First Impressions

[Spatzimaus]

Comrade: I won that one (cultural victory), and started a new game on a Tiny 1-continent map. Man, that is COMPLETELY different. When each strategic resource exists in only two places on the map, and two of the luxury resources don't exist at ALL, diplomacy takes on a whole new meaning.

The other beautiful part of this is Corruption. Here's the situation: I'm on Prince level, against the Babylonians, Germans, and Zulus (we form roughly a square, with the Zulus across from me). The Zulus get all uppity, so I attack with four or five Immortals, grabbing two of their cities including the capital. After a bit of settling I've got maybe 10 cities, the Zulus have 3, and the others have 5-6. But, the corruption under Despotism is so bad that cities eight or nine squares from my capital have total corruption! Even when I switch to Democracy the corruption in the ex-Zulu cities is unbearable; I end up putting the Forbidden Palace there (using my only Leader) to solve it. The Babylonians were actually outresearching me at one point. It looks like it really pays to keep your empire from getting too big... I might actually raze more from now on.

The AI could use a little tweaking for wars. I had a border city with only one Musketman, the Babylonians attack it with 10 Archers (end result: 5 dead Archers and an Elite Musketman before my Cavalry arrive and mop up). I've been waiting for an excuse to invade the Babylonians, since they're the only civ with Dye and Wine and they refuse to trade with me. Even knowing I had gunpowder defenders and cavalry, only two of the Babylonian cities have any defenders more advanced than Spearmen! Oh, and the only saltpeter deposit in Babylonian territory was right on the border... they never made musketmen again.

End result: Space Victory; it was funny, I had tanks and mechanized infantry sitting across the border from archers and knights.

The Space Victory has a nice movie. The culture victory has nothing. Haven't seen any of the others yet.

Dissident: my opinions of naval units are pretty simple: Battleships! Carriers are only good on certain maps since re-basing has no range limit. It doesn't look like you can upgrade most naval vessels, so there's not much point in making certain types. Bombardment can be really useful now, but once you get Bombers they can do it just as well (until SAMs). The main reason to make naval vessels is to set up trade routes, although on an archipelago map you might find more use. Also, while Airports eventually allow you to airlift units between cities, for some reason you can't airlift Workers or Settlers, so you'll still need Transports.

Ralf: no, you don't get to work all 20 tiles until your border covers that area (which doesn't always require culture 10; nearby cities give synergistic borders, it's hard to explain). You can't work tiles outside your borders. And there's still the empty continent effect sometimes; on my World game Africa was uninhabited until the 1500s (when all five remaining Civs grabbed a piece at once).

Oh, and there's one thing they added that helps the game tremendously. If your unit attacks a city and loses, you can't reload to change the outcome like in SMAC; it'll play the same way the next time. Either wait a turn or attack with a different unit first. You can't redo a given event over and over until it gives you the result you wanted.

Whew. I needed a break; back to playing... I want to try a Huge game.

[Chowlett]

Originally posted by Spatzimaus
on my World game Africa was uninhabited until the 1500s (when all five remaining Civs grabbed a piece at once).

That's reasonably realistic. Think European Empires.

[Dis]

just started a game today. played for about 2 hours. but its trick or treat time (me giving out candy, not me trick or treating ), so more later.

No fundamentalism. I'm very disappointed, but it was vastly overpowered, but I was hoping they would at least replace it with fascism or something.

no unit bribing. I felt it was reasonably realistic. There are mercenaries after all. But you shouldn't be able to bribe an entire army. I never used it much in civ2 (only in smac) so no big deal for me.

I haven't got to naval units yet. I love naval warfare. I hope it is decent. Anybody got any stories? I have a feeling they neglected the naval part of civ3. 1 planet option allows you to have 1 big huge giant continent. Not my style.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Spatzimaus
Whew. I needed a break; back to playing... I want to try a Huge game.

Your game diaries are high quality; keep them coming.

[Stromprophet]

Where the crap are the scenarios?

They promised scenarios, so where are they? In fact they confirmed that officially a while ago.

Also, my sound seems to be not working, can anyone help, how can I enjoy it with no sound? My sound has been working fine for weeks, on all games, and with my MP3's. Don't understand.

hmmmmmmmmm.

[Lorizael]

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO I JUST GOT THE GAME!!!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.... IT INSTALLED..... AND NOT IT'S DONE...

I'M GONNA PLAY NOW!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!

Be back later with info!

[Stromprophet]

Man, weird. I need some help, I played Civ II a lot, and I don't know how to Buy stuff in the city screen, I looked in my manual and it doesn't say anything about it. So what Am I doing with all this gold?

Another thing, I feel like I'm missing a bunch of menus and I can't seem to find them. Any help would be cool.

My impression is a little off right now, I wanted my scenarios. It's really cheap that they did not include them when they were confrimed months ago, I feel we should get them for free, and the company should send them to every customer free of charge.

I like the interface, if the manual were more detailed it would help. So far ok, seems a little slow with no double production, double movement.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Actually Mad Viking, historically 100 years was a perfectly reasonable time to hold a grudge, especially in the Middle Ages/Rennaisance era! Look at how many wars were fought between France vs England, England vs. Spain, France vs. Prussia etc. etc. In fact, 100 years might be too short, after all, a lot of people still think that WWI was fought as a result of grudges between European powers that dated back almost 1000 years!!!
Sorry this is off topic, but being a lowly Australian, I don't have the game yet, and I need something to talk about!!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker

[orange]

100 years war
Constant struggles between Rome and Carthage, Rome and Greece, Rome and....well...anyone

[Spatzimaus]

Stromprophet: in the City screen, just to the upper left of the button you use to select what you're building is a small icon of a boot, with an arrow pointing to the right. That's the Hurry button. Of course, if you're in Despotism or Communism you "buy" with population. Not very intuitive, I know, but you'll get used to it.

I'm hoping there will be scenarios on their website soon. Here are some other things I've noticed:

The early game drags too slowly; you'll be in 700 AD before you feel like you're making any real progress. Then when you get to the 1850s the technology will be rolling in so fast that you'll bypass entire generations of equipment, skipping to the one after to save money (Fighters are a good example; you'll have Jet Fighters so fast that there's just no reason to make the low-tech ones). Scenarios that let us slow down the tech at the high end would be nice, like a good WW2 scenario where the entire war is spent at roughly the same tech level.

The AI makes some stupid strategic mistakes when you're not at war. For example, I had four new cities in a square. No culture points yet, so small unconnected border squares with a gap in the middle. The AI moves a settler in between my cities and founds his town in the center of the square. Of course, once my cities get 10 culture points he's now got a surrounded city that was absorbed pretty fast by my culture.

AI doesn't like trading equally. I mean seriously, I offer to trade a luxury for a luxury, but the AI won't accept unless I go 2-for-1 or something. Same with World Maps.

Leaders can rush production, which is nice, but it works against you too; you'll be building a 50-turn Wonder, and on turn 48 the AI gets the required tech and rush-builds it in his city.

I started a 16-way Huge game on Regent/Prince this afternoon. Man, what a mess. My continent has five civs (Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Zulus, and I'm Persians) and the best part is that I'm just worried about staying alive in my own little part of the world. The key to the game so far? The Babylonians built the Great Library, I captured it and got 15 techs in one turn (taking me from mid-Ancient Era straight into the beginning of the second age). I had spent all my effort building small cities, so my tech stank. I love that Wonder.
The Americans seem to be winning, on the next continent over; I know because they've built more Wonders than anyone else and all my neighbors are at war with them.

Oh, and Jungles are BAD. I captured a few jungle cities, and now I'm wishing I razed the things. That disease really screws you up; the city I captured was size 8, and it went all the way down to 1 before I could stabilize it (disease AND resistance don't mix)

This game has some issues, but it's definitely a good one.

[Dis]

there must be an easy way to see which cities are revolting, and if they are still in a revolt status.

I do like the smoke rising from the cities. But once you have a whole bunch of cities. you have to scroll around to find them, and they might be missed.

the domestic advisor screen doesn't seem helpful in that regard.

I miss the attitude advisor screen

game is kind of slow. maybe I shouldn't have played on the huge earth map . It's taking forever for me to get out of australia. And so much jungle. I want to keep my territorial lines continuous.

I'm kind of concerned I might be getting bored of civ games. Maybe once I get in a serious war it will be better. I finally got to some diplomacy with 3 other nations. But I'm still so far apart.

And my research is going slow. I'm still in midieval times (the second age). I need navigation (or magnitism) bad. I must have missed something. no seafaring I supose. I'm still stuck with galleys.

I don't recommend the huge maps unless you have a decent amount of patience.

aside from a few missing screens (attitude advisor), most of the interface is smooth. No crashes for me. save game is fast. Load game is decently fast ( the initial load after restarting the game was a little slow). A few other minor things.

Overall the rules and gameplay are great. They are what civ2 should have been. But it really is civ2 at heart. Pretty much the same game. The main difference is the inclusion of the cultural boundaries. A feature I like a decent amount (but still not ecstatic about it) Another difference is the army feature (haven't yet had a leader created so I haven't had an army)

[SonofDogbreath]

Originally posted by ElitePersian 1) no crashes
2) my system bogged down late in the game (p3 450, 256)

how slow did it get? did it get choppy whne you moved the mouse across the map? i have about the same setup as you do, and im concerned about this. and i dont think the geforce 2 gts 32MB will do much to accelerate this game.

It didn't get that slow, maybe 10-15 seconds or so for the AI to finish their turns. The only place that it got truely choppy was on the Civilopedia screen. I'm not sure why.

[LarryM]

Latest impressions:

I've given up on monach (King) level for now; I'm playing on Regent (Prince) now. Still somewhat tough going; I'm in second, but with several other civs close. The research is coming more quickly; don't know if that's just because I'm playing on Prince.

The terrain is getting a bit annoying - so much jungle, desert, and mountains. My first impression was that this was a good thing, adding to the challenge, but now I'm not so sure.

Corruption seems to be lower under Prince. Is this one of the things that varies depending on level? Anyone know what the differences between the levels are, other than AI production?

I'm getting the impression - not so much from my own games, but from reading other posts - that, despite the fact that a warlord style has gotten more difficult, that picking a civ with a good early unique unit and fighting some wars in the ancient era may be a sound strategy. Give yourself a little breathing room.

[LarryM]

I'm playing a commercial civ (the English) this time, btw, which, on reflection, probably explains the lower corruption/ waste. I get the feeling that I'm going to limit myself to commercial civs for a while.

Oh, and another thing. I've mainly been playing expansionist civs. Well, two of three games so far (two of which were abandoned in the early medieval age). In both instances I get a settler from a goodie hut early in the game - helped me get a good head start. And the scouts really speed up exploration. In the long run, though, I suspect that expansionist is not as good as some of the alternatives.

[art_vandelai]

After getting soundly trounced at many attempts at playing the game at Regent level, I went all the way down to Chieftan (the easiest) and started over. Chieftan in this game plays a lot like Prince in Civ II.

Still, fighting battles off of my main continent is a challenge, although I lead by a mile in tech.

Here are some of the interesting observations I've made:

When the AI builds cities (and it does so with incredible speed in the early game) it tries to keep your civ penned in and rushes for resources. I've yet to see it use a colony.

I was able to convert 2 English cities (England and I shared the same continent) with culture in the first age. The rest, my knights took care of later.

The AI seems to geometrically build more cities up to a point (about 500BC - 0AD). After that, it gets very aggressive, especially if you're still trying to expand and are militarily weak. It's very difficult to get good culture going early AND defend yourself from the aggressive and quickly expanding AI. If you're going to go for a culture victory, you have to stay fairly small and close together to defend your territory.

I've found most bombardment units to be pretty useless. Even cannons only hit their targets about 50% of the time and usually only knock off 1 or 2 hit points, and be careful about bombarding a city that you want, you can kill people and destroy improvements and not even damage the armies inside.

The AI defends itself relatively well (which it should with the extra move points from roads) and it's extremely hard to take cities on another continent. I sent scores of musketeers (I am playing the pink French) over to Russia's continent by sea on both sides, and only was able to take 1 city on each side. I then had to make peace with them so I could concentrate on the Indians.

I thought after circling my only iron producing city (which is on the Indians' contintent) with fortresses in the hills and mountains fortified with pikemen (3 defense) would prevent anyone from taking my city. About 10 indian archers and swordsmen broke our peace treaty, walked right through my defense a few turns after I started my offensive in Russia.

It's tough making much progress militarily without cavalry. These seem to be the most important fighting unit of the midle ages.

I've now just entered Industrial Age, and the techs are coming fast and furious.

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by art_vandelai
I thought after circling my only iron producing city (which is on the Indians' contintent) with fortresses in the hills and mountains fortified with pikemen (3 defense) would prevent anyone from taking my city. About 10 indian archers and swordsmen broke our peace treaty, walked right through my defense a few turns after I started my offensive in Russia

What, if any, effect did the fortresses have? I was under the impression that they gave zones of control to the units with 1mp that don't normally have them and/or allowed you an out of turn attack on people who moved past you.

[Friday]

I like it so far apart from the music and the lack of wonder videos. Really disappointed in those compared to civ2.

Gameplay/diplomacy/UI and graphics are all decent though.

[Spatzimaus]

The thing I love about the game the most? There are times when you NEED to go to war, over resources. For example, on my Huge game, I just got Gunpowder; problem is, I don't have any Saltpeter or Horses. The Greek cities right across my border have both, but the Greeks don't know Gunpowder yet. If I don't attack them immediately, I won't be able to survive in the midgame. Good thing I'm the Persians; without Immortals I couldn't do this.

[Tripper]

My first impression is that I don't like the interface. It is definitely better than Civ2 but not as good as SMAC in my opinion. Maybe I just haven't learned all the tricks yet.

Gripes:

1) When selecting a new unit to build from the drop down menu on the advisor screen that pops up, it doesn't state the ADM stats of that unit. Of course I will eventually have them all memorized, but until then I find it a nuisance.

2) There is no way to see what is all contained in a tile. right clicking the tile will tell you what the basic terrain is but it doesn't mention the improvements (I spent quite a few seconds comparing graphics in the civlopedia to what was on the screen to determine it was mines the AI was building all over). In SMAC there was a small section of the "control panel" devoted to detailing the tile. It stated what the basic terrain was, any specials on it and any man/alien-made improvements. SMAC's interface also showed all units currently in that tile. I am finding the lack of these features in Civ3 to be a step back.

Does this mean I don't like the game? Heck no! I'm still playing it every spare moment! I just find myself missing these amenities. Or maybe I've just played too much SMAC.

[CubsFan915]

Originally posted by Spatzimaus
Stromprophet: in the City screen, just to the upper left of the button you use to select what you're building is a small icon of a boot, with an arrow pointing to the right. That's the Hurry button. Of course, if you're in Despotism or Communism you "buy" with population. Not very intuitive, I know, but you'll get used to it.

Or, if you're on the main map screen, you can right click on the city and select "Hurry Production"...

[Stromprophet]

Actually I finally got my sound to work, which was in part my fault. I have a sharing program on the net, and it has to have it's volume turned on for my systems volume to be on.

Now, I am havong other difficulties. The game won't start. It just won't start at all. It starts up, I see the infogames logo, and it freezes.

I have all the system reqs and more, and this usually never happens. Any suggestions? I've reinstalled a few times now.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Stromprophet
Actually I finally got my sound to work, which was in part my fault. I have a sharing program on the net, and it has to have it's volume turned on for my systems volume to be on.

Now, I am havong other difficulties. The game won't start. It just won't start at all. It starts up, I see the infogames logo, and it freezes.

I have all the system reqs and more, and this usually never happens. Any suggestions? I've reinstalled a few times now.

I initially had a bad skipping sound in the music. Tech support advised me to set sound debugging in the DirectX contol panel to none or basic. None caused the freeze you described above. Basic left the skipping in. So I turned the music off--games runs beautifully without it.

Cheers.

[ember]

One thing I like is that with RR, your units just teleport, it doesn't bother animating the whole trip. Saves lots of time.
I really like how roads are not effective in other territory, although that may be going to far, I would prefer if tehy were reduced effectiveness, like hills with roads count as if tehy were plains. THere is a path to follow after all.

Havn't found bombards to be a whole lot of use yet, except against invaders, then they rock, as thier units can't heal.

Against the zulu's I took a major city, but it revolted, with lots of fancy units in it, I think i'm going to try that again. Bombarding could be usefull here, just to bring the pop down to where you can controll it, and to remove the defense bonus.

Infantry are tough to remove, even with tanks. The retreat when at 1 HP helps alot though. I have yet to get a leader, wich mans I can't build an army, and I need an army to get the mini-wonder that lets me build armies. Have yet to try that part out yet. I'm thinking 3-4 tanks as an assult unit would be nice

Rousources are key. Had to pay through the nose to sucure some coal from the english. Now is my time to shine though, I'm setting myself up as opec, becasue I controll 5 out of 6 oil that I know of. One is traded for Oil. THe rest I'm just going to sit on and deny everyone else their use. As long as I get Uranium ( I do have Alluminum)

When I launched a war for coal, found invasions are much harder than CIV II. The AI counter-attacked with a huge stack of units. Most were semi-obselete, but still enough to get by my front line ans start ranscking my infrastructure

[tmarcl]

Ok, after about two days of straight playing, I'm ready talk. I first tried playing on Prince level. By the time I had three cities settled, the AI had grabbed most of the continent, leaving me with almost no resources. My most recent game is on Chieftan, with eight civs on a huge map. I'm on a continent with (what's left) of the Roman's. Everyone else is on another continent.

I'm not sure if the Romans were extremely lucky, or if this is a bug, but when I thought I had taken their last city, another one popped up on the other side of the continent! I'm letting them rebuild, since I've got access to nearly all the resources on the continent.

Trade is cool, much better than in Civ 2 (of all the changes, this is the one I like the most!) I love the look on your cultural advisor's face when she tells you a trade agreement has expired, and you're no longer receiving a certain good-you'd think you'd just sacrificed her first born child (now *there's* something for Civ 4...)

I have yet to see a cultural assimilation, though one may be due soon. So far, other than the Roman's, everyone likes me.

Marc

[tmarcl]

I was playing around in the city screen and stumbled upon it. After you click on the first item you want to build, hit Shift+click to select the second, third, etc improvements.

Marc

I'm playing on Regent level (formerly known as Prince level).

Sorry, but i just think this is funny LoL

Regent Level, formerly known as Prince

LoL

-LMP

[Jack_www]

I just got Civ III today, and I must say I love the game! I dont know what people are complaining about really. It runs prefectly on my computer, after a couple hours of play. Much better than Civ3. I also like the improved trading system in Civ3.

[Provost Harrison]

I have a good game up and running as the French. Just roaming the world, looking for people to do trade with. And believe me, I am a man with a lot of beaver (for once in my life) And saltpeter too.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by Tripper
Gripes:

1) When selecting a new unit to build from the drop down menu on the advisor screen that pops up, it doesn't state the ADM stats of that unit. Of course I will eventually have them all memorized, but until then I find it a nuisance.

2) There is no way to see what is all contained in a tile. right clicking the tile will tell you what the basic terrain is but it doesn't mention the improvements (I spent quite a few seconds comparing graphics in the civlopedia to what was on the screen to determine it was mines the AI was building all over). In SMAC there was a small section of the "control panel" devoted to detailing the tile. It stated what the basic terrain was, any specials on it and any man/alien-made improvements. SMAC's interface also showed all units currently in that tile. I am finding the lack of these features in Civ3 to be a step back.

Does this mean I don't like the game? Heck no! I'm still playing it every spare moment! I just find myself missing these amenities. Or maybe I've just played too much SMAC.

1. I agree, would be nice to have these available when you "swap on the fly" via the advisor screen.

2. Agree also. Would be nice (and not hard I would hope) to have the tile improvements listed either in the tile description via right-click, or else displayed in the "unit info" area.

There should be SOME place where the tile improvements are listed if for no other reason than having to get 3" away from the monitor screen trying to squint to tell if that road was really built through that forest/jungle square.

[LarryM]

My fourth report;

(1) I gave up on two games at monarch (King) level; I'm now well into the industrial age playing the English at regent (prince) level. I'm doing okay - I have a nice compact, efficient civ of 12 cities. I'm think I'm headed for victory, but I'm nowhere near first place yet (the Aztecs are way ahead), and I was as low as 5th or 6th at one point.

(2) I'm getting ready for my first aggressive war - I need to take a border city (that has stubornly resisted assimilation) in order to get some coal. I like the fact that the game gives me a reason to go to war other than mere lust for conquest.

(3) Coal, btw, despite some speculation to the contrary, is a very important resource - you need it to build railroads.

(4) I need to revise some of my previous comments regarding the aggressiveness of AI controlled civs. I speculated that the people who were reporting lack of AI agressiveness were playing on large or huge maps with (relatively) few civs, and stated that the AI was plenty aggressive on a normal map with 8 civs. Well, I was wrong, at least in part. The AI civs are plenty agressive early on, at least on crowded map. Howver, as time goes on, they have grown much more peaceful. No wars of any type in many years. This hopefully will be adjusted in a patch. (I realize that AI aggressiveness is higher on the highest difficulty levels, but I doubt that most of us will be playing on anything harder than monarch (King) for quite a while).

(5) I have almost no corruption, but then I have a compact civ of only 12 cities, with democracy, a forbidden palace, and the commerce special.