How do I know who knows who ?

[Sir Clive]

Silly question since I have been playing civ for a long time, but how do I know which civs are in contact with each other.

I have just started a new game as England , have researched writing and managed to get 3 techs + gold from Greece for writing.

I have also met Mongols but they will only give me 110g for writing . I would like to hold off if they haven't yet met Greece in case I can get a tech from them, but if they have met Greece then Greece might sell them writing and I won't get any gold

If I go to the foreign advisor screen then there are blue (at peace lines) between England and Greece and between England and Mongols, but no line (either blue or red ) Greece and Mongols. Does this definitively mean they haven't met each other yet ?

If not , what is the best way of determining who knows who ?

Thanks

 

[morchuflex]

Yes, I noticed that C3C has removed the ability to "buy" communications; or is there some tech pre-requisite?
In a recent game, I traded advanced techs to two civs and the reward was only adequate. Two turns later, I met two other civs that were in contact with the two previous. I tried to sell them the same techs, but the AI already had. Too bad... I could have made much more profit if I had known.

 

[Sir Clive]

Yes, I noticed that C3C has removed the ability to "buy" communications; or is there some tech pre-requisite?
.

Yes there is morchuflx. You now need Printing Press to trade communications

 

[WackenOpenAir]

you only see the lines between civs you have an embassy with.

If you want to know if 2 guys know eachother, buy an embassy with both civs. Other civ's can also buy embassies and it counts in both directions.

If you forgot who you have an embassy with, double click on the star next to your capital and you will see the difference. Those who you have an embassy with have different options, the others only show the option to buy an embassy. You can also look in the trade screen for the tiny yellow dots that are next to the leader faces. Those dots indicate embassies.

 

[morchuflex]

Yes there is morchuflx. You now need Printing Press to trade communications

Too bad. By the time I reach that tech level, I already have explored the whole map - unless I missed the Lighthouse of course.

 

[Sir Clive]

you only see the lines between civs you have an embassy with.

If you want to know if 2 guys know eachother, buy an embassy with both civs. Other civ's can also buy embassies and it counts in both directions.

If you forgot who you have an embassy with, double click on the star next to your capital and you will see the difference. Those who you have an embassy with have different options, the others only show the option to buy an embassy. You can also look in the trade screen for the tiny yellow dots that are next to the leader faces. Those dots indicate embassies.

Thanks WackenOpenAir .

I always used to buy embassies but having read some of the discussions in the succession games forum I got the impression that they players who played at the higher levels considered them a bit of a waste of money and rarely bought them. I used to buy them

a) to improve my rep
b) to keep an eye on their capital and hence their wonder builds and resources .

I didn't realise I needed them to see inter-civ relationships.

 

[Drakan]

Yes there is morchuflx. You now need Printing Press to trade communications

Sir Clive are you sure on that? Yesterday I was playing C3C v. 1.22 on Deity Archipiélago map and hadn't researched Printing Press (didn't even have Education yet) and I traded succesfully communications between civs who didn't know each other yet. Had embassies with all of them already. Have I understood incorrectly your comment?

 

[Sir Clive]

Sir Clive are you sure on that? Yesterday I was playing C3C v. 1.22 on Deity Archipiélago map and hadn't researched Printing Press (didn't even have Education yet) and I traded succesfully communications between civs who didn't know each other yet. Had embassies with all of them already. Have I understood incorrectly your comment?

The civilopedia entry for Printing Press says

'New ability - can now trade communications between civilizations'

So , as I understand it PP will allow you to trade communications with any civ even if you don't have an embassy. However if you want to trade contacts with a civ before getting PP you need to have an embassy with them. You could trade comms becuase you had embassies

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

You can of course trade Communications to Civs who know PP even if you don't have it, and the other way around (same for Maps and Navigation/Magnetism what ever enables it).

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Any civ that has Printing Press can trade contacts with any other civ.

The only sure way before PP, to find out if 2 civs know each other, is to establish an embassy with one of them and see if a military alliance is an option. If 2 other civs do not know each other, a MA will not be possible.

An embassy will not allow communication trading. It will let you see the peace/war/rop status between civs if you have an embassy with one of the involved parties.

If you have no embassy with either, and the 2 civs are at war, it will appear on the F4 screen as if they do not know each other.

Most of the high level players do not bother with embassies because thier priorities are different from 'normal' players. Players who are still figuring out how the game works should make embassies a very high priority.

 

[Sir Clive]

Most of the high level players do not bother with embassies because thier priorities are different from 'normal' players. Players who are still figuring out how the game works should make embassies a very high priority.

Thanks watorrey - I'm still trying to win at regularly at Monarch level so I guess I should still be building embassies !

 

[t3h_m013]

as far as i can tell to get to high levels you have to be quite warmongering, which makes ebassies less useful

 

[microbe]

There is no such thing as at higher levels you don't need embassy.

It all really depends. At higher levels your budget might be very tight so you have to postpone the embassy. Sometimes, however, it's essential to know who knows whom and who is at war with whom. For example, you may plan to attack someone and you want to know if it's already at war or who and who have MA against it. This way you can choose the target or the timing of the war much better.

 

[narmox]

When you have an embassy, you can only have military alliance VS nations both of you know. So that's a good way of knowing who knows who.

 

[genghis_khev]

Sir Clive, this is probably a really stupid question ... (que a ton of sarcastic comments) but did you click on either the Mongol or Greece leaderhead? You can select the different civs to see if they know everybody that you know. Also by hold down shift and clicking you can select multiple civs at once. I frequently do this to see who is at war with who but it helps to do it after everyone knows one another and then switching off the "peace" lines (otherwise it gets really messy!).

 

[Drakan]

Sir Clive, you do need printing press to trade communications. Playing the game last night I realized that although I didn't have it, the other AI did, so we were able to trade comm. Hmm, , is this something new of patch v.1.22?; 'cause I hadn't noticed it before (I just installed the patch over the weekend, I had version 1.0 C3C).

 

[narmox]

It's been like that since original plain unpatched vanilla civ3 - if you didn't have mapmaking but someone else did, you could exchange maps with them. Now it's the same except with Printing Press for comm and Navigation for maps.

 

[Drakan]

Right. xnks Narmox

 

[kokoras]

What i would like to see in the Foreign Advisor are the resourses that the other Civs trade each other,that way we could know who is giving what to whom.I think that it is important to have this information.