The CIV3 FAQ

[WorkerOverload]

Workers driving me nuts!

This may have already been answered, but I thought I'd try anyway. Is there a way to "hide" or not display the automated moves that workers are doing? It's gotten to the point that in between turns, I have to wait like 3 minutes..just watching my stupid workers running around. I checked the manual but couldn't come up with anything.

The obvious solution I suppose is to disband all of them...but that doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do.

[Canaris]

Q: Why does my espionage missions never ever work, regardless of how much money I spend

[marct]

marines and tanks dying

Q: Why are my marines and tanks getting their butts kicked by guys with sharp sticks???

[adaMada]

Q: Can I play say 16 civs on a small sized map? Or for that matter any amount (up to 16) on any size map? -- Pythagoras
A: Yes, it's possible, but...

Q: If this is possible, how would I go about doing this? -- Pythagoras
A: To the best of my understanding, to play with sixteen civs on anything less than the largest map, you have to make some minor changes in the Editor. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what changes you need to make to do this.

Q: How do I play on earth with historic locations? -- Pythagoras
A: You can't as of now -- hopefully, this will be patched in sooner or later, but until that time...

-- adaMada

[Saint Marcus]

Q1a. why does the AI always moves it's forces through my land to reach another location, regardless of my strenght.
Q1b. why does the AI always moves it's forces through other AI land to reach another location, regardless of it's strenght, and the second AI allows this.
Q1c. why does the AI declares war on me when I move in within their borders with 3 knights, while they have 19 swordsmen and 9 spearmen within my borders, and my military is bigger than theirs?
Q1d. will this be fixed in the next patch?

Q2a. why does Civ3 seems to crash at the weirdest times? (like when you build a city in a certain spot it crashes, even after reloading. or when you make contact with a certain civ, or try to strike a deal. or even something that happends during the AIs turn. reloading doesn't help, you have to start all over.)
Q2b. Will this be fixed in the next patch?

[Saint Marcus]

Q: If this is possible, how would I go about doing this? -- Pythagoras
A: To the best of my understanding, to play with sixteen civs on anything less than the largest map, you have to make some minor changes in the Editor. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what changes you need to make to do this.

Go to the editor, open the bic, and then go to the edit world size screen (or whatever it's called). select one of the sizes you wish to edit, and change the number of civs to 16. Great fun, 16 civs on a tiny map

[AustralianJeremy]

Q: How do you steal tech from other civs? I've built the CIA wonder and sent a spy... but there doesn't seem to be any way to steal tech from the damn zulus! Is that true? Is it impossible now in Civ3?

[Libertarian]

Q. Is there any way to build an improvement while a city is in revolt or disorder?

A. Yes! You can rush build any improvement in any city — including one that you've just captured with hordes of resistors — with a leader.

(2nd answer by Phoxtrot) There is also the much easier solution : Disband some troops.
It works in all cities, including resisting and unhappy ones.

Disband efficiency is at 25%, way better that the 8:1 wealth production ration (and then you need to pay at least 2 gold for each shield and it doesn't work in resisting/unhappy cities.)

Another way to hurry production is to clear forests (and recreate them), this is however no longer valid in 1.16 as the patych readme say that you can now get the clearing bonus only once per game.

[HalfLotus]

Q1: Next to my city name, there is the population number. It is sometimes red, sometimes yellow, and sometimes red. What does this mean?
Follow up: Also, there is sometimes a white rectangle surrounding said number. What does IT mean?

Q2: How cool is HalfLotus?


A1: A red pop. number means there is a food shortage, yellow means food balance, and a white number means food surplus for that city.
If there is a white rectangle around the number, then that city's citizen mood is being controlled by your governor. If there is no rectangle, then you are controlling citizen mood. This can be changed in the city governor screen.

A2: Very.

[adaMada]

Q: How can one get to said city governor screen?
A: While in the city screen, press the 'G' key.

[BigBopper]

Q. I can’t ever seem to trade for an important resource like oil. Why? Is this a bug?

A. Probably not, (Theory) a computer that has two of a resource is likely to trade the second resource to another computer quickly. Some computer players will trade for a second source of a resource, so with oil, which is supposed to spawn only one per civ, some players are going to be out of luck. That player is usually you.

You can go into the editor and edit (I think civ3.bic, I’m not at home) to change requirements for strategic resources, or make them spawn more frequently.

To test my theory, some one would have to bribe a computer with two resources to go to war with every one but you, and then see if that second resource pops up as an available trade. (999999999 bug would help you test this) I’ll try and see if I can grab an unmodified civ3.bic and try it tonight.

Of course this will likely be addressed in the patch

[Pythagoras]

Q Im investing all into Tech, how the heck is the AI keeping up with me so well?

A (by ShakyBums in another thread) Say no-one has discovered economics yet. Anyone researching it has to pay the full 'research price' to discover it. Now imagine that only one civ has discovered economics. Anyone researching it has to pay a lower 'research price' to also discover it. If every civ except one has discovered economics, that last civ has to pay only 1/16th the full 'research price' (assuming 16 civs), so its harder for a civ to stay behind in the tech race.

[diegoami]

Embassy

Q. How do you establish an embassy with another civ?

You can also click on the star sign which is above your capital in the map to open the diplomacy screen.

[diegoami]

Building queue

Q: How do I create a building queue in a town
A: When choosing an improvement / unit to build, keep the SHIFT key pressed and click on the improvement. It will be added to the building queue.

[Jaybe]

Re: Waking units

Question originally posted by diegoami

Q: Is there a way to "wake" all units of a kind. Say, I am at peace, I fortify my tanks. War breaks out, I want to wake them. Do I have to wake each one of them?

A. Yes, you have to wake each one of them. If there are several in one square, right-click to show a list of all the units, then SHIFT-Click on the ones you want to activate.

Personally, for this reason I will build "military reservations" (stacks of units) out in the open country (or in fortresses) so I don't have to dig into all my cities to search for them.