OT: Civ3 rant from MoO3 v GalCiv topic

[Cyrien]

heh. That might explain why I played it longer than Fyron. I heavily modded the game so that bombers and the like where effective.

What finally killed it for me where the problems that couldn't be modded away.

[Fyron]

If a game needs extensive modding to be fun, then it isn't a very good game at all.

[Cyrien]

I dunno. I have played a few games that had good engines but poor testing of certain aspects so that a little modding made them more fun to play.
For instace Emperor of the Fading Suns was a good game engine but poor execution of unit stats and resource ballancing etc in the actual game. Use on of the mods out for it and it becomes much better. Still with flaws but much better.

Unfortunatly I just couldn't find anything that could do that with some flaws in the bsic game engine of Civ3.

[Cyrien]

Speaking of Brian Reynolds... anyone have thoughts on his new game?

http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/

Real time isn't really my thing...

[raynor]

I've got a copy of the Beta 2, and the game is really, really awesome. So far, the game looks really, really good.

[oleg]

Originally posted by Xiodos:
Pirates was great... Im not sure if Brian was on for Colonization, but that was a fantastic game as well.
...

Open my Colonization manual, read credits:

Game design: Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds (two more guys)
Programming: Brian Reynolds

[Noble713]

Research. Yes, AI-AI research trades are both common and low cost. So when you play you are effectively trying to out-tech not just individual nations but all of the most advanced ones. Yes, the AI can charge ridiculous amounts of money for technology. The best way to get around this is to get the AI really friendly to you through resource or tech trades, and the costs will drop considerably.

A strategy that I just recently learned is to set your research level at 0 or 10% for most of the game, and use the money you get to buy tech from the AI. I'm in the modern age now and I have a 700 gold surplus every turn (I play on a huge Earth map, and I had to MOD the corruption levels down to 30% of normal to not have my cities useless). There have been times where I've spent 6000 gold on several technologies in one turn. You jack up your research to 80-90% when there is something you really want (techs that give wonders or good military units). It also doesn't matter much if the AI is ahead of you by a few techs if you're a conqueror (like I am).

The only thing that I REALLY hate is the totally outrageous costs of almost all of the Diplomacy/Espionage missions. The costs are so high that the feature is almost useless. I can usually buy tech from the AI for less money than it would cost to steal it, and there is no guarantee that I'd succeed either.

[ April 28, 2003, 07:15: Message edited by: Noble713 ]

[Fyron]

That is the first thing that crossed my mind after realizing how horrendously the AIs cheat, and it is very very effective. Civ3's AI trading algorithms are just plain stupid anyways...

[Shadarr]

I expect Rise of Nations will be a good game, but I don't know if that's enough anymore. I got totally burned out on RTS games about a year ago. I have Kohan and Warrior Kings and Age of Mythology all waiting for some attention, but I just don't have any interest in playing them. The only one that entertained me for more than a day was Stronghold, because it wasn't a total C&C clone.

[Aloofi]

Originally posted by Shadarr:
The only one that entertained me for more than a day was Stronghold, because it wasn't a total C&C clone.

Hey, me too. I also fell for Stronghold. Very nice sim, even though the men-at-arms could actually hack the walls down.....
If stronghold had limited to siege engines to bring the walls down it would have been a lot longer in my hard drive.