What is Sid Difficulty?

[GhostWriter16]

I will say, I haven't played Civ 3 in forever, but out of curiosity, what is Sid difficulty? How does it compare to Deity and other levels? What bonuses does the computer get? Show yourself if you can beat it.

I usually play Warlord in Civ games, so its a curiosity question alone.

 

[vmxa]

Deity/Sid

AI Bonuses
Def Land Units 8/12 (these are starting units)
Off Land Units 4/6
Start unit type 1 1/2
Start unit type 2 2 /4
Extra free support 16/24
Bonus for each city 4/8
Max gov transition 2/1
Cost factor 6/4
AI to AI trade 170/200

Other variables
Citizens born content 1/1
Citizens quelled 1/1
Attack bonus vs barbs 0/0
Percent optimal cities 60/50

 

[vmxa]

Type 1 means settlers and type 2 means workers. Those are added to what everyone gets, so Sid civs start with 3 settlers, you start with 1. They start with 18 units (not counting scouts), you start with 0. Your cost is 10, theirs is 4.

100 shield cost you 100, them 40.

 

[darski]

If you would like to see how the CFC community met the first Sid challenge this game is a good read

 

[Hellfiredoom]

Simply put, Sid is like stabbing a dull rusty knife directly into your eye.

 

[darski]

Simply put, Sid is like stabbing a dull rusty knife directly into your eye.

Yep... that about covers it!!!

 

[GhostWriter16]

Is it possible?

Wait, they start with 18? How many on Deity?

Why don't they just declare war and kill you right away? Lol.

 

[Hellfiredoom]

Sorry about the above post, a little frustration popped out there.

Seriously though Dom, you sound like me when I first found this site. I played Civ 2 + 3 a lot when they first released, but never played above Warlord. I got bored and moved onto other games. I came across Civ 3 on the shelf last Fall and reloaded it. I then found this site and read as much as I could... my learning curve was incredible. I played one game at Regent, won it incredibly easy, and moved onto Monarch where I now win every game. Emporer proves to be more of a challenge for me, which I only undertake when I feel like investing the micromanagement that is needed to win at that level. (I also only play conquest VC, which at higher levels proves more difficult with the AIs production advantage, but that's another story...).

Long story short, if you're at Warlord, read this excellent article (and others) found in the Strategy section. Written by vmxa, it shows the mindset needed to make the game winnable at higher levels.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=296512

And if I had to pick the one thing that allowed me to elevate my game, it is not automating workers. There's another article regarding Opening Plays, which I can't locate atm. Read that one too if you find it!

Have fun and welcome to CFC!

 

[vmxa]

Is it possible?

Wait, they start with 18? How many on Deity?

Why don't they just declare war and kill you right away? Lol.

Deity they start with 12. They do sometimes kill you right away on Pan maps. I had that happen twice. Less than 10 turns. Usually you can get along fairly well, if you are on your toes.

Trade, if you have a starting tech that the neighbor does not. Gift some gold from time to time, do not wait to get a demand. I have kept them polite for some time, but it is not my idea of fun. I prefer to kill them.

Here is the meanest part of the starting units, if they start with WC or BW they can have spears/archers as starting units. Germany start with both, you do not want them close to you.

That is the same for all levels that have bonus starting units.

 

[vmxa]

Is it possible?

I missed this question, yes it is possible. I have done it many times and many others have as well. At least on islands and continets. Pan maps is another story altogether.

 

[templar_x]

deity-sid in fact is the steepest step, at least with regard to the growth/production bonus of the ai. 0.6 to 0.4 means they get an additional advantage compared to the human deity player of 33%! those bonuses plus their starting units allow them to plop down 5-10 towns before you plant your second.

is it possible to win then? as vmxa said, yes it is. but only if you are ready to play a completely different game. and i mean, a different game compared to deity level!
the starting units are the least of all ai advantages, btw, of course only if they do not use them to kill you off.

2 years ago i was a solid (and bored) monarch player, and in my perception up to deity you just learn to play better, gain experience and pay more attention to the details of the game. sid requires you to think "outside of the box", as my friend Buce uses to put it.

and sid on pangaea... well, it is possible as well, and even a necessary setting if you want a really fast finish date. you´ll want a good starting position and pretty much everything else set to your favour though to have a real chance. i am playing around with that currently, but with regard to playing this game, i really find the higher levels BELOW sid much more enjoyable.

templar_x

 

[GhostWriter16]

Hellfire, I actually had to look for the offending part of your post. It didn't offend me, in fact, it was pretty funny. I was curious about it because all the other games peek at Deity rather than Sid. I never have played at either level, and don't plan to in the near future. I will read that article by the way.

I have heard that Sid Meier is not even good at his own games. I don't know where I heard this, but I've made a joke all the time about Sid's failure to win on Sid

 

[Spoonwood]

Yes, Sid on pangea comes as possible. Some sample games Standard Conquest, Standard Domination 1, Standard Domination 2, Standard Spaceship, Standard Diplomatic.

but only if you are ready to play a completely different game. and i mean, a different game compared to deity level!

For a conquest or domination game, I really think the military details and what you build come as quite similar. How you get techs may differ, but for the most part my conquest game military-wise just felt like a sort of ultra-Deity game.

The easiest way to "think outside of the box" comes as to "throw the box away," or find a larger box which encloses what you viewed as "the box" before. The thread here from post # 10 on might prove interesting.

 

[GhostWriter16]

To the above posts, I never really got bored of Civ. I upgraded to Civ IV.

I am at Warlord, a recent upgrade. I know I'm hyjacking my own thread, but I often have trouble putting a game away. For example, its 1800 or so in the game I'm doing, and I've conquered one civ, vassalized one (This is Civ 4) but am having trouble killing off a far weaker civ because of difficulty getting my units from my massive empire together. Any hints?

 

[rysingsun]

sid games are for people who like a lot of stress. I've won one archipalago and one pangea. On archipelago you have the fun of island hopping, destroying hundreds of units per island with trebuchetes. It can be a very very slow process. I almost won a second sid island game, but I got the dreaded "spaceship has been launched" message when I still had a long way to go. An enormous amount of hours had been invested in that game.

sid pangea is even more stressful. I made ROP with everyone and hoped for the next couple hundred hours (it was a huge map) that no one would attack me. No one did for the entire game. I took them out one by one starting well into the industrial age, since before that I had no army at all. Until quite near the end of the game if the any of the major powers picked a quarral with me I would have been wiped out quickly. I stressed over everything in that game. I stressed over being attacked. I stressed over the UN. I stressed over the manhatten project. I stressed over enemy spaceships. I came close to running out of time on that last count. I stressed big time over culture flips. When it was finally all over I submitted the game to hof, but because I didn't have any early turns saved it didn't qualify. I couldn't go through the ordeal again, so I did a deity one instead, just so that no would could say "How do I know you can play the game Rys?"

I don't recommend Sid except for the fanatics.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it for myself either.

Or Deity.

Or Immortal.

Or Regent.

I have trouble with Warlord.

 

[Sparthage]

Well. I'm DEFINITELY not a Sid-level player.

I have trouble with Warlord.

We all have to start somewhere.

 

[Spoonwood]

The thread from post# 10 does more-or-less show a non-stressful way to beat Sid.

 

[Illuminous]

Taken from the Civilization III: Info Center

Difficulty Levels

* The AI presents a very challenging opponent in all eras and all difficulty levels.
* Civilization III has six difficulty levels, same as in Civ2.
Level Content Citizens AI Build Rate Barbarian Combat Bonus
Chieftain 4 200% 800%
Warlord 3 120% 400%
Regent 2 100% 200%
Monarch 2 90% 100%
Emperor 1 80% 50%
Deity 1 60% 0%

**AI build rate is how quickly the AI builds stuff (on chieftain it takes twice as long to build or advance). Barbarian bonus is the advantage your troops have over barbarians.
*

FREE Units: The AIs receive FREE units as soon as they build their first city on Monarch, Emperor, and Deity levels.What units they are given depends on the techs they start with. They get all warriors if they don't start with Bronze working (spearman) or warrior code (archers).
o On Monarch level, the AI gets 2 free defensive land units and 1 offensive land unit.
o On Emperor level, the AI gets 4 defensive units, 2 offensive units, and 1 worker.
o On Deity level, the AI gets 8 defensive units, 4 offensive units, 2 workers, AND 1 settler!
*

Other effects:
o

Greater chance of getting goodies when you visit a goody hut on lower levels.
o

More units require no support on Chieftain and Warlord.
o

Corruption level is higher for higher levels.
o

Easier diplomatic opponents on lower levels.
* Chieftain is easier than it was in Civ II and Deity is now harder. Below Regent level it cheats for the player, and above Regent level it cheats against the player. At Regent level there is no cheating.
* Civilization III does NOT have a built-in cheat mode.

 

[Illuminous]

The thread's don't allow formating, so the number's aren't alligned correctly, just check out the info center. There's plenty of other useful information there as well (hence the name).