tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
#NotAllCiv3Disks...?
Most game changing concept/tip
- Thread starter bbrady413
- Start date
jarred!
King
But seriously? I think I (i.e. my mom) bought complete edition back in circa 2005 when we got a new home pc and my original install disks were scratched up, but that might have been when I got gold edition and then I got complete later... I would've been 13 in '05 so I don't remember clearly. Could there have been multiple lots of complete disks, some with securom and some without?
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
Yes, that appears to be exactly what happened. For example, the Civ3-CD(s) in the "Civilization Chronicles" box-set (apparently) did/do not use SecuROM.
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r16
not deity
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
- Messages
- 11,217
older brother gets a windows computer , replacing the DOS 486 , which becomes totally available for me to play . Civ l among so many other gems . Sometime later Civ lll is acquired for the new one , pretty sure PTW . One day , ı get to play my first game . ı choose Americans , because ı check the nations and F-15 and precision bombing and that obviously means ı will only bomb the walls and leave everything else , or maybe will choose some specific unit to attack .
ı settle and see , am rather familiar with the X form , where your citizens are to put to work efficiently . Except ı can't ! ... Shocking moment but not THE shocking one . And ı know whom to blame , too ! (Now) 10 turns and oh , so ı must look for that culture thing ...
am happy with my cities . 4 or 5 of them , me waiting for caravans to appear . Older brother passes by , advises me to expand . He has far more experience , you see . Am somewhat smug . Would like to have horses , but the core didn't have them , and my firm upbringing is all about a central reserve to be dropped down on the invader and smash him down into a jelly and no railroads yet , so ı will have a small country , thank you ...
so , this green guy shows up , Aztecs . Oh , he is like , fast ? And agressive and soon a war , and being defensive , because ı will have massive numbers of F-15s . Not a Tomcat , it's true , but will have to do ... Soon , one or two Aztec warriors come, attack my cities and , well , they are fast ... r16 takes his time to adjust , as his warriors try to catch , and they do not die ? Some of the time ? You know , sometimes they will be redlined and stop in the attack and in defence they will be redlined and run ... All shocking but not THE one .
even more horrible is the stack thing . ı have good stack discipline , one good defender and many chariots , but that is so 20th Century . ı kill an Aztec and the rest of the Aztec stack stands . Shocking but not the one . And a good thing that ı had no horses , because chariots are not chariots ! Would learn that later .
older brother passes by me again , the computer is of course in his flat , advises ı should invade someone . Have had enough of Aztecs , so with discovering gunpowder ı load a few musketmen in a galley , because one or two galleys should be enough and attack some neighbour overseas . Like with 4 or 5 cities , how many units can have at a time ? He definitely doesn't look like having musketmen and history tells us muskets changed warfare , right ? An elite unit ? What's that ? There were elite chariots of mine and they were no different to my veteran chariots . Soon , a leader ! You are dreaming r16 using his leader to attack and the stupid game tells you can't attack with non-military units ? Am pretty sure that must have happened but we are talking like of 15 years ago and am not attacking , am just trying to get that pop-up where you can bribe the enemy unit to defect or steal a tech ! Did ı mention no tech to plunder with capturing a city ? That was probably because ı was ahead in tech . Shocking but not THE one .
finally fed up , ı get the leader in the single city ı have conquered of the neighbour , will wait the Al expend itself against my city defence . Oh , a button , press that and ı have an army ? A guy in three cornered hat , with a flag in his hand . And what does he do ? Certainly will not kill anyone ! So , ı do the best thing and park him on a mountain . You know , you block any Civ l invasion by two units fortified with a gap between them and nobody can pass , short of killing one or both ? Older brother passes again and tells it doesn't work anymore . Shocking and indeed THE one . So much that when my conquered city culturally flips back , am still in shock , retire or give up without any fuss ...
ı settle and see , am rather familiar with the X form , where your citizens are to put to work efficiently . Except ı can't ! ... Shocking moment but not THE shocking one . And ı know whom to blame , too ! (Now) 10 turns and oh , so ı must look for that culture thing ...
am happy with my cities . 4 or 5 of them , me waiting for caravans to appear . Older brother passes by , advises me to expand . He has far more experience , you see . Am somewhat smug . Would like to have horses , but the core didn't have them , and my firm upbringing is all about a central reserve to be dropped down on the invader and smash him down into a jelly and no railroads yet , so ı will have a small country , thank you ...
so , this green guy shows up , Aztecs . Oh , he is like , fast ? And agressive and soon a war , and being defensive , because ı will have massive numbers of F-15s . Not a Tomcat , it's true , but will have to do ... Soon , one or two Aztec warriors come, attack my cities and , well , they are fast ... r16 takes his time to adjust , as his warriors try to catch , and they do not die ? Some of the time ? You know , sometimes they will be redlined and stop in the attack and in defence they will be redlined and run ... All shocking but not THE one .
even more horrible is the stack thing . ı have good stack discipline , one good defender and many chariots , but that is so 20th Century . ı kill an Aztec and the rest of the Aztec stack stands . Shocking but not the one . And a good thing that ı had no horses , because chariots are not chariots ! Would learn that later .
older brother passes by me again , the computer is of course in his flat , advises ı should invade someone . Have had enough of Aztecs , so with discovering gunpowder ı load a few musketmen in a galley , because one or two galleys should be enough and attack some neighbour overseas . Like with 4 or 5 cities , how many units can have at a time ? He definitely doesn't look like having musketmen and history tells us muskets changed warfare , right ? An elite unit ? What's that ? There were elite chariots of mine and they were no different to my veteran chariots . Soon , a leader ! You are dreaming r16 using his leader to attack and the stupid game tells you can't attack with non-military units ? Am pretty sure that must have happened but we are talking like of 15 years ago and am not attacking , am just trying to get that pop-up where you can bribe the enemy unit to defect or steal a tech ! Did ı mention no tech to plunder with capturing a city ? That was probably because ı was ahead in tech . Shocking but not THE one .
finally fed up , ı get the leader in the single city ı have conquered of the neighbour , will wait the Al expend itself against my city defence . Oh , a button , press that and ı have an army ? A guy in three cornered hat , with a flag in his hand . And what does he do ? Certainly will not kill anyone ! So , ı do the best thing and park him on a mountain . You know , you block any Civ l invasion by two units fortified with a gap between them and nobody can pass , short of killing one or both ? Older brother passes again and tells it doesn't work anymore . Shocking and indeed THE one . So much that when my conquered city culturally flips back , am still in shock , retire or give up without any fuss ...
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Yeah Civ3 changed many things compared to Civ2. All for the better imo,though I did love II.
Recent changes in my gameplay that I noticed when I picked up the epic game again after over two years of not playing it:
Workers!
A double line of forests, hills, mountains and/or barricades can slow down almost any invader enough for massed artillery to destroy them, thus nullifying the AI's highly mobile stacks of doom. If you get a spy you can know how much artillery you need.
It's better to first spread out workers, build roads, then gather them together using said roads to build other terrain improvements.
Resources!
Almost nothing is too much to exchange for Coal at a certain point in the timeline. Modernise your transport/production infrastructure, and then you can conquer the people who're giving you coal… or just move on to oil-based units such as Destroyers and Tanks.
Actually, the additional income from railroaded tiles might just get you enough money to just buy the Coal instead of having to give them other stuff in return.
And having a monopoly of one single luxury actually makes the AI highly value it. I've been exchanging Ivory for Coal in my current Maya game for over 40 turns. Ridiculous.
Also all border/coastal cities should have barracks to make their defenders nearly immortal, inland/hinterland cities don't need them unless they focus on unit production.
Know when to expand: overextension might actually backfire on you. Don't just take cities as war reparations from the AI, sometimes it's better to take money or workers or techs.
Now that I mention it, I don't think I've ever researched Ironclads since Windows 98.
Workers!
A double line of forests, hills, mountains and/or barricades can slow down almost any invader enough for massed artillery to destroy them, thus nullifying the AI's highly mobile stacks of doom. If you get a spy you can know how much artillery you need.
It's better to first spread out workers, build roads, then gather them together using said roads to build other terrain improvements.
Resources!
Almost nothing is too much to exchange for Coal at a certain point in the timeline. Modernise your transport/production infrastructure, and then you can conquer the people who're giving you coal… or just move on to oil-based units such as Destroyers and Tanks.
Actually, the additional income from railroaded tiles might just get you enough money to just buy the Coal instead of having to give them other stuff in return.
And having a monopoly of one single luxury actually makes the AI highly value it. I've been exchanging Ivory for Coal in my current Maya game for over 40 turns. Ridiculous.
Also all border/coastal cities should have barracks to make their defenders nearly immortal, inland/hinterland cities don't need them unless they focus on unit production.
Know when to expand: overextension might actually backfire on you. Don't just take cities as war reparations from the AI, sometimes it's better to take money or workers or techs.
What an interesting username… anyway, yes, also a certain tjs282 has taught us the benefit of giving the AI techs that make their crutch wonders obsolete. ‘Screw your fast fleets/walled cities, here's some Magnetism/Metallurgy for you!’
Yeah. Government techs that you're not going to use are by definition waste. E.g. in the first age you only choose Monarchy or Republic and eventually the AI will give you the other one in exchange for Ironclads which you got off another AI in exchange for a useless Musical Theory/Free Artistry.ciquta said:
Now that I mention it, I don't think I've ever researched Ironclads since Windows 98.
I know for a fact that there were original vanilla civ3 disks that could be copied. Of course, back in those days having a CD drive that could also write CDs was rare rather than the standard.
I think the trick of gifting Metallurgy to the civ with the Great Wall, before attacking it, was already known long before tjs282. I came to this forum in 2007, and already back then it was "general knowledge"...
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
Takh's post notwithstanding, I certainly never claimed to have invented this trick.
TBH, I don't remember who/where I first learnt it from, but I'd lay good odds on it being you...
Ah, yes, but tjs282 and I are among a handful of people who are colonising the barbaric wastelands of CFC's Off-Topic with our tales about playing civ3. Given how threads in the dedicated civ forums go off-topic, it is only logical that we one-up them by discussing civ in Off-Topic.
There were many, but if I had to name just one, reading Cracker's Opening Plays. If I could name several, but in no particular order, I'd add learning: (a) a little micromanagement, both in cities and with workers; (b) the Republic Slingshot; (c) how to build a settler pump.
WeirdoJoker
King
I have actually learned how to seek after a Diplomatic victory. Playing Sumeria (Monarch/Standard map/Continents/70%) and originally hoped for a Spaceship victory. In the absence of sufficient resources, and the Arabs breathing down my neck and DOW me, I managed to trade tech to every other Civ to do a MA versus them. They destroyed one of my cities, but then I beat them back with the Celts' help and went after them. Keeping everyone gracious toward me in the process (even if it meant gifting tech, which was usually all I had to trade anyway), I held the UN election as soon as it was finished, and the vote was 6-2 (the only opposition votes being the Maya, who the were other competitor, and the Arabs, who for some reason were unhappy with me...).
It was also my highest scoring game by about 1900 points. I was quite happy with the outcome, and now I'm going to move forward to try for a Spaceship on the next game.
It was also my highest scoring game by about 1900 points. I was quite happy with the outcome, and now I'm going to move forward to try for a Spaceship on the next game.
md4
Warlord
- Joined
- May 2, 2020
- Messages
- 132
For the longest time I was Scrooge McTech, never trading anything because I assumed it would weaken my lead. For some reason it didn't click that it just takes one other AI player to research and trade it among everyone else, in which everybody but me benefits. So it may as well be me that benefits by trading it for vast amounts of wealth. Plus, in some cases it nets you an even bigger tech lead.
Always remember that once you've traded off a tech the AI will normally have no qualms about selling it for better prices than it would ask of you, so always trade in your turn if possible and trade it off to as many as might buy it, because any money, luxuries or even a lone worker you might get is still better than letting that flow through your rivals' economies.
WeirdoJoker
King
And now I've learned not to make military alliances and then make peace with the opposition. Japan DOW me, and I got everyone else to join in. And then I made peace before 20 turns had passed and they're all still furious with me. Completely and permanently ruined my reputation, and now I'm scrambling to get the UN (researching Fission now) so I don't get a Diplomatic defeat.
(Playing Monarch/Small, Rome vs. Aztecs/China/Germany/Japan/Zulu.)
(Playing Monarch/Small, Rome vs. Aztecs/China/Germany/Japan/Zulu.)
md4
Warlord
- Joined
- May 2, 2020
- Messages
- 132
I rarely get involved in most forms of diplomatic agreements beyond basic peace treaties and RoPs. In a typical game I will have 6–8 resources and sometimes hundreds of gpt flying back and forth between me and the other civs, and war is just bad for business.
WeirdoJoker
King
Yeah, that peacemaking I did resulted in a Spaceship defeat. I did get the UN to stave off a Diplomatic defeat, but the Chinese launched a few parts ahead of me. I couldn't have won it anyway, since my military was not sufficient to beat anyone; the Chinese wouldn't sell me their surplus uranium (sold it to the Aztecs), and since my forces just were not strong enough I couldn't prosecute a war to steal someone else's. Basically, pulling out of that alliance early is how I lost the game, because my reputation never recovered.
Not to mention large maps are better for resources, or so I would imagine since scarcity should be less of a problem.
Anyway, question: what are the mechanics of what make, say, Monarch more difficult than Regent? I have 2 wins, 3 losses so far (going for the Mayans next - much more fun than Rome anyway).
Not to mention large maps are better for resources, or so I would imagine since scarcity should be less of a problem.
Anyway, question: what are the mechanics of what make, say, Monarch more difficult than Regent? I have 2 wins, 3 losses so far (going for the Mayans next - much more fun than Rome anyway).
AI civs get a few extra military units at start, one extra unit support per city (or town?), a 10% production discount plus other stuff. The relevant table is here:
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty_level_(Civ3)
