Frequently Asked Questions - (FAQ)

[Stone Wolf]

Heh, fair enough.

 

[Dianthus]

Originally posted by AlanH
Well, the spoiler rules for this game haven't been published yet, so why not wait and see?

The 1st spoiler is out now, and I still don't know the answer to Stone Wolf's question! AlanH/ainwood, would you care to enlighten us?

(please... just remembered my manners at the last minute there )

 

[AlanH]

Dunno . I've pointed out the question to Ainwood and suggested that the criterion could be amended to "visibility of the entire coastline of the starting continent", but I actually had no problem illuminating all of the starting continent before the Middle Ages began, so I'm not sure it's a major problem in this game.

 

[binyo66]

This would be very basic questions (sorry about it), I'm trying to play my first GOTM . The GOTM main page said GOTM31 was the latest. I followed the link on the left side, and it came up with GOTM31 page. On that page, I went to 1st-visit page, and I read all the clues. However, I didnt find any installation for PC (if any), I found Mac Installation on Gotm31 page. the question are:
1. Do I need to do any installation? Note : I have CivIII 1.29f, PTW 1.27f, and C3C 1.0 (which I dont like it).
EDIT : I got the answer for question (2)

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by binyo66
This would be very basic questions (sorry about it), I'm trying to play my first GOTM . The GOTM main page said GOTM31 was the latest. I followed the link on the left side, and it came up with GOTM31 page. On that page, I went to 1st-visit page, and I read all the clues. However, I didnt find any installation for PC (if any), I found Mac Installation on Gotm31 page. the question are:
1. Do I need to do any installation? Note : I have CivIII 1.29f, PTW 1.27f, and C3C 1.0 (which I dont like it).
EDIT : I got the answer for question (2)

Welcome to GOTM The GOTM 31 page states:

If you have not previously recently played and completed a GOTM game, then download the "Gotm21 Total Install" first and then add the Add-On packs for Gotm22, Gotm23, Gotm24 and then add on the Gotm25 game pack that matches your software. You can download the Game Packs from the game pages in the menu at the left hand side of this page. Please pay close attention to matching the game pack versions to the software version that you are playing as this will eliminate 95% of all the errors that have been observed in the past games.

If you want to avoid opening all the game pages separately then there is a list of links to the add-on packs and much more in the GOTM Reference Thread in this forum.

 

[binyo66]

thx u

 

[Lord Jimbob]

Originally posted by AlanH
Welcome to GOTM The GOTM 31 page states:

If you want to avoid opening all the game pages separately then there is a list of links to the add-on packs and much more in the GOTM Reference Thread in this forum.

First, thanks to you and Ainwood for all of your hard work on GOTM, and for helping me get setup for GOTM30.

I know you guys are probably sick to death of people nagging you about this, but you're also probably annoyed by frequent posts by new GOTMers asking the same question: "how do I start playing GOTM?" or "I keep getting a message about pictish warriors and the game quits when I try to load GOTM". I myself had to do some sleuthing to discover what you guys always post in your replies to these questions. Just a friendly suggestion: on the GOTM home page, put a link for "new GOTM players" with a) instructions and b) links to the 5 relevant modpacks. I know the current setup is 90% of the way there, and perhaps 95% of new GOTM players quickly figure out what they need to do based on that, but I'm sure the added effort would be greatly appreciated by the slower among us, myself included. :jump:

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Lord Jimbob
Just a friendly suggestion: on the GOTM home page, put a link for "new GOTM players" with a) instructions and b) links to the 5 relevant modpacks.

I agree we could provide something between the two extremes: "go find them among these five game pages"; and "here's a compact and cryptic reference list with no instructions".

One of the problems is that, really, we need people to be able to find their way around all of the information about the mods, not just how to install them. The game pages do also provide information about the new units, and sometimes about the tribes, which is not avaiable anywhere else. You may argue that this should be on line in the civilopedia, and you'd be correct. But right now it isn't, and getting new players to look at the game pages may help to fill that gap.

Also you've fallen into the classic bear trap around here. It isn't just the five modpack links that you used. It's 10 when you include both Windows versions, plus another three if you include the Mac OS X files (plus even more if we tried to support older MacOS versions). All this makes the proposed page potentially more confusing, and means it needs some careful thought and design.

Then there's the whole question of whether future games will continue to use these mods anyway ...

 

[binyo66]

I have installed gotm21_v129_full_setup.exe and play GOTM31 (my first gotm)
Questions :
3. Can I go to GOTM 31 spoil thread by now?

Moderator Action: Hello. I've moved this post into the second spoiler thread
It contains details of the civs you met in the game. As you are researching a modern tech you are allowed to visit both of the currrent spoiler threads. Please read the first post in each spoiler thread as it contains details of what stage you must reach in the game before you read the thread.

 

[t3h_m013]

dunno if this has already been asked, sorry, but cant be reading through 11 pages just to find it.

is there any likely hood of gotm becoming conquests any time soon? as i only have conquests (i borrowed a friends vanilla civ) and so cannot play gotm at all until it is... unless im being stupid.

 

[denyd]

If you have a legal copy of Conquests, you can play right now. Your copy of Conquests contains a directory for the PTW expansion pack. PTW is supported in the current GOTM.

If you don't have a legal copy of Vanilla Civ, it's quite cheap to get (under $10) at most electronic shops and on-line.

 

[el_kalkylus]

Now I have replayed the QSC 31 about 10 times with different goals in mind and trying to master one goal (great map btw, thanks!), and in my tests I have reloaded plenty because I tend to forget happiness sometimes or my workers move to the wrong square etc. Is it acceptable to reload in these situations in future QSC if I do not get knowledge of map or trade etc at that turn? It's so annoying when I have a bigger plan and I forget the little micromanagement so the towns go in disorder or I lose out on food.

 

[t3h_m013]

If you have a legal copy of Conquests, you can play right now. Your copy of Conquests contains a directory for the PTW expansion pack. PTW is supported in the current GOTM. so are gotm's played on ptw? in that case i should be able to play.

If you don't have a legal copy of Vanilla Civ, it's quite cheap to get (under $10) at most electronic shops and on-line.

i can get hold of a copy of vanilla and so patch my game etc.


so over all, ill probs be a gotm regular pretty soon, or i might wait till after my gcse's

 

[FriendlyFire]

Now I have replayed the QSC 31 about 10 times with different goals in mind and trying to master one goal (great map btw, thanks!), and in my tests I have reloaded plenty because I tend to forget happiness sometimes or my workers move to the wrong square etc. Is it acceptable to reload in these situations in future QSC if I do not get knowledge of map or trade etc at that turn? It's so annoying when I have a bigger plan and I forget the little micromanagement so the towns go in disorder or I lose out on food.

Your not meant to reload at all.
If you read the GOTM spoilers you can see some of horrendous mistakes made by many of the less skilled players (me included).

Sometimes Iam tempted to reload when pressing the wrong key. But I dont use auto_save. Disable it and it'll help you be a more attentive player.

 

[AlanH]

Now I have replayed the QSC 31 about 10 times with different goals in mind and trying to master one goal (great map btw, thanks!), and in my tests I have reloaded plenty because I tend to forget happiness sometimes or my workers move to the wrong square etc. Is it acceptable to reload in these situations in future QSC if I do not get knowledge of map or trade etc at that turn? It's so annoying when I have a bigger plan and I forget the little micromanagement so the towns go in disorder or I lose out on food.

No.

This is a competition between people, not you against the computer. If you reload or replay you are giving yourself an unfair advantage over the other players. It is cheating and will not be tolerated. Your fellow players will only respect you and your results if you have played to the same rules as them.

You are NEVER permitted to reload to change an outcome of an action you took. If you have let your cities go into disorder, or sent a stack of cavalry to their death against a stack of mobile infantry, then tough! Swallow it and move on.

You must NEVER restart and replay the game for submission. This is the most extreme reloading crime.

The only times reloading is permitted are:

- When you have to shut down Civ3 (why! ) then you'll have to save the game position nad reload it later to continue.

- If your computer or the game crashes. The you can reload the last autosave, and you should try to ensure that you replay the turn exactly the same way. If your software is crashing frequently then you should not submit a gotm until you have resolved the problem. Staff here may be able to help.

- If you genuinely mis-moused and put a critical unit or stack in a place you never intended or accidentally ended the turn. We are not running a manual dexterity competition, so you are permitted to reload on the rare occasion that might happen.

If and when you get to Spoiler 2 for gotm31 look out for the "blunder of the month" posts. Several players have posted horror stories, which we accepted and moved on. Humans learn fastest from remembered pain

 

[el_kalkylus]

No.

Never reload unless 1, 2, 3...

Ok I see.

Then I have a question. See in Civilization 2, you could see if a town would go into civil disorder instantly (town turned red on F1 screen) and I could fix that. Now in civ3 I have to look carefully at the population faces and count them which is just time consuming. Any advice on what I could do to speed things up?

 

[Dianthus]

Two things that can help:
1) Use a gfx mod for the population that shows colour coded happy/content/sad faces on the citizens.
2) On the F1 screen sort by population. Generally it's the highest population cities that are more likely to go into disorder, so look there first.

 

[AlanH]

Two things that can help:
1) Use a gfx mod for the population that shows colour coded happy/content/sad faces on the citizens.
2) On the F1 screen sort by population. Generally it's the highest population cities that are more likely to go into disorder, so look there first.

If you sort by population then I *think* it sorts on happiness. Click the happy faces icon at the top of that column twice, and the unhappiest cities seem to come to the top of the list.

 

[el_kalkylus]

I can't believe I have never tried to click those buttons on the F1 screen! Thanks, this should make things somewhat easier.

 

[Bigfoot]

I am sure this problem has come up before, but I did not want to scroll through 24 pages of prior posts. I recently finished GOTM31 (civIII, 1.29). This was my first GOTM, and I quite enjoyed it . Trouble is, the resources now display incorrectly (fish look like coal?). Could someone please advise how I go about fixing this?

Many thanks.