Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Pangaea]

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

I know the answer, but with your tone it's less than tempting to answer.

 

[Kaitzilla]

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.

I know for BUFFY the hammers just stack if the build cannot be completed.
Not sure about unmodded civ 4.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/please-ban-the-hammer-stacking-technique.619076/

 

[TruePurple]

Pangea There is no tone in text. Please don't read into things that aren't there. If I could read your mind and phrase things exactly the way you need them phrased I would, but I can't, so please don't be unreasonable.

I am using BUG, Kait. What do you mean by "just stack" exactly please?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Pangea There is no tone in text. Please don't read into things that aren't there. If I could read your mind and phrase things exactly the way you need them phrased I would, but I can't, so please don't be unreasonable.

I am using BUG, Kait. What do you mean by "just stack" exactly please?

When a build can not be completed, the base production carries over and is added to the next turn's base production.

If the city makes +20 per turn and the build can not be produced because a resource is missing, then the next turn the city will produce +40 for 1 turn.

If it happens again, then 60

This unnatural 1-turn hammer buildup can be stored until a wonder or spaceship part tech is unlocked by building Wealth, Research, or Culture.
The cost is cheap in the mid or late game.
1 unit to pillage the resource and 4 Workers to build it again the following turn.
That is why it is banned in competitive play.


Chops into a build that can not be completed vanish I think.
Don't ever chop forests for a wonder the AI just built or a unit that can not be completed because it's resource was pillaged.
Same with starting a missionary build and then switching out of organized religion if spiritual.

 

[TruePurple]

Do forests care about national boundaries? Forests expand outside of anyones boundaries or from one boundary to another etc?

 

[AcaMetis]

I don't recall the game ever mentioning that Mother Nature has adopted Nationalism, so I don't see why they wouldn't.

 

[TruePurple]

I don't recall the game ever mentioning that Mother Nature has adopted Nationalism, so I don't see why they wouldn't.

So basically you are saying you have no idea? You can't count on the game making sense.

Moderator Action: Please be civil in your responses to fellow posters. leif

 

[Samson]

Does it make it easier for civs to start in teams? Could you put all your opponents as teams of 2 to make the game extra hard for you?

 

[lymond]

Does it make it easier for civs to start in teams? Could you put all your opponents as teams of 2 to make the game extra hard for you?

Yes, playing by yourself against teams of AI will be harder. Teams share research.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Do forests care about national boundaries? Forests expand outside of anyones boundaries or from one boundary to another etc?

Forests can grow anywhere on a tile that meets the rules. It does not matter if the tile is in one civilization, bordered by tiles in multiple civilizations, or in land that belongs to no one. It also does not matter if the tile began with no forest or was previously chopped, as long as it meets the requirements for forest growth. I usually play marathon on huge maps, which has the highest odds of forest spreading. I have seen forests grow under all of these conditions. Of course, you have to have explored the land and be able to see it to get the notice that a forest has grown. You won't get notices of forests growing in unexplored land nor in land obscured by the fog of war nor within someone else's borders.

 

[6K Man]

Yes, playing by yourself against teams of AI will be harder. Teams share research.

Yes, I can vouch for this - permanent alliances also give the AI a big research boost.

If I make a pair of AIs a team to start a game, do they start in contact with one another? Or do they only get the benefits of being a team when they meet? Do they each know the territory of the other before Paper?

 

[lymond]

Yes, I can vouch for this - permanent alliances also give the AI a big research boost.

If I make a pair of AIs a team to start a game, do they start in contact with one another? Or do they only get the benefits of being a team when they meet? Do they each know the territory of the other before Paper?

Yes, they know and see each other, and share research from the start. Basically a team is almost like one civ. However, you must trade resources with them to get what you don't have, but they will trade freely with you. Gold, GPP, and all that stuff are accrued separately.

Generally, the AI will align their tech to what you are teching although they may deviate for a turn as yall finish a tech. (if you are on a team or have a PA)

 

[6K Man]

Thanks Lymond.

Deity versus AI teams? Sounds like a challenge... for better players than I am.

 

[NathanIsOnline]

If I should make a separate thread for this let me know, I was just starting here in case it was some singular step I was missing. Here's hoping it's not "git gud".
I used to play Civ4 a lot when I was younger. However it was always on Settler and it always followed the same pattern. I kicked everyone whatever continent I started on, rocketed past them on the tech tree, and proceeded to fly to other continents and nuked civs which still relied on longbowmen for their main defense. I recently started playing again, and figured a good first step to making the game more engaging was to up the difficulty. I cranked it all the way up to the terrifying (default) Noble (there are a lot of difficulty options, I don't want to know what horrors would await me on Deity), and got started. I knew I was in trouble when barbarians attacked and conquered one of my cities and I had exactly one archer each in my other two cities. I managed to fight them all off, found the single other civ on my continent (ha, unlucky AI started on it's own isolated peninsula, easy kill), and started cranking out knights. Then the unexpected happened, they declared war on me, and a score of Cuirassiers crossed over. I open up the score tab to talk to the other civs to try and figure out where on earth they got horses (early scouts said there were no horses on the continent that I did not control) and tried to figure out how they were so far ahead of me tech wise with half the number of cities that I had. That was when I discovered I was on the very bottom of the score list, by a lot. The top guys had ironclads and railroads.
I feel like I'm missing some key steps in order for me to have fallen so far behind. Watching the game replay shows that the AI's absolutely explode in city numbers, but with every city I build my economy goes in the toilet and I can't keep the research value up. I'm building courthouses and other financial buildings, connecting cities and resources, building hamlets, priority wealth production in all cities, and yet I just can't keep my economy up with the maintenance cost of building cities.
I started another game with the intent to actually pay attention and try to stay on top of research, but I quickly realized (before even meeting another civ) that I was so far behind every single world wonder was being built before I even reached the tech level to start construction.

 

[Lexicus]

If I should make a separate thread for this let me know, I was just starting here in case it was some singular step I was missing. Here's hoping it's not "git gud".
I used to play Civ4 a lot when I was younger. However it was always on Settler and it always followed the same pattern. I kicked everyone whatever continent I started on, rocketed past them on the tech tree, and proceeded to fly to other continents and nuked civs which still relied on longbowmen for their main defense. I recently started playing again, and figured a good first step to making the game more engaging was to up the difficulty. I cranked it all the way up to the terrifying (default) Noble (there are a lot of difficulty options, I don't want to know what horrors would await me on Deity), and got started. I knew I was in trouble when barbarians attacked and conquered one of my cities and I had exactly one archer each in my other two cities. I managed to fight them all off, found the single other civ on my continent (ha, unlucky AI started on it's own isolated peninsula, easy kill), and started cranking out knights. Then the unexpected happened, they declared war on me, and a score of Cuirassiers crossed over. I open up the score tab to talk to the other civs to try and figure out where on earth they got horses (early scouts said there were no horses on the continent that I did not control) and tried to figure out how they were so far ahead of me tech wise with half the number of cities that I had. That was when I discovered I was on the very bottom of the score list, by a lot. The top guys had ironclads and railroads.
I feel like I'm missing some key steps in order for me to have fallen so far behind. Watching the game replay shows that the AI's absolutely explode in city numbers, but with every city I build my economy goes in the toilet and I can't keep the research value up. I'm building courthouses and other financial buildings, connecting cities and resources, building hamlets, priority wealth production in all cities, and yet I just can't keep my economy up with the maintenance cost of building cities.
I started another game with the intent to actually pay attention and try to stay on top of research, but I quickly realized (before even meeting another civ) that I was so far behind every single world wonder was being built before I even reached the tech level to start construction.

It's impossible to say how to improve your game from this but if you are being crushed on Noble you are probably getting some very basic things wrong.

You can try posting the save file of this game in Strategy & Tips subforum so other players can see exactly what you're doing wrong and how to correct it, but probably a better move would be to start a new game and post the save file in strategy & tips. The first 100 turns of the game are crucial and 9/10 games are won or lost during this period. However on Noble it might easily be possible to revive your situation in that game and it might indeed be fun to try.

 

[lymond]

If...

Lexicus said it perfectly above. To emphasize, Strategy & Tips forum is where you need to be. Post a new thread over there and just start a new game. We call it a shadow game. Get advice from the very beginning. Honestly, Just gleaning from what you wrote above, you basically need to learn the game a new. Your results should be very very different with a few basic concepts under your belt. You will get a lot of help over there. Just to make clear, be prepared to totally change your perspective on the game. The way you play it now will not lead to success, and you will just continue with bad habits - like building courthouses and financial buildings..ha.

The game does progressively get harder, but Noble can easily be won belligerently at very early dates by grasping a few basic mechanics. Learning more advanced concepts will help you move up difficulty. This is a very complex game indeed, but extremely rewarding as you learn it. There's a reason so many of us have been around here for well over 10 years.

Lastly, and again related to change in perspective, your ideas about "dates" (i.e., when t you think things happen or should happen) and things like "bad economy" will change. For instance, AIs expand quite slowly on Noble. You should far outpace them in expansion, and likely kill a couple of neighbors in the BCs. So when you say the AIs are exploding in city numbers it really boils down to a) a very skewed idea of when and what that means b) a very poor early game.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I started another game with the intent to actually pay attention and try to stay on top of research, but I quickly realized (before even meeting another civ) that I was so far behind every single world wonder was being built before I even reached the tech level to start construction.

First of all, welcome to the forums!

Some things that come to mind:

What does your early game look like? As in what is the very first thing you build in your capital after settling it? What is the very first tech you research?

Do you properly utilize civics? Especially Slavery and Bureaucracy are extremely powerful if you use them the right way.

And to repeat what the others said, you should probably hop on over to the Strategy and Tactics forum and upload screenshots and savegames.

 

[krikav]

@NathanIsOnline Welcome to the forums!

Being crushed on Noble is indicative that many different things are off, not singular ones. Sorry.
Getting good at this game and really develop an understanding that gives you a shot at winning at the highest difficulties (imm/deity) is something that really requires you to put the time and effort into it.
You have something really good going for you in the fact that you are brutally honest and have a firm grasp of that something is off, and that it can be fixed.

The journey as I see it and experienced it, is that you have to face and challenge so many faulty ideas that you have.
I was stuck on a number of things that I now regard as silly and many of them was holding me back.
Things like:
"I must build every building, else what would my cities do? Wealth/Research give me _nothing_ long term, and if I don't invest long-term, I'm guaranteed to lose the game." - Silly me 5-10 years ago! There are other ways to 'invest' long term!
"I must settle all great persons, as this gives me a long term benefit I'll profit from for the rest of the game, bulbing just gives me a fleeting bonus." - Silly me 3-7 years ago, bulbing often gives you a great leap forward, gaining you an edge here and now that you can exploit for huge profit
etc etc...


Would love to try help out if you started such a shadow game in the S&T section!

 

[6K Man]

If I should make a separate thread for this let me know, I was just starting here in case it was some singular step I was missing. Here's hoping it's not "git gud".
I used to play Civ4 a lot when I was younger. However it was always on Settler and it always followed the same pattern. I kicked everyone whatever continent I started on, rocketed past them on the tech tree, and proceeded to fly to other continents and nuked civs which still relied on longbowmen for their main defense. I recently started playing again, and figured a good first step to making the game more engaging was to up the difficulty. I cranked it all the way up to the terrifying (default) Noble (there are a lot of difficulty options, I don't want to know what horrors would await me on Deity), and got started. I knew I was in trouble when barbarians attacked and conquered one of my cities and I had exactly one archer each in my other two cities. I managed to fight them all off, found the single other civ on my continent (ha, unlucky AI started on it's own isolated peninsula, easy kill), and started cranking out knights. Then the unexpected happened, they declared war on me, and a score of Cuirassiers crossed over. I open up the score tab to talk to the other civs to try and figure out where on earth they got horses (early scouts said there were no horses on the continent that I did not control) and tried to figure out how they were so far ahead of me tech wise with half the number of cities that I had. That was when I discovered I was on the very bottom of the score list, by a lot. The top guys had ironclads and railroads.
I feel like I'm missing some key steps in order for me to have fallen so far behind. Watching the game replay shows that the AI's absolutely explode in city numbers, but with every city I build my economy goes in the toilet and I can't keep the research value up. I'm building courthouses and other financial buildings, connecting cities and resources, building hamlets, priority wealth production in all cities, and yet I just can't keep my economy up with the maintenance cost of building cities.
I started another game with the intent to actually pay attention and try to stay on top of research, but I quickly realized (before even meeting another civ) that I was so far behind every single world wonder was being built before I even reached the tech level to start construction.

Quick and dirty advice:

Build between 1 and 1.5 workers per city
Settle each city with a food resource in the first ring of tiles around the city square
Beeline Bronze Working, revolt to slavery. Whenever you have citizens working unimproved tiles, use them to rush improvements.
Chop your forests for granaries, workers, settlers.
Build granaries in every city, forges in almost every city. Build libraries in your capital and in 1-2 other high commerce cities. Build barracks in 1-2 of your high production cities that will build units. Don't build other improvements anywhere except in your capital (and not even there, in most cases).

 

[LGWolf]

Hi, I downloaded the huge 440x200 Earth map file (BTS) - and I want to play a custom game rather than a custom scenario. Where do I copy the map file to in the filesystem in order to play it as a custom game please?