Close the build box

marksmind

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 27, 2014
Messages
4
just started playing civ 4. I get my cities to where I want them and do not want to build any new units or buildings but the build window pops up and I cannot seem to close it without having to build a building or a unit. How do I close it without building anything?
 
Hi marksmind

You can set your cities to build research or currency (ok, it`s technically building `something` :p), and will continue to do so per turn until you tell it to build something else.
 
You do have to have the proper techs to do that. Alphabet allows the building of research (beakers) and Currency allows the building of wealth (gold). Music allows the building of Culture.
 
You could also try building a really production heavy wonder and reduce your city's citizens to emphasise gold or food instead. It's a double bonus as you're not building anything you don't want to and if you fail to build the wonder you'll be given a load of fail gold
 
I still can't believe that when you have built everything and have a sufficient army in the city that you are still forced to build more units as the box will not close without choosing to build something. Seems like a silly oversight in the development of this game unless I am missing something and the box can be closed without a build?
 
I still can't believe that when you have built everything and have a sufficient army in a city that you are still forced to build more units as the box will not close without choosing to build something. Seems like a silly oversight in the development of this game unless I am missing something and the box can be closed without a build?
 
Not building ANYTHING would be rather stupid imho.
At least you can build a Process, which gives gold, science, culture or espionage.

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IF you cannot build any process because its too early in the game, then consider trying VIP-mod, which have lesser degrees of Process (50%) much earlier, and even have a Barter process at the very beginning (25% gold).
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Yes, you were already adviced in the other thread to build wealth or science. The box won't annoy you again for the rest of the game.
 
A game of Civ, stripped down to its essentials, means collecting the little :commerce:, :food:, :hammers: counters up off the map and using your cities to turn them into STUFF. STUFF wins you the game. More :commerce:+:food:+:hammers: = more STUFF = more chance of win. So throwing away some would be the game letting you be stupid, so it doesn't let you.

In the past many have suggested, and modded in, the ability to bank the :hammers: from a city and use them later, which is what perhaps you're suggesting rather than just throwing them away. I think the reason that's not in the main game though is because (a) it trivialises the wonder system (i.e. insta-build wonders) and (b) to a lesser extent it makes it too easy to build a quick army when you get a brief tech lead.

But anyway at the start of the game what are you talking about there's nothing to build????!!! If nothing else, trust me, you DO need more workers ;)
 
I think if you "examine city" you can exit the city screen without choosing anything to build.

But if you have enough troops and don't yet have alphabet, just build a building. In Civ IV, there's no building maintenance, so if you don't loose anything (besides the :hammers: you put in to building the building) by building infrastructure.

Most of the expert opinion is that usually :hammers: are better invested in units (to go conquering) or :science: or :gold: than most buildings, but if you can't build :science: or :gold: yet and aren't ready and willing to conquer, just build a building.

And if you've built all the available buildings and don't yet have alphabet to build :science:, you're probably way behind in tech and need help with other aspects of your game.
 
I still can't believe that when you have built everything and have a sufficient army in the city that you are still forced to build more units as the box will not close without choosing to build something. Seems like a silly oversight in the development of this game unless I am missing something and the box can be closed without a build?

I can't believe there are people who think that you can ever have enough units. :scan:
 
I once had a game where I thought I had enough units for a time. Huge/Marathon/Continents/Monarch; i was playing as Giggles. The map generator split the "small" (5-civ) continent into two land masses not accessible with sailing. I spawned on the 2-civ mini-continent with Willie, who conveniently founded Hinduism for me before I vulture-rushed him. Stone was on the mini-continent, so I built the GW and mids. So I had enough troops to handle barbs as I did a slow expansion to the rest of the mini-continent and didn't need extra unit maintenance. I was down to building walls before I discovered alphabet.
 
I can't believe there are people who think that you can ever have enough units. :scan:

Right? the nerve! Seriously, how can I play as Khan if I don't have enough units to qualify as a horde? Sheesh :mischief:.
 
A game of Civ, stripped down to its essentials, means collecting the little :commerce:, :food:, :hammers: counters up off the map and using your cities to turn them into STUFF. STUFF wins you the game. More :commerce:+:food:+:hammers: = more STUFF = more chance of win. So throwing away some would be the game letting you be stupid, so it doesn't let you.

In the past many have suggested, and modded in, the ability to bank the :hammers: from a city and use them later, which is what perhaps you're suggesting rather than just throwing them away. I think the reason that's not in the main game though is because (a) it trivialises the wonder system (i.e. insta-build wonders) and (b) to a lesser extent it makes it too easy to build a quick army when you get a brief tech lead.

But anyway at the start of the game what are you talking about there's nothing to build????!!! If nothing else, trust me, you DO need more workers ;)

Yes, I fondly remember caravans from civII. Every wonder was built the turn after the tech was researched. But I am glad that type of thing isn't in IV.
 
This is usually only a problem in the very early game where you only have warriors, settlers, and workers as available unit builds.

If you have specialist buildings like library, you can always take your citizens off of :hammers: tiles and put them into specialists. Another option is :commerce: tiles (even normally sub-optimal :commerce: tiles are worth it if you have nothing to build).

Really, though, I only see this as a problem if you have over-expanded in the early game so running 0% slider and have nothing else to build but units (which would cause :gold: maintenance to overcome income and maybe get those units disbanded which == wasted :hammers:). But once you have Alpha, build science. After Currency, it's usually optimal to build wealth (but micro managing can optimize this further)
 
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