Help for a noob

[Roguedemon]

I posted this on reddit, but someone suggested I should put it on this forum instead so this is just a copy paste.

Currently I'm playing a game as Celtia in C2C, at prince or nobe level (can't remember which) on eternal speed. I'm new to civ4, but have played lots of civ5 so I was able to grasp most of the core concepts pretty easily. Anyway I haven't yet played enoughciv4 to know if my issues are specific to the mod or just standard noob teething problems, so those who don't have the mod might well be able to help out.

Basically, I am ahead in most aspects until about 12000 BC, at which point I meat the italian empire who reside on a nearby continent. Their score suggests they are significantly ahead of us - probably due to their size - but I don't really mind as long as they dont bother us for the time being (its hardly like I'm going to load all my clubmen and axemen onto canoes to attack someone on the other side of the world).

However, after this pointeverything starts going downhill. Not like everyone declaring war on me or anything like that, but rather I slowly become aware that (even if we ignore the italians) that I'm losing my tech lead, militarily my wars grind to a halt, as my troops cannot gain the upper hand, My capital - once the biggest city in the known world - is being overtaken by almost everyone elses. My score often doesn't go up when I finish a tech, whether its me getting one I missed earlier, or one seemingly miles ahead.

Is there anything, either in civ4 or C2C that can cause a slowdown in civ growth?

 

[Thunderbrd]

I'd need more info to answer that more specifically, but off the top it sounds like you may be overexpanding too quickly with your wars. The more cities, the more upkeep and eventually it drains your economy to death if you don't give yourself time to get your cities up to snuff before moving on and taking more.

 

[Roguedemon]

I have 5 cities, one is population 8, and two have 3. I recently conquered two more barbarian ones which now have 1 each. My economy seems mostly fine, at least as far as I can see - I have 11,000 gold due (at least 5000, maybe more) to tribal islands and villages (also lost lots of explorers when they ended up being barbarians). The rest might just me having little to spend it on and vast amount of turns giving me lots - I kept my army small - just enough to ensure decent defense for my cities, and an army for conquering, although thats now split between my new aquisitions for defense. My capital has every single building it can have, and the two size 3s have lots too (I'm missing out some that are going to be obsoleted in the next few techs unless they are too good or cheap to miss). The size ones have nothing as of yet, but I literally just captured them a few turns before saving.

It's mainly that the score seems to suggest the other civs are catching up (except the dutch who are doing really badly despite their seemingly good position). Every so often I'll see the little +5 next to Italy (who are miles in the lead), or the +3 next to the US or Canada, and wonder how they seem to be improving so fast. I didn't start settling cities until I saw others had started too, and even then only because I realised if I didn't settle some now, I might have very poor expansion prospects, given that near me only coastal land is vaguely habitable. I realise that my capital might not be the most fertile or resource rich location, but the first ring of tiles are at least ok, and I have the venus wonder which gave me an extra citizen (which i used early on in the hope of some extra production), yet most of the capitals I see are at least the same size as mine.

When the events that say Lord suchandsuch has completed his list of the best civilisations, I am still at the top for culture and money (and due to my small military, have never ranked on that one). However, scientifically, I must be starting to slip behind, despite building all buildings in my capital (and a few in other cities) as everyone had atl atls far before I did, and when I tried to rush for tengri, the zulu beat me. They are far away, but they don't seem to be doing particularly well so I kind of started worrying then.

I'm not overly worried about winning - I downloaded the mod just so I could play an even longer game of civ (normally I play marathon in civ V) and enjoy the history of the world unfolding - but I would rather remain powerful, than be relegated to sidelines of history.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Its hard to say what could be ailing you... though its nice to see the AI doing so well thanks to Koshling's hard work there. We've had troubles getting them to be competitive. All I can say is that you may be having trouble in places where the devil is in the details. Perhaps you haven't paid enough attention to your crime levels?

 

[Koshling]

Turn on level 3 BBAI logging (logs need to be turned on in your INI file, and then activate BBAI logging to level 3 in the logging tab of the BUG screen).

That will add a stats dump for each civ at each turn to the BBAI logs, so you (or someone else if you want to avoid spoilers) could look at the AIs economic status and see what aspects it is exceeding you in.

 

[Raven Destroyer]

the problem of Stalling might be the building of Every building in Vanilla you should but with C2C you seriously need to weigh every building, i usually don't build the buildings costing me a lot while returning nothing or almost nothing as they would harm my growth but yes AI is pretty up to scratch in C2C (Compliments to the people responsible )

 

[GiuseppeIII]

What settngs are you using

 

[Yudishtira]

I have a potentially simple question that many may have, so I'm reusing this recentish thread.

Is it possible for you the player to build Cottages on Forest without removing the forest? On Ancient Forest I notice you can, but at least one of the AIs has a Cottage in normal forest, whereas whenever I build one it says it will remove said forest.

Can a particular worker type do it? Can only the AI do it and not the player? Are the Pirates secretly Elves...?

 

[Koshling]

I have a potentially simple question that many may have, so I'm reusing this recentish thread.

Is it possible for you the player to build Cottages on Forest without removing the forest? On Ancient Forest I notice you can, but at least one of the AIs has a Cottage in normal forest, whereas whenever I build one it says it will remove said forest.

Can a particular worker type do it? Can only the AI do it and not the player? Are the Pirates secretly Elves...?

You cannot. The building on ancient forest might also be a bug (DH would need to comment). I believe forest can SPREAD onto a tile with a cottage, which is how it arises (though in itself this may well be a bug). Rest assured the AI cannot do it either!

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

The building on ancient forest might also be a bug (DH would need to comment).

Yes it is a bug

I believe forest can SPREAD onto a tile with a cottage, which is how it arises (though in itself this may well be a bug).

Forest can spread onto any tile that is not currently being worked but it does not destroy the improvement. This was one of the last changes Afforess made before leaving. It is a bug. IMO either it (and jungle and the other spreading features) should not spread onto improved but not worked plots or it should destroy said improvements.

 

[teakbois]

Ive found that recently on immortal the AI is easily able to expand to 20 cities while Im stuck on 8 or 9. of course i tend to spread by cities out so the extended BFCs dont overlap but I should probably stop that and reduce the distance to cities and just run a few more specialists.