Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

I've had this game for a week and would first like to echo the sentiments of everyone on this site... that "This game rocks".:cool:

Second, I would like to point out to all the newbies (like me) that everyone should read WoundedKnight's strategy guide on Civ IV. It is comprehensive and well-written. Here's the link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141825

Lastly, sorry if my questions have been asked before on this thread. I didn't feel like going through all 51 pages to get an answer. Call me lazy :D

Q1) What effect does health/unhealthiness have on a city? At first I thought it affected your growth or production but it didn't seem to.

Q2) How is the final score calculated? (The one used to measure yourself to say... Dan Quayle... not to say that I was compared to him :blush: )

Q3) I've read debates about the use of a great artist. Between the "culture bomb", attaching them to your city or getting them to build their special place... if you're going for a cultural victory I don't see why you wouldn't ALWAYS use the "culture bomb". Am I way off base here? 4000 Culture Points are hard to come by.

Thanks in advance!
 
1) For each net point of unhealthiness (each :yuck: that isn't balanced out by a :health: ) the city gets a penalty of 1 food per turn. Unhealthiness will thus slow your city's growth by reducing its food surplus, and may well cause the city to stagnate.

2)It's based on a number of factors; Land area, population, tech researched, the wonder you've built, the difficulty level and the date of your victory.

3)If you get a great artist early on you may be better off in the long run merging it into the city than using it as a culture bomb. As a superspecialist they give 3 gold per turn and 14 culture per turn. Since the culture in particular can easily be multiplied by a few hundred percent by things like civics and cathedrals this can add up to more than 4000 culture over the course of a game, and you have the added bonus of the 3 gold each turn, which can also be increased by modifiers. In the late game a culture bomb is usually a better use, because there aren't enough turns left for a merged great artist to produce that much.
 
Ah yes... I see the light now. I totally forgot about modifiers and can totally see how these things can add up well above 4000 early on.

Thanks for the advice MrCynical.
 
Just to add to the comments made by MrCynical, the same is true of all the other Great People as well. Early superspecialists can contribute a great deal more hammers/gold/culture than simply grabbing one tech, great work, or building.
 
Just one clarification...

MrCynical mentioned that you get dinged for every net "unhealthiness" you have by -1 food/unhealthy net point.

By the same token do you get any bonuses for being healthy? Say +1 food/healthy net point?

Thanks.
 
vicpoppa said:
Just one clarification...

MrCynical mentioned that you get dinged for every net "unhealthiness" you have by -1 food/unhealthy net point.

By the same token do you get any bonuses for being healthy? Say +1 food/healthy net point?

Thanks.
No. The bonus is your city keeps all of its food.
 
MrCynical said:
1) For each net point of unhealthiness (each :yuck: that isn't balanced out by a :health: ) the city gets a penalty of 1 food per turn. Unhealthiness will thus slow your city's growth by reducing its food surplus, and may well cause the city to stagnate.

I thought that striking citizens were the only penalty for unhelthyness?
Or is that what he meen? And do you get a similar penalty for unhappyness?

Another question, Do you get any bonus from having an extremely happy or healty city?
 
OK this question might annoy some people, but here goes.
what is the single most important thing i should be doing in this game ? (apart from enjoying it)

If you like answering that question you could try...

The first most important thing, and then the next most important thing, and the third most important thing.

For a newbie it's good to know what we should be really keeping an eye on.
Thanks for this thread BTW it's a good idea
 
sweetpete said:
I thought that striking citizens were the only penalty for unhelthyness?
Or is that what he meen? And do you get a similar penalty for unhappyness?

Another question, Do you get any bonus from having an extremely happy or healty city?
As I understand it, a striking citizen essentialy just sits there and yells, doing nothing for you but forcing you to use you food and health to support him. Remember also that population (and therefore food and health) is much more valuable then they were in civ3, so you have to be careful in how far you let the citizens go.
 
lost_civantares said:
As I understand it, a striking citizen essentialy just sits there and yells, doing nothing for you but forcing you to use you food and health to support him. Remember also that population (and therefore food and health) is much more valuable then they were in civ3, so you have to be careful in how far you let the citizens go.

Well yes, but im asking if you get two penalties from unhealtyness, one in the form of citizens on strike that demand food and dont work tile, and one that takes one food per unhealtyface over healtysymbole?
 
sweetpete said:
Well yes, but im asking if you get two penalties from unhealtyness, one in the form of citizens on strike that demand food and dont work tile, and one that takes one food per unhealtyface over healtysymbole?
Don't think of it as a citizen doing anything. Just know that your city has a certain health limit, and a happiness limit. These limits are determined by your access to health and happiness resources. If you exceed the hapiness limit, every new citizen born in your city will be unproductive. If you exceed the health limit, you will have 1 food subtracted from your city every turn.

There are several factors that change how much unhealthiness and how much unhappiness you have, and often times it's a new citizen being born that'll put you over a limit, thus you might think it's an issue of the number of citizens. But that's just part of the story.
 
Please help,

Every game i play i seem to end up at the 1900AD with hardly any troops and im still making archers or musketmen..

Surely this cant be correct, im building 4 citys im sure im using enough production squares but for some reason the game ends in 2050AD when i only have war elephants as my most advanced troops.

My play style is to conquer but i just cant bbuild enough troops
 
Nigel1 said:
Please help,

Every game i play i seem to end up at the 1900AD with hardly any troops and im still making archers or musketmen..

Surely this cant be correct, im building 4 citys im sure im using enough production squares but for some reason the game ends in 2050AD when i only have war elephants as my most advanced troops.

My play style is to conquer but i just cant bbuild enough troops
Try a Fin civ like Inca. Build cottages everywhere, especially next to rivers. Don't build farms almost anywhere -- just on wheat, corn, rice, and possibly on a few grasslands in cities that don't have enough food (but they should -- you're building them in the wrong place if they don't have at least 1 good food resource)

Then conquer when you have more advanced units, such as grenadiers or cavalry.

Also research Civil Service very early so you can switch to Bureaucracy. This is especially effective if your capital has lots of cottages next to rivers and a few good hammer tiles/resources.
 
So if i build cottages on land within my borders thats not got the circle around under the City Screen will it still bring in the cash etc??

Or do i have to take the cirlce of production / food within the city screen and have it on the cottages?

thanks again
 
Nigel1 said:
So if i build cottages on land within my borders thats not got the circle around under the City Screen will it still bring in the cash etc??

Or do i have to take the cirlce of production / food within the city screen and have it on the cottages?

thanks again
You have to work the cottages for them to actually do anything, so they need to be within 2 squares of a city...

If when you mouse over a cottage on the map you see "city must work to become hamlet", then it's not doing anything for you.
 
Psyringe said:
The tile "belongs" to the civ which has accumulated the most culture on this tile. So, if you continue to spread more culture on tiles as your opponent does, eventually they will flip to you.

You can see who owns a tile (and how much percent of the total culture on this tile he has) by mousing over the tile. In the lower left you'll then see it's owner and the culture percentage.
.

I have played where some cities flip at around 50% and others drop down to around 20% but still don't flip. Not talking about conquered cities or with huge troops stationed there. Any clue as to why some will flip and others won't?
 
FastWorker said:
Any clue as to why some will flip and others won't?

It is largely by luck. :)

Any city with less than 50% of population of the owner's culture has a chance of revolt. The 1st revolt is a warning. The 2nd revolt = flipping.

If you own a city with less than 50% of your culture, you can check the chance of revolt in the city info screen. If you are unlucky it will revolt very soon. If you are lucky, it will stay your for eternity.
 
How do you set waypoints for units built in city?
 
maltz said:
It is largely by luck. :)
The amount of units in the city also has a very large effect, to the point that if you have enough units in the city, it will not flip even if it is 0%.
 
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