Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[pob]

Pangaea has explained it very well, but if you want to read about it in more detail, try this strategy article.

 

[Michkov]

How many rounds does combat last in Civ on average?

 

[Pangaea]

How many rounds does combat last in Civ on average?

That depends a bit on the relative strength of the units. A very strong unit will require fewer won rounds to defeat that unit, while conversely, to defeat the strong unit, the weaker one will require more won rounds. Typically I'd say a unit needs to win 5-6 rounds to win the combat. But it can be a little more or less. You can check this out yourself by clicking on "Combat Log" (think that's what it's called) from the Logs window (don't have the game open, but there is button for it in the upper left corner). Here is one example I found, where a guy is very lucky indeed!

The way combat works, is that every unit that is uninjured will have 100 hitpoints. Depending on the relative strength of the units fighting, they will lose different amounts of hitpoints per lost round. In this example, the attacking unit is weaker, so will require to win 6 rounds, which it does. Also notice that odds can be a little weird or maybe even misleading. The units only have a 10% strength difference (2.20 vs 2.40, after bonuses), but the attacker only has a 27% win chance. In situations like this, one promotion can play a big role, like for instance City Raider. Suddenly the unit's strength comes over a "red line" and is higher than the defender, making its odds maybe 60% instead of 30%.

 

[Leyrann]

Pangaea has explained it very well, but if you want to read about it in more detail, try this strategy article.

Thanks! That's basically what I wanted to know about first strikes.

Now to figure out wheter to go Veteran or Drill lol...

 

[Robo-Star]

Now to figure out wheter to go Veteran or Drill lol...

Now to figure out what you mean by "Veteran" lol...
-

 

[need my speed]

Combat, of course.

 

[Michkov]

Thanks Pangaea.

Now for something completely different. How can I save a generated map from one game so I can use it in another?

 

[lymond]

Thanks Pangaea.

Now for something completely different. How can I save a generated map from one game so I can use it in another?

ha..that is completely different and a bit more complex. Probably more of a modding question. However, if you have the Turn 0 save, you can save it off as a World Builder save and play that save as a scenario or custom scenario, which allows you to change some of the options. However, the previous generated player civ/leader and AI civ/leaders would still be present. That can be changed by opening the WB save in Notepad and changing individual teams to represent other civ/leaders. Yeah, a bit cumbersome, but actually not that hard.

Otherwise, to create a playable mapscript from a generated map would require modding skills beyond my capabilities, although I'm sure it could be done.

So, to answer your question simply, there is not a straightforward way to do what you are asking here.

 

[Michkov]

All I got is a save 1 turn after I won, there was no World Builder option in the menu that's why I asked.

 

[s.bernbaum]

If you have not played any games since that one, the game in the autosave folder titled "AutoSave_Initial_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave" is the opening of the game. Load that. Then move from the opening screen to the first game screen. Next enter World Builder, make any changes that you want, and save the game from there as a worldbuilder save.

 

[Luthor_Saxburg]

How can a subject break the (capitulation) vassalage from his Master? There are 3 conditions that need 50% for the Civ to be FREE.

But how does that work? All 3 conditions are needed to be met for the Civ to be FREE or just one? And is it HIGHER or LOWER than 50%?

 

[Michkov]

It's definitely bigger than 50%, not sure on the connection but I seem to recall its an OR

 

[elmurcis]

well, from what I remember there are 2 situations - when both (population AND land) gets bigger than 50% (of master) OR if vassal loses 50% of land it had at the capitulation moment (including land tiles that are lost after captured cities under master control get out of revolt and claim BFC land tiles - master always gets these 20 tiles. so its pretty normal to see 90-95% number under this category).

 

[6K Man]

Why do AIs poison water instead of fomenting unhappiness? The latter would have a more direct benefit to them (detriment to me) – making people unhappy gives me a direct hit on production via unworked tiles, whereas poisoning water merely slows city growth. Even if I were to lose population, it wouldn’t be more than 1 pop point.


As far as I can tell (when I attempt either one) the EP costs are the same, and it doesn’t seem like the AIs consider whether my city has a greater surplus in health than in happiness. They just poison water. What gives?

 

[6K Man]

Another question...

Do AI civs build specific wonders based on their need or value to them? Would a Financial civ with lots of coast value the Colossus more highly than a non-financial civ, for example? Or is a decision to build a wonder based purely on a generalized build probability + having the prerequisites?

 

[f1rpo]

CvCityAI::AI_buildingValue evaluates buildings by going through their abilities. E.g. +80 utility for the free-tech ability of the Oracle. A bit less static: 4 times the number of owned cities for the Hanging Gardens ability. For the Great Lighthouse, coastal cities are counted; however, the Colossus ability (GlobalSeaPlotYieldChanges) appears to be missing entirely. But I think there's also an implicit assumptions that every building does something useful, and, at times, the AI just really wants to build a wonder rather than a normal building (BUILDINGFOCUS_WONDERS). And GPP add something to utility. BBAI and (more so) K-Mod have revised the buildingValue computation, sometimes taking into account more context (though still no GlobalSeaPlotYieldChanges).

Spy missions are evaluated by CvPlayerAI::AI_espionageVal. Looks like the health vs. happiness surplus is taken into account. BtS code (also improved in BBAI/K-Mod):

Spoiler :

if (GC.getEspionageMissionInfo(eMission).getCityPoisonWaterCounter() > 0) {
  if (NULL != pPlot) {
    CvCity* pCity = pPlot->getPlotCity();
    if (NULL != pCity) {
      int iCityHealth = pCity->goodHealth() - pCity->badHealth(false, 0);
      int iBaseUnhealth = GC.getEspionageMissionInfo(eMission).getCityPoisonWaterCounter();	
      int iAverageUnhealth = std::max(0, iBaseUnhealth - iCityHealth);
      iAverageUnhealth += std::max(0, (iBaseUnhealth / 2) -iCityHealth);	
      iAverageUnhealth /= 2;	
      iValue += 8 * iAverageUnhealth * iBaseUnhealth;
    }}}
if (GC.getEspionageMissionInfo(eMission).getCityUnhappinessCounter() > 0) {
  if (NULL != pPlot) {
    CvCity* pCity = pPlot->getPlotCity();
    if (NULL != pCity) {
      int iCityUnhappy = pCity->unhappyLevel();
      if (iCityUnhappy > 0) {
        int iBaseAnger = GC.getEspionageMissionInfo(eMission).getCityUnhappinessCounter();
        iValue += 7 * iBaseAnger * iBaseAnger;
      }}}}

Edit: Come to think of it, Financial trait does (strongly) correlate with building the Colossus because, of the ten Financial leaders, seven have a "Gold" flavor value of 5 (Ragnar and Pacal 0, Hannibal 2), and the Gold flavor of the Colossus is 10. This adds 5*10 utility for most of the Financial leaders. Moreover, the Colossus ability is actually evaluated; I missed it at first because it says "GlobalSeaPlotYieldChange" (in the singular). It counts as 8 utility per coastal city. So, I'm changing my answer to this

Would a Financial civ with lots of coast value the Colossus more highly than a non-financial civ, for example?

from no to (mostly) yes.

 

[ArchGhost]

How can a subject break the (capitulation) vassalage from his Master? There are 3 conditions that need 50% for the Civ to be FREE.

But how does that work? All 3 conditions are needed to be met for the Civ to be FREE or just one? And is it HIGHER or LOWER than 50%?

Vassal must have
Condition 1.) MORE than 50% of master's size AND population at the same time. These are two separate but related factors since generally the AI gets more size (total tiles controlled) and population (total of all cities) by simply having more cities altogether. So it's something you have to consider when thinking about gifting back cities after capping them, or when razing everything in your path; in that case, you'd want to quickly get your own cities in place or the AI will just resettle the area as your vassal, when you can't take them by force anymore.

OR

Condition 2.) LESS than 50% of their OWN size, at the point they were vassaled. It'll start at 100% (or slightly less after any conquered cities come out of revolt that can overpower local culture). You don't see this one met much unless you are severely applying the cultural pressure, or the vassal is being hammered in war time. Which is incidentally how most enemy vassals break from their masters: you beat them up and reduce their size enough that they forcibly break away. It's also possible to reduce the master's size and population enough for condition #1 to come into effect, but that's harder to pull off with out borderline wiping the master out. If that does happen they will most likely quickly vassal to somebody else, or you, in order to get out of the war they are in because of their former master.

The two conditions cannot be met at the same time, but either works. Once one or the other is met, then the vassal *may* break away. They don't always, especially if their fear their master's military, fear someone else's military and they hate that guy more than their master, or their master is on really good diplomatic terms with them. It's totally possible to permanently keep vassals that exceed the size and pop limits if you keep them happy.

Also, if at any time after the same turn you vassal them, you make too severe of a demand (like say, ALL of the vassals resources, or an expensive tech) they may break and declare war, even if that's clearly a terrible idea for them at the moment... I've had Mao start up the war with me again after vassaling him the turn before from a demand for marble I decided I needed, something the AI values highly; he forced me to wipe out his last 3 cities despite him having nothing of substance anywhere on his continent, which was actually pretty funny since he refused to talk the whole time he was dying horribly. Oh well, I guess he'd rather be wiped out than live as a slave.

There are surely certain factors to it like your diplomatic relationship, military power, and whether the AI leader in question is a punk or not (in reality probably has more to do with your war success vs. theirs or military power or something). I don't have it happen a whole lot with either capitulates or peace vassal as long as I have a big army, but they don't have to always give in either--sometimes they just straight up refuse for a diplo hit.

 

[wonderpest]

Just bought Complete, and in my first game build orders came at the end of the turn, now they come at the beginning. Bug/Buffy mod installed.... what did I do?

 

[Pangaea]

Just bought Complete, and in my first game build orders came at the end of the turn, now they come at the beginning. Bug/Buffy mod installed.... what did I do?

At a guess, the "Minimize popups" in Options is *not* selected. With this option selected, it means that the cities with empty build queues pop up at the end of turn, when all units have been moved.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Or, if there are no units to move that turn, the build queue comes first, then it gives you the option to move units. That's my guess.