Oddities of Civ 3

[Sovereign]

Hi guys!

I'm playing a civ 3 game as the Americans.

I noticed a few odd things, about advisors, enemy, huts, etc.


1. My Trade advisor is never happy. She keeps saying "We need to acquire more resources / luxuries" when I have more than 2 or 3 of every available resource and luxury. I have spices, furs, and grapes. Also, I haven't hit Industrial age yet so I have iron, horses, and saltpeter.


2. I have never seen my trade, science, military, or culture advisors in a "surprised" state. I checked some civ 3 art files, and it had pictures of "surprised" advisors. In what circumstances do the "surprised face" advisors appear?


3. Is there any way I could buff up the AI? I took a look at the editor, and saw "Default AI level". Its Reageant, but if I change it to Deity, will the AI behave in, say, a cheiftain game the way it would in a Deity game?


4. Is there any way I can modify rules on existing saved games using the editor? There's a few things I'd like to change, such as AI to make it more smarter, edit corruption, and a few superficial changes.


5. I have NEVER EVER gotten a cultural flipping. I've played like 50 games of Civ 3 so far, played them to 1500 AD or later, with plenty of chances in or near enemy territory to have culture flippings happen. Maybe my Civ 3 program doesn't have culture flipping option enabled?



I apologize if I sound like a newbie or anything. Its just that these things have been bugging me. Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[bongo]

Never mind your trade advisor, she's supposed to be greedy and thus never happy

[notyoueither]

3. You have it backwards. The setting determines the base AI handicap. Set it to the lowest setting to really get your butt kicked. I've never heard of anyone returning to tell the tale though.

5. You are the anti-Coracle.

[Sovereign]

Notyoueither,

does this mean... if I had the AI set to Deity like this, then play a Cheiftain level game (easiest), will the AI be super easy?

If this is the case, then should I set the AI Difficulty to Cheiftain, then have a worthy enemy in a Cheiftain, Warlord, or Reagant game?

If this is true, I'll have to restart my empire, and I'm not too happy about doing that. I spent 3 days making a sizeable American empire. Is there ANY way to update the saved games or "scenario from editor" games, once I already am underway with the game?

If there isn't, I guess I'll just have to be real cheap-butt and give America 50 settlers, rails to all my "previous" city locations, etc. to recreate my empire ASAP with the new rules.


Here's the AI Difficulty that I'm talking about.

[Sovereign]

Uhh, let me rephrase my question for a better clarification.


I put the AI Difficulty to Deity in the screenshot above.

If I start up a game on this map / scenario, on Cheiftain level, will the AI be super hard, or super easy?


Gameplay difficulty________AI difficulty____AI status
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Cheiftain______________Deity________super hard
2. Cheiftain______________Chieftain_____super wimpy

3. Deity_________________Deity________insane hard
4. Deity_________________Cheiftain_____super wimpy


I need to know which ones are right, because I'm taking my first dabs into Editor. I want to play at least Cheiftain to Reageant, while having smart AI. That way I can have the benefits of the easy levels, such as fewer mad people, less corruption, faster tech, etc. while I can have challenging enemys.


I apologize if my questions are reduanant, but I'm really trying to figure out how to maxmize gameplay with good AI.


Again, I appreciate any feedback and ideas. Keep them coming!!!

[Zachriel]

Re: Oddities of Civ 3

Originally posted by Sovereign 5. I have NEVER EVER gotten a cultural flipping. I've played like 50 games of Civ 3 so far, played them to 1500 AD or later, with plenty of chances in or near enemy territory to have culture flippings happen. Maybe my Civ 3 program doesn't have culture flipping option enabled?

Chance of culture flipping is related to (number of foreigners + number of tile overlaps - garrison/2). It is also related to the distance of the relevant capitals.

To completely stop the chance of a culture flip in one of your own cities, you need a garrison which is double the (number of foreigners + number of tiles overlaps). Double again if the city is in resistance. To alleviate the problem, build cultural improvements to expand your culture borders, and to convert the foreigners to your own culture over time.

To try and flip a rival city, you need to place a city so that its borders overlap those of the rival. Don't forget to garrison the city so it doesn't flip away from you. Build cultural improvements to expand your borders into the rival territory. There is an element of chance involved no matter what you do, but like all games of chance, the more you play, the more chances you have of success.

Here is an example, Strasbourg:
** SPOILER ** GOTM10 **

http://www.zachriel.com/gotm10/bc0230-Strasbourg.htm

[Sovereign]

Interesting. I guess I'll try sticking my cities between rival cities and see what happens.

Although I always go for the maximum 20 tile cities, not 7 tile or 13 tile cities.

I read your strategies and step by step games, and oh boy! I feel like a 10th class newbie

The 30 - 40 elephants or tanks or 7 armies in 1 screen looks ultra-nasty! I've been playing on Cheiftain or Warlord, because whenever I try higher than Monarch, I keep quitting. These rioters really ruin my day.


Thats why I'm going nuts about the Editor problem I have. I'm trying to keep most of the Civ 3 original rules in effect, but enhance the AI to Deity skill and level, while keeping the game itself at Cheiftain so I won't get screwed royally by rioters, insane corruption, extremely slow science, and whatnot.


Could you or anyone shed some light on this? Or shall I use the Editor to make Deity level itself same as Cheiftain, just to get Cheiftain riot and corruption levels, while making the AI challenging?


Again, thanks for your advice, Zachariel!

[Flight]

lol at that zachriel, very amusing
In fact its a lot of fun reading through your games

sovreign?
whats wrong with moving up the difficulty ladder as normal until you get to a level where u cant win?

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Interesting. I guess I'll try sticking my cities between rival cities and see what happens.

Although I always go for the maximum 20 tile cities, not 7 tile or 13 tile cities.

Of you want to gain cities with culture flip you must forget the 20 tiles cities. If you put your city too far from the target city, your cultural expansion and consequently the overlapping of the target city may come too late.

The only thing Zachriel had forgotten is the total culture of your empire, which should be much higher than your opponents'. The key elements are: total culture, overlapping tiles, foreigners an distance from capitol.

[Sovereign]

I guess I'll have to try that new approach, guys.

I go for the 20 tile cities in the center of my empire, to get the most out of the land.



Flight, the reason why I can't make it on the high difficulty levels is because of riots. They really ruin my gameplay and strategies. A city using 1 or 2 laborers and 1 or 2 enterainers to control riots isn't a productive city at all.


I like the cheiftain level because I can get to size 5 without serious riots. I can get production out of it, fast and efficient enough for temples, cathedrals, whatever, to be able to control riots at sizes 7+. But at size 1 - 4, cities take forever to build "happy people" improvements.


Keep the feedback coming guys!

[Flight]

i see, well i just let the automatic govenor sort out city happiness and it generally chooses the correct set-up. Are you pop-rushing a lot or is it something else? It just seems like an odd issue to have with the game

[narmox]

The surprised advisors.. you see them when nations declare war on each other. "Zululand has declared war on the Americans!" Surprised foreign advisor right there.

[bongo]

When an enemy city flips over to your side, do the enemy get mad at you?

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Tiberius
The only thing Zachriel had forgotten is the total culture of your empire, which should be much higher than your opponents'. The key elements are: total culture, overlapping tiles, foreigners an distance from capitol.

Oops. Total culture. Right. What he said.
(Thanks Tiberius for the clarification.)

[Theseus]

Sovereign, see this thread in Strategy:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60386

You need more luxuries.