Recent posts prompt me to ask if there would be any interest in a Training Game specifically for Mac players. We have a few experienced players here who could provide guidance and confusion in equal measure, and maybe a few less experienced players who would welcome a game in training format where we can discuss strategy and tactics as we go, and compare approaches to the game. I'm not sure which category I live in - depends on the difficulty level I guess.

Please vote in the poll and add your comments here. If you have a preference as to the difficulty level of a training game, please check that option. If there's enough interest, and you are prepared to give some time to helping it to happen, then I'll get one started. We'll need at least six keen players of mixed ability to keep the momentum going.

Come on, there's gotta be more Mac civers out there than this. The most important post I ever made on CivFanatics was to sign up for my first succession game. I voted for deity since its the level I'm the least comfortable with if their are a few others willing. If not, I could contribute to the discussion on emperor or below.

I'm hoping the lack of response is mainly due to an over-indulgence in turkey by our US of A friends. :rolleyes:

I'm suffering from that myself. For me it means that I'm unable to move from my chair. :) Well, that and the weather anyway.

I'll poke my head in, but I can't sign on for the full commitment. My highest difficulty for consistent wins is Emperor, so, for myself, Deity would be for training. At Emperor, my wins are more geared toward spacerace and diplomacy, so any conquest/domination on emperor would be considered a training game for me as well. I'm a builder, not a fighter. ;)

I'm interested in improving my play at the higher levels.
I've had a go at the last two GOTMs at least past the QSC and certainly seem to miss a few tricks in trading / alliances :confused: and how to do 'pointy stick research' as its called by the experts. I seem to run out of steam in the late middle ages and unsure as to the best strategy (hence build priorities) to keep up in tech. I usually run out of time and don't finnish.

I am definetly on board. As some of you may know, I am not very good at this game. So sign me up.

We don't seem to have a quorum yet. Seven positive votes, but two are anonymous and Dojo says he can't commit to full participation. So we have four and a half after ten days :hmm: Oh well, maybe not such a good idea then.

I voted for training at deity.

I just didn't feel like posting...

Seriously, looks like there are less newbs in the mac forum as elsewhere at CFC... I mean, in General discussions the average level asking for training would have been regent or monarch... :hmm:

But if you start one, I'm in. :D

I suppose it depends what you mean by a training game. I know how to play on a PC, though admittedly I usually go for cheiftain or warlord. I'll be getting Civ3 for Mac any day now...

This idea was prompted by a couple of people who asked for advice on their games, and it looked like there was a need for some improved understanding of things like city placement and early growth. It seemed to die on the vine, however. If we can get enough interest I'll try again, but we need at least 6 people who want to join in.

A training game is usually a kind of Succession Game where each player takes five or ten turns or so, and there's free and frank discussion of the options before, during and after each set of turns. It's not a competition, and the intent is to include some more experienced players in the mix as mentors or tutors to provoke discussion to get people thinking of alternative ways forward.

The Mac game plays the same as PC version 1.29f, so if you can play on a PC you'll find no differences in the game rules on the Mac. Mechanically, some of the keyboard shortcuts use the Apple key instead of Control, and I suspect one or two of the PC shortcuts haven't been implemented.

Talking about training, any idea why i'm not able to plant spies in other civ's capitals?
I tried every combination of mouse-click and option-ctrl-Alt-whatever key....
:(
Thanks in advance

You have to have the espionage tech and an embassy in the foreign capital, and you need the Intelligence Agency small wonder.

I don't use spies much, but as far as I can recall you need to double click the Pentagon icon on the city where you built the Intelligence Agency. That opens a window where you can choose where to plant a spy. Once you have a spy you get extra espionage options when you click the E button on the right hand mini-screen, in addition to investigate city and steal technology.

*Bows, thanks, at your service and that of your family... ;)

This would have been a fun little training exercise. Oh well...

I've been lurking here again for about a month now. I might be persuaded to join in a Mac-friendly training game, but my Civ time is very limited these days. At least, if I happen to fall off the face of the earth for a day or two, don't worry, I'll be back. And I'll be out of town next week, but you all don't seem like you're going to start up a game anytime soon...

I've been playing Monarch lately. I find that I can win by domination or conquest rather easily on Monarch, but I get frustrated with all the tedium associated with moving troops around to wage a proper war. I like spaceship and 100k wins, because once I get my civ big enough I just milk it until I win.... I'm currently going for a 20k, which is much harder than you all make it out to be...

I have a Civ installation all set up to play GOTMs, but I find that I like the plain Vanilla Civ better since I'm used to the rules, so maybe a Monarch or Deity training game would be better for me....

This thread seems to be dead/dying, but, for what it's worth:

I really want to get a Mac training game going. I play Monarch (win almost every time) and Regent (win 50/50). I'm running Mac Vanilla.

Hope to hear back soon............

This thread seems to be dead/dying, but, for what it's worth:

I really want to get a Mac training game going. I play Monarch (win almost every time) and Regent (win 50/50). I'm running Mac Vanilla.

Hope to hear back soon............
It's nine months old, which is a lifetime in CivLand, and died a long time ago :( You could sign up for the next SGOTM. There are currently two teams playing vanilla with one or two Mac players on the rosters. Succession Games give a fast learning curve in a team setting, and the SGOTM format means you get to compare performance and tactics with a lot of other players.

I looked into the SGOTM pages with much enthusiasm. I downloaded the file [GOTM_Mac_Installer.dmg.zip] and when I unzipped it there was a file called [GOTM_Mac_Installer.dmg] that SimpleText tried to open. Obviously nothing happened. Went back to the download page, and it looks like you have to be running OSX for the patch to work.

I'm running OS9.2. Is there an older installer I can use?

Sorry, a DMG is an OS X disk image, and the file it contains is an OS X-only installer. All the Mac links in my signature are specified as for Mac OS X. There isn't a free installer builder I could use for OS 9, and in any case I haven't run OS 9, either booted or in Classic mode, for over four years now, so I wouldn't want to support OS 9 software or installers.

If you really are unable to run OS X then I could make up a zip file of the installer contents and give you a download link for it. It would be a 25 MB download, and it would unzip to produce a folder with an equivalent sub-folder and file structure to your Civ3 folder. You would put all the unzipped files and folders in their equivalent locations in a copy of your Civ3 folder manually. If you want me to make the zip file, let me know.

I saw the files spec'd for OSX, but I was hoping there would be a little backwards compatibility. A friend of mine is supposedly working on a hardrive swap for me, and if that happens I will wind up with OSX.

About a zipped download and manual swap - I'll try it if you're willing to zip the installer contents for me. I don't want to put you out, though. Please don't feel obligated.

Thanks.

Do you have version 1.29 of Civ3? If not we need to get you the OS 9 updater, as the GOTM files are not compatible with earlier versions.

To get the version 1.29b2 patch, download the 5 MB updater from here (http://www.ahart.demon.co.uk/files/Civ3_129b2Installer.sit), not from the OS X disk image link in my sig. Unstuff and run this installer to update a copy of Civ3.

The stuffed GOTM files are at http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/saves/Mac_GOTM_Files.zip (25 MB)

Download and unzip this file to create a folder called "Files". We'll call this folder your "Source Folder" as you start the following procedure

Create a copy of your complete Civ3 application folder, call it Civ3_GOTM or something to identify it. We'll call this folder your "Target Folder" as you start the following procedure.

Perform the following PROCEDURE:

Copy all the files from the Source Folder to the Target Folder. Say Yes when the system asks if you want to overwrite existing files.

For each folder in the Source Folder:
If here is no folder of the same name in the Target Folder then copy the folder from teh Source Folder into the Target Folder.
If there is a folder of the same name in the Target folder then open both. We now call them the new Source Folder and Target Folder, and repeat this whole PROCEDURE for the new Source and Target Folders.

This sounds worse than it is. What you are doing is adding the files you downloaded into your Civ3 folder structure, overwriting any that have the same names, and retaining the original folder structure. It's tedious and prone to error, which is why I created the installer. But it's doable.

Let me know if this makes no sense. Good luck.

I'll have a go at it after work. I think I'm already playing 1.29b. I tried to intall Rhye's graphics modpack, and there were some border color problems. That's all I can say about the version I'm running. I'll post success or failure. Thanks agian.

You can verify your version by looking a tthe white text in the bottom left corner of te opening screen - the one with the tower image and starting nmenu in it. It should say version 1.29b2.

Think I did something wrong. I'll try your verifcation trick. I may have downloaded the 1.29b2 patch but not installed it. When I did the GOTM mod fileswap, everything seemed fine. Until I tried to start a new game under the gotm version. It stalled out on a file warrior.ini I'll recheck things now.

If you apply the 1.29 updater I'm afraid you may have to reinstall the GOTM files as the patch overwrites some of them. :(

Okay Alan, I've got some more info... Some things got fried when I was doing all thatlast month, and I just got my Disc back from the guy I loaned it to.

Last night I reinstalled Civ3, and updated to Version 1.29beta2. This was verified on the title screen.

I reinstalled the ART folders from the GOTM download - the one that has readmes for GOTM 18, 19, 21, etc., and Bluebox. I duplicated my 1.29beta2 civ3 folder, and then went ahead overwriting the ART folder. I replaced the various target folders in my ART folder with the ones from the GOTM Source ART folder.

Reboot..., and open civ3 from Civ3GOTM directory. When I opened a previous save from 1.29beta2, (save made right before I duplicated my working 1.29beta2 version of civ for this gotm install) I go the following error pop-up:

Load Error
Error Reading File
".art\units\settler\settler.ini"

... then a second pop-up:

Unrecoverable Error

... then screen reverts to finder.



I opened civ3 again, I tried to open the MultiTeam Demo Game save. I got a different error message:

DataIO operation System Error: CIB
DataIO Error

Any thoughts?

Multi-Team Demo Game? You won't be able to open that - it's played in Conquests!

Darn! I was really hoping the GOTM install would allow me to open it. Too bad.

In any case, I'd still like to get my system up to GOTM compatibility.... at least until Civ4 for mac comes out (if ever.)

Last night I reinstalled Civ3, and updated to Version 1.29beta2. This was verified on the title screen.So far so good.

I reinstalled the ART folders from the GOTM download - the one that has readmes for GOTM 18, 19, 21, etc., and Bluebox. I duplicated my 1.29beta2 civ3 folder, and then went ahead overwriting the ART folder. I replaced the various target folders in my ART folder with the ones from the GOTM Source ART folder.Probably not so good. The GOTM mod file set contains more than just /Art/ folders. There are also /Text/ files, and the two have to be in sync. You have to find a place for every file and new folder in the GOTM mod file set.


Reboot..., and open civ3 from Civ3GOTM directory. When I opened a previous save from 1.29beta2, (save made right before I duplicated my working 1.29beta2 version of civ for this gotm install) I go the following error pop-up:

Load Error
Error Reading File
".art\units\settler\settler.ini"
... then a second pop-up:

Unrecoverable Error

... then screen reverts to finder.

I'm guessing you just replaced the whole /Art/Units/ folder with the one from the GOTM mod instead of moving the contents of /Art/Units/ from the GOTM mod into /Art/Units/ in Civ3 to merge them with the standard files and folders. As a result you deleted the standard /Art/settler/folder, along with many more. The mod only adds new units. You still need the old standard ones as well.

Please re-read my PROCEDURE above. You never replace a FOLDER with one of the same name. Only a few FILES get replaced, never folders. You are mostly just adding new folders, or adding files to existing folders.


I opened civ3 again, I tried to open the MultiTeam Demo Game save. I got a different error message:

DataIO operation System Error: CIB
DataIO Error

Any thoughts?
As Fureiy correctly diagnosed. The DataIO Error almost always means you are trying to open a file created by a later version of Civ3. In this case, Conquests.