Beyond the Sword Questions (Quirks?)

Omegon3

Prince
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OK... Having just purchased Civ 4 Beyond the Sword (BTS) a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I have already put in probably 15 - 20 games (yes!!! We do work for a living... But we don't accomplish much on the weekend ;) ). While my lovely misses hasn't ready complained about these issues, there are some items of which I'm wondering whether or not anyone else has encountered -- or, at minimum, thinks they have enountered -- and how you resolved them:

1. Wars appear to be MUCH more common in this new version :confused: . I play at the Chieftain level (yes, I'm pretty much a coward) and I could go for weeks without seeing any hint of war in either Civ 4 or Civ 4 Warlords. Now, rare is the game where someone isn't going to war -- a lot of the time against me even though I'm frequently the most powerful nation. I can understand "aggressive" civilizations doing this (I hate being in the same land with Montezuma and Genghis Kan in the newest version!! :cry: ), but Jaio even attacked me (halted after I wiped out his initial force). Even Mansa Musa (probably not spelling that right) came and demanded some stuff and he's normally a wimp!! Is anyone else running into this "problem"? The only way my wife has avoided it is to play Custom Continents or Islands where she starts out alone... (the chicken!!).

2. Towards the later days in BTS I really start getting into some health issues... :eek: I know they added the Manufacturing Plant (or whatever it is), but this doesn't account for the increase in overall unhealthiness that I'm seeing beyond the older and new Civ 4 version. Has anyone else noticed this and have an explanation for it?

3. Corporations... The intro claims that nations establishing corporations can grow unbelievably wealthy as long as they recognize the high maintenance costs and progress accordingly. Well... Other than Civ Jewelers, I'm not seeing ANY increase in money. While the other benefits are good (increased food, production, culture, or knowledge), after a few corporate executives do their thing (and I'm not talking about a lot of them!) I'm seeing some significant hits on my income :eek: -- needing to dial back my knowledge rate at the worst freakin' time (trying to keep from being Dan Quayle, Ethridge the Unready, or Warren G). Has anyone figured out what needs to be done (again, other than Civ Jewelers) in order to make that HUGE wealth that the literature claims is to be made with corporations?

4. Yeah... I know I'm getting windy here, but.. The last thing (for now!) that I was wondering about was one of the challenges posed by Beyond the Sword. I was given a quest of settling a city beside the "Holy Mountain" and informed that I would receive help in finding it if I built 22 (!) religious buildings in my cities. Well, I built a heck of a lot more than 22 countings monastaries, temples, and cathedrals (that counted more than one) and I never did see any help come up to find the Holy Mountain -- all before the Industrial Age (ending the quest) hit. Has any one had this quest and actually won it? If so what type of help was provided and/or how did you find the Holy Mountain?

That's enough for now. The first three items I am REALLY curious about; the last one I'm just a little puzzled with since I never saw any "help" forthcoming to find the mountain. Any assistance that can be provided will certainly be appreciated.
 
Let's see if maybe I can tackle a few of your questions here -

1) I agree, in fact, I think the more frequent warring comes with the improved AI in BTS. Keep in mind that the AI doesn't take pity on weak militaries. Without seeing a game, I'm not sure how much military you build, but from what you've written, you sound like you tend to focus more on domestic building. I'd guess that you're getting attacked a lot because you're probably neglecting your military to a degree. Take a look at the power graphs - are you significantly weaker than your neighbors?

EDIT: You said that your nation was frequently the most powerful (I missed it the first time - sorry). Still, how do you know this? Are you getting that info from the power graph?

2) There's a lot of buildings in the industrial age that cause unhealthiness (combined with an ever increasing population) - a lot of these effects can be undone with buildings like hospitals (which grant health) and recycling centers (which stop unhealthiness from buildings) - depending on your situation, you may want to prioritize some of these techs... though, a little unhealthiness isn't usually a big deal for a city. It just costs some extra food is all.

3) Corporations produce income in the city where they're based - all Corporations do this... so if I found a corporation, the city that it's founded in will make the money. The more a corporation spreads, the more money it makes in the home city. It's a balancing act though, because you'll pay higher matinence in cities that the corporation spreads to - or your opponents will pay the matinence costs if you spead it to their cities. (Though, they will also reap any benefits produced by the corporation in their city.) There's real money to be made if you found a corporation (or two) in the same city where you have Wallstreet built.

4) Keep in mind that for the holy mountain quest, only buildings for you state religion count toward the total. So while you may have had more than 22 religous buildings, were they all for your state religion?

I hope that this helps! Let us know if you have more questions.
 
PS. - To you health question (2), you can always open the city screen and scroll over the city health with your mouse to see where the unhealthiness is coming from. Possible causes could be buildings, terrain (flood plains, jungles), population, or poisoning the water supply. It's not uncommon to run into health issues during the industrial age mainly due to population growth and thinks like factories, coal plants, drydocks, etc.
 
1)The AI is noticeably more aggressive in BtS, particularly if you have a weak military. There's no real alternative but to build an adequate defence force.

2)Factories and coal plants now generate a lot more unhealthiness than they used to, so either don't build these everywhere, tolerate the unhealthiness, or head for late game improvements like the recycling centre.

3)Corporation spread within your own empire doesn't make money, it's a way of convertingmoney into additional food/production/etc. The maintenance costs can be very considerable. Spreading your corporation to foreign cities is the way to make money from it, as (assuming you've built Wall Street in the city with the corporation HQ) you get 15gpt for each city with it present. The trick is to use foreign branch income to offset the maintenance costs of domestic branches, and turn a substantial profit as well. I've written an article on this you might find interesting - check the link in my sig.

4)There are known issues with the "Holy Mountain" quest not working properly. Even if you do find it, it may not trigger completion.
 
So far as military goes, I am typically the most powerful based upon the "Power" graph. I frequently believe that the AI declaring war on me has gone insane -- especially when the graph shows that I'm almost twice as powerful as the attackee... In one game I had Genghis Khan declare war on me THREE times (the last time Togawa joined in the fun with him so it was me against two other nations -- destroyed Khan, then sued for peace with Togawa since I had better things to do than produce military).

So far as health, I try to do everything possible to provide "healthy" buildings -- typically going for medicine, refrigeration, ecology, and genetics as early as possible. It doesn't seem to help much... Even after ecology (supposedly removing all building pollution) I still have health issues.

So far as corporations, I have learned to go slowly with everything but Civ Jewelers (and even that corporation can eventually begin to lose money). The corporations certainly do help with production and food; I haven't seen a huge impact so far as research but I don't push those corporations quite as much.
 
So far as military goes, I am typically the most powerful based upon the "Power" graph. I frequently believe that the AI declaring war on me has gone insane -- especially when the graph shows that I'm almost twice as powerful as the attackee... In one game I had Genghis Khan declare war on me THREE times (the last time Togawa joined in the fun with him so it was me against two other nations -- destroyed Khan, then sued for peace with Togawa since I had better things to do than produce military).

So far as health, I try to do everything possible to provide "healthy" buildings -- typically going for medicine, refrigeration, ecology, and genetics as early as possible. It doesn't seem to help much... Even after ecology (supposedly removing all building pollution) I still have health issues.

So far as corporations, I have learned to go slowly with everything but Civ Jewelers (and even that corporation can eventually begin to lose money). The corporations certainly do help with production and food; I haven't seen a huge impact so far as research but I don't push those corporations quite as much.

Generally speaking, the other AI Civ's will respect you more and be less tempted to attack you when you have a strong military. No, it's not fool proof, and in my experience, the to rulers you mentioned tend to play more of the warmonger role - especially Genghis (his personality is notorious for this type of thing). If the AI Civ is going for a domination or conquest victory, you're almost assured to get invaded at some point. Most Civ's will be less apt to attack you when you have a strong military though - so I don't think you really did anything wrong... just had bad neighbors.

With health - again, it sounds like you're doing what you can take as much unhealthiness away as possible. A lot of my cities have health issues too by that point in the game, but let me reiterate that a little unhealthiness is not a big deal. I'd much rather have unhealthiness than unhappiness. Be smart about what you build - commerce cities (research cities) probably don't need a coal powerplant, a factory, a drydock, or maybe even a forge. I've often found that the unhealthiness these buildings give isn't worth the tradeoff of capping your population in a commerce city.

Personally, I don't think I've ever spread a corporation in my own Civ. If I found one, I'll spread it to other Civ's, but never my own. I think the only time I would consider spreading it to one of my own cities is if the corporation provided a resource that I couldn't live without (like oil) and I couldn't find another way to get it. (I'll often go to war over oil first and take it that way if I don't have access to it.)
 
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