How stable is multiplayer

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kramsnewo

Chieftain
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
3
Hey all,

I have been reading all of the wonderful info here at civ fanatics for about a week. I have played like 4 regular games so far (using conquests). The first three were total wipes (never got out of ancient) and the last one looks to be close. THis is on monarch. I attribute all of my improvement to the help provided by this site... :)

My younger brother and I are going to attempt to play multiplayer tonight, but I am a bit worried. It seems that every time we try multiplayer in some game we have a ton of technical problems and never get to really play.

So my main question is: "How stable and user friendly is Conquests?". We will both have the latest patch and my firewall will be turned off (zonealarm). We will be using direct ip and we both have cable internet. We are both fairly computer literate also. Any tips to make it go smoother?

Also, we would also like to try to have msn messenger audio hooked up while we do this so we can voice chat the whole time. Will that create lag? Should we just use the phone?

Any tips on making it go smoother. Is simultaneous turns the way to go. Any other advice on settings?

I know the game will go on forever (unless he crushes me early). Is there any way to switch the game to PBEM after the initial play marathon?

I am sorry if some of this info has been asked/answered before. I did read through most everything here, but some of it seemed like it might be for an earlier version of just plain out of date...

All help appreciated!

Kram
 
My understanding is that C3C 1.22 is the most stable MP version to date. I could be wrong however. You really should find a way to play with a firewall turned on. Even my addiction to civ3 wouldn't make me turn off my firewall.

You cannot change to PBEM once you start. One thing you might want to try is a PBEM and just transfer the file back and forth over messenger each turn for a power session.
 
Try it and see. Describe errors you may have. Do you have a router or hardware firewall? Is there Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed and if so is that firewall have the correct ports open, programs allowed, or whatever you want to do with it?
 
I've found MP to be a a lot (maybe 5x?) slower than SP and this is with a dedicated 100 mbit LAN. I found inconsistencies when I turn on simultaneous play eg. a battle would be going on involving your units but the screen does not scroll to the spot, and you only find out the result of the battle by a text message. Quite annoying when you have lots going on. Oh yes and try to play no larger than a standard map unless you have LOTS of time. Without simultaneous play, the game just takes forever.
 
Atm c3c is very stable. Ofcourse there is ooses and drops etc and reloads happen but still it's more then enjoyable. What comes to slowness of the game I think there is something wrong with your settings. Routers are which causes a lot of problems(connection and sloweness) for this game. I would read readme file and some router tips from civ3players forum and try to fix your routers settings.
 
In civ3c do you get to see what happens when it is not your turn?

In earlier versions of civ and ptw I was stunned to find out that you dont get to see any action when you get attacked. It should show just like in single player, if you get attacked you should see what your vision allows you to see.

I find that totally stupid that you just have to look around and see if any units are missing and then find out who killed them.

Did they finally add this to conquests?
 
No, there is no replay. It would have been a major investment of resources to add it once pretty much all of Civ 3 was already coded. So they didn't.
 
Fair enough and I dont mean to ***** but I have payed for the game, the multiplayer expansion and just yesterday the new expansion which renders my old expansion obsolete as it is included anyway.

For them to say its to much work for something I consider vital to an enjoyable game (especially when things get large and you are in a big war) is a bit of a cop out. A bit of foresight (sp) and this could have been prepared for.

Anyway, it doesnt matter as whats done is done and I just hope they put some more effort into civ4.

Thanks for the reply
 
The core of the Civ 3 development group, including the lead designer and pretty much all of the programmers left a year into production. That is a huge blow to a project, and just getting it released and playable is a major challenge. On top of that, Civ 3's code was based off of Alpha Centauri, which was based off of Civ 2, which was based off of...

In other words, Civ 3 had all sorts of problems even being made in the first place. It's hard for them to worry about things like replay when you're trying to get Multiplayer working or an AI coded. ;)
 
Hey all,

Just wanted to thank everyone for responding. We did have some trouble with my Bro's settings, but we had them figured out in less than an hour. The game did get a little slow though and we only got about 2 hours into the game. I do like being able to 'review' everything while it is the other guy's turn. Gives you a break in which to think about bigger term strategy. In single player games i keep getting sucked into my next move so fast I sometimes forget about 'the bigger picture'

Kram
 
Trip said:
The core of the Civ 3 development group, including the lead designer and pretty much all of the programmers left a year into production. That is a huge blow to a project, and just getting it released and playable is a major challenge. On top of that, Civ 3's code was based off of Alpha Centauri, which was based off of Civ 2, which was based off of...

In other words, Civ 3 had all sorts of problems even being made in the first place. It's hard for them to worry about things like replay when you're trying to get Multiplayer working or an AI coded. ;)
Click to expand...

Wow, didnt know that. I wonder what happened to make them all leave midway through creating a sequel to one of the most popular strategy games of all time?

Hopefully no such dramas occur in civ4.

Is this why there are always so many bugs in civ3 and its expansions?
 
Simo said:
Wow, didnt know that. I wonder what happened to make them all leave midway through creating a sequel to one of the most popular strategy games of all time?
Click to expand...
The lead designer, Brian Reynolds, left because he wanted more control over the creation of products. In doing so, he took about 4 programmers with him (which is usually most if not all that you have working on a project). He has since said that he wanted to work on RTS games, and started Big Huge Games which came out with Rise of Nations a year or so ago. So he got his wish. ;)

Hopefully no such dramas occur in civ4.
Click to expand...
Doesn't look like it, but always good to have the fingers crossed. ;)

Is this why there are always so many bugs in civ3 and its expansions?
Click to expand...
That's exactly the problem. It wasn't that Firaxis was trying to dumb down the game or milk the series for expansions and more money - it was the fact that they were struggling just to get the game made at all! It's a testament to the skill of those who came in and took over along with those who remained at Firaxis that they've still managed to create a game which so many people enjoy so much, even with a rough edge or two. ;)
 
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