Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[darski]

One of my favourite and most useful functions in the game is [Sentry].

In the original release of Civ III they removed it but then (the peasants are revolting) they restored it with the 1.29 patch. Should I manage to get a C3complete, would Sentry still be available?

This may seem odd but it could be a dealbreaker for me.

 

[Aabraxan]

Oh man, are they bad/stupid? That may be another mistake of mine....

Some people will tell you that you should never, ever, ever use the governor. I'll just say that humans can do a better job of governing.

Also, how do you deal with corruption? with CxxC that was the main problem. I had 6/7 corruption in some places! DO you just build the courthouse first?

First, go to the War Academy:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/corruption_c3c.php

Then, it depends on how much corruption and in which cities. Consider the Role of The Specialist Citizen:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/specialists.php

Some cities will get courthouses, some won't. Some will just be specialist farms.

 

[darski]

Also, how do you deal with corruption? with CxxC that was the main problem. I had 6/7 corruption in some places! DO you just build the courthouse first?

If you are playing just on your own, and don't want to have to deal with all that corruption, you can get a .bic Mod in creation and customization that flags many buildings to deal with corruption.

if you are playing multi-player, Succession games or HoF, you couldn't use this but if it is just for your own play it is a good fix. I just want to build my Civ and not deal with a badly designed corruption set up. The changes that were made made more sense to me than the corruption levels in the game.

(Everyone knows the graft all occurs at the capital whether it is Ottawa, Washington, Rome or Moscow.)<my bad>

someone has said that you can just flag all the buildings in Civ edit but I wasn't able to do that at the time.

 

[hrhomer]

Hmm, no, I have the opposite problem, when he is within the territory he always shows potential borders, when outside, not always.

In my experience, the Settler will show potential city borders when he is inside my cultural borders as long as he at least two spaces away from an existing city - that is, at least one space separates him from a city. The exception is that a Settler NEVER shows potential city borders if he can't settle on the space - a marsh or mountain, mainly.

Joe

 

[darski]

Some people will tell you that you should never, ever, ever use the governor. I'll just say that humans can do a better job of governing. .

I beg to differ, these people obviously don't know me or they would tell people to ALWAYS use the Guv. This is my absolute all-time worst ever part of playing Civ.

Last night, when CA II was telling me that so and so is wasting food, so and so is working unimproved squares (say in a nasal, whiny and boring voice) I wanted to scream. City management is not something I enjoy. i can do it if absolutely pressed but I do it badly.

someone has a tagline that says Artificial Intelligence will defeat natural stupidity... that would be me.

 

[Aabraxan]

darski, what I'm saying is that I don't follow the "never, ever" line of reasoning. There's a time and place to use the governor, and if you have more fun using the governor than not, do so. Not enjoying city management is not the same as not being able to outdo the AI at it, though. I believe that you could outmanage the AI. Not everyone wants to know how to micromanage every morsel, schilling and shield in the game, though. If learning to do so is more effort than it's worth to you, that's your call.

 

[BavariaValkyrie]

Hello, long time no see! If I have understood the recent posts correctly, the suggestion is to take quite a bit of time to look at each city before doing the next turn. I seem to play Civilisation in the same way I play chess - fast and in a seek&destroy manner! Patience has never really been my strength!

I have a few questions after having played (and lost) a few games:

1. when is it worth building a fortress / barricade?

2. have you ever used a Crusader to build a fortress and what's the advantage of building a fortress other than giving whoever you put in there a defensive bonus?

3. I still have rioting going on in my towns. I followed the advice
- to check my food is not an uneven number
- to check I have luxuries to make people happy
- to build aquaeducts to enable the city to grow beyond 6 and get medicine etc for it to grow beyond 12

What remedies are there against rioting? Is it true that in monarchy it suffices to send a few soldiers in to quell the rioting?

Also, I find that the time for a town I have just conquered to stop rioting takes longer. Is there a formula for how long it takes or is that just random?

4. In my previous games I didn't have those obelisks, but now they appear next to the first settler. Is this something that comes up because I have enabled/disabled something in the game preferences by mistake?

Thanks, as usual, for all those helpful friends on this forum. Good to see you again, look forward to have a "chat" soon.

xx

 

[Aabraxan]

I can't answer all of these, but I'll answer what I can:

3. I still have rioting going on in my towns. I followed the advice
- to check my food is not an uneven number
- to check I have luxuries to make people happy
- to build aquaeducts to enable the city to grow beyond 6 and get medicine etc for it to grow beyond 12

The amount of food in a city has to do with growth. At each difficulty level, you get a certain number of content citizens before they start to be "born cranky." So food is only indirectly related to happiness. Luxuries, by contrast, are directly related to happiness. Aqueducts will allow the city to support more people, but if your city is beyond the content number allowed for your difficulty level, the new ones will be born cranky.

What remedies are there against rioting? Is it true that in monarchy it suffices to send a few soldiers in to quell the rioting?

Luxuries, the lux slider, specialists. Luxuries make more people happy (or at least content, I'm not sure), and the luxury slider helps more people be content or happy. Under Monarchy, you can use military units as Military Police to help with happiness, but I think you're limited to 3 per city that will function as MPs.

Also, I find that the time for a town I have just conquered to stop rioting takes longer. Is there a formula for how long it takes or is that just random?

There probably is a formula, but I don't know what it is. I turn every non-resisting foreign citizen into a specialist and starve the town down to size one. That helps.

4. In my previous games I didn't have those obelisks, but now they appear next to the first settler. Is this something that comes up because I have enabled/disabled something in the game preferences by mistake?

In the game setup screen, you've enabled something. I think they're called "capture the flag" or victory points. Someone will have to clarify what they're called, but yes, you've enabled something at game setup.

 

[BavariaValkyrie]

@Aabraxan: what can I say - always there for me.... Thank you

 

[btfx]

Err... How DO you disable the governor? Also, now that I stick close to CxxC, there is no need for settlers to show the radius. That whole thing:
..XXX
XXXXX
XXCXX
XXXXX
..XXX

Drove me nuts! It was so hard to make my settlement plans work...

By the way, using CxxC is great except that I never get huge powerhouse cities. Usually I like to have at least 2 or 3. One to build military academy and pump out armies, and the rest to build wonders, FAST. This generally requires a city smack in the middle of a hills/mountains-grassland/floodplains border. With CxxC I will be unable to make use of all the tiles, and that's really the big idea. So if you generally use CxxC, do you violate that sometimes? Also, This is probably a NO, but in Civ2, you could make a food trade route, and build a city in the mountains that could hit 80 shields/turn. I'm guessing that is no longer an option...

 

[Norton II]

Hello, long time no see! If I have understood the recent posts correctly, the suggestion is to take quite a bit of time to look at each city before doing the next turn. I seem to play Civilisation in the same way I play chess - fast and in a seek&destroy manner! Patience has never really been my strength!

I have a few questions after having played (and lost) a few games:

1. when is it worth building a fortress / barricade?

2. have you ever used a Crusader to build a fortress and what's the advantage of building a fortress other than giving whoever you put in there a defensive bonus?

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.

3. I still have rioting going on in my towns. I followed the advice
- to check my food is not an uneven number
- to check I have luxuries to make people happy
- to build aquaeducts to enable the city to grow beyond 6 and get medicine etc for it to grow beyond 12

What remedies are there against rioting? Is it true that in monarchy it suffices to send a few soldiers in to quell the rioting?

Also, I find that the time for a town I have just conquered to stop rioting takes longer. Is there a formula for how long it takes or is that just random?

Remedies against rioting:
1. luxury resources and markets
2. the lux slider
3. specialists
4. temples, cathedrals, colosseums (not recommended)
5. military police--available in every government except republic and democracy (but don't avoid republic just so you can use MPs)

Also, if you turn the governor off, you'll usually get a one-turn grace period before your towns riot.

In the last part, are you talking about rioting or resistance? Captured towns have more unhappiness when you're at war with the civ you captured them from, so it takes a little more work to prevent riots in those towns. Resistance is a separate issue, though: you can only quell as many resisters in a given turn as you have units in the resisting town on that turn. Your chances of quelling each resister depend on what governments you and your enemy are in and how your culture compares to that of your enemy.

4. In my previous games I didn't have those obelisks, but now they appear next to the first settler. Is this something that comes up because I have enabled/disabled something in the game preferences by mistake?

Thanks, as usual, for all those helpful friends on this forum. Good to see you again, look forward to have a "chat" soon.

xx

Looks like you've enabled victory point scoring in this game (maybe you played a Conquests scenario and forgot to change the preferences back).

EDIT: Looks like i x-posted with Aabraxan on some of this stuff.

 

[Norton II]

Err... How DO you disable the governor? Also, now that I stick close to CxxC, there is no need for settlers to show the radius. That whole thing:
..XXX
XXXXX
XXCXX
XXXXX
..XXX

Drove me nuts! It was so hard to make my settlement plans work...

By the way, using CxxC is great except that I never get huge powerhouse cities. Usually I like to have at least 2 or 3. One to build military academy and pump out armies, and the rest to build wonders, FAST. This generally requires a city smack in the middle of a hills/mountains-grassland/floodplains border. With CxxC I will be unable to make use of all the tiles, and that's really the big idea. So if you generally use CxxC, do you violate that sometimes? Also, This is probably a NO, but in Civ2, you could make a food trade route, and build a city in the mountains that could hit 80 shields/turn. I'm guessing that is no longer an option...

To disable the governor everywhere, right-click on a city, then set "manage citizen moods" to no for all cities.

It's possible to get very productive cities using CxxC, especially once you hit the IA. With factories, rails, and the Hoover Dam, 60-spt size 12 cities aren't that uncommon. I've even had an 80-spt capital at size 12 before, and in one game, I had a size 12 city that could turn out a modern armor every turn! That city had the Iron Works, though.

 

[Aabraxan]

Err... How DO you disable the governor?

I've got mine set up so that I never have to worry about it, so it's been a while, but . . . best as I recall, go into the city view and hit "contact governor," then turn off all of the "emphasize" buttons except "emphasize production." IIUC (and it's a pretty big "if" here), that keeps the governor from managing happiness, and a variety of other things, but you'll still get shields from a new citizen on the turn that they're born. (This isn't my strong suit, so some of the better micromanagers may have to help you here.)

Also, now that I stick close to CxxC, there is no need for settlers to show the radius. That whole thing:
..XXX
XXXXX
XXCXX
XXXXX
..XXX

Drove me nuts! It was so hard to make my settlement plans work...

By the way, using CxxC is great except that I never get huge powerhouse cities. Usually I like to have at least 2 or 3. One to build military academy and pump out armies, and the rest to build wonders, FAST. This generally requires a city smack in the middle of a hills/mountains-grassland/floodplains border. With CxxC I will be unable to make use of all the tiles, and that's really the big idea. So if you generally use CxxC, do you violate that sometimes? Also, This is probably a NO, but in Civ2, you could make a food trade route, and build a city in the mountains that could hit 80 shields/turn. I'm guessing that is no longer an option...

I don't stick to a strict CxxC. That's my rule of thumb, but if I have to vary it to grab a resource, so be it. Expect some overlap of tiles. If you go read some of the SGs with the really good players, you'll see them talk about swapping tiles between two cities, so that both cities get the benefit without wasting resources. I usually put my capitol at CxxxC, but I've been rethinking that of late. The rest of my core and semi-core goes CxxC, and CxC for my specialist farms. As far as powerhouse cities, though, until you hit Medicine, nothing will grow over size 12, anyway. That's a long way from 4000 BC and you have to waste tiles until then if you space cities too far apart. It's not that you can't use all of the tiles at CxxC, it's that any one city can't use all 21 tiles. What I always bear in mind is that 1 metropolis, no matter how large or powerful, is limited to one military unit per turn (excepting a couple of wonders), while 3 cities (which might fit into just a little more space) can spit them out faster.

And no, no trade routes, at least not that I'm aware of. Every city feeds itself.

 

[btfx]

I just asked a similar question recently, about the fortresses and barricades. I forgot that crusaders could build them, but basically they are kinda hard to use. In civ2, if there was a mountain range (or even just one mountain) between you and your enemy, you could build a road form your land to theirs, over a mountain, then build a fortress on the mountain and declare war. The enemy would send their units down the road, and you would probably wipe out their entire offensive forces. Cannons would either have to stop (and be attacked) or attack with 1/3 or 2/3 their strength. All useless against a few defensive units in a fortress.

Now the AI is smarter. If you smack a defensive unit on top of a mountain, don't expect the AI to destroy half it's military taking back mount useless. This is where Fort. and Barr. come in. First of all, if you are fighting an offensive war, you probably don't need these. Second, think of it as a metropolis with Sun Tzu's war academy. Because if they take it from you, the effect will feel very similar. You have to stack a bunch of defensive units there, AND a bunch of offensive units/bombarders. The defense is to make sure they don't take the fort from you, the offense is to take shots at passing units. So it's a big investment, you probably won't use it. If the front with the enemy is big, don't waste your workers' time, the AI is smart enough to go around. Second, like I said, if it's an offensive war, or will soon become one, there's no point in tying up units back home. ALSO, if the war is already begun, it is quite possible that you won't have enough time to finish the barricade and/or load it up, yesterday I made this mistake, the Iroquois (from the NorthEast) took one of mu barricades, and I found it easier to conquer the Aztecs (North) and attack the Iroquois around the barricade, from the west. I saved, reloaded, and tried to retake the barricade. It did, indeed cost me a hell of a lot more units to take that barricade. That's just to show that a 200&#37; bonus is a lot.

Basically, they are used to deny access, you either have to take it from me (go ahead and try) or you can walk right past, but I will weaken your forces significantly, and it won't be hard to finish you off. If you're smart, you'll go around.

Also, use them to multiply your defenses. If normally, you would put three musketmen to protect your coal, now you can put one, and a barricade. (I would put two though.)

 

[btfx]

I've got mine set up so that I never have to worry about it, so it's been a while, but . . . best as I recall, go into the city view and hit "contact governor," then turn off all of the "emphasize" buttons except "emphasize production." IIUC (and it's a pretty big "if" here), that keeps the governor from managing happiness, and a variety of other things, but you'll still get shields from a new citizen on the turn that they're born. (This isn't my strong suit, so some of the better micromanagers may have to help you here.)

Ahh, so there's no way to make it like civ2? Automatic citizen placement, but prompting you every time something has been completed? That's what I really want to do. Now I just try to memorize which cities have finished a project, and change their production. It would be nice if there was an option for a civ2-like mandatory prompt. Or at least automatically revert to Wealth, so I can pick them off from the domestic adviser screen.

I don't stick to a strict CxxC. That's my rule of thumb, but if I have to vary it to grab a resource, so be it. Expect some overlap of tiles. If you go read some of the SGs with the really good players, you'll see them talk about swapping tiles between two cities, so that both cities get the benefit without wasting resources. I usually put my capitol at CxxxC, but I've been rethinking that of late. The rest of my core and semi-core goes CxxC, and CxC for my specialist farms. As far as powerhouse cities, though, until you hit Medicine, nothing will grow over size 12, anyway. That's a long way from 4000 BC and you have to waste tiles until then if you space cities too far apart. It's not that you can't use all of the tiles at CxxC, it's that any one city can't use all 21 tiles. What I always bear in mind is that 1 metropolis, no matter how large or powerful, is limited to one military unit per turn (excepting a couple of wonders), while 3 cities (which might fit into just a little more space) can spit them out faster.

I guess I'm just weird with these, I suppose what I'll try to do is set up my border cities in CxxC, and then fill in the rest with either that or OCP (old habits are so hard to break...)

And no, no trade routes, at least not that I'm aware of. Every city feeds itself.

Blast!

A few more questions:
1. Does the AI at all understand the concept of annihilation? If I have 1 almost defenseless city left, and there is an army/stack outside that city, I will give anything for peace. The AI thinks that an impi warrior can fight off 5 veteran horsemen?

2. How do I project power? This is for collecting tribute and such. is it better to have offensive or defensive or naval or bombardment units?

3. I want the AIs to have more stuff to trade for my resources, how do I go about doing this? Do I simply make large donations to all of them?

 

[Fiz]

I know I'm setting myself up for feeling really dumb, but I've simply been unable to find the answer.

I've read so many articles that refer to "luxury taxes". The scientific and economics sliders are easy to find, and I have created tax collectors, but I'm getting the impression that there's a spot where luxury taxes can be applied. Either that, or I'm missing something.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome, Fiz. There aren't any stupid questions. The two sliders that you've found are the science and luxury sliders. Notice that the bottom one has a happy face. Moving that slider to the right increases the amount of your per turn income that goes to luxury spending.

 

[Aabraxan]

Automatic citizen placement, but prompting you every time something has been completed? That's what I really want to do.

Look in your Preferences. There's a box for "always ask what to build next," and "always build previous" (or some such). Checking them will make your advisor pop up every time a city finishes a build. Citizens will automatically be placed somewhere.

A few more questions:
1. Does the AI at all understand the concept of annihilation? If I have 1 almost defenseless city left, and there is an army/stack outside that city, I will give anything for peace. The AI thinks that an impi warrior can fight off 5 veteran horsemen?

2. How do I project power? This is for collecting tribute and such. is it better to have offensive or defensive or naval or bombardment units?

3. I want the AIs to have more stuff to trade for my resources, how do I go about doing this? Do I simply make large donations to all of them?

1. No, it won't understand.
2. Offensive units are rated more highly by the AI than defensive units. For the exact equations, someone who understands better than I will have to consult.
3. You move up in difficulty. As you move up, you'll see the AI build, expand, and research faster, giving them more to trade.

 

[MAS]

There are 2 sliders in the F1 screen.
SCI and LUX
The TAX slider is hidden.

The 3 sliders always make up 100&#37;. So if SCI is 50% and LUX is 20%, then tax is automatically 100-50-20= 30%

SCI is the % of non-corrupted commerce in each city that will be transformed into science beakers.
LUX is the % of non-corrupted commerce in each city that will be transformed into happiness effect.
TAX is the % of non-corrupted commerce in each city that will be transformed into gold per turn income.

The tax-man specialist doesn't produce commerce, it just produces 2 gpt that will be added to your gpt income directly
The scientist specialist doesn't produce commerce, it just produces 3 beakers per turn that will be added to your research project directly.

 

[Fiz]

Theoretical question: Given a single city with no neighbors, is there any advantage to developing cells beyond the surrounding 21?