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Civilization III fan site Apolyton.net has posted an interesting new article featuring a paraphrased interview with Sid Meier and Soren Johnson. The piece covers some of the more technical aspects of the game, as Johnson was responsible for the artificial intelligence and Meier was the game's namesake and overseer. A variety of topics are glanced over, though a full interview should be posted shortly.

Here's an except with details on the game's artificial intelligence and levels:

AI
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Soren was in charge of the AI and it took "7 or 8 months of his time to write it about half writing and then half testing." He'd set the AI to play against itself for ten minutes, and then rewrite as necc. He also tried playing against it himself, of course.

Levels
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The house rule is that they test the game at Regent level. Anecdotally, they believe that people start at a lowish level and then work their way up until it becomes too difficult.

They've deliberately made the step up in difficulty level steeper than in Civ II (and I think it's generally agreed that they've succeeded).

I asked about the perception that the patches have partly been designed with the macho intent of preventing players using "loopholes" to win at high levels and Soren said that it depended on whether they thought that the strategy was "fair." He mentioned the de and re-reforestation ploy which worked originally and was then eliminated and said that he thought that "wasn't much fun."

IMG Review: Civilization III

Apolyton: Talking with Sid and Soren

Civilization III (add to watch list)

Firaxis Games (add to watch list)

Buy Civilization III

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