Newbie Questions - ask here and get answers!

[Bamspeedy]

Yeah, either click on that 'd' or I just hit shift-d to contact that civ. Then click on "I would like to propose a deal". Then at the bottom you will see 'New' and 'Active'. New is what you currently would like to offer, and active is treaties you already have in place. Click on 'Active'. Then if you already have a treaty in place you will see a number beside it to tell you how many turns are remaining. For example (15) Peace Treaty, means there you must wait 15 more turns before cancelling peace. With no number, it means the treaty is still in place, but you can freely cancel it at any time.

If no number is in front of the peace treaty just click on Peace treaty to cancel it and declare war. This is the honarable way of declaring war (if you also don't have any other treaties with them and your units are not inside their territory).

 

[hbdragon88]

Question: On the screen where you pick all the civs, the level of difficulty, and all the options, what is a "Culturally Linked Start"? I can't figure it out.

 

[Becka]

I believe it means that when the game starts, the civs of certain culture groups will start nearer each other (example- Japan and Chinese would be nearer each other, Germany and France would be near each other, etc.)

 

[The Yankee]

Well, I'm not a newbie, but I got a newbie editor question.

I know I've figured this out before, but how do you edit it so that you will never need a leader to build an army, but instead just build it like an expensive unit like it would be after the Military Academy? I'd really like to do this so I can see huge battles without going thorugh the trouble of getting that ever-elusive leader (at least elusive for me, the enemies get lots of them. Thanks a lot, yo.

 

[Shaitan]

Set the attribute for barracks so it can build armies.

 

[Wardog]

Everytime I enter a new age I gain an advance for free.

On my last game, for instance, I entered modern age and instantly a pop up appeared saying I discovered Rocketry - without even researching it previously.

Is it a bug?

 

[Bamspeedy]

Wardog - You must be a scientific civ. Scientific civs get a free tech everytime they enter a new era.

 

[WillJ]

In the editor, when I edit the rules in that window with all the options and stuff, I can't minimize or maximize it, which gets very annoying because it is bigger than the screen, and I can only make it go up so far, so I can never see the bottom of it. Is there a way to get around this?

 

[Bamspeedy]

Willj - What patch are you using? I had that problem with the original version of the game, but one of the patches fixed that and made that screen smaller so you can see it all.

 

[WillJ]

I am using patch 1.29f.

 

[Shaitan]

@willj - It sounds like you have a screen resolution of 800x600. Increase your resolution and you'll be able to see the whole thing.

 

[2bs]

hi there - i've played civ III for a while, and find myself quite addicted.. one thing i can't figure out though: what are the three numbers divided by [.] right of your government type in the tray? anybody knows?

btw; persia rules

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by 2bs
hi there - i've played civ III for a while, and find myself quite addicted.. one thing i can't figure out though: what are the three numbers divided by [.] right of your government type in the tray? anybody knows?

btw; persia rules

Those show how your income is divided (tax/science/luxury). So if you're putting 50% of your commerce into tax, 50% science, and 0% luxury, it will say 5.5.0.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Shaitan
@willj - It sounds like you have a screen resolution of 800x600. Increase your resolution and you'll be able to see the whole thing.

OK, thanks.

 

[2bs]

ok thanx dude. guess i won't be invited as a mensa-member after that one, but aight.

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by Shaitan
@willj - It sounds like you have a screen resolution of 800x600. Increase your resolution and you'll be able to see the whole thing.

Had same problem here, had 800x600. Dumb editor. The only time I could edit the whole rules area was when I was playing the game. Already you have to switch to 1024x768 to play the game; now I realized that you have to do so to edit all the rules?

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Question: Has anyone been able to build a leader (make a shield cost)? I want to so I can build some Small Wonders (Heroic Epic, Pentagon, Academy) and build the Great Wonders with no trouble.

Question: Does the U.N. convene after 2050? Anyone know for sure? I'm new so I get most Industrial Age and all Modern Age advances after 2050.

 

[Wardog]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
Wardog - You must be a scientific civ. Scientific civs get a free tech everytime they enter a new era.

Thank you, Bamspeedy.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by hbdragon88
Question: Has anyone been able to build a leader (make a shield cost)? I want to so I can build some Small Wonders (Heroic Epic, Pentagon, Academy) and build the Great Wonders with no trouble.

In the unit edit screen in the editor there are flags (in the "special actions") that say "build army" and "finish improvements." Add a new unit, choose the GL icon (#47), click on those two abilities, make it not be able to do anything besides these two actions, and you have created a great leader! Set the cost to whatever seems fair to you, and decide on what prerequisites (techs, resources, etc.) (if any) you want the GL to have.
Edit: Oh, and select "leader" in both "unit abilities" and "AI strategies."

 

[Dran]

Would you say it was a good tactic to build a lot of catapults and spearmen early in the game when they are cheap cost in shields, with a view to upgrading them progessively later ?

The obvious drawback is the maintenance cost while they are idle.
I would want to use them in a war but this would necessitate building numbers of more attacking units as well, increasing even further the maintenance cost.

I suppose if you planned to get Leo's this would be a good strategy but you can never be sure of getting that.

What have other players found ?

 

[hbdragon88]

Unless you have a big treasury then I wouldn't make a lot of catapults and spearmen. Spearmen can only be upgraded to a Swordsman, which gets obselete pretty quick; and from bottom to top upgrades are costly.

I never have had much experince with catapults before, to tell you the truth. I thought they were good for hindering enemy troops waiting to take over a city; I lost a city when I tried to stop 'em using catapults.