More Details On Civ IV Moddability

dfrankow writes "Gamespy has a preview of the upcoming Civilization IV title, where they go into more details about the moddability of the game. From the article: 'Civilization IV promises to be the most moddable game in the franchise yet. It'll ship with an in-game worldbuilder that allows you to shift units around and redraw the map, similar to a scenario editor. More hardcore modders can jump into XML files and tweak all of the unit stats and variables in the game. Beyond that, users who know the Python scripting language can actually go in and set up scripts and triggers to make game events happen or alter the way the game plays, while a Game A.I. SDK that'll be available shortly after the game ships will allow players to completely change the way the A.I., combat system, or game rules work.'"

Comments

Re:I don't like it...

[jericho4.0]

I agree. My version of Civ IV would look something like a cross between WorldWind and Civ II, with games that last for 6 months realtime. Games where geography/terrain really matters, weather patterns, etc. Dachanniens comment above about Firaxis not having to do testing is dead on, adn the best thing that could happen. To really deliver a perfectly balanced Civ game that plays for months takes a huge amount of playtime and tweaking, resources that no software company has.

Spore is looking very interesting right now. Procedural generation will hopefully generate the kind of epic scale I'm looking for.

Smartening up but dumbing down

[Haeleth]

So they're introducing loads of new concepts, like religion and famous people. That's good. More depth is only going to be a good thing. (Maybe they could introduce "fundamentalist" units, which you can infiltrate into opposing civilisations in order to slow their science rates...)

But at the same time, they're dumbing other aspects down to the degree that units only have one combat stat, instead of separate attack and defence ratings?!

I'm really not sure I like that. Half the strategy of the early game comes from trying to keep a balance between fast-moving, hard-hitting units like chariots, and the slow but tough units like phalanxes that you need to hold onto the cities you capture with them. What's going to be the point of a phalanx in a game where a chariot has the same defensive ability and (presumably) moves twice as fast?

I really don't see the rationale behind this particular change. Did anyone really find the two-stat system to be hopelessly complicated?

Re:Smartening up but dumbing down

[mnmn]

Yeah thats game theory. Something that causes the player to decide between two different paths each of which apparently has equal chances of success. Thats what makes chess so complex.

I'd like the decision to use a unit to be difficult... cost vs attack and defence stats vs speed vs speed of manufacturing etc. The samurai in civ III if youre janapese, were too strong compared to other units, so you just make hundereds of samurai and youve won the game.

Real life is more complex and you have to balance many other variables. The most successful armies have a large diversity of units to succeed, and that should be reflected in civ.

Theres another thing that I've been wanting in the civ series for a while. You can make 'armies' in civiii but thats limited. You should be able to group units like in tiberian sun, make military units, and movement formations like in kohan, and do much more with a group of units than just select each and give them a destination.

Alexander's army was successful because of their direct attacks into enemy units with a blitz. But Genghis was successful because he would attack, and withdraw, pulling enemy units out of their formation and stretching and confusing them. All these should be doable.

Another thing I would suggest in civ is the diplomatic alliance. The alliances should allow cold-war type superpowers to indirectly control other civilizations and get them to fight each other. And to implement embargoes against other civs to kill their economies and science.

Maybe someone can do all this with some fancy python scripting. Why didnt they use perl anyway?