OK, I’ve played a few games so I can give my first impressions.
Resource management is MUCH more important in Civ3 than previous versions. If you don’t have access to luxuries and resources essential to build certain units, and you are unable to trade for them, you are working at a serious handicap. On the other side of the coin, if you happen to be the only person with access to horses or iron on your continent, you will be a major player if you can hold on to them. It makes war more interesting in that you have to defend territory as well as your cities - if you destroy the roads connecting a resource to an enemies city, they cannot use it. I was fighting the Egyptians and having a hard time of it because we were on roughly equal technological footing and he had more cities. I noticed that his iron resources were near the edge of his territory, so I sent in some swordsmen and destroyed roads connecting it to his network. Now he can’t turn out some of his more powerful units at this point in the game, and sued for peace just before I took one of his cities. This factor also makes diplomacy much more important, as often you are forced to trade for resources you just don’t have in your area - if your enemy convinces your source for horses to stop selling them to you, no more war chariots for you.
AI - the computer opponent is SMART now. In Civ2 I would frequently have a civilization declare war on me, and I would just sit back and do nothing, the enemy would send a unit every other turn or so against one of my cities to be slaughtered by my defenses, and eventually ask for peace. In Civ3 the enemy uses strategy. It will amass a large army before making an offensive. It will send damaged units back to their territory to be replenished and replace them with fresh ones. It will never attack a city unless it has a good chance of weakening it, instead the AI will seek out weak points in your defenses, and will do it’s best to isolate you from resources you need to carry on the war. All in all, the computer makes a worthy opponent, even on the easier difficulty levels.
The game places a lot more emphasis on the early and middle portion of the game. In Civ2 my strategy frequently was to build a medium-sized network of cities and concentrate on research until I got more advanced units like tanks and planes, and then attack. I hardly ever built catapults, horsemen, or galleys - I’d just build a few of a decent defense unit for each city and hold off until later. This won’t work in Civ3. You may be able to stay out of wars early in the game, but the barbarian tribes are smarter and more of a threat, and with all the diplomacy going on you will want a strong army to make sure nobody tries to take advantage of you - I found that when trying to make deals with neighbors who were superior in strength they would ask for more than they would give, while you could get fairer deals if you had some military might. If you have a rare resource that other civilizations want, you better be ready to deal. If you have the only source of saltpeter when the other civilizations discover gunpowder, they will want to trade for it, and if that fails take it. ‘Well, if I’m the only guy who can make guns that won’t matter’ - right? Nope, if the AI is facing an opponent they can’t beat, they will work to form alliances and attack you simultaneously. You’ll lose a lot of trade, and even if they can’t take your cities they will do damage to your infrastructure.
Though the AI is much better, war doesn’t seem to be as cutthroat as in Civ2. Wars don’t last too long - they CAN’T last too long because there is a ‘War Weariness’ factor that starts increasing the discontent in your cities. THis coupled with the fact that you probably won’t have as many luxury items coming in to keep your morale up because of trade embargoes and you will soon have cities in states of unrest, which stops productivity and eventually leads to destruction of existing improvements or even revolt, if you try to keep a war going too long. Luckily, the computer opponent is usually willing to make a deal. Wars tend not to destroy civilizations, just alter the balance of power. At the end you may all still have the same cities, but one will be paying tribute or providing a needed resource to the true victor. In Civ2 the AI seemed to be driven by the need to eliminate all opposition when it came to starting wars. In Civ3 wars have more realistic objectives, and when these objectives are met the war will usually end. It truly is a tool of diplomacy.
There are more ways of winning now, as well. Eliminating all the other civilizations will win you the game, though I imagine that would be extremely difficult to do. Having 75% of the land within your borders will also win it. You can also win the game by winning a UN vote, though getting a seat on the UN (once it is build) requires either buildling it yourself or holding 25% of the territory in the game. You can also win by building an interstellar spacecraft as in the original. It’s possible to take over territory without conflict now, as well - your civilization and it’s individual cities have a Culture Rating, which is increased by having certain improvements (like Libraries or Temples) and Wonders. Each of these things will increase your Culture Rating over time, so the longer you have them the better it is - it means more to have built the Pyramids back in 3000 BC than to have built several wonders late in the game. THe higher your culture rating, the farther your borders will extend from your cities, and it effects how other civilizations see you. If you have a high enough culture less cultured cities near your borders will switch sides, especially if your borders start to surround them.
As to the interface, graphics, etc. - not that important to me, at least not in this kind of game. The interface is pretty different in some ways, and it took some getting used to, but now that I have learned it I think it’s superior in most ways to the earlier version. You can do a lot from the regular map screen that would have required going into the city screen in Civ2, like changing what was being produced, making more entertainers in times of unrest, etc. About all you really need the city view for is reallocating your citizens on the map, and in my experience the AI usually handles this about as well as I would so I rarely do so.
I like it a lot, obviously. I feel they really improved on the earlier games while keeping the same core concepts. You will have to adjust your strategies if you played the earlier Civilization games, but it should be fun doing so. Buy it if you enjoyed the earlier Civ games or if you enjoy turn-based empire building games.
Besides, there aren’t really any other games I’m interested in. I had been interested in Motor City until EA decided to make it online-only.