******Civilization IV**** please help!!!

[Reg Pither]

You need to research Pottery first. And you can't build them on some tiles, like hills.

 

[flyingawaytoday77]

i currently have a pc that has:

-120gb hard drive
-128mb Radeon 9259 video card with vertex shader.
-AMD sempron 3000+ (2.0ghz) equivelent to pentium 4 3.0ghz
-512mb kingston RAM

i am thinking of changing the ram to 1 gb because civ IV is getting very laggy around the main city area when i move the map. does anyone agree or disagree that i should change to a 1gb ram?
-

 

[Sisiutil]

You need to research Pottery first. And you can't build them on some tiles, like hills.

Just a quibble: you can build cottages on grassland hills. The AI does this. I think it's nonsensical. Hills get mines.

In addition to needing Pottery, you also need to go into the city screen and assign citizens to work the tiles that have cottages. They only grow into hamlets, villages, and towns (which each bring in more money) if they are worked.

Since it takes two food to feed the citizen working a tile, I usually prefer to put cottages on grassland and floodplains; the former are self-sufficient food-wise, the latter provide a 1F surplus. Cottages on tiles next to rivers provide one extra coin right off the bat, two if you're Financial, so those are the ones to build and work first.

Your computer sounds very similar to mine, except I upgraded to 1 GB of RAM expressly for Civ IV. Yes, it helped and I recommend it. Also, I run a memory defrag utility before starting the game to free up a little more RAM.

 

[Goodgimp]

To build a cottage:

1. Research Pottery
2. Build Worker
3. Send worker to a plains or grasslands square
4. Select your worker, click on the Cottage button on the bottom of the screen.


Should I upgrade to 1gb of RAM?

Yes, absolutely. I have a machine with 1gb and a machine with 512mb. There is a large difference in performance between the two.

 

[jtnlange]

Hey Sis


What memory program do you use?

Trevor

 

[Sisiutil]

Hey Sis


What memory program do you use?

Trevor

AMS FAST Defrag 2. It's freeware.

 

[flyingawaytoday77]

ive noticed that there is gold in the top left corner of the screen. what are they for?? it seems like whenever i build something the gold never depletes. why is this and what is gold used for? and also how come in CIV 4 there is no resoures to collect for example in age of mythology there is a bar with stone, gold etc and in age of mythology whenever i build something it uses the resources to construct it. but in civ 4 it seems to be that i may build as many things i want without using resources. am i correct or am i wrong? someone please tell me what happens when u construct things.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

You have to research pottery in order to build cottages.


Also if you're mouse is moving sluggish, try setting the graphics option in the game from high down to medium, or possibly to low (like I have it).

 

[Banditt]

ive noticed that there is gold in the top left corner of the screen. what are they for?? it seems like whenever i build something the gold never depletes. why is this and what is gold used for? and also how come in CIV 4 there is no resoures to collect for example in age of mythology there is a bar with stone, gold etc and in age of mythology whenever i build something it uses the resources to construct it. but in civ 4 it seems to be that i may build as many things i want without using resources. am i correct or am i wrong? someone please tell me what happens when u construct things.

The gold in the top left in the city screen or the world screen? Anyhow city improvements do not cost gold. They cost hammers (production). The resources are used to boost production, health/food, happiness or gold. Only certain resources provide bonuses when building wonders. (such as marble or stone) I don't think any of the resources provide a bonus for constructing regular buildings. Hope that helps a little.

 

[flyingawaytoday77]

i meant the gold in the world screen. then what is gold used for?

 

[Banditt]

i meant the gold in the world screen. then what is gold used for?

That is the amount of gold in your treasury along with the amount +/- that you are making each turn. Usually its used for hurrying production or trading. Upgrading your army is a common use for gold too. (i.e. making your archer a infantry)

 

[wkndwrrr]

ive noticed that there is gold in the top left corner of the screen. what are they for?? it seems like whenever i build something the gold never depletes. why is this and what is gold used for? and also how come in CIV 4 there is no resoures to collect for example in age of mythology there is a bar with stone, gold etc and in age of mythology whenever i build something it uses the resources to construct it. but in civ 4 it seems to be that i may build as many things i want without using resources. am i correct or am i wrong? someone please tell me what happens when u construct things.

Please, please, please read the manual.


The gold on the top corner is your treasury. You use it to upgrade units, bribe or trade with other civs, and (indirectly) fund your research. Depending on the percentage bar that is located below your treasury, you will spend more money on research, and thus complete things faster, or have more money in your coffers for a variaty of uses. You can change this percentage bar to your liking.


Resources in Civ 4:

Production is acquired when you are working tiles that have one or more hammer icons on them (usually hills) this allows you to dramatically speed up (depending on how many tiles with hammer icons your are working) the time it takes to build buildings, create other tile improvements, or train units. You can still produce things with out working tiles with hammers, but it takes so long to produce anything that is not feasable.

Wealth is explained in the very first paragraph. It is acquired by working tiles with the gold coin icon on them (usually plains) If you do not work enough of these tiles, your treasury goes into the negatives.

Food allows your cities to grow in population, and thus work more tiles, and thus acquire more production and wealth for your civilization. food is acquired from tiles that have the bread slice icon on them (usually near rivers or lakes) if you do not produce enough food, then your cities will stagnate and not increase in size, or worse, begin to starve to death, lose population, and riot.

Before I forget, there are many different resources that give small benifits to your civ as a whole such as adding food to all your cities, or happiness, or production. These also can unlock certain units such as iron unlocking swordesmen or copper unlocking axemen. These are single tile icons, are very easy to spot, and they require a specific improvement on them to access their benefits. They are: Aluminum, Clams, Bananas, Coal, Copper, Corn, Horses, Incense, iron, Ivory, Marble, Oil, Pigs, Rice, Sheep, Silk, Silver, Spices, Stone, Sugar, Uranium, wheat, whales, and wine.

 

[flyingawaytoday77]

ive just tried to log in to gamespy with my account, but it wont sign in!! does anyone know why?

 

[Pogel]

I don't know about researching pottery, but I think you ought to research the acronym 'RTFM' ;-)

Seriously, the answers to a lot of your questions are written, in a clear and structured way, in the game manual. If you've played a lot of Civ before you can dive in with just the tutorial but it looks to me that this might be your first Civ game. Civ is complex and reading the manual will get you to the stage where you can start learning from other useful guides.

 

[flyingawaytoday77]

Hi

yes you are correct i am new to civ IV, i would of read my manual if i had one but of coarse i obviously dont. i bought my civ 4 from a second hand store that didnt have a manual in it, so therefore i am learning from the experts (you guys)

 

[Sisiutil]

Isn't there a manual in PDF format on the game disc itself?

 

[flyingawaytoday77]

oh yes there is thanks sisiutil!! well im not going to ask any other questions anymore, but i have 1 final question, does anyone know why some people cannot log in multiplayer using gamespy?

 

[Sisiutil]

oh yes there is thanks sisiutil!! well im not going to ask any other questions anymore, but i have 1 final question, does anyone know why some people cannot log in multiplayer using gamespy?

I don't know the answer to that, but by all means keep asking questions. That's what this forum is for. The manual definitely helps, but it doesn't tell you everything.