CivIII FAQ

zulu9812 · May 31, 2002, 16:12

Okay - both me and Lucilla noticed that the same questions keep cropping up in the Help forum. So, we both thought it'd be a good idea to start up a FAQ (like they've got for SMAC). I'll start it off, answering the more common questions and posting links and whatnot. Everyone is free to post, but please keep it to a question (and always answer it in the same post!). No comments saying "Yes I agree", no posts of only smilies and certainly no flaming. Hopefully, this will give newcomers a place to find answers rather than trawl through the boards.

Q. I've conquered all civilizations but for some reason I can not find the last city of the final civ. I have gone over the entire map with a microscope but I can not find the Persians. I can have a dialog with them but they are nowhere to be found.

A. Try this thread here

Q. How do I add more units to the game?

A. It was discussed on this thread

Q. How do I see all the leaders in the diplomacy advisor screen?

A. You don't. It's set up so that the maximum displayed at any one time is eight. However, you can change which civs are shown. Hold down shift and right click on one of the portraits - a pop-up menu appears. Scroll down to the one you want and left click. Voila! A different leader is displayed!

Q. One of my workers tried to enter one of my cities and was attacked and killed by the troops garrisoned there. I'm taking friendly fire! What gives?

A. This is a known bug, supposedly fixed with the 1.21f patch but it's still being reported. It's been discussed on several threads, most recently here

Lucilla · May 31, 2002, 17:11

How do I enable lethal bombing?

What advantages gives "We love the king"?

Which patch/patches should I use and where do get them from?

What do the different colors for the population number for a city mean?

Why can't I build a specific wonder although I have the technology?

How do I end a treaty?

How do the elections for the UN work?

How do different types of power plants work together?

How do I change the screen resolution?

How can I plant spies?

Fitz · May 31, 2002, 18:30

Q. How do I prevent a City from flipping to control of another civ, and what is the formula for determining the chance this will occur?

A. Details in the Culture flipping formula. Basics: 1 garrison unit per foreign national and per square in the 21 square maximum production radius that is under foreign civ control. Multiply by 2 if that civ has produced more culture in that city than you.

zulu9812 · May 31, 2002, 20:14

How do I change/disable the 2050 AD end date?

How do i set the start positions?

How do i change the names of cities, leaders, civs, etc?

The screen blacks out after the intro movie

I can't reinstall the game

Where is CivEdit in the Mac version?

What do the numbers in the main map info box mean?

zulu9812 · May 31, 2002, 20:36

Can I capture size-1 cities?

Screwed up fonts making things unreadable

Where can I find a complete list of worker actions, up to 1.21f?

zulu9812 · June 1, 2002, 05:31

Q. Is there a way to see where the Great Wonders have been built?

A. Yes - hit the F7 key

zulu9812 · June 1, 2002, 11:54

Q. The patch is asking me if I'm sure I want to completely remove the application and all it's components. What do I do?

A. That's okay. You need to run the patch twice; first to uninstall redundant stuff, and a second time to put in the new stuff. Run the patch twice!

Lucilla · June 1, 2002, 16:46

Found a nice article from Catt about mobilization and the corresponding Q&A:

Fundamentals of Mobilization Revealed

notyoueither · June 2, 2002, 01:53

Mark. Top this here and in Civ3 General. Please.

MarkG · June 3, 2002, 07:53

guys, please use the toped faq thread in the civ3-general forum

thanks

also, if you provide a link to a thread/post as the answer please also include a 1-2 summary of it in your post. thanks again

Lucilla · June 3, 2002, 10:20

Markos, I've seen the topped faq in the general forum, but apparently lots of people don't read them but keep asking the same questions again and again.

One reason might be, that it's only in the general forum and not in the help.

The other reason I suspect is, that because of the Q&A structure and the summaries, comments, etc. it's really time consuming to find the right question / answer you are looking for. Reading through 6 pages takes some time and people just don't bother any more.
Maybe a search function for that specific thread on top of the page would help.

As you are moderating the forums, it's your decision, of course, but I'd prefer to have a faq in the help forum as well.

Lucilla · June 3, 2002, 10:33

Markos, I just read your last post in the general faq. I think that's exactly what people need.

Could you maybe put that post on top of the thread?
Thanks, Lucilla

Colonel Rhombus · June 3, 2002, 11:11

Could somebody make a thread like this for the customisation of Civ, e.g., creating new units, civilisations, govts, graphics, etc. I think this would be a top idea.

Pythagoras · June 3, 2002, 15:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Colonel Rhombus
Could somebody make a thread like this for the customisation of Civ, e.g., creating new units, civilisations, govts, graphics, etc. I think this would be a top idea.

Check out the "Creation" forum, great stuff there.

zulu9812 · June 3, 2002, 16:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Colonel Rhombus
Could somebody make a thread like this for the customisation of Civ, e.g., creating new units, civilisations, govts, graphics, etc. I think this would be a top idea.

They already exist. Try these -

Modmakers Tutorial: How to add new units, improvements, wonders, and technologys!

Tutorial: How To Add Extra Civs in v1.21

Modmakers Guide: Common Crashes, Glitches, Errors, and AI problems

The units_32.pcx file

Colonel Rhombus · June 4, 2002, 08:54

Excellent.

zulu9812 · June 5, 2002, 14:53

Q. The AI trading isn't fair! Is it?

A. Yes it is fair. Say the you want to trade gold for a resource that the AI has, e.g. Wines. If your empire is significantly larger than than their's, Wine will be more beneficial tp you than the AI, since you have more citizens that could be made happy. That is why the AI will sometimes demand what seems like rediculous trades, when they know a resource is worth more to you than it is to them. This has been discussed on several threads already:

Trading

Trading Absurdity

Lucilla · June 6, 2002, 14:18

What are the different types of resources, how do I get them and what are the benefits?

Ethelred · June 6, 2002, 15:20

Q: Why don't I have any Goody Huts.

A: You turned them off in the game setup screen. The is a check box for that with the 1.21f patch. Start a new a game and be be sure to turn it back on.

I think this checkbox was added for tournament games and maybe multiplay. Obviously its bad for Expansionist civs to have no goody huts though.

zulu9812 · June 7, 2002, 11:50

Global Warming: How it begins, how can be stopped?

zulu9812 · June 9, 2002, 05:01

Q. How do I add new music to the game?

A. There's a directory called ...Civilizaion III\Sounds\Build. There are 3 folders: ancient, IndModern, and Middle Ages. This was discussed on this thread:

Adding new music

MarkG · June 9, 2002, 05:08

thank you for ignoring me

Lucilla · June 9, 2002, 08:31

Markos,
as Zulu and I have a MPP, we can offer the following RoP:
You top this thread and Zulu will put a link to the FAQ in the general forum in his first post.
That way we have FAQ in the help forum as well (where it belongs, IMO), and if people don't find the answer in this thread, they have a link to your thread as well.

PS: this treaty will last at least 20 turns....

zulu9812 · June 9, 2002, 08:31

I wasn't ignoring you!

A, I couldn't find anything in your faq about changing the music. B, I don't know how to add stuff to it (I just looked at the first post and went from there). C, the FAQ should really be in the help forum. This FAQ is largely for newbies; the first place a newbie would look for help would be the Help forum. Still, if it'll make you happy here's a link to MarkG's FAQ:

The CIV3 FAQ: COMMON QUESTIONS/COMPLAINTS/ARGUMENTS and their ANSWERS

Perhaps, have either this FAQ, or the 'official' one topped in the Help forum as well?

Lucilla · June 11, 2002, 16:12

Seems as if we now get ignored by Markos, sigh....

MarkG · June 11, 2002, 17:10

well when i request for a certain way of doing things that is being followed for months to continue to be followed and i get diplomatic negotiations and claims that one can not find stuff that exist on the very first post of a thread, what can i say?

zulu9812 · June 14, 2002, 14:18

Q. I've added several units to the game, but the build queue is all mucked up. How do I fix it?

A. A lot of custom units come with an individual units_32.pcx icon. This has to be pasted into the units_32.pcx icon sheet, located in ...Civilization III\Art\Units.

You can download icon sheets with icons for lots of new units here

notyoueither · June 15, 2002, 01:13

That's balls zulu.

Hey Mark, how about giving these two the opportunity to suggest updates for the 'official' Poly Civ3 FAQ?

Also, place a link to it somewhere more prominently here in help, as well as in General and Strat.

That way, you channel their energy into something constructive, and you cut down on the number of repetitive threads seeking answers to the same things over and over...

or, top a thread here and in Strat with the first post being a link to the General thread, and then these guys can go to town there...

Just a thought.

MarkG · June 15, 2002, 05:18

Quote:

Hey Mark, how about giving these two the opportunity to suggest updates for the 'official' Poly Civ3 FAQ?

everyone on these forums ALREADY has the opportunity to do just that notyoueither and it is as simple as posting in the correct thread....

Micaelus · July 10, 2002, 18:29

New to the group...just checkin how the forum works