Yin has Civ3!: Let the testing begin ...

[Lawrence of Arabia]

I've noticed on my first few games that the AI sacrifices culture for expansion. A lot of times, they would found cities, only to have them become mine a few turns later due to culture. I tried to then focus only on expansion, and it seemed to work. I didn't get boxed in.

[fossicker]

I have to concur about trading expansion for culture. My current game I basically spent all of my resources in defense and churning out settlers until not a single piece of real estate was available.

Seems to work well for me, but then I am only playing on chieftan

[Shiva]

Yin what size map and settings are you using?

[eMarkM]

I'm a newbie to this fine forum (though veteran Civ2 Deity smasher) and I have a question. What does ICS mean? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

e

[Stuie]

Originally posted by yin26
Yes, the AI expansion is awesome ... if suspicious.

I've been able to keep pace with AI expansion on Regent level by timing settler building to occur on or just after the city increases to Pop 3. In between, I use the time to build more units and an occasional wall/temple/granary.

Your screenshot seems to add additional weight to my one complaint thus far: civs seem to start near the same group of civs every time. For example, the Chinese/Japanese/Indians are always in the same general area. I may take some time this weekend and just start a bunch of games to see if this is true. If so, knock replayability down one notch. Knowing who your neighbor will be every time out kind of sucks.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by eMarkM
I'm a newbie to this fine forum (though veteran Civ2 Deity smasher) and I have a question. What does ICS mean? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

e

ICS = Infinite City Sprawl. A cheesy tactic that consists of building tons of cities to overwhelm the AI, perfected by some in Civ2. The developers intended to thwart such crap in Civ3.

Personally, I never used it. Seems boring to me.

[Alex]

Stuie was faster than me.


So, is ICS still possible?








Edited to delete same explanation provided by Stuie.

[cassembler]

Yin man I gotta give it to ya- I'm glad you got the game and I sincerely hope you enjoy it enough to pay your hard-earned $50. I just wish I could run it... Seems to not like my computer. Tehc support seems to respond within 24 hrs though with helpful info. That's a good thing.

[eMarkM]

Ah, ICS=infinite city sprawl. Thx for response. Yes, I'm very familiar with this tactic. Build pyramids for high octane growth and crank out endless cities.

It does appear that the bunching up of Civs and their remarkable ability to spread so quickly themselves limits this very strategy. Also, the rampant corruption everyone is complaining about in their far off cities also limits this strategy if you have some space to expand where you every other Civ isn't 10 squares away from you. I don't think the corruption thing is a bug as some complain. It's probably designed to prevent ICS, at least until you've grown culturally. These factors together with AI combat being so much tougher I think will make an ICS stratgey very difficult. Throw your Civ2 strategies out the window.

So far I've enjoyed the challenge so early in the game. I've already had a few exciting "settler races" with other Civs to see who will claim that unclaimed gap between us. I shudder when I see that warrior/settler combo racing towards my borders. But I love it.

e

[Jim Cobb]

Yim,

I can confirm that your trouble was outdated Radeon DDR 32MB drivers. I have the same card and had the same trouble. Users of this card should know that updating is necessary and can be hairy. My advice: The "Loading Graphics Device" message will remain for a few minutes with no HD activity. Be patient; it just seems stalled. There'll be a burst of HD activity and you'll be good to go.

Jim Cobb

[Jack_www]

Yin since you have no land left on which to expand try to capture their cities with culture. I have been able to get two A.I. cities this way(one of which was a city that was mine in the first place that the A.I. had captured). I dont know if you have though of this already, just trying to be helpfull. It also sounds like you like Civ3 alot so far. I know that I am very gald that I got Civ3!!!!

[Civ Dave]

OK Yin, I got time now, so here's how to change font.

I haven't tried it yet, but this was my guess:

I the main directory, there is a TTF file (text file).... go into your windows/fonts folder or wherever it is, copy the font you like, and go back to your civ3 directory. Paste the file in there, and rename it to the same thing as the one that came with civ3 is called....


that should work

[UKScud]

Yin...[looking at your screenshot]...you gonna get slaughtered!

...unless...

How is the culture model coming along? I notice you are building a temple in the city closest to indians...and that your city populations tend to be higher than theirs. Have you started to assimilate their cities?

The resource model? Have you noticed any resources appear on his side of the border?

[Delthayre]

Yin, Reviews, and Culture

To be honest, my first impressions of Yin were not good, but I found that he can very reasonable if a neutral third party with some diffusive commentary enters the picture to diffuse the frequent 1 on 1 flame wars he seems to get drawn in to (can't really hold him responsible to much, human psychology is quite varied and some people tend to be aggresive like that...or you're like me...a obsessive compulsive mild manic depressive with a borderlind personality and inferiority complex). I look forward to his review and I think it will be balanced as long as no one tries to agitate him.

I too support going for culture captures...I was able to contain Iroquois spreading on my continent by culturally converting most of their cities. It was neccasary too, I was boxed in by mountains with no good expansion routes.

[CygnusZ]

Originally posted by yin26
Cool! Thanks, Dave.

volcanohead: Thanks for the objective few on my postings here.

I just traded maps with India. We share a small island (I suppose it's really a continent, but the scale makes it feel like an island). He has 9 cities to my 4! There's really no free land left.

This AI land grab can really put the hurt on you. I like it! I just wish I knew if the AI is doing this 'legally' or not. I'm on Regent level, which I think has no cheats for the AI.

Does anybody understand the amazing early AI game?

Yeah, because my early game expansion easily matches that of the AI. It's about what your emphasis is. The early game AI tends to put an emphasis on creating a military and building settlers. They mine their dimpled plains for 2 shields while building up the population. Plan for finishing the building of settler's the second the population hits 3. Multiply this by your new towns

I make it a point to have a strong cultural influence, so I tend to create one or two "defense" units for my cities and then prop up some temples. The AI tends to churn out units instead of my equivlant temple. If you capture an AI city you'll normally notice a lack of city improvements.