Advice on playing Civ 3

I bought Civ 3 when it came out in 2001 and was immediately impressed with the improvements made since Civ 2. However, I can not enjoy playing it and have done so rarely prefeering Civ2 because of the following reason.

Production of units, improvements, and wonders take way too long to build. This makes the game completely unejoyable. It is taking over 50-100 turns to build Wonders and I am at 50 remaining turns or more and another Civ has finished it. These problems increase the larger I build my empire. Even a Forbidden Palace does not fix the problem for far away cities. It just make no sense to me, that my capital city even at size 12 takes way too long to build things. Corruption is high even in the capital city. Could the cities automanagement be responsibile? What can be done to bring this back to normal? Even as the city expands in size, instead of utilizing trees, it cuts them down and the production shields are only avaliable for that turn

I have the same problem with money. I can broker agreements, and make trades but even if I am not exchanging money with other civilizations, I can not make a profit of more than 20 gold per turn without harming my scientific research and/or enterainment. I would assume some of this would have to do with the research facilities in my cities, but again even my large cities take too long to build libraries, universities...etc.

Any help of improving the gameplay would help...If I am having this much trouble with Civ 3, I can't imagine the problems Civ 4 will give me

JT

First off... welcome to CFC!

Your questions are ... a bit general. Are you playing "Vanilla" CivIII, Play the World, or Conquests? There are some important differences...

As far as wonders go, they're supposed to take a long time to build... and can generally be built only in your more productive cities.

I am curious as to why corruption is high in your capitol. Unless you're in communism, that should not be the case.

One key to making your cities productive is your use of workers. Worker management is extremely important in CivIII (all versions). The comment about chopping down trees suggests that you are automating your workers; which is nearly always a bad idea.

Great ways to improve your game:

• Read the War Academy on this site.
• Surf the Succession Games. Lurk the threads, especially the training game threads. I'm sure GK2 is still around. Though its a real tome, there's a lot of good stuff in there.
• Post saved games here, with specific questions. There are several players who will download your game and offer insights and suggestions.

Original Version...

Ah automation may be the problem I guess, I never had a problem automating in Civ 2, but this may be a whole different ball game...production seems to be the issue when I play..it seems that I can't get a higher production than 8 shields out of my capital city before Industralization...I think what has bothered me the most is that with Civ 3 the further you get from your capital, production values are lower, and it makes absolutely no sense that if you build a new city and it has no connection to your capital you are forced to start with Warriors...in a 20th century society that is absurd, but I guess it is how the designers chose to make the game...

I'll post a save game for some further advice.

Thanks.

JT

InfamousJT said:

...production seems to be the issue when I play..it seems that I can't get a higher production than 8 shields out of my capital city before Industralization...

Click to expand...

Ah! Okay, we're getting somewhere now. This is apparently one of those things that differs pretty dramatically between CivIII and C2.

For the moment, here's your mantra: Mine Green, Irrigate Brown. Roads are seldom Wrong. (There are times when you want to irrigate green and mine brown, but this mantra will get you to a point that you can improve your game further...)

...it makes absolutely no sense that if you build a new city and it has no connection to your capital you are forced to start with Warriors

Click to expand...

You need to check out how trade connections and strategic resources work in CivIII. It's obviously different.

For example... take Iron. You must connect Iron by building a road to it. If you have roads connecting iron to a city, that city can build swordsmen. If that city is NOT connected to you capitol, you cannot build swordsmen in your capitol. Roads are the beginning of your "Trade Network". Other things that can connect your trade network include harbors and airports.

I look forward to seeing a saved game. That will let me (or others) take screenshots to show you what I (we) see in your game.

I'm guessing you haven't patched the game (the final version is 1.29). I believe corruption was lowered in patches.

I think I downloaded the final patch today...I downloaded a patch when it first came out, but one difference I noticed with that patch was that it eliminated the option of keeping a city of size 1, it was automatically destroyed like in Civ 2...I remember reading in the manual that Civ 3 was supposed to give you the option, and if I recall (it's been a few years), the first patch eliminated the option the first version gave you...I hope this patch significantly eliminates corruption. Even though I have been able to win the game, it frustrate me that when I built or captured cities on a seperate continent it seemed virtually impossible for those cities to ever produce anything other 1 or 2 shields because the rest went to corruption (even with the forbidden palace)...

I guess Civ 2 made me lazy because I just got used to automating settlers/engineers...from what I am now getting, the automation seems to be screwing up my production??

I do understand trade, I just think it doesn't make any sense that in a highly industalized era that a new/captured city would not have access to some resources...ie:The USA would not have a colony defending itself with spears...I think that was one criticism I read about the Barbarians was that 20th century "barbarians" would not ride horses..etc...one suggestion I read was making them terrorists, but I think that would definitely ruin the spirit of the game...

I am posting a saved game...I think I can still win...

JT

Yes, do patch to v1.29f so that other players can open your saves to make suggestions. The patch is available on this site.

There actually are ways to use corruption to your advantage (though this works much better in the Conquests expansion) by creating specialists in your distant towns to do little but produce extra gold and science.

As others have said, roads are of key importance and you must control what your workers do yourself, adding much power to your gameplay.

Good luck!

edit: Looks like I was still writing while you just posted. Your new cities...both native and captured...will have access to your resources when connected to your trade network...roads, harbors or airports.

Workers are probably the most important unit in the game, keeping you connected, so build lots of them...1.5 to 2 per city. If you move to another island or continent, you'll need to build harbors right away to connect. These can be rushed if necessary and if you have the gold to do it.

It's telling me the sav file is too large (1.85) to upload...should I zip it?

InfamousJT said:

It's telling me the sav file is too large (1.85) to upload...should I zip it?

Click to expand...

You could zip it, but I'd use a manual save (CTL-S), because those files are much smaller than the auto-save files.

ah okay...

How do I know if the attatchemnt was uploaded

InfamousJT said:

How do I know if the attatchemnt was uploaded

Click to expand...

There are 2 ways of uploading attachments. The easiest (and the one I use) is Manage Attachments. Click on that, browse to your save file (double-clicking to get it), click on upload. When it's finished uploading, you'll get a message to close that window and it should be attached to your post. You won't be able to see it there when "previewing" your post, but should be there when you have submitted your reply.

The other way is through a link at the bottom of the page..."Upload Files" I think. After uploading you have to insert the URL in a link for it to show up in your reply. I've done it once, but can't recall the exact steps. Someone else could probably explain it better.

I did both, but I can't see where to access the file here in the forum...so I'm uncertain....

If you just want to attach a sav file, it is easier to use the Manage Attachments option just below the message box.

Once you have done this, just browse in your computer, select and upload the file and wait for it to be uploaded (see attachment for image of this). When it is done, close the manage attachments box and it will be attached at the bottom of your post. Note that it won't appear in the message box, it can be seen to be attached by looking in the attach files section just below it.



If you want to post multiple images that appear in the text without people having to click on the attachments at the bottom, then use Upload File as gmaharriet says. I'll try and post a link for this in a while.

If this doesn't help, please let me know how far you get before encountering problems and I'll try and offer additional assistance.

I have previously directed people to a post in the SG forum but the system has changed a little over the past two years and so I've made an attempt to give up-to-date instructions on how to use Upload File. Please let me know if it is of any use or alternatively if it can be improved and I'll try to make it clearer.

1. On advanced reply rather than quick reply, click on Upload File at the bottom of the page.



2. Browse your computer for the file you want to upload and then click on Upload!



3. Wait a few seconds until a new screen appears.



4. Click on View Current Upload Folder# and you should see a number of files including the file you've just uploaded.

Right-click on the link to this file and select Copy Link Location (or the equivalent for your browser)



5. Go back up to the message box.



Click on Insert Link for sav files or Insert Image for pictures (!) and then right-click and paste the URL of your file location you've just copied.



5b. If you are posting a save file (or a link), you can change the text highlighted to read whatever you want so that your post will show 'Save' (for example) rather than 'http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/upload...' but don't alter the ' part!



6. If you want to check before posting, click on Preview Post. It will show what you post will look like!



I hope that this helps you out.

InfamousJT said:

I guess Civ 2 made me lazy because I just got used to automating settlers/engineers...

Click to expand...

not so much that ... the real story is that civ III was made much harder because they learned just how good players can get ... so they decided to make a real challenge. I've given the ai a 200 turn headstart on deity civ II and won more than once. there are many players here who could do the same though they may not have thought about it to give it a try. granted to do so requires every exploit in the book and a fair amount of luck.