Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Ginger_Ale]

Welcome to CFC, j_spencer!

A few points:

1. You don't need to search your island for the "gold" resources. The benefit it provides (which only goes to the city whose radius it is in (enter the city screen and see if it in the "fat X" of tiles the city can work)) is small compared to other things you can do for your economy: trade, build roads on all worked tiles, switch governments, etc.

2. Instead of using entertainers, use the luxury slider on the F1 Domestic Advisor screen (the bar below the science slider). That way, you don't have citizens sitting around (relatively) idle instead of working tiles.

3. You can enter the cities that have entertainers and click a tile around your city that isn't currently being worked and he will go "work" that tile (collect food/shields/commerce).

If you can, upload a save game so we can take a look at it.

 

[j_spencer]

Thanks a lot guys.

Just a quick word on trading. How exactly is it done? I take it the first step is obviously getting my workers to collect as much as possible, and then do I trade other people's gold for my my natual resources? I usually see that other people are very short on gold too, so how will I be able to seriously profit from trade?

The final thing was setting up war alliances. Usually when I first meet other nations I don't have the option of actually setting up an alliance, just exchanging goods etc. Similarly, when I go to war with someone, I can't seem to get the option where you try and persuade a neautral to form a coalition with you against another nation. Does this option only come into the game later on?

Thanks agin. Hope I'm not boring you too much!

 

[Othniel]

Just regarding the Military Alliances (MA), that option only becomes available once an embassy has been established between you and the other civ in question. The embassy can be established either by you or by the AI civ. Note, the opportunity of establishing embassies only comes available once you've researched Writing.

 

[Aabraxan]

Just a quick word on trading. How exactly is it done? I take it the first step is obviously getting my workers to collect as much as possible, and then do I trade other people's gold for my my natual resources? I usually see that other people are very short on gold too, so how will I be able to seriously profit from trade?

First, let's talk about semantics. You asked about getting your "workers to collect as much [gold] as possible." Either I've misunderstood your post, or some clarification is in order. You'll hear people around here talk about having "workers" and "citizens." Workers perform a variety of tasks, none of which include collecting gold. They are small, mobile units, which can be produced by cities. They exist out on the main map, and do things like irrigate fields and build roads and mines. On the other hand, citizens populate your towns and cities, form the small row of heads when you "zoom to a city," and can be assigned to different tiles from that screen.

In order to improve the situation with your treasury, (among other things) you'll want your workers to build roads. Adding a road to a tile adds +1 commerce to that tile. However, you won't actually get that bonus unless a citizen is working that tile.

As for what you can trade, you can buy or sell technologies, luxuries, strategic resources, workers, etc. You can even bribe other civs into alliances against a common enemy. You cannot buy or sell bonus resources.

As to the mechanics, you can either hit the little "D" next to the box in the lower left corner, or hit the F4 screen and double-click on someone's face or hit either Shift+D or Ctrl+D (I forget which).

Unfortunately, at the lower difficulty levels, the AI rarely has much with which to trade. As you move up in difficulty, though, you'll find it quite profitable.

 

[Diviner]

to gain so much gold you need to change government. despotism is painfully corrupt to run a prosperous economics. choose republic and you will get much more gold, scientific research will be much easier, though units need to be supported from treasury. so if you like to be peaceful choose republic immediately.

 

[j_spencer]

Great, thanks. I'm still having difficulty forming alliences however. I have learned writing, and I know that to make an alliance you have to set an embassy up in the other countries capital. How do you do that though? I tried clicking and double-clicking on the capitals of other countries but to no avail.

 

[Keroro]

There should be a little box with a D in it at the bottom right of the screen. Click that.

 

[Aabraxan]

Isn't it actually the little E?

 

[Mirc]

Great, thanks. I'm still having difficulty forming alliences however. I have learned writing, and I know that to make an alliance you have to set an embassy up in the other countries capital. How do you do that though? I tried clicking and double-clicking on the capitals of other countries but to no avail.

You have to learn Writing first...

 

[splunge the 2nd]

How's monarchy? I'm mounting a large scale war on another continent with a fairly widespread empire. Is Monarchy a good compromise between wretched corruption and a war weary republic? Is there a good primer on the governments?
Thanks!

 

[Tone]

@Mirc: he says that he has writing!

Isn't it actually the little E?

Well that's what I use.

If you have vanilla though, you don't have that button. It's something like right-click on the capital and select Conduct Espionage (or something like that) IIRC.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

I'm playing Civ 3 Complete, and couldn't get the embassy screen unless I double clicked the star on my capital in the map screen. The E shortcuts wouldn't work

 

[Mirc]

@Mirc: he says that he has writing!

Ah sorry... I didn't realize that.

For Vanilla, double click the star of your capital.

 

[Aabraxan]

How's monarchy? I'm mounting a large scale war on another continent with a fairly widespread empire. Is Monarchy a good compromise between wretched corruption and a war weary republic? Is there a good primer on the governments?
Thanks!

I can't think of a primer on governments. As to the rest of it, this isn't easily answered in a Quick Answers/Newbie Questions format. There are just too many factors. You'll get a more complete answer if you start another thread and post a save.

 

[bjfrones]

Is it possible to restart a game in Civ3? Eventually start a new game with the same map?

Thanks for answering.

 

[Aabraxan]

I don't know about vanilla, but Conquests has a "Play Last World" button.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

I'm playing Civ 3 Complete, and couldn't get the embassy screen unless I double clicked the star on my capital in the map screen. The E shortcuts wouldn't work

Do you mean you pressed "E" on your keyboard or you tried to click the "E" in the bottom right corner of your screen?

Is it possible to restart a game in Civ3? Eventually start a new game with the same map?

Thanks for answering.

Like Aabraxan said, it's possible in C3C (using the Play Last World option, which essentially keeps the seed # for your game as well as the other settings).

If you use autosaves, you can check your autosaves folder (in the "Load Save" menu) for the 4000 BC save. This won't work if you want to change even one of the settings.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Thanks Abraxan!

By the way, what does Economics advance get you. On the data cheat sheeets it says you can build Adam Smith's Trading Co (that's self explanatory) and "doubles the effect of wealth." What does that mean?

Another quickie-If I don't bother picking up Chivalry, does that mean I can't upgrade my Horsemen to Calvalry since I can't get knights?

 

[EMan]

IIRC, you get 1 additional gold for every 4 producing shields when you have "Wealth" in the production box. So doubled means you get 1 for every 2 "blue" shields.

I'm a bit hazy on this because except for "running out the clock" in the late game for a Histographic Victory, I never worry about generating gold this way.......So, for practical purposes, I think it's pretty useless.

Edit: You can find it in the Civilopedia under Wealth.

 

[bjfrones]

Play last world? Where do I find that?