Returning to Civ3 after a number of years

[Antonin1957]

Well, I was unable to get my old Civ 3 CD to work in my new Win 10 computer, so I bought the Steam version. I don't really like Steam, but I have a couple of games through them [no choice], and I noticed that I still had about $2.50 in my Steam wallet. So, I spent the extra 2-3 dollars and bought Civ 3.

Who would have thought that a game this old would still look so beautiful? The copyright date on the back of my CD says 2001. Was it really that long ago? I used to play Civ 3, then the Play the World expansion and some other expansion...Conquests?

I was a much younger man, and life was indeed simpler. That is not my imagination; things really were simpler. I had a great career back then, with wonderful co-workers and a very good income. It was before my beloved wife's first bout with that disease that begins with the letter "c."

I spent several hours yesterday getting reacquainted with Civ 3. What a gorgeous game! I never liked the stampede toward 3D. To me, a good 2D game like Civ 3 or Alpha Centauri, with incredible gameplay, was the ideal game. I have resources to manage, there's diplomacy, there's research, and I can see my borders expand. Now I'm exploring the continent, I've built The Pyramids, and the Inca have declared war.

What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!

 

[vorlon_mi]

Welcome back! Just a note ... when I had to re-buy Civ3 through Steam to work on my Win 10 computer, what I got was "Civ 3 Complete". That includes both the Play the World and Conquests expansions.

Yes, 2001 with the expansions in the early 2000's. Good times. Connecting to the internet with a screech-scratch modem.

 

[Antonin1957]

Yes, "Civ 3 Complete" is what I have. So far, it runs with no problems.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome back! I had something very similar happen to me. Couldn't get C3C to run for years, finally got a Switch and Civ 6, and then discovered that the Steam version of C3C would run. Oh, joy!

 

[Antonin1957]

Civ3 was the last version I bought. I don't remember why I didn't buy any after that. Maybe the game went 3D? Or maybe real-life things cut down on my computer gaming.

 

[vmxa]

No 3d, civ 5 did switch to hex tiles and one unit per tile.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Civ3 was the last version I bought. I don't remember why I didn't buy any after that. Maybe the game went 3D? Or maybe real-life things cut down on my computer gaming.

Civ 4 (and its two expansions) kept the basic Civ3 grid (4-sided tiles, big stacks of units) and added multiple layers and dimensions. I never got as good at Civ 4 as I did at Civ 3, since (like you) real-life things began taking my time.

Civ 5, Beyond Earth, and now Civ 6 have switched to hex tiles, one unit per tile, and very different systems to manage how your empire grows. I enjoy them -- not as much as Civ 3 -- but I keep reminding myself that they are different games. Not an extension of Civ 3 and Civ 4 so much as a reboot of the franchise.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

Civ 3 is one of the games that I always eventually reinstall and come back to when I have a new computer - my last one burnt together with the rest of my apartment - and want to feel (almost) in complete control.

It's a really well thought out game, removing or solving stuff from Civ 1 and 2 while introducing new great concepts. It only has minor flaws, and here's some suggestions to make it perfect:

Uncheck the write protection flag on conquests.ini in the Conquests folder, open it in the editor and in the rules section set corruption to 50% (if you can hit 50 on the meter) for all difficulties.

You can do this to another new biq-file rather than the default, and play it as a scenario, but then you don''t get in the hall of fame.

Nullifying extra start units is another thing that I edit, because it takes the fun of sometimes being able to rush a close by opponent even on higher difficulties.

With a cost factor of 4 (food and shields cut to 25%), you don't really need to start with 12 spearmen, 6 workers etc.

 

[tjs282]

You can do this to another new biq-file rather than the default, and play it as a scenario, but then you don''t get in the hall of fame.

???

As I understood it, there's a hardcoded checksum in the .exe that excludes all games based on modded .biqs from the Hall of Fame. So even if you left your modded conquests.biq in the root directory, you still won't be able to obtain a HoF entry from it. I'd be happy if this was not the case, though...

 

[vmxa]

If it is important to you, then just edit the file and add your game score in.

HighScore.cv3
format:
leader name A nnnnn B C D
A = the civ race counting from the list shown in the hall of fame. That is 22 would be Arabs.
B = level counting Chief as 0.
C = type of vic/loss
VictoryType: Domination(0), Conquest(1), Cultural(2), Diplomatic(3), Space race(4), Retired(5), Histograph(6)
D = 1 means won 0 or 2 means lost
nnnnn is your final score.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Civ 3 is one of the games that I always eventually reinstall and come back to when I have a new computer - my last one burnt together with the rest of my apartment - and want to feel (almost) in complete control.

It's a really well thought out game, removing or solving stuff from Civ 1 and 2 while introducing new great concepts. It only has minor flaws, and here's some suggestions to make it perfect:

Uncheck the write protection flag on conquests.ini in the Conquests folder, open it in the editor and in the rules section set corruption to 50% (if you can hit 50 on the meter) for all difficulties.

You can do this to another new biq-file rather than the default, and play it as a scenario, but then you don''t get in the hall of fame.

Nullifying extra start units is another thing that I edit, because it takes the fun of sometimes being able to rush a close by opponent even on higher difficulties.

With a cost factor of 4 (food and shields cut to 25%), you don't really need to start with 12 spearmen, 6 workers etc.

Welcome to CFC!

 

[Spoonwood]

???

As I understood it, there's a hardcoded checksum in the .exe that excludes all games based on modded .biqs from the Hall of Fame. So even if you left your modded conquests.biq in the root directory, you still won't be able to obtain a HoF entry from it. I'd be happy if this was not the case, though...

Personal HoF which your computer records, or the public HoF?

I thought the original comment concerned one's personal HoF.

 

[tjs282]

I thought the original comment concerned one's personal HoF.

Yes, that was my understanding as well, hence my question (I've never submitted any games to the CFC HoF).

 

[Chicken Pizza]

???

As I understood it, there's a hardcoded checksum in the .exe that excludes all games based on modded .biqs from the Hall of Fame. So even if you left your modded conquests.biq in the root directory, you still won't be able to obtain a HoF entry from it. I'd be happy if this was not the case, though...

Oh... has anyone found that checksum and the algorithtm to compute it?

My play style could probably be improved, republic does wonders to corruption and maybe I underestimate science farms.

Great game and a nice thread.

 

[MadMac]

Well, I was unable to get my old Civ 3 CD to work in my new Win 10 computer, so I bought the Steam version. I don't really like Steam, but I have a couple of games through them [no choice], and I noticed that I still had about $2.50 in my Steam wallet. So, I spent the extra 2-3 dollars and bought Civ 3.

Who would have thought that a game this old would still look so beautiful? The copyright date on the back of my CD says 2001. Was it really that long ago? I used to play Civ 3, then the Play the World expansion and some other expansion...Conquests?

I was a much younger man, and life was indeed simpler. That is not my imagination; things really were simpler. I had a great career back then, with wonderful co-workers and a very good income. It was before my beloved wife's first bout with that disease that begins with the letter "c."

I spent several hours yesterday getting reacquainted with Civ 3. What a gorgeous game! I never liked the stampede toward 3D. To me, a good 2D game like Civ 3 or Alpha Centauri, with incredible gameplay, was the ideal game. I have resources to manage, there's diplomacy, there's research, and I can see my borders expand. Now I'm exploring the continent, I've built The Pyramids, and the Inca have declared war.

What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!

I know what you mean about the 2d feeling and how nice it is. While I like 3d as well, old strategy games with 2d graphics have this "board game" type of visual appearance to them. I love also civ 3 simply because of how simple yet challenging it is. Every time you play the experience feels so fresh and different.