I just got civ III Complete.....Is it fully up to date on patches ordo you have to get them????

Not a silly question, actually.

Civ3:Complete is fully patched. There might be a few discs out there that aren't fully patched. I understand there was a small run that didn't have every patch. But usually it's patched.

Now, you're thinking to yourself, how do I know it's patched? Easy! On the bottom left of the menu screen, you'll see a number. If you're playing "Vanilla" Civ3, it'll be 1.29f. If you're playing PTW, it'll be 1.27f. And if you're playing Conquests, it'll be 1.22.

So you shouldn't need to patch it.

ok what is civ III vanilla????

Basic, simple, plain Civ3.

so can i somehow run plain civ 3 or any of the expansions with this complete then??? it seems it automatically runs conquests

Now, I don't have Complete myself, so I'm a bit unsure on this. But don't you have Civ3, PTW, and Conquests in your start menu? Start/Programs/Atari/Civ3Complete/ or some such? I don't really know how it works. I suppose you could try putting in Disc 1 for Vanilla, and Disc 2 for PTW....

no it just has complete and it all seems to run together....they say the names on the three disks but disk one which says civ III is the play disk for all...Anyways, thanks for your help

I'm sure there's a way to do it. Perhaps one of our more experienced users who has complete will be able to shed some light on this.

In any event, Conquests is definately the best of the three. Yeah, you're gonna miss a little by not being able to play the other two, but not much....

I found a way but the scripts are a little messed up///the readme says how to open up civ 3 only or the others if you want to but they recommend starting it normally I guess since all are involved. I've never played any of the civs games before so now to learn how to play.

hard part to figure out is if I can just download created mods and scenarios with complete (since it is kind of different than running vanilla alone) and they will work properly. I may have to stick with conquest mods and add ons

There's a tutorial mode that'll get you started.

There's also the Quick Answers/Newbie Questions (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=126843) thread. Feel free to post any question you have about the game there. No need to read it, unless you're bored.

But I would read The War Academy (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/). There are several good articles there. Start out with Four Basic Starting Strategies (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/basicstrats.php) and Babylon's Deity Settlers (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/deity_settlers1.php). Don't let the deity throw you off...it's applicable at all levels.

And peruse the rest as you can.

Edit: Start off with learning the game. Once you get a handle on it, then worry about scenarios or mods. Find a scenario/mod you like, and make sure they're for Conquests. Most are, and all should say what version they're for. If you're not sure, then just ask in that thread.

I just installed Complete yesterday (after buying new computer, corruption errors on my original disks, ordering Complete only to find out it was a bad CD/DVD drive and replacing it. :mad: ) Anyway, the installation left shortcuts to each of the 3 versions of Civ on my desktop. The Complete shortcut is C3C and looks very different from the usual C3C shortcut, but the vanilla and PTW shortcuts look about like they always did...the very colorful one with the orange [civ3] on a blue background for vanilla, the blue and green one for PTW and C3C (complete) is red and gold (mostly gold) now.

Hope that helps. :)

That is odd...Mine has an icon for only III complete and that's it....I try to run Vanilla manually like it says but there is a problem with text for some reason....It works but in the box on the right bottom the text are all over each other co you cannot read it....It says it is version 1.29f....The first time I installed it had only complete on desktop as well,,,then I tried to patch 1.29f onto it b/c it said 1.22. I learned complete is up to date so I uninstalled everything and reinstalled complete and that is where I am now...I would like to play vanilla but I cannot...I wonder if there were files somewhere that did not get uninstalled.

I am running complete and can open up conquest and ptw but when I run vanilla, it opens up and looks fine but there is a text problem. At the bottom of the main screen you see the first problem, the is writing there which is written over making it unreadable. when starting like the tutorial the small box display on the lower right showing your settler is there but the texts are written over each other so you cannot read them. any way on the preferences screen the alignment is messed up to give another example of a text problem....Any suggestions?????????Please I would like to play Vanilla but something is messed somewhere

You might need to change the refresh rate for the game. Find the refresh rate of your monitor (Right click on the desktop, select Properties, then the Settings tab, the Advanced button, and monitor tab. You'll see a number (for example, 72 Hertz). Add the line "Refresh=72" (without the quotation marks) to your .ini file. The .ini file can be found in the root directory for each version of the game

How do I do this as well....I need to change my refresh rate but cannot figure out how to do this

I took a look using Windows Explorer for the file arrangement of Complete. Your directory should look sorta like:

Program Files
+Fireaxis Games (click to expand this)
+Civilization III Complete (put your cursor on this on the L-H side of Explorer

On the R-H side of Explorer you should see the file "Civilization3.exe" with the vanilla icon (it looks more like green and orange at this smaller size). Right click on that and choose "create shortcut", and move the shortcut to your desktop.

The directory should look something like this:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/180352/CompleteFileDir.JPG

Two files lower on the L-H side is civ3PTW, and if you put your cursor on that file, you can see the file on the RH side called "Civilization3X.exe" with the blue and green icon. You can make the PTW shortcut icon from there and move it to your desktop.

I hope it helps, and good luck! :)

Edit: I forgot to mention that I use the "details" view of Windows Explorer. If you use a "folders" view or some other type, it might look a bit different.

You do it just as it the instructions say (right click Desktop, select Properties, etc.)

You could also try adding the line "KeepRes=1" to your Civ3.ini file in your /Civilization III/ folder.

Threads merged.

Since you were already talking about that problem in this thread, best that it stays here.

I know how to check what I am running at....I am at 60 htz but cannot figure out out to get into ini files...I cannot get into them


I am needing to change refresh rate

There's a conquests.ini file in the conquest directory, where the executable is. If it's not there, open Notepad and create it. Put the line in about refresh rate, and start the game. If it is there, look to see if there's a refresh line and change that. If there isn't, add it to the bottom.

The program doesn't care what's in the file. If it's not there and needs to be there, it'll add it. If it is there, it'll use it.

Got the refresh rate done...I was not trying to open it with notepad and that was the problem....should fix that problem but have not run it yet to try...you guys have been helpful...Thx

Now for the only other problem I am having with the complete.....As I have said before the text overlays on Vanilla only are messed up....In the info box where it shows your selected unit all the texts are written over each other so you cannot read them...Another example is the preference menu where all is out of alignment and cannot read the top line..............Any ideas or suggestions

Also to Ginger Ale what will adding KeepRes=1 do?

In playing Vanilla as well it keeps closing and one time said Unable to allocate draw buffer and closed

KeepRes=1 will keep the screen resolution that you started out with. I would only do this if you're running a resolution bigger than 1024x768, the minimum Civ3 needs to run.

So if you're running 1280x1024, you can put keepres=1 in and it will keep that resolution.

As for vanilla, you're really not going to miss much....you could try looking at this support page (http://www.atari.com/us/support/newfaq/civilizationiii.php?browser=1&issueNum=214&osType=WINXP&pageDisplay=MAIN#faq_prodissues), which deals with the graphics strangeness for Vanilla Civ3.

Ok I hate to beat a dead horse...Before I bought complete I had the demo to civ III on my computer which was plain civ3...I had removed the program but there may have been a file on my c drive(I put all on d drive) that could be interfering....I am considering uninstalling complete and reinstalling but I am wondering how to search on my computer for any civ III file left on after uninstalling.....Any way to do that????? The demo which I could only play for 50 minutes worked fine so vanilla should work fine.....or perhaps there is a problem with version 1.29f which vanilla is patched to???????????

Check out this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=118126#7) in this subforum for information on how to uninstall the game.