The decline and fall of all empires
Feb. 11th, 2006 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat_sochoI'm coming to some depressing conclusions about Civ III, some of which I was already 99% sure about, but sometimes it takes a few more iterations of pounding your head against the wall before the message really sinks in.
1. The AIs cheat at all but the least challenging level, but I knew that.
2. The AIs cannot be trusted to keep a deal any more than a djinn can be trusted not to screw you on a wish.
3. Once you reach a certain level of power, the AIs will gang up on you.
4. The initial setup is guaranteed to deprive you of some essential material (saltpeter, coal, iron, or all of the above) which you'll need in order to build the necessary units to fight off your aggressive neighbors - who will, being AI, be ready long before you are.
The implications of this are that you can't really play the game above the basic setting with more than a couple of AI opponents and have a reasonable chance of winning, unless you're Eric Drexler, Stephen Hawking, Sid Meier or someone on that level, in which case you probably have better things to do with your time than get whipped on by software that cheats. Even if you could beat it with half your brain tied behind your back.
In other gaming news, I saw a secondhand XBox downtown at EB Games for about what I paid for the Carbon. The downside to getting it, of course (assuming I had the money) is that I'd feel compelled to go out and get a TV suitable for multiplayer HALO 2 (with, say, a 20" screen), so the damn thing would actually set me back around $250.
1. The AIs cheat at all but the least challenging level, but I knew that.
2. The AIs cannot be trusted to keep a deal any more than a djinn can be trusted not to screw you on a wish.
3. Once you reach a certain level of power, the AIs will gang up on you.
4. The initial setup is guaranteed to deprive you of some essential material (saltpeter, coal, iron, or all of the above) which you'll need in order to build the necessary units to fight off your aggressive neighbors - who will, being AI, be ready long before you are.
The implications of this are that you can't really play the game above the basic setting with more than a couple of AI opponents and have a reasonable chance of winning, unless you're Eric Drexler, Stephen Hawking, Sid Meier or someone on that level, in which case you probably have better things to do with your time than get whipped on by software that cheats. Even if you could beat it with half your brain tied behind your back.
In other gaming news, I saw a secondhand XBox downtown at EB Games for about what I paid for the Carbon. The downside to getting it, of course (assuming I had the money) is that I'd feel compelled to go out and get a TV suitable for multiplayer HALO 2 (with, say, a 20" screen), so the damn thing would actually set me back around $250.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-12 05:45 pm (UTC)I won't say that AI cheating isn't gone, but it's a lot better in IV. There really is such a thing as diplomacy; you _can_ get a friend for life through good use of trading and aiding in war (and having the same religion helps a lot; OTOH religious wars are huge and having a different religion can mean the difference between everlasting peace and unavoidable war). And the "diplomantic victory" is one of the first I've accomplished.
OTOH if you are doing dramatically better than everyone else, you will be attacked--especially if it's around the 1940s. "Aggressive" nations are also always a pain in the ass to be near. I played a game recently where I was parked near both Japan and Greece. When I discovered that, I should have just started a new game. I hoped to pit them against each other but it just didn't work (but that sort of thing is way more possible than in previous Civs).
Anyway, if you like Civ as a rule, you might look into IV at some point.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-13 12:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-13 02:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-15 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-16 01:48 am (UTC)I've had that same frustrating experience in both directions during games of Civ III, with modern units dying in droves while trying to root some pikemen out of a city and conversely with Infantry getting fuzzy-wuzzied by a bunch of Knights. They really need to work on those combat algorithms, I tell you.