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I should start by saying that I love Civ3 and have been playing constantly since I got it, but this afternoon I started to think about things that I didn't like about it and areas where I thought it would be better and wrote down a few thoughts about the things that bug me most - embassies and the advisors:
Discussion definitely welcome. It's possible that I'm wrong about some of these complaints because I just haven't played enough or uncovered some techs.
The role of embassies in the early game:
Is anyone actually using that embassy option where you pay a 100 coins or so to get a look at 1 city screen??? I might pay a few 100 coins to be able to sweep through all their cities
once, but one city??? Also, as the race to build great wonders is now more serious than in Civ2, I really miss being able to guage how the other cities which I know are building the same wonder
are doing. And no, I'm not going to pay 100 coins to check either. If I have an embassy with another civ, wouldn't it be realistic to receive periodic updates on their wonder building from
my diplomats?
The role of advisors:
In general the advisors seem to state only the obvious and do not usually give information that is not readily available from just looking at the map (an example: "Compared to them, our army is weak." Well maybe it's because they have 3 times as many cities as I do and I'm getting clobbered, Thanks, Einstein).
The advisors sometimes suggest doing things that are not really possible at that point in the game (ex. we should acquire more resources) and after a while it becomes difficult to take anything they say seriously.
Military Advisor:
Seems to constantly say that I can afford a bigger army, tells me to buy the best attack unit I have, and tells me that the other army is bigger or smaller than what I have.
Suggestions for improvement:
If my military advisor thinks that a war with a neighbor is winnable at the current time, or whether war with a neighbor should be avoided because of the military balance he should state it as such in blunt terms.
Instead of just saying that the player's military compared to that of another civ is weaker or stronger, I wish he would provide more details. In what way is it weaker or stronger? I would
appreciate an estimate of the other civs overall defense and attack strength compared to me. What is his main garrison unit? attack unit? how many of them has he built? If I have an embassy in the other civs country, this is the type of thing that would be readily obvious to my ambassadors, no? It doesn't have to be 100% accurate, just an estimate. As it stands now, I find myself often going to war often without really having much more than a guess as to the opponents strength.
I would also appreciate it if the advisor could look at the defense of my own cities and point out any deficiencies. Let me know if I've forgotten to build walls in one of my cities. Let me know
if I've inadvertently left some warriors from 200BC around fortifying a city in 500AD. Suggest building fortresses on the border to stop a neighbor from coming through at will. Give me a warning if he thinks a neighbor is preparing for war!
Also, it seems that when 2 computer controlled civs go to war, it is announced in an obvious manner via a message box, but when they stop fighting and sign a peace treaty that doesn't get announced. I found myself once starting a war on a powerful neighbor soon after a whole bunch of computer players declare war on him, but by the time I started my attack all of the other civs had already made peace and I wasn't told about it and I was attacking all by myself (which isn't what I wanted to do).
Trade Advisor:
No matter how many resources I have, the trade advisor seems to always suggest acquiring more luxuries and resources, without even bothering to check if it possible. In my current game I have multiple or single copies of every pertinent resource and a huge backlog of luxuries available for trading and the advisor is telling me to get more. Why? I'm doing fine with what I have now and I can't even trade a lot of the stuff I have left over. And how should I acquire more? Every part of the map which is visible has been claimed by a civ already. There's nothing lying around! Is the advisor suggesting going to war to get some wine or something?
I wish the advisor would notify me of trade possibilities as they occur instead of me having to contact every other civ every 10 turns or so to see if something new has opened up. Again, if I have an embassy with another civ, this is the type of info that should be readily available.
Foreign Advisor:
Not too many complaints about the foreign advisor except when he states "the best unit that civ X has available that we know of is XXXX." It is often not true. I have seen civs on the map using units which are "better" than what the advisor told me about. And the term "best unit" is very subjective. It would be more meaningful to break this up into "best attacking unit", "best sea unit", "best air unit", "best garrison unit". I also wish the foreign advisor would give an estimate on what other civs are
researching. It would let me know how far ahead or behind I am, and give me tips as to whether a technology exchange will be possible in the near future, again without having to contact every civ to check.
Science Advisor:
OK, this guy annoys me. He's always asking for more money to be put into science. Even if I give 100% to science, he's still asking for more. Why doesn't he just say that my country as a whole needs more income in general to keep up instead of just saying I should allocate more money to science, which gives the player the impression that playing with the sliders is going to make a difference.
He is constantly referring to my civ as backwards even if I am only lagging the leader by 1-2 techs and am keeping up fairly well with the other civs. Again, it would be very nice to have some insight as to what the other civs are doing and what the state of their tech research is and to get some hints as to tech exchange
possibilitities.
Discussion definitely welcome. It's possible that I'm wrong about some of these complaints because I just haven't played enough or uncovered some techs.
The role of embassies in the early game:
Is anyone actually using that embassy option where you pay a 100 coins or so to get a look at 1 city screen??? I might pay a few 100 coins to be able to sweep through all their cities
once, but one city??? Also, as the race to build great wonders is now more serious than in Civ2, I really miss being able to guage how the other cities which I know are building the same wonder
are doing. And no, I'm not going to pay 100 coins to check either. If I have an embassy with another civ, wouldn't it be realistic to receive periodic updates on their wonder building from
my diplomats?
The role of advisors:
In general the advisors seem to state only the obvious and do not usually give information that is not readily available from just looking at the map (an example: "Compared to them, our army is weak." Well maybe it's because they have 3 times as many cities as I do and I'm getting clobbered, Thanks, Einstein).
The advisors sometimes suggest doing things that are not really possible at that point in the game (ex. we should acquire more resources) and after a while it becomes difficult to take anything they say seriously.
Military Advisor:
Seems to constantly say that I can afford a bigger army, tells me to buy the best attack unit I have, and tells me that the other army is bigger or smaller than what I have.
Suggestions for improvement:
If my military advisor thinks that a war with a neighbor is winnable at the current time, or whether war with a neighbor should be avoided because of the military balance he should state it as such in blunt terms.
Instead of just saying that the player's military compared to that of another civ is weaker or stronger, I wish he would provide more details. In what way is it weaker or stronger? I would
appreciate an estimate of the other civs overall defense and attack strength compared to me. What is his main garrison unit? attack unit? how many of them has he built? If I have an embassy in the other civs country, this is the type of thing that would be readily obvious to my ambassadors, no? It doesn't have to be 100% accurate, just an estimate. As it stands now, I find myself often going to war often without really having much more than a guess as to the opponents strength.
I would also appreciate it if the advisor could look at the defense of my own cities and point out any deficiencies. Let me know if I've forgotten to build walls in one of my cities. Let me know
if I've inadvertently left some warriors from 200BC around fortifying a city in 500AD. Suggest building fortresses on the border to stop a neighbor from coming through at will. Give me a warning if he thinks a neighbor is preparing for war!
Also, it seems that when 2 computer controlled civs go to war, it is announced in an obvious manner via a message box, but when they stop fighting and sign a peace treaty that doesn't get announced. I found myself once starting a war on a powerful neighbor soon after a whole bunch of computer players declare war on him, but by the time I started my attack all of the other civs had already made peace and I wasn't told about it and I was attacking all by myself (which isn't what I wanted to do).
Trade Advisor:
No matter how many resources I have, the trade advisor seems to always suggest acquiring more luxuries and resources, without even bothering to check if it possible. In my current game I have multiple or single copies of every pertinent resource and a huge backlog of luxuries available for trading and the advisor is telling me to get more. Why? I'm doing fine with what I have now and I can't even trade a lot of the stuff I have left over. And how should I acquire more? Every part of the map which is visible has been claimed by a civ already. There's nothing lying around! Is the advisor suggesting going to war to get some wine or something?
I wish the advisor would notify me of trade possibilities as they occur instead of me having to contact every other civ every 10 turns or so to see if something new has opened up. Again, if I have an embassy with another civ, this is the type of info that should be readily available.
Foreign Advisor:
Not too many complaints about the foreign advisor except when he states "the best unit that civ X has available that we know of is XXXX." It is often not true. I have seen civs on the map using units which are "better" than what the advisor told me about. And the term "best unit" is very subjective. It would be more meaningful to break this up into "best attacking unit", "best sea unit", "best air unit", "best garrison unit". I also wish the foreign advisor would give an estimate on what other civs are
researching. It would let me know how far ahead or behind I am, and give me tips as to whether a technology exchange will be possible in the near future, again without having to contact every civ to check.
Science Advisor:
OK, this guy annoys me. He's always asking for more money to be put into science. Even if I give 100% to science, he's still asking for more. Why doesn't he just say that my country as a whole needs more income in general to keep up instead of just saying I should allocate more money to science, which gives the player the impression that playing with the sliders is going to make a difference.
He is constantly referring to my civ as backwards even if I am only lagging the leader by 1-2 techs and am keeping up fairly well with the other civs. Again, it would be very nice to have some insight as to what the other civs are doing and what the state of their tech research is and to get some hints as to tech exchange
possibilitities.