Realism Issues with Earth Maps and Civilization III in general.

[KevinLancaster]

Right now, I'm playing Rhye's of Civilization for Civilization III Conquests, and one thing I hate is that the AI goes to settle Siberia. I feel that the problem with world maps in general is that the AI tries to go on a settling spree and they walk across massive expanses of land using Right of Passage agreements to settle one city on the other side of the map, instead of colonizing like they did in reality. Has anyone tried to control this aspect of the AI's behaviour in their mod?

Another issue with trying to play a realistic game is that the Native American nations aren't nearly as backward as they were in real life, allowing them to remain in existence all the way to the modern age (though I know that's more for balanced game-play), while the Americans start with handicap in technology and trade that means they never get as powerful as they did in real life. Has anyone ever tried technologically crippling the Native American civilizations (perhaps through disabling technology trading) or giving the Americans free techs in a later era (maybe even their own version of the Great Library to boost their power)?

I know the Civilization III modding community isn't nearly as lively as it was 5 years ago, but it surprises me that no one has tried making another realistic, but fun-to-play mod that isn't too excessive in detail since Rhye's of Civilization. The accessibility of Civilization is one of the reasons I enjoy it compared to games like Europa Universalis. Although I could try to make a mod myself, I never got too in-depth with Civ3Edit and it almost feels hopeless modding for Civilization III since it is such an old (but enjoyable) game with a declining player base. Can any of the modders still around comment on these issues?

 

[Balthasar]

Kev,

You need to do more research. There are lot of mods/scenarios with world maps with changed AI behavior in the database. Happy hunting.

The demise of the forum has been predicted for years, yet we've actually picked up a bit lately, as we transition from Cool to Cult. Creations are less frequent, but that's usually offset by exceptional quality, and lots of mods are still being supported by their makers. The leaderheads recently posted by Shirokibbure and the WWI Units posted by Imperator1961 should certainly allay fears that 'nothing ever gets made here anymore', and they're both eye-popping excellent. Have you seen Kyriakos' cities? They actually shine on a map. Meanwhile Pounder and Stico are working on combining their considerable talents making ancient cities, Zubareva is experimenting with unit-settlements, and Grandraem just did some outstanding Native North American Citizens and Specialists. I recently did some mediterranean crops that looked nice. That's just a sampling, so easy on the 'declining' stuff. Even if we end up doing this for each other, it'll look so good that it will make you cry.

 

[ShiroKobbure]

Play TETurkan's Test of Time mod. If it weren't for this mod I probably wouldn't have been so into Civ 3. I think that the lastest version 1.93 is still made for PTW, but its still really good. And usually the native american civs are still far behind the rest of the world. The AI still builds cities in the middle of Africa or in Antarctica during the medieval period tho.

http://www.civfanatics.net/~teturkhan/downloads/tet1.93-update.exe

The modding community is still alive, it isn't updated regularly but usually people upload large packs. Also, if you want to help out, with some interesting mods or if you have any talent making units or heads or even just props, we can use you.

 

[Ozymandias]

Aside from the excellent screeds above, some simple playing around with Terrain should do the trick -- i.e., no Cities in Desert, Tundra, Mountains, Swamp, Desert, or Forest (that's right: make the little SOB Worker sprites clear the land!) That should help.

Best,

Oz

 

[KevinLancaster]

Ozymandias:
Well, as far as I know Rhye put that into his mod, and the AI still travels across the continent to settle one tile of grassland surrounded by swamps.

ShiroKobbure:
Thanks, I'll try out that mod when I have time.

 

[Mithadan]

Whenever I find something about a mod I don't quite like, I either mod it myself or start my own mod! It started out with me trying to tweak "The Balancer" mod and then "DyP," and now I'm working on my own mod -- maybe an hour or two every three to four months. Not exactly the fastest rate to churn out a product, but I'm doing it for myself! Maybe in another ten years I'll post it in all its glory...

 

[KevinLancaster]

I just realized one of the problems with the AI is that even if you change the price of settlers it will cripple itself by building them because it has an insane desire to expand, and therefore to solve this problem settler building should be disabled and they should be auto-produced. But besides CCM, are there any other mods (preferably mature) that have a auto-production system?

 

[Moosezilla]

I can't think of any off the cuff, but CCM, is mature enough, having gone beta to biq 1.7. Civinator promises an earth map soon. The Earth map I tried it on only gave me 24 civs and bunched them. Perhaps I can get around to placing all 31 civs on the map, and get approval to upload.

 

[Civinator]

I can't think of any off the cuff, but CCM, is mature enough, having gone beta to biq 1.7. Civinator promises an earth map soon.

Hi Moosezilla, I don´t have promised the CCM Earth map soon. Those who have analyzed the SOE-map know it is a new kind of doing maps for Civ 3. Additionally the cities of that map are in the correct places with their correct names, while it dont bothers what civ holds them. The cities are not preplaced civ 3-cities as it is in TETurkan (with the problem of very different starting sizes of the Civs).

There was a modder whom I explaned some of these features and how to realize them properly for C3C. Unfortunately when he finished the map after getting explaned and re-explaned some settings, he posted, he gives credit for everything to himself. Therefore here is no link and no name as the way he posted it, in my eyes was a shame.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Deleted.