Civ III the way it was meant to be

SultanofATL · June 18, 2002, 16:49

I finally upgraded to a P4 this weekend and I'm getting my money's worth from this game. The difference is ridiculous. I'm actually able to see AI manuevers and the diplomacy between turns is stunning. Its just amazing. This game is really fun. Before the wait and slow unit animations made it a chore to play. Huge map with 16 civs and I can finish a game in about 3 normal sittings. I thought the game was good before, but now I'm addicted.

MiloMilo · June 18, 2002, 16:52

Preach on, brother!

Sean · June 18, 2002, 18:02

I can't imagine playing it on anything less than 256 ram, and a P4 or Athlon processor.

Coracle · June 18, 2002, 19:41

I guess the Civ 3 box last November SHOULD have had as recommended requirements nothing less than a 1.5 ghz PC or better. Of course that would have cut into sales. Although, I have seen complaints even from people with fast computers complainig about its slowness.

BTW, I don't care how fast it is; it still has serious flaws.

dawidge · June 18, 2002, 21:07

Memory is the most important factor here. I'm perfectly happy with my P2-450 with 384MB. Scrolling can get a bit sluggish and there is a 3-4 second pause during saves, but everything else zips along at a reasonable pace.

Switch · June 18, 2002, 21:12

I have a PIII 866 MHz, 384MB RAM. It runs fine, except for a slight pause between turns. Annoying, but practically unnoticeable and frivolous.

Apocalypse · June 18, 2002, 21:28

This is really making me wish I had money to upgrade from my 128MB RAM.

Chronus · June 18, 2002, 22:01

Quote:

I thought the game was good before, but now I'm addicted.

I was highly enjoying this game BEFORE I got my new PC.

After getting my new PC, I was stunned by how fast the advisor screens were popping up and how quickly the units moved.

Ninot · June 18, 2002, 23:23

congratz!

i know the difference, i made the same basic upgrade.

on my old system, i could finnish 600 page books reading in between turns of an era.

Apocalypse · June 18, 2002, 23:35

My computer is feeling inadequate.

rhenric557 · June 18, 2002, 23:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Ninot
congratz!

i know the difference, i made the same basic upgrade.

on my old system, i could finnish 600 page books reading in between turns of an era.

I hear you, I just upgraded to an Athlon Xp from a 450 - PII and the difference is quite great. I still read about a chapter between turns in the late eras though

rhenric557 · June 18, 2002, 23:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Apocalypse
This is really making me wish I had money to upgrade from my 128MB RAM.

Man you can buy new RAM for about $20 - $30 at www.ubid.com, and thats for 256 mb dimm.

Jaguar · June 19, 2002, 01:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Apocalypse
My computer is feeling inadequate.

My antisocial computer wants to be yours's friend.

Apocalypse · June 19, 2002, 08:40

Quote:

Originally posted by rhenric557
Man you can buy new RAM for about $20 - $30 at www.ubid.com, and thats for 256 mb dimm.

I know where I can buy it cheaper. I'm just really strapped for cash at the moment.

frostycreep · June 19, 2002, 10:01

im jeolous. My computer isnt all that and i cant really play on anything bigger than a standard map. Its a shame really because i can really see the attraction of playing against 15 other civs. Saying that, Im still addicted and cant see myself playing another game this year(apart from ptw)

jshelr · June 19, 2002, 10:34

This thread interacts IMO with the trend to early wars and small maps that some of the leading posters on these boards recommend, quite rightly. The game is much more fun and lasts much longer into the modern era when you've got the computer to play very large maps. When it does last that long, then you start to want the modern era rules beefed up a bit to make the outcome more uncertain. As it stands now, the human player wins all the time. If the human player is ahead entering the modern era, it's time for modern armor to roll over the opposition. If behind, the human player sits behind his or her borders and uses artillery plus railroads to defend successfully against larger civs, while always winning the SS race as the AI civs battle each other or get diverted into researching irrelevant techs like recycling. See the spaceship thread under "stragegy" for some random musings on how we can make our lives more difficult in the modern era.

Navyman · June 19, 2002, 10:36

I dont know if people have mentioned this earlier or not, most like someone has, but I sort of stumbled onto a method to make the computer turns go by faster. I press CTRL-SHIFT while the comp is moving its pieces and that makes the comp move faster. It was a great help when France was moving a stack of 50-60 infantry over my territory without a RoP.

Added:
My system isn't too great but isn't a laggard either.

Specs:
Athlon 1600 (1.4 GHz OC'ed to ~1.5)
Hercules TNT 2 vid card (I know, it's old as dirt but surprisingly it still delivers very well even in Wolf3d, Quake 3, etc)
256Mb DDR memory

Austin · June 19, 2002, 10:38

WTF? I have a P350 and 64 megs of ram, running Windows 95. There is an annoying wait when I first start the game and load a save file (I usually go and do a household chore like make the bed while it is loading), but afterwards the game moves along just fine, and this is on a large map with 16 civs.

Am I just living right, or what's the deal? I suspect that it's the win 95 factor; each succeeding version of windows has become exponentially more bloated. I am dreading the day my computer dies, and hopefully I'll buy another used one so I never have to experience the horror, the horror, of the newer versions of windows.

Plus I'll lose all my old DOS games I love. ****ing negative backwards compatibility *******s, how much ****ing space does DOS take up anyways? XP this mother****er!

Austin

Austin · June 19, 2002, 10:40

Sorry about the last part of my post. Just thinking about Microsoft coding practices really piss me off, God damn planned obselescent chiseling incompetent weasel

Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean

Austin