What did you learn from Civ 3?

I learned that if England has more culture then the USA then Phillidelpia will culture flip and be an English city.

Sun Tsu's Art of War should be required reading at the junior high or high school level in my opinion... My dad gave me a copy to read when I was about 12.

boodlefoof said:

Sun Tsu's Art of War should be required reading at the junior high or high school level in my opinion... My dad gave me a copy to read when I was about 12.

Click to expand...

Excellent read. It's concepts can be extended to much more than war. A true literary and philosophical masterpiece; one of the 10 most important writings Humanity has ever produced IMHO.

One thing I should bring up, however, is that the games gave me the false impression of Iron's superiority over Bronze.

Click to expand...

No way! Have you ever run your finger along a sharpened bronze edge? Then tried the same with sharpened iron? Big difference, mate. Iron gets a lot sharper, and when you bang it into other hard things (say, another weapon in a swordfight) it will stay sharp a lot longer, and not dent as quickly either.

One thing I might have thought I learned, had I not known better than to believe it:

Democracy and Republic are different. (They are not, the civilopedia in a roundabout sort of way, admits as much. No society has ever revolted from the one to the other, as they are the same thing.) It almost seems as though the "Republic" and "Democracy" are the U.S. governed by either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. But we don't have anarchy after an election.

Click to expand...

Republic is definitively not a democracy. The population don't act directly, he could only hope that the guy who have the majority will DO what he has promised.. Some say it's an indirect democracy but it's a paradox... the power is on the hand of citizen or not, and the president actually do what he wants, it will only cost him a futur election if citizen don't like what he did. It's a delude of a democracy.

That Tejumin was a reet ugly beggar.

^Hahaha

I've learn alot, and have applied it to real life. Just the other day I asked my neighbors permission if I could come over. He said yes. Remembering what Civ has taught me, I walked up to him in his living room when he least suspected it and killed him. Now I own his comfortable abode. Unfortunetly, his neighbors are now displeased with me..

It taught me the theory of relativity...

Civ3 has taught me that I'm not an 18-year-old student any more, and that going to bed at 3am on a week night isn't necessarily a guarantee of me being lucid the next morning!

Daarkseid said:

One thing I should bring up, however, is that the games gave me the false impression of Iron's superiority over Bronze. I did some research and was surprised to discover that Bronze is superior to Iron in many respects, and was only replaced because of the fact in ancient times, getting ahold of Tin and Copper usually required that at least one of the materials be imported. Iron, on the other hand, required greater technology to use. Once this hurdle was overcome, iron became a more attractive material because it could reasonably replace Bronze in the production of weapons and tools, but was cheaper and easier to acquire.

Click to expand...

Actually, that's not quite correct. Pure iron is softer than bronze. However, iron-age people found out how to make hardened iron by heating it in charcoal and cooling it in cold water. The resulting object has a surface that is much harder than bronze. Iron is also more malleable and lighter than bronze. So, not only could they melt iron into any shape and harden it afterwards, but the result would be both harder and less heavy than bronze. That makes it much better for use in tools and weaponry.

Civ3 completely screwed up the bronze-iron model. In Civ3 bronze is available to everyone, while iron is a premium monopoly resource. Historically, exactly the opposite was true. Large empires maintained military superiority by controlling access to tin and copper. When the iron-age came about, many empires fell as they lost their superiority to barbarian neighbors who could acquire iron easily. The fall of the Hittites and the Greek "dark ages" were probably caused in part by this.

I learned that FLAK is an achronism for a hideous German word as long as a normal sentance.

I learned that the Scythians were bad business and plundered everything from Southern Russia to the borders of Egypt before being repelled. (I was curious about some of the barbarian tribes in the game). I also learned that when the Perisans invaded the Scythian controlled lands with an Army of 700,000 men, they eventually had to turn around and go home empty-handed because the Scythians offered the Persians nothing worth conquering...nothing. The Scythians didn't have cities, they simply migrated to wherever the pickings looked best and wiped out / drove out all that stood in there way (ie - Phrygia, Cimmeria, Lydia, Ururtu, Assyria...etc). The Scythians are also believed to be one of the earliest peoples to domesticate the horse.

The world is converging on secularism.

I learned quite a few things about game development from playing and writing about and even testing Civ3:

- It's not enough to add "cool stuff" to end up with a good game. A great feature that is not properly tested and implemented can often lead to disaster. Civ3 (and especially the Conquests expansion) is full of great ideas that didn't quite get balanced properly. The diplomacy system is a good example of this.

- If a game does not provide clear and easy-to-access information, players will sidestep the game and come up with their own ways to get it. The classic example is how standalone Civ3 provides no information as to how close the player is to triggering domination; as a result, within a few months there were plenty of training programs that gave this info. Clear, simple information should be provided to the player as much as possible.

- Civ3 has more exploits and loopholes than any other game I've ever come across. ROP Rape, Phony Peace Treaties, Resource Denial, ICS Abuse, Population Transfer, Infinite Drafting Exploits, Free Palace Jump, Pulling the AI's Puppet Strings... I could go on and on. Not to mention one of the most illogical scoring systems I've ever seen. Players will find where the holes are in the game and abuse them to the hilt. Hopefully future Civ game will find some of these problems and correct them before release.

- The AI is the single most important part of a strategy game. Civ3's AI is quite good - good enough to beat most people on Regent (the "even" difficulty) when they first start playing. Ultimately though, Civ3's AI is still too predictable, WAY too predictable, and that's why it can be beaten even with the crazy advantages of Deity/Sid. Future Civ games must see the AI pick from multiple valid strategies, rather than being locked in perpetually to one and only one course of action at all times.

- Finally, too much of Civ3 falls under the category of "only one right answer." If there's only one correct choice to make, you're not looking at a strategy game. A good example is how (on the higher difficulties) it is ALWAYS cheaper to buy techs than research them yourself. Or how there is one best unit in every era; swords in the Ancient Age, knights and then cavs in the middle ages, then tanks and modern armor. No variety, the same units are always the best attackers in all situations. Blah to that. A true strategy game needs to have multiple valid paths to success. Civ3 makes some strides in this regard, but still has a long way to go in other regards. A long way to go.

I could go on, but that's all that springs to mind for now. I hope all of you had as much fun playing Civ3 as I did.

Never to trust Greeks bearing gifts Espically when i am ruleing the Greeks.

I've learned that even a tiny map takes absolutely forever to play.

Amen to that Wheelock.

And LOL to the guy that talked about going to his neighbors, killing him, then taking over his house. But THEN, his neighbors got mad at you! lmfao

I learned a lot, like I thought Hoover Dam was in Hannover before reading through the civilopedia

I didn't learn this from Civ3, but I feel like pointing it out:

I'm not sure how many of you people know this, but America is not really a Democracy. Well I guess it's a form of Democracy but really it is a Republic. I guess you could call it a Representative Democracy, but its more of a Republic than a Democracy. I believe a Democratic Republic is the official term for the government in place here.

I learned that the Persians are one of the best Ancient-Age races; that the AI's really like to trespass with settlers; that an airfield rape is an excellent way to launch a huge surprise attack; that Luxuries are King for controlling unrest.....

....and that, while it's a fun game, it really doesn't mirror the real world all that well. Some of the resemblances are uncanny, however.