Civilization III Complete available at GoG!

[Civinator]

Now Civilization III Complete is available at GoG!

 

[tjs282]

Civinator, thanks for this post. (Since GamersGate no longer sells Civ3) this is great news for all those people whose disk-based installations were messed up by the secdrv.sys Windows-update last year (or who just don't want to give Steam more cash).

Although I have wishlisted it, I haven't yet (re)purchased C3C (considering doing so just to get the discount on Civ4): I would be very interested to know whether GOG's version is also Civ3(In)Complete(TM) (requiring installation of the Steam client, lacking Vanilla or PTW executables), or whether they have actually licensed the 'Civ Chronicles' (DVD-based?) version (as suggested by one of the GOG-reviewers). If the latter, this will be a lock for me (once I've liberated my wife's credit card from her purse)

I've quoted your post onto the Civ4 General Discussions board as well--hope you don't mind...

 

[Civinator]

Civinator, thanks for this post. (Since GamersGate no longer sells Civ3) this is great news for all those people whose disk-based installations were messed up by the secdrv.sys Windows-update last year (or who just don't want to give Steam more cash).

Although I have wishlisted it, I haven't yet (re)purchased C3C (considering doing so just to get the discount on Civ4): I would be very interested to know whether GOG's version is also Civ3(In)Complete(TM) (requiring installation of the Steam client, lacking Vanilla or PTW executables), or whether they have actually licensed the 'Civ Chronicles' (DVD-based?) version (as suggested by one of the GOG-reviewers). If the latter, this will be a lock for me (once I've liberated my wife's credit card from her purse)

I've quoted your post onto the Civ4 General Discussions board as well--hope you don't mind...

Yes, of course it´s o.k. to post my quoted post in the Civ 4 forum, too - and I agree, that this is a very good news for all friends of Civ 3 (and of Civ 4). I don´t think that an installation of the Steam client is needed as this is GOG - but at present this is only my guess. On the other side with the the current amount of € 3,79 one cannot make too much wrong.

 

[Civinator]

tjs282, your post was the reason for another visit at GOG: They say, that the Civ 3 version is free of DRM, has no copy-protection and doesn´t need any online-activation.

 

[tjs282]

tjs282, your post was the reason for another visit at GOG: They say, that the Civ 3 version is free of DRM, has no copy-protection and doesn´t need any online-activation.

Yes, I saw that too, which is why I wondered.

I think my scepticism is reasonable, though. After all, Steam (and GamersGate) claim(ed) that they sold 'Civ3Complete', while not actually supplying .exe files for all 3 versions (despite GG's game-description blurb actually specifying 'all 3 versions'): when I queried GG about this, I was told that they simply sold the install-package supplied by Firaxis/2K 'as is'; and just after Steam enabled online-MP, but before GG pulled C3C from their virtual shelf, the GG package was updated to require Steam-client installation.

So although GOG is usually pretty upfront in that regard, and I didn't see anything in the small-print, unless they're using a different install-package to Steam/GG, they'd presumably be subject to the same 2K/Steam-imposed restrictions (or are GOG now going to host online-play as well -- can they?).

(Off-topic: Also LOL'd at the screenshots -- Smiths built in 2039 AD! Maces fighting in 2045 AD!)

But you're right, it is a very small amount of money. My wife bought a(nother) pair of winter-boots yesterday (to add to her collection), so maybe I can use that to justify buying a(nother) copy of Civ3 (just to get CivIV cheaper, obviously)...

 

[CKS]

GOG does specifically claim it includes vanilla, PTW, and Conquests. I'm hopeful.

 

[Quintillus]

GOG has always been DRM free, so I don't think there's any cause for concern with the Steam client being required. Gamersgate, by comparison, has some DRM-free and some DRM'ed games.

Not sure about the PTW/Vanilla executables, but hopefully that is accurate. AFAIK that would be new in digital versions.

I'm still on the disc-based version, having skipped the Windows update that caused issues with it. Unfortunately Microsoft switched to rollup updates this fall, including all previous updates, which means I can't get any new updates while not breaking Civ3... or at least figuring out a way to manually re-enable SecuROM before starting the game. There's probably some other people here with the same problem. That makes this a particularly timely release.

 

[tjs282]

GOG does specifically claim it includes vanilla, PTW, and Conquests. I'm hopeful.

Well I went and bought it, just to check, but unfortunately no, neither a Civilization3.exe nor a Civilization3X.exe is (currently) included in the installation -- just like the Steam-version

The 'Civ3Launcher.exe' (and its shortcut) installed in the root .../GoG/Civilization3/ directory just launches the Conquests.exe (which of course can also be directly launched from the .../GoG/Civilization3/Conquests/ directory).

On the bright side, the GOG-version doesn't appear to need Steam either And I got CivIV and SMAC along with it, all for under 20 Euro, so I'm still a happy bunny (my patched GG Civ3-installation is working just fine anyway).

 

[jiikoo]

I did not understand nothing from your post!

Does the game, 3 all, work like the original disk versions?

 

[tjs282]

I did not understand nothing from your post!

Does the game, 3 all, work like the original disk versions?

Not exactly, no. The originally published 'Civ 3 Complete' collection allowed players to use any of the 3 versions of Civ3, as they preferred:

• 'Vanilla' base-game (patched to v.1.29); 16 playable Civs total; executable file = civilization3.exe; ruleset format = .bic

or

• Play the World expansion (patched to v.1.27); added 8 playable Civs (= 24 Civs total); executable file = civilization3X.exe; ruleset format = .bix

or

• Conquests expansion (patched to v.1.22); added 7 playable Civs (= 31 civs total)*; executable file = conquests.exe; ruleset format = .biq

Each version ran/runs from its own executable file, installed in the relevant game directory. However, as with the Steam-version, the GOG-version only includes the Conquests v.1.22 executable: it doesn't include executables for the 'earlier' versions.

All the original Vanilla and PtW assets (music, leaderheads, units, etc.) are included, because the Conquests expansion (using the conquests.biq) will not work without them: it was designed to be added to an existing Vanilla/PtW-installation, so did not itself include all of the earlier content. Unfortunately, in addition to some fairly major rule-changes (e.g. corruption, Army-stats), the conquests executable also contains some bugs that don't occur in Vanilla and PtW (or rather, that were patched out).

The ruleset-file formats are forwards-compatible with the following version(s), but not backwards-compatible with the previous version(s). The Vanilla 'civ3mod.bic' and the PTW 'civilization3X.bix' (and also the respective Editors) are included in the GOG-version, so it is technically possible to play a 'Vanilla-like' or 'PTW-like' game using the GOG-installation -- but to do so you must open them using the conquests.exe.**

However, due to the abovementioned rule-changes from Vanilla/PtW to Conquests, the earlier versions will not play exactly as they did/do on a CD-based version.

*

Spoiler :

Actually 8 Civs (the Austrians are also in there), but since the game only supports 31 playable Civs (plus the Barbs), on a single map, only 7 of the new Civs are playable via the conquests.biq. If you want to play using the Austrians, you have to mod the .biq. No high scores would be recorded from such games, though.

**

Spoiler :

The simplest way to do this would be to move/copy these files into the ...GOG/Civilization3/Conquests/Scenarios/ folder, and then access them through the 'Civ-Content' option on the Civ3Complete splash-screen. It is also possible to import the .bic or .bix into the Conquests Editor, then resave it as a 'Vanilla-like.biq' or a 'PtW-like.biq', also in the .../Conquests/Scenarios/ folder -- but to do that, some further tweaking would be needed, e.g. to allow Workers to improve Marsh and/or Volcanoes (or to remove these terrain-types). Certainly for games played via the latter method (and probably also for the former), no high scores would be recorded.