newbie - transition hints from c3 to c4

[planetfall]

Finally got a computer that can run c4. Now to try to figure out how to play the game. Some help would be appreciated.

Nope, not going to read the 97 page newbie thread. Not that many questions.

Starting frustrations
1. tutorial is way way to hard to follow. problem is mainly can't find the task you are to complete and so can't advance. for example, move the scout to village. but if can't see village, how move it? no option to skip.

2. hard to find option screen, and still haven't found how to turn off some victory conditions. I think it is custom game.

3. there is only the hot key save game option.

Questions:
1. is there a game editor like in c3 where you can change civ's profiles?

2. What are the top 7 new skills for a c3 player to learn?

3. where is the best resource for c3 to c4 players?

thanks for listening

 

[namliaM]

1. is there a game editor like in c3 where you can change civ's profiles?
Yes word builder... You can find it in the game menu once you started a game

2. What are the top 7 new skills for a c3 player to learn?
Do not expand to fast... I think that is pittfall #1
Do not turn science to 0%, and think you can trade your way across the tech tree. There are only so many techs that you can trade.
Dont start to high in the difficulty tree... C4 is a totaly different game from C3 and you need to learn much

3. where is the best resource for c3 to c4 players?
This forum? Seriously tho... Havent got a clue...

 

[kristopherb]

.

Questions:
1. is there a game editor like in c3 where you can change civ's profiles?

2. What are the top 7 new skills for a c3 player to learn?

3. where is the best resource for c3 to c4 players?

thanks for listening

1 no there is world biulder

2 i have no clue

3 i dont know what your on about

 

[planetfall]

having trouble with router, just got back on. time to get a new router.

Interesting option to turn off tech trading. This games seems soooo much sloweeeer than c3. well at least it's xml.

 

[s.c.dude]

1 no

2 go to stratagy and tips/articles

3depends on era

 

[BeefontheBone]

The village (a couple of huts, can be hard to spot in the forest/jungle, but I think the tutorial points it out to you) should be highlighted with a blue circle when the scout's selected unless you turned off the "Show suggested moves" option in the menu, which is also where the save game option and the worldbuilder live - it's the small creamy rectangle icon next to the Civilopedia's red book in the extreme top right of the UI. To alter the victory conditions you need to start a custom game, which gives you the full set of options like "New Game" in C3 - "Play Now!" chucks you pretty much straight in with defaults.

 

[Rast]

2. What are the top 7 new skills for a c3 player to learn?

I'd say..

1) Commerce is king is civ 4. Learn to cottage spam, you usually only need one or two high production cities, even when going for domination wins.

2) In relation #1, always play a financial leader, at least till you can handle Prince comfortably. Financial is by far the strongest civ strait, even after the bank nerf.

3) The new civics system allows you fine-tune your government much more than you could in civ 3. Learn all the civics and know when to use what - new civics are not necessarily better civics.

4) Foreign relations with AIs are totally different. You get bonuses and penalties for certain things you do (such as declaring war, giving or not giving tribute/aid when asked, having the same/different religion as the other civ, etc). You can see them all when you mouse over them in the foreign relations screen and they play a large part in determining how the AI will act toward you. You (usually) can't make a hostile AI happy with you by just bribing them with free techs like you could in civ 3.

5) Maintenance replaces corruption. You have to pay maintenace on the number of cities you have, the distance from the palace (or a palace-type wonder), and for the civics you are using. In relation to #1, you must be careful not to expand to fast and to develop your economy or you will kick you own ass with maint. costs.

6) In relation to #5, in early wars especially, it's often better to raze cities than capture them, simply so you don't have to pay maintenance on them, which can be many times what a newly conquered city will generate for quite a while. Also the AI tends to build its cities in really bad places (such as 1 tile from the coast)

7) Learn to use siege units. Siege is totally different in civ4 - cities have a % defense bonus based on their culture, you can bombard this away with siege units (such as catapults), and when you attack with a siege unit, it does 'collateral damage' You usually lose the siege unit but it damages most, and many times all, of the units in the opposing stack. Siege units are stack killers in civ4 and more or less mandatory to take any city past the initial axe rush. By bombarding a city's cultural defense down to 0%, then sending in two or three suicide cats (or trebs, or cannons, or whatever), you can usually take the city with minimal losses to the rest of your units. Done correctly this can let some of your units attain a lot of promotions, which makes them *very* powerful on the battlefield. Also you can mob SODs of superior units with siege units to batter them down and then kill them off with inferior units - units not at full health suffer severe combat penalties. Monty is (in)famous for doing this actually.

 

[Oddible]

There are more save options in C IV than there were in C III. You can save / load via hot key (F5/F8) or the normal save (CTRL-S or ESC).

If you want strategies to win, DEFINITELY read through some of the docs at the War Academy...
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/

 

[planetfall]

great advice. without a mouse pad the movement seems too slow. i have been using right mouse. it's also annoying that low animations still take a lot of time. oh well.

this router problem is a pain, i keep on losing network every 10 minutes or so.

later, and again thanks

 

[Oddible]

If you poke around these forums you'll find a lot of complaints from folks about the simple elegance of Civ III versus the goopy, sluggish 3D of Civ IV. Take it from me, who ardently opposed the claims that Civ IV needed to be more graphically intense, these problems will soon fade. Soon you will forget how slowly you are moving around the map because the game itself is just so rockin!

At first, I tried to play a lot like Civ III. On the lower levels you can get away with it. As you advance to Noble and Prince, you have to start getting tuned in to Civ IV and take advantage of all the new features and tactics or you won't cut it.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[ggganz]

Okay, options is CTRL+O, and victory conditions is in custom game. As for the 7 top skills, I would say Religion, civics, and Space race changes, for starters. Also, no, there is no Civ4 Edit, but there is XML, which is a lot harder (notepad). Ask modders about it. I never use gameplay mods.

 

[planetfall]

Soon you will forget how slowly you are moving around the map because the game itself is just so rockin!

Some of the problem with slowness may be because I don't have a mouse pad on the laptop and right mousing is slow. it's real ackward to move pieces. I don't know how much I will play c4 yet. as with any game some things are neat and some are poor. the lack of infomation on the maintenance costs and the undisclosed icons at the top of the F1 screen are the most annoying so far. at least it's better than MOO. religion has been a real disappointment especially after being promoted as a new excitement in the game. the link to world builder has made the maps utility for c3 unnecessary. again only partway thru first game and ran at lowest level just to learn the new features of the game.

thanks for your encouragement.

 

[Spaced out]

#1 I actually learned quite a bit about the game just by opening the city window. If you let your mouse sit over any icon, unit, or just about anything a tip box will appear.

In the city screen you can set it on a gold icon an it will break down all the bonusus and multipliers.

Take a look at the icons to see how they are added up.

#2 bronze working is powerful, chop, and whip with slavery to hurry production.

#3 City maint has 2 parts. 1 is distance form palace, the other is total # of cities. So building a new city may increase the maint in all your other cities as well. Weight this with the need for resourses or science rate.

#3.5 Units cost maints but also cost supply when they are outside your cultural border or in enemy lands. Lingering troops cost money.

#4 You don't need wonders in the game. Some are very good.

#5 on the easy settings a good army eliminates the need for good diplomacy

#6 City defenders get many bonuses. Use seige to eliminate this.

#7 Before you build a bank realize that (20 x0.1 tax rate = 2 , 50% increase of 2 is only 1. But building wealth 50% of 10 hammers is 5 gold. (seen when running very high science rate). Realize, you don't need every building right now. I find this wasteful builder strategy very hard to overcome. Work hard on being an efficient building manager.