Civ V Cheats/Trainers?

[DarkCloud]

re: IGE Mod.
I think that is what I was looking for. Thank you! I am having some issues getting it to run, but I'll ask in the appropriate thread there and I will figure it out.
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re: VRA and your new link
Thank you. I do not like playing according to a formula but the policy purchase list in that thread is helpful as is the buy order.
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re: the recommendations to play at settler level.

My frustration is that I do want a challenge. I just want to be able to endure the challenge and to not have to re-load when I am inevitably invaded. I'm fine with enemies throwing armies at me as long as I don't lose any city. That's why I play with raging barbarians quite often. I'm fine with enemies out-techning me...as long as they don't invade me. I also don't want 'dumb' AI because I want to compete with them in the demographics list- that's fun for me- I can 'lose' then, but losing there doesn't mean I have to re-start the game. My understanding is that the AI is crippled at levels lower than Warlord... I want to compete with them in all categories on an equal footing except in getting invaded.
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If you like Builder games with little up front difficulty then may I suggest the TROPICO series. It is fun, easy and would perhaps be more to your liking if SETTLER still proves to be a challenge.

Please remember its not your capability that is impeding your ability, its your playstyle. As such it may be a better solution to find a game that fits your playstyle better, if you have no interest in adopting a more successful one.

Anyway all the best. Hope you find what you a re looking for.

I do not play at settler because I don't want to play against a crippled AI. I just don't want the AI to take my cities. If they beat me in non-war-based areas I am not happy, but that doesn't forbid me from progressing and completing the game.

Also, I appreciate the recommendation, but Tropico is too difficult for me . I couldn't beat any maps in Tropico I and although Tropico 3 is a great game, I can only defeat 3 or 4 islands. I am essentially stuck in the game.

I do agree that my playstyle is a large part of why I am having issues. But If I could cheat (thank you again for the IGE recommendation) then I can play the game the way I wanted it to be designed. My ideal game is like in Civ II- when I am attacked, I just cheat in a bunch of nuclear warheads and keep playing until I need to cheat in more.
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B7fanatix

I wonder if you'd have been better with vanilla Civ first? Less game mechanics to learn in one go.

Did try vanilla Civ V first, actually I am doing better with G&K. Thanks.

However, you can't play a sandbox building game if you keep getting squished.

thank you! I think you understand me the most. I played Civ 1 and Civ II before. I skipped civ III and Civ IV.

Also, here is the full list of mods I had enabled:

Info Addict (v 19)
Really Advanced Setup (v5)
G&K enhanced mod (v. 1.13.4) (v1)
Thalassacus Unofficial Patch (GK)
Useful Oil (v7)
Remote Mining (v. 23)
Improvement Upgrades (v1)
Great Prophet Historical Names (GK v12)
Prehistoric era
Kievan Rus (v17)
The Hittites (v 24)

The map was:
Huge
Inland Sea

Here are my demographics:

as of Turn 163

Rome 7
defense 11

7th population (England is 1st)
10th crop yield
5th mfg. goods
8th GNP
10th Land
12th Soldiers
11th Approval
7th Literacy (England is 1st)

No walls sadly.

English had London 13, antium 3 (I lost. Antium is onthe ocean. Only 4 accessible hexes. Hills on two of them, forest on another).

-
On Turn 131, I had:
Arrows and a spearman in Antium.

Antium 2
defense 5

Rome 5
Defense 9

England had 2 arrows and 3 cavemen at that time (in my territory)

5th population (England 1st)
7th Crops (England 1st)
1st Mfg. goods
7th GNP
6th Land
12 Soldiers
12th Approval
2nd Literacy

 

[DarkCloud]

1. Based on what you are describing I am assuming you are badly neglecting your military ? Doing so makes you appear to be a SOFT target in the eyes of the AI and they will attack you for it. I would suggest that you build up a decent military (track it in the DEMOGRAPHIC screen under the SOLDIERS heading, and make sure you are middle of the road or better in strength). For comparison if you still have a save load up a game before you were attacked and see what your SOLDIERS ranking was ?

That may be why I keep getting attacked. In almost all of my games I am in last place by far in terms of soldiers. That is a change I can make in how I play.

2. Go into the DIPLOMACY screen and hover over the FIRNELDY/GUARDED/HOSTILE/etc word and it will display as list of PISITVE ((Green) and NEGATIVE (Red) modifiers to your current diplomatic arrangements. Try to do things to improve your standing with the AI, DOF, RA, TRADE, DENOUNCE their enemies, RETURN WORKERS, give them trade gifts, help them when they ask etc.[/quote]

I did not know I could improve my enemies' attitudes- I thought they were random? Essentially most are hostile or guarded in all of my games.

3. Lower the DIFFIUCLTY. If you are getting beaten that soundly in the Classical era then you are likely not ready for that difficulty. Lower it one, ie to Chieftain or even Settler. You do not need TRAINERS or CHEATS in this game because that's exactly what the DIFFICULTIES do, anything lower then PRINCE cheats for you, above PRINCE cheats against you. Prince is mostly even.

Can I lower the difficulty in the middle of a game? I haven't figured out how to do that.

I will look into the Inca.

Thank you again.

 

[vra379971]

That may be why I keep getting attacked. In almost all of my games I am in last place by far in terms of soldiers. That is a change I can make in how I play.

2. Go into the DIPLOMACY screen and hover over the FIRNELDY/GUARDED/HOSTILE/etc word and it will display as list of PISITVE ((Green) and NEGATIVE (Red) modifiers to your current diplomatic arrangements. Try to do things to improve your standing with the AI, DOF, RA, TRADE, DENOUNCE their enemies, RETURN WORKERS, give them trade gifts, help them when they ask etc.

I did not know I could improve my enemies' attitudes- I thought they were random? Essentially most are hostile or guarded in all of my games.

Can I lower the difficulty in the middle of a game? I haven't figured out how to do that.

I will look into the Inca.

Thank you again.

The AI are essentially fairly rationale people. No wonder you keep getting attacked! If there was a guy there that has 0 military, is constantly ignorning me/doing things I don't like, and is getting in my way, yeah I'd want to take you out too. I could do far better things with your land, and you're just a little gnat waiting to be squashed - so the fact that you keep you gate open with no guards just screams gold plated invitation to crush you

You can't lower the difficulty setting mid game.

Also, I'm usually far last in terms of military myself. That said, I usually take out somewhere in the ratio of 10 enemy units for every 1 I lose, and even quite possibly 30to 1 by the Modern age.

The trick is promotions, and paying attention to your land. You want to give troops promotions that apply to the terrain you fight on, and keep them there if possible. You reall do want to keep the same army for centuries and just upgrade.

Also, your city sizes suggest that you are letting your city governers randomly choose spots, and are you not making your citizens work the tiles you need. You cities should be bigger, far bigger.

 

[Buccaneer]

Why are we encouraging cheating in the Strategies & Tips forum?

 

[b7fanatix]

Darkcloud,

those demographics make me think you were having similar issues to me - with your economy. You're lagging on every indicator, which shouldn't happen on difficulty levels Prince or below.

You're probably better off restarting that game, it's easier than catching up once you fall so far behind.

As for the AI, unfortunately I don't think any of them can be trusted not to invade a neighbour who is much weaker than them. I've seen some disgraceful mobbing behaviour late game.

If you're within the same ball park for strength, there's a chance you can have normal relations. Within the confines of the extremely wierd diplomacy logic this game goes by. Well, with some of the leaders anyway, some are just nuts. Anyway, that's another thread. It's fun working out what makes these guys tick, and i'm learning about what's changed in G&K.

Anyway, my game mechanics 101 :

1) Science is your main goal. Whether you're actually trying to win a science victory, be stronger militarily , economically, or culturally, all of these things are helped by having more science

2) The main determinant of your science output is population. Buildings come second, social policies can give a minor boost too.

3) Food = Population. The higher the food output of a city, the higher it's population will be. However, it is vital to stay in positive happiness at all times. Negative happiness cuts population growth by 75%.

4) Unhappiness is mainly generated by the size of your population. IIRC, every 2 citizens = 1 unhappiness, but there is also 1 unhappiness generated by each city itself, so from a happiness point of view, a small number of large cities is better than lots of little ones. Obviously, buildings and social policies are what we use to counter unhappiness.

So, my main goal in any game is to get as much food production and happiness going as i can.

I try to choose city locations with luxury resources if possible, but i also look out for fresh water (oasis, rivers, lakes) because gold and food output get a boost on tiles adjacent to these. Any tile that borders fresh water gets a farm, even if it's a hill tile.

Hills that aren't by fresh water can't have farms, so they become mines.

Forest tiles get chopped down and turned into mines or farms. The act of cutting the trees down gives an immediate 20 production to whatever the nearest city is building , which helps to get your first improvements up early game. Lumber mills only become worth it with mid-game techs, and getting a good start is all-important.

While we're on the subject of tile improvements, remember a city cannot work more tiles than it's size, and cannot extract food/gold/production if tiles are more than 3 hexes from the city. So, don't waste time and money (tile maintenance) on tiles the city cannot work. Improve the best tiles first - special tiles, then freshwater tiles, then the rest.

Make sure you've got the map option turned on (bottom right corner of screen for map options) that shows a green dot in each tile indicating it's food output, an orange one for production and yellow for gold etc.

(The number to the left of the city's name indicates it's size , and how many tiles it can work)

The exception are luxury or strategic resource tiles - so long as they are within the city's cultural borders, you collect that resource if the tiles is improved, no matter how far away it is - but not the regular food/production/money on it.

Anyway, if in doubt, don't be afraid to go to the city screen and check the citizen management tab, to see which tiles the ai is working.


Balancing Food, Production and Gold

Like I said, food tends to be my main priority. Total population across all cities is the main driver of science output, but still bear in mind that it's a non transferrable resource. In the extreme case, where one city is surrounded by flat grassland (tons of food, low production) and the in the other is surrounded by arid hills, the hilly city may not be able to get it's population high enough to work all the mines around it.

Production is an entirely localized resource. One city's surplus cannot be donated to another. Fortunately, production is less important than food. Each city needs enough so that it can build all the regular buildings as they are researched and not fall behind. Cities that have a slight surplus can use their spare production for wonders and military units.

Gold, Culture and Happiness are global resources, so you don't have to worry about one city having too much and another too little (*not strictly true in the case of happiness, but in most cases that's how it works). So long as the gold and happiness numbers at the top of the screen are positive, you're good to go. I'm not one for hoarding gold, since buying units/buildings is far less efficient than just building them.

Cities that get founded some time after my capital are a problem. They have a serious amount of catch-up to be doing, so i prioritise the production and food buildings first, get the city big enough to work all the nice tiles around it, and get it's production up so building the second wave of improvements is less painful. The money/defence/culture/science buildings can come later.

 

[DarkCloud]

Thank you again.
For what it is worth- the best advice was the cheating utility.
Also, the formula for picking certain Cultural purchases appears to have worked. In a new game, I am doing quite well in the demographic rankings--Much better than I usually do.

>>Forest tiles get chopped down and turned into mines or farms. The act of cutting the trees down gives an immediate 20 production to whatever the nearest city is building , which helps to get your first improvements up early game. Lumber mills only become worth it with mid-game techs, and getting a good start is all-important.

That is very good advice!

>>Make sure you've got the map option turned on (bottom right corner of screen for map options) that shows a green dot in each tile indicating it's food output, an orange one for production and yellow for gold etc.

I did not know that before.

 

[casualplayer]

Go into game setup and click legendary start. Your cap will have a ridiculous amount of luxes and strategics nearby which should get you rolling. Or construct the map so that it takes forever to encounter other civs, but then you are cheating yourself of the benefits of caravans and cargo ships.

There is a ton of information here that will improve your strategy and tactics so you won't need to look for "cheats." The information here took me from an Emperor player to a near-Deity player.

 

[chukownu]

My frustration is that I do want a challenge. I just want to be able to endure the challenge and to not have to re-load when I am inevitably invaded. I'm fine with enemies throwing armies at me as long as I don't lose any city. That's why I play with raging barbarians quite often. I'm fine with enemies out-techning me...as long as they don't invade me. I also don't want 'dumb' AI because I want to compete with them in the demographics list- that's fun for me- I can 'lose' then, but losing there doesn't mean I have to re-start the game. My understanding is that the AI is crippled at levels lower than Warlord... I want to compete with them in all categories on an equal footing except in getting invaded.

The thing is, even if you don't mind being attacked so long as the attack is not actually threatening, the AI devotes resources to make the attack happen, and thus skews the selective demographics race you desire (I concluded that you don't consider the military demographic listing as a category you're willing to compete in, since if you did you wouldn't have a hard time with defense, correct me if I misunderstood.) The proclivity for the AI to make military units to defend or conquer means you're going to get a 'dumb' AI on any difficulty in the context of your desired ruleset. Not to mention AIs invading each other swings numbers in a way that devalues them of the type of competitive meaning you want to see from them. You're trying to have a pie eating contest when the rest of the world are playing Reversi.

It sounds plausible for a mod to de-fang the AI with permanent peace and removing their ability to make military to be appropriate for your terms of competition. I don't actually know if it can be overhauled in that way since I'm not concerned with modding, but perhaps you could ask around in the Creation & Customization forum and its subforums:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=393

 

[CornPlanter]

I rarely speak in the following manner, but hey, seems appropriate.....

....are you using a strategy at all? Have you ready any guides? Because really, I find it difficult to conceive how you could be losing at a level so low. The AI is badly neutered in your favor. Heck, my first ever Civ 4 game on settler ended with pikemen in 2050, but even that was a hard fought time victory.

I always strongly support telling the (harsh) truth as opposed to polite BS. +1 to you sir.

I only succeed at games where I can cheat. I don't have an interest in learning how to play a game or to memorize strategies- that would be work. My philosophy is that a game is for me to enjoy, therefore, I should not have to do any work to enjoy it.

I admit it sounds really low to me but who am I to judge. However even if English is not my mother tongue I do know that's not a commonly accepted definition of what a game is. Game is supposed to have a challenge of some sort. Maybe you are looking for movies?

My frustration is that I do want a challenge.

Lets be honest here. If you do want a kind of challenge that can be overcome without learning the game, you do not want challenge. You want appearance of challenge at best.

On the other hand, if you are looking for enjoyment, winning a game because of your skill, knowledge and work for me is vastly more enjoyable than just staring at pictures and clicking on things with no real goal. I like playing no real challenge games like Minecraft or City builders, they are somewhat enjoyable, but nothing compared to how I feel when I beat Civ on Immortal or win a match in Warcraft 3 / Starcraft 2 / Dawn of War 2 against a real human opponent doing his best to destroy me. Sad truth of life, you need to work for your enjoyment.

Edit: bah never thought this was gonna be how my 1000th post will look like

 

[Yamian]

I'm not a fan of cheating, you just cheat yourself anyway... And if you cheat in multiplayer then burn in hell.

But if you think the game will be more fun for you (games are meant to be fun)...

Try Cheat Engine. This is not CiV specific and works for most (every?) games.

A small tutorial:

1. Run CiV, get into a game, run Cheat Engine.
2. Onve in Cheat Engine, select process (in this case civilizationV.exe).
3. On the right side, set scan type to exact value and value type to 8 Bytes (4 might work as well, but I think the value is 8 bytes)
4. In Value enter your gold multiplied by 100 (=3500 for 35 gold) and click First scan.
(the program will scan the memory, might take some time)
5. When done, go back to the game a buy something to change the gold value (or just play one more turn).
6. Back in Cheat Engine type the new value in the value field (again multiply by 100, 3700 for 37 gold)
repeat steps 5 and 6 till there is only one address on the left side
7. Double click the one and only entry, it will go to the bottom side
8. In the bottom section check the box below Active (this means the value will be frozen and will never change), double click the number below Value and enter desired amount of gold (again multiplied by 100, therefore 300000 for 3000 gold).
9. play CiV with permanent 3000 gold (the value will change from time to time in game, but its just a text, in memory the value will still be the same).

I suppose you could do similar thing for faith/culture whatever (most likely without the 100 multiplication).

 

[DarkCloud]

Thank you re: the suggestion to have legendary resources. I increased my resources one step up from normal in my restart and I am already feeling more satisfied. I still have yet to successfully create a We Love the King Day, but I think I can find the resources... it's odd that some resources simply aren't located nearby and similar resources are clustered on different sides of the world.

I still don't know about diplomacy being worthwhile- I returned 2 settlers that were captured by barbarians but my neighbor is still Neutral at best and she founded **#* cities right at my doorstep. All other neighbors are Guarded except for one located far away who is my ally... but who is attempting to sack (and will succeed in sacking) the only city state that is my ally and which has my religion.

I turned off the DOMINATION victory condition, so I hope that helps make the AI less war-centric.

Game is supposed to have a challenge of some sort. Maybe you are looking for movies?

I prefer to accomplish something, so I play games rather than watch movies.
As stated before though, I prefer sandboxes to games where I have to memorize 'strategies', because in the end strategies are pointless if they cannot be applied in the real world and I certainly have to memorize enough real world strategies to succeed in my profession. I would not feel any accomplishment if I won a game only because I played the same level 10 times and studied a strategy for hours on end. I would, however, feel accomplishment if I won because it was easy, played most of it and succeeded then needed to cheat for the last mile, or it's an adventure game and I can read the hint book or wiki beside me.

I don't have the inclination to play the game the way the designers wanted it; I want to play the game I want to play, because that is what I paid for. I paid for a game that I can experience everything in it- not a game where I have to keep replaying the same part again and again. I want to do everything once, I have no interest in reloading and 'relearning' or doing the same thing again and again (thus why I despise games like Super Mario Bros.). This is why I loved Portal (until the last level where you have to apply everything you have 'learned' before-I found it impossible to defeat the last level). Portal is an excellent game because it tells you exactly what to do to succeed and experience it-the solutions are written on the wall! Civ V does not provide that feedback except through requiring a re-load and a re-play.

Memorizing strategies can be frustrating when I want to experience the entire game world on my own terms--because I am spending my time first learning and then trying to remember a strategy rather than experiencing the game.

On the other hand, if you are looking for enjoyment, winning a game because of your skill, knowledge and work for me is vastly more enjoyable than just staring at pictures and clicking on things with no real goal. I like playing no real challenge games like Minecraft or City builders, they are somewhat enjoyable, but nothing compared to how I feel when I beat Civ on Immortal or win a match in Warcraft 3 / Starcraft 2 / Dawn of War 2 against a real human opponent doing his best to destroy me. Sad truth of life, you need to work for your enjoyment.

Minecraft a no-challenge game? Frankly I find Minecraft fun but a bit too dangerous-the game's enemies are quite difficult to defeat. I play on peaceful most of the time because I keep losing my items and getting lost, or my structures are constantly blown up . I have lost a great number of items in chests that were blown up by strings of creepers. Also, if it were not for the wiki, I would never have figured out how to craft anything- the recipes (for me) are unintuitive. I spent an hour learning how to chop wood... This was before there was a tutorial that explained that function... I have witnesses to my growing rage at being unable to chop down wood and my 20 minutes of struggle, followed by a long sojourn online to figure out how it could be done. I have never managed to make it to the Nether. For me, an accomplishment from which I feel great joy is going 20 minutes in Minecraft without dying, or building a wonder in Civilization (which is quite hard when other civs seem to complete wonders I am working on--and then I lose all the production and I must re-start from scratch). As long as I am surviving and progressing in a game, I am content.

 

[spellsteal]

ew don't cheat. It takes out the satisfaction factor. You think cheating will let you enjoy the game but it wont. I think civ 2 you could enable cheat and I remember playing it with the cheats and it was not fun at all.

 

[frodee]

You cheat yourself in many ways if you want a challenge that in reality is not a challenge by using cheats, it's a contradiction.
I unlike many or most of the people on this forum haven't gone above prince as i find the game fun as i try different playstyles and strategies to go for, without relying completely on any of the guides here. The only thing being the same in each game i play is my need for being in the top 3-4 with my army as it (for me at least) keeps the enemy at bay.

 

[Atlas627]

I simultaneously want to help you enjoy the game in whatever way you like, but I also want to 'convert' you to playing what I would call the 'right way'. Please note I am not trying to tell you what to do, I am going to simply suggest some ideas that would be 'for your own good'.

1) At its core, a strategy gamer derives their fun from being confronted with tough decision points, making the correct decisions, and then feeling good about successfully making the right decisions. Pretty animations, cool sound effects, and winning the game are just ways to inform (and reward) the player that they made the right decision. In order for the right decision to be genuine, the player must be informed (and perhaps punished) for making the wrong decision. If every decision is correct, then all the meaning has been removed from the game. In particular, a strategy gamer is usually one who is perfectly happy to have his/her only reward be ultimate victory, and some strategy gamers may be satisfied even in defeat, depending on how well they played.

By this definition, are you a strategy gamer? If you are ok with making incorrect decisions that would lead to defeat, but are willing to summon nukes with cheats just so you can keep playing the game, then I don't think so. To me, it sounds like you enjoy the graphics and 'feel' of building your empire more than playing well, and there's NOTHING wrong with that. I just think strategy is not your genre.

2) The pleasure comes from making the right decision, we've established that. But if someone else told you to make that decision, if it was part of a build order, or if it was clearly labeled 'THE CORRECT DECISION', is that at all satisfying? Of course not, as you did not personally make the correct decision, or any decision really. So how do you learn to make the right choice? You try things yourself! The AI has too many units? Build more yourself! Or maybe use the ones you have better. Or maybe figure out how to play the diplomacy game and avoid being a target. Did you build every unit you possibly could, and it still didn't work? Maybe you would be better off improving your economy to build more units later, or your tech to build better units. Maybe you used them poorly.

I totally understand that 'builds' bother you and are no fun. Instead, try some things yourself! You also say that you don't like memorizing strategies, so don't. If you played the game so much that you already knew what choice to make before you were confronted with it, were you really making a choice? No, it has been labeled (by you) as 'THE CORRECT DECISION'. Try different things yourself, see what does and doesn't work. THAT is 'experiencing the game'.



There are a lot more things I would like to say regarding your attitude towards games as 'not real and thus not worth thinking about or putting effort into', cheating, Portal being a good game for 'holding your hand' (it was a great game, but it didn't hold your hand), etc. Instead I will list some suggestions below for how I think you can improve your gameplay. Naturally, follow the advice however much YOU want to, and in whatever way YOU want to. Only then will YOU be playing the game, by making your own decisions.


1) I find that building roughly 1 military unit for 1 anything else to be a decent guideline. Some games you need more, some you need less. Sometimes better units should be built en mass, and sometimes they are so efficient you can live with less.

2) Wonders are HIGHLY overrated if you want to win the game. Flavor and feel-wise, however, they are fantastic. Essentially, wonders give you niche effects that are hard to utilize to an efficiency level that makes them worth NOT having other things. Couple that with the risk of someone beating you to it, and wonders should be chosen with great care.

3) If you look at the diplomacy window of a particular civ, scroll over their attitude display. It should tell you what is making them want to kill you, and what makes them like you. In general, avoid having a pitifully small or technologically backwards army, avoid settling too near them, and avoid making declarations of friendship or denouncements on the wrong players.

4) To win the game, you should pick a victory condition and then specialize toward it. To not lose the game, you need to be a generalist, with enough science, military, diplomatic influence, culture, and production/gold to not fall too far behind the pack. The key to playing well is to know where and when you can sacrifice your non-specialized stats to gain more of your specialized one.

For example, if you are playing for a science victory, you need your science output to be higher than everyone else's. This means your other stats have to be lower! If all your neighbors have no military, you can afford to put all of this burden into military, and build none yourself. Or if there are no City-state allies to purchase, you can then produce less gold and instead build more mines or farms for production or science, respectively.

This game is all about seeing what the map and civ randomizers give you, and then adapting. Since it is about adapting, no cookie-cutter build will suffice. You must always make your own decisions about what to do and how to do it. Seeing where those decisions take you, and then being confronted with different choices because of it, is 'experiencing the game'. Making good choices, and thus winning, should be where the enjoyment comes from. If you just like the graphics, or the feel of building a civilization, perhaps you would enjoy a city-builder like SimCity more, or a Tycoon game. Good luck, and have fun!