Play Civ3? i think not.

[Dida]

I got this game the 2nd day it was released, and now, I'm tired of it. It is just not interesting and very tiresome to controll. I have already sold it on eBay, and got Empire Earth and Yuri's Revenge. I guess the days of TBS has come to an end.

[yin26]

I just bought some tasty oranges. Oranges are better than apples. I guess the day of apples are at an end.

[John-SJ]

Diehard Civ fan that I am, I hate to say this, but I'm getting tired of Civ3 too. A couple of things that really bother me about the game. First, on large worlds, even with a PIII computer, in the mid to late game it takes 1 minute minimum for the computer to move. Second, even with a very happy kingdom and research set to 90% and trading techs as fast as I can, I end up building ALL city improvements and have no build choices other than military units. Siiince I generally try to play the peaceful perfectionist I have no need of military beyond a sufficient defense, and yet, this game leaves me no choice but to build military anyway.

So I end up spending less than half my time persuing my strategy and the majority of my time building what the game forces me to build.

I hate to say this, but I think Firaxis blew it with this game.

John-SJ

[yin26]

Yes, the building issue is valid one for sure. Other times, things like the explorer come only after the entire map is explored. Huh?

Rookie mistakes.

[kimmygibler]

I'm not gonna say they blew it yet. They still have a chance to fix the game. It's a long shot, but if anyone can do it firaxis just might have the commitment to long run success that other companies (activision) are painfully lacking.

I mean come on, this is firaxis...

[Venger]

Originally posted by yin26
Yes, the building issue is valid one for sure. Other times, things like the explorer come only after the entire map is explored. Huh?

Rookie mistakes.

I thought I was the only one who noticed that - I got the explorer unit after I new every piece of land on the earth. Kinda pointless. Maybe the explorer should come at an earlier tech...

Venger

[monkspider]

I think that it's very telling that you exchanged Civ III for a Command and Conquer game. Perhaps something like Quake III would be more to your liking as well?

[Baloo]

But you gotta buy Civ III for Civ IV, damnit.

C'mon, these developers are rookies. (The original and experienced team has gone away with B. Reynolds, I suppose). For the game itself - it ain't a bad game by far. Some of you might not have the patience, but there's a lot that can be liked with this game.

If you stay much longer, give them input on how to make a better Civ game. I have a LOT of input and ideas for them if they decide to make a Civ 4 which will be decided if there's enough enthusiasm or not. I'm sticking in til the end. I want to see the ultimate Civ 4.

[Rasputin]

Seems the community is still divided about how good this game realy is, i guess us others who couldnt get it at release date can thank our lucky stars we got you guys to review it for us

[Shiva]

Originally posted by yin26
I just bought some tasty oranges. Oranges are better than apples. I guess the day of apples are at an end.

[Xuenay]

Originally posted by John-SJ
I end up building ALL city improvements and have no build choices other than military units. Siiince I generally try to play the peaceful perfectionist I have no need of military beyond a sufficient defense, and yet, this game leaves me no choice but to build military anyway.

Can you say, Wealth?

[LaRusso]

Originally posted by John-SJ
Diehard Civ fan that I am, I hate to say this, but I'm getting tired of Civ3 too. A couple of things that really bother me about the game. First, on large worlds, even with a PIII computer, in the mid to late game it takes 1 minute minimum for the computer to move. Second, even with a very happy kingdom and research set to 90% and trading techs as fast as I can, I end up building ALL city improvements and have no build choices other than military units. Siiince I generally try to play the peaceful perfectionist I have no need of military beyond a sufficient defense, and yet, this game leaves me no choice but to build military anyway.

So I end up spending less than half my time persuing my strategy and the majority of my time building what the game forces me to build.

I hate to say this, but I think Firaxis blew it with this game.

John-SJ

\1) hold shift while AI moves. it will be over in 15 secs. try normal worlds until you get p4
2) try playing at a higher difficulty level
3) yeah they blew it. they should have probably taken civ 2 glorious approach whereby you slept through middle ages, and then went on tank blitz over railroads and bribing spree, mopping up all the civs.
so i guess civ 1 is your fav then?

[LaRusso]

Originally posted by Dida
I got this game the 2nd day it was released, and now, I'm tired of it. It is just not interesting and very tiresome to controll. I have already sold it on eBay, and got Empire Earth and Yuri's Revenge. I guess the days of TBS has come to an end.

yeah mind controlled dogs and psychic squids beat 'buggy' corruption every time

[Solver]

This is making me just sick. Civ 3 is the best gamer released. I can not imagine of a single bad point about this game, and everything I think is good.
I actually thought that Civ 2 isn't a worthy sequel to Civ 1, though still good.

[LaRusso]

solver, you're da man!

[Antonin]

Sorry, but I just don't see how Civ3 is 'broken.' I hope someone won't take this as a flame, but maybe some people just hate it because the newness of turn-based SP games is just gone for them.

Maybe their tastes have moved on. Civ1 was new and revolutionary. By now, though, the genre is 'mature' and its bloody hard to be revolutionary. Everything has been done, and all we can hope for is evolution of a formula.

For some people (I'm one of them), this is just fine. For others, maybe it's time to move on to some other type of game.

I've been having a wonderful time with Civ3. It runs flawlessly on my AMD K-6 400MHz machine with 128 M memory, which surprises me because I had a lots of problems running CTP2.

I think Civ3 gives me a lot of fun things to do. I think even the so-called 'problem' with high levels of corruption is simply a new challenge. Perhaps it's a way for the developers to get us to take a new approach to turn-based strategy. (I get the feeling that lots of Civ3 detractors have not taken the time to read the manual.)

To me, Civ3 doesn't feel like its predecessors, and it doesn't feel like SMAC. That's good, although I'm a HUGE SMAC fan.

I like Civ3 a lot. I paid the full retail price of $49.99 and I think it's worth every penny.

That's my 2 cents. To each his own. I hope people for whom the Civ experience has gotten stale can find something else worth their time. Maybe Empire Earth would be more to their liking.

[Provost Harrison]

There is one thing that would speed up the mid-late game a lot, and probably make it more interesting: Remove the 4 turn limit on tech development. When everyone hits this limit (and the AI does, I have noticed), you can only accumulate wealth, as well as waiting around for the next tech. No one can suddenly overtake anyone else technologically as they are fixed. There is no tech race either...this needs to be removed, it is my one grumble about the game, and I have very few...

[LaRusso]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
There is one thing that would speed up the mid-late game a lot, and probably make it more interesting: Remove the 4 turn limit on tech development. When everyone hits this limit (and the AI does, I have noticed), you can only accumulate wealth, as well as waiting around for the next tech. No one can suddenly overtake anyone else technologically as they are fixed. There is no tech race either...this needs to be removed, it is my one grumble about the game, and I have very few...

provost, i feel that the late techs are actually cheap....

[MisterMuppet]

Originally posted by Antonin
To each his own. I hope people for whom the Civ experience has gotten stale can find something else worth their time.

Agreed Civ 3 is not for everyone. Well actually not for anyone outside of North America anyway. Only three days and I can join in the group hugs or cry into my biscuit tin. Except I can't get the LE outside of the USA.
Can anyone see a pattern here ?

[Wrong_shui]

Its a good game, just that ppl were expecting a great one.

I agree with that other geezer, buy it for civ4

[Grumbold]

Empire Earth, the game where you get to play paper-scissors-stone with your unit types, because we all know that arrow beats sword beats pike beats arrow (or was it the other way round?) Repeat ad nauseam for the different ages and types of unit. No strategies like applying archers at range necessary.

Nothing has ever left my hard drive so fast as the EE demo.

[Max Webster]

I'm very tired too, i was up to a very late hour playing the game. Geez it makes getting up for work really tough.

[MisterMuppet]

Originally posted by Grumbold
Nothing has ever left my hard drive so fast as the EE demo.

It lastest about 30mins on my PC, a total insult. I've had gastric ulcers that were more pleasant.
Some of the people who complain about CivIII should be given a dose of the EE demo.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by LaRusso


\1) hold shift while AI moves. it will be over in 15 secs. try normal worlds until you get p4
2) try playing at a higher difficulty level
3) yeah they blew it. they should have probably taken civ 2 glorious approach whereby you slept through middle ages, and then went on tank blitz over railroads and bribing spree, mopping up all the civs.
so i guess civ 1 is your fav then?

SOrry your "arguments" are flawed.

1. Nope, a P3 1 GHz machine should be able to handle ANY TBS easily. WTH should I have to get a P4 to play Civ3 when I can play any other game on the market with NO performance drop?

If they turn off the "patrolling" feature for the AI and not show EVERY SINGLE UNIT MOVING (even with this turned off you still see them) then the PC would probably move faster. It can't be hard to program in a simple routine to have the AI move all it's "unused" offensive units to a central location to be ready to be "rapid-deployed" when needed.

2. Playing at a higher difficulty level does NOTHING to fix the problem caused when Firaxis took units and tech's OUT of the game, thus leaving LESS for the player to do other than build military units.

The only thing playing at a higher difficulty might do is make the player build more military units anyway, and as the original poster stated why would you want MORE military if you like to play peacefully?

3. No, the game play is much better now (IMHO) and I, like others, actually do like how every age is usefull now, but, BUT, just because the middle and even ancient ages are more important does NOTHING to fix the problem that there isn't enough for a peaceful player to do at times!

Oh, and as for the idea of "building" WEALTH, well "wealth" seems to be anything but wealth-giving, at least until you really don't need it by the time you hit industrialization and railroads.

Is Civ3 a good game, yes. Does it have some balance issues, a few. Could it stand to have 20% more tech's and about 35%-40% more stuff to build other than military units? Yep, you betcha.

[LaRusso]

okay lets look at your 'arguments'

Nope, a P3 1 GHz machine should be able to handle ANY TBS easily. WTH should I have to get a P4 to play Civ3 when I can play any other game on the market with NO performance drop?

if my 500MHz PIII handles it easily then perhaps something is wrong with his machine

If they turn off the "patrolling" feature for the AI and not show EVERY SINGLE UNIT MOVING (even with this turned off you still see them) then the PC would probably move faster. It can't be hard to program in a simple routine to have the AI move all it's "unused" offensive units to a central location to be ready to be "rapid-deployed" when needed.

shift. you can also set is as a preference.
alternatively we may ask firaxis to turn off patrolling toghether with building temples.
rapid deployed - why? i sometimes patrol my borders to see what AI is amassing in the background

2. Playing at a higher difficulty level does NOTHING to fix the problem caused when Firaxis took units and tech's OUT of the game, thus leaving LESS for the player to do other than build military units.

build empire to stand the test of time without a single casualty. no bodybags. just shopping malls. is that ever gonna happen? and please do not say - 'look at the US.....'

the only time one needs harder techs is endgame....

Oh, and as for the idea of "building" WEALTH, well "wealth" seems to be anything but wealth-giving, at least until you really don't need it by the time you hit industrialization and railroads.

every espionage mission costs 2K+

Could it stand to have 20% more tech's and about 35%-40% more stuff to build other than military units? Yep, you betcha.

we already had 2 incarnations of CTP

[Grumbold]

Looks like you're not going to convince each other.

Looking on the bright side, Firaxis seem aware of the slowdown issue and are addressing both hardware specific problems and the excessive patrolling. The minute the proper editor arrives every budding modmaker will be adding techs and buildings. A little patience should make these problems go away. In the meantime:

Dark Age of Camelot is a good MMORPG
Morrowind looks like being a good 1p RPG
Monopoly Tycoon is reputedly a good peaceful strategy sim
10+ new RTS will have been released by christmas
EU 2 is released in the States and will be worldwide soon
Rails across America is available
SimGolf is going to prove to be Sid's best game ever

Broaden your horizons and the future looks rosy. Damn, which spectacles am I wearing?

[LaRusso]

Originally posted by Grumbold
SimGolf is going to prove to be Sid's best game ever

Broaden your horizons and the future looks rosy. Damn, which spectacles am I wearing?

grumbold

[sachmo71]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. If someone gives up before the patch comes out, that's their right. I just don't think posting that you traded Civ III for an RTS gets a lot of brownie points here.

[donarumo]

I think I remember somebody saying that intelligent gamers plays TBS games, idiot gamers who think they're intelligent play RTS games.

I don't know if that's true but it's a thought.

I believe we need to remember that Civ is an empire management game. If you thought going into this that it was a "build units and attack an enemy until they are dead" game, Civ would probably disappoint. If that is what you are looking for then please leave Civ and go play Galactic Battlegrounds (a very fun game by the way) while you can.

Those gamers that want to nurture an empire through a simulated span of existence and while doing so, attack, defend, cultivate, research, and play, have fun with Civ III - it's the perfect game for doing so.

[Pyrodrew]

It seems some people just bought the wrong game... if you want a game where you can sit peacefully for centuries & never need a military play SimCity or SimEarth or TheSims... or SimAnt or SimFarm or SimCityStreets or SimSim or Simbad or Simballa or Sim'merDownNow or ...

The minute the proper editor arrives every budding modmaker will be adding techs and buildings.

And some people don't have patience to wait & act shocked a game company would actually release a game that still needed a patch. Were they born yesterday? Constructive critism posts are healthy, this "TBS days are over" drama is just attention-hunger.