Firaxis,

Please divulge more information on what espionage and air missions can be performed. Also, what air units will be available in Civ 3?

Best Regards,
Yasha Buchler

Yasha,

Don't say you heard it from us, but here are a list of espionage missions you can perform in Civ III:

• Sabotage (sabotages the current project of an enemy city)
• Propaganda (attempts to convince an enemy city to join your Civilization)
• Steal Plans (reveals all troop locations of an enemy Civ for one turn)
• Steal World Map (reveals what an enemy knows about the world)
• Expose Enemy Spy (ferrets out opposing spies)

• Bombing mission (bombards the selected square, damaging units, city improvements, and population)
• Precision Bombing mission (targets a specific improvement in a city for destruction)
• Recon mission (investigates the selected square)
• Air Superiority mission (attacks enemy air units that enter the unit's defensive range)
• Airdrop mission (Airlifts a single ground unit to another location)
• Re-Base mission (Selects a new base of operations and relocates the unit to that base)

Dear Civ III,

Thanks so much for the game series! I've been playing Civ ever since college and have successfully "addicted" four of my Ivy league brothers since then (including my freshman roommate who dropped out - which you may be partially responsible for). I now work on Wall Street and several of my co-workers are equally addicted. I have two questions:

1) Number of opponents - What will be the maximum number of opponent's in the game? In an earlier question you suggested that the maps would be big enough for 16 civilizations, will it be possible to play with that many?

2) Future/past government goals- In SMAC the government function is quite dynamic and you could tweak your government by adding goals, ideals, future society(with pros and cons to each). Will this be available in CivIII?

Thanks!

1. Depending on the map size you select, you may play with up to 16 Civs at once. The foreign advisor screen will only display eight civs at a time, however, so you can hold shift & right click on any of the eight slots on that screen to select another known civ to display. Using the editor, you can modify the game rules to force even tiny maps to support 16 players if you wish, but we don't recommend it if you're claustrophobic!
   
   
2. We elected not to implement this style of government (Social Engineering) in Civ III in favor of a simpler, Civ II-style government system. We felt that the Social Engineering system worked nicely in the futuristic setting of SMAC, but seemed out of place in a game about current human history a la Civ III. Additionally, much of our mission with Civ III was to streamline the game, and we felt that the Civ II style of governments was simple but elegant.

Hi, I'm Brazilian and I'd like to know how I get more information about worldwide release dates. I don't know if I should be asking this here, but...

Good luck now at the end of the game development and I hope I get an answer soon, because I can't wait to play the game.

An old fan,
Renato.

Renato,

Unfortunately, we have no dates to report on release dates other than the North American / U.K. release date which is currently scheduled for 10/30. As soon as we get confirmed dates from Infogrames, we will post them here on Civ3.com. We know it's tough to wait, but we appreciate your patience.

Are there any plans to add in the aliens, ala Test of Time?

Thanks,
Dan

Dan,

There will not be any aliens showing up in Civilization III. Unless you mean the alien shapeshifter that assumed the form of Alexander the Great, in which case we have no comment.

Hi, my name is Jason, and my e-mail address is ((withheld)).

I was just wondering if you are still going to include the map of Earth in the game. I personally still enjoy most conquering the Earth, ( call me one of those wanna be world rulers ) and I hope that you are going to include that particular map in the game.

Jason,

Yes, Civ III will be shipping with two world maps. One is a "normal" sized map (100 x 100), and the other is a "Huge" map (180 x 180). Don't believe us? Try this on for size:

What is the difference between Civilisation III and Civilisation III Limited Edition?

This question seems to be coming up quite a bit, so let us clear this one up.

The standard edition Civilization III box comes with the game CD and a beefy 235-page manual. If you preorder the game from EBGames.com, you will also get a free copy of Risk for the PC.

The limited edition Civilization III comes in a special tin, and includes everything in the standard edition plus designer's notes from Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs, a fold-out tech tree, and a CD-ROM with behind-the-scenes footage of "The Making of Civ III" and Sid's induction into the IDSA Hall of Fame.

Preordering the limited edition will also ensure you a free copy of Risk for the PC. You can preorder the limited edition from EBGames.com by clicking here.

One of the frustrating things about Civ 2 and, to a lesser extent, SMAC, is that it seems almost impossible to play a game without warfare entering into it. I prefer the pacifist approach, using diplomacy, trade, and shared goal cooperation to get ahead. However, as soon as my Civ or faction gets much larger than the others, everyone wants to go to war with me, including my allies. This just isn't realistic--consider the modern USA as an example. Most viable powers in the world want to be our friends, and the weaker powers who don't like us don't dare to attack us (except for the obvious exception of terrorists). Will Civ III allow for a Civ to go through the game without Civ II's inevitable AI attacks?

Jim Flanagan

Jim,

One of our biggest goals with Civ III was to level the playing field so that diplomats had as much of a chance of victory as warmongers did. With the inclusion of resources in Civ III, the chances that you will have access to every resource and luxury you need are almost nil, so you will need to play nice with your neighbors and trade to get what you need. This kind of mutually beneficial relationship breeds the need for peace and stability. In Civ III, one thing you'll notice right away is how disruptive war is. Unlike previous versions of Civ, you will probably not survive if you spend the entire game at war. In Civ III, you will probably have to resort to military action at key points (your neighbors have coal, which you need desperately, but they won't trade you any), but it's entirely up to you. Diplomacy, trading, culture, and war are all tools which can be used to deal with situations that arise. You can choose to focus on one of those tools, but we think you'll have a much better chance of survival (and winning) if you know how to use them all effectively.