A Few Odd Questions

[thelibra]

Oi there, I'll be brief. I've got a few questions on Civ 4 that I was hoping y'all might provide a bit of insight with to improve my game.

1.) Is it advisable to get 8 cities before 0-AD?

I really want to be able to do the improvements that require 8 of something, but I'm usually capped at around 5-6 cities before my research slider dips below 60%. By the time I can dip it back upward again, either it's past 0-AD, or the land surrounding me has all been claimed by the evil NPC land-grabbing bastages. I've been staying conservative with my placement, never overlapping fat crosses, and usually leaving a good 2-5 square gap between cities for expansion. But anyway, some advice on how to get 8 cities before 0-AD and not be economically screwed would be appreciated.

2.) If a wonder says "All cities on the continent" for an effect, does it mean all of MY cities on that continent, or all cities of all civs?

3.) If an effect says "All buildings with (state religion) gets ____", does that mean all CITIES of mine with the state religion, or does it mean every single improvement I've built in a city gets +X if the city has the state religion? I think they meant "cities" instead of "buildings", but I'd like to be sure.

4.) Can someone explain to me what EXACTLY the effects of the time-slider is? If I play a "quick" game, what am I losing out on? If I play an Epic game, are we talking 50turns for basic tech or what?

That's it for now... Thanks in advance.

 

[thefais]

1) The best way to go is to stick to the 60% rule. And, if you can swing it, take out your closest rival so there's enough space for you to expand to. Also, it seems you're playing on a huge map (since you need 8 of some things. Standard IIRC needs 6, generally).

Another thing. Is the 2-5 square gap between the cities themselves, or the fat crosses. (it's alright to overlap fat crosses sometimes, if it means you get a much better city out of it)

2) All cities on the continent means your cities only.

3) I'm not entirely sure, but I think it just goes for yours.

4) What it does is adjusts how much everything costs/how long it takes. EVERYTHING. Epic is approx 1.5 times as long as normal, for example. Worker actions take 50% longer, buildings and units take %50 more hammers, growth takes 50% more food. Etc etc.

 

[Thrar]

3.) If an effect says "All buildings with (state religion) gets ____", does that mean all CITIES of mine with the state religion, or does it mean every single improvement I've built in a city gets +X if the city has the state religion? I think they meant "cities" instead of "buildings", but I'd like to be sure.

There are both, in fact. Civics give you something for all cities with state religion. However, the Spiral Minaret makes each building of the state religion (that is, the appropriate kind of temple, monastery and cathedral) give one gold per turn, which will be listed next to the building's culture and added to the gold income of the city it's built in. This is for all cities in your empire, but only for the buildings of your state religion.

 

[MrCynical]

1)Probably not. Expanding too fast can cripple your economy, leaving you unable to catch up in research. At this stage four good cities will beat eight lousy ones. While there are ways of compensating for this early land grab, it's generally best to watch the science rate and if it drops too low, stop expanding until it's back up again. Remember you can always take extra cities by conquest later on, and you'll find that easier with fewer cities and a stroner economy. Build courthouses to drive town maintenance, and get cottages in place early.

2) All of your cities on the continent. opponents cities do not benefit from wonders you build (except arguably the Manhatten project).

3)I think you're talking about the Spiral Minaret and University of Sankore, which give +2 gold and +2 science respectively to all buildings of your state religion. This is stated correctly as buildings, not cities. If you have a monastery, temple, and cathedral of your state religion in a city, then each one will give +2 gold/science with these wonders for a total of +6. A city with your state religion but none of the buildings would generate nothing extra from these wonders.

4)While most things are either slowed down or speeded up in proportion, unit speed is not scaled at all, and unit production cost is not slowed or speeded as much as everything else. Basically units take longer to go obsolete, and you have more time to use them. A slower game gives more opportunity for warfare, and also in my experience is a shade easier than the faster games.

 

[Sisiutil]

One other thing about early expansion: if the map lends itself to it by creating a land mass with a choke point, you can always try to close off territory to the AI by founding a city at the choke point. This city will, however, probably have high maintenance costs because of the distance. You'll have to keep an eye open for Settlers and close Open Border agreements if necessary. And don't wait to backfill too long, or the AI will just send Settler-laden ships around you.

 

[thelibra]

Thanks for the answers all... My condensed replies are as follows.


1.) Last night, on a Huge Fractal map, Fin/Cha ruler, I was able to get 6 really strong cities at 70% Science by 0-AD, with a 7th founded like 1 or 2 turns later, which temporarily dropped my sci-slider from 70% to 50% for about 2 turns, then it stabilized at 60%, before I ever built markets. So it looks like I should be able to get an 8th city up and running as soon as the markets are built. I think that, were I playing a Fin/Org ruler instead, and a little luck, I could probably get 8 cities by 0AD without my slider dropping below 60%. I was SUPER lucky on my present map, with 2 gold, 4 or 5 silver, 3 iron, 2 copper, and 2 horses, 2 marble, plus the normal assortment of luxury and food goods, all within about 10 squares of the center of my capital. Short of having Stone, I don't think I could get that lucky twice. However, if I did, had Fin/Org, and micromanaged like hell, Methinks I could do 8 by 0-AD.

However, I can't find a Fin/Org ruler. Am I blind, or did they not ship with one?

2.) Ah, sweet. I always wondered about that, even back in Civ3.

3.) Thanks for the explanation, that was sorely lacking from the manual or the civlopedia.

4.) Interesting. That would explain why I repeatedly got trounced in the "Quick" games, I never had enough time to produce a unit before it was outdated, and upgrades are hella expensive in Civ4.


Well, if'n y'all don't mind, I have some more questions...


5.) Is there a sortable spreadsheet on the rulers? I typically choose for traits first, starting techs second, and UU's and UB's last. Since half the time I'm not playing sober, it's really hard to hover and read the fine print before it disappears. I'd be very grateful for a link to some sortable spreadsheets.

6.) Is there a way to make a custom-ruler, or is that considered "sandbox" because one could create unfair combinations? Industrial-Philosophical comes to mind as an uber-wonder-GP-producer.

 

[Idiodyssey]

I believe one of the American leaders had Fin/Org but was changed in Warlords. That's one of the forbidden combos, along with Phi/Ind and Agg/Cha. Too much synergy to be balanced.

 

[Sisiutil]

5.) Is there a sortable spreadsheet on the rulers? I typically choose for traits first, starting techs second, and UU's and UB's last. Since half the time I'm not playing sober, it's really hard to hover and read the fine print before it disappears. I'd be very grateful for a link to some sortable spreadsheets.

6.) Is there a way to make a custom-ruler, or is that considered "sandbox" because one could create unfair combinations? Industrial-Philosophical comes to mind as an uber-wonder-GP-producer.

5) Check out the http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2499.
6) Check out some of the mods in the Creation and Customization forum; there may be one there you can load with the traits you want. You can also ask there about how to modify the XML files to give a ruler customized traits--it's relatively easy once you know how, as I recall.

 

[KMadCandy]

6.) Is there a way to make a custom-ruler, or is that considered "sandbox" because one could create unfair combinations? Industrial-Philosophical comes to mind as an uber-wonder-GP-producer.

eh, who care if it's considered sandbox or unfair if you want to try it single-player? do what's fun for you. ps welcome to CFC!

if you do actually want to make a custom leader, and change the name and stuff, that's way more involved and gets into python and SDK voodoo magic i think. for that, check the C&C forum.

it's really easy to just change an existing leader, instead of adding a new custom one, if that's your goal. even i can do it, and that is seriously saying a LOT. i'll tell you how i did it via custom assets, so that it will load into every game as default, and you don't have to load an actual Mod. i do that if i'm gonna focus on one game for a few days that i want an experiment on. the danger is of course that the next game you want to be someone else and forget that you did that. it's super easy to change back to normal too, you just have to remember to do it is all.

you can also do it my way by adding it as a Mod, just follow everything i say below except put it in [where your stuff is]/Mods/[Nameofyourmod]/Assets instead of /CustomAssets.

what's spiffy cool is that the civilopedia automatically updates it for you. so you look up Alex (in my example) and it shows what your changes have for him, not what the default is. i hate a lot of how hard they made the modding in civ4, but that part is cool beans.

here's how, in the theory of "if i'm so bad at changing computer things and even i can do it, maybe i can explain it in an easy way".

Spoiler :

in the directory you installed civ4 in, go into Assets/XML/civilizations (or Warlords/Assets/XML/civilizations if that's the game you want to adjust) and copy the file CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml .

find what directory your saved games go to (i've changed mine cuz the default in My Documents drove me berzerk). go there, let's say it's Z:/Civ4/Saves. don't go into the Saves part, go into Z:/Civ4/CustomAssets (or Z:/Civ4/Warlords/CustomAssets). that folder will be empty except for the directory structure. the purpose of it is for things you've changed to over-ride the original files. keeping them here leaves the original files safe. anything you have here is used as the new default when loading the game, and isn't considered a mod. note that this may cause odd behavior when loading someone else's saved game or stuff like that. when you're done playing games with your experiment, you delete the files you added to CustomAssets and the game goes back to the real original default automatically.

anyway, you paste that copy of CIV4LeaderHeadInfo.xml into /CustomAssets/XML/civilizations/ and edit it. i use notepad but i hear rumors there are specific fancy xml editors out there, i'm scared of those.

for each leader there's a big section that starts with something like

<LeaderHeadInfo>
<Type>LEADER_ALEXANDER</Type>

so search for the name of whoever you want to change. there's a lot of stuff underneath that and then you get to

<Traits>
<Trait>
<TraitType>TRAIT_PHILOSOPHICAL</TraitType>
<bTrait>1</bTrait>
</Trait>
<Trait>
<TraitType>TRAIT_AGGRESSIVE</TraitType>
<bTrait>1</bTrait>
</Trait>
</Traits>

just change TRAIT_AGGRESSIVE to TRAIT_FINANCIAL etc. (can look thru that file to see if any of the names are funny, like imperialistic is TRAIT_IMPERIALIST i think) and voila! there's not a set limit of two traits, you can add extra traits (i'd copy and paste to get all the < </ > thingies right), or you can give yourself no traits for a challenge.

if you want to, you can change that leader so that the AI can't play him, but that involved changing a line in CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml. you'd look under the civ for:

<bPlayable>1</bPlayable>
<bAIPlayable>1</bAIPlayable>

and then (if you're me) ask your husband to remind you for the 500th time "is 0 yes or no? 1 is true or false?" altho in this case i know that 1 means yes cuz i'm using non-modded files to remember what i did.

 

[ownedbyakorat]

However, I can't find a Fin/Org ruler. Am I blind, or did they not ship with one?

I never bothered to get the expansion, so I don't know if it's changed, but in the original George Washington is Fin/Org.