The Third World War 1989

[BomberPlane474]

This mod looks awesome, but unfortunately it's really slow on my computer and often times it won't get past the first turn...is there something I can do to make it faster? My computer is only one year old.

 

[Lionic]

On the other hand is it fun as Soviet player/do you have any chance to do anything useful with your force as player? I don't know, never played as SSSR

If you mean Soviet navy than yes, it is useful. Modern Soviet submarines are not bad at all, especially Oscars, I did not loose any of these and they managed to sink two USS submarines that attacked them. However losses of the surface ships were horrible, most of them did not survive the first part of the battle, enemy airforce to blame mostly.

 

[Samez]

IMHO surface ships were never a strength of Russia but submarines are a different topic. As roughly 50% of all subs built in the 20th century were Soviet, they had plenty of experience building those.

This mod looks awesome, but unfortunately it's really slow on my computer and often times it won't get past the first turn...is there something I can do to make it faster? My computer is only one year old.

I takes about 2 hours for the first 3 or 4 turns on my machine, but it gets much faster after that. (If I would have to guess I would say it took about 6-8h to get to turn 40)
Civ3 requires a fast single cpu (so even a modern i7 might run slower than a fast single core pc)

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

BomberPlane474: Like Samez said, multiple cores can't help run Civ 3 which is the biggest detriment to fast play. The best I can offer is to make absolutely sure that nothing is running in the background before you load Civ 3. I always check to make sure stuff like Steam isn't quietly sucking away horsepower when it's needed most.

Samez: You really turned the game around there. I fixed the Neutral player adjective. I am very pleased that the Soviets use their artillery so well in this set up. I also like that for escorts they often use a combination of ground units and air defense, which makes them even harder to crack open.

NATO by design actually has a slight edge in the race to military alliances. That is if a major NATO player maximizes research and goes straight to Diplomatic Alliance. Depending on who I am playing, sometimes I will take this route even though it means not having any improved units.

The free barracks and POMCUS sites brought a lot of agony in development. The alternative is having the US magically airlift their units to cities without airports and then getting them stuck there. This happened so much in the older version that they were practically useless. The sites do go inactive with the International Trade tech, which is the one that opens the Atlantic. It's a trade off either way. I'd be open to ideas too; this is the best that I was able to fix this issue.

The Soviet Navy can be a lot of fun. Like Lionic pointed out, enemy air units will crush you if you are not meticulously careful in how you deploy your ships. The Oscars are you best asset, since their invisibility gives them the chance to sneak under air cover and do great damage. As the Soviets, I like to take out the carriers first, then the amphibs and transports. I expect to lose at least 2/3 of my ships. The Kirovs are powerful but again must stay out of aircraft range. You guys probably noticed that the AI goes completely ape when it gets transports in range and will attack with everything at hand. For the Soviet Naval Infantry, I like to use them in local operations in Norway and Denmark until the naval and air situation shifts. Then you can go into Scotland and Iceland and do all that crazy stuff. I have yet to try to invade North America...I think the AI would go nuts and it would be hard to hold territory. In the newer version of the game, naval powers will have the late game option to make new marines and amphibious ships so that you can get creative if you like.

I agree with everyone that keeping naval bombardment is best. Was just thinking out loud there.

 

[Lionic]

In my East German game the Soviet Union was the first to make alliances too. Not that it helped though--they lasted for a minimum period, then Western allies entered into negotiations and bribed all countries to fight Warsaw Pact.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

An economic audit is also being done on the scenario. Each nation is having its resources and needs checked again since much has changed since the initial version. It's working well and there's plenty of economic data from the time period to suit civ 3 economics. This will result in better balance when you are playing various nations and help you negotiate the necessary deals.

Two questions here: Should the Strait of Messina and the Turkish straits be closed? r16 laid out some good arguments on connecting Istanbul. I like the idea because it gives the chance to eliminate one more trade node (Kocaeli Docks). The concern would be what to do with the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. Should they be mostly pre-deployed to the Med? Or bottled up back home, which gives the allies free reign with their Med fleets? Also, having Messina open is nice for transit and makes sense in terms of shipping, but closing it would connect Sicily and give them access to all the resources of the mainland.

I'm still toying with the idea of splitting up the Arab League. which would entail removing a player position from somewhere. The logic is that there would be a Soviet-leaning Arab civ (including Syria, Libya, and Algeria) and a Western-leaning Arab civ (Saudi, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Tunisia and Morocco). Lebanon would need a home, too. It would even be possible to give the Soviets a city-base in Latakia or something. The main thing is that if this situation is included, I would not want these as locked alliances at war from the start. I know the game runs the risk of ridiculous situations (US-Israeli wars, etc.) but to me it is more important to have the Middle East as a powder keg than a war zone on turn 1. Middle Eastern wars on turn one would be devastating to the already long turns times.

Thoughts?

 

[Lionic]

What about making the initial Middle Eastern armies immobile in the start of the game and making them upgradeable into mobile after the first few turns? Even if they declare war on each other, they would not be able to do much damage to each other. Let's presume for example that Syria and Israel were bogged down in Lebanon for a year or two longer than in our timeline, depleting their resources and still rebuilding them in the beginning of the scenario, since US/USSR could not support them preparing for their own conflict. Same for Lybia in Chad.

What civilization do you plan to delete to have place for more Arabian civs? I would suggest to unite Belgium and Netherlands, although the players from these countries would not appreciate...

EDIT. And yes if you split Arab league into "Pro-Soviet" and "Pro-Western" States that does not mean that you have to put them into loocked alliances. I have named them "Arab Nationalists" and "Arab Royalists" in my other scenario. Countries are the same, but there's more freedom in whom they support. IIRC Syria relied on Western investments as much as it relied on the Soviet military, other Arab countries probably the same.

 

[Samez]

IMHO the straits (at least the Turkish ones) should stay open, there is no really good solution due to engine limitations.

btw BUG: got an infinite sound loop during the ai turns (about every second turn now...). It can only be stopped by restarting c3c. It's an attack sound (machine gun) of either French Reserve Infantry, Italian Motorized Brigade or some Spanish IFV in theory it could also be from reconnaissance BRDM2 but as they have been around longer than the problem I doubt it.

 

[Lionic]

It's a Spanish IFV, I tell you)))))))

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

What about making the initial Middle Eastern armies immobile in the start of the game and making them upgradeable into mobile after the first few turns? Even if they declare war on each other, they would not be able to do much damage to each other. Let's presume for example that Syria and Israel were bogged down in Lebanon for a year or two longer than in our timeline, depleting their resources and still rebuilding them in the beginning of the scenario, since US/USSR could not support them preparing for their own conflict. Same for Lybia in Chad.

What civilization do you plan to delete to have place for more Arabian civs? I would suggest to unite Belgium and Netherlands, although the players from these countries would not appreciate...

I want to avoid immobile upgrade units like the plague. They kill turn times and the AI is terrible at upgrading them right. The civilization to replace would have to be Cuba, the Caribbean, or Egypt. The Warsaw Pact and NATO nations aren't being changed; this scenario is about them.

btw BUG: got an infinite sound loop during the ai turns (about every second turn now...). It can only be stopped by restarting c3c. It's an attack sound (machine gun) of either French Reserve Infantry, Italian Motorized Brigade or some Spanish IFV in theory it could also be from reconnaissance BRDM2 but as they have been around longer than the problem I doubt it.

It's the Spanish VEC. The correction is in an attachment at the end of post 1.

 

[nicator]

Anthony Boscia, thank you creating such a wonderful scenario. I tried accessing through NO RAZE patch in order not to have any cities razed but having the following problem:"art\Advisors\science_industrial_new.pcx" Please check. Thanks a ton!

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

You have to make sure that the 1989 folder that is in your scenarios folder does not have a duplicate 1989 folder inside it. In the 1989 folder it should have Art, Text, etc.

 

[Esul12]

What do you think about playing a Multiplayer match with this scenario?

I never did that, so I don't know if and how would be possible, but I think that the complexity and the depth of the scenario are better for human player that for AI (already good, but sometimes dumb).
Strategical possibilities would be enormous

I think we need at least URSS, USA, UK, France, Italy, Poland and possibly some others like Arabs, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Israel, etc

In case, I book Italy

 

[Esul12]

Hi,
in my game with Turkey at day 39 it appears:

'Load Error / File not found / "Art\Units\GR-M60\GR-M60.INI" /The game will now exit'

....and I can't continue an interesting match!
is it possible to fix that?
What can we do?


EDIT: ok, I've done. But you have to correct the .ini file in that folder: instead of 'US-M60A3' put 'GR-M60'

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

That was fixed in the attachment in post one. It's also integrated into the new download for the complete game.

I still plan to make a multiplayer version after the major update is complete.

 

[Haki]

I have civ3 complete, i followed tutorial and i get please insert etc. I was reading this thread and i saw solution is here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=327919&highlight=Raze so i downloaded from link above .exe and i run it and i select scenario and run it, it stuck loading scenario i waited over 5 minutes and i have high end pc. Any help?

 

[Samez]

You will probably have to be more patient.
Waiting times are quite high for loading the scenario
and as mentioned a few posts above:
It takes about 2 hours for the first 3 or 4 turns on my machine, but it gets much faster after that. (If I would have to guess I would say it took about 6-8h to get to turn 40)
Civ3 requires a fast single cpu (so even a modern i7 might run slower than a fast single core pc)

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Everything that Samez said.

Also, I would mention again to make sure that no other programs are running in the background. Steam, browsers, etc. On my computer, just one of these is the difference between playing and crashing.

The game actually runs relatively swiftly on my computer. Of course, I'm the only person who actually had this game in mind when I was shopping for my computer a few years ago. 3.6 quad core and 10 gigs of RAM does the trick.

 

[Loki130]

Any update on when the new update comes, or at least a complete download? I just got civ 3 off steam so I could play this again.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Soon!

The new version is close to completion. More play testing is needed to evaluate the changes. The next week or so is very busy for me, but I am hoping to have this out in maybe two weeks. There will be an alternate Labels file for Steam users. Here's a short list of major changes; a comprehensive list will be posted when it's ready.

• Central European borders have been completely redrawn, with numerous cities, airbases, and roads readjusted. It is now not only much more geographically accurate, but better suited to AI opening moves. Warsaw Pact units are now boxed in by one another to prevent first turn retreats. There's an actual Fulda Gap to go through now!
• The Soviet Army has been completely overhauled on a division-by-division basis. This is based upon the new book from Professor Feskov and friends at Tomsk University, and also extraordinary work by Michael Holm at this site. In addition, units now have their full name and designation. This leads to long names (especially on the lower right hand box where they have a little graphics issue) but it is much easier to identify what belongs together, especially if you use the right-click lists.
• Bombarding AI artillery courtesy of Quintillus and Civinator. The AI uses it, but still acts as dumb as ever. Lots more testing here. REFORGER and airborne artillery probably will stay with the offense flag so that the computer continues to airlift and airdrop them.
• Resource overhaul based on economic info from 1989.
• Plenty of new unit graphics, including Gwendoline's PSzH and MTLB and Delta Strife's French and British navies.
• I readjusted unit animations. The game actually runs a little faster now, even with all the new units.
• Lots of macht nichts stuff.

So yeah, soon.