Civilization Q&A Round One

I went out onto the forums and Civilization fansites and rounded up some questions from their members. Below is the first installment of an ongoing series of Q&A I'll be moderating for you with the team at Firaxis working on Civilization Revolution. Any question you have, post it to the 2K Forums or email me and I'll get it on my list of Questions To Ask.

How long is a typical game in Civ Rev?
Games will last anywhere from 3 to 4 hours depending on the difficulty level and your play style.

How does the game move so much faster?
We’ve made lots of adjustments in gameplay like streamlining the tech tree so research happens more quickly and lowering the cost of things like units, buildings, and wonders so you’re able to get them faster. In addition, maps are designed to allow quicker initial interactions with other civilizations and barbarian tribes.

Is this Civilization V?
No. We’ve built Civilization Revolution from the ground up to deliver a brand new Civ experience specifically for the Xbox 360, PS3 and DS. Civ PC fans will feel right at home playing Civ Rev and will recognize all of the goodness of Civ in this new game.

Will there be DLC or mods for Civilization Revolution?
Yes! We have a robust plan for downloadable content (including some scenarios) that we’ll roll out right after the game launches this spring.

What is the scope and scale of the game?
Just like the Civ PC experience, Civilization Revolution is an epic game that takes you from the Stone Age to the Space Age on your quest to rule the world. We’ve compressed the scale of the game in Civ Rev to allow for faster games and constant action.

Is there a cap to how many cities or units you can have?
Sid doesn’t like to have artificial caps on what you can or can’t do. That being said, I think that the game is somewhat self-limiting in this regard. With the size of the maps and the parameters around building cities it wouldn’t be feasible to have an endless number of cities and units. At a certain point you’ll run out of places to put them.

How is the combat system “revolutionized”? Is it something more than just math and odds as the old Civ games were?
In Civ Revolution each unit is incredibly detailed and life-like so you really feel that they are there to fight for you and help you conquer your enemies. You’re able to upgrade your units as they gain experience and also form armies from three of the same unit and share individual upgrades among that army. Underneath all of that there is still the math and the odds, but the presentation of combat is now far better than anything we’ve done before. The combat really comes to life and gets your heart racing with the thrill and excitement of battling your rival civs. In addition, an attacker now has the option to retreat if the battle is not going well, although this grants an automatic upgrade to the defender.

Is the core team from past Civs working on this game?
Many people on this dev team were indeed key players on previous iterations of Civilization, starting with Sid of course – the creator of the original Civilization who’s designing and leading the programming on Civ Revolution. And then we have some artists, programmers, and producers who were at Microprose with Sid and have worked on every version of Civ to date.

Some fans are worried that the Civ gameplay has been simplified too much…how do you respond to that?
Not to worry…we have not “dumbed down” gameplay for the console version. And if you don’t believe us take a look at what some of the hard core Civ PC fans are saying about Civ Rev at Apolyton.

What are the achievements going to be like?
Sid’s been having a lot of fun with these and they cover the gamut of game experience. We don’t want to ruin it for people by listing them because the discovery is half the fun with achievements. In general, some of them are basic to learning how to play the game – like building cities or creating armies and there are also advanced achievements like winning as every civilization or winning a game without ever being involved in combat.

Will there be different scaleable options for game length, world size, and difficulty like in Civ 4? Can we pick how many Civs we compete against and who they are?
To create the game balance that Sid is famous for, the number of Civs in any given game is fixed, and they will always be randomly chosen. That said, there will also be scenarios available that will provide you with entirely new experiences.