6 ms·

the mini-games (dancing, the land battle strategy game) kind of ruin that version. it needs a modern version.

cosmicgadget 1y ago
I liked the land battles at the time, though they were definitely limited compared to its contemporaries. Dancing and sword fighting were unfun for sure. A modernization would be awesome, the closest experiences for me have been AC Black Flag and Rebel Galaxy. What's the Civ VII dev team doing these days?
- goosedragons 1y ago
  Trying to finish Civ VII.
- SPACE_LAWYER 1y ago
  AC Black Flag remains the most fun I ever had playing a video game
  - bluefirebrand 1y ago
    It still blows my mind that Ubisoft didn't really continue that sort of Open World seafaring genre at all I get that there's probably not a market for that game yearly but I'd play an iteration on Black Flag every few years
    - Sabacak 1y ago
      They did spend years working on a non Assassins Creed age of piracy game, Skull and Bones, but it ended up as a bad live service game.
    - mathgeek 1y ago
      They tried with Skull and Bones, but it didn’t hit well. Closest I have found is Sea of Thieves.
    - eyesofgod 1y ago
      I dont know. When I first heard about their game, I expected a neat pirate ship combat sandbox game, but instead it turned out to be a lame ass arcade shooter. I dont recall seeing anyone happy about this, outside white knights on reddit. It seems like there are a lot of niche game concepts and genres that are falling to the wayside as the major devs and publishers are more interested in dumbing things down for a larger, more casual (or in some cases more competitive audience). Hell Civ7 is sitting at mostly negative recent reviews after pulling that shit.
      - bluefirebrand 1y ago
        You're thinking of some different game, no idea what one tbh Assassin's Creed Black Flag is definitely not an arcade shooter though
- thejohnconway 1y ago
  > What's the Civ VII dev team doing these days? Writing the last 80% of Civ VII I should think. I've never played such an unfinished version of Civ at launch.
- Tomte 1y ago
  Probably the iPad port.
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  There’s Yakuza Pirates if you haven’t tried it out.
somenameforme 1y ago
I can't help but wonder if those parts of the game kind of work as a dirty bit, a fat friend, that makes the rest of the game feel that much better. Port Royale (and many other games) kind of take the core aspects of Pirates (open world, combat, trade, pinnace to ship of the line, retirement, piracy/privateering, and so on) and then try to expand on it allowing one to operate multiple fleets, developing cities, and many other such things - with no particularly annoying aspect. And they're enjoyable, but somehow don't come anywhere near Pirates, and I can't think of any particular reason why not. Actually come to think of it, most of every great game I can think of also had some really really terrible aspects. For a more popular example, the combat in Skyrim is some of the worst in any RPG. But perhaps these failings make the rest of the game shine that much more.
- bluefirebrand 1y ago
  > For a more popular example, the combat in Skyrim is some of the worst in any RPG The combat in Skyrim is much better than Oblivion though, and light years ahead of Morrowind Honestly? I kind of prefer it to something like Witcher 3, too. It's much more fast paced and dynamic because you are locked into first person and you have to be aware of your surroundings and such. Whereas Witcher 3, once you learn how to beat a particular enemy you can pretty much just do the same every time without fail, for the next 80-100 hours
  - regularfry 1y ago
    My impression of the combat in Skyrim got off to a shaky start because my first weapon was a thumping great two-handed warhammer, and I didn't realise how much that was slowing me down. I just thought it was rubbish and hard to control.
- jjmarr 1y ago
  Name me one bad part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
  - HanClinto 1y ago
    Thumb blisters?
bigstrat2003 1y ago
Dancing wasn't the greatest (though by no means does it ruin the game), but the land battles were awesome and made the game significantly better by their inclusion. I would love a new version of Pirates to see what they do with it (though maybe I shouldn't, considering how badly they ruined Civ 7), but the 2004 version is still incredible to this day.
ricardo81 1y ago
My memory may be wrong, but weren't the sequence of dance moves in the original manual? I think it was a form of anti-piracy- though playing it enough you could memorise the dance.
- GeneralMayhem 1y ago
  At least in the remake, I think the dance minigame was randomized, but you could pretty easily play it perfectly. The dance partner does a little hand gesture to show you what to do next, and then you just hit he key in time with the music.
  - ricardo81 1y ago
    Yep, I believe the original didn't have the hand gestures.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  > I think it was a form of anti-piracy- though playing it enough you could memorise the dance. The antipiracy measure in Civilization was possibly the weakest ever devised. After playing the game for a while (so the player gets a demo), it will bring up a screen that displays the image of a technology and asks you to choose the prerequisites to that technology. You answer by selecting one of four multiple-choice options listing technology names. So right off the bat you have a 25% chance of passing the check. The intent is that you consult the manual, which lists the prerequisites for every technology and also displays the images. But you don't have to do that. You can consult the in-game Civilopedia, which does the same thing. (You can't do that while you're being asked to pass the check, but nothing stops you from doing it in advance.) Or, of course, you're likely to have the answer memorized, because this is a fundamental part of the way the game works.
  - dragonwriter 1y ago
    Quizzing you with information from the manual which was also regularly relied on in gameplay, IIRC, was common in MicroProse games of the time (before they started using actual copy protection measures on the disks), not unique to Civ; as I recall, some of their combat simulators did similar things with weapon stats, vehicle silhouettes, etc.
glompers 1y ago
The 2004 Wii port had no land strategy but made some other compromises

I liked the land battles at the time, though they were definitely limited compared to its contemporaries. Dancing and sword fighting were unfun for sure. A modernization would be awesome, the closest experiences for me have been AC Black Flag and Rebel Galaxy. What's the Civ VII dev team doing these days?

goosedragons 1y ago
Trying to finish Civ VII.
SPACE_LAWYER 1y ago
AC Black Flag remains the most fun I ever had playing a video game
- bluefirebrand 1y ago
  It still blows my mind that Ubisoft didn't really continue that sort of Open World seafaring genre at all I get that there's probably not a market for that game yearly but I'd play an iteration on Black Flag every few years
  - Sabacak 1y ago
    They did spend years working on a non Assassins Creed age of piracy game, Skull and Bones, but it ended up as a bad live service game.
  - mathgeek 1y ago
    They tried with Skull and Bones, but it didn’t hit well. Closest I have found is Sea of Thieves.
  - eyesofgod 1y ago
    I dont know. When I first heard about their game, I expected a neat pirate ship combat sandbox game, but instead it turned out to be a lame ass arcade shooter. I dont recall seeing anyone happy about this, outside white knights on reddit. It seems like there are a lot of niche game concepts and genres that are falling to the wayside as the major devs and publishers are more interested in dumbing things down for a larger, more casual (or in some cases more competitive audience). Hell Civ7 is sitting at mostly negative recent reviews after pulling that shit.
    - bluefirebrand 1y ago
      You're thinking of some different game, no idea what one tbh Assassin's Creed Black Flag is definitely not an arcade shooter though
thejohnconway 1y ago
> What's the Civ VII dev team doing these days? Writing the last 80% of Civ VII I should think. I've never played such an unfinished version of Civ at launch.
Tomte 1y ago
Probably the iPad port.
bobthepanda 1y ago
There’s Yakuza Pirates if you haven’t tried it out.

somenameforme 1y ago

I can't help but wonder if those parts of the game kind of work as a dirty bit, a fat friend, that makes the rest of the game feel that much better. Port Royale (and many other games) kind of take the core aspects of Pirates (open world, combat, trade, pinnace to ship of the line, retirement, piracy/privateering, and so on) and then try to expand on it allowing one to operate multiple fleets, developing cities, and many other such things - with no particularly annoying aspect. And they're enjoyable, but somehow don't come anywhere near Pirates, and I can't think of any particular reason why not. Actually come to think of it, most of every great game I can think of also had some really really terrible aspects. For a more popular example, the combat in Skyrim is some of the worst in any RPG. But perhaps these failings make the rest of the game shine that much more.

bluefirebrand 1y ago
> For a more popular example, the combat in Skyrim is some of the worst in any RPG The combat in Skyrim is much better than Oblivion though, and light years ahead of Morrowind Honestly? I kind of prefer it to something like Witcher 3, too. It's much more fast paced and dynamic because you are locked into first person and you have to be aware of your surroundings and such. Whereas Witcher 3, once you learn how to beat a particular enemy you can pretty much just do the same every time without fail, for the next 80-100 hours
- regularfry 1y ago
  My impression of the combat in Skyrim got off to a shaky start because my first weapon was a thumping great two-handed warhammer, and I didn't realise how much that was slowing me down. I just thought it was rubbish and hard to control.
jjmarr 1y ago
Name me one bad part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
- HanClinto 1y ago
  Thumb blisters?

bigstrat2003 1y ago

Dancing wasn't the greatest (though by no means does it ruin the game), but the land battles were awesome and made the game significantly better by their inclusion. I would love a new version of Pirates to see what they do with it (though maybe I shouldn't, considering how badly they ruined Civ 7), but the 2004 version is still incredible to this day.

ricardo81 1y ago

My memory may be wrong, but weren't the sequence of dance moves in the original manual? I think it was a form of anti-piracy- though playing it enough you could memorise the dance.

GeneralMayhem 1y ago
At least in the remake, I think the dance minigame was randomized, but you could pretty easily play it perfectly. The dance partner does a little hand gesture to show you what to do next, and then you just hit he key in time with the music.
- ricardo81 1y ago
  Yep, I believe the original didn't have the hand gestures.
thaumasiotes 1y ago
> I think it was a form of anti-piracy- though playing it enough you could memorise the dance. The antipiracy measure in Civilization was possibly the weakest ever devised. After playing the game for a while (so the player gets a demo), it will bring up a screen that displays the image of a technology and asks you to choose the prerequisites to that technology. You answer by selecting one of four multiple-choice options listing technology names. So right off the bat you have a 25% chance of passing the check. The intent is that you consult the manual, which lists the prerequisites for every technology and also displays the images. But you don't have to do that. You can consult the in-game Civilopedia, which does the same thing. (You can't do that while you're being asked to pass the check, but nothing stops you from doing it in advance.) Or, of course, you're likely to have the answer memorized, because this is a fundamental part of the way the game works.
- dragonwriter 1y ago
  Quizzing you with information from the manual which was also regularly relied on in gameplay, IIRC, was common in MicroProse games of the time (before they started using actual copy protection measures on the disks), not unique to Civ; as I recall, some of their combat simulators did similar things with weapon stats, vehicle silhouettes, etc.

glompers 1y ago

The 2004 Wii port had no land strategy but made some other compromises