Odd tidbits not generally found about the game?

TwentySlashDash

Chieftain
Joined
Aug 21, 2013
Messages
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Hi, I'm a veteran video gamer. I typically know how to find out information pretty well, but this particular game - and perhaps I'm senile, or losing my edge.. but..

There are unusual, but very important tidbits which seemed to be missing in general about this game. After searching around a bit.. I've discovered what I almost consider 'secrets'? such as the following:

Rivers impart a 25% modifier to trade routes? Uncertain if this is shown in the game. I found out about it via a website. I haven't validated it. Is this listed somewhere?

Marble imbues a 15% modifier to building wonders. (this can be see in the in-game information highlight over production but.. you wouldn't know to plan for it otherwise) its scantly mentioned through the posts here.

Are there other relatively hidden modifiers to this game as well? This seems to be the devil in the details kinda thing. Is there a central respository of Very Useful, but Obscure modifiers somewhere I'm missing?

Also, considering team play with a friend of mine. I've found almost no mention of any team play modifiers in any official documentation, or how it impacts the game.. sure, there is the shared tech, which became obvious after a few with team play. but what are the others?

Yet another question, if say, you give a Immortal (persian unique) to say, the zulus, can the zulus then upgrade that unit to a impi with the implication that they have both specials? I'm uncertain as to whether the Immortal ability is a promotion or just inherent. - I know that can make a difference.

Another - I was thinking of a scenario where, yuo might create a army of epic proportions with.. the huns + mongols where the huns gift their horse archers to the mongols with the discovery of chivalry, which seems neat. Many other combinations more potent combos, come to mind as well.
 
If I had to guess I'd say the Immortal-Impi thing would work, I think the Immortal promotion is the same as what you get from Fountain of Youth, so it should be inherited.

Horse Archer to Keshik should definitely work.
 
Yes, the in-game documentation is pretty widely criticized. It covers the basics well enough, but once you get into the nitty-gritty as you are, there are a lot of things only mentioned in an obscure place, or not mentioned at all.

In Brave New World, rivers provide a 25% bonus (to what, I'm not sure - that is, whether to the overall output or just to the base value) to land-based trade routes. In Vanilla/GnK, riverside spaces provide gold directly.

A city with access to marble does indeed have a bonus to wonder production, although in Brave New World, this bonus only helps wonders enabled by Ancient-era and Classical-era techs.

A couple of things that come to mind that are often at the core of "single newbie question" threads:

* Cities stagnate when hard-building settlers. Food surplus contributes hammers to settler production, but not at a 1:1 ratio - it's 1 hammer for 1 food surplus, 2 for 2-3 surplus, 3 for 4-7 surplus, 4 for 8+ surplus. (5 for 16+? I don't know.)

* The modifiers shaping a given civ's attitude towards you can be seen when you hover the mosue over their attitude towards you (neutral, guarded, etc.) in the diplomacy screen.

* Your warmongering sins committed before you meet a given civ don't count against that civ, with one exception: saying you're "just passing through" and then attacking. That's telepathically communicated to everyone, forever, for the rest of the game. Note that the delay before you can "safely" attack after a "just passing through" is really, really long.

* Making one more than one DOW against a city-state (overall, not just the same city state) per game causes diplomatic penalties with other city-states that pile up fairly quickly, including things like reduced or zero gold bonus for meeting new city states, faster loss of influence, etc.

* City states raze every city they take in war except unrazable cities.

* Petra affects all desert tiles except floodplains; Desert Folklore and Kasbahs affect all desert tiles.

There are a lot of tidbits like this, these are just all I can think of offhand. There might even be a dedicated thread about them already somewhere.

Yet another question, if say, you give a Immortal (persian unique) to say, the zulus, can the zulus then upgrade that unit to a impi with the implication that they have both specials? I'm uncertain as to whether the Immortal ability is a promotion or just inherent. - I know that can make a difference.

That is indeed the key thing. Promotion-based abilities are kept on upgrade; non-promotion-based abilities aren't.
 
Thanks guys - maybe more tidbits to come, from others.

yeah, I was thinking with the whole horse archer / keshiks idea.. that mongols donate their first khan to the huns for their city raiding, then chivalry arrives and passing the torch to the mongols, with free accuracy 1 promotions and veteran war units.

Other combos I was considering: the elephant unit with fear --> Camel archers. and an interesting one involving upgrading the seige tower of the assyrians to the Korean unit siege unit. I -think- their bonuses to cities aren't the same bonus, so they should stack?

These civs would play, in theory well with each other as well. Assyrians would take an early lead in higher difficulty based games by staying on parity technology wise, while korea focuses on building a basis for strong tech growth later.
 
* City states raze every city they take in war except unrazable cities.

not true.. they raze Most cities they take (except unrazable cities)
 
haha, that post about the city states... taking capitals..

Sooo..

in theory - a city state.. could it win the domination victory?
 
haha, that post about the city states... taking capitals..

Sooo..

in theory - a city state.. could it win the domination victory?

I don't believe they could win. You could test it... (2 player, 1 CS pangea hotseat.. player 1 founds 1 city in addition to capital far away from the CS. player 2 declares war on the CS... player 1 builds and gifts the CS units... once player one's capital has fallen, Player 1 gifts a nice army to the CS, and then declares war on the CS.. portecting their 2nd city but not their Capital (which should be closer)... once the CS gets the second capital...? Player 1 should still be alive.)
 
Natural wonders? I was reading somewhere they all are considered mountain terrain in some *.xml file?

hopefully when this thread is completed, I can compile an Obscure Facts FAQ regarding Civ 5 BNW.
 
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