Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Live trash can]

I feared setting options to No Espionage would make things funky, but it seem like there just is the conversion to culture points and that demographics are always available.

And with BtS you get the bonus of a lot of leaders and buildings and so on so it seems like the best version!

What do you guys think of Espionage?

 

[lymond]

I play with with Espionage on. It adds a nice aspect and flavor to the game that can be played more passively or more aggressively as you so choose. Plus, the culture penalty is actually pretty bad. I see no reason to turn it off.

 

[catalin72]

With a simple spy having enough espionage points you can convert your oppo to your religion,or to the same civics,resulting a friendly AI oppo instead of the biggest enemy...Choose a 'target',a city having your religion inside close to your land(distance has effect in espionage points spent formula) or sign a short open borders agreement to spread your religion.

 

[6K Man]

I'm fine with Espionage. I probably don't use it efficiently enough, but it adds a little variety to the game.

I don't remember the details of the Espionage point>Culture point conversion process with the No Espionage setting, only that the new Culture thresholds weren't reflective of the amount of added Culture from Espionage points.

 

[Pangaea]

The option means you need twice as much culture to expand borders and gain legendary status, and until the mid-late game there are few espionage boosting buildings (apart from courthouses), so it's a pretty bad deal. But I did play with this option way back when I didn't know much about the game, because I couldn't stand the spies wrecking this and that. Think we had tech view on AIs with it off too? Seem to recall something along those lines.

Still not a big fan of espionage, but thankfully apart from a few AIs (hello Sitting Bull!), they don't mess you up too badly most of the time, and it can be useful for you in certain cases. Like putting a high-cultural defence city into revolt so you can attack it without 100% defence (castles are a pain), or steal techs or gold. Plus the above-mentioned of changing AIs into different civics or religions. You can only change them into what you have yourself, but it's still a nice option. Particularly when others are in Emancipation and you want to keep them out of it so you can stay in Slavery or Caste.

I'd probably recommend to just play with espionage and try to get used to it. And like most things in the game, the human is able to take better advantage of it than the AI. If the AI was routinely stealing techs, putting cities into unhappiness (health is annoying, but not devastating), destroying space parts and stealing your large pile of gold, espionage would be a lot more frustrating, that's for sure.

 

[6K Man]

Had no luck with these questions in the Creation/Customization forum, so maybe someone here will know?

How do I set up a permanent alliance between 2 (or more) AIs in an existing saved game or scenario? And,

Can a permanent alliance involve more than 2 Civs?

 

[lymond]

@6K Man

In Custom Game options, at the top, you can designate AIs and/or the player to a single team. You can set multiple AIs to the same team this way. (The normal way of gaining a PA in-game only allows 2 leaders)

As far as a know there is no difference between a PA and a Team, well except that setting teams allows more the two.

Also, note that you can open up a WB save in notepad and see how things are configured for a PA. I've never compare a game with an existing PA to a game with teams, but I do know in both cases the "Team" line of code for leaders in a PA would be identical (e.g. Team 1). I don' t recall if there is some other line of code that actually designates "PA", just assumed when a PA is instigated in a normal game it basically just flips both leaders to the same "Team" which in both cases essentially makes the two civs/leaders one cohesive entity for the most part.

 

[sealedinterface]

How do you set up an AI-only game? I've heard of people doing them and always wanted to try this to see how it plays out.

 

[djdazi180]

How do you set up an AI-only game? I've heard of people doing them and always wanted to try this to see how it plays out.

You need to set Cheat = chipotle in the ini file. then press Ctrl+Z in the game. Open Worldbuilder, delete your units, do a city on the poles, show all tiles (cheat only shows them visually, the game acts as if you can't see them), close worldbuilder, have fun. I highly recommend doing it with K-Mod though, as AI is incredibly dumb at winning the game, and you might sit there watching 20 wars at the same time, without any results till Gandhi gets nukes.

 

[djdazi180]

Here is an example file. I chose Deity, and when you delete your units, this may result in an empty space, leaving an advantage to your neighbors (In this game Shaka and Suleiman). I recommend spawning a few barbs (or cities) there or even delete a bit of land mass if you like.

 

[Live trash can]

I have a different question: Can you change production from a wonder to something else, and then back again to the wonder, without losing shields?

say if a barbaric vessel appears and you need a galley to protect the coastal areas and you are producing a wonder.

I know you can do this with most productions but I wonder if you can do it with wonders.

 

[djdazi180]

Yes, you can.

 

[Lennier]

One caveat: If you don’t get back to building the thing you paused, eventually the stored hammers begin to “decay.” I don’t remember how many turns it is before decay starts, but if you just spend a couple of turns whipping out an emergency unit, you’ Be OK.

 

[6K Man]

@6K Man

In Custom Game options, at the top, you can designate AIs and/or the player to a single team. You can set multiple AIs to the same team this way. (The normal way of gaining a PA in-game only allows 2 leaders)

As far as a know there is no difference between a PA and a Team, well except that setting teams allows more the two.

Also, note that you can open up a WB save in notepad and see how things are configured for a PA. I've never compare a game with an existing PA to a game with teams, but I do know in both cases the "Team" line of code for leaders in a PA would be identical (e.g. Team 1). I don' t recall if there is some other line of code that actually designates "PA", just assumed when a PA is instigated in a normal game it basically just flips both leaders to the same "Team" which in both cases essentially makes the two civs/leaders one cohesive entity for the most part.

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to poke around in the WB save and see what does what. Unfortunately, turning an existing game into a WBsave does other things like resetting the turn counter, but that doesn't seem to be avoidable.

 

[lymond]

@6K Man Yep, with an existing game the WB save will reset the counters for everyone from research, gold, gpp, etc.. However, you can essentially create teams by editing the WB save in notepad and setting the AIs to the same team id.

 

[Pangaea]

On normal speed, the decay starts after 10 turns for units and 40 turns for buildings. Assume wonders are 40 turns too, if they don't get built by others before then.

 

[6K Man]

I had thought hammers didn't decay for Wonders, but I might be remembering that wrong.

Does Research decay too, if you change from one tech before researching it completely?

 

[lymond]

I had thought hammers didn't decay for Wonders, but I might be remembering that wrong.

Does Research decay too, if you change from one tech before researching it completely?

Wonders will start decaying..it does take a while for decay to start. I think longer period than normal buildings, but may be wrong.

As long as A tech is selected, beakers will not decay on a previously selected tech, or actually completely lost.

 

[Dread]

Trying to play Middle Earth and Star Trek on BTs..Mods installed , but maps don't load or appear as a choice in game menu . Any help please ?

 

[lymond]

Trying to play Middle Earth and Star Trek on BTs..Mods installed , but maps don't load or appear as a choice in game menu . Any help please ?

I'm not familiar with those mods or their installations. If you are referring to "scenarios", then for mods they are usually located in the bts/mods/"mod folder"/public maps folder. When the mod is loaded, you can play the scenario using "Play as Scenario" or the "Custom Scenario" menu options.

Also, check to make sure the mods are installed correctly.