Buying City Improvements/Wonders

[srynas]

Well, I just upgraded from Civ2 to Civ4. In Civ2 you can buy units, city improvements, and wonders. In Civ4 I have not seen any reference in either the Game or in the manual on how to buy city improvements or wonders. Can this be done??????

 

[Sir Janus]

Yes, but not until much later in the game.
Early on, after changing to slavery (which needs bronze working) you can use the whip instead.

 

[Willem]

You need the right government civic in order to do that, Universal Sufferage. But you probably won't find yourself doing that very much, gold is not that easy to come by in this game. You never seem to have enough of it, especially once you start upgrading your units. Because of this, that particular civic is one of the weakest in the game. I never use it myself, I'd rather have Representation. Overall it's going to do you more good. Oh, and I don't think you can buy Wonders, I believe you can only build them. Unless you have a Great Engineer, then you can have him rush it for you.

PS: Make you sure you also get Beyond the Sword, it really improves the game in many ways.

 

[Kesshi]

Oh, and I don't think you can buy Wonders, I believe you can only build them. Unless you have a Great Engineer, then you can have him rush it for you.

Willem,

It's a little more complicated than that. Some wonders are not considered buildings, and if I recall correctly, you may only hurry a building or unit with gold. Also some spaceship parts you cannot hurry with gold, but others you can. I wish I could provide you with specifics. Unfortunately I, too, do not spend much time in the Universal Suffrage government civic, so I do not have much knowledge in that area.

 

[Crowqueen]

Going back from Civ4 to Civ2 on a nostalgia kick, that feature of Civ2 which is relatively useful was rather odd and pointless and felt like cheating .

If you are having difficulty adapting, US or slavery are still popular, Slavery more so because "buying" improvements early on with population points does lessen the pressure somewhat. However, once you do get used to the game I find it isn't really necessary; instead there are a lot of improvements which can generate increased production, as well as cutting down forests for hammers, to offset the difficulty in "buying" buildings for your cities. Once you get used to the difference going back is difficult!

 

[Endure]

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pular, Slavery more so because "buying" improvements early on with population points does lessen the pressure somewhat. However, once you do get used to the game I find it isn't really necessary

This sounds like bad advice to me.

Once you get *used* to the game you should be able to leverage slavery to it's fullest as a means of population control and to whip out early infrastructure and armies.

 

[Willem]

This sounds like bad advice to me.

Once you get *used* to the game you should be able to leverage slavery to it's fullest as a means of population control and to whip out early infrastructure and armies.

I actually never used whipping in my games until fairly recently. It took me awhile to learn how to use it effectively, since if you don't do it right you can end up with more unhappiness than you started out with. I still sometimes screw up and miscalculate. So I wouldn't recommend that a new player really use it all that much, except in emergencies, until they get the hang of it.

 

[Balderstrom]

Jumping from SP Noble to Monarch, and if you don't get an early religion, and aren't lucky enough to have a couple Happiness Resources nearby. Slavery and Whipping is a must.

I buy buildings all the time in the Industrial/Modern era.
Especially when outfitting Islands with infrastructure. In this game I had 14+ Islands that produced a whopping 1-2 Hammers a piece, every building was purchased after a couple of turns.


Running Science @ 30%, Composites only took 7 Turns (Might have been 40% for the first turn).

Whipping is generally not feasible when a city has grown to 7 or 8.
A Whip will give you 30/45/60 (Normal/Epic/Marathon) for 10/15/20 turns of unhappiness.
So if you are losing a Tile that can produce at least 3 Hammers / Turn by whipping you are setting yourself back. Unless yer forced to whip due to happiness constraints. Or you HAVE to rush that wonder before an opponent - which can be worth losing 2/3 or even more Pop.

I bounced between Representation / Vassalage & Universal Sufferage.

 

[Polobo]

Whipping is generally not feasible when a city has grown to 7 or 8.
A Whip will give you 30/45/60 (Normal/Epic/Marathon) for 10/15/20 turns of unhappiness.

Guessing you are not a marathon speed player...generally marathon is 3x whatever normal requires (i.e., 90 hammers for 30 unhappy turns). Unit costs, however, are only 2x normal.

When rushing a wonder there is a penalty applied to the hammers that are generated. If you rush something with zero (0) hammers invested there is a penalty as well.

The Kremlin Great Wonder reduces the amount you pay for hammers (in gold) by 1/3; pretty this reduces the cost from 3 gold/hammer to 2 gold/hammer.

@Kesshi -

Wonders (Great or National) - Are always buildings and can be rushed (via gold, great engineer, or slaves).

Projects - Are never considered buildings, thus they cannot be rushed. This includes Space Ship parts.

I've never tried to prove this wrong so there may be exceptions I am unaware of but otherwise this appears to be the programmed behavior.

 

[Balderstrom]

No Normal or Epic.
And the cost of units isn't really relevant.
Unless you need to rush, the amount of hammers gained can can be divided by the time it takes for Whip Weariness to go away. Which in all cases is 3.
Hammers/WhipWeariness: Normal 30/10; Epic 45/15; Marathon 90/30 (Got the Hammers wrong on Marathon)

Thus if you are losing a tile that generates 3 Hammers you are not gaining anything by whipping. If you are losing a tile that generates more than 3, you are setting yourself back. The exception is if you are going to outgrow your happiness limit you will lose that tile anyways, so the whip is effectively a gain.

 

[srynas]

Thanks for the comments. Last night I, made it up to five cities and the 1700s, before I called it quits. My earlier attempts ended in disaster. Compared to CIV2 I find it a whole lot harder to create new cities, not to mention getting boxed in by the AIs. I guess for CiV2, I have the script down - so it doesn't require much thinking.

I like the graphics a lot, but I find myself spaced-out staring at the screen not realizing that my turn is over. Tends to make the game run slowly.

When I was playing last night, I noticed that one of the AI cities "took-over" some of my City's squares. I assume this may have happened because my citizens were not using those squares? Any guidance on how to prevent this in the future?

The expanding borders is a terrific concept for CIV4.

 

[Balderstrom]

Turn up the culture slider (top left, though its not actually presented as a slider)
Build wonders to generate .
Run Artist Specialists in a city.
Build buildings that generate

The more you generate, the faster your borders will grow.
Sounds like the AI was generating more culture than you near the borders, and overtook some of your previous land.

 

[Willem]

When I was playing last night, I noticed that one of the AI cities "took-over" some of my City's squares. I assume this may have happened because my citizens were not using those squares? Any guidance on how to prevent this in the future?

No, it's because the AI's culture overpowered yours. You'll need to build a number of culture producing buildings in your border cities in order to prevent thise from happening. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but it's possible to capture a city through culture. If your culture overwhelms an AI's city then the citizens there might decide to peacefully join your empire. Which means that you have to be careful that your own cities aren't being overwhelmed or you might lose them.

 

[srynas]

Interesting. A very subtle aspect to the game.

 

[Willem]

Interesting. A very subtle aspect to the game.

That was actually introduced in Civ 3. It allows builder types to have some conquest ability without actually having to go to war. It's not usually that easy to do however, you normally need to have a lot of culture in order to flip a city. There's also some conditions involved too. For instance, if you capture a foreign city through regular warfare, it can't flip back to the original owner no matter how strong his/her culture is. It can only flip to a third civ who might also have a strong cultural presence in the area. In that situation, you'll occasionaly have that city go into a revolt where all production, physical or otherwise, is halted. And the city's cultural boundaries will disappear while the revolt is in progress which might lead to starvation. If one of your cities are close to flipping you'll also have a couple of revolts first before it does, which gives something of a warning.

 

[Kesshi]

syrnas,

A little bit more about this:

As your city increases its boarders, the outer rings are the weakest culturally, and the inner rings are the strongest. In order to take over another city via culture, your outer rings must be stronger than their city core. In some situations this can take a LOT of culture!

If you go into your city screen, you can see what the makeup of your population is. The picture below is from a game where I was playing around with culture. I was the French, and I had enough Espionage Points to see the inner-workings of Rome. Here I am, spying on the Romans:

Spoiler :

As you can see, 65% of the city makeup is French, where as only 26% are Romans. Also, you can see where the game tells you that each turn there will be a chance to revolt. In this case, there will be a 5.45% chance to revolt. (Note: If there is no chance of revolting, there will be no percentage displayed here.) (2nd Note: Slavery revolts have nothing to do with culture revolts. Under the Slavery Labor Civic there is always a chance of a revolt in your capital.) If the city revolts too many times (I think two times in so many turns) then the city will "culture flip" to France.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Culture is cumulative. Meaning if I have two of my own cities and one rival producing the same amount of culture onto the same tile, I will produce culture twice as fast as my rival. Paris was producing about 800 culture per turn by the end of this game, however Rome was in France's outer most ring. I also had another city (closer to Rome) producing a few hundred culture as well. Rome was being pushed on by Paris's outer ring, and the closer city at the same time.

 

[Willem]

syrnas,
Also, you can see where the game tells you that each turn there will be a chance to revolt. In this case, there will be a 5.45% chance to revolt.

I've been playing this game for ages an I never knew about that stat with the revolt probability. You learn something new every day. It would have been very helpful in a few games I've played.

 

[Balderstrom]

I knew about it, I just thought it was a BUG Mod addition heh.

 

[srynas]

On my most recent game, I "found" the button to buy city improvements. In retrospect, I should have found it a lot sooner. I also surrounded and took over a city through culture. That took forever. Thanks for all the comments, they have been very helpful.