Opt. number of cities and...

[Aceman101]

Don't 5m year old worlds have more food than 3m? But 3m year old worlds have more shields?

 

[Delphi456]

3M is much more mountainous than 5M, so yes. I only play 5M, but even then, it looks like the AI-Iriquois end up with 3M terrain - always very hilly. But I guess you'd know more about that than me, since you play Iriquois - or have you picked a new favorite civ?

 

[Aceman101]

Well in my last game I didn't have too good luck with iroquise. I had heaps of mountains.

I am trying out byzantines now. But I think the vikings will be a good civ. Maybe one of my favourites.

 

[Phatkarp]

At the risk of straying from the point of the thread . . . what do you guys typically build in your ICS science farms? Artillery? Workers?

 

[AutomatedTeller]

wealth and workers.

 

[gmaharriet]

I build (to start) almost 100% artillery. Arty are 80 shields. When they get down to 70, you can skim a worker. Down to 50 you can skim a settler. Once in awhile, I actually let an arty complete building, but those towns are where I pull 8 to 10 settlers (maybe more) at one time during a war...maybe another several a couple of turns later.

The reason for starting an arty, rather than just starting a settler, is I may want a settler 2 turns early (cash rush) or 2 turns later (waste 2 shields). The longer build time means I don't pay unit maintentance on a settler just sitting around waiting for a space to open up. While the shields are accumulating, my specialists are collecting taxes or producing beakers.

Edit: Almost forgot. Those arty may also become galleons/transports when I'm ready to invade the next continent.

 

[WaterDragoon]

Through this game i have been mapping my core cities, out to the 3rd ring so
I get good size cities from all of them. One thing i have not quite figured out is what sze to let them get to. right now i am doing 13-16 pop in ring 1. 12-13 in ring two. and 6-12 in my third.

On the science farm topic. Do to the corruption i do not let my 80-90% corrupt cities get bigger then one or my whole civ ends up paying for it....

 

[RFHolloway]

If you are playing C3C then the ring thing doesn't work (computer now breaks the ties for rank corruption by settlement date)

If you aren't playing C3C then science farms are far less effective (1 beaker per scientist rather than 3)

90% corrupt cities never make your empire worse (providing they have no buildings in them) They always provide 1 gold 1 shield some unit support (potentially saving you further gold) some food production that you can turn into population, some additional population that counts for your score.

As for how many citizens - set one to work on any tile that produces more than 2 food. Set the rest to scientists. (e.g. if you have 2 irrigated grasslands you can work both of those and support 2 scientists)

What to build - anything thats not a building (unless you are going for 100k culture in which case any culture producing building) - you can always cash rush it, or pop rush it.

 

[dbslikacheung]

when i was playing chieftain game, i built 100+ cities (in a large world)

 

[dbslikacheung]

@TimBentley - are you sure those numbers are right. I've got 119 in my current game and don't have higher than 20% in any city w/o courthouse/police station (level is Deity). Maybe there is a huge effect after you exceed an OCN but I would expect that I've already done that.

How much do you suspect the commercial trait helps? I'm playing as Iroquois.

WoW! it's a cool empire!! i love this one ^^

oh moreover, how come there's a box up right your scene interface?

 

[gmaharriet]

oh moreover, how come there's a box up right your scene interface?

Are you speaking of the box which contains info like "current year 1465, etc"? That's an automatic alert from CivAssistII. It's a program you can download in the Utility Forum which summarizes most of the info you'd have to look up in dozens (if not hundreds ) of game screens. It speeds up your play enormously.

 

[Aceman101]

It speeds up your play enormously.

And it also slows it down.

 

[gmaharriet]

And it also slows it down.

Well, I've heard it slows down older machines, though I haven't had a problem with it. I actually don't use it for playing because it contains more information than I want constantly notifying me. I use it for analyzing .sav files when the game isn't running. For playing I use CrpMapStat, which uses a lot less memory and has similar information presented in a small spreadsheet format and is much easier for me to read quickly. It's also found in the Utility Forum.

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

The biggest help I have found in the alerts with it is that it tells me when my cities are about to riot so I can go micro manage to prevent that from happening. That and the trade options tab.

 

[Aceman101]

The biggest help I have found in the alerts with it is that it tells me when my cities are about to riot so I can go micro manage to prevent that from happening. That and the trade options tab.

That was the bigest help for me too. But I can also see if a city is about to riot by the number of unhappy citizens.

Well, I've heard it slows down older machines, though I haven't had a problem with it. I actually don't use it for playing because it contains more information than I want constantly notifying me. I use it for analyzing .sav files when the game isn't running. For playing I use CrpMapStat, which uses a lot less memory and has similar information presented in a small spreadsheet format and is much easier for me to read quickly. It's also found in the Utility Forum.

I have to admit, my laptop isn't excactly fast but it isn't too old either. The message box got a bit annoying so I closed it, then I thought... Why do I have it open when I'm not using it . So i closed it and it seems to have sped up the game.

I do miss out of some information but when I want to know something i'll just open it up.