This should probably be in the help section, but let me explain how frustrating this is....
Playing the english on a large map, large continents, 7 random civs, etc, etc.
I share my continent with the germans. Quite naturally we're trying to out-settle each other. The germans because the AI is a land hog, me because i want access to the resources. Of course I find out with my scout that all of the freaking Iron is behind the german borders to the east. So I have to quickly load up a galley with settlers and spearmen (2 galleys, actually) and get there before Bismarck realizes the resources are there. I do but it was close. There were barbarians lurking and everytime I killed them they regenrated a few tiles away. So I spent a lot of time sending my horsemen out on search and destroy missions. (and to build a horseman I had to build a harbor right away in the city so I could get the iron back to my capitol and they could get horses, not to mention the luxuries to keep the population from revolting.
I'm spreading out and the Germans keep trying to sneak a settler or two across my domain to the open ground beyond it. It was driving me nuts. Finally I manage to secure most of the usable land. I get out of despotism and into republic. I get gunpowder. What? No saltpeter! Damn! I knew it! I just freaking knew it!!! So I load up galleys with settlers, workers and pikemen to try and find some saltpeter and claim it for the glorious English Empire! Theres a large continet right across from me! And its the Romans. They had this continent all to themselves the entire game. They were huge. But barbarians were everywhere. Luckily I was able to ship some knights over to beat them out of the territory and claim two saltpeter deposits. Great. Then I get steam power. What? NO COAL! Damn! I knew it! I freaking knew it! And scrolling around the map I see the Germans have two coal deposits! Its not fair, I tells ya! (Because the germans and I weren't really getting along...and I knew Bismarck would ask for my firstborn child in exchange for coal.)
Bu I luck out again! A roman city, one that the romans built near me when they saw me spreading across their continent revolted to me and I got their coal! Yay!
Then EVERYONE shows up. The Zulus the Aztecs, the Americans and the Persians and the Iroqiuos (sp?) These guys are crazy. Every few turns a new settler from someone would arrive and plant a city, sometimes in crappy spots! the Germans manage to land on a two or three tile part of our original continet and plant a city. Damn! The Persians land on a useless desert part of my mainland and plop down a city. The German city revolted, the persians just languished at size two. Then the aztecs land on a thine four tile straight jungles infested coast by my my capitol, right ouside of my sphere on influence and plant a city. At the same time the zulus do. What is it with these guys? Don't they realize a city there will never really produce ANYTHING? If anything it'll just revolt and become mine anyway!
After making several deals I see that the persians have the most advanced civ! Damn! I hate that and I don't like Xerxes much. But after building lots of universities I begin to close the gap. I build the Theory of Evolution and take a narrow tech lead! When the advance comes to me I see I have two oil deposits in my territoy....but no rubber. The germans have ALL of the rubber. I swear they must have had at least four deposits, two of which were right at the border. I was building improvements like a madman hoping that city would revolt...but then I see rubber near one of my roman continent cities...A roman worker was building a road to it, so I sent three workers to build a road and a colony and get there first...I made it! YES!
And i'm making advances every four or five turns! Soon I'll be the most powerful civ on the planet! Bwahahahaha! But the freaking germans are sneaking across my border again with a settler and a spearman (!!! in 1798!?) to the one place left to put a city...smack dab in the middle of my empire an area maybe about four or five tiles , a little square. With a mountain in the middle. I became distracted for a second, and the turn ends before I can tell them to get out. Next turn I tell them to get out, they agree...and magically appear in the spot they wanted to build in! Screw that! I would have stopped them two turns ago if the phone didn't ring so I load up the auto save and....
cities don't appear. I get an error message saying the city file or something can't be read. In any of my saves. I can see the units and roads but not the cities. Man! After all that....and the game was getting interesting....Now this!!!! Sid, i expected better of you...This is a brand NEW, two days out of the box computer!
Has anyone else had that happen? It didn't happen on my laptop before I bought this machine. Oh well....I uninstalled civ3 and reinstalled it. I defragged the machine (which took like ten minutes...its NEW!) I saved the game files to another folder so I might try 'em again, but if anyone has a clue or has the same thing happen, please let me know.
