Advice needed - utter Civ. NOVICE!

[mikelaz]

I've never played Civ. before, (or any strategy game come to that!) because I was always too busy at work though I am an experienced PC user , (20 yrs.). I'm used to playing short games, (cards, puzzles etc.), because I've never had enough time for games like Civ. I recently took early retirement [53] and bought Civ3.

Although I can appreciate the overall aim of the game, I just can't get past first base with regard to some of the basics like how do you actually know you've lost/losing and how is the margin of victory/defeat computed. or is there a finite limit, either in turns or points? Come to that, how do you earn points? etc. etc. etc. These questions are obviously too basic for the manual!

Can anyone tell me if there's such a book as a 'Dummies Guide to Civ3' for example? All I could find was the official Prima strategy guide for the apparently ridiculous price, (well to me anyway!), of GBP45 [USD80-85] on Amazon.co.uk. I've also tried ebay with no success either. Or, do you think I'll have to bite the bullet + go with the Prima Guide?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Tomoyo]

Congratulations! You have found the ultimate treasure trove of Civ knowledge!

Welcome to CFC, too.

how do you actually know you've lost/losing

Pressing F8 should give you a set of graphs telling you some useful information concerning your score and such.

how is the margin of victory/defeat computed

You either win or you lose. The "margin or victory" is your score, which is based on a) the happiness of your citizens, b) your population, and c) your territory. I tend not to pay much attention to score because oftentimes it does not measure how well you are doing accurately.

Come to that, how do you earn points?

Points, as in score, are earned by doing well throughout the game. It is an average of your score.

By the way, a game ends at 2050AD, or 540 turns in.

 

[Abaddon]

Welcome to the world of Civ, prepare to lose yourself!

You done need a guide off Ebay, ask any questions you have here. Really, the only way to learn is through experience, play, play and play again, soon you with be Sid

 

[ybbor]

the entire prima guide is actually already on your compute, while in the game go to the upper left-hand corner of your screen and hit the square. wha-la! you know have acess to all the basics.

 

[viper275]

Welcome to CivFanatics! I don't think you need the Prima guide, it's almost completely what units and buildings do, all of which can be learned in the Civilopedia. If you want to improve your gameplay, first read these articles. It's a lot of reading, but it's worth it. Then you may want to try the Game of the Month . A new one is coming out very soon. They're hard for a new player, but Conquest class makes it easier, and you'll learn a lot even if you don't win (edit: It's on Deity. Even I couldn't beat that, but I'll learn.) And feel free to ask questions that you may have. One more thing, try a Succession Game . That's where I learned most of what I know. You can start one, and if you make it a training game you'll get some experienced players to help out.

 

[mikelaz]

If you want to improve your gameplay, first read these articles. It's a lot of reading, but it's worth it.

Thanks Viper - these articles look like just the thing I need.

One more question:

Is it possible to 'toggle' the Civ game screen between one of these articles which obviously only takes up a 'normal' portion of my monitor and the actual game screen which uses the whole of my monitor?

 

[Tomoyo]

I believe if you press the thingy between Ctrl and Alt on the left side (Sorry, I don't know what it's called) you will gain access to the bottom toolbar.

Or you could try printing the articles...

 

[TimBentley]

Alt-tab will switch between active programs.

 

[bluebox]

I recently took early retirement [53] and bought Civ3.

Welcome, Mikelaz, to cfc! Don't get me wrong, but your statement is somewhat funny. If you really get to like Civ and stick to it, you probably have an exciting pastime the next years! And you probably can take any time to play it, not like us younger folks, queezing in an hour of civ or two in the evening, when the job is done or the children are in bed ... .

Many, but not all civfanatics are in the 20ies and 30ties. One of the most experienced players here, SirPleb, has already seen his 50th birthday. He frequently participates in the Game-of-the-month, and he's really famous for his excellent write-ups, where he describes his latest stunts noone else came up with .

 

[Abaddon]

~raises hand

and theres the under 20's!

 

[Cataphract887]

i didnt see it covered in this thread,but either download a mod like RaR or get a real game like alpha centauri or civ2

 

[AA-battery]

I also want to say welcome to civfanatics mikelaz or whatever your username is. I just recently joined to and this is the place to be. Nobody does any of this or this because if any of that happened we would load them with this . That way you don't need to any of this . Pretty much the worst thing that ever gets mentioned here is this



Anydangway welcome to the home of civ3 players across the world.

 

[Tomoyo]

I don't know why, but that was funny...

 

[Cataphract887]

all the action in the smilies

 

[Flintlock]

Nobody does any of this or this

You obviously haven't met Perfection yet

 

[Chieftess]

Moderator Action: Stop spamming.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[AA-battery]

Flintlock, I read up on this "Perfection" and what I saw has scared the crap outa me! How do these kind of people play civ3? :shakehead

Oh, and sorry chieftess. I just was making a . I was just using that smilie to get the "crush mean person" effect. I didn't know using a smilie would get me in trouble.

 

[mikelaz]

Thanks for all the replies - they're really useful.

Some more dumb questions - the answers are probably somewhere but I can't find them!

1) What are the little green and blue symbols that appear on terrain squares?

2) As one of the common problems associated with being a geriatric, (I used to think I was pretty young till I came here!), is that we occasionally need glasses, so I wondered whether there was some sort of 'zoom' facility that meant you could focus in on a particular square?

3) What is the significance of the white circle rotating around the unit in the square and the four gaps in it. Also why do the four white arrows keep alternating between white and grey?

Thanks

 

[Flintlock]

1) Those show the food and shields the square produces. Without mines or irrigation or any other imporvements.

2) Yes, you can right-click on it. (It also shows the food/shields there, too)

3) It looks cool

 

[a space oddity]

Welcome to CFC, mikelaz. I'm sure many of us envy you for the free time to put in the game, I surely do.

To attempt to answer your questions:
1) The green dots show the amount of food the tile will generate when you put a citizen to work it. The blue dots are the shields. You need the food to get more citizens and shield to build city improvements and units.

2) You can use ctl-Z to zoom OUT only, so that won't help you. But you can open the city screen to see the details for that city. You can also right click on a tile, and select terrain info. It'll show you how much food, shields and gold the tile is worth and whether it has a bonus or luxery attached to it.

3) The circle indicates the active unit. While at the start you have only a settler and a worker, you will have many more later in the game. It becomes pretty clear by then why they tried to make it as conspicuous as possible.

edit: Cross posted with Flint. Just ask and you will be answered.