This thread is for questions & answers about Mutliplayer (when it comes) ;)

Will u be allowed to go on with a friend say for example I had a friend in this forum ( which I dont :( ) and say 1 builds an massive army while 1 goes cultural and scientific. Therefore allowing to guard each other and update the army?

Originally posted by Sgt.Hellfish
Will u be allowed to go on with a friend say for example I had a friend in this forum ( which I dont :( ) and say 1 builds an massive army while 1 goes cultural and scientific. Therefore allowing to guard each other and update the army?

Of course. This is probably going to be very common, with teams that help each other out. For example, everyone could research a different tech, so they all trade together. Some people may look down on this, so it will probably be up to the host.

CG

This is entirely up to the player, as it is very hard for a nation to protect itself and another nation, unless the nation it protects pays it.

Since I've seen this question asked 3 times in the last week at both Poly and here, PBEM means 'Play By E-Mail', which is a multi-player civ game that you take turns playing, then email the game to the other people you're playing with when you finish a turn.

so basically after each turn you'll have to e-mail the savegame and after you get it back you overwrite it and make another turn? It must take a year till you finish... and... how do you see the animations that other players performed? ie. you receive a save where suddenly all your cities are captured and you didn't see the fights and how it happened. ???

This is probably a silly question, but will the multiplayer pack be sufficient to run the game, or will I have to buy the game too?

Double check the chat logs, but I'm pretty sure you need to own the game as well as the expansion.

I beleive that you have to have Civilization 3 and the PTW expansion pack to be able to play (legally ;))

I bought CIV III when it came out, but got rid of it when I started seeing nothing but civ dreams at night. Now I feel the call of civ once again... One disk to rule them all...
... anyhoo, anyone know if they going to come out with a MP version of the basic game, or am I going to have to pay $80 and get both?

Question (probably stupid) : Will more than one player be allowed to use the same civ (i.e. two people opt to select Persia). I'm guessing no, but I haven't seen this answered anywhere.

Thanks -

Originally posted by DukEngnr
Question (probably stupid) : Will more than one player be allowed to use the same civ (i.e. two people opt to select Persia). I'm guessing no, but I haven't seen this answered anywhere.

Thanks -

No.

If this question has not already been asked:

How are you supposed to finish games, unless they are really short. I doubt people will want to spend ten hours straight in order to do so.... :sleep: Will some kind of system for saving games be availible?

Is MP viable for someone still using a 56k?

Are there other upgrades in the expansion pack besides MP that would make it worth the money to buy PTW?

Originally posted by PreTzeL_22
Will some kind of system for saving games be availible?

Yes, save games are available.

does anyone know if trading units will be in PTW, units other than workers?

no trading units AFAIK

AFAIK?

As far as i know

can anyone confirm that?

Originally posted by PreTzeL_22
If this question has not already been asked:

How are you supposed to finish games, unless they are really short. I doubt people will want to spend ten hours straight in order to do so.... :sleep: Will some kind of system for saving games be availible? There are many fanatics that do spend 10+ hours playing in order to complete a game but in Civ2 there was a way to save in mid-game. I bet this will also be in PTW.Also, there are different modes of play that will shorten the amount of time it takes to play a game. I expect to see mods out that reduce the amount of time to research allowing short games that go through the full span of civ techs.

i forsee myself playing the long games. when i used to play BOTF online, me and a couple friends used to spend WEEKS! playing a single game. For those of your that dont know, botf is a turn based game and it works much like the simultanious mode in civ3. Its just the effort that goes into building up your empire. You put so much of yourself in it.
I think the only time any of us are going to be playing the "short" games are those which we play against/with random people on the net.
With friends im sure everyone will play the long game.

What happens if a person drops out? What becomes of their cities?

I tried for two plus hours last night to successfully launch a MP game through the in-game Gamespy menu. I either crashed each time or was stuck in the "pick a civ" screen, but without my fellow players. All of my attempts were with the 1.04f patch already installed and with my firewall disabled. Others in the "gamespy lobby" were having the same problem. Have people been successful?

By the way, I am well within the the system requirements.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Edgar Newt

:mad:

Do I have to use GameSpy to run a multi player game? I've got four machines in my internal LAN not connected to the internet, and it would suck to have to connect my LAN to the internet and send traffic to GameSpy when all the packets just needs to go through my router.

I've reading all of your posts about the game, but I can't find it in stores anywhere. Are all of you playing pre-ordered copies or beta's? Do I need to be patient or order from Amazon.com?

Thanks from the newbie!

Hi Edgar,

Did you read the Readme file that came with the expansion to see what steps you might need to perform to connect your computer directly to the internet, in case you're connecting through a router? After following these, setting up port forwarding on my router and putting my computer in the DMZ, I was not only able to play, but I could also host. I suspect the problems I had on occasion were caused by people who tried to join who weren't properly prepared.

I did read it. I don't use a router, just the dsl modem straight to the phone line. I disabled my software firewall and virus programs. Still nothing. Tried hosting a lan game against AI. No problem. Just can't participate in internet games.

So do I return the game to EB or do I trust that a successful patch will be released before that window shuts?

Very disappointed in Firaxis.

are you sure everyone involved had the patch installed? The same thing happened to me when i tried to play my first MP game The game stalled, i didnt have the patch installed and i think they did. Later on in the day when i played a game with a friend (both had original CD version) game worked fine, we played for over 5 hours! It was too much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

only downside (a pritty big one unfortunately) was that i couldnt sell him units to help his war against the EVIL computer :(

Originally posted by getdowntonite
I've reading all of your posts about the game, but I can't find it in stores anywhere. Are all of you playing pre-ordered copies or beta's? Do I need to be patient or order from Amazon.com?

Thanks from the newbie!

Just be patient. :) Check your local stores, they'll have it eventually.

i've heard some rumors saying you cant add AI players in the network games... is this true??? i mean this can't be true!? you have to have ai players in turn based network games if youre just a couple or more human players...

any of you know anything bout this?

You can add AI players (to a total of 8 AI + Human players) to turn-based and simultaneous mode games. You cannot add any to the turnless mode games, though.

Is double production and double movement in PTW? I really would like to know becuase if they ain't, i probably will not buy it.

Does anyone know if it is worth me as a UK resident waiting for the European release of PTW, or could I just order it from USA Amazon and not see any difference? I'm not really bothered about seeing U's in th spelling of 'colour' in the Civilopedia.

@Beeblbrox- if you want to save money on shipping and handling, wait about a week for the UK version. If you want to spend the money buy the US version, but it probably won't get to you for a week, so wait for the UK version.

@MrSparkle- there is an option for "accelerated production" where the production is basically doubled, but you must go into the editor to double the movement for units.

@Edgar Newt- never disable your firewall and virus programs, just open the nessisary ports to play the game.

I've read the posts about opening ports in order to be able to play this game. However, no one seems to say how exactly one goes about doing that. :confused:

I'm running Windows XP Professional. No firewalls that I know of except for what XP may have to offer.

Does anyone know how to open the ports necessary to run this game in Windows XP?

Originally posted by Flexmaster
I've read the posts about opening ports in order to be able to play this game. However, no one seems to say how exactly one goes about doing that. :confused:

I'm running Windows XP Professional. No firewalls that I know of except for what XP may have to offer.

Does anyone know how to open the ports necessary to run this game in Windows XP?

I have not opened any ports on XP myself yet but if you need to you can do it by going to your Internet connection, open properties, open advanced, open settings, services tab, hit add and off you go.

PS: Hope I translated it all well. I have this awfull Dutch version I can not get used to even though I am Dutch. LOL. Anyway, some of the words I use may be different in your case.
Good luck.

If you have dial up, you really shouldn't have to worry all that much about firewalls.

And to everyone that's asked, Yes. The whole MP stability/lag issues are common. The 1.04 patch does help quite a bit with the crash issues, but I've had it crash even with 1.04 running. But even with 1.04, lag is still a horrible horrible problem. I heard someone say that you needed a ping under 100 to play a lag-less game, but I doubt that's true. If you manage to get the game to actually beginning, you'll most likely lag.

But he trick is once the host clicks "Launch Game" just wait (assuming you don't crash) It might be instinct to assume the game froze, but it hasn't :) Only abort after a few minutes have passed and you're still waiting. you'll have to be patient. Sometimes the game will just load. Other times you stare at the main menu for a while.

I've seriously considered returning this game, but I don't know that my local store accepts returns do to piracy:( I'll just have to pray on a patch that fixes all the problems. This is certainly the last time I buy a Firaxis game.:mad:

CompUSA is selling PTW for $ 19.99 this week. A local EB store priced match for me. Also, Best Buy should have it.

Are you able to pause a game?

I don't have PtW yet, but playing yesterday I thought of a possible exploit by two players.

When you trade a city the citizens become the nationality of the person traded to. Is this _all_ the citizens, or only the citizens from the country doing the trading?

If it is everyone, then you can easily do war and avoid culture flip by trading cities back and forth.

Can a city in resistance be traded? If so, does it come out of resistance?

Because all my friends have a limited interest at this stage I need to know whether one disc is enough to set up a LAN-game. Also, does every player need the original Civ 3 disc?

You only need the PTW disc to play Civ3 PTW, but, you do need to have Civ3 installed.

I would have a technical question (actually a bunch of them): how does the online gaming work on a networking level, in detail?

Which TCP/UDP ports are used on the PC where the game is running? Which TCP/UDP ports are used on the server? I know there is another forum where someone posted a bunch of ports. I just can't believe you need all that.

Same questions on direct IP.

Also, the game seems to connect to a server immediately after I click on Multiplayer -- is that the GameSpy server? I didn't install the GameSpy software, how come it still works?

Hoping for some enlightment, maybe in the form of a nice web site where someone described all this already (or maybe someone from Firaxis reads it and takes pity...) :mischief:

Edit: pretty much everything is in the readme. :spank:

What exactly is the difference between turnless and simultaneous turns? They both have turns that end at a preset point, which I didn't think simultaneous turns would have. And I know you can't add bots in turnless. But what are the fundamental differences that make them two different game types?

Originally posted by Nelson1379
What exactly is the difference between turnless and simultaneous turns? They both have turns that end at a preset point, which I didn't think simultaneous turns would have. And I know you can't add bots in turnless. But what are the fundamental differences that make them two different game types?

I think the simultaneous turns style will wait for a while for you to "Press Enter or Space" at the end of each turn. It gives you more time to do things like adjusting research or city settings. I don't believe it waits for ever though. With turnless, there is a preset (pretty short) time slot for every turn. After that time slot is over, the game moves on to the next turn without waiting for you to "Press Enter or Space".

Originally posted by Nelson1379
What exactly is the difference between turnless and simultaneous turns? They both have turns that end at a preset point, which I didn't think simultaneous turns would have. And I know you can't add bots in turnless. But what are the fundamental differences that make them two different game types?

Originally posted by delmar
I think the simultaneous turns style will wait for a while for you to "Press Enter or Space" at the end of each turn. It gives you more time to do things like adjusting research or city settings. I don't believe it waits for ever though. With turnless, there is a preset (pretty short) time slot for every turn. After that time slot is over, the game moves on to the next turn without waiting for you to "Press Enter or Space".
Delmar thinks right. The only real difference is that Turnless doesn't tell you when the new turn starts. It just silently refreshes the turn-timer.

With Simultaneous Turns (ST) the game speed and turn duration are the same as with Turnless. However, as Delmar pointed out, players have the "Press Enter or Space" to indicate they are done. If everybody has pressed that, then the next turn commenses even if there still is time left. Otherwise, when the time runs out, the new turn mercilessly begins.

Originally posted by rdomarat
Do I have to use GameSpy to run a multi player game? I've got four machines in my internal LAN not connected to the internet, and it would suck to have to connect my LAN to the internet and send traffic to GameSpy when all the packets just needs to go through my router. No, you don't need to use GAMESPY when you're playing just a LAN / Direct IP game.

How do I find my CD-key within the computer if it's already installed? The CD-key was on a little piece of paper and I think I lost it. I don't want it to be useless if I uninstall it.

Edit: Thanks for answering my last question, I didn't see it.

You shouldn't need a CD-Key to play Civ3 PTW.

Chieftess, when I try to set up a PBEM of the Ancient Mediteranean scenario, and it says "go to www.civ3.com to get the units in the Ancient Meditteranean Mod Patch", that is really just a lie for now, right? I cant find anything on that site in terms of units.

I really don't know.. I'm not familar with that scenario. Maybe someone else knows.

Does anyone know how to choose your research path in multiplayer LAN games? It is pissing us all off when the computer selects the next choice.

My question is, why two different Friendly units (one of each player) attaking themselves when both moving into the same square? Remember that the players are in Peace Treaty.

Every time i'm starting a Mp game, PTW crash... why? nothing happnd in the way, just crashing...
only PBEM I can play, becouse it's not from the MP area...

Does anyone know how to choose your research path in multiplayer LAN games? It is pissing us all off when the computer selects the next choice.

Go to your science advisor and click on the technology you'd like to have. It will automatically choose the shortest path towards that tech.

My question is, why two different Friendly units (one of each player) attaking themselves when both moving into the same square? Remember that the players are in Peace Treaty.


It's simply not possible for two units of different civilization to stay on the same tile.

My question is, why two different Friendly units (one of each player) attaking themselves when both moving into the same square? Remember that the players are in Peace Treaty.


Thats strange..... you can try reinstalling the game or even your entire operating system.... before you do that, you should check if you have the latest drivers for your hardware (specifically your soundcard and graphics card) and directx 8.1 or 9.0.

-Dimy

The problems to question about the units moving to the same square, is It didn't even give me the "Do you want to declare war" thing options.

The problems to question about the units moving to the same square, is It didn't even give me the "Do you want to declare war" thing options.


Ah, I misunderstood :D. This sounds more like a bug... maybe you should check the bug report thread. I assume you already patched to the latest version? (1.14). If not, try that.
I found a similar bug with friendly units occupying an airstrip.

-Dimy

This may sound like a dumb question, but how do you start a hot seat game? I can't seem to find that option anywhere. Thanks.

Howdy,

Launch Play The World, select Multiplayer.

Click on location (in the list to the upper left) and switch to Local.

Host, under GameType select Hotseat.

Demonstrate Uber CivSkills to Friends and Family...

On our game, we aren't able to modify the multiplayer options to select Hotseat. Any ideas, or just work it out with tech support?

Another question about difficulty level in MP games. I am playing a pbem with a friend and his son. We have 3 human civs an 5 AI civs. My friend and I are at regent and the kid is at chieftain .

We know that the difficulty level determines AI to AI trade rate, AI cost factor, etc. but:

Which difficulty level ???

I received PTW for Christmas and found this in the readme file -

"NOTE: AOL users will find it difficult to join multiplayer games and impossible to host games. AOL is currently working on changes to make on-line gaming easier. Contact AOL as to current status and workarounds."

Needless to say, I contacted AOL and got zero response. Does anyone know what this is about and when this will be fixed. I bought this game for MP and have not yet been able to enjoy it.

Originally posted by Matt Arnold
On our game, we aren't able to modify the multiplayer options to select Hotseat. Any ideas, or just work it out with tech support?

Applied patch 1.14f?

You select Multiplayer from the main menu, then you see a screen with "Host" at the top. I recomment clicking "Location" first if it doesn't say "Local Games." Then you click "Host" - - and a new screen appears that says MULTIPLAYER SETUP at the top? You click "Game Type" on the left side and what happens?

Yes, I did apply the 1.14 patch, and it didn't help this situation. When I get to teh Multiplyer setup screen, I see all the options on the left, and where they should have the drop-down box, it's just a shaded square and it does nothing when you click it.

Originally posted by Matt Arnold
Yes, I did apply the 1.14 patch, and it didn't help this situation. When I get to teh Multiplyer setup screen, I see all the options on the left, and where they should have the drop-down box, it's just a shaded square and it does nothing when you click it.

Well, it could be a bad install. Did you try reinstalling both the original PTW and the patch? Yes, I know it's a pain.

Originally posted by sumthinelse


Well, it could be a bad install. Did you try reinstalling both the original PTW and the patch? Yes, I know it's a pain.

I tried that and no good. Still nothing working. Tech Support time, I suppose?

could someone please explain to me how PBEM basically works? do we email eachother savegames or what?

Originally posted by justokre
could someone please explain to me how PBEM basically works? do we email eachother savegames or what?

Save the game and attach it to email and mail to next player. When the game gets bigger, or if some players have slow connections, you could compress with WinZip.

I received PTW for Christmas and found this in the readme file -

"NOTE: AOL users will find it difficult to join multiplayer games and impossible to host games. AOL is currently working on changes to make on-line gaming easier. Contact AOL as to current status and workarounds."

Needless to say, I contacted AOL and got zero response. Does anyone know what this is about and when this will be fixed. I bought this game for MP and have not yet been able to enjoy it.

I too received PTW for Christmas and would really like to play multiplayer games. I have never had a problem playing other multiplayer games using AOL so why can't I with PTW?

Question:

Can you start a direct tcp/ip game, play for a bit, then save and continue as a PBEM game?

You could do this in Smac/x, but is it possible with PtW? If so, how is this done?

Thanks for your answers.

So what's the bottom line here? I've heard alot about the problems with lag and sync errors, etc. Is Play the World worth a few people with fast PC's, cable connections, and reasonable networking knowledge plunking down $30 a piece to play direct IP?

I fancy playing multiplayer but I only have a 56k modem and on the multiplayer screen the best ping I get seems to be about 320.

Is ping only really important for the turnless & si-move modes ?
I want to play turn-based so I figure I should be OK ?

(Yeah - I've never played any game multiplayer over the internet before)

Originally posted by DJ54
Question:

Can you start a direct tcp/ip game, play for a bit, then save and continue as a PBEM game?

You could do this in Smac/x, but is it possible with PtW? If so, how is this done?

Thanks for your answers.

Yes you can. That's how I started one of my current PBEM games. First we started a simultaneous game with no timeout. Saved that game and then went to MULTIPLAYER, PBEM, GAME MODE=Load Game. Then LAUNCH.

I recommend setting the difficulty levels for each human player in the editor (civ3xedit) in PLAYER PROPERTIES before you start the direct IP game (Change from "Any" to the difficulty you want for each human player), because there are bugs with difficulty level if you don't do that.

Sumthinelse, thank you so much for your answer! :-)

Waitaminute.... wouldn't that also fix the PtW level bug when you start a new PBEM- just specify the difficulty level in C3X edit?

Originally posted by DJ54
Waitaminute.... wouldn't that also fix the PtW level bug when you start a new PBEM- just specify the difficulty level in C3X edit?

AFAIK it does. I have never had any problems if I set the levels in the editor to be the same for all human players.

However, if I set different difficulty levels for each human player (like if kids or newbies want to play) I don't understand which one affects the AI. For example, if one human player is at deity and another at chieftain, what is the AI's Cost Factor?

That's a good question, but I'm NOT doing the research, lol.

This means that the "levels" bug only occurs with a non-scenario game, then. Useful info, that. Now I can get a better than Chieftain game in PBEM, which would be nice.

Originally posted by DJ54
That's a good question, but I'm NOT doing the research, lol.

This means that the "levels" bug only occurs with a non-scenario game, then. Useful info, that. Now I can get a better than Chieftain game in PBEM, which would be nice.

I think if you leave the level at "Any" in the editor you still have problems. But why would you use a scenario without setting the difficulty levels?

Also if you add more human players than you have configured in "custom player" you can have difficulty level problems. Remember, you have to set each player's difficulty level.

I wasn't thinking so much of a scenario as a random pbem game- and the difficulty level bug is very annoying. This is a way around that, just use a custom-made scenario. :-). Thanks, that's a help.

I've seen the question asked twice about play over a 56 K modem (by other people), but no-one has answererd it. Can I re-raise this question - and get feelings on this guys ? am I wasting my time looking for online gaming for PTW at 56K? Would 64K ISDN be a significant improvement ?

I've tried 56K once... it's workable, albeit a bit slow most of the time.

ISDN would be an improvment, I would think, Wanderer.

thanx. ISDN will probably be a few months away, but then so is my copy of PTW! Africa isn't early on the uptake *sigh*.

question about the PBEM what would happen if there would be a war??? i cannot see the movement of my enemies??? so it means my city could be captured w/o knowing how??

That's one of the problems of PBEM with PtW. You just have to watch and be very very careful.

Love your handle. CLANCY RULES!

Originally posted by DJ54
I've tried 56K once... it's workable, albeit a bit slow most of the time.

Actually, I was playing a multiplayer game with one of my friends, who has a 28.8k modem (ouch). The game actually went better/faster than one hosted by my other friend, with a cable modem. Hmmh. The internet works in strange ways sometimes... The game obviously doesn't require too much bandwidth... just a pretty good computer.

Thamks for your answers guys
- what I was really interested in, as I'm a complete internet gaming virgin, is the impact bad ping would have on turn-based games as opposed to turnless & si-move
- I can understand it screwing up one of those games, but in a turn-based game wouldn't I notice just a 'delay' when ordering units about in my turn (ie. it would have no impact on gameplay)

I didn't want to join a game and then screw everyone about cos my ping was bad.

Originally posted by DiamondzAndGunz


Actually, I was playing a multiplayer game with one of my friends, who has a 28.8k modem (ouch). The game actually went better/faster than one hosted by my other friend, with a cable modem. Hmmh. The internet works in strange ways sometimes... The game obviously doesn't require too much bandwidth... just a pretty good computer.

Perhaps it has something to do with the speed of the host computer as well as bandwidth conditions.

I received PTW for Christmas and found this in the readme file -

"NOTE: AOL users will find it difficult to join multiplayer games and impossible to host games. AOL is currently working on changes to make on-line gaming easier. Contact AOL as to current status and workarounds."

Needless to say, I contacted AOL and got zero response. Does anyone know what this is about and when this will be fixed. I bought this game for MP and have not yet been able to enjoy it.

Dygig, I have no idea. Sorry I couldn't be of help.

Originally posted by Dimy

Go to your science advisor and click on the technology you'd like to have. It will automatically choose the shortest path towards that tech.


Is it possible to select the next tech like in single player ?

Thanx.


I mean....by poping up a text box...

Nope. In MP, if you finish researching a tech and haven't chosen a specific path to follow, it will choose a tech for you. I try to pick out the techs, in order, that I want to research. For example, I click first to iron working, then shift-click horseback riding (to select it to be researched after) and so on.

Couple of questions
1) If 2 players have different rules (eg hitpoints for different unit levels) are these rules kept standardised by the hosts ruleset and if that is the case, do these overwrite the .bix that is on the clients?
2) Is there any way to hide the civilization and scores of opponents so that noone can see who the other players are (so that in addition to the game u can have a sub-game in which you are trying to figure out who is who based on the actions they make in a game where u know the other ppl in real life :) )?

Suggest a new MP Q&A Sticky should be started based on relevant info since latest patch has been released.

Question:

I build a scenario with the autogenerate map builder to be sure to play on the same continent with my friends. Can you tell me how to fixe the AI level for the computers players in our scenario???

I wanted to play on a world map with my wife. Bummer I found out you are only allowed to play 8 players in hotseat. Or, am I wrong?

Is there a way to play more than 8 players in hotseat?

Ok, I found my answer in this thread. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40762) That's a real slap in the face for those of us who want a big hotseat/pbem game. What a crock!


p.s. I looked through this entire thread and didn't directly see this addressed.

this is kind of a newb question, but how do you start a PBEM. my friend and i want to play, but i have no idea how to start one. And, the manual is of no help of course.

The big problem is convincing the others not to kick you out when starting out a game. Usually they see a medium to hig ping (from 200 on up) and they start complaining but the bandwith neede is really ridicolus, youi could easely play with any type of modem I guess or play with an ISDN, DSL and Cable connection keeping your band 75-85% full downloading.
I'll repeat that: the hard stuff is convincing others to let you play when your ping isn't great!

If fact the major problem in MP isn't ping but quitters. Imagine what happens when someone (tipically losing in sore) in standard maps with 7-8 players, at high levels just quits in the middle of the game....they just change everything leaving huge territories free for the lucky one that find it!

See ya!

Stupid Question Time:
How in the world do you play PBEM? :undecide:

About how to start a PBEM game: In the main multiplayer screen, click location so that it says "local." When you click "host," one of the game options will be PBEM.

I have a question of myself. When I try loading a saved game in multiplayer, so that I can continue a multiplayer game, I can't select the option to have the other player continue on, even though he/she was in the staging window (and I launched with him/her ready), and I also had load game as the option in the staging window. Anybody else have this problem and/or know how to solve it?

Edit: Never mind about my question; I think my MP partner, wwhill, figured it out. I'll edit this post again if it works out.

I do not have PTW but this is for a friend, how do you start a hotseat game?

Wanna Play tot:
e-Mail : erez_b22@walla.co.il

Originally posted by Nuclear Master
I do not have PTW but this is for a friend, how do you start a hotseat game?

You go to multiplayer.

Make sure it is in the Local Games part, not Internet.

When you get to the screen that you use right before you launch into the game, you can see many options. One of the first options on the left is what game type. Click it and click Hotseat.

Than, go to the player slots and add human player twice.

Play.

Is there a way to save and continue a game in multiplayer LAN game?

Yes. Have the host save it regularly and than load it from the same way you started. Except pick Load Game and make sure your the right civs ;)

tnx!

Does somebody know the port(s) which are requiert for playing PTW online?
thx
ok have them already

Should I have installed PTW or sth else to play a multiplayer game?
I have Civilization III 1.07 or sth like that.
And I dont see an option like Multiplayer game.
Can you help?

you need the addon "play the world"
its the multiplayer addon

Me and my brother like to play hotseat but i made a mod of the world with all the major civs on it i want to play hot seat with my brother but it only allows 8 players is there a way to change how many players in multiplayer.

Question:
Why can´t i host multiplayer games even if i m sure it´s not the router or the firewall that causes the trouble? All players drop as soon as i proceed to the Settings Menu.

Answer:
You prolly have more then 1 Networkcard installed. Just disable all networkcards not needed to host the game. So you should end up with only 1 (probably for ur dsl connection) networkcards.

read more:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=78500

hey i was gonna buy the thing with multiplayer should i buy it ?

how do you play ''play by email'' game and can you really do that?

Whate is the address to the site that one must register in order to play ladder games?

Thanks.

pbem is just a game were you save it then email to the next person and that goes on, it makes game very very long

Whate is the address to the site that one must register in order to play ladder games?

Thanks.
I hope I'm not advertising but it's just so widespread:

http://www.myleague.com/civ3players

Howdy guys.
First time posting here but this website changed my life ^^

So my question, a stupid one of course:
I can't find anywhere how to add a personal map for a hotseat game. As far as I noticed you can only play a random map.
Is there any way to play a hand-made Earth map for example?

Have a nice day :king:

You should be able to save the map into your scenario folder (for PTW or c3c, whichever one your using for hotseat) and load it for the mutliplayer setup screen. Should be options of Load Game, Load Scenario. Pick load scenario and pick your map.

Than have fun :D

So, I'm trying to play multiplayer game with my friend, but it just doesn't work :( . I found these instructions:

Playing a Direct IP game

To Join a game: You must know the IP adress of the host (yes I know it), and the following port must be opened
2302 (DirectPlay - UDP)

To Host a game: The following ports must be opened and your ISP and Firewall must allow you to act as server on these ports.
13139 (Custom UDP Pings)
6500 (Query Port)
2302 (DirectPlay - UDP)


I really don't know anything about these things, so could somebody explain step by step how to open those ports? Thank you.

When you play by email, do each player have a separate CIV or are you both playing both CIVs?

i am having civ 3 PTW v 1.27..
previously i wasn't able to play singleplayer on winXP because of refresh rate reasons of monitor which was solved by writing Refresh= "comp ref. rate" .
but now i am unable to host(neither join) a multiplayer game...i have disabled the firewall also...
we r having a LAN out here and my friends are able to host the game...dunno wht is problem with me..
plz helllllllp

Recently I was playing with my brother over his LAN. When waiting to join his game I noticed other people's chat messages popping up on my screen. Is this normal or was someone hacking in his computer? When you play on a LAN does the game still connect to Gamespy and let other people in? I found it very strange...

it might be a bug but it is normal.

I tried this and was greatly impressed that it can be done, but we could not work out how to save the game - does anyone know how to do this - I have C111, PTW and also Conquest, so I assume I have all the right stuff, went into Games Archade etc...

Many thanks

If this has been covered I did not see it here - although someone said it was possible...

:)

@Marcus Sentius: Look here and see if this solves your problem: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35588

I was wondering, when you are playing a PBEM and go on vacation (and don't have civ access), what should you do?

tell the other players maybe?

Here you :

1/ warn the others in advance and tell them for how long.
2/ find a replacement (an ally player (in WWII Pacific PBEM scenario for instance), somebody out of this PBEM or have them accept the game will stall for a while.

Around XMas or during summer holidays it is pretty normal to see games stall so no need to worry about replacements as most people are in the same case.

I hope you can find time to help us. A friend and I are fairly experienced Civ 3 gamers and decided to try out the email version of WW2 Pacific as our first multiplayer experience. Questions:
1) Why can the Americans move the first turn and not the second as opposed to the solo game?
2) Is there a playback function so we can see the other persons move?
3) What level should we put the AI for the other powers?
4) Any other PBEM differences we should know about this scenario?
Gonzojoe

I have CIV 3 Complete. My question is how do you continue a saved Multi-Player game? I know there must be a trick to it as when I save it as the host it saves fine, however when I go to load it in Multi-Player it tells me I cannot load a game whyle in a multi-player game so I left the game, went to the main menu and selected load however when I do it that way the save becomes single player and I have no options to select my civ or anything ... am I doing something wrong? What happened is me and a friend had a long game going (both running Civ III Complete) we saved then quit. We are trying to load our MP game. We were playing LAN so can anyone help???? We really don't want to start over if we can avoid it.

I have problem with playing civ3c multiplayer games. I have 1.22 civ3c. And whenever I or enyone else makes host (server), when we join it it says "Attempting to connect to multiplayer game" and it coundowns from 20 to 1 message disappears and shows again and it countdowns from 20 to 1. And all over again. When civ3c was v1.15 there was no problems and we could play normally. Help please help heeeeeellllllllllppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi,

I created a scenario with 14 player and 2 human players.
Then I launch conquest. Select multiplayer, hotseat, I get the multiplayer set up screen, I load the scenario I just created and there is only 8 slots availables. Does it means that a multiplayer scenario can't have more than 8 civs ??

Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

indeed multiplayer limits you to 8 players.

I have problem with playing civ3c multiplayer games. I have 1.22 civ3c. And whenever I or enyone else makes host (server), when we join it it says "Attempting to connect to multiplayer game" and it coundowns from 20 to 1 message disappears and shows again and it countdowns from 20 to 1. And all over again. When civ3c was v1.15 there was no problems and we could play normally. Help please help heeeeeellllllllllppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same problem as Elmir.
And it doesn't seem to be a firewall problem because i have an old PC with Windows 98 which works fine, but my new PC, with Windows XP has the same problem as Elmir.
I have the same firewall on both (zonealarm) with the same settings...
Does anybody have an idea about this problem?
Thanks

This is just some idle wondering, but in a mutliplayer hotseat game, I often find that faction distribution is off.

For example, I attempted to play the Medieval Conquest with a friend on Hotseat, and the Burgundians were nowhere to be found. Is this normal?

The same thing happens when I load up TAM; we're forced to choose between only a smattering of the total factions available.

If you are playing the multiplayer versions of those mods, the number of civs will be reduced (and in theorry rebalanced) usually to 8 because 8 is the multiplayer maximum.

I have just set up a network, and would love to play some Civ 3 on it, but the asinine way they made this game rears it's head, and I guess I have to get Play the World to do so. Right?

Anyhow, if I buy PTW, and have Civ 3 installed on the second computer, is that good enough? Basically, I would hope you don't need to buy two copies of something that should have been included in the original game, in the first place.

If the answer to that is no, I know this is illegal, but, will a burnt copy work? I have no qualms about doing that, with the ripoff tactics this game maker employed.

Thanks. Bill

dont buy ptw, buy c3c.

I have a question regarding hotseat... I've found this problem with both Civ3 Gold and Civ3 Complete:

When my friend and I create a hotseat game we set up the players as follows:
-Me
-My friend
-Computer x 6

Whenever we play, my friend is able to see the other civ's movements and actions (like attacks), but I am not. I NEVER see when another civ (friendly, enemy, or barbarian) moves or attacks my units, even when they are within my territory. As you can imagine it's quite frustrating to get to my next turn and find out that half my army's gone without seeing any battles. I checked the options and I made sure to check "show friend moves" and "show enemy moves" so it should work right? I also made sure that whenever I loaded the game, I loaded it in multiplayer and not from the main menu. Maybe it's a problem with the ordering of the players? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

you won't see the enemy moves in pbem or hotseat. it's just how it is.

Wow... That sucks...

My friend however, can see enemy moves so I don't understand it...

I would suspect its something to do with what player he is and the whole turn thing starting over.

Whoever has the last turn in the cycle sees all the AI moves that one would normally see in a single-player game. One more thing they could have done better for PBEM . . .

In a PBEM, who do you set the level of the AI?
Is it true that, by default, the AI is at regent level?

What if you eliminate all of the human players in a game but not all of the AIs? Does it continue on as if it was just single-player?

I do think the default is regent. I don't know how to change it, though I think if you use the editor you can do so (something I've never gotten into, though plenty of others on the forum have).

And yes, you can have only one human player and it will play just like a PBEM game, which allows you to do some things you otherwise couldn't do (I think like playing Eastern or Western Rome in Fall of Rome).

How do you cancel a deal without declaring war on someone? I have "always renegotiate" on but it doesn't come up after 20 turns, and if I try to click on a deal on the diplomacy screen, it cancels all deals and I'm suddenly at war. (Conquests 1.22f if it matters.)

This is specifically multiplayer?

Yes, specifically multiplayer. Even though I have "always renegotiate deals" turned on, none of my deals with AIs or Humans has a (##) next to them. Could this be because the host of the game has the setting turned off?

honestly I couldn't tell you, though I've had problems renegotiating deals on multiplayer. A Screen Shot of the Day was one I turned in with 3 peace treaties up with one civ ;)

Does anyone know where to get some good multiplayer maps, that are not too unbalanced?

the people at www.civ3duelzone.com (I think) make good pbem maps.

I am sure you guys get this ever once in a while as it seems to be the most unanswerable tech question found in any Civ3 forum.

In a LAN (or internet) game, is there anyway to increase or disable the time-out feature that displays "waiting for player" and has a 60 second counter. At 30 seconds the "drop player" button appears. We have never been able to finish a game due to this timer. I have tried every tip listed in every popular forum to avoid this problem: Small maps, turn off animations, update all drivers, kill background processes, disable unused services, add memory, buy a faster computer, buy a faster NIC, you name it... I have done it. We have run this game on two systems used for drag racing and no matter how fast the system cpu, LAN speed still... the problem sits there like an angry blister.

The only solution I can see is actually increasing the value of the lag out timer, or disabling it completely.

So, how do I do that?

Sea Trade in multiplayer and specifically pbem ... probably related to land trade as well ...

What happens if player A can see the route to player B, but player B hasn't cleared the route yet?

Can both players trade ... or only player A ??

Both players have harbours built ... sharing maps is not an option :(

I want to start a PBEM with 7 humans + 18 AI's.

However, when I pass the initial menu there is ONLY the 7 Countries (humans) and the others are erradicated from the map. How can I do to still have those AI playing?

8 is the total number of civilizations permitted in muliplayer games :(

8 is the total number of civilizations permitted in muliplayer games :( :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I am sure you guys get this ever once in a while as it seems to be the most unanswerable tech question found in any Civ3 forum.

In a LAN (or internet) game, is there anyway to increase or disable the time-out feature that displays "waiting for player" and has a 60 second counter. At 30 seconds the "drop player" button appears. We have never been able to finish a game due to this timer. I have tried every tip listed in every popular forum to avoid this problem: Small maps, turn off animations, update all drivers, kill background processes, disable unused services, add memory, buy a faster computer, buy a faster NIC, you name it... I have done it. We have run this game on two systems used for drag racing and no matter how fast the system cpu, LAN speed still... the problem sits there like an angry blister.

The only solution I can see is actually increasing the value of the lag out timer, or disabling it completely.

So, how do I do that?


This is exactly what I want to know, too. Anybody?

If two computers are using the same CD key will we not be able to play together? Or is the CD key only used for installation purposes?

This is exactly what I want to know, too. Anybody?
We had this problem in my group. We tried all of the intial fixes (turn off anti-laising, download new drivers etc.). None of this worked and we narrowed it down to one guy's computer who had (1) the bare minimum of RAM (256M) and (2) low bandwidth due to spyware and cookies. Once he added another 512M RAM and cleaned that junk off, we have ran smooth and clear. Good luck.

I'm playing on a Window XP but when I try to set up a hotseat game, my computer freezes and I have to hard crash it; even alt-control-delete won't clear the screen.

I'm playing Conquests with the last patch installed.

I've turned my McAfee firewall off and the program still freezes up my computer. I'm playing on a Pentium 4 CPU with 256 MB of RAM (Dude, I got a Dell), so I don't think I should be having any system problems. What else should I be looking at?

I'm playing an PBEM and I strongly suggest 'foul play' on behalf of a player.

So my question is this: is it possible to 'cheat' by altering the .sav files? Like giving it's own nation more units or increasing the experience level of our own units?

I must say I am quite sad about this 'cause I was enjoying the PBEM very much... and now I'm just :sad:

I have been going on in my mind over and over again the possible ways for the player to do the amazing turnaround he did... but it seems to be too much 'over the top' to be true...

Hi I'm a newbie, at multiplayer, but still using civ III, yet cannot find how to get into a online multiplayer with civIII players... please any other players? am going thru the faq, but am a zulu warrior keen to play asap in realtime.

I have a question.

My friend and I only have Civ 3 the Original, not the expansion packs. Is there a mod or something we can use to play via LAN?

^No, you cannot play multiplayer without the Play the World expansion pack. There is no mod or code or anything, at least that I know of...

However, you can just order the expansion pack (legally!) in some online store or something like that. It shouldn't cost you more than $20, and that would be way too much already...

Thank you.

I would LOVE a play by email game....I recommend you go get Civ3complete, which has both expansions (Play the World plus Conquests), the latest 1.22 patch, plus a ton of maps. I found the entire cd at the supermarket recently for £6 (about $12) ...and yeah, I've had civ3 a while, but I decided to get a spare copy, and at that price it was a bargain!

In multiplayer I have this frusterating thing where I can't seem to tell a unit to move and attack at the same time. I have to move the unit, then the game switches to the next unit, and I have to quickly move the map back and reactivate the unit in order to do the attack before that unit gets attacked. Any way to disable that?

Likewise with workers, I move a worker to a square to work it, but the focus moves onto the next unit before I can choose a worker action.

Check box in preferences - "do not auto-select units in multiplayer"

is there a chat log in Civ3 multiplayer online?

I cant find it and I cant find any information on one existing. :(

In a pbem I'm playing units that are lost doesn't show at thye end of turn. They're simply gone when you open next save and you have no idea what happened. Well, some idea maybe but you can't be sure. Is there a way to change the settings in mid-play to fix this?

In a pbem I'm playing units that are lost doesn't show at thye end of turn. They're simply gone when you open next save and you have no idea what happened. Well, some idea maybe but you can't be sure. Is there a way to change the settings in mid-play to fix this?

No. That's why you have to write/send reports of your own military actions and ask for the same from your opponents.

No. That's why you have to write/send reports of your own military actions and ask for the same from your opponents.

Thing is that when I was turnplayer in mtdg's I would see for example barb attacks after I hit space. This time the barbies will attack w/o showing at the end of turn.

No one have an idea about this?

The barbarians move after all human players, so only the last player in the turn order gets to see them - everyone else has to guess what happened.

OK, tnx Cham. IIRC both KISS and Gong have been last in the turn and that would explain my confusion about this. In our pbem I'm first on deck.

Hi, just wondering if it is possible to have more than 8 players in a multiplayer game? Sorry if it's already been asked :s

Nope, sorry. :( I wish there was too. (badly)

Hi, is there an IP Ban on multiplayer? I know there are in other games.

What i want to do is ban someone from my games because they join, and on the first turn swears at everyone then leaves. Major Annoyance. Worst part is when we rehost, he comes on by with a different nick and does the same thing. So i was wondering if there was an IP ban option so i can ban him for good.

Hi, is there an IP Ban on multiplayer? I know there are in other games.

What i want to do is ban someone from my games because they join, and on the first turn swears at everyone then leaves. Major Annoyance. Worst part is when we rehost, he comes on by with a different nick and does the same thing. So i was wondering if there was an IP ban option so i can ban him for good.Unfortunately, there isn't one. Either you join the Ladder league or just keep on bootin the sorry a$$hat.:lol:

Hi.
Is there any way to remove the use of strategic resources?
With that I mean that I want to be able to build for example /swordmen without iron/bombers without oil/ and so on.

Im playing LAN-game with civ3c.

i would imagine if you both use the same usermod that would work fine.

Nvm :P !!!

Are there people, who would like to play a multiplayer game only once a week (preferably at the weekend, at about 19:30 UTC) and for no longer than 70-80 Min.?

I am a serious guy and would stick to it.

Some information about myself:
- I'm a noob at multiplayer games (not so regarding PCs and Civ)
- I play civ since the first version (Including both CTP versions and SMAC)
- After CivII I abondoned trying to win on the higher levels and started playing just for fun only on monarch.
- I'm an absolutely fair player and expect the same from the 'opponents' or 'game mates' (As you guessed, I'm not a native speaker).
- For me the fun during the game is more important than the moment the game is won or winning the game at all.
- I'm not a conqueror, though conflicts are welcome at times
- I would like to make up the rules for the game together with the other participants

My preferences, which are not fix but 100% negotiable (as I just stated before):
- Standard maps or smaller
- 80% ocean coverage
- old planet
- I modded my conquests .biq file (I have a copy of the orig.) to be able to play without civ specific abilities and start without any tech. If I had the time and endurance I would have removed the UUnits too.
- I find that wonders spoil the game.

It's just a question. I haven't prepared anything and I won't be able to start a game within the next two weeks.

i have a question how do we join a multiplayer game :confused:

I have a major problem. When I go to start a multiplayer PBEM game, the game starts to load, and freezes when it gets to placing locations. It does this whether I choose a random map or a scenario one.

I'm selecting 2 player civs and 6 AI civs when I do this, using version 1.22, and not using anything funky. I've reinstalled the game 3 times already.
Recently I completely uninstalled it, turned the computer off, switch the computer back on and installed it all, and I still have the problem, even though my version is still 1.22. What's causing this bug?

When i play multiplayer, the computer always pick what to build. Is there anyway to stop the autobuild and instead recieving the dialoquebox where the computer asks what to build?

Nope. :(

It also does this for research. The best way to monitor it is at the beginning of your turn, watch the upper left hand corner of the screen to seee if any cities created a building. Remember only cities that created buildings and check them first thing. Cities building units, you dont have to worry about because the new active unit it just built will bring your attention to the city itself. ANytime a unit becomes active on a city tile, I go ahead and check the city screen. I know its not a big help, and you may already be aware of all of this but its all I got to offer. :(

Thanks for the help. Weird that the game doesn't have an option for the autobuild!

I have Civ 3 Complete. DSL internet. When I go the multiplayer "Lobby", I can see activity and chat with others, but when I host a game it doesn't show up in the list of games. I have a Zone Alarm firewall, and told it to allow Civ 3, but still no luck. Can someone help me answer the question?

Thanks.

Do you use a router?

Can you route DSL?

Yes, I have a router. Don't know much about routing save for connecting it to my computer. It's an Actiontech M1000, used with Qwest (phone co.). Thanks for your quick response, Flevance. What's my next move?

Well, I used a D-Link and couldn't get it figured out myself.

This (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=41540) gave me a couple ideas to try but didn't fix the problem. I don't know if you can do it but if I go to host a game I just hook the internet straight into the computer. I haven't been able to figure out how to open ports yet for my router though. :(