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dexters
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Vancouver, Canada
Nov 2001
time: 05:31
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Im on the same boat with vmxa1. The bonus disc is nice to have, just for the high-res unstamped artwork.
The mp3 tracks are also nice. I'm under the impression these are uncut tracks and are longer(?) than the ones you year in the game. not sure though.
Last edited by dexters on 10-11-2003 at 05:25
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asleepathewheel
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listening too long to one song
Mar 2002
time: 00:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Dissident
As I said in my other post, I'm hoping the game will be short and sweet with the scenarios. I see someone's game was under 11 hours. Which isn't too bad. I like to finish a game in one day. I guess I don't have the attention span I used to.
Damn, I think I'll go out and by this game now though.
I just want some more confirmation that the scenarios are short and sweet, and the editor is good enough in that anyone can create scenarios just as good as the ones that shipped with the game. |
The mesopotamia and mesoamerica are quite short I've found, maybe a couple hours each.
My middle ages game is nearing the 3/4 mark and I've been playing it actively for probably 6 hours.
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protista
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Long ago, when I first installed the original Civ3, I had some instability problems, occasional lockups, graphics anomalies, being "bounced" back to the Windows screen, and the like.
Try the following steps with your Civ3/Conquests:
1.Delete both programs
2.Delete Infogrames (or whatever folder contains Civ3/Conquests). If you have other games in this folder, you will have to delete the Civ3, PTW, or Conquests folders.
3.If you have the so called "Intelligent Keyboard" running, close it. Set the program to remain off or inactive.
4.Change your graphics to 1024X768 32Bit True Color.
5.Reboot
6.Run Norton (Symantec or some other brand) speed disk (Defragger).
7.Reboot. Check to see your graphics mode is still 1024X768 32Bit True Color.
8.Install Civ3
9.Install Civ3 Conquests
This will take some time and effort, but I am certain you will have no further instability problems. I have never had any problem since performing these steps myself. I had the HP "Expanded Keyboard" which had a program running in the background which took almost 20% of my system resources.
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doronron
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It's my fault. I underestimated the new AI. I'm playing the mayans. My start point was a region of mixed jungles and marshes. It didn't take me long to figure out I was sitting on an island roughly half the size of Australia.
Thanks to alphabet, I had access to the early curraughs. Built one and sent him around the island to see if there was land nearby. I was happy with the position I was in -- and I found shallow water access to more land. Mayan exploration went quickly, using the curraugh to start exploring the coastline. Fun, but not as fun using a seafaring civ to circumnavigate the globe in one of these things. I quickly met Europe on the new, much larger continent to my west. We had England, Russia, France, Portugal, Spain, Celts, Scandinavians. Not a bad cluster -- all europeans. France had strong culture around her coastal capital, so my curraugh sunk on her final leg home to avoid war. Didn't matter, though. I knew where they all were. I spent the early portion on a build infrastructure build to clear out an entire island's worth of jungle and marsh. It hurt my time. However, once cleared, the territories were doing quite well. Population was straining because of the agricultural trait. I set my capital to building settlers for about a hundred years or so. It never dropped below three pop points. Hit the middle-ages. I had horses and iron, but no saltpeter. That meant no good boats beyond the galleon, and a resource rich, tech trading Europe was right at my heels in the race. I was also starting to feel a little lonely at this point, wondering where the other "americans" were. I built a couple of galleons and went southeast.
Another large continent found. Technilogically advanced iriqious (sp) with visual evidence of guns. Sent my galleon north and found the Aztecs, Incas, a large America, The Babylonians, and the Ottomans. All of them technologically weaker than the Iriqious. To the southeast, the main continental rival for the Iriqious are the germans on an island similar to mine.
Before I had to stop for the night, I had bought up world maps and territory maps, and rushed my tech to industrial era so I could finally get guns and ships that could fight back (my galleons met a grisly end at the hands of a some privateers). However, my position is precarious. Thanks to AI tech trading, all of "europe" is now roughly equal to me in tech. I'm going to have to start aggressively using scientists in the cities to push ahead, despite being a democracy.
It's late in the game. America's still in the middle ages -- some are still ancient. Europe is advanced. I'm right in the middle and working towards decent land units and decent boats to carry my army. In a normal civ3 game, I'd call this a wash and start a new one. With C3C, I'm looking forward to the challenge of switching to fascism and seeing if I can churn out tanks fast enough to blitz a continent. Now...I'm just trying to decide if I want to hit the advanced europeans or press my advantage in the east, having better knowledge of the "americas" wheras the "europeans" are just beginning to exploit the new continent.
Good game so far -- victory is still not assured...
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Dis
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Las Vegas, Nevada
Feb 2000
time: 21:31
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Okay here are some initial thoughts.
The gameplay is still very similiar to civ3. So if you are sick to death of civ3, then you may not want to buy this game. It is the same game afterall.
I played a regular game as the Mayans up intil the industrial age last night. And I also started the WW2-Pacific game and played about 10 turns. I was up till 4:30 AM. I'm usually up to 2:00 AM, so it wasn't a big stretch.
Epic game. I like the agricultural trait. More traits seem to be a good thing. I love the enslave workers ability. And I was very happy with the javelin thrower. I waged an early war (and got an early GA) and took over a huge chunk (actually only about half- maybe even less) of my continent. I thought I was playing archipelago but ended up with a huge pangea continent. It was too much work to take the whole thing, and I wasn't sure how much longer my javelin throwers would be able to take cities. but they did very well against spearman.
Interestingly the Sumerians are kicking some serious ass as my opponent. Everone else sucks and has gotten their ass beat by either myself or the Sumerians. I have to look at what their UU is- I can't remember. That might explain it. And they built that wonder that gives you crusaders every 5 turns. So I'm worried about my safety. And this is only at Warlord level! I usually have no trouble staying ahead of the pack at warlord. He's right on my ass in score. Though I still easily lead in productivity, population, GNP and all of that. My cities are production powerhouses. And I've already done all of my terrain development for all my city squares in all my cities.
No volcanos in my territory. I have only seen one on my continent- and it blew it's load.
I seen some marsh squares. I wasn't impressed and cut it down.
One annoying (bug?) is my units seem to move by themselves. It only seemed to happen when I was waging war. I was using the number pad to move units as I always have. Anyone know about this bug? I would move a unit one direction using the number pad (say 6), and then the next unit would cyle up and move the 6 direction as well. And I know I didn't press the key twice or hold it down. That was really annoying the hell out of me.
As for the WW2 pacific game. I didn't play much. I just tried to get a feel for it. I do like much of the combat. I misjudged some of the Japanese ships, and thought I was attacking weaker ships. I gotta get used to the naming of the ships.
I wish the carrier graphic was larger for the allied ships. It looks too small. Another bonus would be to have light carriers in addition to regular ones. But I'm not sure how that could be implemented. I do wish you could carry more than 3 air units.
And I may bump up the naval movement. I'm not sure how I can possibly win this game in 50 turns. The ocean is so big. And I have no transports to speak of.
I was only playing warlord again. The pearl harbour attack was pretty weak. But the scenario designer said the random numbers can vary widely (see the pearl harbour thread) and often you can sink many ships. I'm sure the ai would do better at a harder difficulty level. But the ai did take the philappines without too much trouble.
One complaint is them razing Manila and another Philappine city.
All in all, a pretty decent scenario. But it will take some time to learn how to play really well.
As for stability problems. I had no more to speak of. Just that one quirk when I exited civ3, and re-entered. I didn't have to do that again though. So that quirk may still be there. Civ3 has always been a memory hog. And it does eat up a lot of my memory even after I exit. But I can still run my musicmatch jukebox in the background while playing civ3 with no problems. I had over 2000 songs on random play  . Actually I just did the autodj for about 12 hours of music. I think Civ3 may have added some new songs, but I quickly grew sick of the civ3 music and wanted to add my own. But keep in mind I like civ3 music for the most part.
As for my ratings? Well it might be too soon to tell. I am kind of bored of civ3 gameplay. But I did stay up all last night playing- so I can't be too bored can I? As an expansion pack, I think it delivers nicely. It actually adds more than the Civ2 expansion packs it seems.
My initial rating is 4 out of 5 stars. That may go down if I get bored of it too quickly though.
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SewerStarFish
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Reading, Pa.
Apr 2003
time: 00:31
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I think this is a tremendous addition. I don't always have the time or the inclination to build a large enough empire or play the full length game. The scenerios provide a wonderful way to play a shorter, goal oriented game. YUMBO!
The changes to the tech tree are also seemingly well thought out. My one big disappoint with Civ III is how often the game ended before the coolest of the modern techs became useful. The delays in things like trading maps and the newer techs seem to promote at least the opportunity for actually using the late modern era techs while the AI has them too.
Finally the new civilizations should provide just about any combination of traits that your in the mood for. I'm stoked.
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Elias
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I Just got conquests yester day although I only played for an hour and a half It was Much beter then PTW. I played the pacific sen I stoped however because i was to lazy to figure out where all the units were and move them into sutable locations for an attack and oh yeah I placed my air force on wake island so i could have a better bombing location and well the end writes its self. I then started the medevial sen which I Immediatly fell in love with I am england and have all ready taken the celts and am working my way to france. Unfortinantly my computer has been revoked so this is all I will see for conquests for a while Taken away before I can do much anything!!! You may see me constantly complaing about this on other threads.
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WarningU2
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In answer to your question about bugs ... it has a few issues i.e. more than 6 players and others read more here ...http://civ3players.proboards2.com/i...board=CONQUESTS
But overall it's better than when PTW came out. The developers worked extensively to improve the reliability of MP with this version.
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smellymummy
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C3C is great. The new editor features is going to allow for lots of nice scenarios. The conquests are great, although I modded the Age of Discovery one (made privateers stronger and more expensive).
Middle age conquest is fun too! Playing as one of the vikings, those beserkers are really cool. I found playing norwegian much easier than the danes..
Does anyone know what the story about the bonus disk? i've seen it mentioned a few places, although I don't have one.
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joncnunn
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Maryland Heights, MO
Sep 2002
time: 23:31
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Well, have enough material to review several conquests now:
Overall, the Conquests appear much easier at each difficulty level than the epic game. This shouldn't be too much of a shock considering that the same was true with regard to the scenerios in Civ II compared to it's epic game. For the same level of challenge, add a dificulty level or two the first time, and raise it another level each time you see it until your at Sid.
Mesoptainan on Monarch as Egypt : This is a peaceful player's dream. Minor unit blocking to keep Phoenicans from founding colonies and one city pumping up WC were all I needed to avoid fighting anyone except some barbs. I won most of the way the second era. No wars the entire game, trigured GA with my first wonder.
Fall of Rome on Monarch as the Huns: This is ideal for a hybrid player that first builds up the techs and basic inferstruture, then once reaching those techs builds lots of units, and only then sends them forth. I finished up all techs prior to the game ending. Only surviving players besides myself were Angle-Saxons (had lost 7 cities and was about to lose the 8th when I went over in score), Franks (had lost at least 4 cities), and Celts (had lost at least 3 cities, and they had 5 on the mainland, so I wouldn't have needed to cross the canal)
MesoAmerican on Monarch as the Incans: Ideal for the Hybrid player that just wants a war for the GA. Built a few UU and had them ready for right after I switched to Monarchy, and started the war just for the GA, took 3 cities, and then remained at peace the whole game with non-barbs. Finished reseraching all techs before the game ended. Note that there are some minor annoyance issues with this conquest:
1. Barb camps formed in immpassible terraign to all units. No way to wipe out without culture expansion.
2. Doesn't really make sense that cities along the edge of impassible terraign can work those tiles at all, even though they only produce 1 gold at most.
3. That box in the bottom right hand corner is in the way along the southern edge of the map and I had to look at the city view of my southern most city to see what was going on there.
Discovery on Monarch as the Aztecs: Also great for the hybrid player that also likes to limit their number of cities. Just took over a few Mayan cities both times they were idotic enough to declare war on me, the first of which resulted in my GA after I'd switched govts. Tech wise I got into the Discovery era before winning via culture. Didn't quite finish the 1st of these techs though.
Epic game:
Mayan traights are excelent for the builder; Agricutral + Industrious is made for territory with a lot of forest to chop and desert to irrigate, and the rivers help building as well.
Looking into the industrial era, the Hoover Dam is sufficent to trigure the GA by itself, so no need for a builder to actually use their ancient era UU for that purpose and so it's very plausable to stay pure builder.
Republic's free unit support + double cost : With the number of cities with natual aquaducts I had combined with half price for those without them, the bypassing Monarchy was a lot less painful in Conquests given the free unit support.
Democracy's no free unit support + normal cost : Well, this has certiantely delayed my normal switch to Democracy as soon as discovered if not actively building a GW or in a GA. It is 2/3rds of the way thru the Middle Ages and I calculate that I would gain less in the form of loss corruption than I would less in lost unit support. (I have exactly 3 X units as I do cities, most are size 11 & 12 and smallest is size 8.)
Last edited by joncnunn on 06-01-2004 at 06:31
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Dain
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Here is my review of the Conquest expansion:
Overall, the expansion offers you a number of fun scenarios to play, a few additional civilisations and introduces a few minor modifications to the game in the form of types of resources and special abilities.
In general those changes have improved the game as you have more variety. One of the key flaws with the balance of individual civilisations still remain in so far that the abilities each civilisation has are not balanced across the board.
Most of the racial abilities become obsolete with technological advancement whilst some are worthwhile throughout the entire game. Similarly, the special units are not as evenly balanced.
I was hoping that they would add in alot more than just one special civ unit offering more individualism when playing a particular civilisation. Perhaps that will be a feature of future expansions or versions.
Unfortunately, the civilisation AI is still extremely poor. Difficulty is only determined by what kind of advantages the AI has access to which bend the rules. The AI civilisations have lower corruption, maintenance, build costs, lower values when trading with other Civs and starts out with alot more than you do on higher difficulty levels.
It is the 'utterly stupid' decisions the AI makes which eventually turn the tide of the war more often than brilliant thinking on your behalf.
The types of things which make the AI look stupid are the situations where you have crushed a particular AI until it is all but defeated and he has a fortified troop still in your territory, you tell him to remove it and he declares war again. So you just go and wipe him out.
The AIs make outrageous demands at higher difficulty levels and will often plunge themselves into suicidal wars when you refuse their demands. I have no problem with a stronger Civ trying to bully you if you are weaker, but when their military force is a joke, declaring war on you will just hasten their demise.
The most infuriating aspect of the game which still exists in this expansion is the total lack of border-respect the AI has. It will cross into your terrority at a whim even if it is significantly weaker than you. There is no strategic benefit in doing this and having to place a line of troops just to keep them from blindly wandering through your territory adds nothing to the game.
Trying to get them out of your territory, if you let them in, is not so easy. At higher difficulty levels more often than not telling them to get out of your territory will result in them declaring war even if they are far weaker than you. At lower difficulty levels you can keep telling them to get out of your territory but they just continue to walk right through your territory.
The only real strategic level of the game occurs during the first and second ages. That is where the game is decided, if they can stop you from getting to the modern age or not.
The AI is totally unprepared to handle modern warfare. In the space of 20 turns you can quite easily dominate the entire map.
Railroads, ICBMS and Airports allow you to totally dominate all the AIs in the modern age. Their lackluster use of advanced artillery or the ability to respond to an invasion makes conquest trivial in the modern age.
The AI has too much of a reliance on bending the normal rules rather than becoming smarter like chess difficulty levels. The AIs are not designed to win, they are just designed to slow you down. If an AI wins then it is an issue of the player not being aggressive rather than sound strategic and tactical decisions by the AI.
Once you can overcomethe numerical advantage the AI has access to it offers very little in the form of challenge. Victory at that point is inevitable, the only thing left to offer a challenge is to finish it quicker and get a higher score than the last time you did it.
That being said, Civ is still an entertaining game and I still enjoy playing it. The expansion gives it more variety and generally improves the game (except for corruptions which is fubared). Likes most games, if you do not have constant internet access the game you purchase will not be anywhere near as good as after it has been frequently patched to remove the critical bugs and flaws in the game.
For its price i think its good value, but it does not represent major improvement in gameplay because it still has inherited the same AI weaknesses.
The trick to winning in Civ is just understanding how the AI functions and what how it responds to your actions and inactions, once you do its predictablity makes it extremely easy to manipulate and overcome.
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dexters
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Vancouver, Canada
Nov 2001
time: 05:31
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Dain, I agree with you that the AI could be better. But for a game of its complexity, there are limits to how well the AI can function.
A comment I want to make about AI launching into suicidal wars. I think it looks illogical on the surface, but it's actually quite logical. A human player has the option of not playing a game we are losing. And I assume many of us quit these games. For the AI ,they have no choice but to play on. I think the programmers assesed, quite rightly, that in such a situation, an AI's job is to make the surviving Civ's (not just the human player) as difficult as possible. And this can include delcaring war even if they are down to 1 city.
One one PTW game in fact, Russia, down to 1 island city declared war on me and due to accumulated war weariness plunged my civ, the premiere world power into disorder, paralyzing production, research and gold income for a turn and requiring painful re-allocaiton of workers. I'd argue that even if there's no chance of them winning the game, their action weild disproportionate effect. In fact, a favorite trick of the weak AI is to start an innocent looking war that a human player can laugh off, and then drag larger AI civs into the war against you. This is the point where most of us either quit, play a gambit to see if we can pull it off or cheat excessively by reloading turns. (heh). I've actually grown to like playing hopeless and difficult games just for the challenge. Trust me, C3C has many of those opportunities in epic games. try starting on a nice size island on a pangea map and see if you can actually pull off a victory. I tried that once, survived to the very end, but didn't win.
I've been the biggest fan of the continual patching system. I actually revisted one of my earliest Civ3 games and was appaled by how different the AI was in that game. Lots and lots of legacy units, and the way the AI expanded was horrific, and those are just obvious things I could see from loading up the map and looking at it.
What I feel Firaxis has done is a good job of listening to the community and closing loopholes to some of the more glaring exploits. PTW introduced a lot of interesting AI strategies such as the defense unit pillage. Revised SOD etc.
What was disappointing for me with C3C though was that unlike PTW, which seemed to have created a better AI overall, C3C was much more ambitious. It Unfortunately, a lot of bugs and problems were introduced/reintroduced.
Ultimately, the AI of any game is going to be predictable. Ideally, and I like to say this as a fan of what Firaxis has done with the game's AI is a patching service ala GalCiv where the developers collect human strategies and periodically update the AI to add to its "volume of knowledge" without requiring a patch. These AI updates would be more frequent and allow for the AI to learn more strategies rather than the few it learns every time there's a patch.
My wish for Civ4 is a planning AI. It doesn't have to be amazingly sophisticated, but an AI that can analyze the current situation. See who are its threats (like it does now) but then go one step beyond that and formulate a plan. (I don't want to call it strategy). It can then even prep cities with pre-builds in anticipation of a wonder or a new building, an oft used human exploit. That's my wish. and I actually think a simpler version of this might be possible in Civ3, if only Atari is willing to fund a programmer to go in and work on the AI full-time.
Last edited by dexters on 01-03-2004 at 17:16
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Nosferum
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---I was playing the Japan campaign (circa 1500) and found it extremely difficult to take cities. Defensive units are easy to get, and I've lost whole armies to a single city. I then tried to bombard the city with 22 Rocket Carts, and 17 of those Fire gun things. They almost NEVER hit. Finally, I decided to build a Ninja, just out of curiosity. I walked him up to the capital city, picked out the King unit to fight (stealth units can choose their target) and BOOM, I assassinated him, completely eliminating the entire civilization. Basically, all you do is claw your way to the Ninja tech, build about 8 Ninjas and you can't lose. It's a little silly.
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10-11-2003 05:20
. I'm researching Fascism right now. 8 more turns. 
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