Oh, Civ3.

[sav]

I a fit of Civ5-inspired nostalgia, I installed Civ3 - mostly to see how smooth and quick a decent game of Civ could be without the graphics bloat.

Oh dear.

I played this game about 5 years non-stop, but haven't since installing Civ4 Complete in late 2007.

And wow. It dated horrendously. I've always been one to defend it, since it's the 'black sheep' of the Civ series and all, but post Civ4 BTS, mods, etc, it's borderline unplayable!

For one, it took me 2 hours to work out why the text was unreadable - too many fonts, apparently - but even then, I was so excited, only to find the gameplay so frustrating.

Ok, this isn't meant as a knock on those still playing it - you have your reasons - but damn! They must be good reasons. I'm always a couple of years behind due to tech cost reasons, but if Civ5 is as better than Civ4 as Civ4 was (or is, with the patches) over Civ3 - wow.

I never thought I'd be saying this tonight - I thought I'd be rocking Civ3 all night, but I just can't do it.

 

[vmxa]

Now there a shock an 9 year old games graphics are out dated, who knew? I dropped IV after a month, but I am trying V now. Civ5 is an ugly game as far as looks are concerned, but I don't care about that.

 

[Civinator]

May be you should play some of the new mods for C3C and not compare vanilla Civ 3 or C3C with modded Civ 4 BTS.

 

[sav]

Now there a shock an 9 year old games graphics are out dated, who knew? I drop IV after a month, but amtrying V now. It is an ugly game as far as looks are concerned, but I don't care about that.

I didn't mention the graphics, apart from a strange bug that made the font unreadable if you had more than 256 fonts installed, which I fixed.

But so many things we take for granted in Civ 4 were just not there... I've played the demo of Civ5, and it seems great - I just wish we could have that gameplay with Civ3's speed and Civ4's usability.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Ok, this isn't meant as a knock on those still playing it - you have your reasons - but damn! They must be good reasons.

It's a fun game, I like it, the only thing I *don't* like is that it doesn't have Civ2's Firepower/HP combat system, Civ4 looks ridiculous ... frankly, I don't see the need to try a different game. It's not like SC vs SC2 - in that case, I'm never going to play 2 because it looks stupid, and I dislike a lot of the changes. I play Civ3 because it's fun and I don't have any desire to play something else.

so many things we take for granted in Civ 4 were just not there

What? No! I mean, stuff being different? You must be pulling my leg! </sarcasm>

 

[sav]

What? No! I mean, stuff being different? You must be pulling my leg! </sarcasm>

My point wasn't to harass Civ3, I genuinely didn't remember how different it was to Civ4, despite spending most of my historic Civ time on III.

And despite my enthusiasm this evening, I realise I cannot go back, at all, even for a quick game.

 

[RomanNapoleon]

So... you came on here to bash Civ3.


Anything else?

 

[darski]

So... you came on here to bash Civ3.


Anything else?

there you go... the whole thread in a nutshell. Thank you

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

I can never understand how to be good at Civ 4, and somrthing about it is just annoying, or is it just me

 

[vmxa]

And despite my enthusiasm this evening, I realise I cannot go back, at all, even for a quick game.

I feel the same way about Civ4. Thought I was loving it for 3 or 4 weeks, but have not been able to force myself to play even a single turn for for a long time.

Still I am not going to log onto civ4 forum and saying anything as I thought it was a good game, just not much fun for me. That is just an my perspective.

I am currently trying to see why I would like Civ5 more than IV, even though to me they are quite similar. Should I decide I am not interested in V in a week or two, I will not be logging on to any boards and dump on it.

There is no point as fans are on those boards and are not going to share my views, unless I am an Ahmen corner guy. In the end I spent money to buy all three games day 1.

Civ4 I even got the expansions, knowing I would probably not play, but just in case I got the bug later.

The thing that makes be have some doubts on your statement is I have many games with 2 or even 5 versions and I still like every version, if I liked it new. Games like Moo, Homm, Diablo, Warcraft, C&C, Might and Magic, Space Empires and on and on.

I am not going to toss any of the versions of those game, that I ever liked. I still play them all from time to time. In any event good luck to you.

 

[Opies]

The thing that makes be have some doubts on your statement is I have many games with 2 or even 5 versions and I still like every version, if I liked it new. Games like Moo, Homm, Diablo, Warcraft, C&C, Might and Magic, Space Empires and on and on.
.

I love heroes of might and magic 2, despite how horribly old it is, but I cannot bring myself to play diablo 1 for very long since I played diablo 2 LoD for such a long time

Also @ OP, why would you find the game play frustrating? Civ 3 is a much simpler, less involved version of civ 4. If anything, you should find it over simplified and boring. I've just recently began playing civ 4, and I like aspects of each game, but I would never consider the game play of civ 3 to be frustrating compared to civ 4. The only frustrating thing about civ 3 is the unhappiness/civil unrest, which is much easier to deal with in civ 4.

 

[marceagleye]

Our reasons for sticking with Civ3 rather than moving on to Civ4 are indeed very good ones. Here are some of mine.

1) Combat. Civ4 is void of animation. There are no diminishing health bars on either side of the battle. You don't see each "round" of combat being won by one side or the other until one side is defeated or retreats. What fun is that? I guess civ4 did this to speed up the game but it sacrifices unit action in favor of dice rolling/coin flipping. Boooo!!!

2) Overpowering culture. This is just plain ridiculous. It is so far fetched it makes me sick. In what situation does a collection libraries, mueseums, art galleries, buildings of religious worship, and other "cultural" improvements overtake standing armies? The culture in civ3 is already unrealistic enough, but at least it can't steal workable tiles from one civ if they aren't workable for the other civ.

3) The Enviromentalism civic. Are you serious? This liberal pansy tree hugging "idea" is a complete load of crap. Did Michael Moore put this in the game? How many people do you know are "happier" with their electric car? If their country was under attack do you think they would prefer their military have "electric" tanks, warships, and aircraft? I don't think so. Don't misunderstand I'm not against development of clean energy, but the notion that people are made "happy" by it is ludicrous.

Of course there's more, but I'll stop here. I played civ4 for 3 weeks and quit, decided to go back to Civ3 because of these other reasons.

 

[dexters]

Now there a shock an 9 year old games graphics are out dated, who knew? I dropped IV after a month, but I am trying V now. Civ5 is an ugly game as far as looks are concerned, but I don't care about that.

There's actually a certain congruency between III and V, aside from being odd numbered sequels, graphically, both went for the 'realistic' aesthetic.


Gameplay wise, 3 and 5 are also similar in that they make large breaks away from their predecessor.

Playing V really to me feels like playing a vanilla Civ3. No wonder movies, a very matter of fact take on history.

Battle system is also very neat. The use of ranged attack instead of straight bombard really gives combined arms meaning and for the first time in a Civ game, your armies will have to be arrayed in a massive invasion column, and not a single SOD. That is a great innovation for the franchise.

The City states are a hit and a miss. They demand far too much from the play at times.

One thing Im having to get used to is seeing large swathes of the map not covered by my cultural border. As culture is now based on tiles actually worked rather than the symmetrical expansion of the borders, there's terrifying gaps in my borders near my core.

And lastly, game seems to move quite a bit slower than Civ3 or 4. And I don't mean performance wise. Things just move slower. No stacked workers means improvemernts take 3-5 turns always.

 

[CommandoBob]

Things just move slower. No stacked workers means improvemernts take 3-5 turns always.

Well, that sucks.

I had read about the 1 unit per tile but never connected that to workers, too.

One of the best tools of the player is how to manage workers and stacking them up is very, very helpful.

 

[GZRD]

I've considered CIV 4, but I don't like the way it looks. lol

Civ3 I've just come back to after tinkering over the years and im really getting into it. I think the graphics are perfect for the sort of game it is. It just feels... awesome! I love it, and am always amazed that it is like a decade old now and still so playable!

More amazing is that there are still so many active players and a great community!

 

[aukrest]

I just find Civ3 easy to pick up and play. It's easy to load up a save and play twenty turns and call it a night. Graphics are fine for being that old. I honestly don't care about the graphics of any game as long as it fits and is "polished".

 

[dexters]

Definitely getting a Civ3 vibe with V. It's different from 3 of course, but it's a lot like 3 in so many ways.

I may grow to love this in a way I never loved IV, though after BTS, I enjoyed IV greatly. Sort of missing the vassal states from IV.

 

[Ataxerxes]

There's one main difference in the two games and that's diplomacy and how it's structured.

In CivIV, the diplomacy is more useful. You can stop DOW's, encourage trading, etc. with diplomacy. I've never had much use for worrying about what the AI thinks of me in CivIII.

But there's a flip side to that. Sometimes people complain about the insane decisions in CivIV and that the AI doesn't seem to play to win. That's because a friendly AI won't attack you and a lot of the Pleased won't either. This often can be used to save you, but the AI isn't playing to win then. In CivIII, the computer plays to win more. If it thinks you're weak, it's coming after you. The AI plays a more practical, ruthless game in CivIII.

Actually, all things considered, the AI in CivIII is tougher and more relentlessly practical than CivIV. It attacks to gain something if it can get it and doesn't attack if it sees nothing to gain (in general)

 

[fathertuck]

Now that civ5 is out, both civ3 and civ4 players are considered old fashioned so try not to beat down each others too much.

I personally consider civ3 conquests to be one of the best TBS games ever made, and countless are the hours that I've spent with this game. I play civ4 now, but I totally understand those who are sticking with civ3.

Our reasons for sticking with Civ3 rather than moving on to Civ4 are indeed very good ones. Here are some of mine.

1) Combat. Civ4 is void of animation. There are no diminishing health bars on either side of the battle. You don't see each "round" of combat being won by one side or the other until one side is defeated or retreats.

This is one of the features I miss most from civ3. How many times haven't I looked at the last unit defending a city against an enemy, holding my breath when watching the health bar going into the red and finally stop at the last bar. That was definitely one part of what made the game so exiting.

 

[sda100175]

Civ III is still the biggest step forward the series has taken. First time for culture, strategic/luxury resources, meaningful diplomacy, trade networks - all major and killer features. IV and V have added some stuff (V in particular with combat changes), but mostly have been revisions on stuff introduced in III.

With all the expansions, III still plays well, and it has the best collection of scenarios of the entire series. I still think that so far IV w/ BTS is the apex of the series, but I'm sure after patches and expansions V will be excellent as well. Always remember that people HATED vanilla III on release, and had plenty of complains about IV as well. Give it time.