I am an Idiot, a newbie and am stuck!

[WhippetRun]

Ok.. i admit it.. I am an idiot.. ok? I read the book, I tried and tried.. but I can't get a hang of this game!!

Is there a tutorial mose scenario that I am missing? I have Civ III Complete so I have all the games i click totorial mode and I don't see much happening in the way of tutoring..

And before you mock and flame me,, trust me I am embarrased already to even ASK

anyway.. I would think they would have a walk through on the basics, but I dunno.. I haven't seen it.. Even in the book there is a "for new users" but I just get the hang of it!

Like I make warriors.. then what all they do is stand around?

"I don't know enough to know that I don't know enough!"

Whippet

 

[Tomoyo]

Like I make warriors.. then what all they do is stand around?

Umm... you have to move them yourself. I may not be the best person to explain things to you, but IIRC, tutorial mode is very tutorial-ish...

 

[Fox Mccloud]

Welcome, WhippetRun Yeah, I'm an idiot too, It's nothing to be ashamed of..

 

[Huzzamaster]

Well, you have your cities built by settlers.

You have your workers who build roads, mines and irrigation to help the land.

Then, you have your cities build units, buildings, and wonders.

THe, you have advisors who can help you, and you get technology.

Yup, that's all I got...

 

[Drugged_Unholy]

Have you installed the game yet?

Or if thats too far ahead, have you plugged your computer in?

 

[rysingsun]

hang in there it will come to you.

lets start with the question you have about the warriors just "standing there". yup! thats what they do. each turn each unit will be selected by the computer once for you to do something with it. you can choose to do nothing or you can move him. if you bump him in to the unit of an opposing country they do battle. if you bump him into an enemy city that has no units in it he walks in can conquers it. for this reason you will want to keep units in your own cities to protect them. take a look at the little button things at the bottom of the screen. each button does something with your unit and if there is no button for it your unit cant do it.

with that start your game on the easiest level because you have a lot of practice to do and you will get slaughtered on the higher levels as a beginner. take your first settler and make a city. then double click the city and study everything inside the city display. for each city you have do this every few turns at least to make sure the city is doing what you want it to do.

and that's all im going to tell you about how to play because if i tell you more you will not remember it. the best instructor is practice. you will pick up on most of the basics on your own and when you come back here (which i really hope you do) you will be able to ask the questions to fill in the gaps you feel you have in your knowledge. believe it or not there are a lot of very helpful people here who will give you much more useful replies than "did you turn your computer on yet?".

 

[Tomoyo]

believe it or not there are a lot of very helpful people here who will give you much more useful replies than "did you turn your computer on yet?"

There are, but if you don't tell us something more specific, the only replies you're gonna get are from people in the Xteam... They can analyse an opening save without doing anything to it for a couple of days and a few pages...

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Well, I'm thrilled to see another idiot. Seems we're breeding uncontrollably.

"Idiot Advice" (see my signature): turn off the tutorial. Play a small map on chieftan. Do what seems right. When that doesn't work, restart from the same map and try a slightly different strategy. Read the War Academy articles. After around 10-20 solo games, sign up for an SG.

Welcome to our world.

If you want specific advice, pick a save, post it and start an SG.

 

[Huzzamaster]

believe it or not there are a lot of very helpful people here who will give you much more useful replies than "did you turn your computer on yet?".

Well, let's say he hasn't turned the computer on...

But yeah, you want some advice, ask. Read what the tutorial people say, (or listen?, I forget.) Start a game and get the feel for it!

 

[Capt Buttkick]

There are, but if you don't tell us something more specific, the only replies you're gonna get are from people in the Xteam... They can analyse an opening save without doing anything to it for a couple of days and a few pages...

Well, I think analysing an opening can be very interesting and in many cases also rewarding. I played a solo game before christmas (emperor pangea) wherein I boldly, in cotm fashion, moved my Dutch settler inland for 5 turns before founding a perfect settler factory with ivory nearby

Anyway, I digress. I'm wondering if the problem with Civ3 and prob Civ4 as well aren't often that you're kinda stumped if you haven't played Civ 1 and 2...
I don't know how the printed manual that ships with Complete looks, but I can't say that the ones in Civ3 or C3C were very helpful.

On to the advice: I think starting on tiny chieftan, doing what seems correctly and getting your butt kicked, while teaching you a few basics, will neither let you grasp the game nor (if you're anything like me) keep you coming back (I hate loosing to the AI ).
Another way to learn the opening fase of the game is to go to the War academy (there's a link there from the main page, on the right hand side) and read Cracker's most excellent article on openings, then try to copy a few of them...

 

[ThePrankMonkey]

i still remember the first game i played when i got civ III. i was amazed by all the graphics and the game play was completely different from civ II which might explain why i had to get the hang of the game but my first game was a miserable failure. i wasnt managing my economy correctly, i wasnt building things according to need. i was all over the place and doing poorly.

eventually i got the hang of it, i lost a lot, the chinese ran me over every chance they got. and believe me mao took great delight in whooping me. eventually i got my revenge on him more times than i can remember.

just play the game and whatever you're doing wrong, you'll find out and then do the opposite. i could tell you how i play the game, which IMO, is a generalized way to play but i'm not gonna. i dont micromanage my cities to squeeze out every last shield or food, i'm in it for fun, not to play the game as a real world simulator. there's a lot of ways to play this game and many different kinds of maps to play on.

READ THE MANUAL. read tutorials on this site, ask questions and dont be afraid of the answers, at least one helpful person will help you out.

 

[Reigns]

I'm a newbie here as well, but wanted to offer one piece of info. My friend picked up Civ and actually had the exact same complaint. The resolution? I explained to him that Civ was a turn based strategy game, not a real time strategy game like Warcraft or Starcraft, which was all he was familiar with. Once he understood that you took turns - so did the computer and that there were pauses in between, THEN he got it and quickly picked it up. I also clued him in on selecting the unit, then hitting 'g' (for go) and clicking on where you wanted to go. The little number is the number of turns it will take to get there.

Just a thought.

-Reigns

By the way, hello all.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

I'm a newbie here as well, but wanted to offer one piece of info. My friend picked up Civ and actually had the exact same complaint. The resolution? I explained to him that Civ was a turn based strategy game, not a real time strategy game like Warcraft or Starcraft, which was all he was familiar with. Once he understood that you took turns - so did the computer and that there were pauses in between, THEN he got it and quickly picked it up. I also clued him in on selecting the unit, then hitting 'g' (for go) and clicking on where you wanted to go. The little number is the number of turns it will take to get there.

Just a thought.

-Reigns

By the way, hello all.

Welcome to Civfanatics 'Reigns', hope you'll become a prolific poster with much to add to our community

 

[Drakan]

I'm a newbie here as well, but wanted to offer one piece of info. My friend picked up Civ and actually had the exact same complaint. The resolution? I explained to him that Civ was a turn based strategy game, not a real time strategy game like Warcraft or Starcraft, which was all he was familiar with. Once he understood that you took turns - so did the computer and that there were pauses in between, THEN he got it and quickly picked it up. I also clued him in on selecting the unit, then hitting 'g' (for go) and clicking on where you wanted to go. The little number is the number of turns it will take to get there.

Just a thought.

-Reigns

By the way, hello all.

POST OF THE YEAR PAL. oh and welcome to CFC Reigns !!

 

[Reigns]

Thanks!

 

[Huzzamaster]

Welcome!...Oh yeah, I'm new also.

By the way, I hate how that guys tongue P) doesn't stay out. Most of the time it is in, but it's supposed to stay out! But I love this guy!

I never really thought of that turn-based thing, my first game was turn-based! The elapsing of time in games always tends to be confusing at the beginning.

 

[planetfall]

For turn number, use the F8 button. The overview tab will show you both the year and turn number. Ignore "year" and use turn number.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

As a fellow idiot I feel your pain. I'm at the threshold of understanding this game I think, but it took time and effort. I actually got pretty frustrated by losing all the time and the AI considering me pathetic and put the cd away for almost a year before trying again. I actually started back up on a whim, and finally won my first domination game on Chieftan, and about to whip the Byzantines on Warlord. I figure if my son can win then I pretty much have to show him I can win too

Anyways, hang in there. I browsed the manual and even bought a strategy guide, neither really helped me get my mind around the basic concepts very well. I think once you reach that first breakthrough it'll click for you, then watch out folks!
TB

 

[Eyeoftiger]

I'm a newbie here as well, but wanted to offer one piece of info. My friend picked up Civ and actually had the exact same complaint. The resolution? I explained to him that Civ was a turn based strategy game, not a real time strategy game like Warcraft or Starcraft, which was all he was familiar with. Once he understood that you took turns - so did the computer and that there were pauses in between, THEN he got it and quickly picked it up. I also clued him in on selecting the unit, then hitting 'g' (for go) and clicking on where you wanted to go. The little number is the number of turns it will take to get there.

Just a thought.

-Reigns

By the way, hello all.

I was going to say this very same thing. My brother got this game because I always talked about it, and he said he'd keep losing because he didn't know what to do with his first two units and the computer kept killing them...LOL. He didn't know it was turn based either.

 

[Percy]

heya =)
okay, i might qualify for "idiot" but don't repeat it ^^

anyway, i've been reading stuff for the last 2 or 3 days (most excellent articles here guys, very nice to read them), but the problem comes when i try to actually apply the strategies. i know most of the game mechanisms, at least in part (i know how culture works, i know how to determine the likeliness of a fight, etc etc), but i always have the feeling i cannot get the most of my starting locations. i have never EVER succeeded in setting up a settler/worker factory for example. i cannot seem to be able to correctly micromanage my cities. and so on and so forth.

so, what i'm looking for is either or all of the following:
- yet another guide, very detailed (but i already read most of those here i guess, including cracker's for example).
- some place where i can find a step-by-step savegame with the explanation for every save (i am pretty sure there is here, but i seem to have missed it)
- some nice guy(s) ready to give me some quick personalized advice (via MSN, Y!M, IRC, or plain PM/e-mail)

thanks a lot guys =)