First Impressions

[Grumbold]

Re: this gme is hard

Originally posted by art_vandelai
I thought after circling my only iron producing city (which is on the Indians' contintent) with fortresses in the hills and mountains fortified with pikemen (3 defense) would prevent anyone from taking my city. About 10 indian archers and swordsmen broke our peace treaty, walked right through my defense a few turns after I started my offensive in Russia

What, if any, effect did the fortresses have? I was under the impression that they gave zones of control to the units with 1mp that don't normally have them and/or allowed you an out of turn attack on people who moved past you.

[Friday]

I like it so far apart from the music and the lack of wonder videos. Really disappointed in those compared to civ2.

Gameplay/diplomacy/UI and graphics are all decent though.

[Spatzimaus]

The thing I love about the game the most? There are times when you NEED to go to war, over resources. For example, on my Huge game, I just got Gunpowder; problem is, I don't have any Saltpeter or Horses. The Greek cities right across my border have both, but the Greeks don't know Gunpowder yet. If I don't attack them immediately, I won't be able to survive in the midgame. Good thing I'm the Persians; without Immortals I couldn't do this.

[Tripper]

My first impression is that I don't like the interface. It is definitely better than Civ2 but not as good as SMAC in my opinion. Maybe I just haven't learned all the tricks yet.

Gripes:

1) When selecting a new unit to build from the drop down menu on the advisor screen that pops up, it doesn't state the ADM stats of that unit. Of course I will eventually have them all memorized, but until then I find it a nuisance.

2) There is no way to see what is all contained in a tile. right clicking the tile will tell you what the basic terrain is but it doesn't mention the improvements (I spent quite a few seconds comparing graphics in the civlopedia to what was on the screen to determine it was mines the AI was building all over). In SMAC there was a small section of the "control panel" devoted to detailing the tile. It stated what the basic terrain was, any specials on it and any man/alien-made improvements. SMAC's interface also showed all units currently in that tile. I am finding the lack of these features in Civ3 to be a step back.

Does this mean I don't like the game? Heck no! I'm still playing it every spare moment! I just find myself missing these amenities. Or maybe I've just played too much SMAC.

[CubsFan915]

Originally posted by Spatzimaus
Stromprophet: in the City screen, just to the upper left of the button you use to select what you're building is a small icon of a boot, with an arrow pointing to the right. That's the Hurry button. Of course, if you're in Despotism or Communism you "buy" with population. Not very intuitive, I know, but you'll get used to it.

Or, if you're on the main map screen, you can right click on the city and select "Hurry Production"...

[Stromprophet]

Actually I finally got my sound to work, which was in part my fault. I have a sharing program on the net, and it has to have it's volume turned on for my systems volume to be on.

Now, I am havong other difficulties. The game won't start. It just won't start at all. It starts up, I see the infogames logo, and it freezes.

I have all the system reqs and more, and this usually never happens. Any suggestions? I've reinstalled a few times now.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Stromprophet
Actually I finally got my sound to work, which was in part my fault. I have a sharing program on the net, and it has to have it's volume turned on for my systems volume to be on.

Now, I am havong other difficulties. The game won't start. It just won't start at all. It starts up, I see the infogames logo, and it freezes.

I have all the system reqs and more, and this usually never happens. Any suggestions? I've reinstalled a few times now.

I initially had a bad skipping sound in the music. Tech support advised me to set sound debugging in the DirectX contol panel to none or basic. None caused the freeze you described above. Basic left the skipping in. So I turned the music off--games runs beautifully without it.

Cheers.

[ember]

One thing I like is that with RR, your units just teleport, it doesn't bother animating the whole trip. Saves lots of time.
I really like how roads are not effective in other territory, although that may be going to far, I would prefer if tehy were reduced effectiveness, like hills with roads count as if tehy were plains. THere is a path to follow after all.

Havn't found bombards to be a whole lot of use yet, except against invaders, then they rock, as thier units can't heal.

Against the zulu's I took a major city, but it revolted, with lots of fancy units in it, I think i'm going to try that again. Bombarding could be usefull here, just to bring the pop down to where you can controll it, and to remove the defense bonus.

Infantry are tough to remove, even with tanks. The retreat when at 1 HP helps alot though. I have yet to get a leader, wich mans I can't build an army, and I need an army to get the mini-wonder that lets me build armies. Have yet to try that part out yet. I'm thinking 3-4 tanks as an assult unit would be nice

Rousources are key. Had to pay through the nose to sucure some coal from the english. Now is my time to shine though, I'm setting myself up as opec, becasue I controll 5 out of 6 oil that I know of. One is traded for Oil. THe rest I'm just going to sit on and deny everyone else their use. As long as I get Uranium ( I do have Alluminum)

When I launched a war for coal, found invasions are much harder than CIV II. The AI counter-attacked with a huge stack of units. Most were semi-obselete, but still enough to get by my front line ans start ranscking my infrastructure

[tmarcl]

Ok, after about two days of straight playing, I'm ready talk. I first tried playing on Prince level. By the time I had three cities settled, the AI had grabbed most of the continent, leaving me with almost no resources. My most recent game is on Chieftan, with eight civs on a huge map. I'm on a continent with (what's left) of the Roman's. Everyone else is on another continent.

I'm not sure if the Romans were extremely lucky, or if this is a bug, but when I thought I had taken their last city, another one popped up on the other side of the continent! I'm letting them rebuild, since I've got access to nearly all the resources on the continent.

Trade is cool, much better than in Civ 2 (of all the changes, this is the one I like the most!) I love the look on your cultural advisor's face when she tells you a trade agreement has expired, and you're no longer receiving a certain good-you'd think you'd just sacrificed her first born child (now *there's* something for Civ 4...)

I have yet to see a cultural assimilation, though one may be due soon. So far, other than the Roman's, everyone likes me.

Marc

[tmarcl]

How to work the queue

I was playing around in the city screen and stumbled upon it. After you click on the first item you want to build, hit Shift+click to select the second, third, etc improvements.

Marc

[[LordLMP]]

I'm playing on Regent level (formerly known as Prince level).

Sorry, but i just think this is funny LoL

Regent Level, formerly known as Prince

LoL

-LMP

[Jack_www]

I just got Civ III today, and I must say I love the game! I dont know what people are complaining about really. It runs prefectly on my computer, after a couple hours of play. Much better than Civ3. I also like the improved trading system in Civ3.

[Provost Harrison]

I have a good game up and running as the French. Just roaming the world, looking for people to do trade with. And believe me, I am a man with a lot of beaver (for once in my life) And saltpeter too.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by Tripper
Gripes:

1) When selecting a new unit to build from the drop down menu on the advisor screen that pops up, it doesn't state the ADM stats of that unit. Of course I will eventually have them all memorized, but until then I find it a nuisance.

2) There is no way to see what is all contained in a tile. right clicking the tile will tell you what the basic terrain is but it doesn't mention the improvements (I spent quite a few seconds comparing graphics in the civlopedia to what was on the screen to determine it was mines the AI was building all over). In SMAC there was a small section of the "control panel" devoted to detailing the tile. It stated what the basic terrain was, any specials on it and any man/alien-made improvements. SMAC's interface also showed all units currently in that tile. I am finding the lack of these features in Civ3 to be a step back.

Does this mean I don't like the game? Heck no! I'm still playing it every spare moment! I just find myself missing these amenities. Or maybe I've just played too much SMAC.

1. I agree, would be nice to have these available when you "swap on the fly" via the advisor screen.

2. Agree also. Would be nice (and not hard I would hope) to have the tile improvements listed either in the tile description via right-click, or else displayed in the "unit info" area.

There should be SOME place where the tile improvements are listed if for no other reason than having to get 3" away from the monitor screen trying to squint to tell if that road was really built through that forest/jungle square.

[LarryM]

My fourth report;

(1) I gave up on two games at monarch (King) level; I'm now well into the industrial age playing the English at regent (prince) level. I'm doing okay - I have a nice compact, efficient civ of 12 cities. I'm think I'm headed for victory, but I'm nowhere near first place yet (the Aztecs are way ahead), and I was as low as 5th or 6th at one point.

(2) I'm getting ready for my first aggressive war - I need to take a border city (that has stubornly resisted assimilation) in order to get some coal. I like the fact that the game gives me a reason to go to war other than mere lust for conquest.

(3) Coal, btw, despite some speculation to the contrary, is a very important resource - you need it to build railroads.

(4) I need to revise some of my previous comments regarding the aggressiveness of AI controlled civs. I speculated that the people who were reporting lack of AI agressiveness were playing on large or huge maps with (relatively) few civs, and stated that the AI was plenty aggressive on a normal map with 8 civs. Well, I was wrong, at least in part. The AI civs are plenty agressive early on, at least on crowded map. Howver, as time goes on, they have grown much more peaceful. No wars of any type in many years. This hopefully will be adjusted in a patch. (I realize that AI aggressiveness is higher on the highest difficulty levels, but I doubt that most of us will be playing on anything harder than monarch (King) for quite a while).

(5) I have almost no corruption, but then I have a compact civ of only 12 cities, with democracy, a forbidden palace, and the commerce special.