The Essential Civ 3 - Fixes

[Steve Clark]

Better AI in the coordination and movement of military units. That is, have it limit massive stackings and have it recognize barriers (such as fortress) so it tries to see if it can go around and not at it.

[raingoon]

oops.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited February 19, 2000).]</font>

[Ekmek]

My fix would be what I suggested in the Graphics thread and the Civilizations thread. CIVILIZATION SPECIFIC FOLDERS

That would be for each civilization to have its own folder. Each folder would have the graphics files (i.e. leaders.gif, units.gif/sprites, cities.gif, people.gif, icons.gif, flags.gif, cityimprov.gif, etc.) and game files (like events.txt and rules.txt for advances, units, city improvements, wonders, city names, leader names, govt names and types, etc.)

that way each civilization would have it own culturally specific graphics and game parameters, and events, etc. Then everyone's riflemen could have special uniforms, planes each look different, samurais instead of knights, cities look different at all stages of advancement and their improvements look different, and you can special tech trees and events.

With a patch you could probably almost do it to Civ2 like how scenario folders are done, just make civ specific subfolders. This would make scenarios more fun and increase the number of units (and etc) 7 times (I do hope civ3 lets you up to more civs than 7, like 30).

this can also apply to a terrain folder where you can have different seasons with different terrain attributes (like less food for winter) and it changes with turns.

[raingoon]

BRING BACK NEWS REPORTS

Civ I's original news reports added to the immersiveness of the game, as well as kept you up to date on important events. I propose in Civ 3 the news reports be in the form of an optional News Ticker (you can turn it off and on during the game); also key events should be hyperlinked to the appropriate "hot spot" on the map; every five turns or so helpful or interesting information is reloaded, constantly scrolling in the ticker window.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited February 20, 2000).]</font>

[raingoon]

thread current to this point

[Father Beast]

a fix for when you capture a city and all the citizens are suddenly yours. like the classic when you nuke the city and take it over, and they hold a "we love the conquerer" day.

[yin26]

-=*bump*=-

[Dr Strangelove]

Trade: CTP had a more satisfying trade mode, didn't take dozens of turns searching for a city to trade with.
Can I say this, or is this too much like copying the idea from another company? Still, the endless searching really slowed down trade in large worlds.

[raingoon]

Dr Strangelove

Do you want to add this to Fix #1 (Trade)? Or New Idea #25 (Improved Trade) which mentions adopting a CTP trade model?
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited February 21, 2000).]</font>

[Gothmog]

My nomination for fixes.

An in-scenario map editor that allows you to add or remove rivers and change terrain under cities.

[raingoon]

Gothmog, just want to point out New Idea #8 (currently on second page) nominates a comprehensive scenario editor. Did you want to add your suggestion to that?

[Zanzibar]

A fix for the road-railroad system.
Roads are OK (3x movement). But the railroad system is just unrealistic. Think about it: if you airlift a unit (which is the equivalent of air transportation) you can't move it anymore in the same turn. But, on the same distance (presuming it's on the same continent), you can move a tank to the destination and you still have 3 moves for attack! Maybe something like 6x or 12x-movement rate would be more realistic.
I think also that the introduction of highways would be also nice. Roads-highways-railroads.

[S. Kroeze]

MAKE THE GAME A REAL CHALLENGE!!

My severest criticism of CivII is that the game is too easily won. (And I NEVER ever cheat, not in any way!) After about 1500AD when half of the turns haven't passed yet, its clear who is going to win.
I'm not interested in colonizing Alpha Centauri, and neither does world domination appeal to me. Let just plain SURVIVAL of your culture- not necessarily identical to political power- be the ultimate goal! It would be nice if at the end of the game the earth is still a habitable place.

Most readers will realize that some well-known problems are the cause of the easy wins: the Infinite City Sleaze and the Eternal China Syndrom, both related to the 21-square city structure and the fact that 'heads' are counted instead of people. I think all those problems are the result of one essential flaw in the basic structure of the game.

Civilizations lasting for more than two millenia are the exception, not the standard. CivIII should try to depict the rise and fall of civilizations/ great powers. When a culture is succesfull it will almost inevitably grow conservative and convinced of its own superiority, causing other cultures to surpass the once dominant civilization. In this way its decline becomes inevitable!

[apocalyptica]

<font face="Arial">City Control and Graphics</font>


As we all know, the world does not exist as a series of huge population centers with emptiness in between. We need some sprawling suburbs to be realistic! In the zones around cities, instead os displaying mining or farms or whatever, show us smaller towns that are developing as the fringes of the city. They can grow larger and fill more space as the city grows, and change in their nature as you progress in technology and time. Plus, you can then "build" laws in cities regarding such things as urban growth, suburban sprawl, and local (not just global, as all other civ games have had) environmental issues. Plus, it would just look neat Move the display of mining, farming, etc to within the city view.


can you tell I like to micro-manage?

[War4ever]

Nukes..... ie permanent damage radiation squares.... that cannot be fixed by the engineer....same as nuke reactor disaster... some land should be polluted permanently so that it discourages nukes

A nuke still causes 6-8 pollution squares but at least two at random should be permanent