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Ask Sid Meier
Sid Meier is a household name in gaming. Titles he's designed, such as Railroad Tycoon, Pirates!, and Civilization, are pillars in the history of PC gaming. This year the fourth chapter in the Civilization series of games is being released, and we have a great opportunity. Today we're asking for questions about design and philosophy to pass on to Mr. Meier. On Wednesday, we'll be asking for questions to give to the Civilization IV development team. That day you'll have the chance to ask technical questions about the moddability and design concepts that went into the game. For today, here's your opportunity to put questions to one of the most respected game designers in the industry. Keep them topical, and one question per post please. We'll pass on the ten best questions, his responses will go up as soon as we get them back.
If you check the Civ4 sites, apparently this is how Civ4 is treating governments, basically you check-box the qualities out of 5 separate lists on how much or how little of certain civic freedoms you wish to endure.
Doom 3 is actually different in the whole scheme of things, in regard to "Sequels for money and profit". From what I recall, there was a big "gathering" at iD where the staff said "We make Doom 3 or else!!!". So the staff actually WANTED to do this addition to the Doom series.
o /doom_3.htm
Here is a quote from a non-difinitive source (found via some googlin'): http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/d/d
"Kevin Cloud and (Click link for more info and facts about Adrian Carmack) Adrian Carmack, two of the id Software owners, were always strongly opposed to remaking Doom. This is after many old fans complained that id was going back to the same well too often. However, after the warm reception of (Click link for more info and facts about Return to Castle Wolfenstein) Return to Castle Wolfenstein and latest improvements in rendering technology, most of the employees agreed that a remake was the right idea and confronted Kevin and Adrian with an ultimatum: "allow us to remake Doom or fire us" (including John Carmack). After the relatively painless confrontation (though artist (Click link for more info and facts about Paul Steed) Paul Steed, one of the instigators, was fired in retaliation) the agreement to work on Doom 3 was made."
Though, I THOUGHT someone DID get fired as a result of that ultimatum, I can't find anything to back that up
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
The game is written in C++, with an C++ SDK that is exposed for the MOD community. Tweakable data is stored in XML files. They use Python as their scripting language. They use Boost.Python for binding. Google for "Who's using Boost".
http://www.dignews.com/feature.php?story_id=11457
And they probably use MSVC. Everyone uses MSVC. They'd be on crack if they didn't.
Technical questions are probably best answered by someone on the Civ team other than Sid Meier since he is a designer.
Sid Meier didn't design Alpha Centauri. That game was designed by Brian Reynolds, who also designed Rise of Nations. That's why they call it "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" instead of "Alpha Centauri: a game by Sid Meier". They are just slapping his name on there for some market recognition.
This also explains partly why Alpah Centauri was so much more fun and imaginative than Civ III.
Freeloaders looks a lot like FreeCiv, but the only unit you get is a flat-bed truck loaded with moonshine, and you have to drive it around avoiding "barbarians" (who have a police car icon).
Flatterers, on the other hand, is a special version of FreeCiv released by the Flat Earth Society, in which the map doesn't wrap around at the edges.
(and for God's sake, please don't mod this 'informative'!!!!)
(Spudley Strikes Again!)