21-11-2001 08:37									#1
	my biggest complains to civ 3 Suffering from ads?

well, a lot I would have, but here those only which personaly for me are the
most important and always do anger me a lot:

1) unlogic and historical failures: 3 cases of recource restrictions

a) slapeter as strategic recource you need for gun powder. Stupidity.
Salpeter isn't a strategic recource in fact (wake up in shool, ask your
chemistry teacher) but always available where enemies or humens are. But
inthe game it may happen that you don't have Salpeter recource and then you
can build the versions of that gun powder weapons.

b) oil as condition for tank and motor ships / early air units
also ask yout teacher. If you have coal (and do know the chemistery or
refining coal) you can make the same.That was made until end of 2nd world
war from Hitler as Germany didn't have oil but lot of coal.
It's a bad joke in the game that oil is rare and your research already is
until rockets and atom power but you are still using horses for your troops.

c) rubber as recource without any possibility to steal the knowledge (semen)
to make own rubber farms (we still would have an British Empire worldwide if
in history no one steal the semen and make farms in america.) Goodness, in
what school the programmer was? The simplest historic facts seem to be
unknown for him.

2) Starting points of races.
not onyl for scenarios, but always. The starting points of a race doesn't
correspondence with the earth map given with. So the game only is playable
on random maps.

3) nothing what is similar to Apollo Program in civ2 and shows the world
complete as result of Apollo's orbits.
Even if you made that wonder, the earth still has black holes. Devil, play
on a huge earth map with 16 factions and you have some wars you can't see
what where recourses/cities they have, althought you made Apollo wonder.
Also unlogic and stupid.

4) no way to zoom. So it's terrible to play with a monitor smaller than 19"
or minim 17". If you got one of the new flat monitors 15" forget it. It's
like a newspaper written in 6 points characters. After 1 hour you are tired
and if you play a full game you need to go to the doctor for eye glasses.

5) speed. On my Pentium III 800 Mhz with 256 ram the game is right playable
with 16 factions and huge map until around 1900, then it slows drastic and
after 1950 you need 2-3 minutes per turn for loading, later up to 5 minutes.
(not a question of grafic card, but of the time which the game needs for
calculation each faction' activities)

Well, the point 4 + 5 they may fix with a patch later, but nevertheless, if
they will not correct points 1-3 soon, the game makes much more dander than
fun, exspecially as it is impossible/worthless to play with an earth map.
And such playing with random maps only is really not the hit for this game.
As it's a game with historical races on earth, not with fantasy races on
andromeda somewhere.

The complete game is unfinished in fact. 3 more month to work and to test,
then the publishing may be o.k., but present I'm feeling betrayed. Like if I
bought a new porsche and got an old badly and repaired one only.

--
http://alpha-centauri-stuff.cjb.net/ by Dreifels in English and German

	21-11-2001 09:00									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

hi dre, don't get me wrong, the game has been rushed but to play devils advocate:-

point 1 - it's a game not a simulation

point 2 - no big deal

point 3 - i don't know, but is what you are seeing what the other civs know rather than what the map is in it's entirety(hence the black holes)

point 4 - i've got a 19" monitor and the game plays sweet at 1600x1200
but i can't see the game being that bad on a 17"! if you've got anything less then stop being a cheapskate!

point 5 - yep annoying is n't it?

at the end of the day, it's a beta but it'll get there!!