Newbie Questions - Ask here and get Answers!

[Turner]

Originally posted by Hurricane


Just one more tip. If you buy a world map of am AI civ (with map knowledge of your continent), the new map will show the locations of all barb villages. So instead of blindly running around searching for that village, just buy a map and look exactly where they are.

You know, I've noticed that I'll be walking around part of the map I've already explored, only to see a barbarian encampment in the FOW. But I haven't traded any maps in a long while. And I generally don't give my map out. Anyone else notice this? I've always thought that it was 'locals' giving information to my units. . .make sense?

 

[Hurricane]

Originally posted by Scop
Just to make sure I'm not going nuts... did they drastically change the AI in PTW?

I just got it and patched to 1.21F, and now the Barbarians seem like they come more often, running around like chickens with their heads cut off (unless they see an undefended city/worker/settler ).

Yes, the AI barb behaviour is different in PTW. Like you say, they run around much more, try to attack weak units or pillage. This means you can't just place a warrior on a mountain and let the barbs attack you, but on the other hand, it is pretty easy to draw them away from your cities by making them follow a worker or something.

 

[RowAndLive]

Just a quick question, all. I haven't been able to find a zoom command for the map - similar to F10 in Civ1. Does anyone
have this info? Thanks.

 

[Padma]

Hitting "z" will let you zoom in and out. But note, there are only 2 levels of "zoom": 1 closeup, and 1 wideview.

BTW: Welcome to CFC!

 

[vincenzo]

I read here that when you take over an enemy city you need to quell resistors and you need to take steps to prevent being culturally overthrown.
What do I need to do?
Thanks

 

[morkaphi]

If there are still resistors, send quite a few troops in the newly captured city (there is a complex formula for the calculation about exactly how many units you need to completely stop culture flipping, but that's another story), as troops quell the resistors.

If you managed to quell all the resistors, you may want to rush some city improvments that generate culture, while starve the citizens if the city has a big population by assigning the citizens as specialists (that is, don't make them work on the city tiles). Then begin to grow new citizens that will have your nationality. Yeah, that's genocide, but it works.

 

[RowAndLive]

Thanks Padma. I'll give it a shot. I'm still working on the acronyms. CFC = Civ Fanatics Cxxxxx?

 

[Renata]

What morkapi said, but I'll just clarify - build *one* cultural improvement in the city (more will rarely help unless it's very early in the game). The factors in the flip factor that are related to this are the relative local culture in the city (if you captured a city that's had temple/library for over 1000 years, not to mention a later cathedral, university and collossem, plus Bach's wonder, you could rush every cultural building there is and never come close to catching up) and the number of tiles in the city radius occupied by the other civ. This second factor is why you want to rush culture - when the first cultural expansion happens it will give your culture control over any disputed tiles in your city radius that are closer to your city than to any of the other civ's.

There are two ways to completely eliminate the possibility of cultural flips - one is to have a large enough garrison (but this can be a prohibitive number when you've captured a large, highly cultured city), the other is to completely eliminate the other civ.

Renata

 

[Padma]

RowAndLive: CFC = Civilization Fanatics' Center

of which these are the forums.

 

[vincenzo]

How can I tell which of the AI civs have military alliances? I thought I could do it when I established an embassy, but I don't see how.
Thanks

 

[vincenzo]

Thanks for the occupying info, morkapi and renata.
Renata, you referred to tiles in the city occupied by the other civ. I assume you are referring to the nationality of the citizens working those tiles??
Also, can you explain this statement for me:
"when the first cultural expansion happens it will give your culture control over any disputed tiles in your city radius that are closer to your city than to any of the other civ's."
What is a disputed tile? and can an expansion occur as a result of my improvements in the city, even if the city recently had an expansion?
Thanks

 

[pdescobar]

Originally posted by vincenzo
How can I tell which of the AI civs have military alliances? I thought I could do it when I established an embassy, but I don't see how.
Thanks

Vincenzo, go to the F4 Foreign advisor screen.
Make sure both possible allies and the "victim" are on the screen and selected.
Make sure the "military alliance" button is checked on the box on the right.
If there is an alliance, you will see an orange line connecting the 3.
Note that if you are at war with multiple AIs you can't see relations/agreements between them that don't relate to you unless you also have spies planted as your embassy is "suspended" during wartime.

 

[vincenzo]

Thanks, pdescobar. That screen makes sense to me now. I didn't know how to use it fully before.

 

[morkaphi]

Originally posted by vincenzo
Renata, you referred to tiles in the city occupied by the other civ. I assume you are referring to the nationality of the citizens working those tiles??

Hopefully I got your question correctly, as long as you own the city, all the citizens work for you, regardless of what the citizen's nationalities are. If another civ's city working radius overlaps with that of yours, you may not get to work on those overlapping tiles if you have a relatively weak culture.

Originally posted by vincenzo
What is a disputed tile? and can an expansion occur as a result of my improvements in the city, even if the city recently had an expansion?

What Renata means by a disputed tile is the same as the overlapping tiles between civs that I just mentioned. Also, expansion only occurs only when your city's culture reaches a certain number (first expansion happens when your city culture hits 10, second at 100, etc...). So, to put it in another way, yes, your culture-generating city improvements result the city expansion. If your city just had an expansion, don't expect another expansion soon, since the next expansion always needs another big chunk of culture points that can't be generated in several turns.

 

[vincenzo]

Is there anything I can do to reduce waste in the distant cities?
Thanks

 

[Mercade]

Originally posted by vincenzo
Is there anything I can do to reduce waste in the distant cities?
Thanks

Several things:

1. Make court houses in those distant cities.
2. Build the Forbidden Palace to get a second "capital" that serves as a centre around which corruption/waste is lower.
3. Switch to a less corrupt type of government, i.e. republic or demoncracy rather than monarchy. Of course despotism is worst. [Communism has the same moderate corruption everywhere, worth a consideration if your empire is widespread].
4. Later in the game, build police stations.
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[vincenzo]

Thanks for the info.
1. Regarding courthouses - I read that they reduce corruption, do they also reduce waste?

2. I have been reading about increased defense bonuses in the mountains. Do the units need to be fortified there to get the bonus, or just be standing there?
Thanks

 

[tao]

Originally posted by vincenzo
Thanks for the info.
1. Regarding courthouses - I read that they reduce corruption, do they also reduce waste?

2. I have been reading about increased defense bonuses in the mountains. Do the units need to be fortified there to get the bonus, or just be standing there?
Thanks

Go to the Civ III War Academy and read "We love the King Day Defeats Corruption" and "Corruption Solutions Thread".

You find a combat calculator in this thread, explaining how the various factors accumulate.

 

[vincenzo]

I downloaded the combat calculator. It SEEMS to imply that the unit needs to be fortified to get a defense bonus. Is this correct?
Thanks

 

[tao]

Originally posted by vincenzo
I downloaded the combat calculator. It SEEMS to imply that the unit needs to be fortified to get a defense bonus. Is this correct?
Thanks

Sort of. Fortifying gives bonus. As does forrest, hill, mountain, walls, etc. Boni accumulate.