i want a mentor

[Guardian_PL]

And what have You done? Now the poor kid is gonna cry, because "noone wants to help him"...
Use the force, jake. Use Your mind. It hurts a bit, but it's fun, I assure You.

 

[cabert]

poor Jake.

While I understand your frustration, I still think you need to work your way through.
I was the one suggesting going for domination first because it's the most "allrounder" way to go.
Obviously I was a bit too optimistic.
I'll try to not write too much, since it doesn't seem to be what you like most.

However, a few further hints :
- Don't be over ambitious. Going for domination in 2049 is good enough for a start.
- The "allrounder" thing is double edged. Meaning you can't win this before you have grasped all aspects of the game.

A "basic facts of the game" quizz for you :
- what is the output of a riverside grassland farm?
- what is the cost of capturing a size 10 city, 20 tiles away from your capital when you already have 3 ? (I don't know the answer, but I know the components of the cost. Do you?)
- what can I do when my size 6 capital has 2 unhappy faces?
- what happens when my city has a unhealthy face?
- what is the cost of a library?
- what is the gain of a library, when your city is size 4, has 1 domestic trade route, and is working 1 irrigated (=riverside) wheat , 1 grassland copper mine, 1 cow pasture and 1 plains hill?
- Tokugawa doesn't want to open borders with me. What can I do?

 

[jessiecat]

Agree with 46852 esp. Instead of trying to perfect everything just to jump
a level or two, try having fun! I've played CIV since the beginning, ie nearly
two decades, and I still enjoy it. Have had huge scores in Civ 2 over the years but since then I've learned to relax and just play! Doesn't matter that I'm still on Warlord level on BTS. Mind you, I prefer historical scenarios anyway but's that's just me, OK?

 

[OTAKUjbski]

its stupid to read all of that . .. .. .. . when someone can just show you. anyway a picture is worth a 1000 words videos probably 100000

That depends on the framerate of the video.

Standard digital video is 30 frames per second. 30 seconds at 30 FPS = 900 frames.

900 pictures * 1000 words = 900,000 words per 30 seconds of digital video.

According to Wikipedia, a 'normal' conversation is spoken at 200 words per minute.

200 WPM * 0.5 minutes = 100 words per person per 30 seconds

900,000 / 100 = 9,000 people.

30 seconds of digital video is like 9,000 people all talking to you at once! ​

Tokugawa doesn't want to open borders with me. What can I do?

Use World Builder to make him a Friendly vassal. Isn't that a trick question?

@jake2007:

In all seriousness, I totally understand. I was lucky enough when I started playing Civ4 to have already played the previous 3 Civs and to have a friend more well-versed in Civ4 than I was. So, I got some pretty good one-on-one coaching.

My advice: play a game like Sisiutil's ALCs.

1. Post a screenshot of your start and the initial 4000 BC save.
   
2. Request advice and wait.
   
3. Whenever you've received enough advice you think you can act upon, start playing.
   
4. When you get to a good stopping point (~50 turns later) or to any spot where you feel "stuck", repeat steps 1-4 with your most recent save and screenshots.

I'm not good with warmongering, so I did that here. Just the simple act of focusing so much on a game as to remember what I'm doing and why I'm doing it has already seemed to make my game a little better, so some of my problem may have just been focus and concentration.

Otherwise, now I can just wait a couple days to get critiqued on what I may have done wrong and where I should go from there.

It may not be the one-on-one mentor kinda thing you're hoping for, but given the collective knowledge of CFC-ers, you certainly will not be at a loss.

 

[cabert]

About Tokugawa and open borders

Use World Builder to make him a Friendly vassal. Isn't that a trick question?

Really?
In my current game, I had India, persia and Japan as neighbours (I say had because 2 of those are now dead ).
Believe it or not, but with shared religion and a few "make nice" moves (including selling him techs), I actually traded techs with Tokugawa, had open borders with him and could send him to war with cyrus.If he had made a good war, I would have attacked cyrus with him a bit later, but he was losing the war, so I turned my forces on him .

 

[Diamondeye]

A "basic facts of the game" quizz for you :
- what is the output of a riverside grassland farm?
- what is the cost of capturing a size 10 city, 20 tiles away from your capital when you already have 3 ? (I don't know the answer, but I know the components of the cost. Do you?)
- what can I do when my size 6 capital has 2 unhappy faces?
- what happens when my city has a unhealthy face?
- what is the cost of a library?
- what is the gain of a library, when your city is size 4, has 1 domestic trade route, and is working 1 irrigated (=riverside) wheat , 1 grassland copper mine, 1 cow pasture and 1 plains hill?
- Tokugawa doesn't want to open borders with me. What can I do?

Woah. Lemme try

Spoiler :

1: 3,1 before biology, 4,1 after.
2: I sure do not know. I don't know any of the components. And it does depend on mapsize?
3: Whip, whip, whip! Or, build some hapiness buildings, or change civics (government or free rel.)
4: -1
5: Duh. Dunno. 60 on normal gamespeed?
6: 1 from village centre, 1 from riverside. that's 2. +25% (concluding you're running 100% research = 0,5 beaker/turn.
7: Nothing. Tokugawa is a moron.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

About Tokugawa and open borders

Really?
In my current game, I had India, persia and Japan as neighbours (I say had because 2 of those are now dead ).
Believe it or not, but with shared religion and a few "make nice" moves (including selling him techs), I actually traded techs with Tokugawa, had open borders with him and could send him to war with cyrus.If he had made a good war, I would have attacked cyrus with him a bit later, but he was losing the war, so I turned my forces on him .

[sidetrack]

Dayum ... truly a testament to how good you are with Diplomacy (or perhaps how not good I am ).

I hate dealing with Tokugawa.

I would truly have to have a long term goal to ever put that much work into Tokugawa. I'm not sure if I've ever traded techs with him before. I've given and sold them to him, but aside from pointy-stick research, I'm not sure I've ever gotten a tech out of him.

EDIT: Any chance you could spread some of that love on this game?

[/sidetrack]

 

[cabert]

[sidetrack]

Dayum ... truly a testament to how good you are with Diplomacy (or perhaps how not good I am ).

I hate dealing with Tokugawa.

I would truly have to have a long term goal to ever put that much work into Tokugawa. I'm not sure if I've ever traded techs with him before. I've given and sold them to him, but aside from pointy-stick research, I'm not sure I've ever gotten a tech out of him.

EDIT: Any chance you could spread some of that love on this game?

[/sidetrack]

I'm not very good at diplomacy, but toku just loves his religion.

 

[cabert]

Woah. Lemme try

Spoiler :

1: 3,1 before biology, 4,1 after.
2: I sure do not know. I don't know any of the components. And it does depend on mapsize?
3: Whip, whip, whip! Or, build some hapiness buildings, or change civics (government or free rel.)
4: -1
5: Duh. Dunno. 60 on normal gamespeed?
6: 1 from village centre, 1 from riverside. that's 2. +25% (concluding you're running 100% research = 0,5 beaker/turn.
7: Nothing. Tokugawa is a moron.

not bad, but far from complete.

Spoiler :

1) right
2) you pay civic upkeep for 10 more people, you pay the distance maintenance, you pay for the number of cities (meaning that your now 4 cities will see their maintenance higher)
3) right, but 1 whip for 3 pop will give you less problems than 3 whips for 1 . You could also connect a haapy resource or bring a unit home if you run HR.
4) right. But I didn't say it was only 1 unhealth, so it may very well be worse than that.
5) It's 90 hammers. Aka 3 population points .
6) wrong and incomplete : 1 trade route + 1 riverside commerce + 1 city center = 3 base commerce. so you gain 0,75 beakers.
+ 2 culture, + the option to assign to scientists instead of working the mines. It's often more important in cities with good food to be able to assign the scientists than the miserable half beaker you get from the 25%.
7) see my earlier answer to OTAKU, it's not always true. But in a regular game, it's pretty much so .

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I thought the answer to (3) was "don't live in France" (although England isn't much better the post has been on strike here and in Liverpool they decided to have a few extra days out on strike). But with the Eiffel Tower acting as a free broadcast tower all you need now is a hit single (Joe le Taxi doesn't count). j/k

 

[KMadCandy]

A "basic facts of the game" quizz for you :

oh fun!

Spoiler :

- what is the output of a riverside grassland farm?
3 food 1c pre-bio = half a specialist

- what is the cost of capturing a size 10 city, 20 tiles away from your capital when you already have 3 ? (I don't know the answer, but I know the components of the cost. Do you?)
i do. the cost is going to war, which is absolutely terrifying!

- what can I do when my size 6 capital has 2 unhappy faces?
whip something pricey! ideally 3 pop whip

- what happens when my city has a unhealthy face?
edit: i read that as "what should i do" obviously. the true answer, in addition to your own, is "a disgusting, ugly, vile green toxic cloud appears". ugh!
i originally said: try for trades, or whip. or just go settle (note: not a fan of conquering!) new resources. build an aqueduct if you haven't and you already have math, etc.

- what is the cost of a library?
not sure, but i know they can be useful for "something pricey" whips *giggle*.

- what is the gain of a library, when your city is size 4, has 1 domestic trade route, and is working 1 irrigated (=riverside) wheat , 1 grassland copper mine, 1 cow pasture and 1 plains hill?
pretty much your gain there is +2 culture and the ability to swap tiles around and work 2 scientists. you're not gonna get much from the 25% science in that set-up.

- Tokugawa doesn't want to open borders with me. What can I do?
see below. i love meeting toku early as long as he's not blocking me from settling anywhere else.

I would truly have to have a long term goal to ever put that much work into Tokugawa. I'm not sure if I've ever traded techs with him before. I've given and sold them to him, but aside from pointy-stick research, I'm not sure I've ever gotten a tech out of him.

that's the thing with mr. stingy. you might never get any techs out of him, but that's okay. nobody else will either, because he's stingy and because he tends to be behind due to close borders. so you can give/sell him techs without worrying that you're giving them to the world. there's a lot less risk buttering him up that way than most other leaders. and once toku is your friend, he's really quite loyal. he's actually been useful for help in a ffew wars.

one vanilla agg AI game i got him to be my second bestest friend (first was alex). toku had great land in that game and actually had monopolies on techs. which he was willing to trade since we were friendly, doublebonusscore! then i was mean and betrayed him for kicks "one more turning" after i won by culture. i had to ... he'd built broadway and i wanted all 3 of those wonders. you know how it is.

 

[madscientist]

Tye answer to #7 is either
A) Kill him if he's next to you, the sooner the better.
B) Ignore him if he's a decent distance.

Wait a minute, neither way gets him to open borders.

 

[KMadCandy]

oh OneMoreThing re: opening stubborn borders. i read (but have not tested) that any civ that is currently in a Mutual Military Struggle with you will sign OB. so phony wars might be useful that way i suppose.

 

[Silence101]

This may be taboo, but I'm finding this thread very entertaining for some reason.