Civ 4 or Civ 3?

[MrSafin]

Hi, i'm looking right now at the Steam store page and i'm undecided on which one to buy: Civilization 3 or Civilization 4?

Is Civ 4 a direct improvement to the old one? And what about mods?


Thank you

 

[snakeseare]

Civ 3 is generally seen by long-time Civ players as a mistake in the series. I loved Civ and Civ 2 and hated Civ 3, now love Civ 4. That's the usual pattern: people who like Civ 3 didn't play the originals.

At least that's how I have seen discussions here pan out. And as you can guess, I say Civ 4 is by far the better game.

 

[TheLazyHase]

Civ4, no hesitation. Civ3 was not an error and added a lot a good stuff. Civ4 just added much much more.

Civ3 is simply obsolete.

 

[phungus420]

Is Civ 4 a direct improvement to the old one? And what about mods?

Civ4 has one of the most active modding communities of any game. Most of the game's code is exposed so modders are not limited by hardcoded issues as happens in most games.

 

[Badtz Maru]

Civ 3 is generally seen by long-time Civ players as a mistake in the series. I loved Civ and Civ 2 and hated Civ 3, now love Civ 4. That's the usual pattern: people who like Civ 3 didn't play the originals.

At least that's how I have seen discussions here pan out. And as you can guess, I say Civ 4 is by far the better game.

I played all the Civ games and I did really like Civ3. It added so much to the game over Civ2 - governments, differences between the leaders (besides starting techs), culture and cultural borders, strategic resources, and unique units. It was a major improvement over Civ2, and it's also the first game besides Doom that I did any modding in (in many ways modding Civ3 was easier than Civ4, though it was also more limited in some ways). It did have some balance problems, and the AI, though not necessarily weak, played in a way that could be frustrating. Civ4 really refined the new features instroduced in Civ3 and is a much better game, but Civ3 was not bad. I got my ex-wife, niece, and brother all hooked on Civ3, so it was accessible to players new to the genre.

I would still get Civ4 instead, though. There's really not much in Civ3 that is lacking in Civ4.

 

[BufordTJustice]

Civ4 has one of the most active modding communities of any game. Most of the game's code is exposed so modders are not limited by hardcoded issues as happens in most games.

Yes exactly! And that is DEFINITELY the reason why you should NOT buy CIV4 from Steam under any circumstances. I don't know if they offer the latest patch (3.19) now, but also the setup structure on your PC is different. Usually mods don't work with the download versions. The multiplayer is also affected by this (had some bad experiences with this...)

 

[MrSafin]

Ok, thanks for the heads-up! I'll take a look at some prices on amazon uk, then..!

 

[Fredric Drum]

There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you should choose Civ 4.

 

[binhthuy71]

I've played Civ since the first version came out on a stack of floppies. Although I enjoyed them all I can safely say that Civ 4 is the most enjoyable of the lot.

 

[HappyFunPal]

I like Civ 3 for the graphics but it was basically Civ 2.5. Nothing from SMAC was used. SMAC is a superior game to Civ 3. I'm not thrilled with the graphics for Civ4, but it's the better game. Colonization 4 sucks. I'm glad I got it for "free" on the DVD b/c I'd never pay for it. I enjoyed the original Colonization for years.

 

[Higher Game]

Both. Civilization 3 is almost a completely different game, and is worth checking out in its own way.

But get Alpha Centauri first if you've never experienced it.

 

[The Snug]

Civ3 was not a mistake. The worst part of civ2 was that if you had a stack of units and it was attacked, if the lead unit was killed then the entire stack died. Just crazy. Civ3 was the first civ game to have realistic combat.

 

[Darth Fred]

Hi, i'm looking right now at the Steam store page and i'm undecided on which one to buy: Civilization 3 or Civilization 4?

Is Civ 4 a direct improvement to the old one? And what about mods?


Thank you

I'm sold on Civ 4. Hook line and sinker.

So that would be my suggestion.
F

 

[LegionSteve]

SMAC is a superior game to Civ 3.

I agree. I skipped Civ 1 + 2, so SMAC was my first 'Sid' game. Civ 3 was OK but I decided I liked SMAC better and went back to that until Civ 4 came along. Now Civ 4 BtS is about the only game I play.

 

[Badtz Maru]

I did not care for Alpha Centauri. I recognize that it added a lot of new gameplay elements that were later incorporated into Civ3 and Civ4, but the balance was horrible, and the "Build your unit" feature was pretty much useless 95% of the time as you would almost always end up building the exact same as one of the designs as the autobuilder would come up with (let me guess, you want the best motor, best armor, and best weapon, right?). I could not get into the research as it all came across as Star Trek technobabble - woo-hoo, you discovered Quantum Blackhole Disruptors, what does that do? Another +1 on attack on your units, yawn. It was all very bland and the tech progression was ridiculous - a starfaring civilization with particle beam weapons has to research new technologies to build helicopters or even boats?

 

[Badtz Maru]

Yes exactly! And that is DEFINITELY the reason why you should NOT buy CIV4 from Steam under any circumstances. I don't know if they offer the latest patch (3.19) now, but also the setup structure on your PC is different. Usually mods don't work with the download versions. The multiplayer is also affected by this (had some bad experiences with this...)

I have the Steam version. I bought the package that included Civ4, Warlords, BtS, and Colonization, even though I already owned Civ4, because I heard that BtS by Steam would not work with the disc version of Civ4. I found out later I was wrong, that it is not hard to get them to work together, but hey, maybe I'll play Colonization someday and it will be worth it. I have had zero trouble installing Blue Marble, some map customization mod (forgot the name), Fall from Heaven, Orbis, and Fall Further. The installers on all of these recognized I had the Steam version and installed in the correct directory. Maybe some of the less well-made mods might require adjusting the path when installing, but nothing that would require any fancy coding.

 

[Poppis]

Civilization IV: The Complete Edition is -50% on Steam till friday.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2933/

 

[Vidar]

LOL. Be aware that this is the Civ4 forum. If you ask the same question at the Civ3 forum they will tell you that Civ3 is by far the best.

 

[Higher Game]

I did not care for Alpha Centauri. I recognize that it added a lot of new gameplay elements that were later incorporated into Civ3 and Civ4, but the balance was horrible, and the "Build your unit" feature was pretty much useless 95% of the time as you would almost always end up building the exact same as one of the designs as the autobuilder would come up with (let me guess, you want the best motor, best armor, and best weapon, right?).

Wrong on so many levels. Making a unit with good weapons *and* armor is extremely expensive. The default units are decent, but some units that are really, really good for certain factions you have to order yourself. The morale boost trait is one of them, because with the Spartan faction you can use it to get elite units more easily, for that precious +1 move.

The best reactor is always picked, but going for purely mobile forces would ruin you if the AI knew how to use EMP defenders properly. Play a multiplayer Alpha Centauri match against a good player and you'll appreciate it better.

The balance is bad, but quite often going for the "wrong" paths can work out in a multiplayer game, in the context of tech trading. The "best" research is frequently what fools a stupid computer, which rarely works against other people.

The technobabble kept the game unpopular, but that only made sure its fans were a few notches above average intelligence. It's much easier to find a good opponent in AC, and there aren't nearly as many skill mismatches.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I've played and enjoyed both Civ3 and Civ4 in their own times. However, Civ4 has certainly built on the good parts of Civ3 and at the same time added so much more to the game as well. Personally I'd recommend going straight to Civ4 - although of course you're welcome to check out Civ3 as well.

Just realise that the gameplay methods and strategies required to succeed at Civ3 vs Civ4 are completely different, so switching between the two games regularly will leave you very confused. My advice is to pick one (I strongly advise Civ4) and stick with it.