Frequently Asked Questions - (FAQ)

[Yndy]

OCC has self imposed rules. The most important is not to have more than one city. Most of the time this means, never to have more than one city. Still you can play by the rule of not having more than one city of the end of any turn throughout the game. This would allow you to build an army and maybe wonders like Battlefield Medicine and Wall Street.

I would say that those cities would need to be captured or received from the AI and not built by you. That way I’m sure that anyone would consider such a game as OCC.

Using other self-imposed rules as you suggest would make the game challenging for you and a nice experience I am convinced but I would not call that an OCC.

As far as I know there are no given rules for a game to be labeled OCC within the GOTM event.

 

[Salte]

I'm new to GOTM, so i thought it would be polite to read this FAQ-thread before asking my questions. So i did. But it is 21 pages, and took me quite some time, so i would suggest that either a new FAQ-tread was started, with only questions and no discussions, greetings etc, or that this stuff was deleted from this thread. I dont mean to offend anyone, just trying to make it a bit easier for the next newcomer.

And here are my questions:
I have played civ quite a lot from the very first game, and on these forums i've noted that people play rather different than i usually do, so i was wondering; Is it common knowledge that the following strategies are the best (i've only played GOTM25, so some of this may only apply to this game, if so, please let me know):
-Researching only at the slowest rate, and instead getting techs by other means (i usually rely heavily on my own research)
-Spending income on luxury to keep your people happy instead of using entertainers and building happiness-imrovements (i have always done the latter)
-Frist building a strong military, then building infrastructure when suitable (again, i usually do it the other way around)
-Trying to capture the wonders u want, instead of building them yourself (well, in gotm25 it was impossible to finish any wonders before the comp. until late in the game anyway, but i usually try to build a few myself)
-Bying workers instead of building them.
-Only having one "settler-factory" producing most of your settlers. (i use to let every new-built city produce one, two or three settlers)
-And finally; do u usually bye luxuries from the other civs? I was forced to fork out 100 gpt for one luxury at one point, but i really like to keep my people happy.

I know this could have been posted on the gereral discussion, but most of this didnt occur to me before playing gotm, so i thought maybe u guys have your own way of doing things.

 

[Justus II]

Salte: Welcome to GOTM!
These were all lessons I have learned gradually after playing several GOTMs, but most of the ones you have mentioned are also based on difficulty level.

Generally, at Monarch and below, it is entirely feasible to conduct your own research, and also to build a few key wonders. However at Emporer, and especially Diety, the AI cost advantages are such that it is actually cheaper to buy techs, and almost impossible to hand-build wonders, unless you have a leader or strong pre-build. These factors also influence the military-first strategy, since if you are not going to research initially, why build libraries, etc. Also, early conquest can lead to solutions to the first two problems (capturing wonders, and getting techs for peace).

The settler factory is valid at any level, but dependent upon starting location. If there are enough food bonuses and shields around, it is worthwhile, even if it means a delay in the first settler, the increased rate of production will pay off by the 2nd or 3rd settler. However, it doesn't always pay off, and SirPleb posted an excellent discussion of it Here.

This was another lesson I had to learn the hard way, but now that I think about it, is probably related to the first two points. If you are planning on your capital being your wonder builder, or research center, you want to build the population up. But if you know that you are relying on the AI for tech and wonders, then it makes sense your capital will be free to crank out settlers, if set up correctly. So I guess they tie together even better than I realized.

My playing style was originally very similar to yours, from the sound of it, but learning the lessons from the great players here has been a tremendous improvement for me. Also, even at the higher levels, there will come a point in the game, somewhere between late middle ages or early industrial usually, when you will switch over to infrastructure and your own research, usually when you have two productive core areas established, and then you can slingshot your way past the AI's and on to victory! So keep an open mind, learn from some of the pros in the discussions, and watch how many more options you will have at your disposal!

 

[GenMarshall]

I am curious if the GOTM will be played on C3C.

Thanks,
CivGeneral

 

[Justus II]

CivGeneral,

At this point, GOTM will not incorporate Conquests at least through January. For details, see this Thread. With the major changes to game dynamics (Scientific leaders, moved exploration/map trading) not to mention the major bugs (corruption, GPT deals), it is not very comparable at this point to Civ3 or PTW.

 

[GenMarshall]

Thanks for the response. I am thinking about returning back into the GOTM .

 

[GenMarshall]

I have another question, This one is regarding the QSC. Are the timelines for the QSC required or optional? I have heard that there is an easy way via a program to create a timeline. If there is a program, would someone post a link. Thanks .

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by CivGeneral
I have another question, This one is regarding the QSC. Are the timelines for the QSC required or optional? I have heard that there is an easy way via a program to create a timeline. If there is a program, would someone post a link. Thanks .

The timeline is currently required. Part of the reasoning given for making them required was that Spiderzord was working on a logging program that would make this easier (if not fully automated). He has been quite busy though, see <here>.

 

[barbslinger]

I opened up the new Asian melee last night and played about 3 turns and gave up because I don't know what to do with the chests. I try to "activate" and it does nothing. I have a feeling they could really help. I looked through the FAQ and saw nothing.

 

[ainwood]

They are units that are designed to be disbanded for 10 shields - a handy early production bonus. Put them in your city, and hit "D" for disband.

You can use them for limited scouting, but they have no defence, so are prone to being attacked by barbarians.

 

[barbslinger]

Now on with game. My spaceship awaits.

 

[J Frog]

Can someone tell me why I can not download the set up files for GOTM 21 thru 26? I can download the set up file for GOTM 17 thru 20. I just put PTW on my new computer and now I can't get it set up to play GOTM 26 because I need set up files from past games.
Thanks.

 

[ainwood]

You need to install add-on graphics packs to play these other games. If you go to the gotm.civfanatics.net website, and go to announcement page for each of the games, there are links to download files.

To play the Play The World version, you need to download and install the following:

GOTM 21 full pack for PTW
GOTM 24 add-on pack for PTW
GOTM 25 add-on pack for PTW

Make certain that you install these files to the directory with your civilization3.exe file in it. Even though you are playing in Play The World, you must install to the Civ3 install directroy, or it won't work.

The read-me for each of these files contains a link to the saved game file.

 

[J Frog]

When I click on those links I get a window that says"Getting file information". After about 30 seconds I get another window that says "Internet Explorer was not able to open this web site".

When I go to GOTM 17 thru 20 I am able to download the set up files without a problem. Why are the GOTM games after #20 different?

Thanks for your help.

 

[AlanH]

I suspect the key difference is that the later ones are complete installers that download as .exe files. The earlier ones were .zip files containing the raw mod files. I guess your Internet Exploder is stupid enough to fail to download the .exe file. Try right clicking the link and selecting Download to Disk in the resulting menu - I'm guessing the menu wording here, as I have absolutely no problem with these files. But then, I use a Mac

 

[ainwood]

IE does a much less intuitive "Save target As"

But try doing what Alan suggests. I have checked the link, and they are ok.

 

[skisphereo]

I downloaded both GOTM 26 and 27, however, upon opening them I get this error message. I have the most recent version of Civ3, and am downloading the correct file. Any ideas?

 

[ainwood]

It is because you haven't installed the other game packs. See this thread.

 

[skisphereo]

Sorry, I don't want to be a pest, however, I am still encountering one problem. I Installed GOTM Packs 21-25, and GOTM 26 works perfectly. However, on attempting to load 27, I get a similar error, except this one pertains to : Art/Units/Junk/Junk.INI Sorry in advance if I've missed something simple yet again, but any help would be appreciated. I am positive I installed each of the game packs.

 

[AlanH]

The Junk was included in the GOTM24 add-on pack. I'm surprised that GOTM26 ran without it. Check if the \Junk\ folder exists in your civ3's \Art\units\ folder. The default location is, I believe, \Program files\Firaxis Interactive\Civilization III\Art\units\. If "Junk" isn't there then you have possibly installed at least one of the add-on packs in the wrong location. You should also have folders with names like "Ashiguru Footman", "Bushi" and "Cannon Kublai" in the same location.