Big city, no bright lights

[KaDingir]

In my current game (vanilla 1.29f, Regent, huge, low barometric pressure) I just took a size 12 city from the wily Greeks only to discover that it had no improvements at all. Zero. Zip. Nada. How the <bleep> do you build a size 12 city without improvements? Is it possible that he sold them all when he saw me coming?

 

[Bleser]

The few he may have had probably got "destroyed" when you captured it.

 

[wilbill]

It's a "scorched earth" policy. You don't expect him to leave the good stuff behind for you, do you?

 

[Quasimodo]

Usually all the improvements are destroyed when you take the city over. I've taken over a few cities and found they sometimes have a harbor or barracks left in them. I captured one the other day and found that the Koreans were nice enough to have left an aquaduct and a temple in the city for me!

Also, when you capture a city that has a Wonder in it, the wonder still remains.

 

[Raijer]

IIRC, it's usually the happiness producing improvments that are destroyed upon capturing a city (temples, cathedrals, marketplaces...). I've NEVER captured a city that still had a standing temple. Harbors and barracks are usually all I'm left with, at best.

 

[Ukraineboy]

I think that they cant always destroy them... scorched earth policy wasnt in use until Napoleon... maybe make it a reseachable tech? and if you select to torch it, then you get war weariness since people are worried about having to burn there city.

 

[homeyg]

So, when the AI 'thinks' that you are about to take one of their cities, they sell most of the improvements in it?

That must be an AI stupidity, because when you fail at taking the city, they're left with no improvements in the city!

 

[NewbieHere]

Any improvements that generate culture are automatically destroyed upon capture, this includes temples, libraries, universities, cathedrals, and any Small Wonder.

There, the only stuff you can get upon capture are barracks, granary, aqueduct, harbors, airports, etc.

EDIT: And no, the AI NEVER sells off improvements. No matter what.

 

[Duke Togo]

You only need an Aqueduct to get above a size 6, or none at all, if its built on a river. If its not on the river, I agree with everyone else, whatever was there was destroyed when you took it.

 

[Revolutionary]

once in CIV3, this was many years ago, I was playing as the French in Regent and I took the persian captial, in the city view I saw that a temple was still there it even looked mideastern at first I was like WOW!!! I never seen a captured city keep a temple before

but then I realised that this DAMN!!! useless temple is not producing culture so I sold it so I could build my own culture producing temple.

I never seen this happen ever again, so it might have been a glitch in the game

keep in mind this was the unpatched version of CIV3

 

[Esckey]

Everysingle city I've captured has had no improvments in it at all. It seems kinda stupid to me to come into a city and find that there was basically no point in even capturing the place

 

[Chieftess]

It's because there ARE no improvements in the city. In vanilla and PTW, the AI rarely builds anything. That's why they do so poorly. In C3C, they're better at building stuff. Once you start taking AI cities in the industrial and modern eras, you'll see buildings inside. BTW, any culture buildings are automatically destroyed.

 

[wilbill]

I'd wondered about that, Chieftess. I've found more improvements in captured cities in C3C than I was used to.

 

[ShiplordAtvar]

About the only way I can think of that you could find many buildings in a captured city is if you own some of these wonders - Pyramids, Sun Tzu's, ToA, Hoover Dam, Internet.

 

[KaDingir]

Thanks to all who responded. I haven't often taken a large city without first bombing it back to the stone age, so I guess I'd just never taken note before of the absence of improvements. A few turns later in this same game I took another size 12 from the Greeks (Alexander is in deep doo-doo) and found a marketplace but nothing else. Guess I'll be investing in some temples and libraries.

 

[Mano3]

Originally posted by Raijer
I've NEVER captured a city that still had a standing temple. Harbors and barracks are usually all I'm left with, at best.

You nailed that one on the head!

 

[Quasimodo]

Originally posted by Quasimodo
I captured one the other day and found that the Koreans were nice enough to have left an aquaduct and a temple in the city for me!

Originally posted by Raijer
I've NEVER captured a city that still had a standing temple. Harbors and barracks are usually all I'm left with, at best

Okay, maybe it wasn't a temple that was left. I do remember that there were two improvements when I took it over though!

 

[jalapeno_dude]

It is possible to have a temple in a newly captured ciy, although it isn't the one from the captured city. If you own the temple of artemis, and it's not obselete, a free temple will automatically appear. Same with wonders like the Great Wall, the Pyramids, the Art of War, the Hoover Dam, and the Internet.

 

[Admiral_Tarton]

Blast you beat me to it.

 

[jidosh]

In conquests it is possible to capture cultural or happiness improvements, but rare. I recently captured a city that retained it's marketplace. I was very surprised. I sware on my dead grandmama it's true. I've also captured temples (without having Artemis). Captured cultural improvements produce no culture, but still produce happiness