Game Freezing

[Cpt. Bob]

I am having a problem with the game freezing when I have ships or aircraft perform the bombard action. Right after the unit action animation, when the results are usually calculated, the game just locks up, no error messages or anything else. I hit ctrl alt del and it says the program (Civ 3) has stopped responding. I am playing just civ3, not ptw, and I have installed the latest patch. I am using windows 98. Please help

[Rommel2D]

Regerettably, I believe the only fix is to get PtW and install the latest patch. Civ3 1.29f still has a few major bugs once you get to the modern era. I don't know if the freeze you describe has been addressed, but I haven't heard anyone report it in PtW.

I did run into a bombing freeze once with 1.29 and ended up having to go back a turn and change attack stratagies. It didn't happen again with other bombings, but the graphics were often screwed up.

If you're not sure PtW is worth it for MP or the new SP features, watch for internet specials on it. A few weeks ago Amazon was selling it for US$12 with rebates, I think. Patch 1.21 makes it very playable and a new patch is coming wich should fianlly fix the mobilization bug. :]

[SpencerH]

You dont mention, it but definitely patch to 1.29.

CIV3 is a RAM hog so unless you have at least 512MB RAM, turn off the crap in the system tray and avoid playing large maps with a gazillion units

Try re-starting prior to playing civ3 if your win 98 PC has been asleep. WIN98 se doesnt always wake properly so it might be a factor.

Make sure you have the latest drivers for video and sound cards etc and that your DX is up to date.

[Cpt. Bob]

So this isnt a known problem? The game has always run fine before, but this turn seems to have screwed up the game. I skipped fighting that round and went forward a turn, hoping it would work, but it doesnt anymore. I tried going back a few turns but now it just freezes up right before my turn begins. i dont think it is a computer problem, I am fairly knowledgeable of computers, and this seems to me to be a software problem. Guess if no one else is having this problem though, then I have no clue. I think it must have something to do with the patch, I just downloaded it about a week ago, and never had problems before that. Anyways thx for the help.

[SpencerH]

Just some history to get you up to speed. Pretty much everyone had crashes with the early versions, but by 1.29 it was fairly stable. That being said, getting crashes after patching to 1.29 seems a little unusual.

I use win98se with an AMD 450 and 256MB RAM and so long as I dont overburden the RAM with too many units or cities I dont have a problem with 1.29. Unless you have a better system (it wouldnt be too hard ) but especially more RAM you'll have problems lpaying large games.

Check that you installed the american version of 1.29.

I didnt have problems with patch on top of patch on top of patch, but others did. Try a complete uninstall then reinstall with just the 1.29 patch.

The sleep bug that I get is weird. The symptoms are that the game will run slow, then when firing arty the sound will go funny. An alternative is that a unit will remain highlighted then the game eventually freezes. When you re-boot you'll get a blue screen saying some dll cant be found etc. When I manually boot, norton will tell me that an outlook file is screwy and I fix it. All that comes from the OS not waking properly. Everything else will work but CIV3 crashes.