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These are based on my own experience. Your mileage may vary. I've tried to steer clear of things that can be "fixed" using the editor, like crippling corruption, etc.
10. Anticlimactic Victories
I remember my first victory. Diplomatic, it was. Ugh.
Here we were at the defining moment. A vote was about to be cast in the United Nations, which I had built. I was a candidate. Catherine was the other. I paused a moment to reflect over the game. Had I been diplomatic enough? I hoped so. I had certainly helped Egypt to rise from the ashes of its war with the Romans. And I had helped to balance the Romans as well with money and technology, once the Egyptians caught up.
The suspense was palpable. I clicked OK.
Pop! A message box declared me the winner. A message box? Hmmm... Surely, this must be the harbinger of a beautiful movie that will show me arriving victorious in Paris and taking my place in the UN. Nope. Nada. Nothing else. Just the message box.
In the next game, I turned off diplomatic victory, only to find that I got the same reward for winning by culture — an abrupt, plain, meaningless message box.
9. Air Recon Bug
Based on the Christmas chat, I have reason to believe that my posts might have been set to be ignored by Dan and/or Jeff. I've reported this bug, but don't know whether they've seen the report (or care).
But it has certainly made the whole notion of reconning a border area moot. There's no sense in investing in the jets if one will simply wipe out the other's recons. For me, this removes part of the fun of the attack planning. I have to fly blind.
8. Civilopedia Inaccesible in Critical Places
I've no idea, when I'm trading, whether I'm trading value for value because I can't get to the documentation without abandoning the negotiation.
And when deciding whether this is the city that should have X Wonder, I have to close the city screen to find out whether this is the Wonder that does Y.
Chasing down information that ought to be readily available is not my idea of fun.
7. AI Ignoring Requests to Leave
This one has caused me to have to fight wars for which I hadn't prepared and which made no sense contextually.
Whenever I cross a border, and the AI asks me to leave, by the second request, if I haven't left, I'm either shoved out or required to declare war. The AI, on the other hand, is allowed to meander with its workers wherever and whenever it pleases.
Thus, my strategic goals often must be put aside to deal with this annoyance. It's not fun to be jerked around for no good reason.
6. Empty Technologies
I really don't understand the point of this. If it's going to take 12 turns to get to something, why not just make the something take 12 turns?
There is no reward feedback whatsoever in getting a stepping-stone technology. It's just a game nuisance. And the problem is that, in Civ3, there are so many of them.
5. Domestic Nag
Argh! I hate that woman!
If I've told her once, I've told her five hundred times (literally) that I don't want to build a hospital. And I've told her just like I've moved workers — one at a time.
For the period while she's nagging, the game devolves into a meaningless and mindless (and long) series of click click click click click. Inevitably, as my mind wanders from the game, I click when an actually important message pops up, not meaning to, but just lost in the banal rhythm.
Nag, go away! Forever!
4. Unfinished Editor
Once you've become familiar with the game, you get to the point that you know what to expect. It all becomes quite predictable. Yes, there is infinite replay, but infinite replay of the same song over and over.
A well developed editor could help change this. Interesting starting locations and terrain layouts could provide a different look and feel for the game.
I suspect that the editor has gotten the most attention, and should be majorly improved with the next patch.
3. Subliminal Messages
Oh, lordy. They fly by, often three or four at a time, and display for a split second as the map jerks around in spastic fits. There's pollution somewhere, starvation elsewhere, and cultural expansion God-only-knows-where.
Hunting down what actually happened at the beginning of a turn is tedious and fraught with futility. Pollution looks so much like a mountain top that it is almost impossible to find zoomed out.
It would be wonderful if these could be listed for review after the map spasms have ceased.
2. No Group Movement
The game all but disappears underneath the achingly dull unit movement interface. Enough has been said about this that most everyone understands what a game killer it is.
1. Bizarre Unit Activation Sequencing
Yep. Even more than tedious unit movement, this one just completely ruins the game for me.
In fact, the interface becomes my enemy, as I fight it to try and maintain some semblence of continuity. Guessing what might activate next, as the command buttons morph and rearrange, is a complete Lotto.
Having to navigate all around a map with extremely limited zoom and clutzy scrolling mechanisms, while trying to maintain a train of thought in a theater of battle, or in an area where you're clearing jungle, is impossible.
The top two features, in particular, have forced me to modify my own playing style to accomodate the game. Fewer workers. Smaller map. Constricted growth.
And it's still not fun. It's still tedious as hell. Bummer.
10. Anticlimactic Victories
I remember my first victory. Diplomatic, it was. Ugh.
Here we were at the defining moment. A vote was about to be cast in the United Nations, which I had built. I was a candidate. Catherine was the other. I paused a moment to reflect over the game. Had I been diplomatic enough? I hoped so. I had certainly helped Egypt to rise from the ashes of its war with the Romans. And I had helped to balance the Romans as well with money and technology, once the Egyptians caught up.
The suspense was palpable. I clicked OK.
Pop! A message box declared me the winner. A message box? Hmmm... Surely, this must be the harbinger of a beautiful movie that will show me arriving victorious in Paris and taking my place in the UN. Nope. Nada. Nothing else. Just the message box.
In the next game, I turned off diplomatic victory, only to find that I got the same reward for winning by culture — an abrupt, plain, meaningless message box.
9. Air Recon Bug
Based on the Christmas chat, I have reason to believe that my posts might have been set to be ignored by Dan and/or Jeff. I've reported this bug, but don't know whether they've seen the report (or care).
But it has certainly made the whole notion of reconning a border area moot. There's no sense in investing in the jets if one will simply wipe out the other's recons. For me, this removes part of the fun of the attack planning. I have to fly blind.
8. Civilopedia Inaccesible in Critical Places
I've no idea, when I'm trading, whether I'm trading value for value because I can't get to the documentation without abandoning the negotiation.
And when deciding whether this is the city that should have X Wonder, I have to close the city screen to find out whether this is the Wonder that does Y.
Chasing down information that ought to be readily available is not my idea of fun.
7. AI Ignoring Requests to Leave
This one has caused me to have to fight wars for which I hadn't prepared and which made no sense contextually.
Whenever I cross a border, and the AI asks me to leave, by the second request, if I haven't left, I'm either shoved out or required to declare war. The AI, on the other hand, is allowed to meander with its workers wherever and whenever it pleases.
Thus, my strategic goals often must be put aside to deal with this annoyance. It's not fun to be jerked around for no good reason.
6. Empty Technologies
I really don't understand the point of this. If it's going to take 12 turns to get to something, why not just make the something take 12 turns?
There is no reward feedback whatsoever in getting a stepping-stone technology. It's just a game nuisance. And the problem is that, in Civ3, there are so many of them.
5. Domestic Nag
Argh! I hate that woman!
If I've told her once, I've told her five hundred times (literally) that I don't want to build a hospital. And I've told her just like I've moved workers — one at a time.
For the period while she's nagging, the game devolves into a meaningless and mindless (and long) series of click click click click click. Inevitably, as my mind wanders from the game, I click when an actually important message pops up, not meaning to, but just lost in the banal rhythm.
Nag, go away! Forever!
4. Unfinished Editor
Once you've become familiar with the game, you get to the point that you know what to expect. It all becomes quite predictable. Yes, there is infinite replay, but infinite replay of the same song over and over.
A well developed editor could help change this. Interesting starting locations and terrain layouts could provide a different look and feel for the game.
I suspect that the editor has gotten the most attention, and should be majorly improved with the next patch.
3. Subliminal Messages
Oh, lordy. They fly by, often three or four at a time, and display for a split second as the map jerks around in spastic fits. There's pollution somewhere, starvation elsewhere, and cultural expansion God-only-knows-where.
Hunting down what actually happened at the beginning of a turn is tedious and fraught with futility. Pollution looks so much like a mountain top that it is almost impossible to find zoomed out.
It would be wonderful if these could be listed for review after the map spasms have ceased.
2. No Group Movement
The game all but disappears underneath the achingly dull unit movement interface. Enough has been said about this that most everyone understands what a game killer it is.
1. Bizarre Unit Activation Sequencing
Yep. Even more than tedious unit movement, this one just completely ruins the game for me.
In fact, the interface becomes my enemy, as I fight it to try and maintain some semblence of continuity. Guessing what might activate next, as the command buttons morph and rearrange, is a complete Lotto.
Having to navigate all around a map with extremely limited zoom and clutzy scrolling mechanisms, while trying to maintain a train of thought in a theater of battle, or in an area where you're clearing jungle, is impossible.
The top two features, in particular, have forced me to modify my own playing style to accomodate the game. Fewer workers. Smaller map. Constricted growth.
And it's still not fun. It's still tedious as hell. Bummer.
CB2034
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