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**Spec** · January 29, 2002, 13:36

I have one thing to say. Civ3 is a great game, of course it has flaws but what game doesn't. Try it for your self, dont beleive everything ppl say. If u do, it's a prejudice.

**RedFred** · January 29, 2002, 15:24

Come back to SMAC!

People, can't you just hear the call of Planet?

**Dale** · January 29, 2002, 16:46

I never thought I'd be saying this, but my opinion is CTP2 modded, is better than Civ3.

**Dis** · January 29, 2002, 17:03

civ3 is the greatest game ever created by man with the excpetion of the Nokia cell phone game snake.

**The Andy-Man** · January 29, 2002, 18:02

i already got civ3, and will play it when i get a new PC anyway, but the flaws and problems talk about sound like they are REAL annoying flaws, and i hated CTP1 (never got 2) so if Civ3 is like that then i may have to use the CD as a Frisby.

Does anyone know if they are gonna do a proper patch (one that makes it a fun game) - and wasn't one of the patches ment to make it possible to sink ships with planes?

Also, can you turn off the culture thing all together (the bordrs in SMAC werent that bad, i kinda liked that game, if only they had set it on earth so i didnt have all this nerdy SUPER MAN SUCKING STEEL crap)

And i heard about the AI cheating, well in Civ2 i was fine with it all except these, and i wanna know if they gone:

In ALL Civ 2 games (even ToT) the AI new the location of EVERY unit, even subs which are supposed to be hidden. (once i had a FULLY LADEN (32 stealth) on a carrier, there was literally no enemy unit (i later used cheat mode to look) or city for about 30 space, yet about 50 cruise missiles appeared out of know, which brings me to my next point:

Does the AI get increadibly high amounts of highly sophisticated weapon even though there is no realistic way they coulda built them (i spied on a jap city once in civ2, 100 cruise missiles, litrely).

there is a couple of others, but thwese pissed me off more then ANYTHING.

**TheHobbit** · January 29, 2002, 18:11

Its worth it

Its a great game and I recommend buying it unless your one of those people who looks for every little flaw and wants to ***** about it. Don't believe anything anyone here says positive or not, everyone is biased. I enjoy the game myself and I suppose it will only get better as they fix all the problems.(none of which I myself have encountered but others argue that hey exist)

**planetfall** · January 31, 2002, 12:44

The Good, Bad and Ugly and and Fun Play

I have not played other games but after extensive playing civ3, offer this eval for new players of civ type games.

The Good

Cool animated graphics
culture win idea
development by era's
able to see relative score of other civs
editor to change preferences difference than game developers
world mini map
other civs have personalities
playback game option

The Bad

430 turns makes for a horribly long game
few speed up options without wrecking play
have graph of "power" and "culture" of other civs but not numbers behind graph
AI knows where all strategic resources are before they are discovered
AI civs work together as a team of players against you and not as individual players with individual goals
pre patch corruption is too high
Windows has to be restarted when end as Windows error generated on exit
no record playback of last game to file
no ability to play previous games if use editor
no undo move when move to wrong tile

The Ugly

"year date" change at end of turn varies from 50 years to 2 years
if play for high culture win, may never complete modern age
can't govern worker automation
AI workers do not respect boundaries
AI can wipe out colonies by placing a city next to them with any war or cost to AI
AI area of influence seems much too high
No option to disband one of your cities.

Most fun

Edit designers preferences
1. corruption starts after 7 happy people
2. optimal civ size 40-60 cities, depending on style
3. submarine unit, attack +1
4. increase slightly strategic resources appearance and decrease slightly disappearance ratios
5. bomber, increase range to 8 {B17 range}
6. catheral--evidently designers only saw catherals as musical entertainment. Real purpose is teaching morality. If teaching morality, it follows that corruption would be lowered.
  It also reduces war wearinesss, so check that box also.
7. police station-- check reduces corruption {even simcity recognized that}
8. manhattan project-- uncheck all civs get nuclear power. The last time I checked mexico and brazil and Iran don't have nukes.
Freeze units acting as police in cities
automate workers, and they are misbehaving reselect and move them for a few turns,
plan to only play one era at a play session
reduce other civs to 2 or 3 until get the hang of the game
read the bulletin boards for strategy and play ideas
remember if it is fun for you, it is a good game. If not fun, freely use the editor until you get the type of game you want.
finally, save your game at least at the end of each Era and preferably every 100 years. I use a unique name for Era saves and use default for every 100 year saves. That way I can go back. I also like named saved before major events,i.e., starting war, introduction of pacts with AI civs so can play other alternatives. After game is finished, put any saves in folder same level as Save folder so won't see on menu. Remove all default named game saves as you don't need them anymore.

Finally, make agreements with those you are sharing living space with. Games will take a long time.

How long will the game take?

manual- micro managed game

430 turns x 20 minutes each turn == game time
automated workers && frozen units game

430 turns x 5 minutes each turn == game time

You do the math.

enjoy

**Dobian02** · January 31, 2002, 15:34

The list of problems with this game is as long as my arm. They've all been stated ad nauseum so I don't need to repeat them. But I still like this game, and continue to play it. I like the culture, I like the strategic resources, I like the improved AI. It gets frustrating sometimes, but I never get bored. I'll keep this one.

**Barnacle Bill** · January 31, 2002, 16:54

Re: The Good, Bad and Ugly and and Fun Play

[SIZE=1]

**planetfall** · January 31, 2002, 17:17

Actually even better would be play options.

0- lightning play, load standard scenarios, or your created scenarios, and play, ERA in 1 hr, game in 4 hrs

1- quick play, expected ERA time to complete 2 hrs, game in 8 hrs

2- normal play, ERA time 8 hrs each, 32 for game

3- extended play, ERA time 32 hrs ea with
additional functionality for fine tuning scenarios available.

More options than that means missing other games.

**The Andy-Man** · January 31, 2002, 17:43

yay, i got me a new PC

thoughts so far (not to far into it yet though, still just got currency).

how do you select the other nations in the foreign advisor screen? (sum,thin like ctrl+alt)

the AI seems to have loadsa cities even though in civ3 this wasnt ment to be possible, but then i saw they all ther 20 cities (each) only have a pop of 1, whereas mine have like 6. and i got alotta culture already (i knew listening to bach had benefits).

erm, the corruption thing hasnt come about for me yet, but can some one tell me what the latest patch fixes in relation to original game? its fun though... so far.

**Raion** · January 31, 2002, 17:59

Civ III takes some effort to play. Some people will think that is fun.
I do.
Now, though, because of drivers for my video card, I bought a GeForce MX200/400 PCI card for my computer. Simply the ATI drivers do not work, and corrupt a couple of files after playing the game, gdi32.dll and one other something like mspn32.dll.
The GeForce type card with Nvidia drivers updated at their site and all drivers mainly work with all cards (one driver for the video card mainly), the game works fine.
The only thing is one has to restart his/her computer after playing as if (my opinion), the copy protection did not let the game quite install all of the way. (I have had the same problem with a couple other programs -- hopefully a patch will fix that -- that is not normal.)

The game takes effort, to some may seem boring, but it was always a long game. Simple, yet hard to beat especially at higher levels of play.
Once you get into the game, and play it a while, more than a couple months, and continue to play, one gets use to it and knows what to expect.
However, you may still not beat the computer, and that will take effort to win in some ways, or you can always play total war type game. The way you play Civ III is up to you, some only play to win, others just play to compete against themselves and better their score, or to try different methods of winning.
That usually ends up taking about 3 years, especially if the editor is patched to include starting positions for units and cities, and text like Civ II had. But Civ II only added that stuff later, and still a lot of people will support Civ III.
Its been a computer game, mainly the same, for about the last 12 years.
Officially the first version in DOS was hard and needed fixing. When CIV I came out 10 year ago, it was raised to a game put in the Hall of Fame, and it still was just released in its third version.

CIV III is longer to play, and one needs a fast computer to make it go faster, but still all that ocurred also with all of the Civilization Versions.
I never played EU or EU2, and CTP and also bought CTP2, but I di d not like the interface, where I always missed messages, and afterall, if something is building, one wants to know when it is finished.
I always missed the messages, because I had to look for it.
Harder to keep trackk of.

But CIV III is basically the same, and has been expanded to include Culture and Strategic Resources.
But then in the Editor the rules can be changed, if you prefer.

But it will take effort and your life to play this game because it can be addicting.

**Raion** · January 31, 2002, 18:07

Also I think some people are miss reading this game. Cultural borders are not the same as National Border, that I know of.
The Culture may spread, but still the Borders will be mainly left up to the cities borders of your empire. Anyway that is how I play it.

**Raion** · January 31, 2002, 18:21

Also, since I have Windows 98SE and upgrades on Internet Explorer up to version 5.5, I guess Microsoft included parts of Windows 2000 or Windows ME or something so, that in order to have sound in the game, I had to use the bink file for Windows 2000. Apparently Microsoft does not really tell anyone what they are doing also.
Since that the sound and the graphic card work fine with the game.
Everything else, withstanding, (the sound is always not all that good with the game), that is also the real part of any game especially Civ III. It extends out into the real world.

Wear a business suit when playing and act like a President!
Maybe Bush, Jr.!

We will defeat the evil!

Or don't forget your emporer's hat, bugle, and confetti, and pop corn or snacks when playing the game.
It may take some effort, but to me, its always been that way for this game!

**The Andy-Man** · January 31, 2002, 18:50

if i am gonna dress up as a wprld leader, a homer simpson type guy would do best. so yeah, goerge W and he man choking, head bashing pretzels

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