Civ 3

[binyo66]

@Alfa and Switch, thx for explaining. Now, I know I dont miss anything (I though its kinda a new CivIII trick )
Ppl seems to love SMAC, probably I need to buy it. What make it SMAC different with Civ3 ?

[Dis]

Originally posted by Solver
SMAC had a great atmosphere... but the biggest problem about the game was a terrible AI, which was basically the same Civ 2 AI. The game was incredibly complex, and the AI didn't understand so many concepts...

Civ3 only appears to have a better ai because there are many, many less concepts for the AI to understand. Terraforming (worker actions) are severely limited compared to smac. All the ai has to do is mine and road everything (which is what they do). That is something they can't screw up.

So I don't think civ3 ai is that much more superior than smac. It just has less decisions to make, so it's bound to do better.

I generally like historical games, so I'm partial to Civ3.

But I've been playing smac lately, and recently got alien crossfire. The computer isn't a huge challenge, but what makes this game shine is the multiple ways of winning. In Civ3 you pretty much have to play one way or your not going to win. In SMAC you could play a peaceful builder and win the game. Or you could play a conquerer, or a hyrbrid. You could do your own research, or you could steal other's research. Or a combination. Multiple ways of doing combat. Sure you have the rover rush- which is similar to horsemen rush. But you can choose to add things like nerve gas to augment your troops if you need to- or if you're just evil.

[Skanky Burns]

SMAC has many many more options. Units aren't fixed - you can design defending units that move 2 squares so that a few of them can defend your whole empire, moving to where they are needed, or cheaper infantry defenders that can't move as fast.

Rather than a choice of a few governments, the SMAC governments are split into different choices, such as economic or society values. This gives 256 different "government" combinations, although the number of usable ones are much lower. There are still more choices than in Civ.

A major drawback of SMAC compared to Civ is accessibility. For example:

Civ: You just discovered The Wheel
"Cool, now I can build faster units and start some military domination of this region! Fear me!"

SMAC: You just discovered Organic Superlubricant
"Oh. Good. I think. "

And while the veterens can beat the AI on the highest difficulty level with great ease, it can still be a challenge for lesser players (such as myself).

[Jac de Molay]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns

A major drawback of SMAC compared to Civ is accessibility. For example:

Civ: You just discovered The Wheel
"Cool, now I can build faster units and start some military domination of this region! Fear me!"

SMAC: You just discovered Organic Superlubricant
"Oh. Good. I think. "

Yes, but bear in mind that many of those techs are viable future techs that could be happening within the time frame given. The game incorporates things such as Doctrine:air or Doctrine:Flex, which are logistically hindered by lack of access to resources and infrastructure, as well as techs like Organic Superlube, Synthetic fossil fuels or Nanotechnology which could have a huge impact in the future. It's a nice approach, I think. The techs aren't that esoteric, IMO.

[spy14]

SMAC just needs a good Civlopedia thats all (and may have one that people just haven't looked at, I've never played it to know!)

[Kuciwalker]

C3 was an improvement over SMAC, and a huge one over C2. The things left out of C3 that were in SMAC were left out for one of two reasons: they don't make sense in the context of a real-world civ game, or they were bad. SE and the fifty gazillion terraforming options fall under the former category; crawlers under the latter.

[Theseus]

Originally posted by alva
I remember Theseus doing this aswell, but that one was much funnier.

Edit : wow, even remember whih thread it was

Theuseus' climax

I'm still blown away by the size of Ribannah's...

Empire.

Yeah, that's the ticket!!

[Cerbykins]

Oh, Civ 3 has it's flaws. But generally less than in Civ 1, and we didn't have an internet to moan on then
I'm getting a similar intolerance for FPS games...result? I just don't play that sort any more

[Cerbykins]

Aw no, I missed the other 3 pages again