I Love Civ3

albiedamned · October 31, 2001, 18:25

Wow, I've been posting over in the Strategy forum today and I didn't realize all the negativity that was going on here.

I have the game, and I love it!! The new interface took some getting used to, but I'm getting the hang of it and I think it will be possible to play the game much more quickly using it. The only thing you need to go into the city screens for is to move workers around; just about everything else you can do right from the main map. You definitely have to get used to going to the various Advisor screens very often, especially the Domestic Advisor. However these screens are very well laid out and easy to understand once you've looked at them a few times.

The pacing is great. In Civ2 you could zip through the early years and get up to Cavalry, Industrialization etc. in maybe 3-4 hours. Now, I spent 6 hours or so just in the Ancient Era. I fought and won a major land war using ancient era units, most of which I never would have even bothered to build in Civ2 since they became obsolete so fast.

I think a lot of players are getting frustrated by the slow pacing, especially the slow tech development at the beginning. I think it's just something new to get used to. It opens up the Ancient Era and Middle Ages like never before. You can't play Civ3 like you played Civ2, zipping through the early tech tree and not even bothering to attack until you have air power. Don't you think it makes the game more fun now that you actually have to be active in all 4 eras?

The new strategy options really add depth to the game. I was fighting the Egyptians and they were coming at me with War Chariots. Well, I found their only source of Horses and pillaged the road. Guess what - no more War Chariots! But they managed to throw a few of my cities into discontent by pillaging a road I had on a luxury resource. So you have to consider defending your territory, not just your cities. The Indians are on my southern front, but thus far they've been peaceful. But I've built temples and libraries in all my cities near the Indians, and I've been piling up the culture. He founded 2 new cities near me, and I assimilated them both before too long.

The new AI is proving to be a very worthy opponent. I still suspect that we will eventually figure out ways to defeat it more easily, but for now it seems to be giving trouble to a lot of players whose game accounts I have read here on Apolyton, including me.

The graphics are great, although I understand those of you having video card compatability problems are probably not very happy. I also really like the music - I think it sets the mood very well.

So I just want to make it clear that despite all the negativity on this board, not everyone hates it!

Knight · October 31, 2001, 19:19

Amen.

I've been playing Civ games since the first one came out. Heh, I'll never forget when I went into my local EB, the day they were dumping all ther 3.5 disk games to make room for more CD games. I snagged Civ 1 along with about five or six other games and I really wasn't too excited to play it. Man was I surprised when Civ became the most addicting and exciting game I'd ever played. I kept games going all the time, and carried it on a laptop when I was out of town. When other games wore down, I could always go back to Civ. Colonization did the same thing for me, then Civ 2, which turned out to be even better than the first. I even liked Alpha Centauri, even though it didn't carry the historical theme that really turned me on.
I have to say that Civ 3 is the sucessor to all those great games. It took a bit of time to grow on me, but once I got into a game that was going well, I was caught in the same vortex that all Civ games seem to have. I wanted to play just one more turn. One more turn turned into 2:30am

I've been gaming since my Computer programmer Dad brought home the first Atari 2600, and very few games have managed to keep me up just one more turn. Civ 3 does it, and that's as much reccomendation that I can ever give any game. Now, if only there were a few scenarios....

dainbramaged13 · October 31, 2001, 19:31

I LOVE IT TOO

thank you albiedammed.

all the yaysayers are already in other forums because they actualyl HAVE the game, and all the naysayers are stuck here because theyre just speculating without the game itself

lschaef · October 31, 2001, 20:31

I love it too...so far. Haven't have enough time so far to play

It felt weird and like I was doing really bad how slowly the techs were coming early on, but I think I'm going to like not flying through the early part of the game. I've always like the land grabing setting up part of the game a lot.

The game isn't perfect, but figuring I started playing last night around 9 and suddenly it was after mid-night it seems like it still has that one more turn feel to it.

Asesino_Virtual · October 31, 2001, 20:32

WOW

, seems to be that the AI is really kick ass! What level are u playing??

Akillias · October 31, 2001, 20:36

Can u build more units without loosing a production in civ 3

albiedamned · October 31, 2001, 20:51

I'm playing on Warlord (level 2). I started a couple games at first on Regent (level 3), but I wasn't doing well so I decided to try Warlord first.

Döbeln_2001 · October 31, 2001, 20:59

Just got it... Been playing for awhile, and realized it's 2 a.m.

Time to get some sleep...

Oh, and the game seems to be great. I must admit Yin & Co had me worried there for a while though...

Regards / Döbeln 2001

Knight · October 31, 2001, 21:00

I started on Diety. Hehe. One thing I can say for the AI, it's no pushover. So far I haven't survived past 480 AD, so it's looking like it's time to tone down the difficulty. I don't know about the lower difficulty settings, but at Monarch and above, the AI BREEDS cities at an impossibly quick rate while still burning through tech and building massive armies. This really hurts when the AI decides to go to war with you and attacks with a coordinated assault on all your cities. Even better, the AI bunches up, taking weaker cities en masse first. After it knocks off your weak links, it moves up the food chain. When it finally went after my two biggest cities, it held back, let its forces replenish full health, and then massed outside my city before it attacked. Once all its units were massed for max effectiveness, it sent its weaker units or retreat capable units in first, letting the cannon fodder absorb the most casualties. Once they were spent, it sent in its more valuable units to deliver the finish. It even brought along spearmen units to sit back and wait to garrison my cities as soon as its offensive units were done. Good stuff all around.

Bakunine · October 31, 2001, 21:20

[QUOTE]This really hurts when the AI decides to go to war with you and attacks with a coordinated assault on all your cities. Even better, the AI bunches up, taking weaker cities en masse first. After it knocks off your weak links, it moves up the food chain. When it finally went after my two biggest cities, it held back, let its forces replenish full health, and then massed outside my city before it attacked. Once all its units were massed for max effectiveness, it sent its weaker units or retreat capable units in first, letting the cannon fodder absorb the most casualties. Once they were spent, it sent in its more valuable units to deliver the finish. It even brought along spearmen units to sit back and wait to garrison my cities as soon as its offensive units were done.[/QUOTE/]

WOW! Looks like this time the AI is really an AI.

Who knows in a few months when MP is available i will try to play some MP games to get weaker and dumber opponents.

Blunderdog · October 31, 2001, 22:17

Quote:

Originally posted by Knight
When it finally went after my two biggest cities, it held back, let its forces replenish full health, and then massed outside my city before it attacked. Once all its units were massed for max effectiveness, it sent its weaker units or retreat capable units in first, letting the cannon fodder absorb the most casualties. Once they were spent, it sent in its more valuable units to deliver the finish. It even brought along spearmen units to sit back and wait to garrison my cities as soon as its offensive units were done. Good stuff all around.

Holy Sun Tzu! If I see the AI doing that I might fall off my chair! That's great.

albiedamned · November 1, 2001, 00:53

Just an update. I'm now at 1190 AD, playing as the Greeks on Warlord. I have Gunpowder, I'm a Republic, and I'm rapidly rolling up the middle ages tech tree. I'm now discovering techs every 7-8 turns. Things are going much more quickly now than at the beginning of the game. I got off to what I thought was a slow start, but I've now realized that the beginning will always be slow - that is just how this new Civ works. My start was probably no slower than any of the AI civs, since I now seem to be dominating the game.

I'm definitely going to play my next game on Regent (Prince), because I'm realizing that Warlord is actually quite easy once you get the hang of it (and get over the fact that you can't start as quickly as in Civ2).

Sarxis · November 1, 2001, 01:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Akillias
Can u build more units without loosing a production in civ 3

Yes! You don't lose production anymore, since unit costs are deducted from your treasury (gold).

CivIII is a better CIV game on so many levels, there is just no easy way to say it, but:

CivIII ROCKS!!

Stromprophet · November 1, 2001, 01:14

I just finished playing a little.

1. I have several issues, my sound, still not working. I'll have to check up on it. I have no clue why, it works fine on all my games.

2. Figured out, we can't buy apparently, only hurry, talk about disgusting. How come I can't spend gold?

3. The computer was kicking my a** on Regent, and I consider myself fairly discent civ II player. Actually, I was pretty damn good. I would never expect to lose to a comp on any level. And barely ever to another player. Although on the plus side I think it's nice they built an AI that was good. I wonder if it's cheating however, it seemed to build very quickly. Much quicker than seemed likely.

4. I like this, I can have 16 civs all playing at once! Insane! It's pretty good like that.

5. Having trouble with armies, no how can I "unload" army units? Say I wanted to switch some units in and out. Took me a while to figure out how to load my units in the first place.

6. I pretty much enjoy the interface, although the comp should be more willing to go for some trades, some of them I gave them the upper hand definitely, and they just walked away.

7. I got out wondered, somehow it seemed very hard to keep up in the wonder race.

8. Gosh it's slow, I'm so used to double production, double movement. But still, 32 turns for research???? Comeon.

9. I'm dissapointed about the scenarios, veyr much so. They committed to 12 in an official announcement at www.civ3.com. I mean, they are obligated, I feel anyone who purchased the game should recieve scenario package for free. I mean this is ridiculous, it was listed on the features at the website. Phhhhhhhhhhhh.

10. I actually enjoy the screen, as soon as my sound works probably more, my units moving around doing stuff, workers, settlers, colonies.

Well, gonna play chieftan see how that goes.

albiedamned · November 1, 2001, 01:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Stromprophet
2. Figured out, we can't buy apparently, only hurry, talk about disgusting. How come I can't spend gold?

This is based on your government type. Despotism can only use Forced Labor to rush things. Monarchy and Republic use gold to rush. It's all in the manual and Civilopedia.

Quote:

Originally posted by Stromprophet
3. The computer was kicking my a** on Regent, and I consider myself fairly discent civ II player. Actually, I was pretty damn good. I would never expect to lose to a comp on any level. And barely ever to another player. Although on the plus side I think it's nice they built an AI that was good. I wonder if it's cheating however, it seemed to build very quickly. Much quicker than seemed likely.

Don't rush to assume the AI is cheating just because he built stuff faster than you. This game is very different, and it will be a while before we figure out the techniques for getting things done efficiently.

Quote:

Originally posted by Stromprophet
5. Having trouble with armies, no how can I "unload" army units?
Say I wanted to switch some units in and out. Took me a while to figure out how to load my units in the first place.

You can't unload armies. Once you form them, they're fixed.

Quote:

Originally posted by Stromprophet
7. I got out wondered, somehow it seemed very hard to keep up in the wonder race.

In my game, I'm building some wonders. But certainly not all of them. I have Oracle, Sistine, and Colossus. Great Library, Hanging Gardens, Pyramids, Great Wall, Sun Tzu, and Leonardo's Workshop all went to other civs.

Quote:

Originally posted by Stromprophet
8. Gosh it's slow, I'm so used to double production, double movement. But still, 32 turns for research???? Comeon.

As I keep saying on various threads, the pacing of the early game is much slower than we are used to. I believe this is a good thing because it makes you actually play during the ancient era instead of zipping right through it.