Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

if I enter a permanent alliance with an AI, do we share benefits of world wonders?
 
if I enter a permanent alliance with an AI, do we share benefits of world wonders?
Yes, with the only exception being the Taj Mahal (as far as I know) - only one civ can get the golden age, and only once. But aside from that, I think that most of the wonder benefits are shared (of course, for the continental benefit ones you'll need to be on the same continent... eg the Great Wall and the Three Gorges Dam).
 
^^1st question: no. the AP can be stuck forever AFAIK ( i've seen it being stuck for more than 200 turns )

2nd Question: AFAIK no

I normally reload when that happens. seems to solve it most of the times ( not always, dunno why )

Ok, thanks. Maybe I'll report it into Bhruics thread.

I don't want to reload because I'd have to replay 20-30 or so turns and that's rather boring. And I missed a wonder (University of Sankore) by 1 turn in that period, so I would be very tempted to try and change that. It's a pity though as I would have probably controlled the AP.

Does having multiple SAM Infantry units increase the chances of interception?

I don't think so, but land based AA-units can only intercept once so multiple SAM Infantry units will help in air defence. Fighters are better at that job though. But you can only have a limited number of airplanes in one city, so the combination of SAM units and fighter units can be useful.
 
I don't think so, but land based AA-units can only intercept once so multiple SAM Infantry units will help in air defence. Fighters are better at that job though. But you can only have a limited number of airplanes in one city, so the combination of SAM units and fighter units can be useful.

Yup, and I'm invading from Khmer into Byzantium, so I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my air support for long if I lose my open borders.
 
How is score from techs and wonders calculated? Is there a simple way to know how many points each tech/wonder gives you?
 
How do I need to position ships to blockade a port city? Say X is the city, W is water and L is land:

LLLLWW
LLLLWW
LLLCWW
LLLWWW
LLLWWW
 
Hey people, not technically a newbie question, more of a technical one, but I've seen this go unanswered plenty of times in the technical forum, so I was wondering if you can answer it here:

At the multiplayer section, after I type in my Username and Password, the screen will freeze for 1-2 seconds...then nothing, it just stays on the screen, rendering me incapable of playing multiplayer games.

Any help would be lovely :)
 
How do I need to position ships to blockade a port city? Say X is the city, W is water and L is land:

LLLLWW
LLLLWW
LLLCWW
LLLWWW
LLLWWW

The blockade function covers an area equal to a square of height and width 7 centred on the blockading unit. So in this picture, any of the W squares would allow a blockade action on the city. The blockaded area is so large that you can often blockade more than one city at once and it is visibly shown on the map when you execute the blockade command and when you later select the blockading ship. It's a white area similar in representation to the area shown when you select a settler only a lot larger. Check some pictures late in the thread linked by Dabur to see some examples of the extend of the blockaded area.
 
Has anyone ever documented the actual differences between Aggressive AI and regular AI? (I was tempted to call it sandbox AI but that would be too controversial! :p)
I was always intrigued by Blake's compelling arguments for making Agg AI your default choice for every game, but I forget what some of the reasons were.
 
Has anyone ever documented the actual differences between Aggressive AI and regular AI? (I was tempted to call it sandbox AI but that would be too controversial! :p)
I was always intrigued by Blake's compelling arguments for making Agg AI your default choice for every game, but I forget what some of the reasons were.

From what I recall:

The aggressive AI used to be a setting that just worsened diplomatic relations for the human player. The human player would get a -2 in all diplomatic relations leading to slightly more wars for the human player. This of course wasn't a truly aggressive AI as it was only more aggressive towards the human player and it couldn't really back up this aggressiveness with power in arms as it didn't build more units.

In BTS, the aggressive AI setting was changed (by Blake) to be a setting where the AI would build more units and would be more aggressive in general, not just against the human player. The -2 diplomatic relations change was removed. Especially the construction of more units is important as it makes the AI more able to build stacks of sufficient size to threaten cities, even well-defended human cities. Since the AI in BTS is also building more balanced stacks with enough siege units, these stacks can be really threatening.

As the AI on the aggressive AI setting invests a higher percentage of its commerce on unit upkeep and is in a status of war more often, it will have less commerce left to invest in research. This effect is especially noticeable on lower and average difficulty settings as the budget for the AI is fairly tights at these settings. It is less noticeable on the higher difficulty levels as the AI can pay for these greater numbers of units thanks to discounts on unit upkeep, city upkeep and civic upkeep. For the human player it can get hard to get an army of sufficient size to seem a credible opponent for the AI as the costs of unit upkeep, city upkeep and civic upkeep are greater at higher levels for the human player. Building more units and maintaining them can be hard to do on a tight budget. But if you don't, then the AI will perceive you as weak and thus it might attack you.


I like playing at the aggressive AI setting as it makes attacks by the AI dangerous. The AI can build an army that can truly destroy your civilisation and not just threaten to capture one city if you're not paying attention. (I once faced a 150 unit stack). I like this more dangerous competition, but whether one likes it or not depends on his or her game style. When you like to be a builder who constructs a civilisation while enjoying peace, then the aggressive AI setting will not increase your enjoyment of the game. When you enjoy a threatening AI that could destroy you, then the aggressive AI setting can deliver that to you (at the higher difficulty levels). With the aggressive AI setting, in some games a conqueror can become extremely successful and conquer several other civilisations to become a real powerhouse civ. I really like such competition.
 
The aggressive AI used to be a setting that just worsened diplomatic relations for the human player. The human player would get a -2 in all diplomatic relations leading to slightly more wars for the human player. This of course wasn't a truly aggressive AI as it was only more aggressive towards the human player and it couldn't really back up this aggressiveness with power in arms as it didn't build more units.
That's actually not quite true. Even in Vanilla, the Aggressive AI is more likely to declare war. For purposes of deciding whether to declare war or not, the Aggressive AI values its own power rating at 4/3 of the actual value, making it less likely to think another player (including other AI) is too strong. It also effectively subtracts 10% from the iNoWarProb defined in the leaderheads XML file, again making such an AI more likely to declare (on all players, including AI).

That doesn't really change the conclusion that this is rather meek and done much better in BtS though. :)
 
Hey people, not technically a newbie question, more of a technical one, but I've seen this go unanswered plenty of times in the technical forum, so I was wondering if you can answer it here:

At the multiplayer section, after I type in my Username and Password, the screen will freeze for 1-2 seconds...then nothing, it just stays on the screen, rendering me incapable of playing multiplayer games.

Any help would be lovely :)

Welcome to CFC :band:

In my experience the Tech Support section lacks people playing multiplayer - your question might be better posted in the multiplayer section :)
 
That's actually not quite true. Even in Vanilla, the Aggressive AI is more likely to declare war. For purposes of deciding whether to declare war or not, the Aggressive AI values its own power rating at 4/3 of the actual value, making it less likely to think another player (including other AI) is too strong. It also effectively subtracts 10% from the iNoWarProb defined in the leaderheads XML file, again making such an AI more likely to declare (on all players, including AI).

That doesn't really change the conclusion that this is rather meek and done much better in BtS though. :)

Oh, yes. I forgot about that likeliness to declare war. It has been a while since I played Warlords or vanilla. Do you know if any of that (the overestimating of their power rating and the 10% reduction of the iNoWarProb) has survived the transition into BTS or were these elements both removed in favour of an AI that just builds more troops.

I personally always thought it was rather weird to make an AI declare more wars without adjusting its troops building tendencies to facilitate this more aggressive behaviour.
 
Could anyone tell me how to change what a unit upgrades to in Civ 4. Specifically Cavalry upgrading to Tank instead of Gunship. I have modified the XML in UnitInfos by adding an upgrade path but there must be more required as I get errors when I run the game.
 
Could anyone tell me how to change what a unit upgrades to in Civ 4. Specifically Cavalry upgrading to Tank instead of Gunship. I have modified the XML in UnitInfos by adding an upgrade path but there must be more required as I get errors when I run the game.

Maybe you've made a small error:

This is how the section of the file CIV4UnitInfos.xml where the cavalry upgrade is defined looks like before you change something:

Code:
			<UnitClassUpgrades>
				<UnitClassUpgrade>
					<UnitClassUpgradeType>UNITCLASS_GUNSHIP</UnitClassUpgradeType>
					<bUnitClassUpgrade>1</bUnitClassUpgrade>
				</UnitClassUpgrade>
			</UnitClassUpgrades>

This is how it should look like if you have a dual upgrade path to both gunship and tank:

Code:
			<UnitClassUpgrades>
				<UnitClassUpgrade>
					<UnitClassUpgradeType>UNITCLASS_GUNSHIP</UnitClassUpgradeType>
					<bUnitClassUpgrade>1</bUnitClassUpgrade>
				</UnitClassUpgrade>
				<UnitClassUpgrade>
					<UnitClassUpgradeType>UNITCLASS_TANK</UnitClassUpgradeType>
					<bUnitClassUpgrade>1</bUnitClassUpgrade>
				</UnitClassUpgrade>
			</UnitClassUpgrades>

Also note that the file CIV4UnitInfos.xml is located in the basic civilization 4 directory, but it is also located in the Warlords and the Beyond the Sword subdirectory. Depending on what version of the game you wish to play, you'll have to change the right version of the file.

Note that a lot of tutorials about modding can be found in the Civ4 - Creation & Customization subforum.

Oh and welcome to civfanatics!:dance::band:[party]
 
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