Tell me!

[Carolus Rex]

Wrong forum, but the Civ 3 forums will be hard to keep up with + I want to know what people I "know" think about Civ III.

I can't get a copy until December so please, for all of us standing outside in the cold, peeking enviously through the window to the Civ 3 community, tell us what the game is like! Give us (the poor souls without a copy) your "viking scribes"; your game stories!

Is it like the old days, when you could hear the birds outside your window early in the morning, although you could swear it was just a moment ago that you started the game, and it's time to go to work/school? "One more turn" - syndrome?

Carolus [Who's very curious and can't wait to get his hands on his copy]

[Bird]

Hi CR: Go read rah's reports in the MP section. It's not his thread, but you'll find it.

[Steve Clark]

I think this says it all (assuming you believe the AI is the most important part of a Civ game)...

Originally posted by Frugal_Gourmet
If you haven't played Civ 3 yet, I can't tell you what I huge difference it is. I'm a pretty decent player, I guess. I used to play King regularly and beat it most of the time without the need to save and restore (except for breaks). I didn't really resort ot ICS or boring tactics like that. The difference in this one is appreciable -- don't try to jump in where you left off.

1) Unlike previous installments, the computer AI does not forgive and forget inexpicably one day. If you manage to irk him greatly, either you'll have to do some serious damage or you'll have to give him something to win back his trust. There's no way around it. And if you're in a democracy or republic, you'd better get out of war within a reasonable time.

2) The computer analyzes and understands your weakpoints exceptionally well. I've seen him turn around an attack because I fortified something and head for a weaker spot of my Civ. It's annoying, but definitely gives you a feeling of accomplishment when you beat the computer. He's very smart when it comes to war. He uses ships and armies really well to surprise the weakest part of your Civ.

3) Civs understand when they control strategic resources you need and don't give them up without an arm and a leg.

4) In Civ 2, I used to have an easy time blocking off different places I didn't want the computer to get to. Not possible in this one. The computer almost always figures out a way to get to where he wants be it by boat or whatever. It's not easy to control him at all -- even if there's only a small passage to one continent.

5) By far the most annoying AI attribute is his ability to spread like wildfire. He's much faster at expansion than I think even most humans would care to be. He puts cities early and EVERYWHERE and eventually he's going to make you angry. The only good thing is the cities he places really close to yours will usually be assimilated.

6) I can't tell you how refreshing is it now that it's virtually impossible to get every wonder. Gives the game more strategic decision making potential.

7) Diplomacy is a lot more fun. It isn't exactly like dealing with a human or anything, but it's leaps and bounds better than Civ 2. Prepare to get screwed if you really want something.

In any case, I just wanted to let all those whose biggest concern was AI know that AI is very strong in Civ 3. I'm back to mastering Warlord level again.

[DaveV]

CR - I've played a few hours, and my impressions so far are very positive. It's a completely different game from Civ 2, which is a good thing in my book. The AI looks like it will be a very capable opponent until (and maybe even after) I'm very familiar with the game. Replayability and balancing looks very good so far.

I've run it on two machines that are at or below the game minimums (PII 350, 64 Mbyte; Celeron 266, 96 Mbyte) and it's playable through the BC years on both. I haven't had any glitches or strange behavior.