Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[justanick]

My priority is always to go for republic first. The only trouble I typically have is that, if I miss the slingshot, it takes forever to research and I usually can't buy it (either the AI won't sell, or I don't have anything to trade), so am I missing something or is that just a tough slog to get through?

Well, i guess it is mostly is the later. The slingshot is really nice if you can get it, but the higher the difficulty setting, the more unlikely it becomes that you stand a chance. You might be lucky to get philo at first, but researching code of law before that will not be an option. Therefore you must optimize your strategy for the case that you donnot get the slingshot and must therefore create a significant research output under the conditions of despotism. On tiny maps that is still reasonable easy and with some luck you can enter the middle age at turn 100 and have entered republic some time before that. On larger maps research costs are larger, hence it takes longer till you have built up an economic base which allows you to research at a reasonable pace.

 

[Bartleby]

Recently I started having sound problems on my laptop, and Civ3 seemed be the catalyst, so I went into the ini file and added nosound=1 (this is the first time I've edited the ini for this install). This fixed the sound problem, but now after exiting the game the fonts seem to be messed up, sort of "low-res". Has anyone seen this before, or does anyone have an idea how to fix it? The fonts go back to normal if I restart the computer but I don't want to have to restart every time after playing.

 

[Spoonwood]

Therefore you must optimize your strategy for the case that you donnot get the slingshot and must therefore create a significant research output under the conditions of despotism.

No, significant research is not necessary to get out of despotism. It can done with no research at all even. Technology and/or gold can get acquired via trading gpt for technology + a luxury or resource. Then one disconnects the trade route to one's capital, and one can keep the technology and/or gold (and there is no reputation hit).

 

[Lanzelot]

This trade route mechanism works well, but it might not work in quite a number of circumstances, especially early in the game: You need

1. Some contacts
2. A trade route to these contacts
3. And these contacts need to have a spare resource hooked up

On some maps you may want to be out of despotism long before all three of these prerequisites are fulfilled. I have played isolated starts/large maps, were I was a Republic before I found my first contact...

 

[r16]

I remember the number 22/23: 22 tiles still counts as lake, while 23 tiles counts as ocean.


What about the third function of harbours: building veteran ships? (Basically what barracks do for land units and airports for air units.)

might very well be so , ı had read it on CFC sometime ago .


veteran ships in that scenario are built in the Port building that provides trade . Also at the capital with the Palace flagged accordingly , also provides trade between capitals early in the game . Might take 200 out of 600 turns for ordinary ports to appear . Port is also required to build Trading Harbour that increases trade/gold in water , forgot its name from the epic game now . While City Docks (also requiring a port in place) acts as an airfield for air trade and airlift operations . The food increasing building is the Fishery .

 

[vorlon_mi]

Recently I started having sound problems on my laptop, and Civ3 seemed be the catalyst, so I went into the ini file and added nosound=1 (this is the first time I've edited the ini for this install). This fixed the sound problem, but now after exiting the game the fonts seem to be messed up, sort of "low-res". Has anyone seen this before, or does anyone have an idea how to fix it? The fonts go back to normal if I restart the computer but I don't want to have to restart every time after playing.

I don't have the sound issues, but I have struggled with resolution issues on my Win 10 laptop, which I bought so that I could run Civ5 and Civ6. Lately, I have to do a "dance" to make the resolution work smoothly and the game to start properly.
1. Right-click on the Windows desktop and choose "Display settings"
2. Manually change the screen resolution from the default high resolution to a value much coarser, e.g., 1366x768. Accept the changes
3. Start Civ3 by double-clicking the icon. Game starts, screen resolution changes again
4. After saving and exiting the game, use "Display settings again". Most of the time it was minimized, not closed. Restore the settings back to the default, and accept the changes.
No reboots required.

 

[justanick]

No, significant research is not necessary to get out of despotism. It can be done with no research at all even.

Technically that is true, but it is deflecting from the relevant truth. The primary goal is to get into republic ASAP. Waiting for AI to research it is not in line with that goal. And even if a known AI comes ahead it still is of significant worth to have researched it say 80% by then. Strong and focussed research is the way to go.

 

[Bartleby]

I don't have the sound issues, but I have struggled with resolution issues on my Win 10 laptop, which I bought so that I could run Civ5 and Civ6. Lately, I have to do a "dance" to make the resolution work smoothly and the game to start properly.
1. Right-click on the Windows desktop and choose "Display settings"
2. Manually change the screen resolution from the default high resolution to a value much coarser, e.g., 1366x768. Accept the changes
3. Start Civ3 by double-clicking the icon. Game starts, screen resolution changes again
4. After saving and exiting the game, use "Display settings again". Most of the time it was minimized, not closed. Restore the settings back to the default, and accept the changes.
No reboots required.

Thanks, I'll try changing the resolution next time.

 

[tjs282]

Does anyone have any insight into how/ where the AI decides to build GWonders?

Because a funny thing happened last night in my current laptop solo-game (Large, Random-Pangaea, DG, Random-Aztecs, Random-Opponents, C3X_R9-patched AI-Artillery and -Army routines).

Spoiler War stories... :

After some initial struggles, I was finally leading in land + pop, with a healthy Treasury (>3000g), but still slightly behind America and Korea tech-wise.

(Bloody William had dogpiled me early on, Allying with 3/4 of my neighbours — the Egyptians, the Arabs, and the Mayans — and forcing me into a Despotic GA when one of my Jags got attacked. This was somewhat annoying, but did allow me to finish learning Republic and building SoZ. I held off the invaders, allied with Greece against the Dutch, and then Carthage against the Mayans, and nursed my grudges for a thousand years: the neighbours are all now extinct!)

By about 1250 AD, I was into the Industrial and catching up at 4-5T per tech; Wang and Abe had both been Industrialized and building UniSuff for a while, but (as usual) wasted time on the Nationalism twig-techs, before doing the important ones (Steam, RepParts, etc.). I went low, just finished researching SciMeth, and converted an Army-prebuild in my FP-town to ToE, with ~10 turns still needed on the build (at ~20 SPT, because I haven't got a Factory there, and have only recently acquired Coal and started Slave-railing out from my capital). So my next research-project was Industrialization, with the intention of also doing RepParts before ToE completed.

Then Abe apparently learnt SciMethod and started (/switched to?) building ToE himself, in Boston, moving(?) his UniSuff-build to Smolensk, of all places (a Pop6 fringe town with a lot of Jungle still in the BFC; formerly Russian, obviously, but Cathy was also dogpiled by the eastern Civs, and long since booted off the board). I investigated both towns, and found that Boston (a core-town with a Factory and lots of Hills, putting out 50 SPT), would (now?) complete ToE in 5T(!)

I still needed 7T, so after crying briefly, I resigned myself to losing ToE — but with >450 shields already in the box, switching that to an Army would be something of a waste. (I have quite a few ACav- and Cav-Armies already, and they're all way over on my eastern border, having exacted full and bloody revenge against the Dutch, and then cut Carthage down to size — before WW forced a premature halt, because I'd stupidly [mis]deployed my forces to go after Hanni's outlying Arab and Mayan conquests nearer my core first, but left the Dutch/Carthaginian border under-garrisoned). So I switched to a Palace-prebuild, in the hope of researching AtomTheory + Electronics the hard way, and at least snagging Hoovers.

Then a couple of turns later, Wang finished UniSuff — and

Abe, for some bizarre reason, moved his ToE-build to Smolensk! He's now going to need about 35T to finish it, so I can rest easy: I'm now assured of winning the ToE-race and therefore taking the tech-lead (and Abe has a biiiig pile of gold he'll want to 'share' with me, once I can safely sell AT+E...).

But why would Abe do that? Why would he convert a shoo-in to a no-hoper?

 

[Lanzelot]

Don't look for reason, where there is none...
I can imagine that the algorithm that decides, which of two (or more) wonders builds to keep, if one of the wonders gets built by a rival, simply looks at the "start date" of each of the current wonder builds, and not at the "number of accumulated shields" or at the expected time of arrival...
Perhaps @Flintstone can see something in his disassembled functions?!

 

[r16]

a city finishes whatever it does and starts the wonder . Might possibly choose the better option if two cities are available at the same turn . Might be boring people with the only scenario ı play but consider Mordor . It has a great wonder of building the ring or whatever . Which autoproduces a King unit every 20 turns . Which will be enslaving a quite useful defensive unit for me , when ı capture that city . Practically every game involves gifting tons of techs to Mordor so that it can make it to the 3rd era to build its specific wonder . And yeah , when ı see it will take 90 or 267 turns because host city is a useless one with 2 population units , on the other side of the world when you are looking from the Mordorian capital , ı just have to fight Mordor , so that it can be re-started in some more useful place and be finished within 30 turns . Add 10 or so turns of combat and it is a profit ...

 

[justanick]

Don't look for reason, where there is none...

Yes. I would guess it is the following: If a town is either founded or completes a production item or an item becomes invalid, then a new item is chosen. Sometimes this is a wonder, but whether a different town would be more suitable is not taken into account.

 

[tjs282]

If a town is either founded or completes a production item or an item becomes invalid, then a new item is chosen

Yes, but here it was the GW-build in Smolensk (UniSuff) which became invalid — and yet instead of switching Smolensk's accumulated shields into a generic building (or SW), Abe abandoned the still-valid, and easily complete-able ToE-build in Boston, and moved it to Smolensk, thus scuppering his chances of completing that GW as well.

I can imagine that the algorithm that decides, which of two (or more) wonders builds to keep, if one of the wonders gets built by a rival, simply looks at the "start date" of each of the current wonder builds, and not at the "number of accumulated shields" or at the expected time of arrival...

The only other possibility I can think of is that maybe (1) Smolensk was listed above Boston in Abe's city-list, e.g. due to having an earlier founding date(? I didn't check this at the time, nor take screenies), and (2) any "duplicated Wonder-build" checks (for the AI) only happen after a prior build-switch.

That is, if Abe would have had to 'decide' what to do with Smolensk's wasted UniSuff-shields before he dealt with Boston, then switching to ToE in Smolensk would make the Boston-build illegal, forcing a switch there as well (I have no idea what Boston's building now).

For a human player, ToE would have been non-selectable (greyed out) in Smolensk's build-list, so they would only have been able to move the ToE-build from Boston to Smolensk (if they were to be so foolish!) by temporarily switching Smolensk to another project, then turning off the Boston ToE-build, then going back to Smolensk and switching to ToE.

But as we already know, the AI is not subject to the same GUI-constraints as the human.

Whatever the reason, though, I'm happy that it shook out this way!

 

[RobS]

What is the command for moving all air units in a city to another city?
I know there is one because I've used it, but now I forgot and it's not readily shown anywhere.

 

[Takhisis]

Select the air unit and Ctrl+X?

 

[vorlon_mi]

I always perform the "Rebase" mission one plane at a time. I don't know of a keyboard shortcut. I don't see one in the PDF docs I have in my archive.

 

[tjs282]

Select the air unti and Ctrl+X?

"Ctrl-J" also works

 

[RobS]

Any particular reason why the AI would nuke the same city numerous times in the same turn?
This happened in a game yesterday. The city in question was a one-square island, with an aluminum resource (not my only one).
I was playing the Japanese and had captured the city from the Russians some time earlier. I stopped counting after about 5 nuke attacks, but I think there were about six or seven, maybe eight.
Sometime later, when I was at peace with the Russians but at war with the French, the latter did the same thing, except they only nuked it about three times because they ran out of nukes.
Any idea what causes such ridiculous AI behavior?

 

[Civinator]

Any idea what causes such ridiculous AI behavior?

May be this was the only city in range of nukes for those civs ? Here it must be taken into account, that the AI cannot move nukes properly. Another reason could be, that those AI civs haven´t yet discovered other cities of your civ.

 

[Takhisis]

How would an AI that has developed nukes not have explored the map or exchanged world/territory maps by that point?