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

[yin26]

I'm on Win98, P3 850, 256 RAM, Radeon DDR 32Mb, 2 x 20 Gig Hds.

It seems the driver update worked. Looks like Radeon DDR 32Mb users will need to do that.

Well, the guy at that store has known me now 5 years. I buy nearly a game a month from him ... and he has seen me go from ZERO Korean language to now basically fluent. He showed me Civ3 and I said: "No. I'm waiting because I think I might not like it."

To which he said: "Try it out. If you like it, buy it."

Smart guy, actually.

[yin26]

Some cool things:

* You can preview the next piece for your palace. Nice touch.
* The AI expands like crazy! By 1050 BC, India (I am China) had 6 cities (that I could see) to my 2! This has already hemmed me in on my slice of land. I wonder, though: The AI *also* has lots of units up and running ... does the AI not get the ICS penalties or something?

Early game is fairly dull. With the AI eating up land so fast, though, there is an earlier sense of urgency building up, which is quite nice.

Graphics are better than I thought ... if still a bit underwhelming. People have mentioned wanting better zoom features. Would be nice.

Interface is intuitive. I haven't read a single page of the manual yet.

Overall has a 'smoothe' feel to it. Good work there.

One minor complaint: The font they used seems off. Don't know. The font just doesn't match the graphics ... nor does the overall city screen design seem particularly well laid out. I mean all the information is there and easy to understand, but it has a somewhat 'late beta' feel to it. Anyway, back to the game.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by yin26
Ecthelion: Feel free to ignore the thread, then. I have been criticized in the past for not playing a game (CtP in that case) and not giving a review. And as the President of the Pessimists' Club, I have to make a showing.

Now that one I don't get. There are many people who don't play either CTP or CTP 2, they fon't get criticised. I suppose you just got criticised for being a smart ass in the relevant forums instead of keeping your mouth shut.

And where can I read the written confirmation you're the President of the Pessimists' Club?

Does this all mean the more you flame a game before it is released the better your reputation will be in the end? I don't think so, Yin.

[yin26]

First question: How long have you followed these forums?

[volcanohead]

The interesting thing is Yin is being pretty positive about the game so far... Obviously early days as yet and he will find some poor points later.

From what I've seen on these boards over the last weeks (yes, I am a newbie, but a long-term thesis-destroying Civ 2 player) there seems to be very few objective people. I'd thought before that Yin was a little bit heavy on the negative before the game came out, but I do believe he'll give a critical and as objective as possible review... And if that turns out to be positive it suggests that the game is really very good.

I'm in Europe, waiting for delivery and so all news/views are of great interest.

[Civ Dave]

yin: you can chang the font...

I'll show ya how later

[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?

[Jeje2]

Yin: Traitor

Yin, how could you betray the gang this soon?
Have you no selfrespect at all!!!
The masses ahve been behind you in there statements about not to Civ3 and then the master goes off Civing....

Expecting your review...

volcanohead: I personally will listen very carefully to Yin's review. He has written a couple of them earlier which I consider quite objective. (Of course you need some salt. )

[KrazyHorse]

"The game" kicks some serious ass. The mountains do look funny, etc., but the AI seems to be a whole lot smarter than it used to be. I still haven't finished my first game (some of us have mid-terms ), but I'm on freaking Chieftain (), and while I'm winning fairly handily I just almost lost a freaking size 9 city to a horde of English knights. In addition, I'm in demo, and my pop is revolting cuz I've been at war for ~30 turns. I wasn't a bad Civ2 player (winning at Deity had become fairly easy/routine), but this seems to be a new ball game. The AI expands fast (giant world map, 16 civs, every corner filled) and I'm having trouble boosting research to less than 4 turns/discovery.

[yin26]

Jeje: Two things.

1) I am a recovering crack addict (with games, of course). I wouldn't BUY the crack ... but it was LOANED to me. C'mon. I'm human. Free play with Civ3?
2) Think of it this way: I'm just going into battle to scout the territory. Our team is still ready on standby, right? LOL

KH: Yes, the AI expansion is awesome ... if suspicious.

I will try to load this image locally to show you my problem here:

[yin26]

Yes, I am the light blue one ... and in big trouble. (...and love it...)

Complaint: India likes to run across my borders and even when they agree to withdraw troops, they take the looong way off my land.

[incie]

I agree the AI's expansion rate is very suspicious, but I'm not sure I mind. I've managed to get ahead of them most times now. You basically just do an ICS until all the land is gone, then focus on building your cities.

What I DO mind is they seem to be able to field a much larger army than myself without serious hits to their income -- I'd like to know how they're pulling this one off.

By the way, if you wait until the AI units are fairly deep in your territory and then demand a withdrawl, the units will dissapear and be placed back in the AI's territory (assuming they agree to do it). If they're close to the border for some reason the computer will be free to move the units out himself, and of course he won't do it.

I've taken to fortifying units a few spaces inside my borders...if the AI wont back off when I tell him to, he gets whacked. Lots of fun with settlers, free slave labor.

[Ozymandous]

Yin:

Retire and see how fast the AI spreads on the replay. I am playing on Regent (sp?) and have kept pace and even managed to box one Civ (English) into a corner.

From my limited experience so far the AI doesn't get help, at least on this level, more than the player can do.

Of course my build order for every new city was typically as follows:

1. Warrior
2. Settler
3. Walls (maybe spearman or archer)
4. Settler
5. Temple
6. etc

With every city pumping out at least two settlers I had no problem with the ability to spread, the only problem was finding a good spot for a city that wasn't jungle, hill or desert.

Hmm, I will say that from my experience the attacker definitely seems to have the advantage. I have seen numerous regular swordsmen killing elite, fortified (with walls in a city) spearmen.

Overall a fun game, and although the mountains do still seem strange when seen solo if you clump them together (roughly 25% of all my maps are mountains it seems) they look better.

[Steve Clark]

Ozy: Sn00py made my wish come true, he has a new mountain graphics. Go to Civ3-Files.

[kittenOFchaos]

I'm so glad Yin is enjoying himself...I'd get all angry that he could dislike civ3 because it couldn't POSSIBILY be true! THE GAME I've waited for must be good!

Hope your fun continues and we see a Yin at peace with the world.