Off Topic DO NOT BUY CIV 3

[MarkP]

As for myself I think Civ 3, needs a lot of improvement . And I’ve haven’t play it from the time I got EU2 which is a much better game by the way. But I just wish Sid will put in some more time with his games, than to delegate it to someone who does not care to design or make a game. I still remember the first time that I played Civ 2, It was just fantastic, Almost as good as playing MOO for the first time. And now I think I’m getting vary tired and old. But then you have SEIV and EU2 whitch are bringing back the good old times.

[ 26 December 2001: Message edited by: MarkP ]

[ 26 December 2001: Message edited by: MarkP ]

[MarkP]

Sorry for the editing I was just playing with it for a while, YEEeee HAA!!!

[Puke]

sort of like ghost writers huh. dont you hate it when a good author starts handing his story ideas over to other people. its like saying "im so good that i dont even have to try anymore"

just like any self righteous bum that puts their name on video games. "sid myers this" and "peter molyniehooayuxez that" (however the hell you spell his name). the only thing that i can think of that is possibly worse is arrogant bastards that pLaster their cheesy www handle onto the title of their SE4 games over on seiv.pbw.cc i mean, what over-inflated ego started that anyway?

[Jourin]

I have been playing CIV3 for the Last 4 weeks. It is a good game and except for the crashes it is fun. Firaxis has said they will support the game and if they do it will be a great game. What upsets me is all the hype and all the great Ratings. In its current state the game is not that great. I think all the great Ratings is based on reputation because it is a Sid game, even though he did not work on it very much if at all. It has a lot of potential but so did CTP and BOTF. The question is, will Firaxis support the game so it reaches that potential.

I saw the potential in CTP and user mods made it into a a very good game. (with little to no help from Activision). I saw the potential in BOTF but even with a lot of work from the user community, the hard coded limitations made the game totally frustrating and not fun and is no longer on my hard drive.

If Firaxis supports CIV3 with patches (definitely more then one will be needed) through the next year then I think CIV3 will be a great game. Currently it is a good game with lots of potential, but also lots of problems and IMO does not desire all the great Ratings and hype.

However, even though I was a CIV fan first, I would rate SEIV at least twice as good as CIV3. I gave SEIV gold as Christmas presents to my nephews by giving them an "I owe you 1 SEIV gold game" in their card. After showing them the current game, they can not wait.

[Atrocities]

You know, if they would fix the problems, and improve the UI, add some features, and fine tune the game, ya it would be a very fun game.

But will they?

[klausD]

I also think that CIV3 is a rather bad game. I am wondering of all the good press about this game out there. I prefer a good patched and modded CTPII to everything Meyer and his gang has released (ok I liked colonisation a little bit) in the Last years.

IMO the problems are:
1. the combat system. Sid Meyer used the movement and combat system of the old PC-game empire (or final destiny) since the first incarnation of Civ. I dont have any idea why he didnt change this obsolete system in CIV3. I mean CTPI and CTPII showed everybody an acceptable combat concept with balancing armies and interesting troop attributes.

2. the workers and settlers. Why by the heck does CIV3 use this ancient and tedious concept? The public works system of CTP series works much more simple and better.

3. I like also the SF setting of CTP with all its wonderful underwater cities, submarines and technologies- its simple more game than CIV3.

4. And Last but not least I love all these non-military units of CTP. (Lawers, slave hunters etc.) They provide a alternative kind of game.

All in all the big failure of Civ is done by their designers. They seem to be too arrogant to learn from another civ-incarnations to improve their own game. And thats why this game disappeared from my HD several days ago - now my copy is on ebay for sale and I doubt that I will buy again something from Firaxis.

[LLB]

Atrocities,

My experience with CivIII was surprisingly similar to yours, but we seem to have come to slightly different conclusions. I too shared my starting continent with the Brits. After several hundred years of a mutually profitable trade relationship, Elizabeth broke it to attack with swarms of ground units. I too had more cities and better technology, and I too was losing. (What was worse, Elizabeth managed to enlist just about everyone else in the world in her cause of exterminating Evil Me.) When I lost three elite Knight units trying to kill a lone regular Spearman defending unfortified in open terrain, I too almost lost it. Ridiculous!

After I cooled off, I took a closer look at the combat system. It turns out that, like the earlier Civ games (though to a lesser degree), the combat system strongly favors quantity over quality. The benefits of higher attack and defense values are just not as great as their numeric values might suggest. This means of course that defending cities with small numbers of high quality units is a prescription for losing cities, and attacking with small numbers of high quality units is a prescription for losing a war of attrition in very short order.

Despite being a little slow to realize all this, I did manage to exterminate the English and achieve a rough stand-off parity with the rest of my opponents, although it cost me about 40% of my cities and took about 500 years. In the process I discovered that some subtleties in the game that weren't initially obvious (similar to your experience, and mine, with BOTF). Some of these subtleties include the use of terrain on defense, the use of bombardment units, and the use of the better mobility of the more advanced units (and your own transportation net, which, unlike in earlier Civ games, your opponent can't benefit from) to create local firepower superiorities.

My point here is that CivIII could definitely have been a *much* better game, but like BOTF I think it does reward some patient effort. After your frustrations have cooled a bit, you might want to give it another try before giving it to Goodwill. Just a thought.

L.