[an error occurred while processing this directive] PETER KARPAS ON THE KEY ELEMENTS OF CTP
When we were handed this gift of being able to make the next generation
Civilization game, our first reaction was pure and utter joy, followed
closely by this huge sense of responsibility. How do you make the next
generation of one of the greatest games of all time -- if not the greatest
game of all time (as some would argue)?
What we did was spend a tremendous amount of time discussing what it was
that made Civilization so amazingly good. And in the end we came down to 2
basic things.
First, the essential fantasy of the game is just so compelling. The idea of
taking your little nomadic settler unit in 4000BC, and from that creating a
huge empire over 6000 years, is just incredibly fun. No other game does
that (most would be lucky to cover a hundred years), and it sets the game
apart in a great way.
Second, the game allows for tons of different strategies. The Civilization
games are arguably the most replayable of all-time. I've discussed Civ
with lots of people, and all of them are convinced that their method of
playing
is the best -- and none of them have the same method. :-)
So, we decided to max out those two basic things, and then add 3 other
things: 1) great interface, 2) great graphics, and 3) great multiplayer.
We maxed out the essential fantasy of the game by going an additional 1000
years into the future -- Civilization: Call to Power ends in the year
3000AD. The cool thing about this is you get to create your own future. If
in the future your cities are like Blade Runner -- overpopulated, polluted,
and the people are unhappy -- your decisions made it that way. If on the
other hand you have a Star Trek-like future -- egalitarian, the people are
happy, everything is clean -- your decisions also made it that way. We
scoured science fiction to create a bunch of possible futures, and they're
in the game.
We maxed out the strategies in the game by introducing what we call
"Unconventional Warfare", which is the idea that not all wars are fought on
the battlefield. The vast majority of game have purely military units --
attack rating, defense rating, hit points, special "powers". But we know
from the real world that there are many other ways to conduct war --
religious warfare, economic warfare, happiness warfare (Radio Free Europe),
production warfare, biological warfare, etc. These ways of conducting war
are now in the game, and many of them aren't actually diplomatic
declarations of war. The point of the cleric and lawyer units and all the
other unconventional warfare units isn't to be clever -- it's to provide the
player with new strategies, better strategies, more flexibility in weakening
opponents, and, overall, allow for greater creativity and fun in how you
play.
As for interface, graphics, and multiplayer, there's another post later in
this thread that discussed interface in great detail, and I'll try to
respond to that over the next few days (much of what was asked for is
already in the current build of Civ:CTP). Multiplayer was answered well by
Jeff at Firaxis, and of course we're facing the same issues and doing
similar things (as well as some testing out some other things). As for
graphics, we believe they're important for 2 reasons: 1) they help with the
fantasy of the game, and 2) we've tried to make it so that the art direction
follows the design of the game, not the other way around. Meaning, we've
made the look of our units suggests their use -- a defensive unit will LOOK
more defensive, an more offensive unit will have a larger weapon, etc. This
helps you play the game better, as just by look you get an idea of what the
unit's strengths/weaknesses are without having to look it up in a chart.
I hope this answers some questions! My apologies for the long post...
Peter
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--
Peter "Enjolras" Karpas
Product Manager, Activision, Inc.
http://www.activision.com
Originally posted on alt.games.civ2,
found through DejaNews
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