Considering that we are getting Blood Bowl in the summer, the board game elements of Civilization Revolutions and various other board games to Xbox live (settlers, ticket to ride) wouldnt it be a great if FFG got someone to port TI3 to the PC or Xbox? It seems like the perfect game to port.

There is lots of interest in turn based games on the PC but so far it seems the shift to online multiplayer for the classics like Civ have been very difficult. I think the main reason is that the single player of Civ is designed to be a game that takes 10+hours which doesnt transfer over well into the multiplayer realm. TI3 on the other hand is designed to played in under 6 hours and much more feasible for a single online session. It has the depth of strategy of the Civ games without the length.

Another benefit would be all the accounting that slows the game down for those that dont play on a regular basis. Some of the players in my TI3 group last week complained about how all the little things tend to drag the game out longer then it should really take. A problem that would be completely eliminated in a PC/Xbox version.

Not that I expect this to happen any time soon but an online computer version would be amazing.

A PC version would be cool. An XBox version, not so much, as I'd never play it, since I don't have an XBox nor do I plan on getting one. (Not that they'd really care about single-old me though)

I think the PC would be much more condusive to it anyway.

A PC version would also be picked up by me as well. I do not own any console systems.

What type of port are you thinking about?

Would that be an 'electronic gameboard' that in some way resembles the adaptions of many games on BrettSpielWelt? Or are you thinking about an on-line real-time-strategy game or a MMORPG?

I can see the benefits of an 'electronic gameboard' type of implementation. As mentioned earlier the accounting side of the game is mostly eliminated, this could speed up playing time considerably. I remember games that take a couple of hours to play in the real world, but in BSW they can be reduced to 30 minutes! A drawback would be that 'accountant' players (who usually can tell thefull status of any player without checking it with the actual gameboard and player sheets) loose the oversight they have while sitting around a table. Also the parts of the game that take place 'over the table' (the talking) is mostly lost.

The posibility to play with people on the other side of the country/ocean/world is a benefit. But you still need to find the time to have 3-8 players permanently online for a longer amount of time.The PBEM versions that are around also provide this added value. The fact that every player must be able to react to a lot of actions, creates a bureaucracy problem with all the actions that can be taken. I also remember a website that hosted an action-based system to play Puerto Rico. The neccesity for each player to be able to react to every action could slow down games to several months. (After Player 1 decides not to react, player 2 has to make a decision whether to react, before player 3 gets the opportunity,... It could also be that the all players have to decide if they want to react and when the system has received all decisions it will start a flow to resolve the situation.) In a 'real life' game there is usually a player who keeps the game running. That player collects the decisions, sometimes based on previous behaviour of the other players. Also all players know when it's their turn to make the decision, they do not have to wait for the system to inform them that the previous player made a decision.

Sorry for the babbling...
I think that a direct conversion to a computer version will not be playable enough. New players will loose track of where the game is and experienced player will think it to slow. (Even with the reduced accounting...)

A completely different game set in the same universe (either telling the same story of a different story) could be interesting. This would be a bit funny because FFG is creating some boardgames based on Computer games. (World of Warcraft, Descent, Warcraft)

Ya I'm mostly just talking about a straight port of the rules exactly into a video game version. I'm sure they could figure out the timing issues and it would be easy to implement some voip or chat channel so players could communicate with each other. Even if they changed it a bit. I guess my big complaint is more about the state of turn based strategy games on the PC. They arent really made to be played in a couple of hours and they are mostly all war games. The thing I love about twilight is how tactical the combat is and how you really have to economize all your plays, there are so many real ways to victory unlike Civ where all the victory conditions are simply window dressing for combat wins.

we can always dream though

Until (if ever) a TI3 port comes out, there are quite a few computer games out there to scratch that 4x itch: Master of Orion 1, 2, and 3, Space Empires IV and V, and Galactic Civilizations II, to name just a few. Of these, the Space Empires series is designed for multi-player, either hot-seat or PBeM.

I would like to say a PC version would be awesome but if your going to want an Xbox version what about a PS3 version? I think the PS3 version could really take advantage of some great looking cinematics in all their bluray goodness.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Sins of a Solar Empire.

It's a great game that has all the hallmarks of TI... expansionism, different races, fleet-building, tech upgrading, diplomacy and resource management. This is the closest thing to a computer version of TI you are going to find.

The mentioned PC games (GalCiv and Space Empires, for instance) don't 'scratch the itch' for me. A simple comparison of 4X games is a flawed one.

One of the strongest features in TI for me are the dynamics of any game compared to another. Each race is unique in play style and strategy. Compare Jol-Nar to Sardakk N'orr, for instance. As each player is different, and playing a different race in a different position each game, this creates a very dynamic gaming experienc.

In Space Empires you can "create your own race". What this means is that you can move sliders to get different percentage bonuses - like "My race is good at trading, I have +10% at trade". This is utter BS in my book.

It's like in Civilization - the game seems to boil down to finding the perfect strategy to win: how to optimize colonization, resource management, warfare and such. In the end when you discover the perfect strategy, the game becomes boring. And this perfect strategy is completely independent of you 'nation' or 'race', because the race is just meaningless numbers. Even the starting position is dull - if you have the wrong kind of starting position the perfect strategy might be impossible to execute.

I love Civilization and other 4X games, don't get me wrong! But TI3 is a very different experience, and near incomparable. I haven't yet seen such a game on a computer. If there is one, please tell me!

I would buy an xbox for this. It would also be super amazing because it would FORCE ffg to revise the TI3 rule book so that it was clean enough for a computer game.

I think an rts or mmo would be a really bad idea, they don't want to get into those markets. They should just concentrate on giving us an electronic board game not a video game using their properties.

blarknob said:

Alas, I wouldn't buy an XBox or any system for this. I have a Wii, but it's not made for this kind of gaming, so unless it were a PC game, I wouldn't even consider a purchase.

Like Days of Wonder I would like to see FFG start putting out a PC game board of TI3. I would definately use.

magicoctopus said:

This is exactly right and why those other 4x games never satisfy me like TI does. Those games are mostly about combat and conquering, even the tech or diplomacy wins usually rely on taking large amount of territory. TI is a much more tactical game than a war game. You are constantly evaluating the values of your different actions as they change in the face of what the other players are doing. So one turn you need to be a warmonger get the victory points then retreat and concentrate on tech VPs. What strategy cards to take, where to place you command counters, and what VPs you should be working towards all add together to produce this very original and dynamic strategy game. Civ type games almost always come down to simply being better and more efficient at production than your opponents. I've never found a computer game that is similar to TI and the only board game that I've played that hits the same mark is the original Avalon Hill Civ board game.

Since the things TI3 most builds on are, as mentioned, politics and tactics and not technically the fighting part, I think it'd be really hard to transport into a computer game. Particularly because the face-to-face aspect (or the PMs that go to and fro in PBeMs) are actually the main actors of the game, not really necessarily what's going on on the board.

Sins of a Solar Empire just got an expansion called Entrenchment that adds battle stations and whatnot, I'll have to check that out - loved the base game, although the battles can take forever

Regarding the XBox, consoles just aren't made for real-time strategy, or round-based strategy for that matter. Although Halo Wars will try something to that end. Unless you have tons of hotkeys and a mouse, it's hard to control strategy games properly. On the other hand, shooters meanwhile regularly appear on consoles, although the controllers still suck compared to mouse/keyboard aiming, maybe people will fall for gimped strategy on consoles as well

i think will never see a Ti3 gmae online.

reason is loose of board game ppl.the closest you get is vassal mod , its not hard to use but you still need a GM

But generally it's more accessable and it's also easier to gather people gotether online than off.

With the considerations of today's PC performance, TI3 would so benefit to be even an MMO! With each player able to roleplay within a faction. Gee, this game would really be of high value. Sure would break the "traditional" style of those MMOs out there. Strategy, Diplomacy and more !!! **looks to the stars**

-= Xavant =-

Omnicrazzy said:

For "shorter" games, yes. For long games like TI3, it could get very frustrating, for instance, if ONE person drops out 4 hours into the game...

They should do a TI3 on console/PC I would get it in a flash.

This is some pics for Wings of war on xbox/PS3

http://www.big-rooster.com/projects/wingsofwar/

looks good.

Xavant said:

Again I think an MMO would be a horrible idea. FFG doesn't want to try to compete in something they know nothing about. I think direct translations of the board game to some electronic platform would be the way to go and it would be awesome. The greatest benefits would be player access and revision of the rules. it could also speed up the game as long as it has ways to automatically pass priority.

ianlippert said:

seems like a good idea, however I seriously doubt that would turn out well.

it would probably be somewhat simplified in order to appeal to greater number of (casual) players.