GOTM Download Fears

[GenShwartzCough]

Hello gang. I am VERY new to Civ III. I have played Civ II GOTMs before. Here is my dilemma....

I went to download GOTM 24. I was confronted with game packs and choices of play. This has me confused. The main thing I am afraid of is version compatibility. I am NOT a computer whiz. I have ver. 1.27f of PTW. The game pack for GOTM 21, (necessary to play GOTM 24), is for ver 1.14f/1.21f. The GOTM site says I need this first, then the add-on pack. Will there be a conflict/crash problem installing a 1.14f/1.21f game pack to my 1.27f version???

And out of curiosity, why all this complication? It was so easy in the Civ II GOTMs. Download a .sav file and play.....

 

[denyd]

General,

It's pretty straightforward with PTW. If you were a Vanilla Civ guy, you'd need to be switching files in different directories to move between GOTM and your own or SG games.

As for why it's different, up until GOTM 15, that's pretty much how the Civ 3 GOTMs were, download the save and go. Since then, new resources (olives, wool, lambs...), Barbarians (Squids, Pictish Warriors, Fog...) and AI's (Han Dynansty, Minoans...) are now part of the game. The beginnings of this were to allow the Civ III players to play the same game as the PTW players using AI's that they didn't have (Spanish, Ottoman, Korea...) and it grew from there.

When playing GOTM 24, the only AI you'll recognize as traditional is the Koreans. A lot of the techs have been replaced by more 'Asian' technologies, some of the unit graphics have been replaced by those with an Asian flavor. Next month's Asian Melee promises to be a challenging and enjoyable event.

As for the difficulty of installing the packages, I'm somewhat computer literate and I found it to be very straightforward, as easy as installing PTW. If you have any problems with the installation or during the gameplay, PM (personal mail) Cracker. You'll find his name everywhere on the main forum page. Tell him the problem, what version of the game you're playing, what type of machine... and he'll get back to you pretty quickly.

Before you start I should warn you that sleep, will become a distant memory.

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by GenShwartzCough
And out of curiosity, why all this complication? It was so easy in the Civ II GOTMs. Download a .sav file and play.....

This quote from cracker probably sums it up:

Seriously though, anyone can play a randomly generated game with a chosen civ. The challenge is for tha gmae to stay true to the central strategic principlas of game play and still provide you with a unique and memorable game experience.

It offers something unique. And offers a chance for the mod community at CFC to showcase their talents.

 

[Xevious]

To answer your question, no, there will be no problems downloading the PTW 1.14f/1.21f GOTM21 pack and then the PTW 1.14f/1.21/1.27f GOTM24 update.

 

[GenShwartzCough]

Thank you all for the quick responses. upon reading them I have done the downloads and I am starting with GOTM 21. I am still learning the game, so I figure the extra practice GOTMs will do me good. And in response to denyd.....

Sleep? Oh yeah, I seem to recall doing that before I bought Civ II....LOL

 

[thefrenchzulu]

I have a similar problem to GenShwartzCough. Since the last GOTM's I have played, it has become far to complicated.

There have been so many patches and discussions since, that it would take me a week to read through all the instructions.

What about a simple thread stating something like:

You have Civ 3 Conquests do this and this and play? I'm sure it is out there, but I don't have time to read through hundreds of threads to pick it up. I just bought C3C and would love to play, but being pushed for time, I just don't have the time to read all of it. It really used to be much easier. Download and play???

Could we please have a really simple sticky with the basic guidelines? I have read the FAQ's a long time ago, but things have really changed since and I don't know where to start!

 

[denyd]

FrenchZulu,

Try the Medal Play games.

Currently MP Game 6-4 is available, with the Iroquois in a vanilla game. The mid-month MP games have been setup for those who don't like/want the other goodies.

PS: I should let you know you are missing some great games.

 

[Jayne]

I must admit, it does look complicated and has put me off in the past. I'm currently downloading stuff to play now. It's taking ages on my dial-up and I'm really considering giving up and not bothering!

 

[ainwood]

For first-time players, the game files can be quite large. However for new GOTMs, the incremental packs aren't that big - a couple of megs. GOTM 26 & 27 don't have any add-ons above GOTM 25.

The key is that it looks complicated. In reallity, it isn't (100+ players with all ranges of computer skills have managed it).

The real key is simply in reading the install instructions & readme.txt files.

 

[GenMarshall]

Since I am planning to return to the GOTM. My biggest fear in downloading is the size of the file.

 

[Yndy]

Originally posted by thefrenchzulu
What about a simple thread stating something like:

You have Civ 3 Conquests do this and this and play?
Could we please have a really simple sticky with the basic guidelines? I have read the FAQ's a long time ago, but things have really changed since and I don't know where to start!

tfz, welcome back, it's been an year.
In a few words your answer is
GOTM does not support Conquests yet