Please read: A reminder.

[Vegasgustan]

Thank you to everyone who responded, and certainly AlanH...my Mac brother. I am sorry if my post came off as if I were trying to gain some sort of inside info...that was not the case. I just was curious...like George...the monkey. I really think this site has a great thing going and I look forward to being a part of it for YEARS to come. I hope I have not tarnished my "rep" this soon out, it truly was not my intention. I apologize if I posted anything wrong or easily misconstrued. Take care everyone and I can't wait to finish my first GOTM!

 

[civ_steve]

Oh yes, and one more question. C3C CD has both C3C and PTW in it, but when I want to play on PTW, it says that the CD is not inserted. Do I actually need the PTW CD to play it? I think I would prefer playing on PTW than Vanilla Civ

You may be using an Icon that points to an old PTW-only install; I had one of those on my desktop and after installing C3C, clicking on this Icon asked for the PTW disk.

I usually use Window's explorer, go to the Civ3 directory, PTW subdirectory and click on the executable to start PTW (Civilization3x, I believe), and it works happily from the C3C disk. I guess I could also change the connection on the exisiting Icon.

One other thing I've run across: my anti-virus software gets automatic updates whenever I'm connected. Sometimes these updates want me to restart the computer; if I'm in the middle of playing Civ, it'll barge in, pop up a window saying 'Updates are ready for installation, click Restart to install' and it has a timer saying it will automatically restart in 5 minutes. If this happens when I'm off the computer for a few minutes taking care of something, but still in the game, after 5 minutes the machine restarts and I have to reload from an auto-save file. The timing of this is something I have little control over; there is a cancel option on the original pop-up, and I can select that to postpone the restart, but the pop-up comes back after about 5 minutes. I think this has happened a couple of times to me where I missed the pop-up and had a somewhat shortened session.

 

[solenoozerec]

Thank you to everyone who responded, and certainly AlanH...my Mac brother. I am sorry if my post came off as if I were trying to gain some sort of inside info...that was not the case. I just was curious...like George...the monkey. I really think this site has a great thing going and I look forward to being a part of it for YEARS to come. I hope I have not tarnished my "rep" this soon out, it truly was not my intention. I apologize if I posted anything wrong or easily misconstrued. Take care everyone and I can't wait to finish my first GOTM!

O, come on, it is not you, it is the topic which seems to be a little touchy

 

[bradleyfeanor]

Players vary, but 20 reloads *would* be in the upper range of the main pack.

Does this apply to 80+ hour histographic and space games also? I haven't kept track of my number of sessions, but I wouldn't be suprised in the least if I have had more than 20.

I really like to squeze in an hour or so before work when I can, and then a bit longer session after work. So, in looking at a really long game that took 80 hours to complete, I would guess it would be something like this:
12 1h sessions (12 hours)
10 2h sessions (20 hours)
8 6 hour sessions (48 hours)

Oh Good Lord. Looking at all that time spent on just one game makes me feel queasy. What would it look like if I tabulated all the time I have spent on civ in my life? :suicide:

I wish I had not engaged in this exercise.

Anyway, that is 28 sessions. Would that make my game look suspicious? I like having "quality control" on the submissions, but on the other hand I would hate to give up my morning gaming.

Edit: PS: I suspect that the existence of this thread does not bode well for GOTM37 results.

 

[Kodi]

"Please insert the CIVILIZATION III: Play the World Disc."

I've opened the game from the Start-All Programs etc. and also from the actual Infogrames Interactive-Civilization 3-Civ3PTW folder and it still doesn't work. I've also uninstalled it and reinstalled it. I dont know if it has to do with the patch, but I think it has something to do with that

 

[Denniz]

Civ will sometimes crash to the desktop when I press a "F" key. Not sure why that happens. My first GOTM was using Vanilla Civ and I think I crashed several times. Since then I have used PTW which is less inclined to do that. I still get one once and while, though.

Obviously, I would reload the last autosave and try to repeat my moves. The last time it happened it took me 3 tries to get my my moves to be identical to the crashed session (or as close as I was liable to get). Times before that I just did the best I could and kept playing regardless of whether it was perfect or not.

What would be the best/recommended approach? (Assuming one can remember everything that happened. )

What about RND outcomes? (i.e. Battle won or lost turning out differently the when play out again after a crash.)

 

[Denniz]

"Please insert the CIVILIZATION III: Play the World Disc."

I've opened the game from the Start-All Programs etc. and also from the actual Infogrames Interactive-Civilization 3-Civ3PTW folder and it still doesn't work. I've also uninstalled it and reinstalled it. I dont know if it has to do with the patch, but I think it has something to do with that

Did you install it from the or disk? I think you need to install it from the disk for it to look for it there.

 

[AlanH]

I thought the C3C installation was in the Atari program group, not Infogrames, but I'm just a Mac user, so take no notice

 

[AlanH]

Does this apply to 80+ hour histographic and space games also? I haven't kept track of my number of sessions, but I wouldn't be suprised in the least if I have had more than 20.

We look at lots of factors, not just a raw reload count. I didn't say 20 was any kind of magic number, and if we have concerns about a player's reload level they will have heard from us.

Edit: PS: I suspect that the existence of this thread does not bode well for GOTM37 results.

GOTM37 is not particularly worse than other recent games. We're just responding to a trend and want to nip it in the bud.

 

[Dynamic]

I usually play 1 session per day but not every day.
I play only when I can play 2-3 hours because I play not fast and in 30-minute session I spend all my time for learning current situation and environment.
For not doing mistake I very careful look at the begining of the game. Every bad move or not optimize micromanagment in the first 50 turns may significally do worse your final result. Further micromanagment isn't so important and it's very hard to do it without any mistake when you have tens (end hundreds) of cities.
I very happy with CivAssist, it's very helpful utility for not doing reload by "unexpected" rioting.

I realy havn't time for replaing games but it's true if somebody does it it's invisible. Sometimes I very want to reload when (in COTM07) my galleys and caravels was killed by barbs one by another.

 

[Jove]

Arrrr, looking at this makes me think my computer is crashing more than most. It seems to happen about every other session. The thing just freezes! Sometimes it is preceded by the music going off or getting stuck in a 1-second clip and I can see it coming. Sometimes it just happens, especially if I go run an errand or something and come back, which I do often. I just solved a problematic spyware problem. What else should I do?

 

[Wotan]

"Please insert the CIVILIZATION III: Play the World Disc."

I've opened the game from the Start-All Programs etc. and also from the actual Infogrames Interactive-Civilization 3-Civ3PTW folder and it still doesn't work. I've also uninstalled it and reinstalled it. I dont know if it has to do with the patch, but I think it has something to do with that

AFAIK, PTW was released with two different disc protections US and international editions. That brought about a chaos when patches were released. I especially remember the disastrous release of 1.27. When using the international patch (should work) I got a "french" error message but after patching with the us version it worked (should not do so). I guess this has to do with the legacy from that issue. So when you use the Conq disc, the copy protect is different to PTW and when you start PTW from Conq disc it is regarded as a renegade disc.

 

[bluebox]

Arrrr, looking at this makes me think my computer is crashing more than most. It seems to happen about every other session. The thing just freezes! Sometimes it is preceded by the music going off or getting stuck in a 1-second clip and I can see it coming. Sometimes it just happens, especially if I go run an errand or something and come back, which I do often. I just solved a problematic spyware problem. What else should I do?

I had a similar issue last month. In my case, it was the soundcard driver. I heard a crack and the whole system got stuck. I reinstalled it (and of course, I installed the latest version) then everything was fine. I cannot tell if it was absolutely neccessary to update the driver, because I had it installed and the programm worked fine. At least, the re-install solved the problem.

 

[Crakie]

@Crakie: I really do recommend you break the habit. Live with your mistakes and submit your games. Humans learn fastest from remembered pain .

You seem to be assuming I am human

Seriously though, I have learned alot from reloading. I sometimes reload to play out two or three alternatives and see which one comes out on top, and why. It made me a better player. Nowadays I only reload to undo major mistakes, which is another story of course, but to me it is still more satisfying than being able to submit.

 

[Offa]

In an attempt to mininize the horror of the terrible message at the end of a game telling me how long I have been playing, I have taken steps to minimize this. Thus, when dragged away from the 'puter for food, TV or quality time with the family I tend to save the game and just leave it running. When I escape back to the computer I then reload from the save which is of course exactly the same as the game still running, but with a lower recorded playing time. This way I can kid myself (but not Mrs Offa ) that civ isn't taking that long. However, I see now that this just counts as a reload so I will have to stop it. The playing time is going to look very ugly.

Occasionally I open a save just to have a look (such is my addiction), and do nothing and then quit. Does this also count as a reload?

Actually all of this concern about reloads seems a little unnecessary to me. It would be really easy to cheat if you wanted without being so crude as to reload loads of bad events. For example playing for an hour or so to suss things out and then restarting from 4000bc would be undetectable and for good players could make an enormous difference. Or one reload at some crucial point later in the game. Or play the game on two computers... Really people just have to be honest, or what is the point. Occasionally it is kinda fun to play on after completely messing up the start, although I have done it so many times it is getting a bit wearing.

 

[AlanH]

Occasionally I open a save just to have a look (such is my addiction), and do nothing and then quit. Does this also count as a reload?

Only if you then save it again.

 

[a space oddity]

Occasionally I open a save just to have a look (such is my addiction), and do nothing and then quit. Does this also count as a reload?

No (and then some irrelevant characters...)

edit: Alan beat me to it

 

[Renata]

@ Offa -- you are absolutely right, of course. To a certain extent we all rely on the honesty of our fellow players. We (meaning the staff in general) have some ways to detect a pattern of dishonest playing that might not show up in reload count, but we don't try to kid ourselves that it's foolproof. Of course it isn't.

What we have been getting recently is a spate of players with suspicious numbers who nearly all, when emailed, say something along the lines of "oh, yeah, I reloaded a lot, but only for X" where X is either specifically disallowed in the rules already, or insufficient to account for the sheer number of reloads. To the extent that people are simply uninformed about the rules, we want to remind them, because we don't want to have to exclude games over misunderstandings. To the extent that people are actively breaking the rules, well, here's the thread that says at least if you do it this way, you're not going to get away with it -- so why not be honest?

We do hope that this thread will inspire people to be more honest, and not just inspire them to be cleverer cheaters, of course.

Renata

 

[Sabre]

There have been times when I'd really have loved to take a mulligan. Take gotm 37 for example. I made a pretty bad choice of first tech, was beaten to a prime city site and completely missed the passage to the east until late in the game (France made first contact AND placed a city just on the other side of the choke! ) I still ended up winning the game fairly handily. It's my opinion that there are very few gamebreaking decisions and that these kinds of errors just add to the character of your game. It's not like choosing to research the Wheel first instead of Mysticism cost me a cash prize. It's all just for fun and if your mistake cost you a medal, well you are playing at a high enough level that it shouldn't be a problem trying again next month.

As for the gotm veterans who are fretting over their save habits: as far as I know this is an old policy and if you haven't heard anything by now there really is no need to change. I don't have a lot of time to play and can go days where I don't have 1+ hours of free time so I sneak in a 30 minute session when I can - mostly to keep my mind on what's happening in the game. Maybe this makes my load times a bit on the high end but it's probably my only option and unless someone tells me otherwise I'll assume everything's ok.

 

[sparrow]

This reminder was very helpful. Thanks. I stopped routine reloading when I started playing GOTM and found myself playing more carefully. However, when I am tired and hit the wrong key, I have been reloading, replaying the same way up to that point and hitting the right key. I will stop doing that. Better when I am that tired to stop playing or play a non-GOTM game.

Like Alamo, my scores have been so bad I expect not to be noticed. Getting better though.

I submit games with embarrassing numbers of hours played. Mostly that is because I micromanage obsessively. In one case it was partly because I had the game running all day at work, playing it occasionally. Well to be more honest, I played all day, letting work interrupt me occasionally.

I like to play short sessions before work about half an hour. I stopped doing this to keep the reload count down, but maybe I will start again. I like to take breaks in long sessions because I come back with fresh ideas. If I save and reload, my reload count goes up. If I don't save and reload, then my play time is inflated. However, there seems to be no penalty for high play times. What's the record? Perhaps I should leave the game on all the time.

I run Windows 2000 on an older computer. I found that it runs better if I close most other applications. In particular it does not like to run with Microsoft Word, so I keep my log in Wordpad. Usually I have Excel, Wordpad and CivAssist open. At work I have a more powerful computer, also running Windows 2000, and I leave a lot of applications open, but not Word.

Last night (GOTM 38) I kept careful track of my time and I seem to do about 6 moves per hour (between 1400 and 800 BC). If I try to speed up, I lose track of my MM. Also I like going slow and giving thought to each move, each town, each unit. Of course, I have no wife or children or life. If I had no job I could probably finish and submit every GOTM. Is 6 turns per hour in the mid-game reasonable? Did some of you experienced players spend this much at it when you were learning?