CivIII General Feelings So Far?

DaShi · October 31, 2001, 23:02

How's it going?

Comrade Tribune · November 1, 2001, 00:26

Could some more of the people who have the game vote on this thread?

As yet, the response seems not exactly blissful.

Timeline · November 1, 2001, 00:33

Looks about tied at the moment. I don't think Civ3 is all that bad, and I think it is only going to get better once I learn the interface, new patches come out, and editor is released/improved.

I am having a blast so far . . . I can't stop playing!

LordRiker · November 1, 2001, 00:36

Im a big fan of Sid's Games but just after trying to play this its like Sid was abducted by aliens cuz this game doesnt look like a Sid Meier game to me, it looks like some imposter made it. even SMAC is better in my opinion but god knows this will probaly be like black and white where all the game sites will be raving how great it is because one of the Legends of Gaming designed it, but in reality it sucks

Comrade Tribune · November 1, 2001, 01:00

Those who have the game, instead of flaming each other, vote on the poll, please!

Then we who don´t have the game yet will at least know what the general impression is; so take a few seconds to vote on the poll; thank you.

Comrade Tribune · November 1, 2001, 01:37

To move this up again...

Uncle Thade · November 1, 2001, 01:43

I've had CIV III for 24 hours... exactly now and except for a few moments of blissful sleep, I have been at it all day and night. First impressions are:

-Good game definitely a step up from CIV II and CTP(2)
-some interesting AI quandries but seems fairly balanced
-Wonder Movies or lack thereof, the game seems dull without the exictement of those movies (ya ya, I know we all stop watching them after the first week)
-Graphics are mediocore, and with some games out there having detailed and robust 3D graphics, kinda makes me wonder.
-music is lacklustre and uninspiring, sorry it puts me to sleep
-sound effects are fine and interesting
-playing on huge maps, lots o' cities, lots o' units and nary a wink from the computer( PII 400, 256MB SDRAM, lots of HD)
-haven't figured out queuing thing yet,
-excellent map generation, could use some tweaking on placement of mountain ranges, jungle and forest
-going to have to really get down to the nitty gritty and play the heck out of this and then make a detailed report

Overall a 6.5 out of 10 at this time. We'll see how addictive this is and how good the end game is (haven't got there yet) and maybe the mark will go up.

Uncle Thade

Master Marcus · November 1, 2001, 01:47

euh...I voted better than Civ II, but in my mind ( so far after 10 hours of play ) it is much better, but not exceeding my expectations.

What do you mean by the SMAC disaster ???? Because of the AI? The game's construct is awesome, not everyone will agree with you on this. It seems that SMAC has 2 distinct schools like MoO 2.

Alexander's Horse · November 1, 2001, 02:04

clip clop, clip clop, *vomits cud*

Comrade Tribune · November 1, 2001, 15:28

As yet, average opinion is 'Better than CivII'. Keep the votes coming!

Cookie Monster · November 1, 2001, 15:43

I must say that I'm happy with the game. I read so many previews stating that Civ3 would be less about war and more about peaceful victory. After playing 4 games so far I have realized that the AI will stop at nothing to crush you if it perceives you as weak! Awesome!

My one and only gripe is this. Why did they ship the game in a cardboard CD jewel case? This is blantantly telling the public not only are we charging more for this game but we're really gonna maximize our profit by giving you a dumb cardboard jewel case muhaaaahaaaahaaa.....

A game as historic, yes historic, as Civ3 should have been shipped with a plastic jewel case for the cd's, expenses be damned sire! And I bought the LE. What an insult!

Dis · November 1, 2001, 16:03

cardboard jewel case? not in mine

I miss the poster sorely. I have never liked the civilpedia in either game. I like something big so I can look at the entire tech tree at once. I also used it for unit ratings and terrain squares

I want a poster dammit!!

Gameplay is excellent. Truelly amazing. But the bugs as usual are out of control. Although personally the bugs have not been too bad for me.

A few features I don't like see my wonders thread.

Most features are great and would have been nice in civ2

Editor seems to be terrible. No MP, but that doesn't bother me as much as an editor. How much replay can this game have if we can't create complex scenarios? Same with the map making- same editor I assume

no fixed starting locations and horrible world maps. I suppose they figured no one would want to play on an accurate world map in the appropiate starting locations. What univers are these firaxians from?

Like I said gameplay is fun, but without a good editor, there is no chance in hell I will play this game as much as I have played civ2.

These things better be patched or else. OK that is an empty threat. I have already made up my mind I will never buy another Firaxis game in my lifetime. Firaxis has some terrible problems with their company.

but maybe i"ll hold off badmouthing firaxis until they finish patching the game. As it is right now, the game is incomplete, but still good.

FexFX · November 1, 2001, 17:27

Okay here are my impressions after 4 hours of play...(I have not had the kind of time I have really wanted yet...)

First let me say I really love this game!

It is definitely a worthy successor to the Civ name, but could have used some beta testing more for tweaking and feedback than for bughunting.

So Far I have encountered no bugs, but there are a few minor annoyances related to the interface which are mostly usability issues.

My biggest gripe is about the Q feature and its difficulty of use.
Holding down the shift key is annoying, but not my real gripe. My real gripe is that there appears to be no way to remove an item from the Q...The only work around has been to Q up something else in that slot..which is not the same as clearing the Q...which I can find no way to do.

The lack of more than 2 levels of zoom while a bit irksome is not a huge deal to me, but I can see where others might be very annoyed.

There Should be a button to take you to the advisors screen on the City screen, because quite often I find myself wanting to go directly from one to the other. There should also be a way to get to the Civlopedia entry for a Q item fromthe city screen which there is not.

I really like the whole national borders concept, but very often they are not visible to me because they are burried inder the miles of jungle that surround my cities...I like the graphics, but they are actually hindering my gameplay with this behavior...There should be a way to turn off terrain details so I can see my borders clearly, or a patch needs fix it so the National Border is drawn on top of EVERYTHING else.

These are really my only gripes so far. I like the concepts of the new interface, and find many of the new ideas to be wonderful (the new city screen is a great idea!), I just feel some of the implementation is a bit sticky and could be improved on.

So, Great game! Needs a bit of work to be perfect tho!

Zen · November 1, 2001, 20:03

well,

I have very mixed feelings. too early to tell/vote yet.

don't like:
-many things aren't explained well/easy to access.
--I had to mess around to figure out queing. (shift+left click on item)
--also had to mess around to find the various screens. (all F# keys)
-game speed seems very slow. by this I mean time for AI movements. Often my turn is shorter than all AI turns. I might wait a couple minutes for the AI to move, and then do one or two things. (and my comp is decent speed)
---I don't think I could handle trying to play a 16 player game again... 15 AI's...

Like:
-long-range orders/moves. very nice! makes managing a large empire easier.
-diplomacy/trading is better. annoying and frustrating at times, but realistic (to an extent).
-the map is surprisingly pretty when playing. at first I thought it would be horrible, but it works.

a couple of other things... (not sure if good or bad)
-need to be patient : (
---no longer can I get through a full civ game in an evening of playing.

-military conquering obsolete?? don't know, but waging a successful war is protracted and tough (not too much experience yet, maybe this will change).

-Zen

dainbramaged13 · November 1, 2001, 20:24

i love it

thats all i have to say, before i go get back to it

actually, i'll comment
i like the slow scrolling, i can see why it might be annoying, but it really helps the ctp problem for me of overshooting where i wanted to go (GRRRR) I like this system much better, and it seems that to me that the slow scrolling is a feature, not a problem.. Thanks for the queue tip, i hadn't even figured it out yet (of course i could have looked in the manual

)
I havent had any problem with game speed, the ai takes its turn an about 10 secs, and thats all because of moving units... it seems no time at all for improvements, etc. of course, im only in the middle ages, so i cant say anything about modern ages, but i DO have 8 civs on a standard map with only a 533 processor