Civ 5 will allow conversion of Civ 4 maps

This new Civilization version 5, due out in the fall,  may be growing on me. I know I mentioned perhaps not even getting it but the self-doubts on that began immediately after writing it in a previous post. I’ll probably end up getting it, since we’ve gotten every version since the original, and Civ 4 with the Warlords and Beyond the Sword add-ons is the best iteration since then.

Not that I have a lot of saved maps  but this conversion feature will please many players, especially modders. The World Builder in 5 will allow conversion of your existing maps.

Still not on board with the ranged attacks. At these scales, archers firing more than one hex away seems to us like being able to shoot arrows from Miami to Havana. But I may be willing to live with that.

Note: I haven’t played Civ 4 in a few weeks, and so no tip posts lately. We have a few things in the works.  More later.

Civ 5 Preview at E3

Gamespot reports on the near complete new  fifth major version of the Civilization franchise at the E3 conference. Hexes, yes! I’m not too sure about the ranged combat at that scale, though.

Due out in September.

Polka Dot Banner Featured Author: Bill Shears

Bill Shears, author of Kite, is currently the featured author at Polka Dot Banner, an online  writers’ community . Here’s the interview: Bill Shears Explains Hard Science Fiction.

Book Review: Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell

Finally plowed all the way through Stonehenge, by Bernard Cornwell, for two reasons. One: we wanted to see the darn thing built. No spoiler there. You know the thing does get built.

How they raised the lintels is always a matter of controversy and as a warning for some Chariots of the Gods fans, there are no aliens involved, which is good thing. Give the humans some credit for the emergence of intelligence, and application of brute force which would have been their strength in that era.

It’s a plausible-sounding method I hadn’t heard of as a possibility. It does not involve building earthen ramps as has been proposed, due to — as one of the characters points out — a thin top soil layer over the chalk bedrock of the area; there might not have been enough earth to gather for ramps with reasonable effort. We won’t give the lintel-lifting method away. If it interests you then you are the reader the author is looking for.

The other reason we wanted to see this book through to the end was, without even peeking, we sensed there would be an afterward where the author talks about the research on which the book was based. We were looking forward to that and was not disappointed.

The author’s strength is in the knowledge — no, complete mastery – of the subject exhibited in that Historical Note afterward. He admits at the outset of the Historical Note that nothing of the plot, characters or action are anything but fiction.

Limitation of the narrative, in fact, prevents some of the more interesting findings on the site from being included, such as the fact that there are painted circles in the parking lot at Stonehenge that mark the locations of ancient post holes from 8000 BC, 5000 years prior to the start of the Neolithic Stonehenge construction.

In the story, a political/religious conflict involving early Bronze Age villages is conjured up, and all of it struggles to reach the level of contrivance. At the root of it, you find out early, is gold. In the afterward is a mention that a body had been found that had been buried with gold piece artifacts just like those in the story.

The hero, Saban, is not all that heroic, letting events wash over him pretty much exactly like a hero isn’t supposed to do, and at times, indeed, allowing himself to be pushed around and knocked about. At one point the line “Seize him!” is actually spoken. Enough said.

All in all a run-of-the-mill impetus to a plodding build-up to the construction of one of humankind’s earliest engineering achievements. Read it for the account of the gathering, transportation and placement of the stones, but don’t expect much from the surrounding story.

Kite freebie satellite sites on Wix and Weebly

With both Wix and Weebly you can raise some nifty Flash-based simple webs sites. Be patient and remember to save as you go, especially with Wix. Got pretty far along and the browser crashed and…oops! Luckily I had already been through the head-banging, how-to phase and within a half hour or so had reconstructing it easily enough. With Wix, too, make sure you pick the template you want before doing any any otherr work. It doesn’t seem like it lets you transfer content from one template to another.

Weebly allowed the rotating Earth Flash 8 animation. Wix refused the same files because it was not ActionScript 3-compatible, even though I didn’t write in any ActionsScript.

Weebly also gives you the better URL but is somewhat limited in layout of elements.

They’re both free though so who cares?

Kite Wix Site
Kite Weebly Site

Civ IV Tip #2: Check the Cultural Points on the Victory Screen

From your Medieval period on, be sure to check the Victory Conditions screen often, especially for the cultural point leader among your opponents. Number one reason is that the screen will list the opponent most likely to win a cultural victory over you.

Once a Civ gets three cities with Legendary status (50,000 culture points) the game ends.Whether you are going for a cultural victory yourself or not, while planning your own victory, a secondary task would be to prepare for a war against that cultural leading opponent, perhaps centuries down the line. If they look like they’re getting close to a cultural victory, attack. 

Secondarily, since there are only three cities that count toward a cultural victoy, you can check this list for your own three leading cities. This would be so that you can concentrate your cultural efforts in those cities alone. Build the cultural wonders there. Don’t even bother building culture-contributing improvements in any other cities for the purpose of contributing culture, unless the improvement gives something the city needs to maintain order, productivity or something that contributes to your entire Civ (knowledge or gold.) For instance, a Theatre contributes culture only to the city where it’s built (and one Great Person point .) You ‘ll not want to use resources or time building them in cities that are not candidates for cultural bringing cultural victory. Except you will have to build enough (five) to qualify for the Globe Theatre national wonder.

NASA issues future space tech RFI

Anyone planning to respond and cite KiTE as a source don’t forget about proper attribution. Possible techs from this prescient comedy to include: energy-agnostic launch method; space junk detection, slicing, dicing and processing; “BIC” reusable orbit booster modules…and more!

Civ IV Tip #1: Beware the Culturally Strong Vassal Civ

[This is the first in a series of gameplay tips on the peerless grand strategy game  Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. See below for series details.]

A rival civilization can win a Cultural Victory even it’s a vassal.

Even if it’s a CPU Civ and even if it’s your vassal and even if you lead in all other victory categories, you can lose. So check the victory condition screen often, not just to prepare for an attack on a potential cultural rival, but also so you know who notto take on as a vassal should the opportunity arise. This also implies that a vassals can win other victory type too, like a Space Victory. 

CIV IV: Destroyer vs. Galleon. No contest

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Note: This is the first of a series of tips in no particular order. We are coming to the end of a cycle of Civ IV play, started last year, when we realized we went through all of 2008 and part of 2009 without playing Civ I4. That was the year of Steel Panthers.  

The game set-up basis for these tips: Large, techtonic map, all options on and six CPU civs, Noble level difficulty, Ancient start and Standard speed.

Click the “Civ IV Tips” category for more (when as they arppear). These tips may appear irregularly but may also continue indefinitely, for what they’ll be worth. We may be playing this version of Civilization for years to come and we sense that this may be true for other gamer hold-outs as well. The next version, Civilization Vwhether it has hexes (interesting) or ranged fire (puzzling) or not, may get a look-see but we’re not optimistic about following it upgrade after upgrade as in past versions.  Even though there will likely be a store/disk version marketed, it sounds like you will have to registrer it online to play, and log in online every time you play, so this may very well be the last Civ version we play regularly after all these years.

2K games is shifting Civ V to Steam for DRM and bonus content. The DRM mean Digital Rights Management, translated it means  they will control the software in the name oif anti-piracy. We’ve seen Steam and recognize its advantages, especially for a game company. But we are not a member and may not become one. Perhaps it’s a bit old-school but we’re not attracted to the need to be connected to the network to be able to play a computer game on our own computer. Steam/2K Games and whoever else they share information with don’t need to know every time we fire up some title or other.

Once you sort out the installation of a software, should you have to depend on the speed and reliability of phone lines, the network, your ISP, the software company’s hardware and network, their ISP and who knows what all else to be up and running to work or play? This is the same reason we never installed “Final Draft” for writing.

Along with the blockbuster syndrome now infecting computer gaming, this may be a sign that, for us, the activity has hit the wall.

$1 Million Perfect Game Prize won in first 90 minutes

A 24-year old XBox Live player from Mobile, Alabama wins the 2K Sports Pitch a Perfect Game Challenge, and a million bucks, while hardly even trying.

Happy Free Comic Day: Jack Kirby Interview

“My inspirations were the fact that, I had to make sales, and I had to come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. In other words, I couldn’t depend on gangsters. I had to get something new. And of course I…for some reason, I went to the Bible and I came up with Galactus.”  — Jack Kirby