Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[rah]

The most annoying thing was that with a normal spy you don't get the option to auto explore. It never quite made sense.

 

[AcaMetis]

Probably because it would wander around a random AI's territory, inevitably get caught and risk imposing a diplo penalty.

 

[rah]

Considering I want it to wander around, that would be an acceptable risk. But yeah, maybe that was the reason. Still annoying.

 

[lymond]

The amount is not static,

I meant within one game at one speed. Is that right?

 

[AcaMetis]

Eh, let me do some quick tests...it seems to indeed be static aside from game speed. Your population count, number of cities and technology level don't seem to matter, nor does the distance to the target city, whether that target city is on a different continent, and whether it has any buildings like a Court House/Jail/Security Bureau (or a unique variant thereof). Being at war with the target also doesn't make a difference.

So it seems that infiltration is worth a flat 3K on Normal speed, 9K on Marathon speed.

 

[rah]

I play normal and it's never been different than the 3K

 

[ruff_hi]

The other + and - about a Great Spy is that it cannot be caught. You can wander around someones land with zero risk. The downside ... it doesn't get the road promotion that the regular spy does ... so it travels slower.

 

[MagnifiedCiv]

Greetings all,

Long time Civ player here from way back (even started with the old board game!). Currently wanting to reinstall CIV 4 and am unsure about install order. I have CIV IV Gold on disc, Civ IV BTS on disc, update 3.19 downloaded. Is that the right files to install, and the right order? If I remember correctly Colonization was really just a conversion of the game into European colonization (which is not what I am after). Do I need Warlords in there somewhere, or is that included in BTS? Please give me your thoughts, and thank you for your assitance.

MC

 

[ruff_hi]

Greetings all,

Long time Civ player here from way back (even started with the old board game!). Currently wanting to reinstall CIV 4 and am unsure about install order. I have CIV IV Gold on disc, Civ IV BTS on disc, update 3.19 downloaded. Is that the right files to install, and the right order? If I remember correctly Colonization was really just a conversion of the game into European colonization (which is not what I am after). Do I need Warlords in there somewhere, or is that included in BTS? Please give me your thoughts, and thank you for your assitance.

MC

I would install it in the following order ...
Civ IV Original and the latest Original patch
Civ IV Warlords and the latest Warlords patch
Civ IV BTS and the latest BTS patch

It is important to do the BTS patch dead last as it removes all 'must have CD to play this game' annoyance.

IIRC, if you skip Warlords, you do miss out on some maps and map features.

 

[MagnifiedCiv]

Thank you Ruff. A few more questions, unfortunately.

1. Is there somewhere where the latest original patches are listed? I searched the downloads section but pages and pages of material showed up and it's nearly all mods?

2. Also, I don't have Warlords, and can't find somewhere that seems legit to buy it by download. Can I buy it through a partner retailer and help support the forum?

3. Or would it be better to just buy the "Complete Edition" from Steam? Is the Steam download a stand alone without any need to connect to steam to play it?

Thanks again

 

[Pangaea]

3. Or would it be better to just buy the "Complete Edition" from Steam? Is the Steam download a stand alone without any need to connect to steam to play it?

For this I would recommend GOG instead. Just make sure you download without the Galaxy container app (basically like Steam), and you're fine. They have the complete edition over there too.

I would think you are fine with what you have though, as you have the original plus BtS. Most likely you just want to play BtS anyway, as it's by far the best edition, so then you are fine with the 3.19 patch.

It's such a pain to find the patches here, so maybe this will do? https://www.moddb.com/games/civilization-iv/downloads/beyond-the-sword-319-patch

 

[lymond]

@leif erikson CFC really needs to try to get the IV patches on the database...preserved for posterity and the aliens who one day come to Earth a thousands years from now and become civfanatics.


Civ IV GOLD should have Vanilla and Warlords...that was what the GOLD version was..

Anyway, as Pangaea mentioned, all your really need is BTS

note..there have been issues with the disk version on Win 10. A DD version pretty much eliminates the issues...Steam or GoG.

 

[Pangaea]

You probably have what you need, but I just dropped by GOG and saw there is an offer for Civ 3 and 4 right now at 75% off. Maybe steam has the same, I don't know as I don't venture there, but this could be worth checking out if you still want the complete edition digitally.
https://www.gog.com/promo/20190513_weekly_sale

They come with all patches already, so you wouldn't have to worry about that.

Probably very low chance of you being another Linux user, but just in case... the game can be installed with this script. Works like a charm
https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meiers_civilization_series/civilization_iv_for_linux

 

[Samson]

Probably very low chance of you being another Linux user, but just in case... the game can be installed with this script. Works like a charm
https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meiers_civilization_series/civilization_iv_for_linux

Do you know how this works with mods that have altered dll's? I only keep windows around for civ 4, and am wondering what to do when it comes to end of life.

 

[Pangaea]

Do you know how this works with mods that have altered dll's? I only keep windows around for civ 4, and am wondering what to do when it comes to end of life.

Probably depends on what mods you are using, and how much they are changing things. I only use the normal game and BUG/BUFFY for Hall of Fame gameplay. Depending on what dll I use (BUG and BUFFY require different ones), I just alter them around. With how I play the game, that script works really well. I had to use a "desktop" file to enable easy switching of workspaces, but after that it works like it used to on my old setup.

These are my dlls, so it's easy to delete/copy/rename them.

I don't know if all mods will work well, but BUFFY does at least, which is important to me. I would suspect others work well too, but I don't know as I haven't tried.

 

[TruePurple]

Before you and produce money or research in your cities, what happens if you don't assign production in a city, is all that production wasted? Is it held for the next turn?

What happens if say your producing a unit that requires iron or copper and your supply is cut and production is canceled, you just lose everything and get nothing in return?

 

[lymond]

Before you and produce money or research in your cities, what happens if you don't assign production in a city, is all that production wasted? Is it held for the next turn?

What happens if say your producing a unit that requires iron or copper and your supply is cut and production is canceled, you just lose everything and get nothing in return?

Not sure on first question. You have to deliberately not assign something to the queue to have a city actively not produce anything for a turn, but it is possible - I've done it by accident. Pretty sure the base hammers are not stored and if you had any overflow hammers they would be lost or turned into gold.

If producing...say..an Axeman..and then a barb pillages your copper, any production put into the Axe will be stored up until a point (10 turns I believe..for units) when hammers start decaying at a rate of 1H per turn. In other words, you do not lose the hammers of production into the Axeman as long as you promptly reconnect the copper, or iron, and queue him back up.

 

[TruePurple]

Are they lost or turned into gold? Which is it?

 

[lymond]

Are they lost or turned into gold? Which is it?

Sorry, it may be impacted by the mod you use as things were changed over time with the game with how overflow was converted..via the patches..and then BUG changed it as well. And I can't remember what is what

I'll ping Herrs @sampsa or @Kaitzilla here as they may know a definitive answer either way.

 

[TruePurple]

What type of tiles do woods spread from and to? If you build a camp on a tile, can a forest spread to or from it? If you build a road on a tile, can a forest spread from or to it? Do forests spread diagonally from squares touching the corner?