Civilization V Will Import Maps Made for IV

It seems that one of the steps the developers at Firaxis have taken in order to make the upcoming Civilization V as friendly to mods as possible will be to allow all those interested to import maps that have been developed for versions of Civilization IV, the previous turn based strategy title in the long running series.

Jon Shafer, the main designer working on the new title, told BigDownload at the E3 trade show that “You can import Civ IV maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ V maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it.” This could make it very easy for the best known mods to be converted for Civilization IV, which in turn would lead fans of the previous installment to make the transition faster and with less pain.

Civilization V is marketed by Take Two and Firaxis as one of the most mod friendly games out on the PC this year. Players now have the options to go to the biggest fan sites without actually leaving the title and then download and install the most popular mods quicker and easier than ever. The developers are also talking about launching powerful editing tools that will allow the community to change a lot of the structure of the new Civilization videogame.

The fifth main game in the series comes with quite a few changes, some of them made to pretty fundamental game mechanics. The place of squares on the man has been taken up by hexes, which allow for more strategic options. The combat is now built around only military units occupying a hex at any moment, with ranged units able to fire over the ones ahead of them. Neutral cities that can offer advantages when the player is peaceful will also change the way the early game is played, with diplomacy having the potential to become more important than conquest.