Is there any quick start help for playing civ3?

[planetfall]

Is there any one page summary of key play concepts?

It is a pain to try to find information in in game help. When I suddenly start losing strength it would be great to have a short cheat sheet. It is frustrating to see strength disappearing and not know why.

Some things are obvious:

food == X needed per city population
shields == needed to buy units / improvements / wonders
maintenance == annual cost of some units
science == ???
commerce == "gold, science, luxuries"
gold==needed to buy techs??



Other need constant reference until learned:

1. How increase/decrease taxes? Create/kill taxman? Is F1 slider bar tax rate?

2. List of things that increase food, and unit for increase.
ala, road, irrigate, railroad, etc

3. Same as #2 for:
shields and
gold and
science.

4. Formula for converting commerce into gold, or shields, or something you can use in play.

5. How is annual interest calculated? It seems to cap at 50 gold.


And then quick answers for frequently viewed screens:

F11, Demographics
A. Productivity--
1. How is it calculated?
2. How is the resulting number used to improve play? Is higher always best?

And the same for:
B. literacy
C. approval percent
D. annual income


Tablets in play window
1. right tablet has one letter beads on slider bar. What do 'P', 'D', 'H' stand for?
2. left tablet has one letter bead of 'G' on slider bar. What does this mean?
3. Are there other letter beads on tablets that stand for something?

Thank you all for help.

[Argos65987]

There's no one page summary, but there is the manual, civilopedia and the strategy thread. Pulling up the advisor screens summarizes information in each of their particular areas (eg. the domestic advisor screen lists cities, income/expense/net, has button for revolution to change gov't, has the science/tax/luxury slider bars etc).

The letters on the mini-map I think are:

H=histograph
D=diplomacy

I forget the others, just click on them.

Check other forums (startegy and files) where people have put some useful things, like spreadsheets of keyboard shortcuts, etc.

[Willem]

I think you'll have to accept the fact that Civ III is a very complicated game and the only way to learn it is by diving in and finding out about it, one step at a time. Another good place to find ifno is the editor. It will show you the details of a number of things that you've listed in your post. And unlike the manual and civilopedia, the information there iis accurate.

[planetfall]

Actually best help so far, besides playing the game was some summary files that were created. I think they were called something like civ3data.xls and civ3stat.xls, but can't recall for sure. {If not on this site, on the civfanatics site} Lots of detail, but not a quick summary page. If there is not one available, I will create one, but did not want to create something that already existed. After playing 1.5 games I have a better idea of what I want for reference. It is so much faster to pull up a reference sheet than to refer to the editor each time I have a question. The editor tends to show data on each item but doesn't help with the interactions between the units.

[Raion]

Domestic Advisor Screen. At Right is science rate, moveable by - or + sign below, also luxury rate, moveable by - or + sign below, what does not equal 100% is the rest left over for tax rate.
Shown on the Left side is the amount used for any one thing and the amount totaled below, all at top of the screen.
Instead of showing a tax rate, they only show the science and luxury, then the rest is what the tax rate would be.
If science is 50% and luxury is 0%, then tax rate would be 50% == 100% - 50% = 50% for tax rate. Usually shows an amount in the net left over on left side when adjusting either science and luxury rate, the net gold coins left over will change and be positive or negative amount one will see on the main screen.

Tax men or Scientist or entertainers are made by taking off one of the food/commerce/shield icons on the city screen. Then one, can determine if the city will still have enough food for growth or no growth, and one cycles through the options, entertainer is always first, then I think taxman is next, then scientist. To remove anyone that has been made simply put the food back down on a square of your choice except one that has been already used for the city and change accordingly to the way one wants the city to grow.
Take for instance one has 5 or 7 food per turn shown as additional food down below. That grows a city quite fast, and maybe you do not want the city to grow that fast, then one can click on one of the food/shield/commerce icons on the city sceen squares of the city and move that say to a hill or a desert and one will see what one gets when moving. Various messages will tell you if the food is not enough for the city and it is decreasing.
Say you have a gold hill, and you take it off of the grassland, food will usually in the early game be 2 food for the grassland, but only 1 food for the hill with gold deposits. But gold deposit will give more commerce icons and be 3 or 4 instead of only 1 or 2 as with the grassland. That will increase your amount of gold collected each turn, but one has to balance a city out to have enough food, or people will starve, and the poplulation will go down. On the main screen, a city is growing if the city graphic icon shows green, yellow if food output equals population -- city not growing or depleting down, or red if food is not enough. If looking then on the city screen, one will see the number of turns left until population decreases where the food total graphic is seen. Say there is 7 food, and now food is depleting, one will have about 7 turns to fix it or population for the city will decrease.

Click around the city screen and try different things, and watch the amounts change, once one gets use to it, it becomes simple.

I am not sure about the F11 screen, I know some show up in blue, but I have not quite determine if it only shows my civ in comparsion in relation to other civs or it shows the leader in the category.
I guess if I really want to know, I will have to look it up in the manual (book) that came with the game.
Should be easy to find.
If it tells!

[Raion]

Click on the beads. One (D) is diplomacy, to start the diplomacy screen. (H) is the histograph of your score whenever that starts appearing. (E) is for the espinoge screen to start that screen to do espinoge. (G) on the other one is for geographical looking small world whole screen or the default which shows the national (cultural borders of all civ's with their color).

Click on them, the game will not break, and at worst, just close out the screen that comes up, or maybe press the Esc key on the key board. Nothing will change, unless you change somthing.

[Raion]

For playing the game, a business suit and calculator may help!

Just Joking!


Emperor's Hat, suit, confetti, bugle, and extras like snacks while watching between plays of a football game on TV or another computer which has the game running, while doing something else on another computer -- like homework or getting on the Internet.

[Raion]

When one really gets into the game, it becomes something like an operating system.

Edit files, make graphics, create mods, change the rules, add text to the text files -- mainly an OS kind of game.

Attend Civilization Academy!


It extends out into the real world!

Happy gaming!

[Willem]

Originally posted by planetfall
Actually best help so far, besides playing the game was some summary files that were created. I think they were called something like civ3data.xls and civ3stat.xls, but can't recall for sure. {If not on this site, on the civfanatics site} Lots of detail, but not a quick summary page. If there is not one available, I will create one, but did not want to create something that already existed. After playing 1.5 games I have a better idea of what I want for reference. It is so much faster to pull up a reference sheet than to refer to the editor each time I have a question. The editor tends to show data on each item but doesn't help with the interactions between the units.

There's some here called Vel's Strategy Thread Part 1, 2 etc., or something of that sort. I gather he's something of a strategy guru around here and has offered up some of his observations about the game. I haven't read them myself yet, so I can't say how much it can help.

[solo]

The civfanatics web site does more in the way of organizing basic information for people who are new to the game. All the same information is around here, and doing a search on a topic of interest is a good way of finding what you need.

[planetfall]

solo--- started with civfanatics, but this site seems more interesting in forums

Willem--- I read Vels strategy. Not the final word, but very good. Plowed thru number 1 and 2 and working on three. Vel's strongest ideas are in game concept and how to improve the play of a gam with non military win.

Raion--- understand OS thing, after getting closer to end of second game, looking to create some special units. I thought the limit of additional units you can add is small, like 1 or 2 before out of graphic space. Does the patch fix the Win98 system error when you exit the game? Civ Academy seems boring. It would be better if it were more an academy, i.e.
Topic
Skills to be learned
Topic content
Topic summary of key concepts
Skill review, game scenario questions

All-- finally figured out what the problem is with the F1-Domestic Advisor screen and the discussion of it by seasoned players. My guess is the jargon has changed from earlier civ games. Seasoned players talk about 'tax rate' and 'luxury rate' and seem to mean:
tax rate == how high slider bars are
luxury rate == how high lower slider bar is.

BUT, in civ3 the only way to change the real tax rate is to create taxmen. Instead of a luxury rate, there is an entertainment rate.
Thus, gold treasury growth seems to be:

A. + Income from cities
B. + Income from other civs
C. + Income from taxmen
D. + Interest income {50 gold cap}
E. = Equals Gross income
F. - Science rate {top slider bar}
G. - Entertainment rate {lower slider bar}
H. = Equals Net income to treasury

Unless the wording was changed from entertainment to luxury in patch 1.16f, it was totally confusing to hear of a 'luxury tax rate' and not being able to find in it the game. Now I know to translate 'luxury tax rate' into 'entertainment spending rate'.

Again, thank you for your comments and suggestions. I think, family is mentioning, "you still playing that stupid game?"

[Willem]

Originally posted by planetfall

Raion--- understand OS thing, after getting closer to end of second game, looking to create some special units. I thought the limit of additional units you can add is small, like 1 or 2 before out of graphic space.

There's no limit to adding new units. At least I haven't come across it yet, and I've added more than 2.

All-- finally figured out what the problem is with the F1-Domestic Advisor screen and the discussion of it by seasoned players. My guess is the jargon has changed from earlier civ games. Seasoned players talk about 'tax rate' and 'luxury rate' and seem to mean:
tax rate == how high slider bars are
luxury rate == how high lower slider bar is.

BUT, in civ3 the only way to change the real tax rate is to create taxmen. Instead of a luxury rate, there is an entertainment rate.
Thus, gold treasury growth seems to be:

A. + Income from cities
B. + Income from other civs
C. + Income from taxmen
D. + Interest income {50 gold cap}
E. = Equals Gross income
F. - Science rate {top slider bar}
G. - Entertainment rate {lower slider bar}
H. = Equals Net income to treasury

Unless the wording was changed from entertainment to luxury in patch 1.16f, it was totally confusing to hear of a 'luxury tax rate' and not being able to find in it the game. Now I know to translate 'luxury tax rate' into 'entertainment spending rate'.

Yes, in previous Civ games, there was a slider for all three areas of the game. Now there's only two, and whatever's left over goes into the treasury. BTW, don't bother using Taxmen as they are in the game. I suggest you go into the editor and increase the amount of gold they collect to 3. As is it now, you take someone off a field who's producing 3 food, 1 shield, and 1 gold, then convert him to a taxmen, who still only produces 1 gold but nothing else. It's just not worth it as it now stands.