Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Ekia Tou i]

Is there a limit to how many cities a civilization can build? I'm playing as Russia on Chieftain (lol new player amirite) and I'm trying to build a city outside of my borders. It's a tundra space, cleared of all forestry. I have like 15 or so cities...? I'm at work, so I can't give an exact number.

Can you not build cities on tundra squares or have I reached my civilization's limit on cities?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Praha]

Is there a limit to how many cities a civilization can build? I'm playing as Russia on Chieftain (lol new player amirite) and I'm trying to build a city outside of my borders. It's a tundra space, cleared of all forestry. I have like 15 or so cities...? I'm at work, so I can't give an exact number.

Can you not build cities on tundra squares or have I reached my civilization's limit on cities?

Thanks in advance.

Is it inside neutral borders or inside another civs border?

To answer your question: I don't think there is a limit for each civ, however there is a limit for all civs together. This doesn't seem like an issue, however, as I highly doubt you have reached that. (I think it is 512 cities for huge maps, don't know about other mapsizes, sorry )

You can build cities on tundra squares, not on marsh though.

 

[Ekia Tou i]

Is it inside neutral borders or inside another civs border?

To answer your question: I don't think there is a limit for each civ, however there is a limit for all civs together. This doesn't seem like an issue, however, as I highly doubt you have reached that. (I think it is 512 cities for huge maps, don't know about other mapsizes, sorry )

You can build cities on tundra squares, not on marsh though.

Neutral land, right next to another guy's city. Usually, you can build anyway, triggering a war, but the Build City option doesn't even come up.

And I'm playing on a huge huge huge huge Earth map with 26 civs. Maybe I do have 512 cities... probably not, but the minimap is awfully dotty.

 

[Praha]

Neutral land, right next to another guy's city. Usually, you can build anyway, triggering a war, but the Build City option doesn't even come up.

And I'm playing on a huge huge huge huge Earth map with 26 civs. Maybe I do have 512 cities... probably not, but the minimap is awfully dotty.

Hmmm. Did a message saying "too many cities" ever pop up?

How big is the map, by the way?

I'm betting there is 512 cities in the world, the map being huge. More than "normal" huge, I guess?

Edit: I forgot, if there is the max number of cities, the "build city" option should still be there... This might be incorrect, though.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I guess it's been awhile since I've nuked or been nuked, so I may be remembering wrongly. It may be repeated nuking that causes it, because I do remember my capital surrounded by a ring of desert. As far as rep goes, unprovoked nuking usually gets everyone to DoW you immediately, unless they have an MPP with you.

 

[Ekia Tou i]

Hmmm. Did a message saying "too many cities" ever pop up?

How big is the map, by the way?

I'm betting there is 512 cities in the world, the map being huge. More than "normal" huge, I guess?

No "too many cities" message, no. It's the TETurkhan Earth map, 326x326 (or something along those lines). 26 civs.

But thanks for all your help, man. Guess I'm going to go on the offensive to secure those resources. Poo.

 

[Aabraxan]

And I'm playing on a huge huge huge huge Earth map with 26 civs. Maybe I do have 512 cities... probably not, but the minimap is awfully dotty.

If you're playing on Chieftain, that seems unlikely, even with 26 civs, if you've only got ~15 cities. Was your settler standing on a mountain?

Edit:

No "too many cities" message, no.

And if you didn't get that message, then the number of cities isn't the problem.

 

[Chamnix]

Neutral land, right next to another guy's city.

That's the problem - you can't build a city directly next to a city (yours or a rival's).

 

[Ekia Tou i]

If you're playing on Chieftain, that seems unlikely, even with 26 civs, if you've only got ~15 cities. Was your settler standing on a mountain?

Edit:


And if you didn't get that message, then the number of cities isn't the problem.

No, no mountains. Deforested tundra. Tried it within my borders and outside of my borders. Wouldn't let me or is, at least, not showing a "Build City" icon.

@ Chamnix: Not even outside their borders?

 

[Praha]

That's the problem - you can't build a city directly next to a city (yours or a rival's).

How can neutral land be right next to a city? Isn't there a cultural border?

 

[Aabraxan]

@ Chamnix: Not even outside their borders?

No. Cities can never be immediately adjacent to one another.

 

[anaxagoras]

Now that I mention it, I got a qz: if you have RoP with someone, then in one turn (given they have railroads) you move your units to their capital and attack ¿is it a rep hit? Someone said it only hit your rep if you moved your units and kept them there for one turn, so moving and attacking in the same turn... And if you have RoP and then nuke that civ, while all your units are outside their borders? The nuke was launched OUTSIDE, but landed INSIDE... hmmm...

Nukes and whatever don't matter. The only rule for RoP is this: If you have a RoP with a Civ, and you attack in any manner with your units inside their cultural borders, you will destroy your reputation. It doesn't matter if the attack comes from an ICBM or a lowly warrior. If you have any unit in their boundaries (even a boat in their territorial waters), your rep is toast. Actually, your rep will be toast if you simply declare war with any unit in their borders (even if you don't actually attack, and whether or not you have an active RoP - the RoP just makes it easier).

If you insult the other civilization to the point where THEY declare war on YOU, then your reputation does not suffer.

 

[Whoman69]

Back to the ToE issue, I believe it was the version I was using. I since downloaded the latest version and played a new game and was able to choose.
In regard to the Sun Tzu, its value is greatly diminished after railroads are built. If you can move troops to a central barracks location and get them back to the city in the next turn, there's no real advantage to having them in every city unless you are very pressed by enemies. If at that point you are trying to upgrade anyway, its probably too late.

 

[LCZLAPINSKI]

Back to the ToE issue, I believe it was the version I was using. I since downloaded the latest version and played a new game and was able to choose.
In regard to the Sun Tzu, its value is greatly diminished after railroads are built. If you can move troops to a central barracks location and get them back to the city in the next turn, there's no real advantage to having them in every city unless you are very pressed by enemies. If at that point you are trying to upgrade anyway, its probably too late.

After railroad tech is discovered:
1. Barracks still have the benefits of healing troops in 1 turn which can be important when the enemy is counterattacking.
2. You can start producing veteran military units in your cities sooner. That extra hit point can make a big difference in both attack and defence. So as you get railroads built you can move those veteran units faster to the war front(s).
3. You can upgrade in place for upgrades gained after railroads like infantry, artillery, mechanized infantry and modern armor. The new units are immediately available for improved defense.
4. It can take a long time to build railroads across a large and expanding empire.
5. Usually not all the players can build railroads. You may be capturing cities where the AI hasn't built railroads and it may take a few turns before you can build them especially if you are quickly capturing more cities.
6. You may have to go to war to get a resource (usually coal) needed for building railroads. Getting free barracks is a big help in this situation.

 

[LCZLAPINSKI]

Sun Tzu is especially great if you're planning to conquer a lot of territory! Free barracks everywhere is then a great blessing. I'm not managing to build both Leo's and Sun Tzu, in fact, I rarely build either of them, but if I would have to choose between them, I would probably look at the amount of units I have that I would want to upgrade. If that aren't too many, I would prefer Sun Tzu to Leo's.

It's nice when you capture either of them as well

 

[Sculpt]

Few quick questions:

1. If I have a ROP with a nation, and I move my workers into their territories, where they change all the irrigated squares to mines (which the game allows you to do without a pop-up saying that would cause war), and then have the workers stay there so the other nation cannot change them back to irrigated, and therefore their cities will be slowly reduced in population from starvation, will I take a reputation hit? I would have to assume not, but I want to know for sure. If it doesn't cause a reputation hit, I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it before.

2. I have Civ3 v1.29f. I can't upgrade the Tanks in my Armies to Modern Armor. I read on these forums somewhere that with earlier Civ3 versions you can put your Army on a transport and somehow unload old units and re-load upgraded units into your Army. Is there anyway to upgrade Army units for v1.29f?

3. In the Demographics page, it lists your Ranking and numbers for GNP: Gross National Product (in millions), Productivity (just a number) and Manufactured Goods (in megatons). What do those really measure in the game?

 

[LCZLAPINSKI]

Look for a line in the ini file called GridOn=1

Thanks! It worked for new games. It must not check that value for exisiting saved games because it ignores it on loading older saved games.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Few quick questions:

1. If I have a ROP with a nation, and I move my workers into their territories, where they change all the irrigated squares to mines (which the game allows you to do without a pop-up saying that would cause war), and then have the workers stay there so the other nation cannot change them back to irrigated, and therefore their cities will be slowly reduced in population from starvation, will I take a reputation hit? I would have to assume not, but I want to know for sure. If it doesn't cause a reputation hit, I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it before.

2. I have Civ3 v1.29f. I can't upgrade the Tanks in my Armies to Modern Armor. I read on these forums somewhere that with earlier Civ3 versions you can put your Army on a transport and somehow unload old units and re-load upgraded units into your Army. Is there anyway to upgrade Army units for v1.29f?

3. In the Demographics page, it lists your Ranking and numbers for GNP: Gross National Product (in millions), Productivity (just a number) and Manufactured Goods (in megatons). What do those really measure in the game?

1) This was an exploit that was fixed in later versions. At least planting forests was and they probably fixed doing mines as well. If your concience allows you to do it, go ahead. I don't think there is a rep hit for it.

2) There isn't suppose to be a way to upgrade units in an army. There was a bug that allowed you to do it but i don't know the details.

3) I think there is a war academy article describing these. GNP is total commerce and manufactured goods is total shields. Not sure about productivity... it might be food. I think i'm right anyway.

 

[RoboPig]

3. In the Demographics page, it lists your Ranking and numbers for GNP: Gross National Product (in millions), Productivity (just a number) and Manufactured Goods (in megatons). What do those really measure in the game?

This page explains all the demographics in Civ3.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

@the city building problem people

Maybe settlers can't build in tundra in Teturkhan.

@Sun Tzu People

Even if you have a huge RR network, it's annoying to move all of your defenders into one city and upgrade, leaving the rest of your empire undefended, and even if you aren't bored to death by selecting them all, Sun Tzu's is useful during the Middle Ages.