Links for 2010-12-22

our biggest constraint is that everything is inter-related. To add a new element we have to design the interaction of that element with all the other systems. That was a real issue with Civ II – it had more of everything but it didn’t introduce any new systems because of that. I know it was tried but we found that the Civ system was amazingly balanced. We thought “oh we can change this, we can change that” and all of a sudden we realised we had broken the game. In Civ III we started early on we had to be very careful and thus we were able to introduce a new cultural system and new diplomacy. I think that is a stronger constraint than the expectations of what constitutes a Civ game. Most of those expectations are positive ones. We want to have the “one more turn” aspect to it and the “great leaders and great powers” aspect. We have changed some things – some people missed the terraforming and the Vikings but overall people have not complained about the changes.

(tags: civilization sidmeier )

From the very beginning of human history, humans have always desired to improve their physical surroundings as they see fit. The manipulation of the environment is certainly not limited to humans, however; we can see in the ways birds create nests and beavers make dams that changing the environment to suit your needs is a instinctive drive of many forms of life here on Earth.

Which reminds me, Alpha Centuari was explicit in applying value/ethics to terraforming. Civilization gave terraforming an implicit positive value. there is never a negative effect for changing the terrain, in fact it was an 'improvement'.
(tags: ethics terraforming sciencefiction alphacentauri )