Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[darski]

In my current game every opponent is Militaristic. I was just checking some game stats in CAII and noticed this little bit of helpful information.

This was with random civs for all of them. I find this highly suspicious

Is this just flat out bad luck and happenstance?

or do they think Sashie VII is playing this game?

 

[psweetman1590]

I thought I was being diplomatic!

Anywhere on the map COULD have a resource, no?.......You can't build a city everywhere(?). Would you prefer to build a city on a deserted frozen mountainous wasteland that requires a harbor to connect to your empire and everything has to be moved by ship, or someplace connected by road with lush grassland, fresh water and bonus resources? I suppose if I knew that saltpeter was going to show up there, it "might" be different........but us humans can't cheat...Err, I mean forsee the future, like the AI.

Also, in my experience, resources usually show up on the mainland, not in Gibraltar..............I guess I'm just for an easy life!

Of course, for the most part you're right. I was assuming that all the spots on the mainland were already taken. In such a case, why not grab the island (which I find is more likely to have resources on it than the same tiles on the mainland) for yourself? It could serve as a naval base, an unsinkable aircraft carrier, and it denies that area to the AI, making one less annoying, god-forsaken city to capture before winning. That in addition to the possibility of getting a resource.

 

[btfx]

More questions...

1. I captured a city, then ran rails to it, but the rails would not connect!? now the city is surrounded on 8 sides by rails, but none of them connect. The roads work fine though. I tried telling workers to rail while in the city, but that won't do it.... Any solutions?

2. Also, is war bad for your reputation? I mean if the Inca are always declaring war on me it's bad for their rep, but is it also bad for me not to ask for peace?

Edit: "It could serve as a naval base, an unsinkable aircraft carrier, and it denies that area to the AI"

My thought exactly. I would just build an airfield, but the AI could take that, plus having culture borders forces them to stay off the island unless they plan on taking it from me (not likely )

 

[psweetman1590]

1) No idea. It shouldn't be doing that. The city square is supposed to automatically have a road and railroad under it...

2) No, war is never bad for your rep unless you break an agreement.

I think, however, that you are talking about the AI's attitude towards you and not your reputation. Wars will cause the AI you're fighting with to get angry at you, yes. The more of their units you kill, and the more cities you take, the more they'll hate you. Other civs don't care though, unless you raze cities, which makes everyone regard you as a bloodthirsty murderer.

 

[Aceman101]

1. If you have enemy's bordors sourrrounding you resources won't get through their roads. And railroads need coal. Is the city sorrounded by enemies borders?

(edit) Or does he mean the center city square?

2. No, I'm not sure if you get a rep hit when your troops are in their territory and then they declare. But if they just declare on you and you don't have troops in their borders, than you won't get a rep hit.

(edit) x post.

 

[Aabraxan]

btfx, may I ask how you know the rails don't connect? As psweetman1590 said, the city should already have rails under it.

 

[btfx]

Blargh! I saved, exited and loaded. Fortunately or unfortunately, the problem fixed itself :/ this is what it looks like:

This is what it used to look like:

Edit: (Artist's impression of screenshot)
I knew there wasn't a rr connecting it to surrounding tiles because it took 1/3 movement points to enter or exit th city.

Another question, though I may find out the answer myself... In the civilopedia it says the unit has to spend a turn without moving to recover a block (or all blocks if in barracks). If you use rr tracks, zero movement points are used, but does it count as movement? If not, that's very good. Also, which units can be captured? I know workers can be captured (with 1/2 efficiency), also the javelin thrower can turn units into foreign workers, and the privateer and man-o-war can self-replicate, but as I found out the artillery family can also be captured, but only if they are in a city. Or something. Someone please elaborate.

 

[Aabraxan]

Run a search in the "Bug reports" subforum. I can't promise that there's anything there, but this "rr not connecting" is ringing a bell. I think I've heard it before.

Any unit with no attack or defense rating (workers, artillery, etc) can be captured, provided that the attacking civ possesses the tech to use it. Otherwise, it's destroyed. So if you do not have metallurgy and you send a horseman against an unguarded cannon, the cannon will be destroyed.


Edit: Found it:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=68547&highlight=railroad

 

[Norton II]

Another question, though I may find out the answer myself... In the civilopedia it says the unit has to spend a turn without moving to recover a block (or all blocks if in barracks). If you use rr tracks, zero movement points are used, but does it count as movement? If not, that's very good. Also, which units can be captured? I know workers can be captured (with 1/2 efficiency), also the javelin thrower can turn units into foreign workers, and the privateer and man-o-war can self-replicate, but as I found out the artillery family can also be captured, but only if they are in a city. Or something. Someone please elaborate.

Moving over rails doesn't count as movement for recovery purposes. Aabraxan answered your other question, but another thing to remember is that expansionist civs can capture scouts, but non-expansionist civs will kill them. Also, artillery doesn't have to be in a city to be captured.

 

[btfx]

BLAST! :suicide:

There is only one other on my continent, and it belongs to the Aztecs. Since I am already at war with the Inca I cannot afford it at the moment.
Why Murphy's law WHY?!

 

[vmxa]

I am pretty sure the rails issue was fix in C3C in 1.20 or 1.22.

 

[EMan]

With vmxa's comment and Aabraxan's reference to a 2003 thread (!) for the railroad problem, leads me to my question for you, btfx:

Are you playing with the final (latest) version of C3C? (Version 1.22)

(The version number is at the bottom left of the screen on the C3C Game Start-up Menu.....First screen after the opening movie.)

 

[btfx]

I dunno if this post is against forum rules, delete it if patch discussion is not allowed

Err...........
Well, I installed C3C, updated to v1.22, but then couldn't find a no-cd patch for 1.22. Since the patch application is just replacing th main executable ("civ3conquests.exe" or something like that). So I replaced it with the 1.15 patch. This caused a few problems, for example the main menu buttons are off by one place (Play last World means New game, New game means Quick start, Quick start means Load game or something, Play last world was actually replaced by "Build Barricade", I thought it was funny). Also there are other string mismatches. The date is always "Dec.", you can see what date buildings were built on in the cultural adviser, but other than that "Dec." is always any date displayed. Colonies are labeled "Firaxis games is a trademark of Firaxis games Inc." instead of the nation's name.
All in all it's a pain in the ass. But Having to use the CD is a much bigger pain in the ass for me at least. I have looked on a lot of patch sites and can't find anything but v1.15.

 

[Lord Parkin]

There are no problems with the official patch itself being discussed, but the no-CD related items cannot be discussed here. Just use the disk, it's a lot easier and very cheap to buy.

 

[Padma]

btfx: One thing we do NOT support here is piracy. Just use the CD when you start the game. It's really not that hard....

 

[btfx]

Heh, I have the CD, the game was a gift, I just play on a laptop, so the CD drive kills the battery fast. I suppose I could just make an image of the CD and mount it... :/

 

[BavariaValkyrie]

1. I never really bother with them, except for decoration. They might be worth building on a resource if you think that resource is going to come under attack, or at higher levels when defending against an enemy with a lot of units.

2. I don't bother much with crusaders, either. If I capture KT (I never build it), I'll use the crusaders to defend towns that I think might be attacked, but that's about it. Aside from the defensive bonus, units in fortresses get Zones of Control (ZOC), which means that they might get a free shot at passing enemy units.

I always liked the Crusaders but that's a sentimental thing probably. I have used the fortresses on important resources in the past but the ZOC and shooting at passing enemies is new to me!

Thanks for your input!

 

[ForesterSOF]

So you dont use any questionable ways what you could do is use the program Game Jackel.

This program make a copy of the needed info when you start the game with the CD in.

Is this much allowed to say since I am not endorsing piracy but to make the needed file with his own CD.

 

[gmaharriet]

Heh, I have the CD, the game was a gift, I just play on a laptop, so the CD drive kills the battery fast.

I'm not totally certain, but I think the game just looks for the CD when you start up, but you don't need it to play after that. If that's how it works, could you not attach the CD drive to boot up, then unhook it to continue play? I've never used a laptop, so I don't really know.

I agree it might be terribly inconvenient to need the CD if you share your machine with other users and they put other CD's (music?) in the drive. My computer is all MINE. Heaven help anyone so foolish as to try to touch it.

 

[btfx]

I'm not totally certain, but I think the game just looks for the CD when you start up, but you don't need it to play after that. If that's how it works, could you not attach the CD drive to boot up, then unhook it to continue play? I've never used a laptop, so I don't really know.

I agree it might be terribly inconvenient to need the CD if you share your machine with other users and they put other CD's (music?) in the drive. My computer is all MINE. Heaven help anyone so foolish as to try to touch it.

I thought that might be it,still kinda inconvenient, but I solved the problem by now, by uhh... ...magic. So I am up to v1.22. By the way, I just realized this, but if you sign an alliance, you have to stay at war for 20 turns. That explains why my rep gets trashed sometimes. And why nations go to war with me with no warning.

By the way, I got those two cities (and one more) in a peace deal, so the oil is all mine.

More questions:

1. I hear some talk about exiling a civ (to an island usually) what is the purpose of that? Is it bad for your rep to have destroyed the last city of a civ?

2. I have read conflicting info on culture flipping probabilities. I captured the Inca capitol (Pyramids and Sun Tzu) by marching two armies (3cavalry and 2guerrilla+infantry) and simply taking it. Now I am afraid to lose it, but I almost have flight, and I'm thinking of airlifting more units there (and to a few other cities I'm worried about. I heard that with a big enough garrison you can ensure no culture flip, but I also heard the opposite... So?

3. Strategic question: On the other side of the world, Netherlands had about 1/3 of the second continent group, there are four civs on the group, should I get them allied against the dutch or should I pick them off in ascending order of power. Dutch have a tech lead over everyone but me, so I was thinking they might be able to take cities to their South, while I took their Northern cities, and make them refrain from attacking by placing lots of defense there.

4. How do your spies become veterans?

5. I am researching Flight now, 7 turns (just starting), should I wait for it before I go Communist?

6. Is Communism really that bad for Commerce, Is it good for it if you have a lot of spread out cities?