TMIT's Guide to Speed Civving

I wonder how/if you decide how many farms you need in a city. All I know is counting bread pieces, but I can' t do it fast.
 
I take a +/- total food count. Look at each tile in the city and count what its food output would be after a non-farm improvement (unless it's a food resource, you're farming/pasturing those anyway). Subtract 1 from the total +/- for each food it would produce below 2, add 1 for each food it would produce above 2. Don't change the count if it's exactly 2.

If the final count is negative, you need that many farms pre-biology. If it's positive, you can build that many pre-upgrade workshops. Positive cities that are farmable make good GP farms.
 
thanks for the tips, the ones i found particularly useful were related to queueing in cities and setting waypoints (i was too lazy to look up such hotkeys myself:D)

on a side note - speed in civ4 or any strategy (tbs or rts) is incomparable to starcraft - since wc3 takes an average of 150 apm (actions per minute) to play the game on highest levels (yes, players often have 250-300+ but in wc3 you find key spamming relatively easy due to the game mechanics and how hotkeying works). in comparison, starcraft takes 200-230+ apm to be very good, doing less is just not enough.

though your thoughts regarding civ4 are appreciated, i cannot help but not comment your statement that you weren't great but still decently ranked in starcraft, since i've been in that community for years, i can't help but wonder what nickname did you use in starcraft because i think you overestimate your skills in that game as you were most likely at the bottom of the food chain on the sc ladder >>> skill-wise order being as following:

i'll put sc newcomers, money map players, etc. all in one basket as they're irrelevant to show how many levels of skill sc has;; so after that level comes the casual "for fun players" level, followed by lowest non-ladder competitive level, followed by lowest ladder levels which let's say are d- up to c- (ranks on ladder are rated from d- being lowest and a+ highest, if you don't count the ultimate "olympic" rank which only a few achieve),

then comes the mediocre c- to c+ level and i think this is already way above your skill level whatever it was, but let's continue...after that comes the b- to b level which has some good players, after that comes b+/a- which means these players are on the verge of becoming one of the best outside korea, after a- you are pretty much capable of playing solid against top nonkoreans even though they'll most likely crush you painfully (being a+ on ladder doesnt mean you are able to beat top nonkoreans, as ladder games are not quite the same as clanwars, king of the hill matches, showmatches and so on)

anyway, to continue...somewhere along a- to a+ rank are good amateur koreans, followed by very good amateur koreans, followed by amateur koreans who are training partners of pros/semi-pros, followed by semi-pro koreans, followed by koreans who enter a progaming team and then they move to progaming team's house to practice and improve their skills

once they improve, they may serve as practice partners to pros or become members of let's say B or C lineup. once they join B team, they're very close to being among the very best in the world, once they enter A team, they still have a ton of other players to beat, once they do that, they enter top 30 KESPA rating, thus becoming top30 in the world, and the rest as they say is history.

btw this was just a brief description of how colourful sc ladder actually is, so i guess you see why i found it funny that you considered yourself decently ranked on ladder - if by some chance you were a member of ToT, rS, MYM, MgZ or any other top non-korean team, i guess you actually were a good sc player and in that case, i'll recognize your nickname as i've been there myself ;)
 
TMIT, I've watched couple of your lets plays on Youtube and I've seen that you are using somekind of marks to flag your future city places. Could you tell how to do that? I play Pangaeas a lot and enjoy planning my city places early so it would help me so I don't need to remember all the places by myself.
 
@Saru

I think he's using the Alt S tile naming thingy. You can also get the Bug mod which has a great interface for that sort of thing. I use both for different stuff.
 
Very good thread TMIT, thanks. Some things a bit different, which I find help speed up CIV BtS:

Auto-Airlift
This does work fairly well for Missionaries. Maybe Corp Execs too, dunno, don't use 'em. You must have "Ms & CEs start automated" selected in Options.

City Naming
If you're hoping/likely to end up with 20+ cities, it can help locating them if you give the later ones custom names. So eg one on the south of the east coast might be Miami, if you based your naming convention on the USA. Especially useful if there are a lot of event messages on screen, and with the BUG whip aid below.

Advanced Start
If you get tired of the slow early game, select this in the Custom Game screen. The "starting points" setting determines how much of the game you can pre-set before beginning play. Want 6 cities and all the first X techs? Give yourself enough points.
Advanced Start is also useful for testing a bunch of mid-game ideas.

Enlarge the Event Log
Civ on-screen messages are more hindrance than help imo, so I open the message log and drag it so every message is on one line only. Learn the colors of the messages you're interested in, and make it your first stop in a new turn when you need info.

BUG Mod
Mentioned a few times already, very useful imo. Examples:
-With Event Log, know when whip becomes available in any city [this really speeds the early game while you're in Slavery];
-Show only healthy units [great for quickly splitting your stack--healthy move on, rest remain to heal]

F1 City Screen + BUG
I use this a lot later in game, when I usually have dozens of cities, customized via BUG mod. It's especially useful when something new becomes available which I want asap. Eg I usually play Production Economy, so the Levee and Coal Plant time is a biggie--but you can't queue Coal Plants until Factories are built.
F1, sort by power icon = nice list of all cities without Coal Plants--why aren't some building factories?
F1, sort by base hammers = nice list of candidates to build Thrusters.

I've gotten used to using the BUG F1 to manage a lot of my multi-city stuff. Set it up with what you want to see [add/delete columns]. If you like that main city screen, you should also check out the ~15 sub-city screens which focus on one thing, eg religion, trade, etc--very useful for quick check of how many more Missionaries you need.

BUG Alt-M Messages
Alt-M = message popup to type reminder + how many turns later to display. I use it mainly to flag the end of a Golden Age to remind me to change civics, and also to flag when to cancel demanded trade deals like "Give us Clam, or else..."
Could also be useful for things you regularly miss--eg Optics in, time to upgrade a couple of Triremes to Caravels; or that city has now popped, take the citizen off Artist. Anything which reduces the "Is there anything I'm forgetting?" worry will speed you up.

Direct-load your saved game
[Iirc, you need movies switched off for this to work]
My BtS desktop icon has the target...
"C:\Blah\Saves\single\quick\QuickSave.CivBeyondSwordSave"
...where "blah" is the path to my saves. The "quick\QuickSave" bit is the key. If you press Shift-F5 when you quit your game, that overwrites the one QuickSave game CIV tracks. The icon target above is the same as pressing Shift-F8 in-game, ie it loads your last QuickSave.
Of course, not much use to those who have used TMIT's tips to play a game in one session :lol:

Build Research or Wealth
Yes, inefficient usually, but often more effective. If you don't want to mess with the output of dozens of cities, take the easy way out.

Auto-Manage later cities
I usually carefully manage my first 5-6 cities, pay attention to my next 5-6, and set later on auto. "Auto" means using the # trick [recorded production queue], which finishes with Research [or Wealth], and then using F1 sort to Ctrl-click anything new [eg Supermarket, Public Transport etc]

Worker(s) on auto-Network
As soon as you can spare an early Worker, select him and press "N". Then forget about roads. Use a regular Worker to hook up anything important quickly, of course, and tailor to Barb and enemy status.

Production Economy
When the map suits [plenty food], I find this easier to play than CE or SE. To reduce tedium, it's the only economy I play now, even if it doesn't suit the map--I prefer to quit and start a new game rather than messing with SE micro. No cottages, farms only for food specials and irrigation. All others mines or workshops.
Techs: Maths, Metal Cast, Guilds, Civil Service, Chemistry, Steam, Assembly Line.
Civics: Rep, Bureau, Slave > Caste, Merc > State Prop / Env, Org Rel > Pacifism > Free Rel.
Leaders: Expansive for health, Industrious for Forge + Wonders, Japan for Shale Plant, Spiritual for switching into brief Slavery spells later on. My favs are Bismark, Rameses and Tokugawa.
Wonders: Pyramids, Maus of Mous, Hang Gard, Notre Dame [so Emancipation hurts less], Stat of Lib if decent landmass, Gt Lighthouse if watery.

TMIT's tips re using the Governors and auto-Workers could be tailor made for this kind of game, I must give it a shot. Unless Civ5 is less tedious, here's hoping :)
 
I don´t see why 2-4 hours is quick, my record is about half an hour on vanilla BtS on Normal speed, with a late victory. Now with RoM, I check everything a million times, and find it suprisingly hard to hit enter.
 
Nice tips here. I've watched some of your vids TMIT - really helpful!
I'm not even gonna say how long I take. Its embarrassing haha. But I know I do plod, and check and double check decisions. I can appreciate the familiarity aspect, as I find in the early game, I make snap decisions, because I'm familiar with the situation.
I think there's something up with my lappy too... Gets really hot - and then slow. :/
Its got good specs though. urgh.
I'm fussy though. And I like to have a pleasant picture on the screen. and music. don't you love the music? :p If I have headphones on I really get into it. I love music :)
 
Since reading these forums, my gamespeed has gone down by about an order of magnitude!

I just got halfway through reading why CE>SE, except that it's not...but no wait.....it is, except of course when it's not. This of course does not include time spent debating the exact etymology of the CE and SE acronyms and a few delves into epistemology. Roll on Civ5.
 
I read everything here.
right now I am playing on prince level. I used many things to speed up before, but started using other ones after reading this.

But these things still drag me down:

slavery: even with bug mod, I keep checking whether to whip or not. this is so tedious I go out of slavery when I start to win

automation and governors:
need some help here
I can choose what governor to use? in buffy mod there is nutty governor, how do i enable different governors?
or are the food/hammer/commerce/GP/halt only buttons to customize the governor?

workers: leave old improvements is on. pre - chop forests is on. basically i only dare to use them to build N - trade networks of roads and railroads. I will have to experiment with this.
the automation is determined by the city governor?

stacks:
trying to select 1 unit of a stack. it always selects the previous group

loading transports
when i move 1 unit to a transport, it selects the transport, so I space it..... the when its fully I have to wake it again. i only use the load/unload nightmare when mission critical

selecting units in a city
nightmare? it always wakes all the units and also kills fortify.

ques:
how do I stop governor from building coal plants or other buildings I don´t want?
sometime the governor starts building research all of a sudden, even with buildings left....
it still pays off to use it with 10+ - 20+ cities, but MM to change research takes me time off

how do I make my own ctrl-1 prefect que? I can only save a que of buildings of what city can build.... but if I overwrite the que, the buildings from old ques is lost:

example, because I can´t explain it:

1st city
que:
forge, temple, market, theatre, granary

....ctrl 1....
-- this city has forge and market --
....1....
=
temple, theatre, granary

so I would like to upgrade my que for factory, cathedral, so I add them to the que and press ctrl-1

but now if I use the que again in 3rd city and press "1", the forge and market arent there anymore.


any one understand my problem with making custom ques??? :/

usually this happens with captured cities..... which have random buildings.
when I settle new cities I ussually MM
 
If you want to make a "perfect queue", just pop into the World Builder, add whatever techs needed, save your queue, and it will be stored for any subsequent games that you play.

Any item in the queue that is not available for whatever reason when you load the queue will just be left out.

Btw. anyone know if it's possible to queue a Factory -and- a Coal Plant at the same time? I nearly always want to build a Coal Plant immediately after a city gets a Factory, but it doesn't seem possible to queue both, at least not by the conventional method. Any way to work around this?

Also, any tips for speeding up whipping / making whipping decisions faster? Sometimes I don't want to whip just yet (too much stacked anger or too many lost turns on cottages) and I'd rather wait until less pop is needed for the whip.
Is there a way to configure BUG such that it notifies you when the pop required to whip an item decreases? I don't think I've seen this.

I also find it a bit annoying that BUG shows alerts for whippable items that have zero hammers invested. Usually, we don't want to whip those. Would be sweet if that could be turned off. Perhaps someone knows their way around the BUG codebase?

Otherwise great writeup, TMIT! I also very much enjoy your YouTube Let's Plays. Although I am still a horrible plodder ;)
 
I've also used to be quite a decent Starcraft player

Me too! ;) At my peak, during WGT Season 7 (when all Korean pro-gamers started playing....many many years ago, lol) I achieved a ranking in the top 100. Anyways, I'm not sure I have a point. Civ 4 is a whole different ballgame and one of the reasons I like it so much is because I can take my sweet ass time and completely relax, go slow, take it in, etc.

I don't enjoy playing Civilization fast. That would simply ruin the game experience for me. Pangea, normal map, normal speed will usually take me 6-9 hours while a small map/normal will take me 4-6.
 
Workers: Do not automate these until you 1) feel like you've won or 2) you've settled and improved all of your land. This isn't micro you compromise on.
For highter difficultys and multiplayer vs good players yes, but for Noble difficulty automated workers is fine (expect forest choping) , also automated workers give more challenge and making single player harder which is not a bad thing.

Its fun to control workers when u playing Civ4 for few years, but when u playing Civ4 since 2005 its getting boring so i actually suggest casual players making their workers automated in Single player even if they know that it will make game harder to win.
Especially when they have hundreds of citys.
 
For highter difficultys and multiplayer vs good players yes, but for Noble difficulty automated workers is fine (expect forest choping) , also automated workers give more challenge and making single player harder which is not a bad thing.

Its fun to control workers when u playing Civ4 for few years, but when u playing Civ4 since 2005 its getting boring so i actually suggest casual players making their workers automated in Single player even if they know that it will make game harder to win.
Especially when they have hundreds of citys.

What game are you playing :lol:. I have to disagree with you; worker management is a big aspect of the game, I see no reason why you would remove this.
 
For highter difficultys and multiplayer vs good players yes, but for Noble difficulty automated workers is fine (expect forest choping) , also automated workers give more challenge and making single player harder which is not a bad thing.

Its fun to control workers when u playing Civ4 for few years, but when u playing Civ4 since 2005 its getting boring so i actually suggest casual players making their workers automated in Single player even if they know that it will make game harder to win.
Especially when they have hundreds of citys.

You go around writing this and other not-so-good advice everywhere. Is this a troll account?
 
Sorry to force an off-topic point onto you, but I find in my games the bigger limiting thing on my speed is the game lag. It's unfortunate that I only like to play large or huge maps, because these suffer the worst. Even with the completely unmoded game when I select a single unit in a stack of about 30 in a city it takes a good second just for it to select. It's even worse in MP where latency is an issue too.

I used to have problems with this too Have a Hp-Win7 laptop with a slow CPU and 4 Gigs Ram with Shared video

)Open Task manager and turn off all those unused processes (don't need win media player networking, file indexing windows, update adobe et al)
)If you are not playing online turn off your wifi (or unplug) and then Turn off Application monitoring for CivIV in your anti-virus software (it will be in settings somewhere) This was The Big One for me
)Seraiel :bowdown: swears by Radeon_RAMDisk_4_4_0_RC33.msi it loads the whole game into RAM the free version loads up to 4Gb which is enough for CivIV BtS and most mods.
 
)Seraiel :bowdown: swears by Radeon_RAMDisk_4_4_0_RC33.msi it loads the whole game into RAM the free version loads up to 4Gb which is enough for CivIV BtS and most mods.

:love: ;) .

RAMDisk is really exceptional. It needs you to have at least 8 GB of RAM, but RAMs are cheap today, I even have 16 GB in my Laptop because I sometimes do video-editing, if they hadn't be so cheap though, I'd also have settled for 8.

The latency in the game has been cut in half at least through that tool and running CIV from the RAM completely.

I also restart the game every 5T or so, if I play very complex scenarios, like Huge Terra with 17 civs or so. Ofc, the time to restart the game also gets cut in half by RAMDisk, probably it's even more like 1/3 when comparing to a Samsung 850 Pro SSD.

I think I've already forgotten how slow that game runs when run from a normal Harddrive, so if you have 8 GB of RAM, get yourself RAMDisk, even if you have a SOTA SSD.
 
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