[Vanilla] New to Civ questions.

[Linklite]

I've had a quick look through to see if existing threads answer my questions, but couldn't find them, but the sheer number of threads and posts are a bit daunting! If my questions cam be answered by an existing thread, feel free to refer me to said thread, thanks!

I'm new to the series, and I'm playing on the Switch, and have quite a few questions.

1) Potential bug related question; I was messing about after having reduced all the AIs down to one last city, so I cooped them up, made peace and decided to build up my Civ to the max all over the world, just to see what stats I could get. I got my gold income up to ~2,000 per turn with a reserve of ~55,000. I then got another policy slot so changed a few cards around which would have significantly improved my income (not sure by how much) and things went a little odd. Suddenly my reserve went to about ~39,000 in debt (with 0 income). The turn ended and the balance went to 0 with ~500 income, and most of my army disbanded. Is this a known bug? Is it just a one off or did it get triggered by my actions, possibly having too high an income? I can give more details as required.

2) is there any benefit to having a tile that is not improved and not currently worked by a citizen (as opposed to not owning that tile)?

3) is there a benefit to having a tile improved but not worked by a citizen (as opposed to having the tile not improved)?

4) I occasionally get Great Scientists who can provide bonuses to certain things, like extra production towards Space Races for example. If I activate them without a Space Race project active, will the game save that bonus for when one is active, or will it just waste that bonus?

5) is there an easy way of seeing where the worst city for an attribute is? For example, if I spawn a build a new trader and want to assign him to the city with the worst production stats to try and boost the overall level, how can I find out which city to assign him to, without manually checking each individual city?

6) when I receive a trade offer regarding luxury items from an AI (let's say it is Peter), is there a way of checking how that will affect me without accepting/rejecting Peter's offer first? For example, if he's offering me jade, it wouldn't really help if I already have jade. If he's wanting my silver, that's be pretty bad if I only had one silver. On the other hand, if I have no jade but 3 silvers and my cities really need amenities, then I should really take the deal. But at the moment, it seems as though I have to deal with the offer before I can change screens to check what I do and don't have.

7) is there a way of seeing my current trade deals? They seem to just disappear into the background, and if, for example, my amenities deal is going to run out in 10 turns, I'd like to know so that I can prepare.

8) is there a reason why sometimes even if the AI has, say, 3 of a luxury resource like jade and no silks, they won't even consider trading it with me for silks and even gold? It happens often it seems, even with allies who are very happy with me.

Sorry for the endless list of questions, but I'm trying to figure out the mechanics and numbers in my head. I have more, but I'll leave it at 8(!) for now!

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

1) Potential bug related question; I was messing about after having reduced all the AIs down to one last city, so I cooped them up, made peace and decided to build up my Civ to the max all over the world, just to see what stats I could get. I got my gold income up to ~2,000 per turn with a reserve of ~55,000. I then got another policy slot so changed a few cards around which would have significantly improved my income (not sure by how much) and things went a little odd. Suddenly my reserve went to about ~39,000 in debt (with 0 income). The turn ended and the balance went to 0 with ~500 income, and most of my army disbanded. Is this a known bug? Is it just a one off or did it get triggered by my actions, possibly having too high an income? I can give more details as required.

1) No idea. Never played the game in that manner.

2) is there any benefit to having a tile that is not improved and not currently worked by a citizen (as opposed to not owning that tile)?

2) No

3) is there a benefit to having a tile improved but not worked by a citizen (as opposed to having the tile not improved)?

3) Yes, if it has a Stragegic or Luxury resource, you will get the benefit of those resources as long as the tile is improved, regardless of whether it is worked.

4) I occasionally get Great Scientists who can provide bonuses to certain things, like extra production towards Space Races for example. If I activate them without a Space Race project active, will the game save that bonus for when one is active, or will it just waste that bonus?

4) Carl Sagan's production bonus can only go to an active space race project, it isn't saved. The +100% bonus towards space race projects is permanent and applies to future projects, too.

5) is there an easy way of seeing where the worst city for an attribute is? For example, if I spawn a build a new trader and want to assign him to the city with the worst production stats to try and boost the overall level, how can I find out which city to assign him to, without manually checking each individual city?

5) There's a report screen that shows this information. Many players who want to be able to see stats like that, though, load one of the UI mods that are easier to find, use, sort, and read. They're also more likely to be accurate. The in game report menu used to give erroneous information a lot. That may have been fixed with GS, not sure.

6) when I receive a trade offer regarding luxury items from an AI (let's say it is Peter), is there a way of checking how that will affect me without accepting/rejecting Peter's offer first? For example, if he's offering me jade, it wouldn't really help if I already have jade. If he's wanting my silver, that's be pretty bad if I only had one silver. On the other hand, if I have no jade but 3 silvers and my cities really need amenities, then I should really take the deal. But at the moment, it seems as though I have to deal with the offer before I can change screens to check what I do and don't have.

6) There may be a mod that fixes this, but basically you need to keep a running record of what resources you have, what you're trading for, etc., on a piece of paper or a separate text file, as the game won't show you that info before you have to make a decision.

7) is there a way of seeing my current trade deals? They seem to just disappear into the background, and if, for example, my amenities deal is going to run out in 10 turns, I'd like to know so that I can prepare.

7) I used to write them down, when they started, what was traded, etc.

8) is there a reason why sometimes even if the AI has, say, 3 of a luxury resource like jade and no silks, they won't even consider trading it with me for silks and even gold? It happens often it seems, even with allies who are very happy with me.

8) The trade screen doesn't provide the information you need to make that assessment. It might say the AI has 3 of something, but that only means they produce 3 of it. They may have traded away 2. Similrly, it might seem like they don't have something you produce, but in fact they are getting a copy in trade. Civ 6's trade screen is not like Civ 5's, where you saw the current situation for yourself and your trading partner.​

 

[Tinkerture]

3) is there a benefit to having a tile improved but not worked by a citizen (as opposed to having the tile not improved)?

Edit: The more I think about it, the more cases I think of that do not require the tile to be worked for the tile to have benefits. As a general rule, any direct yields provided by the tile will require a citizen to work them, while other benefits often do not.

In addition to luxuries and strategics, as indicated by Trav'ling Canuck:

1)Adjacency bonuses: Unworked lumber mills and mines still provide adjacency to Industrial Zones. Farms, once the appropriate civics have been unlocked, provide bonus food to adjacent farms. So in this case, a farm can provide bonus farm to an adjacent worked farm while not being worked itself.
2)Housing: Improvements such as farms that provide housing do not need to be worked for the housing benefit.
3)Tourism: Improvements such as Seaside Resorts that provide tourism do not need to be worked to receive the tourism benefit.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

In addition to luxuries and strategics, as indicated by Trav'ling Canuck, things such as unworked mines and lumber mills still provide adjacency bonuses to Industrial Zones. Also, if a tile improvement provides tourism I don't believe the tile needs to be worked for that bonus, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

For completeness, my point 2) should likely also point out that claiming a tile with a natural wonder can also provide a benefit without needing a population to work it.

 

[Buni0ns]

For # 2 Owning territory in general can be a benefit. If its a sea tile for passage, for units faster healing sometimes, for possible future expansion, possible wonder placement, to deny area to the enemy - the list goes on if you think about it. The answer I would provide is: possibly - it depends. It's a pretty nuanced thing tho.

 

[Linklite]

Thanks for the replies and explanations!
I'm on the Switch, so I don't think mods are going to be an option, just seems a shame that some obvious tweaks would help a lot and save on effort by the player (presenting the relevant details on the trade screen rather than the player manually keeping track of luxuries and amenities, for example) haven't been made.
I'm loving the game so far, still learning all the details, which, while takes effort, is a good thing for a game.

a) Is there much point to nuking? Its quicker than laying seige, but you basically have to sacrifice a unit to radiation in order to capture the city and by the time you've built a nuke, you could build the reusable seige weapons instead. Or am I missing an aspect?

b) I see a lot of disdain for Industrial Zones here, I thought they were pretty useful; do they really slow you down so much that increase in productivity never makes that time back up?

c) more a curiosity, I was always under the impression that the Aussies historically weren't all that aggressive; Curtin always seems to declare war one me immediately at the beginning of the game, more aggressive than people like Alexander or Tomyris! Is he usually that aggressive?

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

a) Is there much point to nuking? Its quicker than laying seige, but you basically have to sacrifice a unit to radiation in order to capture the city and by the time you've built a nuke, you could build the reusable seige weapons instead. Or am I missing an aspect?

a) Apparently, nukes = cool, which is why they're in the game. There's no real point to them, no.

b) I see a lot of disdain for Industrial Zones here, I thought they were pretty useful; do they really slow you down so much that increase in productivity never makes that time back up?

​

b) Depends on how you play. If you like to role play and have mega-production cities, IZ are your route to them. If you're playing to win efficiently, you want gold, not production, and small cities, not big ones. If you use a district slot on an IZ, it's a slot not used for a more productive district. And, no, the cost to build IZ buildings generally don't pay off as a return on investment unless you're playing a long, slow game, which lots of people do enjoy. But bottom line is IZ's get you "stuff" and "stuff" doesn't get you to the victory line in Civ 6, culture and science do (plus faith if you're playing for a religious victory)

c) more a curiosity, I was always under the impression that the Aussies historically weren't all that aggressive; Curtin always seems to declare war one me immediately at the beginning of the game, more aggressive than people like Alexander or Tomyris! Is he usually that aggressive?

​

c) The AI's behaviour in Civ 6 is not materialy affected by who he or she is. It's not like in past versions of Civ where some leaders were more or less likely to be peaceful or aggressive. Now leader behaviour is dependent almost exclusively on their agendas. Satisfy their agendas and they're more inclined to like you, transgress them and they're more inclined to dislike you. And even then, whether or not they'll attack you isn't particularly dependent on whether they like you or not. In the first two eras, if you're weaker than them and they're not at war with some one else, they're likely to attack you. As the game goes on, they become less and less likely to attack.

 

[Linklite]

a) Apparently, nukes = cool, which is why they're in the game. There's no real point to them, no.

I meant to reference the rule of cool, but obviously forgot! They are fun in a sense, but since they were so counterproductive, I was wondering I was being dumb and not seeing some advantages.

​

b) Depends on how you play. If you like to role play and have mega-production cities, IZ are your route to them. If you're playing to win efficiently, you want gold, not production, and small cities, not big ones. If you use a district slot on an IZ, it's a slot not used for a more productive district. And, no, the cost to build IZ buildings generally don't pay off as a return on investment unless you're playing a long, slow game, which lots of people do enjoy. But bottom line is IZ's get you "stuff" and "stuff" doesn't get you to the victory line in Civ 6, culture and science do (plus faith if you're playing for a religious victory)

I tend to find that I can't get that much gold flowing at the beginning? A unit usually costs a couple of hundred gold, while you only get a handful of gold per city per turn. I obviously build a Commercial District, a Market and a Trader ASAP but it feels like gold is more of a mid to late game tactic. Am I missing something?

It's strange about the AI though, out of my plays I've been next to several civs, and only Australia has declared war on me in that initial phase where I'm still setting up my first couple of cities, and they've done it everytime. Everyone else waited til at least I had my capital city and a few cities estabilished, and denounced me first; Australia everytime has not denounced me before attacking and did it when I had barely got my first city settled.

In regards to Great People, is there any benefit to not recruiting them once I've earned them? It seems like even if I don't want their effect, its better to recruit them so other civs don't. Do I get some of the points returned or something?

Also, is there a way in which to change your mind about district placement? I decided to build all the wonders I could, got to the Great Zimbabwe I think, and realised that I had to build a Commercial District in such a place that I could build the GZ such that it was next to both a CD and a cattle next to it. Luckily I found a city I'd conquered with that format, but os there a way to change the location once I've laid the foundations? On a related note, how important is planning the layout of districts? I generally just choose what I think the city needs next and choose the location with the best adjacencies available (I do try to put IZs next to the coast for the Harbour though). Is that going to be fine, or will I get punished for not getting the optimal adjacencies by pre-planning it all out?

Thank you for your patience and willingness to answer my questions!