A few ?'s from a beginner

[claxer]

Hi, there are a few things I don't completely understand and couldnt find the answers I was looking for from civilopedia/man. I think it could be a nice idea to have a FAQ going here for these type of questions.

How do granarys work? is it like having +50% excess food? eg having 10 excess food you get an additional 5 per turn?

What is the advantage of electricity? I can't find where this is explained, so i have no idea what it does

How do trade routes work? do you need a road to another civilizations city to trade with them, open borders? can you pick where your trade routes should go? and is there a limit to how many you can have?

When you trade a resource such as rice, copper, bananas etc. do you lose the benefits of it yourself? like if you have cows next to a city and are getting extra food from it, do you lose the ability to work that tile? im pretty sure you lose the health/hapiness benefits nationally, but i dont know whether it affects working the tile or not.

I have read that culture affects hapiness, but i dont know by how much? can anyone explain this relationship

 

[Zhahz]

How granarys work? is it like having +50% excess food? eg having 10 excess food you get an additional 5 per turn?

Not entirely sure since I haven't bothered to pay attention - but in short they give your citie more health (so it can get bigger) and help em grow faster. Build em when you want bigger cities and/or faster.

What is the advantage of electricity? I can't find where this is explained, so i have no idea what it does

Your factory will amplify your production more if it has power (electricity). Of course, you have to build a factory.

How do trade routes work? do you need a road to another civilizations city to trade with them, open borders? can you pick where your trade routes should go? and is there a limit to how many you can have?

Trade routes are established automatically. Cities must be "linked" via river, road, and later coastal cities can link by ocean. You get more gold by trading with other civs, which does require open borders. It appears you automatically have the best routes possible and you can't control them. Certain techs and buildings allow your cities to have more trade routes.

When you trade a resource such as rice, copper, bananas etc. do you lose the benefits of it yourself? like if you have cows next to a city and are getting extra food from it, do you lose the ability to work that tile? im pretty sure you lose the health/hapiness benefits nationally, but i dont know whether it affects working the tile or not.

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure you can only trade excess away 1 unit at a time. So if you have 2 rice linked up (must be roaded/linked to have effect/be usable) one and only one will affect your empire (give it the health bonus). The other one you can trade/give/sell etc.

Side note - the Hollywood, Rock 'n' Roll, and Broadway wonders each give you tradeable units (5 hits, movies, musicals that produce happiness). You can get some nice gold or trades going with those babies!

I have read that culture affects hapiness, but i dont know by how much? can anyone explain this relationship

Not really sure. Culture is a huge topic and there are a lot of things that play into it. Generally speaking - it's good to have a strong culture including founding and having a state religion, because the activities and structures involved almost always directly produce happiness for your citizens.

 

[CitizenCain]

Hi, there are a few things I don't completely understand and couldnt find the answers I was looking for from civilopedia/man. I think it could be a nice idea to have a FAQ going here for these type of questions.

How do granarys work? is it like having +50% excess food? eg having 10 excess food you get an additional 5 per turn?

No. In order for a city to grow, it has to reach a certain level of excess food. If it has a granary, however, half the excess food is saved after it grows. If a city grows a level without a granary in it, the excess food is wiped out, and it starts storing food for the next growth level from 0 food. So obviously, having the granary keep half the food it needs for its next level will make your cities grow about twice as fast.

What is the advantage of electricity? I can't find where this is explained, so i have no idea what it does

I assume you're talking about power and powerk plants (they give the cities that lightning bolt icon).

In cities with factories, having power increases the facory bonus from +25% production to +50% production. So you build stuff faster.

How do trade routes work? do you need a road to another civilizations city to trade with them, open borders? can you pick where your trade routes should go? and is there a limit to how many you can have?

They're basically just extra income. In order to have a trade route, cities must be connected - either with a road, a river, or over the sea (but you need sailing to trade over coast sqaure and astronomy to trade over the depper ocean squares). And, yes, there is a limit. Certain technologies and civics and even buildings will increase the limit, and some will make the routes themselves more profitable. They're a good way to boost your economy into the middle ages because you don't really need to do anything to get them - just hook up your cities and then explore for other cities to trade with and the rest is handled for you.

When you trade a resource such as rice, copper, bananas etc. do you lose the benefits of it yourself? like if you have cows next to a city and are getting extra food from it, do you lose the ability to work that tile? im pretty sure you lose the health/hapiness benefits nationally, but i dont know whether it affects working the tile or not.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

I have read that culture affects hapiness, but i dont know by how much? can anyone explain this relationship

You need to start reading those little descriptions you get with new technologies. Drama sets it up so that there's a culture slider, and buildings like theaters will give you +1 per 10% you put into the culture slider.

 

[kromm20]

Originally Posted by claxer
When you trade a resource such as rice, copper, bananas etc. do you lose the benefits of it yourself? like if you have cows next to a city and are getting extra food from it, do you lose the ability to work that tile? im pretty sure you lose the health/hapiness benefits nationally, but i dont know whether it affects working the tile or not.

Yes you lose it. Example: You have one source of Iron and you have been making swordsmen. You trade trade it another nation. Now YOU can no longer make swordsmen until you either:
A) Find and hook up another source of Iron
B) Break the trade agreement
C) Trade with another nation for THEIR iron(this is actually a viable strategy for building good relations with several CIVs at once)

 

[claxer]

first of all thank you for the replies, i appreciate you all taking the time to help me understand the game

No. In order for a city to grow, it has to reach a certain level of excess food. If it has a granary, however, half the excess food is saved after it grows. If a city grows a level without a granary in it, the excess food is wiped out, and it starts storing food for the next growth level from 0 food. So obviously, having the granary keep half the food it needs for its next level will make your cities grow about twice as fast.

could you please illustrate this with numbers, im still a bit confused as to where the excess is coming from.. (sorry)

I assume you're talking about power and powerk plants (they give the cities that lightning bolt icon).

In cities with factories, having power increases the facory bonus from +25% production to +50% production. So you build stuff faster.

yes, sorry i meant the power.

You need to start reading those little descriptions you get with new technologies. Drama sets it up so that there's a culture slider, and buildings like theaters will give you +1 per 10% you put into the culture slider.

yes this is why i as confused because i had read that culture improves happiness, so what you are saying that it can do so only indirectly through buildings that take advantage of the culture percentage? just having plain culture points gives no happiness?


thanks

 

[Yushal]

Think of it halving the size of the food box.

For the sake of argument, a city needs 10 food to grow one level. After it grows, the food box is empty. However, if the city had a granary, after growing it would immediately have 5 food in the box. So that is five less food needed to grow to its NEXT level.

So you can see, the benefits can be huge over the course of a game. Say it takes your city 100 turns to grow to population 10. With a granary, that same city might take only 60 turns.

 

[yasic]

first of all thank you for the replies, i appreciate you all taking the time to help me understand the game



could you please illustrate this with numbers, im still a bit confused as to where the excess is coming from.. (sorry)

Say you need 10 food to get from population 2 to population 3.
And you need 20 food to get from pupulation 3 to population 4.
You have population 2 right now.

Without:
You start with 2 population and 0 food.
You gain 10 food
You become popluation 3, with 0 food.
You gain 20 food
You become popluation 4, with 0 food.
With
You start with 2 population and 0 food.
You gain 10 food
You become popluation 3, with 5 food.
You gain 15 food
You become popluation 4, with 10 food.


Make sence now?

 

[Path]

Just to quickly one of your trading questions, if you trade a cow away you lose the health bonus the cow provides your civilization only if its the last one. If you have extras you may as well trade them, they don't do anything for you otherwise.

However, the tile is still the tile. A pasture of cows still provide huge food input to the city working it whether or not they're traded away.

 

[claxer]

ahh that makes a lot more sense, i dont know where i got the 'it comes from excess part from' =/

also, thats quite nice being able to use the tile after the resource has been traded... the big food tiles are great

thanks for the clarification guys

 

[Thorek]

Now that we're answering dummy questions, i have one too:
How do you switch from building one thing to the other, without losing your hammers (production), like in civ3-2-1?
Say im building a warrior, and im halfway (5 out of 10 turns), and i switch to a temple (say 30 turns), it always makes me start the temple all over again, not giving me the production i used on the warrior. This is if i change via the city screen.

 

[vinstafresh]

Thorek, this has been changed with Civ4 and to me, it makes more sense. In stead of building unit, you 'train' units. It would be weird to be halfway a temple at once Same goes when switching between buildings or units. It will have an impact on how you plan your queues. If you switch back from your temple to a warrior however, the production for this warrior will be the same (unless it takes you too long to switch back, it will loose its production within a certain amount of turns). Hope that clears it up for you!

 

[Thorek]

Glad thats cleared up, thanks! It does make alot more sence this way.

 

[CitizenCain]

yes this is why i as confused because i had read that culture improves happiness, so what you are saying that it can do so only indirectly through buildings that take advantage of the culture percentage? just having plain culture points gives no happiness?

Precisely. In one of your city screens, hover your mouse over the happy face (in the center, above the land) and you'll get a break down of the reasons for the happy and unhappy faces. Nothing for just having culture, which makes sense - when was the last time you saw a cultured snob who looked happy?

 

[JavalTigar]

You guys are still thinking in terms of civ 3. Having multiple food stuffs does give you extra health. Look in your city screen. I had 2 rice & 3 cows and was getting 5 health. Same goes with luxuries. Strategic resources I'm not sure about.

@ claxer: on culture affects

roll your mouse over the happy people - sad people icons, under the name of the city, on the city screen. It will show you the effects. If you have a lot of culture in a city (holy city, wonders, theater etc.) It will say something like "+5 We love our great city"

 

[JavalTigar]

Accidental double post

 

[PrimeAPE]

I got a question:

Does a building (ie, market) that grants a bonus from an available resource (ie, cows) only work in the city where that resource is located? Or are the resources available throughout the civilization? Thanks.

Also, is there any benefit to building an improvement on a tile that is not in any cities 'cross?'

 

[skeller]

Does a building (ie, market) that grants a bonus from an available resource (ie, cows) only work in the city where that resource is located? Or are the resources available throughout the civilization? Thanks.

If the city has the resource in its resources box, the market will confer its bonuses. So if you have cows in your trade network, each city with a market gets the bonus.

Also, is there any benefit to building an improvement on a tile that is not in any cities 'cross?'

If a resource is within your national borders but not in a city's cross, you can improve the tile (and build roads to it) to get that resource. But you won't want to waste time with mines, farms, etc. Though you may want to build fortresses.

 

[PrimeAPE]

Cool. Thanks.

 

[lawren65]

Now that we're answering dummy questions, i have one too:
How do you switch from building one thing to the other, without losing your hammers (production), like in civ3-2-1?
Say im building a warrior, and im halfway (5 out of 10 turns), and i switch to a temple (say 30 turns), it always makes me start the temple all over again, not giving me the production i used on the warrior. This is if i change via the city screen.

The hammers are still saved, but they arn't applied to the new build (ie temple) they only apply when you go back to working on warrior again.

Lets say you were working on the forbidden palace and are more that 50% complete (10 more turns to go) and war breaks out. You can switch to make all the archers you want. When you switch back to working on the forbidden palace (in the same city) the previous work is still there (still only 10 more turns to go).