Forgien Advisor Circles

[Chaz]

I played my first game on a standard map with eight others and all the circles/pictures of the leaders showed up in the forgien advisors screen. (BTW I got crushed.)

My next game I again tried a standard map, but reduced the number of others to five. Three of the circles went away, so far so good. (BTW I got crushed.)

My third game (current) I decided to reduce the difficulty level, but go back to eight others on the standard map. Problem is, even though there are eigth others in the game (I've met them all) only five circles/pictures show. I can't figure out how to add the three circles back and why the game did not do it automaticly.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Sorry, I haven't had this problem. Can't help you out much. Maybe close right out of Civ and restart the game???


My problem's different. I can't get relationships (ie. lines between the leader portraits) to show! I have embassies to all of them, as well as peace treaties, mutual defense, and trade and nothing shows! I've tried playing with the check boxes and tabs on the screen but NOTHING WORKS!

 

[Chaz]

Did you select a picture (or the select all button)? Relationships will only show for those that are selected.

I tried exiting and returning - no luck. I think it must have been set at the time the game was started.

I seem to remember there was a way to change the picture/culture in a circle (for games with more than eight others) but I can't find it.

 

[beorhtwulf]

I'm having the same problem as Sparrowhawk. Have tried selecting, right-clicking, double-clicking, everything -- no lines.

I'm running on an ATI video card of some type (at work, now, didn't write it down, sorry) using the DirectX driver from the game CD. Will try downloading vendor drivers tonight and see what happens.

Chaz -- I think you need to shift-right-click on a circle to pick someone else.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by beorhtwulf
I'm having the same problem as Sparrowhawk. Have tried selecting, right-clicking, double-clicking, everything -- no lines.

I'm running on an ATI video card of some type (at work, now, didn't write it down, sorry) using the DirectX driver from the game CD. Will try downloading vendor drivers tonight and see what happens.

Chaz -- I think you need to shift-right-click on a circle to pick someone else.

Yeah, I've tried selecting too. I can select as many as I want and nothing happens -> no lines.

 

[george costanza]

I've had this problem too. It is really damn annoying. It happened to me when I destroyed two civs in one game. Their circles were emptied as they should be. When I started a new game the same two circles were empty. I had eight civs selected so they should have shown up. No amount of right clicking, clicking, shift click, shift-right click could make the civs appear that were supposed to.

The only way I could get all the civs to show up in their advisor circles was to delete all the save games and start a new game. For some reason the game saves effect the circles in the new game and keep them from showing up.

Another problem with this screen is the advisor himself. In ancient era he looks as he should (beard and all). In the middle ages he changes with the era. In the industrial era he reverts back to the ancient era garb. What is going on with this screen?

 

[beorhtwulf]

Well, over the weekend I downloaded the "latest" drivers for my video card (ATI Rage Pro Turbo). This is apparently only semi-supported now, the latest is an "Alternate" driver which they say will break the DVD function. Oh, well. I also used the MSCONFIG program to disable the Startup programs. One or the other fixed the no-lines problem on the Diplomacy advisor screen, but now the mouse pointer is flickering a bit on the main map. I'm thinking new hardware may be in my future.

I also notice I don't have any info on foreign militaries in the advisor screen; I have an embassy and can click on "List by Unit", but nothing shows up. The new driver doesn't fix this problem.

I would be interested to hear if you also have the military advisor problem.

 

[george costanza]

I have the military advisor screen problem too. I just think that all of these advisor screens are buggy. Between the problem with the diplomatic advisor screen and the vanishing foreign leader circles to the problem with no info on the opponents military. They really need to address these problems fast. Its not game-stopping, but it sure does annoy the hell out of me.

 

[sinenomine]

I have the military advisor screen problem too. I just think that all of these advisor screens are buggy. Between the problem with the diplomatic advisor screen and the vanishing foreign leader circles to the problem with no info on the opponents military. They really need to address these problems fast. Its not game-stopping, but it sure does annoy the hell out of me.

Yeah, I hate these screens. I think there are some real UI issues that must be resolved. Here's my short list:

1) All the advisor screens. They are laggy, they don't display properly, they don't give proper feedback (i.e. dbl-click portrait for negotiations: makes sense, but how am I to tell), they're inconsistant (single-click, dbl-click, it varies)

2) End game screens. They display even worse than the advisors

3) Embassies ! Contrary to the manual and civilopedia, you set up embassies with the "conduct espionage" command after right-clicking on your capital.

4) FONTS!

I also have some game-balance beefs but I'll leave those for another day

 

[LeSphinx]

Chaz, Sparrowhawk,

I notice that you had problem in the foreign advisor. I can not see
the links (war, peace...) between the differents civs (pictures).
I click everywere even in the "select all" buttom !



Anyone has an idea ?

Thanks very much.

LeSphinx

 

[Clubber]

I have no idea how to make the "lines" appear to see who has treaties, etc.... but if you wish to view different leaders pictures then first,,,, hold down the Shift key and then right click on any picture but your own. then you can select a different leader.

 

[beorhtwulf]

OK, people seemed to miss it in my last post:

At least for me, the problem with the relationship lines (war, peace, alliance, etc) not showing up on the diplomacy advisor screen was fixed by installing a newer video driver.

I am running an ATI Rage Pro Turbo card (stop laughing!), and I had to install the "alternate" drivers from ATI's web page. The alternate drivers are from 2000, while the latest standard drivers are from 1999.

If you can't get the lines, make sure you have the newest available video drivers.

 

[Clubber]

I went to Windows Update only about 3 weeks ago and updated all my drivers, security etc.... I still can't get those darn lines to show up !!! All I see are small "dots" to the upper left side of the different leaders pictures. Glad it's working for you !!!

 

[george costanza]

Still the original problem posted in this thread is still a problem for me and the original poster. Firaxis, if any of you read these posts please let us know if these problems are being addressed. At least let us know that you've read them.

 

[beorhtwulf]

First, apologies to George and Chaz for participating in the hijacking of this thread.

But I want to mention to Clubber, LeSphinx, and Sparrowhawk that Dan from Firaxis posted today at Apolyton that Firaxis believes that the Diplomacy lines problem, and also problems with slow scrolling with Go-to commands and the Science advisor being broken when playing with modified rules, all relate to OpenGL API support in the video card drivers. You may wish to check that your card/driver support OpenGL.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[damunzy]

Originally posted by Clubber
I went to Windows Update only about 3 weeks ago and updated all my drivers, security etc.... I still can't get those darn lines to show up !!! All I see are small "dots" to the upper left side of the different leaders pictures. Glad it's working for you !!!

3 weeks can be a long time in a driver's life span, especially with a mjor game like Civ3 out. I'd try your video card maker's site directly (if you have a video card and not a video chip). I have never found a driver for my video card on the windows update site. I have only found SoundBlater Live! drivers and those weren't the most up-to-date. Don't rely on MS, they don't have the Windos update site perfected yet.

 

[LeSphinx]

I turn off the hardware acceleration in my windows properties (Display properties) and the links in the foreign advisor screens appears...


Thanks for the help.

LeSphinx

 

[george costanza]

No problem Beorhtwulf. I was just posting that to keep that part of the thread alive.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by LeSphinx
I turn off the hardware acceleration in my windows properties (Display properties) and the links in the foreign advisor screens appears...


Thanks for the help.

LeSphinx

I tried that, and then Civ wouldn't play for me at all So I'm off to the ATI site.

Thx for the advice guys.

[UPDATE:] Downloaded the alternate drivers for my super-duper ATI Rage LT Pro (gotta love the laptop) and now the relationship lines are there! Hooray!

 

[Westly]

I had the same problem with the relationship lines not showing up. It makes diplomacy very difficult if you can't see these lines. I am running a PII 350 512MB Windows 98 1st Edition and an 8MB ATI XPERT@Work video card. I tried running the game under Windows 2000. Under Windows 2000 the relationship lines show up and I can hear music in the game for the first time too. Under Windows 98 I disabled the Hardware Acceleration and the lines now show up but it made scrolling in Netscape and I.E. extremely slow Everytime I exit the game under Windows 98 I get an illegal operation and I still can't see any information on foreign military units on the Military Advisor screen regardless of which OS I use. I think these problems are just as much Microsoft's problem as it is Firaxis' problem because Civ3 uses DirectX (which is a Microsoft product) and runs on Windows (which is also a Microsoft product). I can only imagine what would happen if Microsoft started developing mission critical systems like flight control systems or nuclear power plant control systems Because of Microsoft we believe computers are by nature flakey. I think I am going to play this game only under Windows 2000.