Keeping up with deity AI

[Spoonwood]

See here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=122419 and did I reference Moonsinger's article on artillery before?

 

[texico11]

What about catching others up with there Tech?

I'm playing a game at the moment, huge map, 24 civs. There are a couple of civs trailing the bottom, stuck at early middle ages. The bulk of the civs, including me, are just approaching the industrial ages, but 4 civs, the Egyptians, the Ottomans, The Carthage, and The Germans, have been leading the way most of the game, and are most likely well into the middle of the industrial ages. They've been trading techs with eachother, and because they have a fair gap, It's impossible for me to catch them, because there's no civs in the middle for me to use as a hook. And trading doesn't seem to work, because I have nothing of particular value. Luxuries won't cut tech, and neither will gold. And the resources I have, they already have (which is all of them). I've tried everything, and my science sliders already max'ed out (using the GPT I got from selling them Lux) but they've always remained ahead.

As a result, they've also beaten me to every single Wonder. Even with Pre-Shielding they've usually managed to complete a Wonder before I've even learnt the tech to start construction. Consequently, they have the upper hand in military, so that's not the easiest option. I've tried stirring things up a bit by Using alliances to make the big guys fight and knock eachother out, and It's worked to a certain degree in that I managed to knock the Celts and now most likely the Egyptians off the top spots while avoiding Military confrontation, but If i try and mess with the Ottomans or the Carthage (the super powers) I will most likely have some serious fighting to do. The one good thing about my situation is It's Archipelago, and I'm on a sizable island that I almost completely control, so I'm gaining a massive upper-hand in ocean war-fare.

Any suggestions? I'm sure it's relevent to this thread aswell.

 

[Spoonwood]

I don't know texico, I'd need a save. I've only played Huge maps with 16 or less tribes, not 24.

 

[mao_tse_tung]

I just want to have performance comparison woth you guys. With this spec :
Pangea
Sedentary Barb
Huge Map
Normal climate and temp
5 million (or billion?) age
7 AI civs
Deity

I chose the Romans.

I built my 7th city in 825 BC and learned :
Warr Code & Alphabet (starting tech)
Wheel & Horse Riding
Bronze & Iron Working
and currently researching Writing

Contact :
German
Egyptian
Greek
4 other civs remain unknown

Is this progress by 825 BC healthy?
What about you guys? How well do you guys do until around 825 BC?
Oh and how much is your total income and corruption shown in the domestic advisor screen?

 

[Spoonwood]

With Rome research Writing first and then trade for the rest of the techs, or go Writing and then research Literature and build the Great Library. By 825 BC I've usually reached the Middle Ages and maybe researched a tech or two there. See here http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/trading_tips.php Civ III plays much differently than Civ II in terms of trading and the tech race. You might want to look into a helper program like MapStat or Civ Assist 2. Usually, in the ancient ages, the desired research strategy seems to shoot down the middle... i.e. Alphabet-Writing, then either Philosophy/Code of Laws or Literature depending on what level you've played at and some other factors.

 

[Jokeslayer]

Much of this is map dependent, so if you really want a comparison, you should post the 4000BC save and try to get other people to play it.

Your tech progress might be a little slow (not 100% on this, I don't look at the date all that often, but that's what my gut says). How are the AI civs for tech?

 

[mao_tse_tung]

Okay, here's my Map. Please remember that I think this is the standard Civ3, not extension (or maybe it is???) Play it and let's compare the techs, cities and total of income and corruption. Please play it until 1 AD, and then upload the save here, so I can do some comparison.
Thanks for the hard work guys.

 

[Spoonwood]

I can't load the save. I can download it, but I can load it.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I can load it, but it is an unpatched Vanilla save. I can tell from the spotty fog of war which permits me to see large parts of the maps.

 

[mao_tse_tung]

Unpatched Vanilla save? So this means something wrong with the AI (because they're just way too strong). Is this the reason behind my bitter and humiliating defeat? (please say yes). Is my game version obsolette and needs to be patched? Now that explains why I couldn't load the save files I got from this forum.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Unpatched Vanilla save? So this means something wrong with the AI (because they're just way too strong). Is this the reason behind my bitter and humiliating defeat? (please say yes).

No, unfortunately not. That is because Deity is just a hard level.

Is my game version obsolette and needs to be patched? Now that explains why I couldn't load the save files I got from this forum.

Yeah, I think you'd best patch it. I remember that with some of the earliest patches the upgrade paths were broken and you couldn't upgrade to your UU*. You'll also gain stack movement (hit 'j') and the distribution of resources is better. Patches can be downloaded here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=64
The 1.29F is what you need, if I am not mistaken.



* Play Persia, build several dozens of vet Warriors, stockpile a lot of gold, research IW, connect Iron and then ... you'll know what it is to feel like a complete idiot. Not that this ever happened to me of course. Oh. Thinking themselves wise they became fools.

 

[mao_tse_tung]

I downloaded 1.29f, and I got "Please insert Civ 3 disc". What's wrong?
Now I have to re-install the game and losing all the saved games.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I downloaded 1.29f, and I got "Please insert Civ 3 disc". What's wrong?
Now I have to re-install the game and losing all the saved games.

I am not entirely sure that you have to reinstall everything, but can't really remember. In any case, you can easily move out your saves from the Civilization folder/directory before. I generally store all my saves elsewhere.

 

[mao_tse_tung]

DAAAAMNNNN IT!
I didn't think of moving the save files first to another folder before re-installing.
Btw, I read somewhere in the forum the the patch that works is 1.07. i wonder where to DL it.

 

[mao_tse_tung]

Btw, I did some fighting. I fought a English REGULAR WARRIOR. And what do you know? I lost 2 of my knights to him. He was in grassland tile (pretty sure that grasslands don't give any def bonus). So let's see :
Warrior with atk and def of 1 point killed 2 (not one but two) knights with 4 atk and 3 def. I was the attacking side. So Atk 4 defeated by def 1. And not once but twice. Are you sure that this is not a bug???

 

[Jokeslayer]

Btw, I did some fighting. I fought a English REGULAR WARRIOR. And what do you know? I lost 2 of my knights to him. He was in grassland tile (pretty sure that grasslands don't give any def bonus). So let's see :
Warrior with atk and def of 1 point killed 2 (not one but two) knights with 4 atk and 3 def. I was the attacking side. So Atk 4 defeated by def 1. And not once but twice. Are you sure that this is not a bug???

It's just random numbers. You can argue that the system is dumb, but stuff like what you described happens with the combat system civ 3 has.

 

[mao_tse_tung]

I'm stranded in a medium island with Germans. Just the two of us. Is it possible to build 12 cities (minimal cities to gain optimal performance) in this circumstances? We know that deity AI expands very rapidly.