Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[RulerOfDaPeople]

Is there a way to guide units (after pressing the "G" button) to the tile you want them to go to with out having to use the mouse? I think my wrist is getting carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

[chickensaver]

newbie questions:
what affects shield production?
does high shield production means less time to build units?
this questions are because I want to rush buildings on my colonies so I can have military factories overseas.

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

newbie questions:
what affects shield production?
does high shield production means less time to build units?
this questions are because I want to rush buildings on my colonies so I can have military factories overseas.

Yes high sheild production means less time to build things. The more sheilds a citie has (you can see this in the top line when you micro manage in the city zoom screen, and how many each tile you are working is producing), the quicker you will be able to build stuff. Naturally, the more shields something costs, the longer it will take to finish production.

If you want to rush buildings the only way you can do that is (depending on your government) you have ALOT of gold or a lot (and I mean an incredible amount) of citizens to sacrafice in that city. This is done in the 'hurry production' command of your drag down menu on the city.

The things that effect sheild production is the number of citizens you have, and the tiles you work those citizens on, and the improvements of those tiles. The best production comes from having alot of citizens to work the land, mining things, and having roads/rroads. But as a general rule, the more citizens you have the more production you'll likely have. This is why civ fanatics here say food is power. Other things that can affect production are factories, policemen (1 shield/turn) and civil engineers (on buildings only, 2 shields/turn).

Yeah! I answered my first question!


Speaking of colonies, I've seen the AI civs make these little things actually called colonies over a recorce or a luxory. How do I do that and what's the purpose?

 

[MAS]

Speaking of colonies, I've seen the AI civs make these little things actually called colonies over a recorce or a luxory. How do I do that and what's the purpose?

Move a worker on a resource and hit this will consume the worker. A colony will connect resources to your trade network that are not within your cultural influence. The colony will disappear once it is consumed by ANY culture. (and you will not get your worker back) if an other civ builds a city next to your colony, you lose control of it, and this is NOT an act of war.

It is usually better to just build a city instead.
Though colonies can be good if you can't afford to wait till you have a settler ready, or if its in the middle of a huge mountain range and you can't build a city near.

this questions are because I want to rush buildings on my colonies so I can have military factories overseas.

If you mean cities that are on far away lands, there is a real chance the city in question is 95% corrupt. If so, it is a waste to build any structures there, unless it has a strategic purpose (such as a barracks for quick healing, or a harbor to connect resources)

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

With that kind of corruption rate, why would any one want to start building on another continent anyway? I mean I know there's conquest but that corruption pretty much defeats the idea. Talk about taking the fun out of a game...

There's only one solution I know of and that's switching to communism and building Police Stations in you're fartherest cities so the rest of your empire doesn't suffer IT'S corruption.


Also, is there a command to move a unit without ever having to touch the mouse? (I know about the G button, but that's only step one of it).

 

[Aabraxan]

You can use the number pad to move units one square at a time.

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

Thanks. Which number is it?

 

[Aceman101]

I'm pretty sure the numbers go like this. 8 (up) 6 (across right) 4 (across left) 2 (down). But I have a laptop without the number pad, so i'm not 100% sure. Also I think 3 is diagonal down-right 1 is diagonal down-left 9 is diagonal up-right and 7 is diagonal up-left. I hope this makes sense.

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

Well now that you've pointed the way, I should figure it out.

 

[Aceman101]

But don't be 100% sure. As I said I use a laptop and I only just remember the keys in my head. But they may be wrong.

 

[gmaharriet]

The even numbers...2,4,6,8...are the cardinal directions...S,W,E,N...and the odd numbers...1,3,7,9...are S/W, S/E, N/W, N/E. It's pretty much visual AND intuitive.

 

[cometflash]

Is it possible to change the keys used by the movement? I'm going to get a new laptop, and I know I'll miss the number keys. I'll probable have to buy a separated one.

 

[Aceman101]

^ You can just buy a keyboard. But, no I don't know hot to change the keys.

 

[Sashie VII]

Yes, buy a keyboard. I used my laptop since two years ago and never got used to using go to command and a mouse.

 

[MAS]

With that kind of corruption rate, why would any one want to start building on another continent anyway? I mean I know there's conquest but that corruption pretty much defeats the idea. Talk about taking the fun out of a game..

I disagree, if you do not build any structures in these cities, they cost you nothing, but each new (empty) city will still give you:
#Land area,
#resources,
#a bigger chance that new resources show up in your terrain, (because of more land area)
# free unit support per city
# 1 uncorrupted commerce.
# 1 unwasted shield that could become 1 gpt with wealth.
# ability to build workers and settlers without compromising the size of your core cities. (building 1 worker in ten turns in 10 cities is like building 1 worker per turn, you can then join those in your core cities and make instant metro's, if you want)
#and in conquest, a scientist produces 3 beakers, assuming a size 5 city, 2 working RR+irrigated grass, and 3 scientist, thats 9 science.

You can pack 7 cities in a 21 tile area, for 63 science. 7 free unit upkeep under republic, 7 uncorrupted commerce and 7 gold per turn.

In comparison: a size 21 metro under communism gives 21 commerce, assuming 20% corruption, 16 commerce, say you have 50% science, that is 8 science, 8 tax, a marked+bank makes it 16 tax and a library+university 16 science. The free unit upkeep is 6. The needed city improvements will total 14 gpt upkeep (police +2, court +1, lib +1, marked +1, uni +2, barracks +1, factory +2, power plant +3, bank +1) so thats +2 gpt left over.
The only thing communism has going for it is that this city will also be able to produce units at a reasonable rate.

 

[Aceman101]

^ Yes, what MAS said is true. However I would stick to conquering my home continent first and then moving on to other continents. Just something that I used to do as a 'newb'.

 

[Goldenbow]

Ive got a big problem
I cant see the cites/irrigation/Barbarian camp Graphis in my game.
Ive had checked the files and seems to be ok. Must it be something, please help

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Can you see other graphics, like roads/mines/country borders? Are all overlay graphics not appearing, or just some?

Try hitting Control - Shift - M and see if that fixes it (it toggles between a "clean" map (nothing but bare terrain) and a regular map (with terrain overlays shown)).

 

[Goldenbow]

I see Resources but no Borders or Cites, not Roads, Goody Huts, Airfiled and the other in the same group

 

[MAS]

Then click on the triangle in the upper left corner of the screen, so a menu will appear, chose "Map options" and start messing with those until you found out whats going on...