Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[R82]

I'm not sure if this really counts as a newbie question or as more of an intermediate question, but I'm not sure where else to ask it: on levels Noble and above, with all victory conditions enabled, and all other settings "standard" as well, does anyone ever get a time/highest score victory? Seems to me that under those conditions, it's pretty much unavoidable that someone will launch a spaceship before 2045. Except perhaps if you choose not to built any spaceship parts yourself, and you're powerful enough to force everyone else to focus on defense against you. And if you're that powerful, you should probably be powerful enough to win a domination or even conquest victory before 2050.

 

[lymond]

I'm not sure if this really counts as a newbie question or as more of an intermediate question, but I'm not sure where else to ask it: on levels Noble and above, with all victory conditions enabled, and all other settings "standard" as well, does anyone ever get a time/highest score victory? Seems to me that under those conditions, it's pretty much unavoidable that someone will launch a spaceship before 2045. Except perhaps if you choose not to built any spaceship parts yourself, and you're powerful enough to force everyone else to focus on defense against you. And if you're that powerful, you should probably be powerful enough to win a domination or even conquest victory before 2050.

I'd say "deliberate" Time victories are not very popular at all. The CFC Hall of Fame (HOF) does have a category for Time victory and occasionally we include a competitive type challenge game with this condition.

Deliberately achieving a Time condition on levels above Noble generally requires some coordination of various factors to actually reach 2050 before you are an AI achieves some other victory condition. (I can't say what difficulty level it is most assured that the AI will likely achieve at least Space or Culture Victory before 2050...barring any conflicts...I'd guess Monarch level is probably a decent benchmark). Anyway, achieving a Time victory in general, on most levels, likely involves disrupting the AI enough to prevent them achieving a Culture or Space Victory. Also, the human may possibly back into a Culture victory before 2050, so that needs to be monitored. (It has happened to me) Space obviously can be avoided, and you can disrupt AI plans in that regard simply through warfare...same with Culture. Just take their cities, especially their capital.

So, yeah, if I was intent on achieving a Time Victory I would usually attempt to dominate the world - without triggering the Domination conditions. (I have never deliberately backed into a Time Victory as a last resort, even when I was pretty bad at the game..ha)

If you are interested in learning more about how to play Civ IV, highly recommend our Strategy & Tips forum here:

S&T

You can get a lot of good help there, and participate in some of the games going on like Noble's Club or shadow games.

 

[civac]

IIrc there was a game in Sulla's AI survivor tournament with a very late victory date (turn 450ish). I'd guess there can be a legit time victory if there is almost continuous inconclusive warfare between slow techers. Bad land also helps. But that's once-in-a-lifetime stuff.

 

[R82]

If you have trade relations and Open Borders with another Civ, is there any logic behind which ones of your cities get foreign trade routes and which ones don't?

 

[Samson]

If you have trade relations and Open Borders with another Civ, is there any logic behind which ones of your cities get foreign trade routes and which ones don't?

I think the game calculates which cities will earn the most from the foreign trade routes, and gives them to those cities.

 

[R82]

Now, two questions that need screenshots to illustrate them:

First, what happens if you found a city right in the middle of a food resource, as my "friend" Gandhi has done here?

Second, can someone explain to me why the mountain at the top here is not inside my cultural borders?

 

[Samson]

Now, two questions that need screenshots to illustrate them:

First, what happens if you found a city right in the middle of a food resource, as my "friend" Gandhi has done here?

View attachment 611058

Generally, you get the unimproved tile yield if it is better than the city default, and access to the resource as soon as you have the tech for it.

In this particular case, he will get the wheat as a health resource, but will get no improved yield. Had the wheat been unter Utrecht (on grass) the city square would have had 3 food rather than 2.

Second, can someone explain to me why the mountain at the top here is not inside my cultural borders?

View attachment 611059

Your cultural borders will not extend beyond the "fat cross" from the tiles of your continent. The closest tile on your continent to the peak is the gold, which is 2 diagonal from the peak, so is outside the fat cross.

 

[R82]

Is there a point in having open borders with a Civ that's running Mercantilism, if you don't plan to move through their territory and don't care about the possible relations bonus? That is, can your cities have trade routes with their cities even if their cities can't have trade routes with your cities?

 

[AcaMetis]

Is there a point in having open borders with a Civ that's running Mercantilism, if you don't plan to move through their territory and don't care about the possible relations bonus? That is, can your cities have trade routes with their cities even if their cities can't have trade routes with your cities?

Mercantilism works both ways, the civ that runs it can't have foreign trade routes and no foreign civ can have trade routes with the civ running Mercantilism either. One exception to that rule is vassals - vassals and sovereigns can have foreign trade routes even through Mercantilism, assuming they have open borders.

Beyond that the only reason to have open borders with a civ in mercantilism is if you want their military to be able to cross your borders, say the civ DoWed someone on the other side of your borders and you want their army to get stuck or cut off from reinforcements.

 

[civac]

You can monitor what their army does.

 

[Orion Pax]

Also, if that civ’s territory is the only route to a civ you do wish to trade with, then you would need to have open borders with that gateway civ.

 

[civac]

Also, if that civ’s territory is the only route to a civ you do wish to trade with, then you would need to have open borders with that gateway civ.

This is not true. Only war can break trade routes. You do not need open borders with any intermediary civs.

 

[krikav]

This is not true. Only war can break trade routes. You do not need open borders with any intermediary civs.

If I want to have traderoutes with Monty, who is on the other side of Toku, which is my only neighbour....
Then Monty and Toku need to have OB, for me to have traderoutes with Monty don't they...?

If Toku doesn't have OB with either of us, then I don't think we get traderoutes... but I'm not sure!

 

[elmurcis]

Isn't it just down to have visibility for clear path to AI capital? Sometimes it is possible to trade resources (as long as one side has access to other side capital) and seemingly also sign open borders for trade routes but as soon as check F9 info screen on Import/Export (positive number = player gets more commerce from trade routes than AI in total, negative number = AI gets more trade routes from human in total; with some very lucky map layout I have hit +100 commerce surplus) can see negative impact from that deal - thus, AI is getting trade routes towards human (commerce into AI account) but human isn't getting them. Happens when AI sends it's workboats to explore shore line around but human is fog-busting&stuff and being very efficient but don't have direct route to AI capital on map visible.

 

[civac]

If I want to have traderoutes with Monty, who is on the other side of Toku, which is my only neighbour....
Then Monty and Toku need to have OB, for me to have traderoutes with Monty don't they...?

If Toku doesn't have OB with either of us, then I don't think we get traderoutes... but I'm not sure!

Neither Monty nor you need to have OB with Toku in this scenario. You need to have OB with Monty and scouted a viable trading path along coast/roads/rivers as @elmurcis writes. Only if Toku is at war with either of Monty or you do the trade routes get cut.

 

[Orion Pax]

Right - to be clear, I’d specified “if that civ’s territory is the only route,” as in whatever clear path exists involves a portion that is entirely inside that civ’s borders. So resource trades definitely get canceled when that stops (canceled OB, barb blockage, etc.). Happens all the time.

 

[civac]

OBs with Civs sitting in between don't matter for resource trades either. Just as they don't matter for trade routes. (Provided a path to the trading partner is known.) Barb cities do cut trade routes and resource trades. This happens because both trading partners are at war with them.

 

[Major Tom]

Started a new game (BtS with bug mod) and something strange happened after first build. The city started to build something automatic. The splash screen for choosing new build didn’t show up. Never happened before and can’t find where to turn this automation off.

 

[AcaMetis]

I don't know if it's BUG or BULL, but one of the two has an option to set every unit production chosen from that splash screen to be produced indefinitely. Alternatively you might have accidentally turned out automated city production rather than citizen automation.

 

[Lennier]

I think it's a standard game thing that alt-click (or maybe ctrl-click) on an item has it built forever. You can tell if you've accidentally done it if there's an asterisk after the item in the build que.