I dunno where this goes, but I'm at my ends and I just wanna fix this

[ChaotiCast]

So, my friend finally got me hooked on Civ, and since Civ 3 Complete is $5 on steam, i bought it and have been having a blast with it (somuchso that ive stopped playing SC atm for it) but anytime we play multiplayer it seems to crash out anytime after an hour 1/2 at earliest and 3:45 at latest today. It disconnects one of us and acts like the other isnt even there. I was disconnected, but on my screen it said my friend was gone and to boot him. So, thinking that was the issue, we agreed for me to just kick him and finish the win for us and the third friend who lost early on. But when I booted him, it sent me to the gameover screen immediately. Is there a fix for this, or do I need a new version entirely? Note ive already tried verifying all my files and i also run the game in admin, color downscale, and compatibility mode, and it hasnt crashed out of a single player Game over since the changes, but still crashed in MP before and after the changes

 

[vesperbot]

I wonder if they sell a fully patched version. If not, you need to download patches up to 1.29f for vanilla, and 1.22 for conquests.

 

[ChaotiCast]

I wonder if they sell a fully patched version. If not, you need to download patches up to 1.29f for vanilla, and 1.22 for conquests.

Is Conquests the one they sell on steam thats called "complete"? What are the differences

 

[tjs282]

Is Conquests the one they sell on steam thats called "complete"? What are the differences

They're really just marketing terms. 'Conquests' was/is the second expansion pack (which also included the first expansion, 'Play The World'), intended to be added on to an existing 'Vanilla' Civ3 installation. IIRC, the original release of the 'conquests.exe' executable was v.1.15 (could be wrong, though: I also came to the Civ3 party pretty late!).

'Civ3 Complete' is the base-game plus the 2 expansions (at the final patch-levels), plus some additional content, all sold as a single unit—but when you play Complete, you'll (usually) be running the conquests.exe executable (v.1.22). And if you have a downloaded version of 'InComplete', this is actually now the only option, since none of the current DL-versions (that I know of) include the Vanilla Civilization3.exe (v.1.29) or the PtW Civilization3X.exe (v.1.27).

So you're already fully patched. And if you can play SP without crashes, and MP for 1:30-3:45 hours before it crashes, it sounds like your game is working fine — but the internet connection/Steam hosting service may not be. Could just be that traffic peaks at certain times, and that lag causes your game to crash.

But could also be just outdated code: Remember, the MP-mode for this game was coded back in 2002 or so (MP became possible with the release of PtW), and it was also originally designed to be hosted on another, now long-since defunct service (GameSpy), not Steam. (I vaguely remember reading that) The Steam version of MP-Civ3 appears to have been somewhat limited, e.g. it used to be possible to run MP-Civ3 over a LAN connection, so you didn't even need a remote hosting-site, but the Steam-version of MP doesn't allow this anymore.

Also, do you already know about the 'short-game' modes and victory conditions (e.g. accelerated production, regicide, elimination)? If not, setting those might help to end your games sooner, before you crash out...?

(NB As to where this question goes, it could just as well have been posted in the 'Civ3: Technical Support' subforum, but TBH it's probably going to be more visible here)

 

[Lanzelot]

it used to be possible to run MP-Civ3 over a LAN connection, so you didn't even need a remote hosting-site, but the Steam-version of MP doesn't allow this anymore.

Oh, is that so? Then I definitely recommend to get an old CD-version of "Complete" on eBay for $2 or so and download the no-CD patch required to run on newer Windowses. I have played the LAN-version of multiplayer back in 2007 a bit with my in-laws and nephew, and never had a crash with it, after we overcame the initial hurdle: multiplayer used to crash right when starting up, if on the PC in question no driver for the soundcard was installed.

(I was using a Win98 PC at that time and at first I had it fully installed with all the drivers that came with the motherboard-CD, but then it got wrecked by a virus and I had to reinstall it and I thought -- as I never used sound on it anyway -- why bother?, and skipped the sound-driver... Did the same on a second PC I had bought for setting up a LAN. And multiplayer crashed on both of them, while on my nephew's PC it was running fine. I tried everything on my two PCs for several months, including buying a pair of new network-cards, updating the drivers of the network-cards, graphics-cards and monitors to several different versions, but to no avail. (I even contacted Firaxis support, but never got a reply...)

After I had already given up, my wife went to a Microsoft workshop for school teachers and got a free copy of "Microsoft Encarta", and I thought it might be nice to listen to the sound files that come with it -- especially the recordings of famous speeches by the likes of Kennedy, Churchill etc. So I dug up the old motherboard-CD again and installed the soundcard driver.
A while later I gave multiplayer another try, and to my surprise it worked!! I then conducted a couple of experiments like: disable the soundcard in Windows Device Manager --> multiplayer crashes at startup. Go back to the Device Manager and re-enable the soundcard --> multiplayer works fine again! Same on my other PC, which btw had completely different hardware and drivers. Voila, mystery solved!)

 

[Scratcher]

I agree with Lanzelot, I bought Civ 3 through Steam but had many problems, and I couldn't get the Vanilla and PTW formats to run. I now run my Civ 3 conquests CD installation with no-cd patches and all versions runs perfectly.... now all I miss is my CivAssist ....

 

[WeirdoJoker]

.... now all I miss is my CivAssist ....

I still cannot get it to work w/ C3C on Win10. I've basically given up, pending further information.

 

[vmxa]

May not be of much help, but the utilities forum has a thread for CAII.

BTW, I have version 2.0.5083 working fine on Win10 and using C3C complete the steam version. No special steps used. GL In the mean time, try the older app CRP.

 

[B-29_Bomber]

Yeah, the Steam version is kind of crap (like a lot of old games on there that predate the service). Try launching the editor.

Publishers just don't care all that much about old games and I can see why: There just isn't any money in it.