Something I miss from SMAC...

[Jumping Choya]

For those of you who have played that game...

Remember how at certain points in the game, like your first encounter with mind worms, xenofungus, the borehole cluster, and so on, you would get a little pop-up saying "Interlude from the Book of Planet", and you would click okay and you would see a little story?

(IMHO) That was pretty neat!

I liked reading those - often they would fill in questions and create suspense ("What do you mean we aren't able to replicate them!" "Well, sir, the materials are not found on Planet..." ). Even though you may have stopped reading them after one or two views, they were a neat feature.

I sortof wish that they were included in Civ III (but they wouldn't be from the Book of Planet, of course). They could pop up when you build Great and Small Wonders, discover revolutionary technologies, and a little story when you get a conquest/diplomatic/cultural victory would certainly be better than the pop up you get now.

Now, this isn't a big ommission, and isn't even patch material. I just thought I'd bring it up and see if anybody else had these nostalgiac feelings. Maybe in an expansion pack...they couldn't be really hard to implement, since it's just text.

[Spiffor]

I totally agree with you. They were cool, and it was great for the immersion of the player. But are they compatible with a non-scifi game ? I mean, won't they be repetitive with the Civilopedia, and with what we already know ? (But if they're compatible, it would be a great feature, like the city view)

[Freezer]

What I really miss is the "Iron Man" option from rules. It effectively stopped me from reloading, and sometimes in Civ3 it's just too tempting to go back one turn and save city or whatever. Then again, if you got your city with 20 units deposed you wouldn't be able to do nothing about it.

But that's not the only thing I miss from it, there's the diplomacy features, and a lot of other minor details that made the game more complex and gave it more depth.

However, Civ3 does have it's strong points too. Just makes one wonder why didn't Firaxis take all of the good SMAC features instead of just some.

[Calorman]

I've thought the same thing freezer. It strikes me as odd that the company who made SMAC, with all its great features (and flaws admittidly) would reproduce so little of it in Civ3.

[dissent]

The Book of Planet things were very nice and enjoyable the first couple of times playing, but this is similar to Wonder Movies from Civ2, which Firaxis has already commented about their absence.

I agree that something like that would be nice. The only graphical reward for an accomplishment is the screen when you enter a new age. Very boring and anticlimactic IMO. Of course, I would much rather have a quality editor and stacked movement before anything of this sort. It would be nice to have it all, but I have to agree with Firaxis on what should come first. Eventually it would be nice if Civ3 borrowed a few of SMAC's better features. Hopefully it will happen.

[EnochF]

Eh. The Interludes got dull after the first two times I played. In fact, I would have liked SMAC a lot better if there had been an option to turn off the whole "Planet" plot and just play a normal game.

[Kassiopeia]

Sure, the Planet plot in SMAC was interesting at first, but then got repetetive and thus boring.
The idea would not work in Civ3, I'm afraid, since in Civ3, you rewrite the history, and I just can not find a way to create interludes that would fit in with Civ3. Ideas?

What comes to the wonder movies, when I first saw them in SMAC I was very impressed, even more then I would of with any other Secret Project since it was the Human Genome Project -
which was always one of the best movies in my opinion.

Civ3 really disappointed me in this one. The static images are really useless, just eating up hard disc space, and the only treat is the age changing view, not that great either.

Losing the social engineering was a horrific idea. And where is Fundamentalism?

[Zanzin]

Come on guys, we know why none of this good stuff got included - it's all getting saved for the "gold" edition of civ3

[Immortal Wombat]

You know that scene from Friends, where Chandler does that mick-take to Monica, saying "I would [something], but I'm not your boyfriend" *jump* *clap* etc. etc.

Well, anyway, replace [something] with "implement the Book of the Planet in Civ3"
and "I'm not your boyfriend" with "I don't have a scripting language"

*jump* *Clap*

[jinif]

Civ is supposed to be a game about rewritting history so it would be pretty akward to try and put a plot in the story.

[Jumping Choya]

It wasn't necessarily a rigid plot in SMAC either, because you were creating human history. The interludes don't force you into actions; they're just little stories, with your name and names of cities in them, that pop up when certain things happen that will happen in every game, such as moving to a new era.

Of course, if you find them annoying, there should be an option to turn them off. It shouldn't become the new nag after the Domestic Advisor.

[Desert Dog]

You failed to mention the great dilpomacy options & the excellent way combat was done. I especially liked the percentage for battles that I always used. I like Civ 3 but it could have been a GREAT game if it just took some from SMAC and CIV 2. Many things are missing. I totally agree with you anyways! I hope they do not take too long making a new patch that actually, works? Have a merry!


Desert Dog

[CaptainVW]

I think it's kind of strange no one ever attempted to mod SMAC with a Civ theme. Maybe it was too obvious, and people wanted to play Star Trek themes more, but I would be more intrigued by a Civ mod for SMAC than any other possible theme. I've never modded anything ever before, but maybe I'll pull out my old SMAC copy and look into it....