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STEVE MARIOTTI INTERVIEW

What is your involvement in the development of "Civilization: Call To Power"?
Lead programmer means I did the initial technical design and set standards for code quality. During actual production I oversee the programming effort, provide spiritual guidance, be vigilant over the code stability, compatibility, and so on. I also tend to take the programming tasks that are too banal for any of our experts. :-)

What is your personal history with Civilization-style games?
In college I played Sid Meier's Civilization for the first time, and was completely blown away. It was the first game that made 4 hours disappear without a trace. I'd be sitting there at 10pm, playing a game before I turned in for my 8am calculus class, and after "just a few more turns" it was already well after 2 in the morning. I was hooked, and when Civilization II came out, I went right out and picked it up.

Civ 2 was such a well executed follow-up to Civ, that I was astounded to see that Sid was no longer involved with the project. I gained tremendous respect for Brian Reynolds as game designer who understood what Civ was all about. The opportunity to help carry that mighty torch is truly a great honor.

On what other games have you worked on in the past?
I was the lead programmer and Mac programmer for Close Combat 1, and Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far. Those were really the first computer games that I ever worked on. I was doing Close Combat 1 right after graduation from the University of Texas at Austin.
During school, I contributed code and levels to my friend Ian Gilman's game Heaven and Earth, and wrote the Mac version copy protection for Buena Vista software. Once I graduated, I hooked up with Atomic Games inc Houston and eventually moved there to finish Close Combat and A Bridge Too Far.

Which languages have been used in the development of C:CTP?
We use C++ with a little x86 assembly.

How open is the code? What will fans be able to change from a programming angle?
We're offering a DLL API for those who think they're manly enough to write an AI for Civilization. :-)

What kind of knowledge while be required to play around with C:CTP dll's?
C++ experience and a little knowledge of how COM works.

Specifically, how easy will it be to alter the AI behavour?
This can be done on a number of levels. On the first level, the data files that are used to determine AI behavior are totally 100% tweakable. This means that without any coding whatsoever, you can turn a militaristic, aggressive player into a peace-loving cow farmer with a gold fixation, or a totally insane diplomat who wants to be everyone's buddy and who gives away all of his stuff. A huge amount of control over AI behavior can be changed via text files that describe AI priorities, personalities, and how our fuzzy logic rules evaluate to game decisions.

Speaking of AI, how hard does it play? And which are it's main characteristics?
The AI system is huge. A great deal of time and effort has been put into devising an AI system that does the Civilization name proud. To that end, we have several systems working together in concert to provide both flexibility and power. One system I alluded to above is the fuzzy system, which is used for determining high-level behavior, running the computer's empire, and allocation of resources. Working with the fuzzy system is a powerful goal and resource matching system which is responsible for unit handling and behaviors.

Will we see Adolf Hitler leading the Germans; similar behavour? How have you chosen each civilization's leader?
No Hitler in our game, but you'll see AI leaders using vastly different play styles and exhibiting a very wide range of play behaviors.

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