Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[SamSniped]

Not a bug. Just extremely stupid to do, from what I've seen.

 

[AdamCrock]

Not a bug. Just extremely stupid to do, from what I've seen.

Well I'm not planning on buildin a cottage there anyway but that's not what I've asked I've asked what are requirements for the possibility of building cottages on hills

 

[Abegweit]

cottages are allowed on green hills.

 

[AdamCrock]

Thanks - Guess Im using hotkeys too much, I can't believe I never noticed that before I feel like such a noob

 

[Merovech]

Cottages are allowed on any tile type with at least one food: Flat plains, flat tundra, and any floodplains or grassland tiles.

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Cottages are allowed on any tile type with at least one food...

Is that the requirement? I've been wondering about that for a while now, thanks.

 

[Lennier]

I've also noticed that the AI really likes to cottage hills. I try to remember to pillage them before conquering the city. But sometimes I forget to.

 

[Kallikrates]

I do not think one can build cottages on any flat tundra tile. I think this only works if the tundra is adjacent to fresh water so one could also build a farm or watermill. In those cases one can build a cottage instead. But not on "isolated" tundra tiles.
I alos usually pillage the AI's hill villages unless the city has already decent production. But it can sometimes make sense for city specialization to build cottages on green hills.

 

[nfw]

oops, wrong thread

 

[Merovech]

I do not think one can build cottages on any flat tundra tile. I think this only works if the tundra is adjacent to fresh water so one could also build a farm or watermill. In those cases one can build a cottage instead. But not on "isolated" tundra tiles.

I just tested this, and I think that you are right. Interesting...

 

[dmd175]

Is there any way to better use these tundra tiles? I just read a terrain/improvement guide and obviously farm/cottage available of riverside or Lumbermill of forest, but the zero food ones...?

 

[Kallikrates]

I don't think they can be improved at all (except for roads).
One should keep tundra forests for lumber mills and with biology tundra farms are o.k. But overall it is just bad terrain, although ice and desert is even worse. (On river ice or desert food will appear miraculously with state property watermills, another piece of glorious nonsense...)
This lack of terraforming options for bad terrain is actually something I do dislike about Civ IV. The map gets even more important than it already is, because tundra and desert are so crappy (and so frequent on many of my maps...), they cannot even transmit irrigation. Or those isolated un-irrigable food resources. I really hate this.

 

[ChaosSlayer]

yeah tundras are poor and snow/desert just bad. - but you can build workshops on tundras, no?

I made few adjustments to my game and added 2 late game improvements available with Superconductors:
Solar Plant for deserts and Thermal Turbine for snows gave them 2 2 each

 

[Sisiutil]

yeah tundras are poor and snow/desert just bad. - but you can build workshops on tundras, no?

I made few adjustments to my game and added 2 late game improvements available with Superconductors:
Solar Plant for deserts and Thermal Turbine for snows gave them 2 2 each

IIRC, you can only improve flat tundra tiles that are next to water (rivers or lakes).

While we're wingeing about tiles, what about peaks? At least tundra, desert, and snow tiles can be traversed. I always thought there should be a late-game improvement that lets you build a ski resort on a peak that allows it to generate a few .

 

[dalamb]

Or tunnel through mountain ranges.

Large tundra forests sometimes make good late-game National Parks.

 

[Sisiutil]

Or tunnel through mountain ranges.

Large tundra forests sometimes make good late-game National Parks.

That's a good point, my National Park often ends up in a tundra city with several flat-tile tundra forests. There's rarely enough food to work them as lumbermills, so having them each contribute a free specialists is the best use of the tile.

 

[dmd175]

Thanks guys for confirming the poor tundra uses (and good to have a comment from Sisutil--I just today read intermediate and early rush guides on my iPhone while traveling).

Having just played Fall from Heaven for the last 8 months I miss spring, vitalize, etc. I also miss terraforming from Civ II...

I have learned from the reading good uses for workshops and SP late game and a use for national park in tundra forest late game. Civ on.

 

[Manco Capac]

IIRC, you can only improve flat tundra tiles that are next to water (rivers or lakes).

While we're wingeing about tiles, what about peaks? At least tundra, desert, and snow tiles can be traversed. I always thought there should be a late-game improvement that lets you build a ski resort on a peak that allows it to generate a few .

Who would sacrifice 2 for a few commerces?

 

[Kallikrates]

Thanks guys for confirming the poor tundra uses (and good to have a comment from Sisutil--I just today read intermediate and early rush guides on my iPhone while traveling).

Having just played Fall from Heaven for the last 8 months I miss spring, vitalize, etc. I also miss terraforming from Civ II...

While I think the map should still have an effect, I would prefer more terraforming options. Although I do not know how much this would actually be used in practice, it would be cool to have at some stage more options after some tech. In Civ II "explosives" upgraded settlers to engineers who could transform terrain (although it took ages).
Tundra would still be worse than plains if one could build stuff on non-river or lake tundra tiles. Similar with desert. Why not irrigate desert to get one food, it would still be worse than most other tiles, but could at least transmit irrigation.

Right now in CivIV the tiles that profit from adavanced tech/civic options are often the ones that were the best to begin with, especially river tiles.

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

Thank you. And thanks to Sisiutil and Mec AntiKythera too. I'm glad there is still an active Civ IV forum. Sometimes the older versions get no interest after the sequel comes out.

Glad to be of service. And yes, the active community does much to add to the attractiveness of the game.



As far as tiles go, I like the blocking effect of peaks, but tunnels -late game and extremely slow to build- would be an interesting addition. Railroads make them unnecessary in most cases though. How about a telescope tile improvement to generate beakers directly?

I would welcome more tile variety, cliffs (impassable coast tiles), swamp, canyon, and valley come to mind. That might not work at the scale of a standard map however, one does need to be able to move around a bit. Sandbars, reef, and similar water tiles would spice up ocean travel a bit, make routing more interesting.