CIV 3 buy from steam

[Nicol.Bolas]

Hi,
after long years I wish to play civ 3. I forgot where I put my CD´s, so I figured I could just buy the steam version for a few bucks.

Would you recommend this versions?

• Will I be able to use any community patches & mods & scenarios?

 

[Nathiri]

Hi,
after long years I wish to play civ 3. I forgot where I put my CD´s, so I figured I could just buy the steam version for a few bucks.

Would you recommend this versions?

• Will I be able to use any community patches & mods & scenarios?

In general yes. Some say they prefer GOG's version. However, Steam does function fine, except that there is a small difference in the labels.txt file. So when you download older mods or any mod made on an earlier labels.txt, you just have to add a label so that it shows correctly ingame. Some newer mods include both files so you just have to rename them. If you choose to use a patched exe however, then you wouldnt have to edit the labels.txt as that exe is set to read the original amount of labels.

 

[Fergei]

As I say in response to this my suggestions are:

- if you want to ever play multiplayer, buy Steam (although this is possible with the GOG version you'll need to identify players yourself and use something like Hamachi)

- if you want singleplayer only, then buy via GOG and download with 'offline installer' option. That way you can play the game without having to log in via a third party application, and nobody can ever take it away from you or block access via systems updates etc. Its worth the extra dollar/euro just on saved load times alone.

 

[justanick]

Multiplayer is mainly PBEM, which should work fine with the GoG-version. I would prefer GoG.

 

[Nathiri]

Multiplayer is mainly PBEM, which should work fine with the GoG-version. I would prefer GoG.

mainly pbem? There's like 200 active players playing internet mp on steam.I'm mostly counting a competitive leaderboard in this case. There's plenty of others you can find in steam discussions.

But yeah if you prefer SP, GOG might be the better choice.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I've had no issues running the Steam version. Mine came with several popular mods, including Sn00py's terrain mods.

 

[Puppeteer]

The CDs probably won't work, anyway. They have older copy protection that doesn't work for the past few years in Vista and later.

I have the CDs, Steam, *and* GoG. For me, Steam is usually most convenient, and it seems to be driving a resurgence in a new generation of Civ3 players, but there are legitimate concerns about Steam as a platform.

As stated earlier, Steam patched the game to work with their multiplayer game browser which had the side effect of impacting one of the text files for mods, but it's easily fixable if you know about it.

With both Steam and GoG, you don't have the vanilla or PTW executables. You can open the saves and mods, and all the art, extras, and included mods are there, but they open with the Conquests/Complete game engine. Which means no RCP, no sub bug, and a few other minor changes. And you can't play PBEM or SGs with others who are using the vanilla or PTW executable because as soon as you open and play it, it becomes a Conquests save which the others can't open with the older executables.

 

[Civinator]

... both Steam and GoG ... open with the Conquests/Complete game engine. Which means ... no sub bug

Puppeteer, here is an error: In Civ 3 Complete you have the submarine bug if you don´t use the new Flintlock patch. The submarine bug was fixed by Firaxis only for Civ 3 Vanilla (which cannot be opened by Civ 3 Complete without the use of an extern Firaxis exe).