First Impressions

[Father Beast]

Well, I got civ3 and spent yeterday evening playing it.

There are a number of things which irritate me:

I miss the wonder movies.
I miss the high council - these mute fellows aren't near as fun.
I miss being able to Irrigate. my entire subcontinent with 8 cities has no river and cannot be irrigated - yet.

some nice things:
city build queue. wunnerful, just as it was in AC
Science Queue.
the trade system seems actually to work pretty well.

I'll post a review soon, but one thing is certain. they seem to have found the right balance of play to hook me. One more turn has become the order of the day. I'm afraid to turn on the game if I have something that needs doing within a few hours.

I like it!

[Darkknight]

I HAVE THE GAME!!!!

been playing since 4pm Had food around 6 while playing, stopped for an hour to watch the end of Saving P. Ryan Been playing since. 9 hours in I'm on my 5th game, figured out most stuff.

city build queue. wunnerful, just as it was in AC

I heard about that but can't figure out how it works??

Animations are a bit jerky
Overall graphics are good
Doesn't work on my PC PII333 164RAM 8mbS3gfxcard Win 95 I tried to run setup and it came up with:

Not enough storage to process this command

Not enough resources! I've got a large portion of a huge map and have just 5 horses and 1 iron.
Big manual!
No wonder movies
Short starting movie
Nice music
Excellent diplomacy
Annoying trade, only lasts for 20 turns and they always cancel it then
Culture takeover is hard. I've got a city 2 tiles from a german city (who admire my culture) it's on 126 culture and their city is below 10. Still hasn't taken it over.
The AI must have that erotic Jackrabbit gene
Re-heated hamburger is very chewy. But still tastes nice
Cat attempting to chew through phone line
When a city reaches 6 (without aquaduct) the number should go yellow instead it waits till it tries to grow first.
Overall 9/10. There still some annoying bits that need polishing.

[Seneca]

Oh dear, my poor little 500Mhz processor isn't liking this at all. A second or two delay each turn might not sound much, but the cumulative effect is very draggy and un-fun

I'm strangle ungrabbed - perhaps because I'm used to Freeciv on Linux and extremely snappy openings. Maybe I should just learn to love Despotism...

The city close-ups are ly though, I have to say.

[Seneca]

I'm afraid Europa Universalis II is gonna blow this out of the water...

[chicagodan]

Originally posted by Seneca
I'm afraid Europa Universalis II is gonna blow this out of the water...

I hope Europa Universalis II blows it out of the water ... otherwise it will be the second disappointment of the month.

[Seneca]

Originally posted by chicagodan


I hope Europa Universalis II blows it out of the water ... otherwise it will be the second disappointment of the month.

The vibe from the beta-testers is incredibly positive - they say it'll make EUI look like a demo...

[chicagodan]

That's what I've been hearing as well ... and I love the original EU. A day after I installed Civ III, I was back to playing the modified grand campaign. With some luck, I should have my copy of EUII from Amazon before I get back from Thanksgiving.

[playshogi]

EU1 WAS A DEMO

[Savant]

I've played Civ 3 for 3 weeks or so now

and appreciate it as a Civ game that is better "out of the box" than its predecessors. That said, it has fatal limitations for scenario making and that is what I really had hoped to be the extra value of Civ 3. But we all know now that it doesn't have a scripting language and obne can't edit units on the map or technologies. That makes the game a dead-end. You either like it the way it is or you move on, until Firaxis cmes out with some way to expand scenario production. I'm at this point waiting, having had my fill of the "out of the box" version.

Now I'm playing EU2 and if I didn't have that, I'd be playing EU1 while waiting for Firaxis to come along with a patch to allow scenarios.

"Waiting for Firaxis".. hope it's not like waiting for Godot or God forbid - Activision!

[scientific civ]

Practically everything that can be said about the game has already been said so I'm gonna keep this short.

When I first got the game I played for 40 hours straight (but strangely my computer reset itseld for no reason ) In the last three days I've had about 6 hours of sleep and have naturally been playing most of the day.
First of all, however I can't stop playing, I still have an urge to to quit because of that damn corruption. When I've expanded far enough, corruption is, even under republic, horrible. At this point I started a new game over and over again, because I can't stand it. So I've just gotten to the early Middle-Ages.
What I miss terribly in the game is the ZOC. Those settlers can just walk to their desired locantion and there's nothing you can do about it.
These things bother me most, but it's still a great game, after the corruption is fixed.
I'll probably won't come very far until the patch, because I can't play like this (corruption ).
So hurry up firaxis!

scientific

[Bambul]

I've owned Civ3 for almost a week now (one week exactly in a couple of hours). I know it's a bit late for *first* impressions, but here goes:

My first 2 games were a bit of a learning experience, I played as the Romans (chieftan) and then the Greeks (warlord). At this point Civ3 looked to be a good game, there were some things I hadn't noticed before and some nice additions and simplifications that resulted in a more refined experience.

It was my third game that gave me the shock. I was playing Regent on regular or large map (can't remember) as the French on one continent. I expanded a little until I was surrounded by AI. As I had started with jungle on one side and sea on the other I was at a disadvantage from the word go. Not only that, but I couldn't get any horses (none in my territory and no-one would trade 'em). I hoped that I could hold off until I got the opportunity to take an opportunity that would get me ahead of the AI, but that never came. Instead, I had 3 AI's at war with me at the same time! One declared war, then got 2 alliances.

I lost one city. Then regained it through culture (it came back, yay!), only to have it taken back again by the AI. My culture would keep it out of the hands of the AI, but the AI's military would keep it outta mine. I began building Pikemen, hoping to move in and hold the city next time it revolted back. It came back, but too early for me to get the reinforcements in. No problem I though, I'll just wait for the next one, only to see the AI walk into the city and burn it to the ground! Noooooooooo!

This was continued until I was down to my capital. I finally got a peace treaty and a second city (it revolted too), which was good because it was my iron city.

Normally in Civ2 if anything like this happened I would have quit, but I decided to keep playing and see what I could make of it. I went from one city and war with 3 Civs, to regaining a city and capturing 2 others in the rest of the game. Keep in mind that I was in the Medieval Age and some were already in the Modern age.

I decided to start another game. The AI had proved itself to be a worthy foe on just the third difficulty level, much better than it ever could have been in Civ2 deity. Solution: drop down to Warlord!

My next game was going well. I was the English on another continent with 7 other civ's (2 would not survive till the end of the game). I managed to grab pole position in the science race just before the industrial revolution and kept it, allowing me to get all the wonders. I was going for a cultural victory and wanted to get a leader so that I could build an army and build Heroic Epic (for the culture) in my capitol. After 37 Elite wins I got one (it's supposed to be 1/16 right? Well I didn't get another leader the rest of the game even with heroic Epic, lost count). It was a bit of an anti-climax, but atleast I got 3 small wonders.

By the time I hit the modern age I had made a discovery. I was poised to take cultural, science or diplomatic victory, whichever came first. My culture was at 75,000 (12,500 in my capitol) and my lead in science would ensure that I would get UN and Apollo well before anyone else. So I'm going for it, building up my culture and the UN. Then I finish it and it asks if I want an election, so I say yes. It comes out a 3-3 draw between me and the French. The Americans (my longest and best friends) and Iroquis voted for me, the Aztecs and Russians for the French. I didn't like the Russians much, they were near me, they were relatively easy to conquer size-wise and they posed the single largest threat to me (we had been bitter enemies all game, US-Russia realtions were pretty poor also). So when I discovered that they were building a spaceship too I decided that it was time to ready an invasion force. I began cranking out the armour and preparing to build stealth bombers with carriers. My plan would be to steamroller over them in one turn, hit hard from all sides with everything I had and take them out in one hit. It was doable, I had so much rubber, aluminium and uranium that I was making a fortune by selling it to my neighbours.

However, before I had started on the bombers, the UN vote came up again. I said yes, hoping that the Aztecs might have changed their mind. Up came the result, France wins 4-2. Argh! Nooooo! Not again!

My first game of Civ3 that I finished right up to the end and I lose it! But I did enjoy it. It was a challenge and it sorta feels good to have the AI get back at me for picking on it so much.

Well, it's time for game five. I think I'll try the Persians...

[Vercingettyrex]

Excellent game. I was worried that it might let its predecessors down. I'm delighted to find its in the same great tradition.

Its a big step up from CIV 2. Especially like the culture and nationality stuff. Will have to revise all my strategys and think up some new ones which is exactly want I want from CIV 3. Got some points based on my first game which may have been raised elsewhere :

1.) Like to be able to identify the Government types of of opponents cant find an easy way of doing this. Would have thought my embassies could supply this info without any bother.

2.) If I spy on a foreign city should be able to re-access that screen through out my turn. Not just once. Except of course that its just a one turn shot.

3.) Lump sum verses annual payment bug. I set up as banker. I offer 200 to be repayed at 11 each turn for 20 turns. I make 10% other state accepts terms. My status window bottom right hand screen increments my annual income by 1 not 11. I'm being cheated.

4.) Load of some windows not instaneous. My PC is Athlon 1200Mghz.

5.) Manual misleading in regards to espionage. Best bit is the keys section. Why aren't espionage options available through foreign minister screen ?

Having made these points, I hope their positive criticisms, my overall impression is that the game is outstanding but may have been rushed. I realy thought that when I first heard this game was to be released it would not be till 2002. Still I'm happy. I rather have it sooner than later. I am looking forward to the patches. But the game is addictive. And requires thought.

[scientific civ]

Originally posted by Vercingettyrex

1.) Like to be able to identify the Government types of of opponents cant find an easy way of doing this. Would have thought my embassies could supply this info without any bother.

2.) If I spy on a foreign city should be able to re-access that screen through out my turn. Not just once. Except of course that its just a one turn shot.

1.) press F3. click on the tab in the middle right of the ...army

2.) double-click on the star icon next to the other civs capitol name. you'll have to pay to investigate cities and steal techs though. and you can't see it when you're at war with them

hope that helps you out.

[Seneca]

OK - I've overcome my initial reservations - the speed of it is an arse, to be sure, but it says something about the game that I can gladly put up with it.

The AI is beating the crap out of me on Warlord, and I'm loving it!

[cutlerd]

How I know Civ 3 is a great game...

Only one other wargame (table top WW2 massive game called World in Flames) aside from CIV3 has ever had me thinking my next moves and possible strategies while driving on my commute to work. THAT is a sign of a good game.

Is it perfect? Nope. But what makes the game IMO is the AI.

And to anyone who has not tried the 16 Civ game on the huge map....I HIGHLY recommend it. Talk about Machievellian! You have to be a duplicitous, Harkonnen, sweet-takling, back-stabbing bastard to prevail in that environment.

Because of the sheer size of the map and the corruption rules, conquering the entire world is about as plausible as it is in real life. It COULD happen, but really isn't even worth the trouble. That means you have to hone your other CIV skills in the 16-huge game. Your civ building skills must be up to par. Your economic skills up to par. Your diplomatic skills up to par. Cranking out tanks and smashing everyone in sight will get you dead in my experience in a 16-huge game because the AI rightfully will see that you are a menace to the general well-being of the world and everyone will gang up on you, and the sheer combined might of 12 other civs (assuming 2-3 have been knocked out) and their cultural influences will overwhelm even very powerful player run empires (if playing at a suitable difficulty level).

Devin