Civ4 to Civ3

[xenobiotic]

I know there's a similar thread, but I have a different question.

I have only played civ4 bts, but I recently got a new laptop with an x3100 which can't handle civ4. I got the computer for free so I can't complain...


But anyway, I'd like to play civ on this machine. How hard will it be to adjust from civ4 to civ3?

If I have no nostalgia for civ3, will I still be able to enjoy it compared to civ4??

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Willem]

You'll probably be disappointed.

 

[CheScott]

Dude, I just installed Civ3 last night, because I have heard so much from others on this forum about how great it was.

I played for a few hours and, man, I've never been so bored in my life. I owned it once before, but the CD broke and I got Civ4. Seriously, I don't know what all the hubbub is about. To be fair, I didn't get extremely far into it. Late Classical period-ish.

Probably the biggest change, for me, was the lack of buildable improvements. Workers building roads, mines and irrigation. Period. I didn't realize how much I use that flexability to my advantage until I played Civ3 again. The build location is so critical for cities early in the game. I had two cities on a flood plane with lots of wheat. They did great but the rest of them were just crippled.

This isn't comming from someone with no appreciation with how the games have developed over the years. I've been playing since 91 or 92, I was so young I can't really remember. I played Civ2 a couple weeks ago and ended up with a really crappy map (everyone had one continent) and it wasn't nearly this dull. I dunno, I'm gonna give it a shot again tonight. (My computer sucks too, I have to play Civ4 on the family's laptop when I can get it.)

But, seriously, if you can scrounge up a copy of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, I think you'd be way better off.

 

[mystikmind2005]

This is what i said in the other post.... "Personally i do not play civ3 anymore, although it is a good game and i definately enjoyed it more the first time i played it than the first time i played civ4. I do still play civ2. though, and i am not even sure why? somehow, it is able to be fun even after all there years!

What stops me from playing civ3 more than anything else is the fact that when i reach for it, my silly hand ends up grabbing civilisation call to power or smac!"

 

[King Flevance]

The only trick to switching over I can see is don't be expecting everything civ 4 offers in civ 3. After I finally got used to the new mechanics in 4 switching back to 3 raped my brain. Since you have no nestalgia to base your strategy on (or revert back to), this may be harder. I would suggest going into the editor though and doing a couple things:

• Give workers and settlers 2 movement instead of 1.
• Reduce the time it takes to clear damage/jungle to 16 turns - marshes 12 turns. Or however many turns you think it should be. (Forests cost 4 turns) Changing this can quickly get rid of unbalanced starts.
  
  Some other suggested improvements:
• Allow irrigation in tundra to yield +1 food.
• Add in a windmill improvement for +1 food on hills. (This one can be tricky.)

I would mostly suggest looking through the mods on this forum though. Alot of people have some really good mods of 3. If you are wanting to keep yourself restricted to only the official game though, just approach it without the attitude that you arent judging it based on 4. It isn't really hard to 'adjust' though gameplay wise, just make sure you read the civilopedia entries for the governments (some suck and are worthless in the standard game) Mostly keep an eye on Monarchy, Republic, and Communism. And also take notice of how much more powerful wonders are.

 

[Solomwi]

And when you first start, remember that shields = hammers. There's no overflow on anything, either, so if you like to micromanage, remember to tweak your city when there's one turn left on something to prevent lost shields/gold/food/beakers. For example, when a tech has one turn left, dial down science to the bare minimum that still lets you get it next turn, thereby turning beakers that would have just vanished into gold. When your build has one turn to go, pull citizens off mines and work food or commerce tiles, if possible, and vice versa when your city has one turn to grow. Avoid specialists for the most part. There are eight happiness resources. You get far more happy faces for the eighth than for the first, so try to acquire at least one source of each resource.

 

[xenobiotic]

Thanks for all the replies.

A friend of mine which now plays civ4 is giving me his civ3 and conquests expansion, so I figure I may as well give it a try. I remember playing it with him before and he was showing me how you have to micro the research to avoid waste.... So for a long time I did that in civ4 not releasing that it carried over

I was kinda surprised that I couldn't run this on my laptop, considering that I can run HL2 fine. It starts off okay with everything at low, but once the game goes on a bit the framerate dies. Too bad cause I figured my 1.8 C2D and 3 gigs of ram would speed up turns. Oh well.


While we are on the topic, can anyone reccomend some other great strategy games that might run on this computer?

 

[mystikmind2005]

Thanks for all the replies.

While we are on the topic, can anyone reccomend some other great strategy games that might run on this computer?

You could have lots of fun with civilisation call to power and call to power 2.

They are very similar to civ3 and civ4 except that they have allot more interesting stuff floating around in the game. I would say that call to power is a far superior game to civ 3 and 4 but for the docile AI.

 

[CheScott]

Thanks for all the replies.

A friend of mine which now plays civ4 is giving me his civ3 and conquests expansion, so I figure I may as well give it a try. I remember playing it with him before and he was showing me how you have to micro the research to avoid waste.... So for a long time I did that in civ4 not releasing that it carried over

I was kinda surprised that I couldn't run this on my laptop, considering that I can run HL2 fine. It starts off okay with everything at low, but once the game goes on a bit the framerate dies. Too bad cause I figured my 1.8 C2D and 3 gigs of ram would speed up turns. Oh well.


While we are on the topic, can anyone reccomend some other great strategy games that might run on this computer?

You didn't read mine! Try Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It's pre-Civ3 but it's really a great game.

Also, if you haven't tried it, use smaller maps. Big maps are hard on a computer later in the game. Also, smaller maps provide interesting changes in the game's dynamics.

 

[mystikmind2005]

You didn't read mine! Try Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It's pre-Civ3 but it's really a great game.

Also, if you haven't tried it, use smaller maps. Big maps are hard on a computer later in the game. Also, smaller maps provide interesting changes in the game's dynamics.

Yes, you carn't go wrong with smac (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri). Ever since its release i have been waiting to see another game so jamb packed full of amazing new concepts, but so far nothing comes close. heck i would be lucky if a game even bothers to copy 1 or 2 of the concepts in smac, and thats if i am increadibly lucky!

 

[King Flevance]

Yeah, Call to Power was a fun series. SMAC is also worth a look. I would also suggest Age of Wonders 2: The Wizards Throne. (There is another one called Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic you may check out - but I cant recommend it from personal experience because I havent tried it out yet.)

 

[mystikmind2005]

Yeah, Call to Power was a fun series. SMAC is also worth a look. I would also suggest Age of Wonders 2: The Wizards Throne. (There is another one called Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic you may check out - but I cant recommend it from personal experience because I havent tried it out yet.)

Some things that stand out in call to power that i thought were very fun;

1) You can form armies any time you like and then when they do battle, ranged units stand behind melle units and pound each other just like real armies would.

2) underwater cities

3) Tile bonus items can be traded for money, and the trade route can be pirated!

4) In the earlier stages of the game you can build slaver units to capture enemy settlers, population from enemy towns and even enemy armies if you put a slaver with your own army that wins a battle! The slaves show up as bonus workers in your city screen.

5) mag tubes - super roads that can be built on land and sea

6) Public works - you can select an amount of production to be spent on building improvements like mines and roads (no workers).

7) There are farms and mines like in civ4 but with improving technology you can 'upgrade' them, there are 3 upgrade levels. In civ4 there are a total of zero upgrade levels for mines and farms., what you build in the stone age, thats your lot.

8) you can change any terrain type - like in civ2 except more extensive choices.

9) you can build things on desert terrains and mountains.

10) call to power 1 has a space dimention with space cities and spaceships, but it got nerfed in call to power 2, i dunno why? (probably because the AI couldn't grasp it properly).

Yea so the main thing that rocks in call to power that puts civ4 to shame is the way armies work and the battle screen.

The main thing that stops the game being better than civ4 overall is the docile AI

Edit:, correction - somone new to the game would probably find the AI very challenging!

 

[CheScott]

7) There are farms and mines like in civ4 but with improving technology you can 'upgrade' them, there are 3 upgrade levels. In civ4 there are a total of zero upgrade levels for mines and farms., what you build in the stone age, thats your lot.

That's not entirely accurate. DIscovering Biology gives your farms an automatic +1 Food. Railroads give mines and extra hammer. Civics can effect them too. There are other examples.

 

[oynaz]

You should be able to run Civ4 on your laptop just fine. Perhaps you simply need to tweak some settings?
BTW, remember to run the latest video driver. IIRC, drivers are very important to X3100 performance.

 

[xenobiotic]

Well I've played civ3 conquests for a couple of hours now and I have to say that it's pretty fun. I do still think that civ4 is better, but civ3 works flawlessly on my laptop. The interface is definately more cubersome, but I like some touches like the advisors, though they seem like they could get annoying...

You should be able to run Civ4 on your laptop just fine. Perhaps you simply need to tweak some settings?
BTW, remember to run the latest video driver. IIRC, drivers are very important to X3100 performance.

I have the newest drivers and it does run, but once the game starts to get complicated the frame rates get really bad when zoomed out at all. I suppose it is playable, but I can't stand low frame rates. When I read around about compatability with the x3100 the consensus seems to be that civ4 is mostly unplayable.


Anyway, thanks for the advice all.

 

[King Flevance]

Yeah the advisor screens in 4 are pretty crappy IMO. Military advisor from 3 is just awesome. Same for the domestic advisor. Being able to manage your specialists across the entire empire from 1 screen, as well as being able to zoom into a city screen and then automatically going back to the list of cities where you left off are tremendous helps. In Civ 4, managing my cities via the city screen is such a pain that I only do an empire wide sweep every 15-50 turns. Sometimes I just ignore it all together for the most part. In 3, it is pretty easy to check every city every 5 turns without hassle using the domestic advisor screen.

As for the advisors getting annoying, I am assuming you mean their suggestions? If so, I quit paying attention to them years ago. You can find some decent info when they talk but mostly, they say the same thing over and over.

 

[Willem]

as well as being able to zoom into a city screen and then automatically going back to the list of cities where you left off are tremendous helps.

You can do that in Civ 4 too.

In 3, it is pretty easy to check every city every 5 turns without hassle using the domestic advisor screen.

So what's the hassle of using your arrow keys to cycle through all your cities? As I recall, that option wasn't available in Civ 3.

 

[King Flevance]

You can do that in Civ 4 too.

How? my domestic advisor doesn't allow me to do this.

So what's the hassle of using your arrow keys to cycle through all your cities? As I recall, that option wasn't available in Civ 3.

Because around midgame I always have some cities that are population 1-5 that I skip because I emphasize food and usually I dont look at cities under a 6-7. So having to go through the screens is unnecessary. If they are all in a list with population level easily identified as 6+ or 5- I know which ones I need to check easily and can just bounce in and out of those cities real fast. I don't mind at all that this feature wasn't in 3 because I find it a pain.

 

[Willem]

How? my domestic advisor doesn't allow me to do this.

Double click on the city icon at the very left of the domestic advisor screen. This will take you to the city you want to examine. When you exit the city screen, you will be brought back to the domestic advisor screen.

 

[sgrig]

I know there's a similar thread, but I have a different question.

I have only played civ4 bts, but I recently got a new laptop with an x3100 which can't handle civ4. I got the computer for free so I can't complain...

What laptop do you have? I have one with x3100, and it plays Civ4 perfectly!