Newbie Questions 2 - post them in THIS thread please!

[RufRydyr]

Originally posted by splat001
you can have just one electricity making plant at a time per city. A newly built plant will remove any previous plant. Maybe it's a good idea to sell the old one just before the new one finishes?

That is a good idea. It's better to not build the coal plant though IMHO.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

I hardly ever build coal plants - can remeber two or three - because of the pollution. Only if you KNOW tech will be stoped dead for a while is it worth building them..... if you do, have a LOT of slaves ready.....

 

[Sim_One]

I'm not sure what's so bad about coal plant pollution if you have enough workers around. Besides you get way more pollution from over-population and the two extra skulls from coal plants aren't gonna make a big difference.

Coal plants are a lot cheaper than the other plants. If you are building Hoover, then you should build coal plant first in that city.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

S1m0ne: why bother with coal? it comes at a time when you should be busy building railroads and you should NOT have extra workers for cleaning up. Also, a prebuild from a factory town is usually better for Hoover Dam.....

 

[Sim_One]

Well there are times where you don't get Hoover and not all your cities are next to rivers and you don't want to spend extra 80 shields on hydro plants and you don't want to wait until Ecology where you must spend 160 extra shields on solar plants and you don't want to wait until Nuclear Power just to find out you don't have any uranium.

 

[Evincar]

S1m0ne: Have you ever failed to get Hoover?? I haven't, even with the AI having a bit of a lead...they are just too dumb to beat me to it.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by Evincar
S1m0ne: Have you ever failed to get Hoover?? I haven't, even with the AI having a bit of a lead...they are just too dumb to beat me to it.

I have ahd games where I didn't get Hoover - if i didn't have any rivers for instance. But then you have to go to war all the time anyways - so take it! - and it usually is a archipelago map anyways so it doesn#t give so much of a boost....

 

[Lieutenant_Qc]

can someone tell me how the "*&@%" we plant a spy and get access to ALL spy operations? I get Intelligence Agency +espionnage tech and the only 2 operation I had access to were steal tech and investigate city who were BTW already available be4 IA
I've tried ALL!

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by Lieutenant_Qc
can someone tell me how the "*&@%" we plant a spy and get access to ALL spy operations? I get Intelligence Agency +espionnage tech and the only 2 operation I had access to were steal tech and investigate city who were BTW already available be4 IA
I've tried ALL!

click on the Pentagon next to the name of the town where you build the Intalligance Agency.....

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

oh, and a nice little quote from the FAQ:


How do I access the advanced espionage missions?

• Click the pentagon next to the city you built the Intelligence Agency in. Once you have planted a spy use the Pentagon icon near the enemy city you infiltrated to execute missions.
  or
• once you have a spy you can press the e button on the right of the lower right hand box (where the active unit is viewed) and then select the civ you want to execute the mission in
  thanx, graeme the mad!

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Lt. 'Killer' M.
Click the pentagon next to the city you built the Intelligence Agency in. Once you have planted a spy use the Pentagon icon near the enemy city you infiltrated to execute missions.

OK, that's true, but it omits an important item. Here's how it SHOULD read.

Click the pentagon next to the city you built the Intelligence Agency in. If, after hundreds of unsuccessful attempts, you actually manage to plant a spy use the Pentagon icon near the enemy city you infiltrated to execute missions.


OK, it's not THAT bad, but sometimes.....

 

[Lieutenant_Qc]

ok thanx!
and sorry Killer I didnt think any such question would be in the* FAQ , and I noticed this thread is named *"Newbie Questions" !

p.s no offence!

 

[hbdragon88]

Speaking of spying, anyone know the odds of getting a spy planted? On one civ I kept trying - three to four times - and it failed. I'd done good talks with them before then and they were polite. When I opened it back up they were furious.

This is a little out-of-date, but without the 1.17 patch and the "Rulers paying money that they don't have cheat" does it work only once? I did it against Ceasar as Alex, and when I tried against Japanese as Mao, he refused. I didn't understand it.

 

[ZeekLTK]

Hey, I downloaded this map of the world and it puts every civ in their real starting positions. I'm up to around mid 1700s (AD) and a world war is getting under way. I'm playing as the Zulus and I've conquered Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Greece and was just finishing up my French campaign. So basically, I control all of Africa, Western Europe (except Italy which the Romans have), Ireland, a small city on the UK that I got from England in a peace treaty a while ago when I attacked and captured Ireland, Turkey/Greece, and all of the Middle East.

Ok anyways, here's the situation. I've been at war with France for a while, and also Greece (they have one city left, way up in northern Russia that they built when I was conquering them and they didn't have anything I wanted when it was time for "peace talks" so I've been officially at war with them for centuries even though we haven't actually had a battle, or even seen each other, since I captured Athens in the 1400s) and right after I captured the last French city and eliminated them, I get 5 messages. #1 is "You have eliminated the evil French!". Then #2 is "Greece and England have signed a military alliance against you... England declares war on you!." Then #3 "England and Rome have signed a military alliance against you... Rome declares war on you!" #4 is "Rome and India have signed a military alliance against you... India declares war on you!" and Finally: "India and China have signed a military alliance against you... China declares war on you!"

First of all, I've never seen that kind of chain reaction all in ONE turn where different countries that just agreed to declare war go out and get another nation to allie with them. Well, I immidiatly looked up all my neighbors that didn't declare war on me and I got Russia to agree to allie with me against Rome and England, and Japan to allie with me against China and India. I have a question about this though. Since I am at war with all 5 nations (Greece, England, Rome, China, and India) but I only signed 2 alliances with Russia and Japan, will they also help me fight the other countries that I didn't sign an alliance against or are they only going to fight the ones I got them to agree me to help with? Like if Japanese troops run across a couple of Roman guys, will they attack them or are they just gonna act like it doesn't matter and only fight the Chinese/Indians? And if they won't fight "mutual enemies", what kind of chance do I have that they will sign alliances with each other so I don't have to pay them both some more techs/gold so that all 3 of us are at war with all 5 of my enemies?

Anyways, in summary: it's Me (Zululand), Russia, and Japan vs England, China, India, Rome, and Greece. Germany is the only other major power that has not taken a side but they've got to pretty soon with every single country that they border at war with each other. I asked them for an alliance but even though they are "Polite" with me, they wouldn't accept 3 techs + 4000 gold. Is this a sign that they are planning to allie with the enemy? Should I try to get MORE stuff to offer them or maybe wait on an allie to bring them into the war? Or are they really going to stay neutral during this whole thing?

I'm just wondering cuz I've never faught a major war like this. I am currently the most powerful nation. Germany is #2, Russia is #3, China is #4, and India is #5 (with not a lot of difference between us all). Japan, Rome, and England are in the middle (behind some of the civs in North America) and Greece is way at the bottom (since they only have one city left). So if anyone can give me some advice or answer some questions, it'd be a big help, and thanks in advance.

Edit: If you want to actually see my situation I can post my saved game (if someone could tell me how to post it )

 

[danwhit]

How can I determine which forest or swamp squares will have a bonus grassland under them. A bonus gl is most commonly under a full looking forest or swamp but not always. There is no obvious pattern and the option to clear the land doesn't remover forest/swamp, like it did in Civ2. I have found no info in the manual or on this site pertaining to this situation.

Also, I am having trouble with my foreign affairs advisor screen. It only shows pictures of the leaders. I can't get any connections between civs to appear(regardless of clicking on the toggles on the right hand side). I have played the game without correctly using the FA screen since day one. Is the information that this screen gives useful? It seems to me that it would be. Any thoughts on why I am unable to use this screen(Bug or I'm stupid) or how I might be able to use it would be appreciated(also explaining what it is useful for).

 

[danwhit]

when I said clear land in the above message, I meant the option to hide everything on the map not clear the forest square.

 

[richard D]

Well, I finally won my first game, diplomatically. I played Greece, at Monarchy level, in a setting you could basically describe as Minoan.

Looking back, I reckon I had a pretty easy map - one I would recommend for anyone who's not won a game yet and who fancies trying a non-conflict approach. I saved it at the first move - if anyone thinks it would be worth uploading then I can do so.

I was surprised to win diplomatically, though. I was actually going for a space race win. However, after building the UN, I won on the first vote with everyone voting for me except the other candidate.

It almost seemed too easy. I was third on the score list, and histographically only 1st on things like literacy. Japan was enormous and gradually gobbling up its neighbours.

I can only imagine I won because I never went to war with anyone. Am I right?

Richard

 

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by danwhit
How can I determine which forest or swamp squares will have a bonus grassland under them.

You can't. However, auto-workers will clear the bonus tiles first (the only even vaguely good reason to use automared workers).

Also, I am having trouble with my foreign affairs advisor screen. It only shows pictures of the leaders. I can't get any connections between civs to appear(regardless of clicking on the toggles on the right hand side).

That was a problem with one of the earlier patches. I recommend you to immeditaley upgrade to the latest patch. The connections are important in order to know which civs arew at war with each other, which has ROPs and military alliances/MPP:s. You can still talk to the leaders, though.

when I said clear land in the above message, I meant the option to hide everything on the map not clear the forest square.

Not possible. Forest is considered a terrain type, not an overlay of the underlaying terrain. Exactly what is under can only be seen after clearing the forest.

 

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by richard D
Well, I finally won my first game, diplomatically. I played Greece, at Monarchy level, in a setting you could basically describe as Minoan.

Looking back, I reckon I had a pretty easy map - one I would recommend for anyone who's not won a game yet and who fancies trying a non-conflict approach. I saved it at the first move - if anyone thinks it would be worth uploading then I can do so.

I was surprised to win diplomatically, though. I was actually going for a space race win. However, after building the UN, I won on the first vote with everyone voting for me except the other candidate.

It almost seemed too easy. I was third on the score list, and histographically only 1st on things like literacy. Japan was enormous and gradually gobbling up its neighbours.

I can only imagine I won because I never went to war with anyone. Am I right?

Richard

Yes. If you keep all your treaties (including not breaking any trade treaties), you can easily get a diplo victory. What makes it hard is that many agreements are broken without you being able to do anything about it. If you for example trade Iron overseas to someone, and some other civ destroys the the only harbor of the receiving civ, everybody will look at you as the one who broke the iron trade agreement.

 

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by hbdragon88
Speaking of spying, anyone know the odds of getting a spy planted? On one civ I kept trying - three to four times - and it failed. I'd done good talks with them before then and they were polite. When I opened it back up they were furious.

If you fail, all new attempts made during the same turn will automatically fail, too. You'll have to wait a few turns before trying again. Can't give you an exact percentage, though.