It workedYou're welcomeCould come in handy for myself too someday. I already checked for your starting location. It is there, though I had to move there first from another one.
You are a genius and officially my new best friend.
Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions
- Thread starter Turner
- Start date
You are a genius and officially my new best friend.
Maybe someone can give me a quick suggestion.
I might be looking at teaching an otherwise non-gamer newcomer this game over the phone. She and I would be playing the GoG vanilla version of the game. After she downloads and installs it, she will call me, long distance, for beginner help, tips and advice. Actually, I'll probably help her install it too.
My question is, is there a way for both of us to start on the same map, with the same civilization and starting location, and using the standard rules, so that I can walk her through a few turns?
Although I've been playing this for 22 years, I never play pre-made maps or scenarios, so I'm totally unfamiliar with them.
I was looking at the Roman Empire scenario yesterday, which I think is a file named "Rome.bic" in the menu, or something similar. I noticed that even if I selected to play a specific tribe, such as Rome, the starting location varied. Sometimes it would start me in the historic location in Italy, but other times in Germany.
I know one option would be to simply save a starting location, email it to her and have her use that, but as I said, she's not a gamer and totally unfamiliar with doing these types of things, so using something that is already included in the game would be a lot easier, I think.
So again, to reiterate, is there a way for us to start on the same map, with the same civilization, the same starting location, and using the basic rules, so that I can walk her through a few turns over the phone?
I might be looking at teaching an otherwise non-gamer newcomer this game over the phone. She and I would be playing the GoG vanilla version of the game. After she downloads and installs it, she will call me, long distance, for beginner help, tips and advice. Actually, I'll probably help her install it too.
My question is, is there a way for both of us to start on the same map, with the same civilization and starting location, and using the standard rules, so that I can walk her through a few turns?
Although I've been playing this for 22 years, I never play pre-made maps or scenarios, so I'm totally unfamiliar with them.
I was looking at the Roman Empire scenario yesterday, which I think is a file named "Rome.bic" in the menu, or something similar. I noticed that even if I selected to play a specific tribe, such as Rome, the starting location varied. Sometimes it would start me in the historic location in Italy, but other times in Germany.
I know one option would be to simply save a starting location, email it to her and have her use that, but as I said, she's not a gamer and totally unfamiliar with doing these types of things, so using something that is already included in the game would be a lot easier, I think.
So again, to reiterate, is there a way for us to start on the same map, with the same civilization, the same starting location, and using the basic rules, so that I can walk her through a few turns over the phone?
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The simplest way would be to email a starting save. You could perhaps select one that is "good" as a starter game. You could do the same by providing the seed and start conditions if you thought that was easier to explain over the phone.
Spoiler The seed and conditions :
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
That's a mod, no question. The World-sizes are named directly in the .biq, and a Tiny map in the Firaxis .biq is less than a quarter the size of the smallest map shown in that screenie (130*130 is equivalent to a Large Firaxis map!).
Yeah, I guess sending her a save-game file would be easiest.The simplest way would be to email a starting save. You could perhaps select one that is "good" as a starter game. You could do the same by providing the seed and start conditions if you thought that was easier to explain over the phone.
Spoiler The seed and conditions :
As an aside, I've never messed with the seed number in any of my games. I think they're always zero. What's the point in changing them?
If you select "Play Last World" rather than "New Game" it starts much the same but the seed is retained. This means that if the same settings are used the map will be the same. This allows you to for example restart the same game on a different difficulty level. It would also allow you to generate the same map on a different computer by sending the seed and settings.
If it is zero a random nubmer is used.
Oh yes, I forgot about the "Play Last World" option. I will explore this option.
Or telling her what they are over the phone, right?
Would there be a point to inputting a random number yourself?
Should I resort to rtfm at this point?
Right. It is just that that will involve transferring a long number verbally as well as the settings (though the default are probably pretty good for a beginner).
It would be a way of making sure it is easy to transfer the number. You could see what map 123456 gives you.
My rule is never to read the manual until you have failed at least three times...Should I rtfm?
LordofDread
Warlord
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- Dec 26, 2022
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Well you might as well use teamviewer or similar software while you call her on the phone. So you can see her screen directly, interact ingame with her mouse if you want to explain something, or sometimes just looking how the game develops and give some tips vocally. Thats how I usually help my friends with their PC problems. However granting access to its own PC usually needs some level of trust or special security measures.
I have not done it, but could one not just stream each others games? That would not require any level of trust. I have to admit it does not look trivial.
LordofDread
Warlord
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yep I thought about that too. She could stream her game for example via discord or twitch. That would be a safe option. Teamviewer would be a bit nicer, since one can explain with the mouse as well.
None of those things are going to happen, folks, don't waste your time. This is an older woman, my auntie in fact, and she is not going to go along with doing any of that. I'll be surprised if I can even get her to look at the game.
I'll probably do the save-game thing, it seems easiest. She knows how to handle files attached to emails and I can talk her through putting it in the correct folder and all that.
She's used to playing the Windows Solitaire thing and while we were talking on the phone the other day she thought the Civ3 game I was describing sounded interesting, so I got it for her at GoG for $1.49. The hard part now is to get her to d/l, install, and look at it.
Thanks for all your input.
I'll probably do the save-game thing, it seems easiest. She knows how to handle files attached to emails and I can talk her through putting it in the correct folder and all that.
She's used to playing the Windows Solitaire thing and while we were talking on the phone the other day she thought the Civ3 game I was describing sounded interesting, so I got it for her at GoG for $1.49. The hard part now is to get her to d/l, install, and look at it.
Thanks for all your input.
Do remember that to stream your screen means you have the difficult bit. You could give her a link and show her in video anything you cannot explain by audio only.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
If she's up for browsing YouTube, @SuedecivIII's "Civ III tips/info for n00bs" videos are pretty good as well.
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Thanks, I'll check it out and let her know.
I'll also let y'all know if/when I'm able to convince her to take the leap into "real" computer gaming, haha.
Okay, change of subject.
In regard to "global warming", the way it is depicted in the game, is there any benefit to foresting as much of the map as possible?
I pretty much always plant forests in all of my tundra areas. It's really the only thing you can do with tundra, and besides, it looks most realistic, imo.
I almost never plant forests in grasslands or plains, unless the former contains game, in which case it produces a good mix of food and shield if the square is a forest. In fact, I almost always chop existing forests in grasslands/plains and replace them mostly with mines, and in some cases irrigation if more food is needed. I find that grassland with mines give a good mix of food and shields, but I'm wondering whether it would be better to plant forests in some and irrigate others to get the same food/shield mix for a city while also helping against global warming.
In short, does the number of forests on the map affect global warming?
In regard to "global warming", the way it is depicted in the game, is there any benefit to foresting as much of the map as possible?
I pretty much always plant forests in all of my tundra areas. It's really the only thing you can do with tundra, and besides, it looks most realistic, imo.
I almost never plant forests in grasslands or plains, unless the former contains game, in which case it produces a good mix of food and shield if the square is a forest. In fact, I almost always chop existing forests in grasslands/plains and replace them mostly with mines, and in some cases irrigation if more food is needed. I find that grassland with mines give a good mix of food and shields, but I'm wondering whether it would be better to plant forests in some and irrigate others to get the same food/shield mix for a city while also helping against global warming.
In short, does the number of forests on the map affect global warming?
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LordofDread
Warlord
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This seems to have been up to debate, at least in 2019:
What Causes Global Warming (and Many Other Questions)?
Hey all, I've been looking at older threads on global warming and have a couple of questions I don't think have yet been answered. First, where exactly does global warming come from? I know it comes from pollution, but I'm not sure if that only includes the pollution on the ground that...
forums.civfanatics.com
It seems you can prevent a tile from degrading of global warming by planting forests on it. If it reduces GW directly is another question.
Don't know the answer to this.............BUT, in my current HOF Huge Emperor Histographic game, when Global Warming "Strikes", it only clears forests on tiles outside my cities' radius, so it's entirely ineffective.
