Four new Civilization V previews have been posted on the internet: Kotaku, Joystiq, Gamespot and 1UP


Each article goes into different levels of detail, and there is a lot of double up with already known information. However some tiny new bits of information have been gleaned from the articles:

• Aimed minimum specs to include 256 MB graphics cards and dual core processors (Kotaku).
• Cities can fire back when attacked (Kotaku).
• Technology and Culture victories contain new surprises (Kotaku).
• Producer noted that all Civ games eventually come out on Mac (Kotaku).
• Confirmed DX11 native (Joystiq).
• Different terrain for different continents (Joystiq).
• Leaders respond with spoken speech and body language (Joystiq).
• City-states can give you units if friendly (Joystiq).
• In-game web browser, play Civ Network from within Civ 5 (Joystiq).
• Full support for modders, including online database of mods, voting and forum access (Joystiq).
• Russell Vaccaro designing Civ 5 interface (also helped design Civ Rev interface) (Gamespot).
• Ruins instead of goodie huts (Gamespot).
• Greece confirmed (Gamespot).
• A troop operates like a single unit from previous Civs, example being "troop of warriors which act as a single warrior unit" (Gamespot).
• City-states will have different specialisations, such as Militaristic (Gamespot).
• City-states offer missions (Gamespot).
• Referred to "a single battalion of troops that occupies any given hex" (Gamespot).
• Units will suffer maintenance costs and be able to earn bonuses through combat (Gamespot).
• Rivers give defense bonus (Gamespot).
• Cities defend at a level determined by growth size and structures in the city (Gamespot).
• Religion may be cut, but new features to replace it (Gamespot).
• Alexander the Great (1UP).
• City-states will have their own Tech tree and personality (1UP).

There are also a couple new screenshots, visit the Civ 5 forum for details.

Soren Johnson gave a keynote speech at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) earlier today. In the talk, titled "Theme is not Meaning", he looks at the separation between the mechanics of a game and it's theme, arguing that the meaning is derived from the former much more so than the latter. One example he gives of this is the board games of Risk and Diplomacy: while they have the same themes, they have very different meaning as a result of the differences in their mechanics: the simultaneous and rule-based nature of Diplomacy makes it a game about diplomacy, while the turn-based and randomised mechanics of Risk make it a game about risk.

A detailed summary of the talk is available at the Edge Online website, and the actual slides of the presentation can be downloaded from Soren's Blog -- both are highly recommended reading.

In the talk Soren addresses a number of Civilization-related points. He notes that Civ's theme is world history, but the meaning is being god-king. Civ's mechanics and therefore its meaning cannot be about history, as having the mechanics closely approximate world history would make it a failure as a game: consequences would often not be fair or clear, the player would lose a lot of control and the outcome would be entirely deterministic, as explained in Guns, Germs & Steel. Soren explains he tried to incorporate elements from GG&S into Civ3 but that led to some of the game's biggest flaws, like the resource placement algorithm that could lead to entire continents ending up without key resources.

Soren argues games with social themes should not attempt to model society or history, but rather the life of historical figures. In the epilogue of the Powerpoint presentation, Soren gives a fascinating explanation about the meaning of Civlization 4, citing specifically the Civics system and Mount Rushmore as examples of why to him Civ4 is about the failure of ideology. Also, elsewhere in the sheets he explains why Tetris is a game for Nazis.

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Eurogamer have published an interview with Civilization V designer Jon Shafer and Producer Dennis Shirk. The interview covers many topics including components of Civ 5, the Facebook version of the game Civilization Network, modding and direction of Civilization V.


You can find a transcript of the interview here.


Below is a screenshot of the Civ 5 interface (apologies for Dennis's shoulder in the way and the quality).

Eurogamer have published their Civilization V Preview here.


A summary of the article:


Tiles / Borders:
- Reviewer believes hexagons will simplify the flow of the game, since movement points dropped from 8 to 6.
- Tiles are claimed by your cities one tile at a time.
- Tiles are claimed through culture or buying them with gold.
- "But now, the permanent and steady expansion and shape of your empire is a more irregular, important and tactically considered process."
- Article discusses 1upt again.


City-states:
- "City States are sub-civilisation NPCs which provide bonuses to any player earning their alliance. These bonuses can make them worth defending or reclaiming should they fall to another civilisation. It's also possible that the benefits of diplomacy will be outweighed by their position: a city state too close to your town might need to be destroyed. If you don't mind the reputation as a butcher."


Resources:
- Confirms strategic limited resources, but using a horse examples states "but now you find a specific number - and once you've used them to make cavalry units, they're gone."


Victory:
- "military domination is just one of the ways of winning. The other methods - tech, culture, and so on - are still available to you"


Diplomacy:
- "You can't trade tech any more, but in another example of how gold takes a more upfront role, you invest in research agreements."
- "we now have fully modelled world leaders, roaming fully modelled rooms, speaking their own language (whether you understand it or not), with research into the body language of different cultures reflected in their animation sets."
- Article states "Queen Victoria" but I think it should be "Queen Elizabeth".


Interface:
- Civ 5 takes some tips on "approachability" from CivRev.
- "The most common use of the unit (say, Build City for Settlers) is bigger than the rest, and lesser used icons (say, delete unit) are hidden in a sub-menu."


AI:
- "Meanwhile, the AI is getting a new system, based on flavours. A leader has certain predispositions, towards offence, defence, recon and military training. Leaders will have favoured units, win conditions, methods of growth, and resources. They might prefer generating great people, or wonders."
- "There are four layers to the computer's AI, each operating at a different level of strategy. From the Grand Strategic AI which governs which win conditions to aim for, the economic and military considerations of the Strategic AI, down to the Operational AI which moves units around, and the Tactical AI which kicks in at the combat level - to see the flowcharts as a layman is to go briefly mad with possibilities."


Modding:
- "The new game is being written for the community, too, with an easier-than-ever map editor coaxing casuals (if there is such a thing as a casual Civ player) into the world of Civ-modding. And if you're not so inclined, a mod browser and installer has been integrated into the menu system. This is the developer's way of removing as many obstacles as possible between the less tech-savvy or simply unaware player, and excellent free content such as the complete fantasy revamp, Fall From Heaven.


Former modder Jon Schafer is unable to expand on any moderation policies for now, but is keen to point out that this is an additional service. You'll still be able to do everything the old way if you pop omnidirectional boners when manually extracting zip files."


Final word:
- "Put simply, Civilization V is the best of both worlds: more approachable, less opaque, but still with a huge, impenetrable brain throbbing in the background."


There were no new screenshots.

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IGN have published a full preview of Civilization V highlighting many previously unknown information about the game. The full article can be found here, or read below for a summary of the details.





Overview / Interface:
- "fears that Civilization Revolution on the console has dumbed down the gameplay of the PC sequel are unfounded."
- "accessibility just means the developers want to make it easier to understand and manipulate the complexity within the game."
- Interface influenced by CivRev is terms of convenience (not reduction). eg: Common actions on left of screen, can be expanded to show all actions.
- "Small icons will pop up each turn to notify players of new events that might require attention and clicking on those icons will take players to the location in question."
- "Advisors are also making a return to counsel new players on particular aspects of the game but their overall tone will be much more serious than in previous versions of Civ."
- "Even with the streamlined interface, veteran players will still be comforted to see that the top line of the screen reveals the presence of the hardcore elements, tracking things like science and gold production, happiness, culture, resources, and even the time remaining on any Golden Ages."


Combat:
- "Cities will automatically defend themselves now, and can benefit from increased defense based on certain structures or technologies, so you don't necessarily need to garrison a unit for defense but you can if you want to."
- "Because you're limited to just one unit per hex, battles have the potential to be much more tactical, both with regard to the placement of your units and geographical obstacles. We saw a few battles that highlighted the significance of the new system. In one, two groups of units were facing off against each other around a one-hex lake. An archer unit was able to fire at enemy units on the far side of the lake and stay protected from melee attack by two allied units on either side. In another battle, a small group of powerful units were able to hold off a much larger attacking army in a narrow mountain pass. Because the attacker could only bring one unit into the fight at a time, the defender was able to eliminate the numerical disadvantage."
- "Fortunately, the game will allow adjacent allied units to swap positions, so you can keep fresh troops engaged with the enemy and rescue your ranged units from contact with melee fighters."





AI:
- "A lot of effort is being made to ensure that the AI in Civilization V behaves in a way that makes sense."
- "At the top of the ladder is the grand strategic AI, which decides how to win the game. If the grand strategic AI decides to go for a conquest victory, the strategic AI will build the infrastructure needed to wage war and the operational and tactical AIs will choose and fight the battles. That way the tactical AI won't be fighting battles merely for the sake of fighting battles, but because those battles are relevant in the grand strategic AI's big picture. In the case of the conquest victory, the AI will be aiming to capture the other civ's capitals, which is all that's needed for a military victory this time."
- "an AI that keeps the detailed decisions in line with the overall objective -- winning the game."


Civs / Leaders:
- Askia: Songhai
- Katherine: Russia
- Gandhi: India
- Elizabeth: England
- Montezuma: Aztec
- Napoleon: France
- Bismark: Germany
- Suleiman: Ottoman
- Washington: America
- Caesar: Rome
- Rameses: Egypt
- "Flavors define a leader's preference for certain types of gameplay and, to a large extent, you'll be able to guess which way a particular leader will lean."
- "Katherine has a high expansion flavor, so the Russian empire will have lots of cities."
- "Elizabeth has a very high naval warfare flavor, so her English empire will strive for control of the seas."
- "If England starts in the middle of a large continent but near horses, Elizabeth will suspend her focus on fleets and instead put more emphasis on horse warfare."
- "The grab bag of leader traits from the previous Civilization games is gone now in favor of traits that are entirely unique to each leader."


Diplomacy:
- "The diplomacy screen is now a full 3D environment complete with animated leaders speaking in their own language."
- On background: "so you'll meet Gandhi by the river, Napoleon on the battlefield and Bismarck in his office. The backgrounds are animated, and in some cases even interactive, so you'll see Askia standing in front of a burning town he's just conquered, or watch as Washington casually spins a globe."
- "Suleiman look a bit like a Turkish Santa Claus."
- "If you defeat Askia, he is belligerent and promises vengeance. Washington on the other hand, seems depressed by defeat, almost as if he's thinking about the people he's let down. Oda, on the other hand, is actually a little more gracious towards the player in defeat, suggesting that you've finally won his respect. One of the best displays of personality is Caesar's declaration of war. He announces he's going to crush your civilization almost like it's a waste of his time."
- "In addition to the regular offerings, civs that have discovered writing can also form research pacts with each other. For a little bit of cash up front, each civ gets a 15% boost to research for 20 turns."





Resources:
- "One hex of a given luxury resource is now good enough to improve happiness across your entire civ now as well, which should also encourage more trading among civilizations. If you've got two marble and two dye, there's no reason to avoid trading one of each away if you can get access to ivory or spice."
- "Strategic resources are handled differently. There the quantity is very important. One iron deposit, for instance, will only grant you the right to build and maintain, say, five iron-based units."


City-states:
- Florence confirmed
- "they're like NPCs that can help grease the wheels of diplomacy by offering bonuses to the civs that they like best."
- "If you give them gifts of gold or units, they'll start to like you. If you fulfill their requests, like saving them from a barbarian attack or capturing one of their city-state rivals, they'll like you even more. If you liberate them from a foreign conqueror, you've probably made a friend for life."
- "It's interesting because even between two civs that have no other reason to hate each other, the presence of a small third party can make diplomacy so much more complicated. Imagine that the tiny city of Florence is right between Hamburg and New York. The Germans and Americans might not have any reason to go to war with each other except for the swaying sympathies of this one tiny city and the bonuses that it confers. History's full of large wars that were launched over small cities, so it's great to see the chance for that to play out in Civ V."





Borders:
- "Borders are also handled a bit differently. Instead of just dropping a big culture bomb at certain thresholds, a city's territory will keep better pace with population and grow one tile at a time."
- "It's still based on culture, and you can drop some cash to speed things up, but culture growth will be more relevant over the long term in Civ V."
- "the game will weight growth towards "good" tiles like grassland or wheat and away from "bad" tiles like forests and mountains."
- "If you found a city right on the edge of Rameses' borders and suddenly start rapidly taking over all the land that produces the most food, you're likely provoking him to start a fight."


Visuals / Sound:
- "the whole game makes use of distinct geographic flavors, so you'll be able to tell whether a forest is meant to represent Europe, Africa, Asia or the Americas. The entire game has a much more painterly look, as well, which makes it seem more natural overall."
- "you'll be able to hear the tiles you're focused on but also the sounds of the desert or water off in the distance."
- "if you've got a surround setup, you'll hear them happening relative to where they are on the screen."
- "Each civ has lists of licensed music from its own culture (Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and America), and you'll hear either the war playlist or the peace playlist depending on how you're behaving."


Final Word:
- "While the community is likely hungry for even the minutest details (yes, you need to research the calendar to access cotton; yes, you can build Shakespeare's Amphitheater; yes, Montezuma is in the game) we're more curious about the bigger picture."
- "we'll have to be patient until we get more information."

IGN have posted a preview of Civilization V. Among other already confirmed features, the IGN preview brings to light the following:

• Designer Jon Shafer, Producer Dennis Shirk
• One Military unit per tile [still leaves open for civilians on the same tile]
• Cities have one garrison unit only
• "Diplomacy has a wider focus but has also been streamlined a bit."
• City states can be used as leverage against other major Civs in diplomacy
• Religion & espionage removed
• Interface influenced by CivRev
• "While the new game still maintains a level of complexity that's appropriate for the series and the PC platform, the interface elements have been folded back to reveal more of the playing area."
• "Small icons will appear along the edge of the screen to give players notifications of important events or opportunities, and you can instantly snap to any of the relevant locations to get your own appraisal of the situation."
• "It's all an attempt to make the game more accessible without compromising on the depth or details."
• "Additionally, if you haven't set a research priority or a production order for one of your cities, the end turn button will instead take you to those screens."
• "the designers are moving away from the silliness of the console game to create a more somber PC sequel. "
• The advisors are making a comeback
• "the new version of Civilization will be even more moddable than Civ IV"
• "will contain a browser for full community interaction, so you can search for, discuss, install and rate mods all from within the game shell"

IGN have promised more details to be released next week, say stay tuned and we will bring those details to you as soon as they are available!

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Just hitting Market Watch (and other sites) is Take-Two's quarterly fiscal report. It reports growth in revenues over the holiday period lessening their losses more than expected.

Of important note to WPC members is noted in the final paragraph where Take-Two may bump Sid Meier's Civilization V to 2011.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tak...ets-2010-03-03
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tak...k=MW_news_stmp

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The SMAC(X) March 2010 GotM Posted has been posted.

Commander John Kirkway has been appointed by Brother Lal to establish the United Nations Space Agency and lead humanity back into space during a time of war. Can you hold off the Hive long enough to launch a satellite? Do you have the Right Stuff?

A scenario featuring a custom Peacekeepers faction by veteran SMAC modder Mart, with art by notable WPC loudmouth Buster's Uncle.

If you haven't played Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in a while, now is the time to try something that promises to make it all new and fresh again.

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Carry on. Regular co-hosts Joe "joebreeves" Reeves, Grayson "Grayson" Middlebrook and Matt "elthrasher" Morgan lead the RevCast (RC) panel in its seventeenth episode entitled "So On And So Forth"; now netcasting, this second season premiere has a runtime of 29m59s. It is the show's second composite episode of archived segments. The summary of topics is as follows:

- 00m58s | Topic #1
Towards the potentially elusive "Here's Looking At You, Kid" achievement for Civilization: Revolution on the Xbox 360 (from Episode 17).
- 06m22s | Topic #2
Ounces of prevention, as well as pounds of cure, for several common unintentional game freezes (from Episode 17).
- 13m49s | Topic #3
Which of the three CivRev console platform releases is generally preferred (from Episode 01).
- 19m01s | Topic #4
Analysis of the "Attack of the Huns" scenario (from Episode 09).
- 25m18s | Topic #5
Transitioning from the CivRev singleplayer to the multiplayer sphere (from Episode 17).

RevCast is the second spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast; the modding-centric ModCast was the first such spin-off. Unlike either of its older siblings, RC has no defined segment categories.

So long as personal space is maintained. The eighty-seventh episode of PolyCast, "The More You Know" (Part 1), features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, Stephanie "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and Lisa "qnl" Bang with first-time guest co-hosts Ian "frunobulax" Stonehouse and Gil "kossin". The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m55s | Research Lab
Multiple technological advances at once, governments by drift and elevation and terrain features for the Civilization series.
- 20m49s | Vault (1 of 2)
An argument for earned traits.
- 27m54s | Miscellaneous
Looking for hidden hotkeys and tips in CivIV.
- 30m46s | Vault (2 of 2)
"You Feel So Good" in CivIV when, how to spot hogs in CivIV multiplayer, and deselecting waypoints.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
The case for Barbarian unit alliteration, and a singing solo from one panelist to another.

PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; sibling show ModCast focuses on Civ modding and RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution.

As always, enjoy.