Newbie Question: Starvation

[Sreyas73]

Hi,

I am playing my second game of Civ 4 and seem to be doing pretty well.
I just have one problem: some of my cities are starving (like 3 or 4 of them total all with population over 12).

Is having starving cities really a big deal? Is this something to worry about?

I have built a fair amount of farms around my cities and am trying to generally look after the people's health and happiness. So what's going on, and is this something I need to be concerned about?

Thanks
Srey

 

[michmbk]

Starving for a known reason for a short time, while suboptimal, is ok (sometimes my whole empire will be starving if I'm trying to close out a long war due to war weariness). If the max size a city can get is 12 in your example, that might also be ok if it's claiming a strategic resource.

Having a bunch of starving cities and having it happen regularly is an issue, and it probably means you're either not settling cities right to maximize food, or the cities aren't developed enough (not enough improved land). Posting a screenshot or two as an example will probably help isolate the issue pretty quickly.

 

[Baldyr]

I believe I've said this a dozen or so times already, but every Civ players owns it to him- or herself to figure out what is happening in the City Screen. Because not reconfiguring your citizen workforce to maximize output, not knowing how a city grows (and starves) and being unable to understand what yields the city is collection is crippling any attempt at improving ones game! Learning and eventually mastering the game all starts on the City Screen.

So the homework for you Sreyas73 is to open up the City Screen and figure out just how much your cities are collecting every turn, how much is eaten by your citizens and what happens with the surplus. Because this will tell you why your cities are starving. Because its not any random event or anything - you're simply not managing your cities and planning your growth.

To answer your question though: No, starvation carries no other penalty than that the city will shrink when all the stored food (see if you can find where this is indicated on the City Screen) is used up. This can in fact be viewed as a good thing, as starvation could be triggered by unhealthiness (wasting some that could have fed another population point), or unhappiness (making some citizens unwilling to work the land and thus not supplying the necessary ). Once the city shrinks the city will in fact become healthier and happier, as both penalties are dependent on city size (well, mostly anyway).

And I understand that this is just your second game and that the game can be very overwhelming at first. But there aren't as many mysteries as it may seem at first, and you will eventually figure these things out. Once you've figured the interface out and can orient yourself in the different advisors and whatnot, you will want to take the plunge and actually learn to play the game. Then the first order of business is to start using the City Screen actively. It holds no mysteries to players who have done their homework, and actually contains most of the information and tools you need to govern your civilization - city by city.

And we'll be right here helping you along, all the way.

If you have problems interpreting something, take a screen shot (hit the Print Screen key and fetch the image in the My Game folder inside your My Documents) and post here. Most of the time it will be easy enough to explain what you're looking at.

 

[Sreyas73]

Thanks Baldyr, a very thorough description. I'm going to be writing some of this down...

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

Thanks Baldyr, a very thorough description. I'm going to be writing some of this down...

Of course, all of this is "written down" already - you can find it in the Civilopedia! Just press F12 (I think) to get there, and select the topic from the list over on the right.

Your civilopedia is your best resource for newbie questions!

NPM

 

[Nares]

Is having starving cities really a big deal? Is this something to worry about?

Nope.

You may want to see if there's some better configuration of worked tiles and specialists at a sustainable population.

Post some screenshots or attach a save file for more targeted advice.