When does UN open?

[Alex]

Umm... the diplo victory is certainly cheesy.

In my last game, I was number 1 on everything (military, population, productivity, gold, blah blah blah). During the whole game, I never (I repeat: never) got involved in a war. I was always gifting the other civs, giving them gold and an occasional tech. I wanted to try a diplomatic victory.

So I built the UN and held the election. I lost. The Japanese got elected. With the majority of votes.

Come on, I was the most powerful nation! I could have squashed them all like bugs! (Ops... then why did I not do it?). It was frustrating. It was not fun. But I think I'll have to cope with these things whenever I play Civ3.

Unless they improve this diplomatic victory. Oh, XP!

[Nym]

Can someone explain me how to trigger a UN vote ? It happened only once just after I build the UN wonder and there was equality between French and me ?

[Lucilla]

IIRC, you get the chance every 20 years.

[wohmongarinf00l]

the results of a UN vote maybe predictable at lower levels but i don't think they are at monarch and higher.

1)civilizations u have been at war with in the last X number of turns won't vote for u without major errr.....a&*-kissing on ur part.
matter of fact, it's major work just to get them to abstain...
X seems to be a rather large number but i can't fix it at this point.

2)civilisations in an alliance or mutual protection will vote for each other. no amount of gold/resource bribing will change this.
so if u have been peaceful at all times (neutral)...u are unlikely to get a vote.

[zulu9812]

I only ever build the UN in order to stop the AI winning a diplomatic victory. I never call for an election.

[kimmygibler]

I have turned off diplo victory since my first game. That was the dumbest idea I've ever seen in a game. SMAC made a lot more sense. In this, you have no way of knowing who will vote for who so it becomes almost a random winner situation. Why not jsut try to win by high score or something if you refuse to start wars?

[Alex]

Originally posted by kimmygibler
Why not jsut try to win by high score or something if you refuse to start wars?

Precisely. But I learned my lesson. You have to go to war anyway, because the peaceful route does not compensate, and the spoils of war may boost your empire in many ways.

[Scientia]

Does anyone know if the "approval rating" on the demographics screen (F11) is tied to your standing among the other civs? Or is this simply some measure of your popularity among your own people? If the former situation is the case, then this would be useful in knowing when to allow a vote, assuming a diplomatic victory is desired.