How do i play civ 3 the way i want to play it?

[snoochems]

I'm a civ veteran. Ever since civ 1, through to civ CTP and SMAC.

Those games, i was frustrated at the lack of AI. They AI was stupid, and unchallenging.

When Civ 3 came out, i got sick of it pretty quickly because of a few reasons that look to have been since fixed up with the latest 1.29 patch. So here i am playing it again.

but i want to play a game where the planet is HUGE. I don't mean huge as in the games version of 'huge'. I'm thinking of something like 4x that size.

Is that possible. In SMAC, you could open up a txt file and modify away, but unfortunately, the game didn't like BIG maps (anything over 256x256) and i would constantly have the AI do something half way though the game that made it lock up. Very annoying.

Anyways, considering Civ 3 is newer, i thought it may be possible to enjoy a HUGE game, without the problems i had in SMAC.

If it is, then is it possible to modify the corruption you get in cities for being to far away from the capital? Obviously, with a map 4x the size, you'll want to halve the capital distance penalties. Can this be done too.

Why would i want that? Well, i just have a fetish for HUGE epic style games, where even in the modern era, it takes 10 turns to get to that continent ruled by the AI.

At the moment, i play on a 'huge' map with only 5 AI. Which is kind of the civ/land ratio i'm looking for.


Another thing you guys may be able to help me with is, How many cities can you have in Civ 3? Is there a limit where things start to get ugly?

Exactly how good is the AI later in ther game? From what i've seen so far is good. In civ2 and the like, the AI would only build like 20 cities and then stop, and those cities kind've sucked never having good buildings in them etc. I would just build up an avanced army and walk all over them. I want a challenge, especially in the post-modern era (after all tech has been discovered).

I want to build a massive army, build a lot of transports, and a massive navy, and an airforce on lots of carriers, and then send them over and attack a civ. Will i just walk over them, or do they actually give me a challenge?

What i would like to see even more is the AI doing that to me. Will they. Is the AI good enough to launch such attasks?

Another thing that i couldn't find in your FAQ or the manual was the 'disappearing' of resources. Do luxury resourse eventually run out? I know the stategic ones do. What happens when they all run out? Do they reappear somewhere else?

Thanks for your time guys.

[dexters]

Hi.

Luxuries do not run out. Some resources disappear and reappear elsewhere. That's from the luck of the draw. There are some resources such as horses which will not shift. Someone probably knows where to find a file containing information on each resource on whether they shift or not.

As for discussions on how good the AI is, there is really no one source describing the AI. But it's pretty well accepted the AI is competent but not spectacular. Fixes since 1.29f have made it a little tougher in the early game though. In the late game, it has trouble handling some of the 3 movement units, always a complaint among people here.


I would recommend 2 things.

#1 buy C3C when it comes out this month. You get last year's xpansion pack content and the new content as well. The AI tweaks and modificaitons post 1.29f as well as new units and civilizations to play with are worth the price of entry.

#2 I would highly encourage you to play a huge map game (256X256 or larger) with 16 civs, and 24, or 31 civs when you get Civ3 Conquests (C3C).
The game dynamics is just so different with so many AI civs running around.

Because the Civ 3 AI is a lot more blind when it comes to differentiating between human/AI players, you won't feel picked on, unless you initiate things that makes the AI hate you, like breaking 20 turn deals before they are up.

I encourage you to check out the following threads.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96605

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84645

Have a nice day

[vmxa1]

I would warn you about playing on maps of 250 or more and 24 civs or more. It requires a lot of horse power. I saw some turns of nearly a 1/2 hour on 3.02GH machine. If many civs are at war with lots of units, it could be painful. That is not the length of all turns, some when a few minutes.

[dexters]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I would warn you about playing on maps of 250 or more and 24 civs or more. It requires a lot of horse power. I saw some turns of nearly a 1/2 hour on 3.02GH machine. If many civs are at war with lots of units, it could be painful. That is not the length of all turns, some when a few minutes.

1/2 an hour on 3.0 ghz machine? Either some heavy modding has gone on to make the game fly off the rails or something with the specs is acting as a bottleneck. Maybe a scheduled task like an anti-virus program was running in the background unkown to the user.

I've played 24 civs on 256X256 maps before on my old p3 450 and it ran fine. A few minutes of processing in most normal turns. 16 civs on the huge map provided by the game usually take a few minutes when world wars are going on.

[dexters]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by dexters


1/2 an hour on 3.0 ghz machine?

Hmmm.. Can you provide full system specs?

[vmxa1]

Pent IV 3.02GH 1G mem 9800 Radeon PRO running XP PRO SP1.

This was a game I let all the civs have fun and get into modern age and was mostly water. I did not paly to win, but to see how big the AI's would get and how much a load they would create. When little or no combat, a turn was fast. If anyone was in action, it could be a lot turn. The game will want to recalc all trade routes, if any city falls or harbors or airports are destroyed. You could actually sit for several minutes when a settler created a new city.
I ran the game on my 1.7GH machine and some turns took nearly an hour. That machine was a Win98SE.
I think the big key is it was all large islands with 24 civs. I think only one or two islands had more than 2 civs, many only had one. Many civs had 2-3 hundred units.
If you played normally, it would probably be a lot less of a drag. You would see some civ eliminated and with less water, you get less trade calculations.

[dexters]

We were having this discussion about game loads on large maps a few months back.

I think the reason it may take so long between turns is the water. It was you, I think, who speculated that trade routes have to be calculated over every water tile, on account of the blockade feature. And that makes sense, as I've played 24 civs on a 256X256 pangea map with my old P3 450 and it ran solidly, with 2-5 minute turns under normal conditions.

For such an infrequently used feature, I think Firaxis should let players disable the blockade feature and calculate water trade routes differently to speed up some games, and loading some games as well.

BTW, You've got a nice rig. HT enabled?

[snoochems]

What size are the 'huge' maps exactly? Are they 256x256?

Is there a txt file that can be modified in civ3 as in SMAC?

How many Expansion Packs are there? I know there is the play the world, and the one you mentioned that is coming out next month (maybe not here in Australia). Is there another?

If i don't have PTW, will i get Multiplayer if i buy Conquests (is that the name of the new expansion pack)

[Tiberius]

Yes, Civ3 Conquests will include all the content from PtW (the only exp. pack so far), including multiplayer. Plus the new stuff; read the C3C forum to see what is new. I recommand you especially this thread:

Comprehensive Feature List in Conquests

As for the maps, I don't know. I don't play on larger maps than "regular". I don't have the time for it. Even on such a map (regular) I feel teribly bored to move 100+ MAs and MIs (plus bombers and arties and battleships and whatnot) around in the modern era, so I usually quit playing or I try to win with UN vote or culture or anything that shortens the game.

[dexters]

The game is coded to include only 16 civs max on the standard large map size 160X160.

You can however increase both # of civs and map size on the editor.

Max # of civs is 31 and max map size if 320x320. As vmxa1 noted, caveat emptor when playing on the higher end of the spectrum with regards to map size and civ count

Tiberius, I think you're missing out on the large map experience.

There have been several threads by a few people talking about the fun of playing these maps. The key word is fun.

It's not about the points, winning early, or any of that. It's about watching all these AI systems interacting with each other, the map and you. The game on these scale, with lots of civs, tends to you less "player centered" and there's lots of opportunities of Machiavellian style of play. Refer to one of the two links I gave earlier.

[snoochems]

So, how do i play pn these 320x320 maps with 31 civs???

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by snoochems
So, how do i play pn these 320x320 maps with 31 civs???

pretty easy to change the map size in the editor. As for expanding the civ list, you'll have to make your own new ones up to 31 or download a set or individuals from here or civfanatics.com.

[Solver]

Although I'd recommend you play with 24 civs... wait till Conquests for 31.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by dexters
BTW, You've got a nice rig. HT enabled?

Yup. I get a new machine each year for E3. My son comes out to E3 and I give him current one. I will get one set for gaming. Last year I I build one instead, but I did not want to bother with it this year.

[vmxa1]

One big pain to me with 24 civs, is it is a nightmare to use the F4 screen This really needs to be addressed.
A one glance method would be so nice. Trying to figure out who all may have MPP's with others so I can tell if I need to worry about dog piles, is a drag.
Want to sell a tech or a map or do any deals with 24 civs, ouch.