Disappointment!!!

John-SJ · January 12, 2003, 22:04

I stopped playing Civ 3 shortly after its release due to a number of bugs and the fact that it was painfully SLOW after the ancient times.

I recently picked it up again, decided to try the latest patch level and see if the game was any better, and it was, for awhile at least.

In the game I'm playing I am at around the year 1700 on a standard map. My PIII 750, 256Mb Ram and GeForce2 GTS were handling the game just fine, I hadn't even turned off any animations and the game was plenty responsive, even when wars were raging and a lot of pieces were being moved about.

Then the Aztecs attacked me and I find myself right in the middle of a large battle with a lot of territory changing hands. At this point I experienced a strong sense of Deja Vu because the frikkin' game crashed on me, I though I was playing SMAC all over again, I never did get that game to play through without crashing, and it looks as if this game has enough SMAC in its ancestry to have inherited that fatal flaw.

Is this the experience of others as well?

A bit more about my computer, I have DirectX 9 and all of the latest video and audio drivers (SB Live!).

Is there anything else I should know to make this game behave, or should I just put it back on the shelf and go back to Europa Universalis?

John-SJ

alva · January 12, 2003, 22:28

In more then a year, civ has crashed on me once or twice, that's it, no more.
This doesn't help you of course, but it does say, that the problem may lie somewhere else.

Some people do seem to have more problems then others...

Willem · January 12, 2003, 23:36

I'd have to agree with Alva. Aside from complications I've encountered due to modifying the game, it's been very stable. I probably have less crashes than with most of the games I play.

Master Zen · January 13, 2003, 00:04

When I first played Civ3 I was using WinME and the game crashed frequently. Using WinXP the game has never crashed. Maybe that's the reason.

As for the slowness, I feel your pain. I have a P3-500 with 256 RAM and the game runs extremely slow beginning in the late medieval /early industrial periods. I posted this on a previous thread and some people said that getting more RAM helped. I for one am planning to get me 512 MB of RAM soon.

Master Zen · January 13, 2003, 00:10

I forgot to mention that I too was VERY disappointed the first time I played Civ3 since it was in some respects inferior to Civ2 and the editor was terrible. It was only until v1.29f came out that I found the game playable. Though I haven't played PTW yet it appears to solve most of my other gripes I have with the game. In all, v1.29f makes the game, IMHO, very enjoyable and finally a worthy sequel to Civ2, THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME.

John-SJ · January 13, 2003, 00:22

I am running on WinXP Pro, my swap file is under Windows control and is currently at 383MB if that helps at all.

I appreciate the encouragement that many people find the game stable, I'll keep trying to solve the problem as I want to be able to play this game for awhile.

John-SJ

edit: spelling only

stuntman19 · January 13, 2003, 00:54

I have WinXP Home and no crashes so far, but set my swap file to 1024MB since I figure late game or larger maps has got to be atleast 700-800MB swap file range easily. I have double your RAM and over double your processor though so that prolly helps. Not sure if XP Pro has any compatibility probs with the latest patch also, but XP Pro prolly wasn't designed for gaming performance in mind so might check into that also.

Pyrodrew · January 13, 2003, 02:29

Isn't Direct X9 still a beta version? I've heard people having problems with it in Multiplayer & seen others have problems with it in other games.

Bonaparte · January 13, 2003, 03:27

I must be lucky Civ3PTW 1.29 works great for me. I have an AMD 1.2GB Processor with 128MB RAM, and I am playing against 25 AI civs, with 100 extra units, on a 360x360 map and have to wait no more a minute between turns even with wars waging, plus I am in the Modern Age. The game has never crashed on me and is very stable on my system. There are so many things going on in a computer who knows why some games work good and others don't. I had a problem with Nascar 4 for a while untill I downgraded my graphics card, now that game works and I cannot see any difference in my graphics ... so who knows ... sometimes bigger better systems just mean having bigger problems. By the way the card that I replaced was a GeForce4 graphics card.

aahz_capone · January 13, 2003, 05:31

civ crashed on me all the time before 1.29. but I can't remember having that many problems with SMAC.

And about the comment of civ3 haveing too much SMAC blood in it's veins, no way. Not enough if anything to go by the diplomacy or the depth. But thats more gamplay than software...

alva · January 13, 2003, 05:56

Quote:

Isn't Direct X9 still a beta version?

not anymore.

Quote:

but set my swap file to 1024MB since

I even work without one.

Alex · January 13, 2003, 06:33

Do you have any software active in the background while you play Civ3? Sometimes these programs affect the stability of the game overall.

Also check your videocard drivers, and make sure they are fully compatible with DirectX 9.

Civ3 is very stable to me, I think it crashed on me just once, a long time ago.

Jethro83 · January 13, 2003, 21:31

I have a Pentium II 350mhz computer with an ATI Rage Pro 8mb graphics card, 320mb RAM and DirectX 8 and its never crashed on me.

I also have an AMD Athlon 1.8Ghz with 256MB RAM a GeForce4 64MB graphics card, and DirectX 9 and it works just fine as well.

So on both of my computers, Civ 3 has NEVER crashed.

Nym · January 14, 2003, 07:03

AFAIR Civ 3 only crashed 3 or 4 times for one year, and only when closing it (quite strange

). I have Win XP Pro with Athlon 1800+ and 512 MB RAM.

bongo · January 14, 2003, 08:20

I've had only a small number of crashes when playing civ3. Since I've had alot of crashes when NOT playing civ I suspect that my computer is a bit unstable. It's a P3@450MHz, 256MB RAM running winME. I'm going to install XP very soon. That'll sort it out

latka · January 15, 2003, 19:40

I have had numerous crashes with Civ III using XP over the course of a year. I save frequently, so its not too much trouble.

I actually suspect flaws in the game, since I am able to load a saved game and repeat the steps exactly as I did before rebooting and have the game crash again. I do not discount there being problems with the OS, any drives, or background apps, but until I find something that I can not work around by changing the order of events, I don't feel it is really worth investing time into finding the source of the problem. I am just to busy having fun with the game.

vee4473 · January 15, 2003, 20:25

The game is very stable on my AMD 700mhz thunderbird, 256ram.

I'm not sure that if your computer in unstable on a regular basis, that that means your comp is at fault, because my comp is unstable with alot of other programs, but it runs civ3 flawlessly.

I'm wondering how big your hard drive is and how loaded down it is. Also, whether or not you have constantly installed/uninstalled software.

I have heard that consistently installing/uninstalling software can, over time, degrade your registry to the point where it must be restored or else it goes buggy.

I download alot of demos, and as a result I am constantly installing and then removing them, and I have found that after many dozens of demo installs/uninstalls, the comp can get a bit "fuzzy".

Not sure about that, and please dispell that rumor if it is untrue.

computers are just....weird

Romanus · January 15, 2003, 21:51

Im running Civ3 on a compaq 600mhz, 256ram and w98

I had a couple crashes when accessing the science advisor, and often when exiting the game, although thats when I would prefer it to crash

PTW crashes quite a bit, various situations.

Dis · January 15, 2003, 23:08

your computer sucks!

SMAC never had any problems with me except the sound echo which was easily corrected.

Mad Bomber · January 16, 2003, 05:12

I have had a few games that have crashed when moving naval units with the J" command. (v1.29) I have had no crashes with PTW 1.14 but I do not have as much playtime with PTW as yet.