Little questions & answers thread

If you get a Domination Victory in Exploration and you play One More Turn will it roll over to Modern (or just stop or stay stuck in Exploration)
 
If you get a Domination Victory in Exploration and you play One More Turn will it roll over to Modern (or just stop or stay stuck in Exploration)
If you do a domination victory, the game is over. You do not progress to the next era. I have never tried in exploration, but in antiquity with no DL civs this is what happens. There is even a video for this kind of victory in the game that doesn't appear otherwise.
 
What decides which specializations are available for my towns? It seems that there aren't always all of them available. I noticed a few in antiquity for which I'm unable to select hub town, besides them having some connections. And I often have towns that I would like to make into factory towns in modern, but it is not available as an option.
 
What decides which specializations are available for my towns? It seems that there aren't always all of them available. I noticed a few in antiquity for which I'm unable to select hub town, besides them having some connections. And I often have towns that I would like to make into factory towns in modern, but it is not available as an option.
There are additional requirements, they are shown in the interface. Factory towns require factory resource being improved in town territory. I haven't checked hub town resources, but it should be in the UI somewhere.
 
If you do a domination victory, the game is over. You do not progress to the next era. I have never tried in exploration, but in antiquity with no DL civs this is what happens. There is even a video for this kind of victory in the game that doesn't appear otherwise.
So the OMT isn't an option then?

Does getting a Domination Victory in Modern stop OMT?
 
What decides which specializations are available for my towns? It seems that there aren't always all of them available. I noticed a few in antiquity for which I'm unable to select hub town, besides them having some connections. And I often have towns that I would like to make into factory towns in modern, but it is not available as an option.

I am pretty sure hub town is only available in Exploration Age and forward. Trade town is available in all 3 ages, with some nuances: in Exploration Age, only towns in distant land can be trade town (no matter whether or not they share continent); in Modern Age, Trade town is replaced by Factory town which is only available if you have a factory resource. Fishing town only replaces Farming town if the town's center tile is directly adjacent to the coastal tile (coastal lake does not count); this is inconsequential for most civs except Carthage and Shawnee for which their traditions grant different bonus to farming vs fishing towns.
 
This link shows the Specializations and which eras they are available in.
 
Any limitations on using the Convert Espionage action? (other than the Influence cost)
I don't think there would be any limitations aside from the normal espionage limitations (1 at a time, etc). Thanks for calling attention to it! Looking at more details on it and it seems pretty interesting (since it has a relatively cheap cost and only takes 4-8 turns to complete). It also looks like it has a 100% Reveal Chance, which makes sense, but I am guessing has Diplomatic penalties associated with it? Seems good to get that last relic near the end of an age when you don't have a missionary nearby?

Also have an entirely separate question. Has anyone played Prussia recently? Trying it for the first time in months and noticed that the unique railroad doesn't show up on the loading screen nor does it show up on the leader screen. It seems like when you try to build it, it is just an ordinary railroad and no longer gives bonus yields to rural tiles. The only reference that seems to remain proving it existed is the Zollverein Mastery where it talks about a 25% trade yield bonus to it (which I am guessing is no longer applicable since it no longer exists?). It is still in the civilopedia as a Unique Improvement though, which is interesting, but also seems like the wrong place for it? Was this patched out fully from Prussia's kit or is this a bug? It seemed very strong (+2 Gold and Production to rural tiles) especially in conjunction with Prussia's other abilities, so I am curious as to whether it was removed for balance purposes.

Edit: It looks like the name is showing up under the Railroad still after building another one, but bonuses aren't being given to the rural tiles, which is interesting.
 
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Also have an entirely separate question. Has anyone played Prussia recently? Trying it for the first time in months and noticed that the unique railroad doesn't show up on the loading screen nor does it show up on the leader screen. It seems like when you try to build it, it is just an ordinary railroad and no longer gives bonus yields to rural tiles. The only reference that seems to remain proving it existed is the Zollverein Mastery where it talks about a 25% trade yield bonus to it (which I am guessing is no longer applicable since it no longer exists?). It is still in the civilopedia as a Unique Improvement though, which is interesting, but also seems like the wrong place for it? Was this patched out fully from Prussia's kit or is this a bug? It seemed very strong (+2 Gold and Production to rural tiles) especially in conjunction with Prussia's other abilities, so I am curious as to whether it was removed for balance purposes.

Edit: It looks like the name is showing up under the Railroad still after building another one, but bonuses aren't being given to the rural tiles, which is interesting.
I haven't checked for whether it actually gives bonuses in a long time (I think it did around release), but it was always an "invisible" thing. It didn't show up in the civilopedia and neither in the overview of Prussia. You could always only "see" it by hovering over a tile that has one. I think it has been added to the civilopedia after launch at some point to improve this slightly.

Why would it be patched out? Prussia is in need of that improvement.
 
Also have an entirely separate question. Has anyone played Prussia recently? Trying it for the first time in months and noticed that the unique railroad doesn't show up on the loading screen nor does it show up on the leader screen. It seems like when you try to build it, it is just an ordinary railroad and no longer gives bonus yields to rural tiles. The only reference that seems to remain proving it existed is the Zollverein Mastery where it talks about a 25% trade yield bonus to it (which I am guessing is no longer applicable since it no longer exists?). It is still in the civilopedia as a Unique Improvement though, which is interesting, but also seems like the wrong place for it? Was this patched out fully from Prussia's kit or is this a bug? It seemed very strong (+2 Gold and Production to rural tiles) especially in conjunction with Prussia's other abilities, so I am curious as to whether it was removed for balance purposes.
Make sure you're working the rural railroad tiles. It doesn't affect unimproved rural tiles. It looks like it's working fine in my game.
 
I have a question about the Cultural Victory path. I've only completed this victory a few times, so I'm no expert!

It was my understanding that first you need to research the Natural History civic, then train/buy an Explorer and send it to a Museum/Academy to study and reveal 2 artifacts on each continent.
You then research Natural History Mastery, to allow Explorers to excavate Natural Wonders.

After that, I put my Explorers to sleep around the map until I've researched Hegemony, to reveal more artifacts. (It can be a pain locating them again when the time comes! :lol: )

In my last game, I wasn't even close to Hegemony, when around turn 50 I spotted an enemy Explorer buzzing around in my territory. When I opened the Discovery lens I could see all artifacts on the map - without having researched Hegemony!

For reference, I loaded up some previous quick saves to see how many artifacts were visible per continent:
- Turn 47: 0/0/0/0
- Turn 48: 4/4/0/0
- Turn 50: 4/4/4/0

Does this mean that as soon as ANY player researches Hegemony (and their Explorer studies at a Museum), ALL players can see all the artifacts? This seems very strange to me... I hope someone can clarify!

As well, it seems that almost every time I overbuild a district/quarter with a Train Station, I get an artifact. Is there any logic behind this, or is it just random - some times you get an artifact, other times you don't?
 
I have a question about the Cultural Victory path. I've only completed this victory a few times, so I'm no expert!

It was my understanding that first you need to research the Natural History civic, then train/buy an Explorer and send it to a Museum/Academy to study and reveal 2 artifacts on each continent.
You then research Natural History Mastery, to allow Explorers to excavate Natural Wonders.

After that, I put my Explorers to sleep around the map until I've researched Hegemony, to reveal more artifacts. (It can be a pain locating them again when the time comes! :lol: )

In my last game, I wasn't even close to Hegemony, when around turn 50 I spotted an enemy Explorer buzzing around in my territory. When I opened the Discovery lens I could see all artifacts on the map - without having researched Hegemony!

For reference, I loaded up some previous quick saves to see how many artifacts were visible per continent:
- Turn 47: 0/0/0/0
- Turn 48: 4/4/0/0
- Turn 50: 4/4/4/0

Does this mean that as soon as ANY player researches Hegemony (and their Explorer studies at a Museum), ALL players can see all the artifacts? This seems very strange to me... I hope someone can clarify!

As well, it seems that almost every time I overbuild a district/quarter with a Train Station, I get an artifact. Is there any logic behind this, or is it just random - some times you get an artifact, other times you don't?
To excavate artifacts you need:

1. Exploration era artifacts are revealed on each continent individually in a University, Museum or probably some other suitable location. After someone discovers artifacts of this specific continent, everyone sees them.
2. All artifacts (both antiquity and exploration) are revealed if you do the same after researching Hegemony and as before everyone see them. But unlike first option, the research itself grants an artifact.
3. Digging near natural wonders after Natural History mastery is different, because everyone could dig out one artifact per natural wonder.

There are other sources of artifacts, like overbuilding or story events.
 
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After someone discovers artifacts of this specific continent, everyone sees them.

Is this a bug?

I mean, it's really silly that you then only really have to research 1 civic to complete a Cultural victory! As long as you have enough Gold you can spam Explorers all over the map and just wait for an enemy to discover the ancient artifacts (while you pursue other victory paths) and then you swoop in...

To better illustrate my point, in my last game the antiquity artifacts (well, 12 out of the 16) were discovered by an AI on turn 50. Natural History costs 1417 culture to research, so even if my culture per turn was only 29, I would get Natural History on turn 50 and could then buy a ton of explorers with the Gold I'd been saving up for 50 turns.
Seems nuts that you can win a Cultural victory with a cultural output of just 29 per turn!
 
Does this mean that as soon as ANY player researches Hegemony (and their Explorer studies at a Museum), ALL players can see all the artifacts? This seems very strange to me... I hope someone can clarify!

Yes, as soon as any explorer reveals artifacts they are always visible to all players.

And yes, it seems a bit strange. (I mean you could make arguments that they publish their findings in scientific journals or whatever, but in the end it is a design decision which feels a bit weird)

You now get an artifact when studying after Hegemony, so there is now a point in being the first to get there.
 
Is this a bug?

I mean, it's really silly that you then only really have to research 1 civic to complete a Cultural victory! As long as you have enough Gold you can spam Explorers all over the map and just wait for an enemy to discover the ancient artifacts (while you pursue other victory paths) and then you swoop in...

To better illustrate my point, in my last game the antiquity artifacts (well, 12 out of the 16) were discovered by an AI on turn 50. Natural History costs 1417 culture to research, so even if my culture per turn was only 29, I would get Natural History on turn 50 and could then buy a ton of explorers with the Gold I'd been saving up for 50 turns.
Seems nuts that you can win a Cultural victory with a cultural output of just 29 per turn!
It's not a bug, it works as intended for better artifact race. There are strong benefits to be the first to research Hegemony:

1. You get artifact from researching the continent itself.

2. You could collect all your explorers on the continent where you're going to reveal the artifacts. And it's big, because explorers have increased costs and you can't cover the world with them.
 
I haven't checked for whether it actually gives bonuses in a long time (I think it did around release), but it was always an "invisible" thing. It didn't show up in the civilopedia and neither in the overview of Prussia. You could always only "see" it by hovering over a tile that has one. I think it has been added to the civilopedia after launch at some point to improve this slightly.

Why would it be patched out? Prussia is in need of that improvement.
Ah, that is helpful context. For some reason I thought that the unique railroad had previously been visible when looking at the civ. One thing that I wonder about potentially being a factor is that I was specifically checking plantation tiles in a distant lands settlement (since they had no base production). While the information when hovering over did show that the Staatseisenbahn was established in the distant land settlement, I wonder if maybe it follows different rules from factories and if maybe it didn't matter that I had established railroads and ports in those cities, since maybe it follows a different ruleset for linking settlements? I can go back and check some of the home continent settlement resource tiles later to see if that may be the case.

I might be wrong, but Prussia feels quite strong even without it? +2 Science on Resources is a very strong bonus (if each settlement has 4 resource tiles and if you have 20 settlements, then that is an extra 160 base science yields that then get boosted by any other bonuses you may have). Between that, all of the extra production that Prussia's cities get, as well as all of the additional Combat Strength, it seems like one of the stronger Modern Civs.
 
Yes, as soon as any explorer reveals artifacts they are always visible to all players.

And yes, it seems a bit strange. (I mean you could make arguments that they publish their findings in scientific journals or whatever, but in the end it is a design decision which feels a bit weird)

You now get an artifact when studying after Hegemony, so there is now a point in being the first to get there.
Yes, this has been my experience, too. An explorer can do the study for a particular continent at either a University or a Museum; I will try to build a few Universities in different cities in my empire, to do the research sooner. Pre-positioning of my explorers can be critical, since the Exploration artifacts are pretty random and yes, the AI see them at the same time I do. Everyone can get an artifact from Natural Wonders, so that part is NOT a race. Take your time in moving explorers to get those.

Yes, I usually try to learn Hegemony, and idle my explorers -- only one on each continent -- until I do. But I don't always put them to "Sleep", especially if one of the AI has a monster culture-per-turn. Letting each one stay awake, then hit "Skip Turn", will show me whether any new artifacts are visible. Because one of the AI just researched Hegemony before me. Then my explorers can get a half-turn head start.

Overall, I agree with @Berrern observation about the Cultural victory. It depends less on culture-per-turn, or culture buildings, or even wonders; it is much more reward for skillful unit moving and having a high-production city to produce the final wonder.
 
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