The Essential Civ 3 - Fixes

raingoon · February 15, 2000, 15:34

SUBMISSIONS ONLY!

Here is where you submit YOUR ONE FIX for the Essential Civ 3 list. Guidelines for Fixes are self-explanatory. What's the ONE THING in Civ 2 (or SMAC?) that needs to be repaired or detonated altogether in Civ 3?

The Essential Civ3 Fix list will take submissions until 11:59 EST Wednesday March 1st 2000.

Your nomination will be numbered and given its own discussion thread. Current nominations are:

Fix #1 Trade
Fix #2 ICS
Fix #3 Multiplayer Support
Fix #4 Diplomacy
Fix #5 Declaring War & Peace
Fix #6 Bring Back Natural Disasters
Fix #7 Established Borders
Fix #8 Improved Role Slots
Fix #9 Improved Auto-Settler
Fix #10 Better AI
Fix #11 Improved Combat AI
Fix #12 Each Civ Gets Its Own Folder
Fix #13 Bring Back News Report
Fix #14 No More Instant Civ Conversions
Fix #15 Improve Road and Rail Rules
Fix #16 Make it Harder for Civs to Last
Fix #17 A More Realistic City Model
Fix #18 Improved Nukes
Fix #19 Faster, Smoother Graphics/Interface
Fix #20 An Age-Relevant, Immersive Soundtrack
Fix #21 Implement Ranged Attack
Fix #22 Multiplayer Startup Options

[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited March 01, 2000).]

DaveV · February 15, 2000, 16:16

Trade - the interface is clunky and frustrating.

Narck · February 15, 2000, 17:50

A good fix for ICS

yin26 · February 16, 2000, 00:09

Multiplayer support from the ground up (from the code, to the features, to a site just for this purpose).
[This message has been edited by yin26 (edited February 16, 2000).]

Tiberius · February 16, 2000, 03:38

Diplomacy - more options for negotiations, pacts and treaties.

pkokko · February 16, 2000, 07:02

I am not sure whether this is a fix or an addition, but here goes:

A solution to the "Infinite Empire Growth" problem, aka "Eternal China". Have empires split, or colonies turning independent, or something entirely different, but make nations evolve and eternal empires the rare exception they are. But make it also fun and challenging to play.

yin26 · February 16, 2000, 19:29

...moving up...

raingoon · February 17, 2000, 06:10

current up to this post

Jeje2 · February 17, 2000, 07:11

Declaring War & Signing Peace

In CivII Democracy declaring war was very difficult and in SMAC way to easy.

For peace you must have more influence than in CivII. (Com on enemy sneak attack + meat my goernment an peace. Next turn all again.)

There has to be a more balanced system for CivIII. (I lost a lot of hairs due to this feature while playing CivII)

bcr3 · February 17, 2000, 16:44

I would return the natural disasters to Civ III, but with the extra suggestions we compiled back in August & September.

Though I'll also second the evolving nations and the more diplomacy options suggestions.

------------------
Anarchist Supreme of the Glorious PROT!

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Audentior Independant Nation.

Frank: "You live at Apolyton, don't you?"
bcr3: "Pretty much."

raingoon · February 17, 2000, 19:13

bcr3:

If you want to second a nomination, post that to the appropriate thread(s)!

Kristen · February 17, 2000, 19:35

I would like Established Borders!!!!

Seeker · February 17, 2000, 19:51

More and better "role" slots.

Theben · February 17, 2000, 22:30

Autosettler: Must be perfect.

raingoon · February 18, 2000, 04:43

current to this post

Steve Clark · February 18, 2000, 14:26

Better AI in the coordination and movement of military units. That is, have it limit massive stackings and have it recognize barriers (such as fortress) so it tries to see if it can go around and not at it.

raingoon · February 19, 2000, 14:37

oops.
[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited February 19, 2000).]

Ekmek · February 19, 2000, 15:06

My fix would be what I suggested in the Graphics thread and the Civilizations thread. CIVILIZATION SPECIFIC FOLDERS

That would be for each civilization to have its own folder. Each folder would have the graphics files (i.e. leaders.gif, units.gif/sprites, cities.gif, people.gif, icons.gif, flags.gif, cityimprov.gif, etc.) and game files (like events.txt and rules.txt for advances, units, city improvements, wonders, city names, leader names, govt names and types, etc.)

that way each civilization would have it own culturally specific graphics and game parameters, and events, etc. Then everyone's riflemen could have special uniforms, planes each look different, samurais instead of knights, cities look different at all stages of advancement and their improvements look different, and you can special tech trees and events.

With a patch you could probably almost do it to Civ2 like how scenario folders are done, just make civ specific subfolders. This would make scenarios more fun and increase the number of units (and etc) 7 times (I do hope civ3 lets you up to more civs than 7, like 30).

this can also apply to a terrain folder where you can have different seasons with different terrain attributes (like less food for winter) and it changes with turns.

raingoon · February 20, 2000, 16:55

BRING BACK NEWS REPORTS

Civ I's original news reports added to the immersiveness of the game, as well as kept you up to date on important events. I propose in Civ 3 the news reports be in the form of an optional News Ticker (you can turn it off and on during the game); also key events should be hyperlinked to the appropriate "hot spot" on the map; every five turns or so helpful or interesting information is reloaded, constantly scrolling in the ticker window.
[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited February 20, 2000).]

raingoon · February 20, 2000, 17:10

thread current to this point

Father Beast · February 20, 2000, 19:20

a fix for when you capture a city and all the citizens are suddenly yours. like the classic when you nuke the city and take it over, and they hold a "we love the conquerer" day.

yin26 · February 21, 2000, 00:46

-=*bump*=-

Dr Strangelove · February 21, 2000, 01:00

Trade: CTP had a more satisfying trade mode, didn't take dozens of turns searching for a city to trade with.
Can I say this, or is this too much like copying the idea from another company? Still, the endless searching really slowed down trade in large worlds.

raingoon · February 21, 2000, 06:01

Dr Strangelove

Do you want to add this to Fix #1 (Trade)? Or New Idea #25 (Improved Trade) which mentions adopting a CTP trade model?
[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited February 21, 2000).]

Gothmog · February 21, 2000, 09:58

My nomination for fixes.

An in-scenario map editor that allows you to add or remove rivers and change terrain under cities.

raingoon · February 21, 2000, 16:18

Gothmog, just want to point out New Idea #8 (currently on second page) nominates a comprehensive scenario editor. Did you want to add your suggestion to that?

Zanzibar · February 22, 2000, 02:46

A fix for the road-railroad system.
Roads are OK (3x movement). But the railroad system is just unrealistic. Think about it: if you airlift a unit (which is the equivalent of air transportation) you can't move it anymore in the same turn. But, on the same distance (presuming it's on the same continent), you can move a tank to the destination and you still have 3 moves for attack! Maybe something like 6x or 12x-movement rate would be more realistic.
I think also that the introduction of highways would be also nice. Roads-highways-railroads.

S. Kroeze · February 22, 2000, 08:13

MAKE THE GAME A REAL CHALLENGE!!

My severest criticism of CivII is that the game is too easily won. (And I NEVER ever cheat, not in any way!) After about 1500AD when half of the turns haven't passed yet, its clear who is going to win.
I'm not interested in colonizing Alpha Centauri, and neither does world domination appeal to me. Let just plain SURVIVAL of your culture- not necessarily identical to political power- be the ultimate goal! It would be nice if at the end of the game the earth is still a habitable place.

Most readers will realize that some well-known problems are the cause of the easy wins: the Infinite City Sleaze and the Eternal China Syndrom, both related to the 21-square city structure and the fact that 'heads' are counted instead of people. I think all those problems are the result of one essential flaw in the basic structure of the game.

Civilizations lasting for more than two millenia are the exception, not the standard. CivIII should try to depict the rise and fall of civilizations/ great powers. When a culture is succesfull it will almost inevitably grow conservative and convinced of its own superiority, causing other cultures to surpass the once dominant civilization. In this way its decline becomes inevitable!

apocalyptica · February 22, 2000, 11:50

City Control and Graphics

As we all know, the world does not exist as a series of huge population centers with emptiness in between. We need some sprawling suburbs to be realistic! In the zones around cities, instead os displaying mining or farms or whatever, show us smaller towns that are developing as the fringes of the city. They can grow larger and fill more space as the city grows, and change in their nature as you progress in technology and time. Plus, you can then "build" laws in cities regarding such things as urban growth, suburban sprawl, and local (not just global, as all other civ games have had) environmental issues. Plus, it would just look neat Move the display of mining, farming, etc to within the city view.

can you tell I like to micro-manage?

War4ever · February 22, 2000, 22:03

Nukes..... ie permanent damage radiation squares.... that cannot be fixed by the engineer....same as nuke reactor disaster... some land should be polluted permanently so that it discourages nukes

A nuke still causes 6-8 pollution squares but at least two at random should be permanent