF? "great persons" ... WTF? why can't they make stats and advisors understandable like they were in Civ 2?). I played through one game the first week it was out and haven't played it again. But I may pick up the Mac version anyway since I'm more likely to give it another shot playing it on my PowerBook (which I take on road trips) than the HP laptop that sits around the house.

Per this announcement on the Firaxis Games site - Civ 4 will be released for the Mac in 2006.

OMG you are destructing the planet itself!!one!

Ok, maybe not. But I think it is fairly silly to suggest that the only alternative to free market capitalism (-3 PLANET, -5 POLICE, +2 ECON) is a soviet style communism with a planned economy. (-2 EFFICIENCY, +2 GROWTH, +1 INDUSTRY) I entirely suspect GP to have been referring to a deurbanised, agrarian pseudo-anarchist society with a green economy. (+2 EFFICIENCY, -2 GROWTH, +2 PLANET) However realistic that is. (http://firaxis.com/smac/)

October 2005 http://www.firaxis.com/

Well, my text was a quote from SMAC :)

http://www.firaxis.com/community/asksid.php

Second question down.

Sid just released an adventure game himself. Sid Meier's Pirates. A really fun game. The game originally was created by Sid in order to break the mold of adventure games, as Sid thought the genre to be very unoriginal.

It's called Alpha Centurai; maybe you've heard of it.

In that case you probably don't want to read this:

Ask Sid

That's cute... but build a Xenoempathy Dome and Pholus Mutagen and they start looking like these

I concur completely. One of my christmas presents was a Worst Buy gift certificate. I had been considering buying HL2, but the numerous horror stories about Steam and Valve made me vote with my dollars and buy a better game

Sid is working for Firaxis, the company he founded several years ago. Their first game was Alpha Centauri. Their latest is, in fact, a new version of the classic Pirates! which should be in stores now.

I used Sid Meier's Antietam as part of a presentation on the battle for my high school history class. The first time I played it at home, I managed to trap all the rebels in the Southeast edge of the map halfway into the day. I had to play through again at a slower pace to get an accurate recreation.

Slashdot seems to have snuck a space in there:

try that again as a link...

Unmentioned in the article, Alpha Centauri (publisher Firaxis, of Civilization fame) is maybe the most overtly political 'game' I've played (outside President Forever).

AC is a competition between faction leaders, each with an outright political philosophy, to control the evolution of a newly-colonized planet. You choose from one of the 7 game factions: Greens, Communists, Scientists, Capitalists, Warrior-Clan, Fundamentalists, and One-Worlders (and 7 more in the Alien Crossfire plug-in... complete list here).

Having played each faction several times (hence, playing against each faction several dozen times), I can tell you that AC is the quintessential example of what the article is pointing to.

Expecially since the Capitalist and Communist factions were always the least outwardly hostile and aggressive, in terms of conflicts over disputed resources, whereas Greens and One-Worlders (which are mocking clones of the UN) were the most violent, unbelievably. Knowing the world the way it is, I could write this off as just an imbalanced simulation (and no less entertaining).

But thinking it through, what is the author of the article actually worried about? Who is going to use a game as a model of the real world when the real world contradicts the game... at least in terms of politics. It doesn't take long before a strident youth is told "the world just don't work that way, kid". I think we've all experienced that, at one time or another.

Unmentioned in the article, Alpha Centauri (publisher Firaxis, of Civilization fame) is maybe the most overtly political 'game' I've played (outside President Forever).

AC is a competition between faction leaders, each with an outright political philosophy, to control the evolution of a newly-colonized planet. You choose from one of the 7 game factions: Greens, Communists, Scientists, Capitalists, Warrior-Clan, Fundamentalists, and One-Worlders (and 7 more in the Alien Crossfire plug-in... complete list here).

Having played each faction several times (hence, playing against each faction several dozen times), I can tell you that AC is the quintessential example of what the article is pointing to.

Expecially since the Capitalist and Communist factions were always the least outwardly hostile and aggressive, in terms of conflicts over disputed resources, whereas Greens and One-Worlders (which are mocking clones of the UN) were the most violent, unbelievably. Knowing the world the way it is, I could write this off as just an imbalanced simulation (and no less entertaining).

But thinking it through, what is the author of the article actually worried about? Who is going to use a game as a model of the real world when the real world contradicts the game... at least in terms of politics. It doesn't take long before a strident youth is told "the world just don't work that way, kid". I think we've all experienced that, at one time or another.

Unmentioned in the article, Alpha Centauri (publisher Firaxis, of Civilization fame) is maybe the most overtly political 'game' I've played (outside President Forever).

AC is a competition between faction leaders, each with an outright political philosophy, to control the evolution of a newly-colonized planet. You choose from one of the 7 game factions: Greens, Communists, Scientists, Capitalists, Warrior-Clan, Fundamentalists, and One-Worlders (and 7 more in the Alien Crossfire plug-in... complete list here).

Having played each faction several times (hence, playing against each faction several dozen times), I can tell you that AC is the quintessential example of what the article is pointing to.

Expecially since the Capitalist and Communist factions were always the least outwardly hostile and aggressive, in terms of conflicts over disputed resources, whereas Greens and One-Worlders (which are mocking clones of the UN) were the most violent, unbelievably. Knowing the world the way it is, I could write this off as just an imbalanced simulation (and no less entertaining).

But thinking it through, what is the author of the article actually worried about? Who is going to use a game as a model of the real world when the real world contradicts the game... at least in terms of politics. It doesn't take long before a strident youth is told "the world just don't work that way, kid". I think we've all experienced that, at one time or another.

The following was snipped from the Firaxis website:

Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, released in October 1997, was voted "Wargame of the Year" by the game industry's top opinion leaders, including Computer Gaming World magazine and GameSpot online; and was also awarded with "Editor's Choice" awards from both PC Gamer and OGR. Sid Meier's Antietam!, released in December 1999, was awarded "Wargame of the Year" by Computer Gaming World magazine. Relive the excitement, drama, and action of America's bloodiest day.

The following was snipped from the Firaxis website:

Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, released in October 1997, was voted "Wargame of the Year" by the game industry's top opinion leaders, including Computer Gaming World magazine and GameSpot online; and was also awarded with "Editor's Choice" awards from both PC Gamer and OGR. Sid Meier's Antietam!, released in December 1999, was awarded "Wargame of the Year" by Computer Gaming World magazine. Relive the excitement, drama, and action of America's bloodiest day.

And over at Firaxis they have an announcment about it too.

these games were amazing, and important

• Cancer research is important.
• Curtailing nuclear proliferation is important.
• Feeding the hungry is important.
• Equality is important.
• Halting global warming, pollution, and abuse of our resources is important.

Let's point them to: Let's see . . . Disney World "Pirates of the Carribean"

"The old "Pirates!" game

Tropico 2 "Pirate's Cove"

I'm sure you get the idea. . .

Well, one year. (Pool Of Radiance 2) Anyway... Check their web page for which developers to blame for the multiplayer fiasco. It's gotta be the most amateurish released piece of code I've ever seen.

Quoth Myselfthethoom:

"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master"-Unknowen

It's actually a quote from a game, Alpha Centauri.

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last loose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."

-- Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Librarian's Preface"

Infogrames officially announced in a press release on October 30th that the Mac version of Civilization III will be available in March 2002. I saw the news over at Civ Fanatics. Nobody said anything official about a Linux version yet, but forum posts of insiders seem to indicate that they are considering porting it. (Working with Loki?) If someone manages to get it working with Wine, post your experience on /. please!

Just noticed that CivIII went gold today (press release [Firaxis]).

Personally I think that this title would be very popular on the Linux platform, a 3D accelerator is not even required. I don't know how well SMAC did on Linux, but this title would be a logical step for turn-based strategy fans.

The slated platforms are WIndows and Mac, I hope Loki will consider a port for this title.

Grab a clue. There are plenty of profitable games companies around. There always will be. Just because some can't make a business model work and others are led by idiots you shouldn't conclude that there is no future. Of course, you have to be good.

Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire is a great thinking game. Would you like to have a game sometime? You should play as the Data Angel's. They are balanced in gameplay by NOT being able to make the Power social model choice. I'll play as the Free Drones. They are balanced by having increased production to compensate for their lack of knowledge or up-to-date military hardware.
As you'll probably be able to compromise quite a few of my bases intially I should start with 70% of the World base population.

Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire is a great thinking game. Would you like to have a game sometime? You should play as the Data Angel's. They are balanced in gameplay by NOT being able to make the Power social model choice. I'll play as the Free Drones. They are balanced by having increased production to compensate for their lack of knowledge or up-to-date military hardware.
As you'll probably be able to compromise quite a few of my bases intially I should start with 70% of the World base population.

"Free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people who's leaders at last lose their grip on information will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." - Unknown

Also used in the game Alpha Centauri attributed to

-- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
"U.N. Declaration of Rights"

Note that you're using the word "soon" in conjunction with an event 3 billion years from now. It seems to me that if we can get a self-sufficient Mars base within the next thousand years, and colonize other solar systems within the next million years, then we're way ahead of the game.

Overpopulation is generally self-correcting (starvation). It's also easily handled by public education and women's rights (see western europe). And as for biowar/mutation, I have justified belief in medical progress and the human immune system.

Actually, the real goal of NASA is to get to Alpha Centauri before the Zulus do.

Actually, the real goal of NASA is to get to Alpha Centauri before the Zulus do.

• Are there any plans for Civilization III to be made for the Mac, Linux or other gaming platforms?

Looks like they aren't going to create a whole new game, just polish the ideas from the original Civilization and Civlization II. For instance, diplomacy and war will be greatly improved, the terrain/resources-system will be better and just about everything will be tweaked to make it better than the previous versions.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to this game. I really like how they are listening to the fans and adding features on request (to a limit, of course).

say goodbye to the next 3. Oh wait, did someone say something bad about hype?
--

is that they become predictable. Once you learn the exploits and how they work, the game is no longer fun. Take Alpha Centauri or Master of Orion 2, easily 2 of the best, if not the best, strategy games around (IMHO of course). However I can play both of them on impossible levels and win almost every time.

And what really bugs me is that to make up for deficiencies in their AI, as the levels increase in difficulty, the computer just cheats more. I was abhorred when I found out first hand how badly the AIs cheated at the higher levels in the 2 aforementioned games.

So what my question is, is this: How can this be fixed?

I have a few ideas. One is that you need one that learns. Before you flame me about this, let's think about this for a second. We're not talking about an AI here that can learn how to write a novel, we're talking about relatively straightforward strategies and mechanical play in these games. I know that 95% of of my strategy for these games is down to an art, it's just an automated system until I get to the few points at which I need to make a new decision, or something new crops up. So if I can do this by a predefined strategy, then why can't the computer do that? Keep in mind too that the computer can simply try variations on it's current strategies, and see what happens. If I beat the computer 9 out of 10 times, and one time with some wierd method the computer CLOBBERS me, then hey, maybe it should keep that method around. Also the computer can play against itself, with many different strategies, seeing how each one works. Keep in mind here folks that the strategies that I'm talking about have a few variables: how fast do I expand? at what point to I build an army? how big do I build my army? When do I stop expanding? When to I attack, and who? These can be values that can be changed and experimented with, and hence the computer could learn.

Secondly, one of the things I loved about Alpha Centauri is that just-about all settings were configurable through text files. This was amazing. You could make things easier or harder, change global settings, pollution rates, everything. You could even make new factions and trade them with your friends. If somehow settings for the AI were configurable this way, then people could learn how to tweak the AI to make it a more formidable opponent, and then share this information with others.

Combining those two ideas, throw it on the internet. If you have 5,000 people that are connected (not necessarily at the same time), you can try out hundreds of thousands of strategies for the AI to see what works well, and then upgrade the AI. Actually I think that is a necessity. The AI needs to be easily upgradable, otherwise it'll just get boring as you learn how it works and you can cream the game.

I'd love to hear some (constructive only please) comments about this, as it's been something I've been thinking about for a while.

Want to check out about the new Master of Orion 3? Awesome stuff happening there. -- Telek

I will probably buy SMAC for Linux then because I enjoy it more.

To be honest though I also feel that the use of the 'Civilization' brand name in case of CTP was a form of theft so my view is probably not 100% objective.

However you may want to hold your horses because CivIII is being worked on by Firaxis.

Is it only me or anybody else feel that Civ CTP is _morally_ wrong since it is a stolen idea of Sid Meyer who described it as a Civilization's "imitation"? The right to the game's title was acquired by Activision through a dubious court case of some sort.
Even though I do C++ full time and used to work for a games company I've had enough of companies that "borrow" ideas!

No matter how cool Loki Entertainment act on the Linux front they aren't getting my support as the only company that should be releasing Civ is Firaxis.

I'll wait for CivIII. It'll be done by the right people and hopefully less buggy than CTP. Besides a PC for lots of debugging/bug fixing is peanuts. If you're a games programmer wannabe then Firaxis are hiring too...