Does anyone else cheat?

[Jivilov]

I posted a lot on Apolyton back in day playing civ 2, helping do a lot of research on different parts of the game, writing some software that would read save files and other parts of the game, reading lots of other folks research, etc. Learned all the tricks of manipulating caravans and diplomats, etc. Game became too easy, and thus not as much fun.

When I bought Civ 3, I banned myself from most community forums about civ 3. Only reading a few threads here and there, mostly story threads. I play most of my games in more of a pseudo RPG format, playing more for the story than the win.

Good on yer mate. However, if you're digitally challenged and took a year to finally win on Regent then the forums are indispensable to playing higher levels w/o cheating. Granted a lot of info is about micro-management and exploits, how else can an ordinary mortal beat the AI at Emperor (my personal best) or higher?

 

[Buttercup]

Good on yer mate. However, if you're digitally challenged and took a year to finally win on Regent then the forums are indispensable to playing higher levels w/o cheating. Granted a lot of info is about micro-management and exploits, how else can an ordinary mortal beat the AI at Emperor (my personal best) or higher?

There's only one real exploit you need in Civ III, and that's learning to maximise the Republic form of government. That's the only piece of advice I've really found use of from the forums. I had no idea how ridiculously over-powered this government state was when I first started reading the forums.

Code of Laws -> Philosophy -> Free tech -> Republic

As long as you get to them first you can be the tech leader the entire game without too much trouble, even from a horribly poor starting location.

Just by discovering this I was able to go from struggling/ranting on Regent to comfortable victories on Emperor without barely changing any other of my game methods.

The only thing hampering a win state is AI Civs declaring on you. You want a 'mortal' win on Emperor? Just start on an Island and the AI won't even reach you until 1000AD, and even then, they won't have the nous to perform a decent land invasion, least of all if you have a decent cavalry army to defend yourself.

As long as the AI isn't able to expand by killing other Civs too much then you should be able to achieve any of the non-violent victory conditions on Emperor as if you were playing Warlord.

Hell, I don't even use the time-worn cliche of milking all the AI Civs money via absurd trades (a given to most players) and I can still role-play a relatively stress-free victory on Emperor with this method.

The main 'issue' with higher levels is that the AI can spawn armies in one turn, making war a form of sadomasochism rather than entertainment as the unit you killed is instantly replaced. But non-war Victory Conditions, it's much of a muchness up to Emperor and only wanes after that because the AI can spawn tech and Wonders every other turn, rendering 'normal' play pretty much pointless as there's nothing really left for the human player to grasp at, other than exploits.

I think the vast majority of new players get stuck around Warlord/Regent simply because they don't know how best to manipulate the main game-intended exploit - American Republic-biased propaganda (either that or the devs simply didn't put in much time to balancing issues).

I agree with the guy who said he prefers to role-play, I think many exploits just make the game a mockery rather than a game and it's a lot more 'real' (in a role-playing sense) to just play without exploits, even if you know what they are.

But I also agree that not using the in-game Republic-bias once you know about it is a bit silly - as this is a game-intended feature and not really an exploit. It's like discovering that Mario can, and is supposed to, walk on the top of the screen to get to a different portal.

I don't think the Civ games are just supposed to be number crunching games. I think if someone is playing them just for the sake of number crunching then they're likely the ones who are playing it wrong, or, at least, with the wrong mindset. I suspect these kind of players are more the 'Command and Conquer' type gamers than Role-play gamers.

Civ appeals to both though, hence why these kind of posts emerge.

 

[Jivilov]

There's only one real exploit you need in Civ III, and that's learning to maximise the Republic form of government. That's the only piece of advice I've really found use of from the forums. I had no idea how ridiculously over-powered this government state was when I first started reading the forums.

Code of Laws -> Philosophy -> Free tech -> Republic

As long as you get to them first you can be the tech leader the entire game without too much trouble, even from a horribly poor starting location.

Well yes, you CAN be the tech leader, but it may not always last. My last game on Emperor--as Romans with their marvelous Legionary, natch--I got Philosophy, the free tech, and Republic first. Unfortunately my land was poor; Rome started just below a sprawling tundra and jungle started about twelve tiles south (I always pick standard maps, and random for other conditions).

Japan and Spain shared our medium-sized continent. It took awhile to banish my competitors from the jungle, then clear it with battalions of workers before continuing. By that time we were well into the Middle Ages and my tech lead had evaporated. Not only had my immediate rivals caught up, but on a separate, larger continent Joan had gotten the better of Alexander and was already surging ahead.

Spain was eliminated with some help from Japan, but I had to wait for tanks before taking on my main rival. Roman armored spearheads (!) were deep into Japan when I checked the victory screen: Joan had ten spaceship parts (France had already eliminated Greece) and I was still researching flight! Time to give up, n'est-ce-pas?

So the advice is perfectly sound, but don't expect miracles from Republic every time. Cheers and happy gaming .

Edit: One issue with Republic is war weariness. It's hard to fight to the finish in one go; if a war drags on for more than about twenty turns or so the masses get restless--even faster in previously conquered cities. (May Ares have mercy if you lose one!) So you're generally obliged to conquer a rival by "nibbling" a little at a time.

It can be especially problematical if a conquered city flips right after a war. Of course you don't want to lose it, but is it worth starting another war to get it back and risk further production losses from WW? Sure you can simply raze cities but that's a rep hit and in any event why lose the benefit of infrastructure and wonders from long-established settlements?

Perhaps Monarchy--later Fascism or Communism-- is best for bloodthirsty types. The lower research levels can be compensated for by extorting techs from humbled civs.

 

[ZergMazter]

I only reload if the AI takes a stack of 20 of my workers. It is very irritating and i feel like slamming my monitor with my keyboard... One of these days im gonna modify my workers to have 99 defence and 1 damage...

 

[Jivilov]

Here's one: With 4 turns to go on Rocketry I had a brainstorm to check the Industrial Era techs to see what I needed for Communism in case my only rival (Mongols) attacked and my cities went into anarchy from WW. Inadvertently I clicked on it, thus losing all the beakers I'd invested for Rocketry .

After a suitable round of self-flagellation I decided to swallow my pride and reload. Obviously it wasn't my intention to switch immediately. Besides after hours of playtime and thousands of clicks what's one more in the overall scheme of things ?

Technically it's cheating so if I win this my first Demigod triumph will be irretrievably tarnished. But half a loaf is better than none and there's no guarantee I'll ever be in this advantageous position again. Gotta snatch the bacon while it's there, Devil take the hindmost.

 

[dalgo]

While playing today I was checking a city that had almost completed building a University. I wanted to see how many shields were in the box in case I could finish it a turn quicker, so changed the build temporarily to Wealth to get that total. Of course you all know what happened next, I accidently clicked on yes instead of no and lost the lot

This is one of the few occasions when I would consider a reload, if I had a recent save, which I didn't, so I had to wear it.

 

[CommandoBob]

Technically it's cheating so if I win this my first Demigod triumph will be irretrievably tarnished. But half a loaf is better than none and there's no guarantee I'll ever be in this advantageous position again. Gotta snatch the bacon while it's there, Devil take the hindmost.

In chess there is the 'Touch-Move rule'.

If a player having the move touches one of his pieces as if having the intention of moving it, then he must move it if it can be legally moved. So long as the hand has not left the piece on a new square, the latter can be placed on any accessible square. Accidentally touching a piece, e.g. brushing against it while reaching for another piece, does not count as an intentional touch.

Since you accidentally revolted, then the reload is not cheating. You just corrected.

 

[Jivilov]

Bless you CommandoBob. I was aware of the touch-move rule but forgot about the "accidental touch" qualifier. So if I manage to win this it'll be reasonably above-board. Trouble is, the Mongols are coming at me from all directions, war weariness has cut my economy in half (20 turns to get Robotics for the last Spaceship part), and my last few cities not on Wealth are producing ICBM's for retaliation in case Genghis decides to nuke me. Wish me luck!

Update: A moot point. After over 56 hours of intense struggle I succumbed to a cultural loss in 2014. Wasn't much I could do about it, but it was so close: 2 turns to go on Robotics with a prebuild ready for the last SS part. If not for the WW it would've been possible.

Ah well. Stuff learned in this game will make Emperor almost too easy. Have a feeling I'll be back for another go after the psychological scars have healed.

 

[Bartleby]

Here's one: With 4 turns to go on Rocketry I had a brainstorm to check the Industrial Era techs to see what I needed for Communism in case my only rival (Mongols) attacked and my cities went into anarchy from WW. Inadvertently I clicked on it, thus losing all the beakers I'd invested for Rocketry .

After a suitable round of self-flagellation I decided to swallow my pride and reload. Obviously it wasn't my intention to switch immediately. Besides after hours of playtime and thousands of clicks what's one more in the overall scheme of things ?

Technically it's cheating so if I win this my first Demigod triumph will be irretrievably tarnished. But half a loaf is better than none and there's no guarantee I'll ever be in this advantageous position again. Gotta snatch the bacon while it's there, Devil take the hindmost.

If you don't leave the science advisor screen you should be able to switch back without losing accumulated beakers. However, I don't know if switching eras counts as leaving the screen.