Still crazy after all these years...

I started playing CivIII just after it came out in 2001. I am still enjoying it after all these years.

What prompted me to post this is a game I just played.

[I have a highly modded game- I can build HE with Literature and it provides a Leader every so often - thanks Templar x ]

I was on a (small) Continents map with the Dutch and the Aztecs on my continent. I was well on my way to Military Tradition - just got Gunpowder - and I realized I had not used my armies at all. The Dutch were next to me and they had their Swiss Mercs. With my game luck I'm not likely to kill a SM with less than a cav army so I was not going to try that one.

I had spent a good bit of down time deciding that I needed to build a couple of Caravels so that I could take an army w/ 2 cavs - as soon as I got them -and three more cavs to a Russian outpost city. it was going to take some planning and basic logistics to get it all to happen within a reasonable time of getting MT. so... I'm fussing and planning and moving and all that to be ready for the big event when it all came together.

Almost like a gift from the RNG gods the Dutch attacked with a single MDI and my armies were able to win a battle. No need to transport and build and all that there stuff. I even managed to take out a few SM's with my Ancient Cavalry armies so I won the day there.

My point is that I am still getting my bang for the buck from the game. I love the building up part and I love the bit of figuring out where and what can happen.

I'm still playing at Regent but I am still enjoying the time I spend playing. You can't really complain about a game that you still enjoy 14 years later. I would also guess that the continuing effort of this forum proves the value of the game.

Just a tip of the hat to a great game.

Same story over here! The planning and developement of strategic plans still are highly enjoyable and interesting after all those years. Civ for me is a game like chess: still not boring even after ~2000 years...

Lanzelot said:

Same story over here! The planning and developement of strategic plans still are highly enjoyable and interesting after all those years. Civ for me is a game like chess: still not boring even after ~2000 years...

Click to expand...

That is exactly how I look at it- a game of chess. The board is generally the same, the rules are the same, the strategies are the same, and even the attempted execution is the same......But no two games are ever the same.

Long live Civ 3!

This game is like poker. You can play for 30 years and it's still fun every time you sit down for a new game.

I would absolutely love to see Firaxis do a Civ III remake, like they did with Sid Meier's Pirates! (another game you can play forever), starting with the exact core Civ III gameplay, modernize the graphics, improve the UI from 14 years of play testing, fix known bugs (I'm talking to you, Mr. SGL and your Scientific Golden Age ), and make some game play improvements as appropriate. I guarantee it would outsell Civ IV and Civ V combined

HardCode said:

This game is like poker. You can play for 30 years and it's still fun every time you sit down for a new game.

I would absolutely love to see Firaxis do a Civ III remake, like they did with Sid Meier's Pirates! (another game you can play forever), starting with the exact core Civ III gameplay, modernize the graphics, improve the UI from 14 years of play testing, fix known bugs (I'm talking to you, Mr. SGL and your Scientific Golden Age ), and make some game play improvements as appropriate. I guarantee it would outsell Civ IV and Civ V combined

Click to expand...

I absolutely agree with this.

darski said:

[I have a highly modded game- I can build HE with Literature and it provides a Leader every so often - thanks Templar x ]

Click to expand...

you´re welcome. but i do not have the slightest idea what my contribution to this actually was...
t_x

Hey darski, good to hear you still having fun.

Yeah, I guess I'm still crazy. I never could get into the later Civilization games. Civ III forever--unless Civ VI is actually an improvement.

Yes i agree with you guys. I have CIV IV Complete, but i find it very difficult to play, because of the micro managment, it requires a lot of attention and work to get good results, makes game unenjoyable. And CIV 5 isn't CIV game for me at all, it's something else =) I still spend my freetime playing CIV 3C and i'm still enjoying after so many years.

I keep coming back to CIV III every now and then, it's like a custom, a tradition, the game never disappoints, even after all those years.

namek0 said:

I have CIV IV Complete, but i find it very difficult to play, because of the micro managment, it requires a lot of attention and work to get good results, makes game unenjoyable.

Click to expand...

?? Civ4 requires less micro-management than Civ3... This is the only advantage of Civ4 over Civ3, that I can see. (Everything else is better in Civ3...)

• In Civ3 you have to make sure that there is no food-overrun the turn a town grows. -> Need to switch food-rich tile to a neighboring town to utilize the extra food there, as otherwise it would go waste.
• In Civ3 you have to make sure that there is no shield-overrun the turn a town produces something. -> Need to switch shield-rich tile to a neighboring town to utilize the extra shields there, as otherwise they would go waste.
• In Civ3 you have to lower the science-slider the turn a technology finishes, as otherwise the extra beakers would go waste. By reducing the science slider up to the point where the tech will still finish in 1 turn (and playing with the scientists/taxmen) you can safe the beakers and put them into your bank account.
• In Civ3 you have corruption, which as influence on city placement, location of FP and courthouses, etc.
• In Civ3 you have pollution, which also requires your attention

All these points have been "fixed" in Civ4: extra food carries over to the next growth-cycle and no longer goes waste, extra shields carry over to the next build project, extra beaker carry over to the next technology and corruption and pollution have been eliminated. So I'm very surprised that you find Civ4 to have too much MM.

(In fact: for me Civ4 was "boring", because there was not enough MM... )

If I could get C3C to install on this computer, I'd still be playing, too. As it is, I'm back to playing SMAC, so I guess it's a "good news, bad news" scenario.

The way i see it:

CIV3: I turn on shields and food automation with people management. I really don't like manually placing people in all cities, unless it has some specific function. People are always happy always producing what i want more or less.

CIV4: Automation doesn't work to keep city happy and healthy. I have to manage every title of all cities i have, and improvements gives me headaches, it takes me a lot of time to decide what improvements would give max population and shields. I don't like that new unit experience thing, it's hard to make good strategy. It requires a lot of thinking, i can't enjoy just by playing relaxed.

Summary: At the beginning of the game CIV III, usually i build mines on grassland, mountains and hills, i irrigate desert, plains, flood plains. Later, When population reaches 20 i try to make as much shields as possible to keep at least 20. With exceptions here and there. On tundra i build forests if it's within city limit. To do something similar is very hard for me on CIV 4. It's also hard for me to build a lot of cities as i struggle with gold, i began to hate those videos after building wonders, commentary on new technology, at first i seem to like it, but i got bored very fast.

The one thing i like on CIV4 is being able to select all cities that are near coast. Edit:// Oh and Baba yetu song =)

I also adore CIV 3 Aeral view =)

While i don't use fully automated workers, because they do what they want, not what i want, they are a smarter than in CIV 4, in CIV 4 they usually end up build/destroy loop. On CIV3 At the beginning of the game, i don't use any automation of workers, later just for roads/railroads building in non city limit titles and pollution cleaning.

Aabraxan said:

If I could get C3C to install on this computer, I'd still be playing, too. As it is, I'm back to playing SMAC, so I guess it's a "good news, bad news" scenario.

Click to expand...

Hi Aabraxan, SMAC was great. Have you tried Steam version C3C? What is the issue you are having? I used my old CD's on 8.1 with no issues, but no ca2, sigh. Wait SIGH.

I've never used any city or worker automation, no matter which version of CIV I play, ever. I make mistakes, learn from them and start new games, never leave it to city governors, it's a part of the game for me, part of the strategy of playing a strategy game.

daft said:

I've never used any city or worker automation, no matter which version of CIV I play, ever. I make mistakes, learn from them and start new games, never leave it to city governors, it's a part of the game for me, part of the strategy of playing a strategy game.

Click to expand...

We people are different, it's normal that we like different things. If i have 50+ cities, i guess even less, it becomes boring, to do the same all the time. Such monotonic steps i leave for computer. City improvements and city title improvements i do myself, 20+ cities i manage myself, because i want specific specialists. Technologies i do myself. It really depends.
If it were more configurable, i would assign workers to: build city title improvements depending on terrain type and city population count; exclude some map titles from automation; keep n titles between enemy (depending on visibility of course); prioritize work; - All these steps are so monotonic....
Also production queue should be a lot more configurable, like adding improvements which you can not see due to lack of other improvements, unless you cannot build first one. Making n different production queues.
Stacked units all actions should be done for all of them, and not the selected one, because virtually you select them all, and stacks in stacks would be great too.
Game rules are already configurable so that's ok.

I would be so Happy having these things on CIV III C, it would make my end of the game a lot more interesting. Having 100+ cities, 1000+ units. I love playing huge maps. But due to this, i start over, because it's too boring to do same steps again and again. I don't have that much patience.

I'll automate some of my workers for pollution cleanup when the pollution becomes problematic, otherwise I very much prefer to assign tasks myself. The human brain still far outperforms the AS in task management.

templar_x said:

you´re welcome. but i do not have the slightest idea what my contribution to this actually was...
t_x

Click to expand...

You were the one who suggested that I mod the HE with Literature and creating leaders. You suggested that when I was complaining that I couldn't get a Leader no way, no how.

Aabraxan said:

If I could get C3C to install on this computer, I'd still be playing, too. As it is, I'm back to playing SMAC, so I guess it's a "good news, bad news" scenario.

Click to expand...

I am sorry to hear this. You played this game like an old violin.

I'm still naming all my capitol cities after you and think of the great games you wrote up here.

all civilization games are like that. my favorite is still Test of Time. The only reason that i am playing Civ3 right now (beyond the fact that it is still insanely good and i missed the ability to bomb improvements) is that my ToT got itself into an EW and i needed to take a step back for awhile and replan