Nice bunch of questions.

[Korppu]

Hello. My name is Korppu,and i have played Civilization III since i was 8 years old. I read some tips up there,and some threads in this forum arena,but i still have some questions.

I began to wonder,why doesn't my cieties usually get up from 12,the name turns yellow,and it says in the city ''nect lvl in 99999 turns'' or whatever it was. So,i have some questions here:

1)What's the best country to start Civ3 (for starters)
2)Goverments. What's the best one? I tried changing the goverment for once,and i ended up with complete anarchy...
3)I always get my per turn gold from incoming cities,how do i get gold for other things,also, where should i use my gold in other than trading it with some technology from other civs?
4)Why I shouldn't do any temple or something like that in the centre cities? And some other buildgins aswell. What should i do,and where?
5)Witch should i do more,attack or defence troops?
6)How the hell i can fish?
7)When i do cities,I always do them near my border,so they attatch to my culture,if you know what I mean. Should I?
8)Should I make wonder? And if not,why?
9)Should i make some sea troops,like Frigates,if im in a attached land map?
10)What's AI?
I hope you understanded me,I have really bad english,so no flame about my english,im 14 years old and im from Finland ^^
Also,if you have some very nice tips for me,please,share

E:Also,is there any patches,or updates to Civilization 3?
Thank you,~Korppu

 

[Aabraxan]

Hello. My name is Korppu,and i have played Civilization III since i was 8 years old. I read some tips up there,and some threads in this forum arena,but i still have some questions.

Welcome to CFC, Korppu!

I began to wonder,why doesn't my cieties usually get up from 12,the name turns yellow,and it says in the city ''nect lvl in 99999 turns'' or whatever it was. So,i have some questions here:

Without fresh water or an aqueduct, a city can only grow to size 6. With fresh water or an aque, it can grow to size 12. It can only grow over size 12 if it has a hospital or Shakespeare's Theatre. When the number turns yellow and you get the "growth in 99999" message, it has quit growing.

1)What's the best country to start Civ3 (for starters)

That's the subject of quite a bit of debate. Search the fora for "Favorite Civ" polls and you'll see lots of discussion on this.

2)Goverments. What's the best one? I tried changing the goverment for once,and i ended up with complete anarchy...

Like "Favorite Civs," government comes up regularly. In part, it depends on what version you're playing. Otherwise, the typical advice that emerges from these is:
Best, Generally: Republic
Best for Culture: Feudal
Best for All-War: Monarchy

With that said, the specifics of your game may mean that you should deviate from the typical advice. If you need government advice on a specific game, start a thread and post a save.

3)I always get my per turn gold from incoming cities,how do i get gold for other things,also, where should i use my gold in other than trading it with some technology from other civs?

Gold can be traded (as you've noted), can be used to upgrade units, can be used to cash-rush stuff, and can be used to finance "deficit research." (Have I missed anything?)

4)Why I shouldn't do any temple or something like that in the centre cities? And some other buildgins aswell. What should i do,and where?

Ah, the temple debate . . . Another frequent topic. In large part, what you build and where depends on your chosen victory condition.

5)Witch should i do more,attack or defence troops?

Attack.

6)How the hell i can fish?

Fish are just a food bonus. If one of your citizens is working the tile, you get the bonus.

7)When i do cities,I always do them near my border,so they attatch to my culture,if you know what I mean. Should I?

Generally, I'd say yes, though there may be situations in which you need to claim a resource, or spread out for some other reason.

8)Should I make wonder? And if not,why?

There's an article in the War Academy called the Four Rules of Wonder Addiction. I'd advise reading it. Again, it depends on your victory condition, as well as which specific wonder you're talking about.

9)Should i make some sea troops,like Frigates,if im in a attached land map?

It depends. Sorry, but that's the best general answer I've got. If you're on a pangea map, no. If you're on an archipelago map, yes. If you're on continents, you'll probably need some. How many depends on a variety of factors, like difficulty level.

10)What's AI?

An Artificial Intelligence -- a computer-controlled civ.

I hope you understanded me,I have really bad english,so no flame about my english,im 14 years old and im from Finland ^^

Your English is much better than my Finnish, I can assure you.

Also,if you have some very nice tips for me,please,share

Head for the Civ 3 War Academy for some excellent articles.

 

[Korppu]

Thank you ^^ You passed some of my questions,also i have some other questions now,not much ^^

1)So how do I raise the per turn bonus except comming from cities?
2)Cash rush stuff? Whats that about?
3)Could you paste a topic about the buildings to here please? Thank you.
4) I don't know the word tile,could you somehow explain it to me?
E:Also,is there any updates/patches?
Also,what should i do when it is disorder in town,and my citizen says that it way too crowded 100%?
Thats all,~Korppu

 

[Empiremaker]

1. You can get gpt from cities, taxmen, and other civs.
2. In most governments: Republic, Monarchy, fascism, and Democracy, you can spend gold to receive shields. 4 gold will buy 1 shield. This is doubled (8 gold per shield) if you have no shields invested.
3. I don't know where one is, but there is the search function.
4. A tile is one of the squares where stuff is. CRTL-G will turn on a grid so that it is easier to see where each tile is.
5. Civ3 vanilla (No expansions) patch is 1.29f. Conquests is patched to 1.22f.

 

[12 Bar Blues]

That's the subject of quite a bit of debate. Search the fora for "Favorite Civ" polls and you'll see lots of discussion on this.

Like for Wonder Addiction, I think that starters should start playing with random civs to familiarize with different civ traits and UUs.

Oh, and cash also builds embassies and is used for espionage missions.

 

[Aabraxan]

4)Why I shouldn't do any temple or something like that in the centre cities? And some other buildgins aswell. What should i do,and where?

3)Could you paste a topic about the buildings to here please? Thank you.

3. I don't know where one is, but there is the search function.

Hmm, . . . I do seem to recall one article on buildings floating around here somewhere . . . If only I could remember where it was . . .

Korpu, look in my signature for an article on libraries, markets, banks and stock exchanges. As for temples, cathedrals and other happy/cultural buildings, just run a search or browse the Civ 3 threads. Lots and lots of discussions wind up being debates over whether temples are worth it or not.

@ 12 Bar Blues: I just knew I was forgetting something! Thanks.

 

[MAS]

1)So how do I raise the per turn bonus except comming from cities?

I'm not sure I understand the question, but:

Citizens working on tiles with a road, river, or water (or some resource bonuses) will produce commerce, this commerce is split up in either
*science,
*gold per turn income, (gpt)
*happiness effect in the city.
How it is split up depends on how you set the sliders at the top of the F1 screen.

The best general advice is to keep the science slider as high as possible, only lower it to prevent negative income, and/or if you need to increase happiness effect to prevent city disorder. But increase it again as soon as something chances that makes it possible.

The best way to increase raw commerce is generally to expand, expand, expand. You can never have to many cities, so plant down cities everywhere.
And when you run out of freely available land, start conquering it from the other civ!
But do also make sure that every worked tile has a road improvement. So build enough workers to road everything quickly.

Using commerce for something other than science is possible, if you know what you are doing, simply lower the science slider and let all commerce become gpt instead.

If you have a lot of cities, the ones far away from your capital are such corrupt, that they won't generate much commerce, no matter what. In these cities, let as few citizens as possible generate as much food as possible and use the surplus food to support specialist, these can be either scientist for extra science or tax collectors for extra gpt.

 

[The Professor]

3)Could you paste a topic about the buildings to here please? Thank you.

As for buildings, Aabraxian wrote a really good article that is located here:
Multiplier Buildings: A Practical Primer
Hope this helps, and welcome!

 

[Korppu]

I have come up with one issue. My enemies are just about to start steal thegnology from me. I would like to be able to spy too. Well,when i open civilization (3),the screen looks like this:

When i play the game all the ''palace'',''Episonage'' and all those things are hidden. Is there any other way to do those actions,witch are in those tiny squares,and they are like |N|,|K| etc. Also,if you know how to fix that,pleas,share. I already have tried to horizont it from the screen's setup,but it doesn't help enough.

 

[MAS]

First I would suggest you upgrade to the last patch.

As for your screen problem, yes, there are keyboard shortcuts to those things, but I would suggest that you fix your screen problem anyway, cause even if you use the shortcuts, you probably still want to see as much of the interface as possible. (you could try posting for help in the tech forum)

 

[Korppu]

Thank you for the answer,and i already posted on the tech forums.

 

[Korppu]

And im back again. I got couple of questions.

''Its way too crowded'' the people say,and disorder comes,how do i ''cure'' that?

Do i really need rubber,salpenter,to survive? I usually stop if i dont find eny horses or iron.. :F

At the start,should I just make alot of cities,like when my new city gets to 3,i make a settler there? Also,should i make alot of workers?

How can i cure disase,if its from the food plains?

How do i achieve diplomatic victory/cultural victory?

I should be able to do nukes in the cities(?),but i cant,i have all the resources,and the advance so I could do it,but i cant. Why?

There's some questions,I hope you all understand ^_^

 

[PaperBeetle]

''Its way too crowded'' the people say,and disorder comes,how do i ''cure'' that?

In a sense, you can't. That is, the people come up with many complaints like "give peace a chance", "no more draft", "cannot forget cruel oppression", and you can cure these complaints by either waiting for the people to forget (e.g whip and draft unhappiness abate over time) or ceasing certain activities (e.g. war). But "Its way too crowded" is in fact just the basic complaint that every citizen has; every citizen is fundamentally unhappy, and you need to provide smiles to counteract that. The game already gives you a small number (dependant on the difficulty level) of free smiles per town, and the rest you get from things like luxury resources, temples, military police, and luxury spending.
So in a practical sense, those last points are your answer. You need to get luxury resources hooked up, and you should use the luxury slider on the F1 screen.

Do i really need rubber,salpenter,to survive? I usually stop if i dont find eny horses or iron.. :F

No, but they make life a lot easier. So if you don't have good resources, build whatever attacking units you can, and go get the resources from someone who does.

At the start,should I just make alot of cities,like when my new city gets to 3,i make a settler there? Also,should i make alot of workers?

Possibly, yes. Most people build a granary in their capital early on, and then build only settlers there for a long time (until a proper government is established, for instance). That is often enough settlers to build your important towns. Try to have one or more workers per town.

How can i cure disase,if its from the food plains?

It is prevented by some tech late in the game. Medicine probably, or maybe Sanitation. Don't sweat it. It is too rare an event, and too late a tech, to bother thinking about.

How do i achieve diplomatic victory

Build the UN.
Edit: and win the resulting election. This usually involves allying the entire world against the largest civilization that is not you, right before the UN build is completed. I find it somewhat ironic that, rather than promoting world peace, the UN is usually the explicit cause of a world war.

/cultural victory?

Build most of the wonders in one town, and wait until it gets 20,000 culture.
Or build vast numbers of cultural buildings, and wait until your empire gets 100,000 culture.

I should be able to do nukes in the cities(?),but i cant,i have all the resources,and the advance so I could do it,but i cant. Why?

Build the Manhattan Project.

 

[Korppu]

Okay now. I'm back AGAIN :X Im doing fine with my aztecs,(had a few bad starts on romans and germans). Now im doing well,I'm the first who entered the Middle age,and i have 740 gold,I've been speding it quite much. But,the problem is that i just cant keep the per turn gold bonus above 0. I just have to do cities like heck. I think i have near 45 cities now. And my per turn bonus is +7,and it will change in a sec,bcoz im building librarys(is it worth it to build then,sientific research +50%?),and Corthouses(to eliminate corruption?),and in some cities Marketplaces(to get more happy faces). Also im doing many,many aqueducts,and some other improvements too,like Barracks and Granary. So im forced to do setlers all the time. And also,I'm running out of space. The only place i can do cities atm is junge,and imo jungle is the most nastiest place in Civ. 24 turns to clean it up :F. I have alot of workers too,and _ALOT_ of mines.Also,my sientifix research,is down to 40%,and the ''happines bar'' is 0%. I dont know how to get per turn gold so good,so could someone give me couple of advices how to do that. I've tried to search some information from these forums,but I havn't finded enything special.

Thank you,again

 

[Aabraxan]

Okay now. I'm back AGAIN :X Im doing fine with my aztecs,(had a few bad starts on romans and germans). Now im doing well,I'm the first who entered the Middle age,and i have 740 gold,I've been speding it quite much.

Glad to hear that starts are improving.

But,the problem is that i just cant keep the per turn gold bonus above 0. I just have to do cities like heck. I think i have near 45 cities now. And my per turn bonus is +7,and it will change in a sec,bcoz im building librarys(is it worth it to build then,sientific research +50%?),and Corthouses(to eliminate corruption?),and in some cities Marketplaces(to get more happy faces).

Gold per turn: If you're running negative gold per turn, that's OK. You'll see lots of references on these boards to players doing "deficit research," and that's exactly what they're referring to. Any time you've got enough cash in the bank, it's OK to lose money every turn to fund your research. On the other hand, if you're referring to negative gold in the treasury, that's not OK. Any time your treasury dips below 0, the game will disband something. I think it can be either a unit or a building, but I'm not sure.

There are a few ways to improve gpt.

(1) Adding a road to a tile adds +1 commerce, but a citizen has to work the tile to get the bonus. Also, in corrupt lands, corruption may eat that +1 commerce.

(2) Being in Republic or Democracy adds +1 commerce to any tile already generating at least 1 commerce (I know this is true for Conquests & think it's true for vanilla. Can someone who knows more about vanilla verify whether this is true?)

(3) Trim the budget. Buildings & military units (over the unit support limit) all cost gold. Not every town needs a temple, barracks, granary, courthouse, market, and bank. In fact: Your towns need nothing. The question is: What does your empire need for your towns to have? In some cases, it will actually be detrimental to build improvements. Not to blow my own horn, but there's a link in my signature (below this post) to an article entitled "Multiplier Buildings: A Practical Primer," that might help you sort some of that out. By building things only where they'll do you some good, you can keep maintenance costs down.

(4) Trade for gpt: Unfortunately, at Warlord, AI civilizations won't have very much to trade. As you increase in difficulty, though, trading techs for AI gold becomes a pretty good way to support your own empire (& your own research).

Also im doing many,many aqueducts,and some other improvements too,like Barracks and Granary. So im forced to do setlers all the time. And also,I'm running out of space. The only place i can do cities atm is junge,and imo jungle is the most nastiest place in Civ. 24 turns to clean it up :F. I have alot of workers too,and _ALOT_ of mines.Also,my sientifix research,is down to 40%,and the ''happines bar'' is 0%.

As far as improvements, well, it depends. As I mentioned above, not every city needs every improvement. Some cities need granaries, some need libraries, some need both, some need neither.

When you say you have "a lot" of workers, how many are we talking about? You should be trying to keep ~1.5-2 per city. If you get a chance to buy or capture slaves, grab them, too. They work half as fast, but cost no upkeep.

If you're running out of space, then it's probably going to be time to go to war soon.

 

[Korppu]

I have like too many workers. O well,there never cant be too many workers.

Yes,im at war with Romans,I have currently taken over few cities,im waiting for the Chivarly to get completed so i'll get those nice knights. Thank you for all of you're help,again. I think i'll be back soon with some easy questions

 

[Sloaf]

(2) Being in Republic or Democracy adds +1 commerce to any tile already generating at least 1 commerce (I know this is true for Conquests & think it's true for vanilla. Can someone who knows more about vanilla verify whether this is true?)

Yes, you've got it right. I play Vanilla, and they do have that effect on Commerce.

 

[12 Bar Blues]

You can also finance deficit spending by taking cities from rich civs. In late industrial era, when I'm at war, I can often lose 50 gpt, but still gain money, as I'll take enough cities to compensate.

 

[Aabraxan]

True, although Warlord level AIs won't typically have a lot of gold to capture.

I also forgot to mention that you can take some of their cities and demand gpt as part of the peace deal. That, of course, depends on the AI having some extra gpt to spend.