An homage to the greatness of Simcity 4

[Weltall]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
Maybe the expansions improve Civ III, but I don't have them, I just have the original game... and it's lacking. Now, part of it is probably just that I haven't played it very much, which is true. I haven't played it enough to really adjust from Civ II, so when I play it I wish it worked like Civ II... I just haven't played Civ III that much. I haven't even finished a game of it... I've started several but find myself playing Civ II by the end of the sitting...

First, I love scenarios. Civ III doesn't have them unless you buy the expansions. Civ II had them in it's expansions too, but I have both expansions so I've been used to having all these scenarios available... I think they're great.

Civ II's original release had only two... and only the WWII was good.

[/quote]Second, I hate bombardment! Catapults and cannon used to be great units and now they can't even kill a militia! Not useless, but dramatically changed... I liked them a LOT better when they could kill things. They were better.[/quote]

Sure, they could kill things. They could also had a movement and defense rating of one, so after they attack, they're left wide-open to be annihilated by whatever might nail them. Also, their attack power was rarely worth the cost, since you had other units almost as powerful and could often attack multiple times. Now, since they finally got rid of the idea that all units in the same place die if one loses combat, and now that these units can hit from a distance, they actually serve a purpose.

National borders? You mean showing them on the map, of course. Civ II has them implemented similarly, just without lines... yes, putting the lines on the map was a huge improvement in the series for sure. Nice thing brought from Alpha Centauri.

I also hate how you cannot irrigate from the ocean. I've been in games where I'm surrounded by mountains and ocean with no rivers so I cannot irrigate. That is just idiotic...

No, it actually makes perfect sense. Ocean water is salty, and in reality could not be irrigated.

I also vastly prefer Civ II's music. Civ III has okay music, but Civ II's is better... that is if you have the Fantastic Worlds disc, which is the only one that actually has all the music on it. Multiplayer Gold Edition is lacking all the original disc's songs, and the first expansion doesn't have the ones added in the second...

Ah, that I don't know about. I never listen to the in-game music.

Also, the editor. I like Cheat Mode. Oh, sure, with the expansions Civ III lets you create scenarios too, and I admit, Civ II had to have the expansions added to really get the mod-making tools into the interface, but still... they were in Civ II by the end of its cycle! I think I should expect them in the RETAIL Civ III, not in the SECOND expansion... and still you can't do the stuff directly in the game with the Cheat and Edit menus like you could in Civ II. Big loss in the game.

Oh, and the map editor has no minimap! Most idiotic design decision ever!

One point I agree on.

Several more things. Wonder Movies! I love them! The static pictures are just idiotic replacements for the cool movies.

Eh, I turned them off after seeing them once.

Also, health. I definitely prefer Civ II's health bars to Civ III's hit points... oh, sure, I know they were trying to get rid of the "firepower" thing where each one had a rating that affected how it would do damage, but still... health bars are better than a crude meter like having three hit points. And I like those little shields... :)

I notice no real difference in application. And it's much neater to see the units have different national colors as opposed to shields.