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So I re-install Civ 3 and decide to overlook the minor bugs and design issues and treat my new $50 purchase as a game totally separate from the Civ legacy.
16 Civs, Huge Map, Monarch level. I've been waiting for a big battle royal for years (literally) and nows my chance.
Starting position is tolerable..China to the south, Russia to the East, Zulu to the North and Aztecs to the West. Pop out 12-13 cities and cleverly restrict China to a small land mass - any cities he builds will be far from his capitol and pretty useless for him. Buy techs, sell them to all others...making 400...500 gold a turn...peaceful with all.
Get Knights and build 30 units and capture China except for one city...Russia takes Zululand...Aztecs take on Germans...not wanting a strong Aztec neighbor I raid his civ and capture 6 cities before going for a peace treaty.
Workers (I'm American) building like mad and I play the Demographic shuffle...have Chinese cities build settlers and workers and move them to former Atzec lands and vice versa and drop them in cities....I wind up with cities with 2-3 Aztecs and Chinese each plus Americans...never lose a conquered city to flipping! Conquest option seems viable again! Wow, this is great!
Buying selling techs...700...800 gold a turn (seriously) building Cavalry...I've got 6-7 Saltpeter, 4 horses, lots of luxeries (Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money), and eventually eliminate the Aztecs and then the Germans because they disappointed me by crumbling too quickly.
Indians move in, Persia marched across the continent...trading maps..Russia is HUGE...but I'm not intimidated. I wait for a MPP between Indians and Russai to fade and remove the Indians ..Persia and Russia are at war and it's just a contest to see who is going to give more Persian cities first...Catherine or myself. India eliminates China.
I'm paying 1200 for a tech and making 3500 after selling it to the others (so this means free tech for me) until I can get Scientific Method....then I go from 0% Tech to 90% and 8 turns later and with a Great Leader (Washington) I get Theory of Evolution...Sanitation (which I wasn't even researching and considered useless) and Steel (I wanted to get to Electronics so I could get the Hoover Dam...oh well). Egypt has the only Coal in the game (WTF?) but I've bribed her enough to build a decent railroad.
And the game slows down to an insane degree...but this time I will not give up! Making 1000 gold a turn...build factories a plenty, going for Hoover Dam, I will have tank tech and still be two techs ahead of the pack.
My plan...drop 60 Cavalry (already built and in position) near Russia...use factories and huge wealth to rush 30 tanks and hit it even before it makes one for itself.
And then I save my game...go to work...and then when I restore it....I get an error message. WTF? I didn't install anything or even do anything special to my system....so I restore 1355 (and played up to 1500 so this is a step back) and play years 1360 and 1365 (even taking five minutes at least)...and then being paranoid I try to save my game and then restore them.
I get city cultural boundries but no city graphics..the Science advisor screen is messed up and after 30+ hours I think I've encountered bug 723 that neither Civ, Civ2, or SMAC had. And I''m not happy. This is unplayed...I cannot even click on my invisible cities.
But ever the soul of generosity I'm not going to yell or scream. I'm going to delete the game, reinstall it, add the new patch, and try again.
This will be my fourth installatiion. And happy and as cheerful as I try to be, if I encounter another game breaker I'm going to vent here. And it's going to be pretty nasty...you are warned in advance.
And I'm adjusted to the AI, Corruption, luck, Diplomacy, etc...but the inability to successfully restore a saved game is something I've never encountered before.
I'm an eternally patient 34 year old game geek. I've got 100+ games in my collection..I know software...I "get" hardware...I was pirating Space Quest back in 1987 on 5 1/4 inch disks (ah...the good old days). I can quote Civ, Civ 2, and SMAC rulebooks to you from memory. I've played more computer, roleplaying, card, and board games than most people here have even seen.
But if this final effort fails...I surrender. But before my game goes on Ebay I'll need to vent. And here is where I'm going to do it. And if you think Yin is negative...frankly you haven't seen the Master yet.
16 Civs, Huge Map, Monarch level. I've been waiting for a big battle royal for years (literally) and nows my chance.
Starting position is tolerable..China to the south, Russia to the East, Zulu to the North and Aztecs to the West. Pop out 12-13 cities and cleverly restrict China to a small land mass - any cities he builds will be far from his capitol and pretty useless for him. Buy techs, sell them to all others...making 400...500 gold a turn...peaceful with all.
Get Knights and build 30 units and capture China except for one city...Russia takes Zululand...Aztecs take on Germans...not wanting a strong Aztec neighbor I raid his civ and capture 6 cities before going for a peace treaty.
Workers (I'm American) building like mad and I play the Demographic shuffle...have Chinese cities build settlers and workers and move them to former Atzec lands and vice versa and drop them in cities....I wind up with cities with 2-3 Aztecs and Chinese each plus Americans...never lose a conquered city to flipping! Conquest option seems viable again! Wow, this is great!
Buying selling techs...700...800 gold a turn (seriously) building Cavalry...I've got 6-7 Saltpeter, 4 horses, lots of luxeries (Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money), and eventually eliminate the Aztecs and then the Germans because they disappointed me by crumbling too quickly.
Indians move in, Persia marched across the continent...trading maps..Russia is HUGE...but I'm not intimidated. I wait for a MPP between Indians and Russai to fade and remove the Indians ..Persia and Russia are at war and it's just a contest to see who is going to give more Persian cities first...Catherine or myself. India eliminates China.
I'm paying 1200 for a tech and making 3500 after selling it to the others (so this means free tech for me) until I can get Scientific Method....then I go from 0% Tech to 90% and 8 turns later and with a Great Leader (Washington) I get Theory of Evolution...Sanitation (which I wasn't even researching and considered useless) and Steel (I wanted to get to Electronics so I could get the Hoover Dam...oh well). Egypt has the only Coal in the game (WTF?) but I've bribed her enough to build a decent railroad.
And the game slows down to an insane degree...but this time I will not give up! Making 1000 gold a turn...build factories a plenty, going for Hoover Dam, I will have tank tech and still be two techs ahead of the pack.
My plan...drop 60 Cavalry (already built and in position) near Russia...use factories and huge wealth to rush 30 tanks and hit it even before it makes one for itself.
And then I save my game...go to work...and then when I restore it....I get an error message. WTF? I didn't install anything or even do anything special to my system....so I restore 1355 (and played up to 1500 so this is a step back) and play years 1360 and 1365 (even taking five minutes at least)...and then being paranoid I try to save my game and then restore them.
I get city cultural boundries but no city graphics..the Science advisor screen is messed up and after 30+ hours I think I've encountered bug 723 that neither Civ, Civ2, or SMAC had. And I''m not happy. This is unplayed...I cannot even click on my invisible cities.
But ever the soul of generosity I'm not going to yell or scream. I'm going to delete the game, reinstall it, add the new patch, and try again.
This will be my fourth installatiion. And happy and as cheerful as I try to be, if I encounter another game breaker I'm going to vent here. And it's going to be pretty nasty...you are warned in advance.
And I'm adjusted to the AI, Corruption, luck, Diplomacy, etc...but the inability to successfully restore a saved game is something I've never encountered before.
I'm an eternally patient 34 year old game geek. I've got 100+ games in my collection..I know software...I "get" hardware...I was pirating Space Quest back in 1987 on 5 1/4 inch disks (ah...the good old days). I can quote Civ, Civ 2, and SMAC rulebooks to you from memory. I've played more computer, roleplaying, card, and board games than most people here have even seen.
But if this final effort fails...I surrender. But before my game goes on Ebay I'll need to vent. And here is where I'm going to do it. And if you think Yin is negative...frankly you haven't seen the Master yet.
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