Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[iloz]

Where's Roads and Railroads in the Civilopedia?I've looked and looked and I can't find them. They're not under improvements where they should be. There's a railroad technology, but that doesn't tell you what building railroads actually do.

Good question, I would appreciate it too, if someone explained what effects roads/railroads have. The info is not included in the manual either.
The only thing I could figure out was that roads are needed for trade roots, however they no longer boost commerce, as they did in civ3. Based on this, it might be, that railroads simply add a few movement points to units, and that’s all.

 

[Samson]

Where's Roads and Railroads in the Civilopedia?I've looked and looked and I can't find them. They're not under improvements where they should be. There's a railroad technology, but that doesn't tell you what building railroads actually do.

I think they forgot them. I think that they -

roads -

Increase movement of units to 1/2 a movement point per tile, changes to 1/3 with engeniering (?).
Connect cities for trade routes.
Connect cities to share health and luxury resorces.

Railroad -

Increase movement of units to 1/10 a movement point per tile.
Increase hammer production of mines and lumber mills by 1.

 

[martyboy]

How do i pick the number of civs I wish to play against and who they are? there does not seem to be a facility to choose this as there was in civ 3

 

[iloz]

How do i pick the number of civs I wish to play against and who they are? there does not seem to be a facility to choose this as there was in civ 3

Choose Single player and then Custom game from the option menu.

 

[iloz]

I think they forgot them. I think that they -

roads -

Increase movement of units to 1/2 a movement point per tile, changes to 1/3 with engeniering (?).
Connect cities for trade routes.
Connect cities to share health and luxury resorces.

Railroad -

Increase movement of units to 1/10 a movement point per tile.
Increase hammer production of mines and lumber mills by 1.

Thanks a lot.

 

[thamis]

Are missionaries useful when you have no open borders with anyone?

Yes, you can spread your religion in your cities.

Is there a way of removing terrain to more easily show cultural borders?

Don't think so.

What are the circles outside of the cities?

The tiles that the city is working on.

Is there a way of making angry leaders talk to you when they won't?

If you mouse-over the indication of how much they like you, they'll tell you what they dislike. Work on that.

Is there a "fog of war" like in civ3?

Yes, you can easily see it on the minimap.

If you build a city right next to a barb city with it disappear?

If your cultural borders go into a barb city, it will become your city.

 

[Perfection]

How's the music?

 

[martyboy]

Choose Single player and then Custom game from the option menu.

ok, thanks for the tip. i'll try that..

 

[Bubba]

Four questions:

1) Does anyone know how to make it so that the units are not visible over the cities? There was an option for this in Civ III but I can't find it anywhere. (I like to see the cities and not the units).

2) What do the little boats surrounding my cities represent? Is it possible to turn them off so that they are not visible (I find they clutter the screen and make it hard to find sentried transports, etc.)

3) In the options menu, what does "quick battles" mean? Does it just show the battle quicker or does it change the nature of the battles?

4) Does anyone know how to blockade another Civ? I remember reading this was possible but I cannot figure out how to do it. Does it have anything to do with the little boats?

 

[Samurai of Ice]

If you build a city right next to a barb city with it disappear?

If your cultural borders go into a barb city, it will become your city.

But doesn't that mean that the barb city would be within 2 squares of the city that overtook it, so the barb city would be destroyed. Otherwise, the city's borders would have to grow into the barb city if it is more than 2 squares away.

 

[Samson]

2) What do the little boats surrounding my cities represent? Is it possible to turn them off so that they are not visible (I find they clutter the screen and make it hard to find sentried transports, etc.)

There are 2 types. One is were you have built fishing boats, the other is where your city pop is woking sea tiles.

4) Does anyone know how to blockade another Civ? I remember reading this was possible but I cannot figure out how to do it. Does it have anything to do with the little boats?

In previous civs, it was occuping with boats all sea tiles around all connected harbours. It was almost imposible unless you had a massive navy compared to the other civ.

 

[MSTK]

Four questions:

2) What do the little boats surrounding my cities represent? Is it possible to turn them off so that they are not visible (I find they clutter the screen and make it hard to find sentried transports, etc.)

Normally, they are the same as the little cottages that pop around near a city. They represent the tiles being worked. To change them, double-click on the city's name plate and move around the blue circles in the center.
Otherwise, I do not know how to remove them.

3) In the options menu, what does "quick battles" mean? Does it just show the battle quicker or does it change the nature of the battles?

There are no battle animations. Just send the attack order and the result is decided immediately.
Note that the outcome would be no different than if you had not chosen quick battle.

 

[rabies]

ordinarily, I'd search for the answer, but since search seems to be turned off...

1. A couple of my cities have a Grey/Silver star on the main map (right next to symbols for religion/unhappy/sick/revolt etc. What do these stars mean? The manual explains many of the city symbols, but this one is not there.

2. Along the same lines, my manual says that there is also an icon for the city that produces most science/wealth/prod, but I have yet to see any of these. Is the manual wrong?

 

[Thelo]

1. A couple of my cities have a Grey/Silver star on the main map (right next to symbols for religion/unhappy/sick/revolt etc. What do these stars mean? The manual explains many of the city symbols, but this one is not there.

This is to indicate a "center of government", i.e. either the Forbidden Palace or the Versailles wonder. You can see them on enemy cities too, so they're good targets for attack.

There's an option to turn "Right Click menus" on. This allows you to right click on a stack and see what's there. As well as wake all, and fortify all (ala Civ III).
But does anyone know how you can see the combat predictions (i.e. 8.4 v 4.5) when the right click menu is turned on? Currently I have to toggle it on and off in the options page.
Nov 11, 2005 01:51 PM

With the right-click menu turned on, you can issue go-to commands by holding the left mouse button for a second over a square and releasing it, or using the go-to button. The combat odds are displayed when using these, so mousing over the enemy's tile while using either one of these two methods should reveal the combat odds.

By the way, you can always access the "right-click menu", even if you don't have that option turned on, by shift-clicking a tile. That's basically what prompted me to turn the "right-click menu" option off

 

[=]A-A[=Tomahawk]

I would like to know if there is a command that will mass upgrade a single unit type in all cities. for example, in civ3 you could shift+U and upgrade all your warriors in every city at one time. if there is a command i can not find it. the closest thing ive found is alt+right click a unit type in each city. which means i have to visit each city to upgrade everything. this takes a lot of time as i only upgrade when attacked. any ideas?

 

[jeannie]

I would like to know if there is a command that will mass upgrade a single unit type in all cities. for example, in civ3 you could shift+U and upgrade all your warriors in every city at one time. if there is a command i can not find it. the closest thing ive found is alt+right click a unit type in each city. which means i have to visit each city to upgrade everything. this takes a lot of time as i only upgrade when attacked. any ideas?

hold the alt key when you click on the upgrade icon. It will upgrade as many of that type of unit that it can afford.

 

[=]A-A[=Tomahawk]

thx a bunch

 

[Draax]

hold the alt key when you click on the upgrade icon. It will upgrade as many of that type of unit that it can afford.

Ya but use this carefully!!! It seems to upgrade random units all over your civ. Let's say you have a border city with 2 archers that you wanna upgrade to longbows. You have enough money to upgrade only 2 archers. If you use the "alt key upgrade" on one of your border archers, the other upgraded archer can be anywhere in your civ. Really frigging annoying when you want to keep your front troops as modern as possible but end up with upgraded units waaaaay behind your line.

On the other hand, this works great if you plan for a war a long time ahead. Build a unit here and there and over time you have a large but patchwork army. Put the science down to 0% for a few turns and now you have a huge modernized army.

 

[jeannie]

You have enough money to upgrade only 2 archers. If you use the "alt key upgrade" on one of your border archers, the other upgraded archer can be anywhere in your civ.

If I remember correctly, CIV3 would tell you that you didn't have enough gold to upgrade all your units, as opposed to randomly updating them. Civ4 probably doesn't 'randomly' upgrade them - it probably upgrades the units created earliest first.

But you can see how much it would cost to upgrade all your units by pressing the 'alt' key first, and THEN putting your mouse pointer on the icon for the upgraded units. It will display the cost for updating all the units, where it shows the 'unit cost for upgrading this unit' if you don't press the alt key first. So you can avoid 'accidentally' upgrading units deep inside your territory and running almost out of cash.

 

[=]A-A[=Tomahawk]

i looked in the civ hints and other places but didnt see this one either. maybe somone knows. if you use ctrl+ I, obviously it will minimize the interface. i really like the minimized interface except for one thing, there's no minimap(weak). is there a command to allow the use of the mini-map when using the minimized interface? t.i.a.