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

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by yin26
I took over Calcutta, cutting India's supply line in half: But the people revolted and took it back! Looks like I need to handle the angry populace better. More troops fortifying? Would that work?

Ah, hell. Now I'm in trouble.

Well I took over London in my game and had over ten troops there, they quelled all four dissidents in one round. Similary I took over Canterbury, left only 6 troops there and only quelled two angry dissidents each turn. In addition, once the English citizens became content I still had to leave as many of my troops in the city as there were foreign citizens or else the city was in unrest. *sigh*

Oh well, good thing I had all my major cities producing mounted warriors and veteran spearmen.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by yin26
I am currently playing a copy 'on loan' from my computer guy here in Korea. He owns a small shop near one of my bus stops, and he has seen me many times over the years. He said:

"If you like the game, come back and buy it. Keep the disks a few weeks if you need."

So, total amount paid so far: $0

Clever, Yin!

But then, I know already you are a clever guy.

I took the somewhat larger risk to buy the US version; well, it feels like Civ. If it feels like an improvement, can´t yet say. I look forward to your comments while I do my own testing.

[yin26]

CT: LOL! Well, I'm a bit lucky is all. That and I *only* buy games from him, and he knows I could go to a lot of other places.

Well, here's how the war is going:

[yin26]

As you can see, I've cut India in half and am holding well. I learned the necessity of garrisoning units to keep the rebels in check. That's one of the mechanisms they seem to have programmed to keep you from just running from one city to the next. Interesting.

Now, I have *NO* idea how the other civs are doing. I get the sinking feeling one of them could show up on my shores and kill me at a moments notice. I just hope I can take over India first!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yin, you should be interested in my thread... it details some problems I'm having. Have we switched positions . Naw, not yet... but it might make for a little interesting read.

[yin26]

Bangalor and Lahore are also mine, though the annoying 'We take back our city and all your troops stationed there vanish' thing is getting tired. I understand this has to do with relative culture ratings, but tell me: If I'm in a war, how do I invest in culture? "Well, that's the point, Yin!" I understand, and that part is good. BUT: That virtually means you have to have a higher culture in order to WIN this kinds of wars without all the hassles. But a higher culture Civ likely won't have the resources for troops if the investment has gone into culture.

There's some sort of odd Catch-22 going on here.

A few negatives:

* When you go to war, there's no message between the civs. It's as if nothing happens.
* The workers are an intolerable micro-manage nightmare! And the 'automate' function has them running around doing the stupidest things ... running between cities, for example, building nothing! *sigh* I had hoped the days of the 'spinning in circles terraformers' would end.
* You lose your entire army in a city if you are deposed. C'mon. That's silly. I have a garrison of 8 troops and 6 citizens not only take back the city but wipe out the entire army?

A few positive points:

* The linked words to the Civilopedia is great! So easy to find the info you need.
* When you quit the game, you drop right to the desktop. I *hate* games that make you go through 2 or 3 menus just to exit.
* The AI actually dropped troops behind my war front! Sadly, it only brought a single warrior.

By the way, since I'm bogged down in a war on an island ... I have a sinking feeling I'm being totally outclassed by the 6 other civs in the game. And since I have no diplomatic relationship with them, I have no trade. I guess I should have built a galley, eh?

Well, if I can kill India at least, I'll be happy enough for my first try.

[yin26]

Imran: THAT I have to read!

[Leonidas]

I know how it feels: the first couple games can be humbling. . .

I'm currently in my third game, and I am itching to go to war, but I suspect all those galleys sneaking around my island are hoping that is exactly what I do. . .

[Jason]

/agree firmly about armies poofing. If your armies don't have a credible... something making them vanish into thin air, then they shouldn't.

Frankly if the armies outnumber the foreign nationals in a city that should be an automatic no-revolt right there.

[Faboba]

Originally posted by Jason Beaudoin
Faboda: Didn't I take care of that for you?

Nope. The last word I've had was 'what is your e-mail address'.

If you sent it to Hotmail I suppose it might have eaten it and not bothered sending it on to my pop-3 server.

Hmmmmmm

I'll check the online version.

[yin26]

O.K. More update.

I seem to have gotten myself into a horribly sluggish start. I should have expanded more agressively and worried more about resources. This seems to be a universal 'getting used to' problem among a lot of us. I could have started over, but I want to play the game in full. Take my beating.

Some good stuff:

* Sometimes a city will need to build something urgently, in which case you get a message, one of which allows you to 'Let CityX complete [current item] then start [new item].' VERY convenient!
* Things are just so much more delicate in this game! It's really impossible to just roll over enemy cities the way you used to in Civ2! Even when you pile up units (which you pretty much have to), you'll need to keep them fortified in newly-taken cities to keep them from deposing you ... this gives the enemy lots of time to prepare its next city for your arrival. So if you plan to go to war: Blitzkrieg!

Some bad stuff:

* The excessive roads still look terrible, along with the mines. I hope Firaxis considers my proposal for graphics toggles.
* The diplomacy side of things is awfully artificial and prone to abuse. For example, I can get India to give me some techs for peace. Then simply take another city. Get him to give me another tech for peace, etc. The diplomacy AI really needs to keep track of how often you break treaties.
* Along with that, the AI never even cared when I started massing troops in his borders. Sure, we were at peace at the time, but by now it should plan better against my treachery.

Well, here's the latest image. You'll notice very little change. Things have see-sawed back and forth, but I've pretty much caught up with India and made them hurt. Problem is: I've now contact other Civs and they are vastly superior to me. The *ONLY* way I can win this one is to wipe out India somehow to get this whole island to myself, keep the other civs happy with me, and try to get them to go to war with each other. Then, using my isolation to buy time, catch up with tech and econ and try to make taking me over a holy terror. Absorb the first wave and time my counter-strike. Easier said than done, however, when I lack the resources to build anything advanced. Basically: Trade or die.

[mactbone]

The diplomacy side of things is awfully artificial and prone to abuse. For example, I can get India to give me some techs for peace. Then simply take another city. Get him to give me another tech for peace, etc. The diplomacy AI really needs to keep track of how often you break treaties

Uhhh, Yin, make sure the other civs never get to know India... India will tell them that you're breaking treaties, then they'll make you give up a lot to get any deals going. This happened with me, but I think the effect was magnified because I was the "superpower" nation. So watch your back...

[yin26]

Crap. Madras just decided they like India better. *poof* Gone. Now I want to go on record with this statement:

"It's ironic that the addition of culture has made me want to simply raze cities instead of building them up."

Here's another statement:

"Of all the challenges in Civ3, perhaps one of the greatest will be your starting position. Deal with it!"

You see, if I had simply razed that city and followed up with a settler, I could have kept it and never worried about having all my units stationed there simply evaporating because the citizens like curry more than sweet and sour sauce.

And if I hadn't been on this island, I would have had more room to breath. However, that one was MY fault. Next time I'll really see early on where I am on the map, who's my neighbor and what resources I have. Gee: Makes sense! I might start off in a bad spot at times, but that just adds to the challenge (though I suspect some random map tweaking might be in order here).

Now keep in mind: I enjoy having to rethink things ... but something is a but off here ... now for bed.

[yin26]

MacTBone: Hmm, something to think about. So far, nobody else has bothered me. I think it's, as you say, mostly directed at my relative insignificance in the game. LOL!

But I can't stand restarting just because I messed up.

[SuiteSisterMary]

'We take back our city and all your troops stationed there vanish' thing is getting tired.

Makes sence; they kill your units in house to house, guerilla style combat, and form a 'militia' which results in one modern defensive unit when the city returns to it's parent.

And I'll tell you some time about the time that I established a city on a different continant to get some coal, and the AI actually blockaded it, then started dropping troops on my mainland (I'm talking it sent in a sortie of six! fully loaded galleons with calvary) and overwhelming my poor musketmen.

Of course, this is also the map where I simply had no horses, oil or rubber....