2 quick and probably embarassing questions

[Caelia]

Hi, newbie here. Been playing around with Civ IV for a bit, liking it, and now I'd like to start a 'serious' game. But I have two questions (I have all the tech and research done, it's only Future Technologies for me now):

1. Under which conditions can I make alliances with the AI? I've been snuggling up with 2 cultures since the very beginning, never went to war against them, brought them to wage war on the enemy, conquered and divided 2 other empires fairly together with them. They both love me. But I am not given the option to offer them an alliance, only defensive pacts (playing the German version, so sorry if I get the wording wrong).

2. When I build the spaceship and have al components ready - does it launch automatically? Because I can't find that anywhere, and there was no feedback from the game. Can't build any more components tho.
And if so, how long is the flight time? From reading a bit in all those threads I found out that it actually depends on the technology you have available - I think I had most when I built it ...

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gufnork]

1. You need to have researched Fascism and have the option checked when you start the game. The default is off. So it's impossible to do in your current game.

2. As soon as you build the last part the game ends with you as the victor. You may have unchecked Space Ship as a victory condition, but the default for that is on and I don't see why you would be able to build any parts at all if it was unchecked. Make sure there's not a part in a city's build queue somewhere that you've missed. You can also check the victory conditions screen (F8 I think) and make sure all the parts are built.

 

[Caelia]

^ Ah, thanks on the alliances. I overlooked that!

There are no more parts I can build, and the screen says I have all ... yet, Mansa Musa, who has about half the civilization I have, just made diplomatic victory *grrrr*

 

[Kizor]

Are you quite sure? You need five chassis parts and three engines.

 

[Caelia]

Are you quite sure? You need five chassis parts and three engines.

Yes, I'm sure

 

[MrCynical]

Are you sure they've completed properly and not just judging by whether they're still available to build? There is a known bug which can cause spaceship parts to become impossible to construct if you try and change the city they're being built in.

 

[kamigawan]

I would check your domestic advisor and sort your cities' production list by name. Scan to "S" and see if any cities are still in the process of building an "SS" component. If not, and you already have all the techs and the apollow program, it must be the bug.

 

[Conqueror '91]

There is a known bug which can cause spaceship parts to become impossible to construct if you try and change the city they're being built in.

This happened to me when I was in a tight space race with Montezuma and changed the city in which I was building the SS Engine; I simply was unable to build it any more, and he went on to win....

Maybe thats the same thing that happened to Caelia, I don't know.