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#144 THE GROWTH OF REAL TIME STRATEGY RTS games: AS takes a look at their evolution, before returning to his Civ game... #143 WHY THE ALT. CIV. SECTION DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION (PT. 1) Ron Hiler wants to convince you that the playing field for TBS games has not been forgotten, but simply had a chance of venue. #142 MEMO TO FIRAXIS: NOW THAT CTPII IS OUT Raingoon is back with a message to Firaxis: what to do and what not to in CivIII. #141 CIVILIZATION II ATE MY HAMSTER It's no laughing matter -- Lazarus & The Gimp talk about the continuous return to CivII. #140 A JOURNEY OF 1000 MILES BEGINS WITH A SINGLE STEP Heardie familiarizes us to a new "Civ"-inspired game entitled Guns, Germs and Steel: Tools of Conquest. COLUMN ARCHIVE

Slick6 is currently on-hold while its engine is separated, enhanced, and extended for use in a 2001 IGF Student Showcase entry. To resume development in January 2001, Slick6 will be powered by a hardware accelerated 3d engine, dynamic user-interface, and an extensive scripting system. It will feature customizable races and units, so you can design your vision of the supreme race by selecting key traits and abilities, building it to conquer hundreds of multi-planet systems using starships armed to the teeth with your choice of weaponry. Not that you will be forced into conquest, you may also choose to explore the massive tech tree with peace in mind, creating a civilization advanced enough to outlive the stars.

Great Nations is a multiplayer Original Civilization clone which supports up to eight players. Game play is turn based but all turns happen simultaneously. It has all of Civilization's great features, plus new features like multiplayer, customization, and fog of war. Customization allows creation of new units, buildings, wonders, new maps, etc. Instructions for customization and example customization files will be available when Great Nations is considered ready enough. Great Nations is always under construction. Current development speed is quite slow because the authors are currently very busy with other projects. A free development version of Great Nations is available for download.

Clash of Civilizations brings three main improvements to the civ-game genre: Reduced Micromanagement (although the player can "drilldown" to micromanage lots of things if desired); significantly better AI; and making the game's history more realistic, at least when that realism doesn't conflict with the player's fun. One of these more-realistic aspects that are being including in Clash is a government model and characters that give you, the player, a new set of internal challenges to test yourself against. There have been four demos out so far to test limited aspects of game play. The next one, including multiplayer support, should be out in a few months!

Guns, Germs, & Steel - Tools of Conquest (GGS for short) is now in the prototyping phase. First demos are still far ahead, but when finished, GGS will feature a completely different vision of an empire building game. Older unit, city, and technology tree based systems are taken to a new level and replaced by armies, regions, and complex, non-linear technological system. The focus is on developing economic, social, disease etc. models into a level never seen before, and on creating a game which has its focus on large-scale strategical decisions. Modeling a convincing world and setting the player in control of it, with minimal micromanagement and good AI to compete against, or to set in control of part of your empire, is the primary goal.

Turn based strategy games are the epitome of the thinking person’s game. Of course we are all waiting eagerly for CivIII, CtPII, and Dinosaurs. But keep in mind the games I have briefly mentioned are just as exciting (if not as well promoted), and they need your input to thrive. They are the future of this genre, and you have the singular opportunity, even responsibility, to directly shape these games with your opinions, observations, and testing.

So come give us a visit.

(With thanks to all the gang at Alt Civ who took time out of their busy schedules to contribute to this article).

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About the author: Ron is the Co-Designer and Lead Programmer for Manifest Destiny.

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