I have Civilization III Complete Edition version 1.22 I am running Windows 8.1 64 bit and I am trying to change the resolution to 1600x900 and have tried creating a conquests.ini file but nothing seems to work. Can anyone help me with this? Thank you. It is a download version not a STEAM version.
If you've just created a text file (using e.g. the template available on CFC), you need to make sure it's saved as a .ini file-type -- if file-extensions are invisible, just putting '.ini' in the filename won't be enough: Civ3 will see it as 'conquests.ini[.txt]' and treat it as a simple text-file. That said, you don't really
need to create an .ini file from scratch -- the game will do that the first time you run it, creating one .ini for each version of the game that you have:
- the Vanilla1.29 Civ3.ini will be in the root ...\Civ3Complete\
- the Conquests1.22 Conquests.ini will be in ...\Civ3Complete\Conquests\
- the PtW1.27 Civ3X.ini -- if your installation includes a Civ3X.exe -- will be in ...\Civ3Complete\PtW\
All you then need to do is add the necessary lines to it/them. If that's what you're trying to do, but it's still not working, the next question I'd ask is, where did you install the game? If it's in the default C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\... directory, then you may run into difficulties altering
any gamefiles, because Windows treats everything in that directory as protected.
As I understand it -- and bear in mind I'm not tech-savvy! -- if you don't have Admin privileges (and possibly even if you do), any changes you make to files in that directory don't actually get saved there, the 'new' files get saved in Windows' 'VirtualStore' instead. When you then run the game, because it's only searching for files within its own installation path, it doesn't 'see' the altered .ini file in VirtualStore, so uses the unaltered default version. (NB this VirtualStore problem may also apply to your savegames, and possibly also any additional files you try to push in there, e.g. graphics mods, etc.).
If that's the case, you can spend time messing about with user-privilege settings, or you might be better off simply uninstalling and reinstalling in a non-protected location, e.g. create a directory called C:\Users\Public\Games\..., and (re)install there instead. (I chose the second option for my new Win8.1 box -- and I've also installed CivAssistII to that directory, so that it can locate savefiles easily). Once you've done that, you should be able to alter the .ini to your heart's content...
As AJ says, you can get a 'widescreen' main-map view by adding 'KeepRes=1' to your .ini, but the unit-animations may end up looking very small. And since Civ3 was originally programmed for a 4:3 aspect ratio, all of the Advisor/Civilopedia screens
will stay in their original 1024 x 768 size. You might also like to try adding 'VideoMode=1200', which will(/should!) use the full height of your monitor, but keep the game in a 4:3 display.
If you want to have more dangerous Barbarians in Conquests, don't forget to add 'NoAIPatrol=0' to the Conquests .ini -- and I've also added 'PlayIntro=0' to skip the intro-movie.