Too Many Cities

[texico11]

I've ran into another problem in Civ 3. When trying to settle, I get a "too many cities" message. It's the first time it's ever happened to me.

Is there any way I can edit the max number of cities in the civ files? or has anybody made a mod that allows more cities. It's going to limit my game extremely badly if there isn't.

 

[Turner]

No, that number is hard coded.

Go destroy some AI cities, you'll be fine.

 

[vmxa]

BTW the number is 512. This is a problem for map over the default huge size. If you are on a 362, it ill have massive amounts of land that cannot be used.

Keep settlers on hand and ready to go, if a town is destroyed.

 

[texico11]

BTW the number is 512. This is a problem for map over the default huge size. If you are on a 362, it ill have massive amounts of land that cannot be used.

Keep settlers on hand and ready to go, if a town is destroyed.

Yes, 362. I made it using the generator on the Map Editor.

It seems kind of stupid to me that a company would build a map editor with 362 size capabilities, in a game with only a limited number of cities.

I have about 13 cities now compared to the Germans who have well over 50+ I started on a smaller island compared to them who had started on a continent and planned on emphasising on exploring and grabing valuable land on islands all over the continent later in the game.

None of the point of this new-game is really going to work with that limiter in. Why an earth would they implement such a handicap feature?

 

[vmxa]

Just a guess, but two things come to my mind. 1) least likely, 512 is typical factor of binary. 2) most likely imo, the game would run like a snail with no limit. If you go for a boost you would get very large very fast like 1024.

With a 361 and having 512 towns, each road cut or city razed or build take a lot of processing. I played an AWE on 362 with 31 civs, a lot of work to conquest that one.

The game will switch to the human in a big way, once the limit is reached. The AI will soon decide to not make settlers as it can never found a town, if you are on your toes.

This makes it impossible for it to found a town later. Always check to see if you can found a town after the IBT, Now and then the AI will raze a town and not found a new and you can sneak in a city.

Do not return the favor, always found a town after you raze one. Do ti even in crap place, you can abandon it later to plan one in a better location.

If you start on a smallish island in a 362, start a new game. It will take forever to get any where on map that size. You may even consider bumping ship movements to handle the increase in tiles.

 

[Padma]

To put it simply, the game engine was never intended to be used on maps that size. Civ3 was built on the Civ2/SMAC engine. It was originally planned for no more than 8 Civs on a map, with the largest size being the original "Huge", with play on anything bigger than "Standard" unlikely. Thus, you should never run into such a ridiculously large limit as 512 cities.

Obviously, under pressure from the production company and from the fanbase, they allowed more Civs, and larger maps. But modifying the base engine was beyond the scope of any patch or expansion. So people who have the hardware to play a 362x362 map, and/or 32 Civs, start running into these hard-coded limits.

 

[Spoonwood]

Do Huge 60% maps with 8 tribes run into those types of problems also?

 

[vmxa]

I never ran into on any Huge map, but I have not used only 8 civs. I doubt it would matter though as the map was filled with towns. IOW I do not think you have enough tiles to hold 512 towns, unless they were spaced quite very close.

I have done conquest, were I owned all towns and most were placed by me at CxxC and did not run out of the limit.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Do Huge 60% maps with 8 tribes run into those types of problems also?

Here is the current minimap from my possible milk run. I started with 15 civs though, but it is 60%. There should be slightly over 400 cities (Me: 350, AI: 50-60)

There is still room for some more.

 

[capnvonbaron]

LoL and the black plague enveloped and swallowed the continent....

 

[darski]

No, that number is hard coded.

Go destroy some AI cities, you'll be fine.

I absolutely love to see such simple advice given here. Makes the heart beat faster just knowing the rules. And so many say the same thing; it must be true.

 

[Spoonwood]

Darski,

Are you saying Turner's comment was correct or incorrect?

 

[Bartleby]

Do Huge 60% maps with 8 tribes run into those types of problems also?

Here is the current minimap from my possible milk run. I started with 15 civs though, but it is 60%. There should be slightly over 400 cities (Me: 350, AI: 50-60)
---
There is still room for some more.

I've had about 500 cities within 66% of the territory, it was "very crowded."
It can be useful to stop the AI from settling more, for example if you don't want to raze much so's you can win a milked diplo.

edit:

here's a pic from CRpViewer: (501 cities)

The Babs had eight cities at that stage, the Persians two and Greece one.