1BC Civ Forums / Civilization III Discussion / CivIII Discussion / Tips & Tricks

Creating Units

Fundraiser — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:13:47 GMT

I played III a long time ago and am now returning to it. I have a large printed tutoral from a site called bclay.com on how to add things such as units. I can't log in there anymore and I lost all my old personally created units and need some direction on their creation, not in the editor but in the actual unit file file. Example:

Warrior Notes File:

ATTACK1=WarriorAttackA.flc
ATTACK2=WarriorAttackB.flc
ATTACK3=

As I remember we had to add something to the file to make it work for a newly created unit. I am creating a warrior called a brave.

Brave Notes File:

ATTACK1=/WarriorAttackA.flc/WarriorAttackA.flc

It looked something like this. Any help you could be I would appreciate it.

Fundraiser

what is the strongest civilation?

civ3freak90 — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:30:13 GMT

I can always kick a@@ in the beging of a game but then i get swamped later and i have a bigger army than most of the civilations i get swamped by. I just want to know what u guys think is the best civilation is????:cool:

Civ III won't play on my laptop

Retirednavy92 — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:03:40 GMT

When I start the game after install, it starts but then the screen goes black and I get a not responding message in task manager. Any ideas on what I need to do.

1000 gpt?

Hrainian — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:16:52 GMT

Hey, I started a game a while back (huge, I'm arabs) and went on a goodie-hut rampage (I got like 10 techs), so I was far more advanced than everyone else. Then, the ottomans contact me and ask for horseback riding, so I say "counterpropose" and see how much they'd take: it offered 938 gpt, but when i set it to 937 he said "they will never accept"

QUESTION ABOUT RESOURCES!

oixo — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:15:45 GMT

Hi, well my question is how do I get more resources on the map or is it completely random? And what is Random Seed in the top when you do New Game? Thank you~

Retire?

kayber76 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:37:50 GMT

So i picked up CIV III and I love it. I've been playing nightly for hours and everytime I seem to get pretty in depth my CIV the game goes on telling me it's ending soon. Is this normal? I get riflemen and such then all of a sudden i get this message about the game ending soon and to retire.

Regent to Monarch

NickM68 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:09:40 GMT

I need to rethink my CIV III strategy.

On Regent I won comfortably, getting so far ahead I got all the wonders. I'd always chosen France, because the Industrious trait helped me develop cities faster and the Commercial trait gave me more money/less corruption. I grew quickly and stayed ahead.

On Monarch (standard size), I built 9 cities, but then found that:

a) I had no iron for Swordsmen and no horses for Horsemen on my continent - they were on other continents!

b) Other civilisations had ships earlier than me and had built cities everywhere.

c) Other civilisations were getting all the wonders - I'd fallen behind in research.

I know there's no absolute answer, but my worker-led development strategy clearly isn't working at this level........and I'm not sure France's traits are that helpful anymore.

What I want to know is - how can I amend my strategy and get off to a decent start??

Over to you - the experts. I really NEED your help!

production of wonders

Kefas — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 18:59:17 GMT

Hello,

I'm new to the game and am trying to figure out why i am getting these messages all to often: "Can no longer build Wonder X because production has changed to Y" or " Can no longer build the Wonder x"

Last kown case is the "Theory of evolutions" wich i was about to build in 2 turns. Only one other civ has already build it. Could it be sabotage?

What can be the cause and the solution?

ps: i'm playing at the warlord level, have build an intelligence agency and am playing in 1745 AD with the romans.

TX

Map Types

ChewbaccaFreak — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:46:06 GMT

Does anyone know if the map type has anything to do with your score at the end of the game?

For instance, if I wanted a higher score would it make a difference if I chose pangea over archepeligo? Or 70% land over 80%? Or 3 billion years old instead of 5 billion years? Or Large over Standard size? Or... I think you get the point. :P

Thanks for any help!

Movement of Units

bearcat222 — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 00:50:50 GMT

I'm playing Civ 3 with Conquests loaded.

During a turn, the turn begins with a unit highlighted. Now, of course I can choose instead to scroll around the map, and select a different unit to give orders to. But as soon as I do, the map "snaps" to that unit it began with.

The game seems to have in mind some kind of list, and it wants to force me to give orders to the units in this list.

However, if I go with the flow, and accept what the computer shoves at me, this is what happens: the computer begins the turn with a unit highlighted. I look at the immediate vicinity, my goals in that area of the map, my units, including those stacked with the currently-highlighted-unit. I then give orders to the unit accordingly.

The unit performs the orders. Now, at this point, I'd like to give similar orders to units NEAR this one. But instead of letting me do that, the computer SNAP JUMPS the map focus to a unit far away.....first, it is extremely disorienting, after having spent three or four minutes studying a specific map region, to suddenly be looking at a totally different area. Second, I don't want to have to remember my earlier plans and considerations.....I want to execute orders in the area I STARTED in, with all the units in that area, usually units that are stacked with the one the computer selected to begin the turn. If I take things in the order that the computer selects them, I'm going to forget things, and make mistakes.

I've also noticed that this list the computer has is limited. If I go with the flow, and give orders to the units in the list, the computer will suddenly shift over to the enemies turn, BEFORE I am able to give orders to my OTHER units.

So, my simple question is, how do I completely shut off this feature of the game? I want to spend a turn selecting as I choose, not as the computer chooses.

And don't tell me to select as I wish by scrolling around the map!

The game will allow you to select a unit, execute orders....and then will STILL snap you to the next unit in the list it has selected!

Unrealistic Behavior

bearcat222 — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:01:17 GMT

I've got Civ 3 with Conquests loaded.

Playing Civ 3, I'm at the most-basic difficulty level, and I'm getting very frustrated by two things:

#1. Trading; it is EXTREMELY rare to be able to make an even trade. Almost invariably, the computer makes the enemy demand an insane amount for ANYTHING.....somehow, I seriously doubt that the computer is this rough on itself. By that I mean, if I am Rome, and I ask for something from France, France demands twice as much in exchange. However, if Germany asks for the same exact thing, computer asking computer, I dont' think that France asks for as much from Germany as it demanded from me....and NO, I don't think this has anything to do with factors in the game, such as France and Germany having a previous good relationship. I'm saying that under the exact same conditions, me, as the human player, gets lousy deals, ALL THE TIME.

#2. Pig Pile. Again and again, I've built myself up, had a bully demand something, told them to take a flying leap. They then declare war, and I fight back. Suddenly, THE ENTIRE WORLD declares war on me! I mean, I'm tough and smart, but no one can fight odds like that. Again, I suspect the computer is being extremely unfair to the human player with this "pig pile" phenomenon.

Civ3 Complete Respawning AI Players

Melk62 — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 12:18:54 GMT

I've checked this in the preferences before starting a game but I still don't know what it does or how to make it work. I have 31 civilizations in civ3 complete and you start with i think 15. I thought that after killing off one civilization, another would appear in its place eventually allowing you to attempt to conquer every one the game offers. However, after killing one off nothing happens. In the advisor screen you can see only the fifteen you started with. Whats up with this?

map question

Gargamel — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:33:07 GMT

Hi all!

Quick question, how do I play on the map of the earth? Is this something contained within Civ3 Vanilla + Civ3 Conquests (I don't have PTW)? Or is it something that has to be downloaded, patched, or modded?

Any idea?

Thanks!

Mandatory Retirement

Melk62 — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 14:37:56 GMT

Is there anyway to turn this off?:crying:

Mines Vs Forests

Rodent — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:47:58 GMT

Me, Having a Little Experience with Civ usually Mine In despot, Irrigate Like mad On Monarchy, And Forest when City is at Size 12. Would mines be better or forests are better?

How do you feel?

Rodent — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 06:29:46 GMT

When everybody has Tanks, and lots of them, You are the guy in the middle, Suddenly War comes and Hundreds of Tanks Erupt!
They all Criss-Cross your Territory- Attack each other and Yourself!

Pleases the Mind to think of such a large scale attack :D .

What do you guys think?

Submarines

forrie — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 10:47:07 GMT

In CIV 3 the nuclear submarine can only carry 1 NUKE and no more I find this a serious lack of accurate fire power. Earlier versions of civilization including test of time and civ 2 your subs could carry something like 8 nukes and cruise mssiles.

I find this a lot more intresting as it gave a warning to human players that attacking my smaller army and weaker civilization could still have devestating results for your home lands even if you strike first!

Also the attack range of cruise missile is now pathetic 3 spaces Pffff!

What do you all think?

ICF

Rodent — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 06:28:35 GMT

I have just joined the forum.I have two questions to ask

1)What is infinite City Sprawl and how is it Useful?and please give some other types of city placements too.

2)Is this Forum Active?Most topics I see are Ages Old

Infrastructure

Rodent — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 05:55:08 GMT

O.K i learned the 1st rule of Civ III that is EEE(expand expand expand).But when i have expanded what to do to max out the production and science researching etc?I can get a good no of cities but they do not produce too well.(18 shields per turn in my capital in Medieval period,Which sucks?)any tips would be appreciated.Also,If you got any Old Vanilla Civ saves showing something about this please post them.

Close city placement for Stivare

Leo — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 21:50:48 GMT

SPOILER on Pacifist Challenge...if you look you'll see our starting location.You asked for a screenshot of tight city placement...this game necessitated the most rampant sprawl I've ever done, in order to peacefully conquer through culture.

Questions

george — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 04:52:06 GMT

I have a few questions to ask.1) can more than one civ build the military academy2)What would the AI rather do with a Great Leader.3)What units do i need to capture a Metropolitis which is protected by an army of Mech InfantryReply Soon

Get off my land

skulldent — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 20:30:20 GMT

I'm only at chieftain leval in conquests. I have a major problem with other civs walking all over my territory like they own it. If I tell them to get off they declare war on me.They've usually got a hoard of troops waiting just the other side of the border. And I'm never geared up enough for a war yet. How can I overcome this problem? :(

Future Tech

Duke — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 20:21:18 GMT

I'm a new player and just getting the hang of things. I've finnaly gotten a civilization that's going really well (I'm the Celts on the Cheiftan difficulty level). I have reasearched ALL of the technology and am way ahead of my rivals. Since I've researched everything I've noticed that it now says "future tech". I'm not researching "future tech 3" but have no idea what 1 and 2 have done for me. Any help?

Fallacy of Spearmen

Seared — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 13:09:59 GMT

Couple posts and an email prompted this post... So I thought I'd open up a discussion on the matter.Spearmen... What are they good for? Well, lets go over the vitals of a spearman:Spearmen have a cost of 20, attack of one, defence of 2. For the same price, you can have 2 warriors. From the random number gen thread, 6 health defence of one is the same as 3 health defence 2 (both for odds of winning and strength calculations). Strangely enough, a town with 2 warriors in it is as well defended as one with a single spearman. The 2 warriors however, provide an extra police unit to keep the city happy, and are read 50% stronger by the AI (1 regular spearman = 12, while 2 regular warriors = 18). Flat out, 2 warriors in a town defend the same (pretty much, actually I prefer the 2 warriors as it takes 2 attacks to take them down, while the spearmen can lose in one). The warriors are read as stronger, boosting how other nations view your military and count as an extra police unit.So if 2 warriors in a new town are better, when do spearmen actually come into use? Well, stack defence. Anytime you've got a group of archers or swordsmen out in the open, a spearman should be there to defend the stack. I go through several games where the only spearman unit I've built is to defend a stack of 10 archers that are trying to capture a few towns. Many times I'll never build a spearman unit at all... They just aren't worth it, unless they are directly defending a stack and getting into battle.Just a side thought... My generalization is the only regular units you should have are warriors. Any unit beyond warrior thats below veteran were last second/stop gap measures or conscripted. If you have a city/town producing regular units otherwise... Might wanna consider how advantageous veteran units are.Any opinions? I find a regular spearman is the most useless thing to build.

Has anyone won on sid difficulty?

Bobacus — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:14:34 GMT

It's friggin' impossible! :hammer:

What was your strategy if you have.

Way to crowded!

Mitch — Mon, 15 May 2006 16:52:26 GMT

I start cities and they grow and then I keep having unhappy citizens that complianing that it's way to crowded. I will continue building roads. They still complain. I stop building roads. They complain. I increase food production, I slow down food production.... They just keep complaining. I make them happy for a while by turning one into an entertainer or something but within a few moves their moaning again.

....Maybe I got a complaining copy if Civ 3 cuase now it has me "complaining"!

Any thoughts?

Free TECH

worker — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:58:05 GMT

I noticed a lot of discussion speaks about free techs with certain wonders or other techs. However, to date I have not figured out how to get my free techs. Could someone help a new guy figure this one out? Thanks. Playing vanilla at the moment until I get conquest on e-bay.

Government switch

worker — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:36:20 GMT

New to game (CIV Vanilla v 1.29) but long enough to have read a lot of your posts as well as those on the CIV Fanatics site. (But not been playing long enough to be able to put all but a few items into practice yet) I noticed some people have played all the way through on despot because of the free units you get. So far I have only won in this way despite corruption taking about 1/3 of income regardless of courthouses etc. When I have changed to Repulic-Deomcracy I crash because of rioting and costs. I have come in second with monarchy. What are some keys to switching governments, especially as you get ready to move to the next levels?

I should also note that I have not played with any other civ except Romans to date, have been trying to experiment with different issues (city placement, WOW minimization, conquering systematically, trade skills etc) while keeping the units and civ learning curve the constant. Thanks

My 6 strategies

RabiAkiva — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 06:10:32 GMT

Strategy #1: [url=http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic1026524-14-1.aspx] First in Tech[/url]
Strategy #2: [url=http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic1026526-14-1.aspx] Grab![/url]
Strategy #3: [url=http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic1026630-14-1.aspx] Expand not spend[/url]
Strategy #4: [url=http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic1026662-14-1.aspx] Contained and Total War[/url]
Strategy #5: [url=http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic1026715-14-1.aspx] A Healthy Civ[/url]
Strategy #6: [url=http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic1026888-14-1.aspx] A Healthy Globe[/url]

Invincible armies!

Seared — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 11:53:14 GMT

Toyed with this quite a few times, but I believe I've now put 2 and 2 together and found the logic flaw in the AI. I had an army around 10/15 health defending a town with 7 enemy cavalry outside of it. Without question the cav could have dropped that army and I was expecting to lose it (after it killed a couple Cav of course). The AI's turn comes about and all 7 of the cav... Immidiately move around my army and towards the next city.
Huh?

When the AI is determining what to do, it selects a single unit, figures out it's best move (as if nothing else existed) and then goes to the next unit. This AI logic process made the AI go 'can I attack this town? nope no chance of winning with this one unit vs the army, so goto something else'. It went through that with every unit... Had it combine and attacked with all of them, I would have lost the town and the army. Since the AI is inapable of group tactics and relies on each individual unit to determine what to do and where to go, a coordinated attack on one of your armies is impossible.

Long story short... Exploit that whenever you have an army. The AI will only attack it in some special circumstances (trapped/through away units I've seen attack my army, or a unit that had the mathematical potential of killing that army on it's own). Have a stack or tile that you must defend? Place an army on there and regardless of how many units the ai has, it will not attack that army.

Veteran units

Seared — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 11:59:57 GMT

Wanted to put up the math behind why veteran units are better (and how much better). For example... Whats better, a veteran pikeman or a regular musketman?

Civ uses a pretty basic strength calculation... hp * unit strength. When determining who defends first in a stack, it uses the strongest defender. A veteran pikemen it determines to have a defence str of 3 * 4 hp (total of 12). A regular musketman has a defence 4 * 3 hp. So a regular musketmen costing twices as much as that veteran pikeman actually has the same defence values (and if you read the RNG thread, this works out to the same odds of winning a battle)

Veteran swordsmen = attack 3 * 4 hp (12 total), defence 2 * 4 hp (8 total)

Regular medieval infantry = Attack 4 * 3 hp (12 total), defence 2 * 3 hp (6 total).

A veteran swordman unit is (mathematically atleast) more valuable than a regular medival infantry.

The point of this post is pretty simple... Regular units are seriously under powered compared to their veteran counterparts. With the exception of police and other noncombat units, try not to use regular units unless in a tight pinch. Veteran units are 33% stronger than regular ones.

Abandoning towns

Pokorion — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:39:02 GMT

Hi. I've pushed those Indians to the point where they finally declared war on me. Now I've cleaned house and taken over their settlements on my continient. One town is bordering one of my (now) major cities.My question: How do you get rid of it without razing it? In previoous Civs, you could build a settler and it would ask: "Building settler with abondon town. Do you wish to procede or change production" or something like that. I know about the "Abandon city" function. Does that have any consequences? Thanks.John

best traits

george — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 01:29:38 GMT

What do you think are the best 3 civ traits.submit your thoughts.My list is Industrious,scientific,religious.

Speed Control: Did You Know?

JoeVoyager — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 16:00:52 GMT

I've seen several posts where people complain about how long it takes in between turns. I found out by accident that if you put your CAPS LOCK on it speeds up the movements of units to just seconds and not minutes. You can control your speed at any time during the turn just by hitting that one key.How about that?

FISHING

sergiocaimi — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 16:24:28 GMT

How can i fish? :mad:I´m a newby... sory... pleace, how can i use this bonus? tks.Sergio.

Civs?

george — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 06:39:36 GMT

Hello There!Can anyone tell a civ that suits my playing style.I like Industrious,like to have a spotless reputation (rarely warred),and a good time for GA.Please reply soon

A simple strategy

george — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 03:40:10 GMT

I thought a strategy posted here would be useful so read on.Industrious is important!your city arrangement should be5 core cities (you should grow them to metros)set them up as fast as possible.these will be the core of your economy.10 moderate cities (grow them to size 12)give them courthouses.They will be the secondary cities.they should produce mostly artillery and bombers.5 to 10 whippers (my thanks to seared on this one)whip everything you want into them.the strategyproduce your 5 core cities as soon as possible.after you fortify them with spearmen phase 1 is over

Help2

george — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 09:13:17 GMT

I have a problem.I can now earn in commerce but still cannot build a real large army.my military advisor always tells my military is weak compared to others.Please help me out

Help!

george — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 06:40:15 GMT

I am a noob.i dont know how to get lots of commerce even though i tried everything.i cant seem to get a lot of cities.i cannot maintain a really large army either.i have heard of people having 3000+ earning per turn.can you teach me how to do this.please someone teach the absoloute basics of getting heavy commerce and a large army.

Shaving a turn off of anarchy

Dunedein — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:23:43 GMT

I remember someone... seared? ... a long time ago thought about what would happen if you discover a government technology, went into anarchy via F1, then when you exited the advisor and ur people are like "Lets revolt to a (blank)" you click that, what would happen. I'm not sure if anyone else has tried it yet, but when I did, it took a turn off of the anarchy! For instance: you discover Republic, you click whats the big picture, you go to F1 and choose to go into anarchy, it says 4 turns , then you exit the advisors and you get the box asking if you want to revolt to a Republic and you click "OK". According to my research, the anarchy will be reduced to 3 turns. There you go! 1 less turn in anarchy.*Also, please offer your opinion about the H'wacha. I think it sucks badly in Conquests. Who doesn't have iron by that time? In PTW it had a bombard stronger than the normal cannon by 4. I also thought they had lethal kill, but upon closer inspection, I discovered that it didn't. Maybe it was changed in a patch...