Returning to Civ III (Patches, Mods recommendation)

Hi, so after a few years I'm back to playing Civilization III. There is a lot in this game that the new ones just can't give me (it's not only nostalgia... I think).


So straight to the question:
Are there any unofficial patches that you can recommend me - that make the game more balanced and polished without breaking it? I saw Patch Suggestions and Patch Suggestion Lite. Are they still current or there are better ones? If they are - which one is better - the full or lite version?

Also I've been looking into playing civilization with a total conversion mod that adds a lot of stuff to the game without breaking its balance. I saw CCM, Rise and Rule and Rhye's of Civilization. Are they balanced? Is the AI good in them?

I'll be very happy to see the feedback concerning these mods and how are the players playing Civilization III now beside the vanilla.

Just use my graphics

Welcome Back.

Good Choice ,,,,,, I only play CCM now ( with slight modifications ).

There is also some interesting happenings in the C&C forums. Check out "Antal1987". .......

@Kyriakos, awesome cities you have there!

I saw a few tutorials for importing custom graphics.. can I use them together with a mods like CCM? Or there will be conflicts?

Thank you City files can be used as they are, but in a mod they have to be placed in one file for different eras, so some copy/paste work would be needed... Happy Civ3 gaming, Exalted

As for the fixes - is the Patch Suggestions the best? I saw some great researches by Antal1987 also. Does he have a pack with all his fixes?

@Kyriakos What is the recommended way of putting these new city tiles (and other terrain packs) in the game?

You have to look for a city template. I got one but i have no clue how to post it in the comments. Also I have no clue how to use it lol. There are 4 eras, and 5 cultural groups, but the template is a little short.

Is there patch/fix for faster turn calculation in modern age ?

Paulcz said:

Is there patch/fix for faster turn calculation in modern age ?

Click to expand...

The known fixes are - limit the trade network. The AI will check for every possible combination of tiles to connect each pair of cities, for each civilization or combination of civilizations with trade agreements or potential trade agreements. This can be limited by reducing the the number of harbors and airports, or removing their trade network function. Same goes for having a large number of cities connected by roads.

Paulcz said:

Is there patch/fix for faster turn calculation in modern age ?

Click to expand...

Limiting trade network as Blue Monkey describes makes - as far as I have gathered - the most significant reduction in "between-turn-time". Another thing that can increase the between-turn-time a little is if you have the parameter "NoAIPatrol" in the .ini-file set to =0 instead of =1. If you play Conquest and the parameter is missing, then the game assumes it to be =1. Setting it to =1 has the side-effect that the barbarians and AI-units stops wandering around. (watorrey described the parameter in this thread).

One more thing comes to mind - if there are a lot of units, turn off the animated moves / battles from the in-game preferences. This won't affect which units are visible - just won't make you sit through 100 trucks moving down the same road, and so on.