Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[AcaMetis]

Now, a trivial question: are there city names that appear on the standard city name list for two different Civs, and get used by only one of them on a "first come, first served" base? Like, say, Thebes for Egyptians and Greeks, or Memphis for Egyptians and Americans, or perhaps some city names for Germans and Holy Romans?

I don't know of any city names that are shared between civs, but I do know that the default name the game will assign to a new city is the first name on that civ's city list that is not already in play - for example if you rename your initial city to "capitol" your second city will default to, say, Amsterdam, because that name isn't (shouldn't be, unless you're playing with duplicate civs and/or MP I guess) already in play. If a civ's entire list of names is already in play it'll start from the top and add "New" in front, e.g. "New Amsterdam". After that I don't know what happens, but as said some civs have 90-odd city names defined, so running out the list twice over would require settling a crazy number of cities.

 

[Fizz'l]

I don't know of any city names that are shared between civs, but I do know that the default name the game will assign to a new city is the first name on that civ's city list that is not already in play - for example if you rename your initial city to "capitol" your second city will default to, say, Amsterdam, because that name isn't (shouldn't be, unless you're playing with duplicate civs and/or MP I guess) already in play. If a civ's entire list of names is already in play it'll start from the top and add "New" in front, e.g. "New Amsterdam". After that I don't know what happens, but as said some civs have 90-odd city names defined, so running out the list twice over would require settling a crazy number of cities.

The city names that I could find which are shared between civilizations are:
Birmingham (England and America)
Memphis (Egypt and America)
Peshawar (India and Persia)
Richmond (America and England)
Tula (Aztec and Russia)

 

[lymond]

Thebes (Greece and Egypt)

 

[Fizz'l]

Thebes (Greece and Egypt)

Oh I was only looking at the base game. For BTS, the cities are:
Bagacum (Rome + Celt)
Birmingham (America + England)
Cremona (Rome + Celt)
Marmaris (Appears twice in Ottoman city list (go figure?))
Mediolanum (Rome + Celt)
Memphis (America + Egypt)
Peshawar (India + Persia)
Richmond (America + England)
Shiraz (Persia + Arabia)
Sicyon (Appears twice in Greek city list)
Tarsus (Ottoman + Persia)
Thebes (Egypt + Greece)
Tula (Aztec + Russia)
Zama (Maya + Carthage)

 

[R82]

Thank you, everyone, interesting discussion!

Unrelated: is there any good overview about in which order all the things that happen between clicking "end turn" and getting the next decision to make, happen? I got curious about that matter after a recent game where, early on, I got one of those massive Barbarian attacks that can sometimes happen as a random event if you haven't turned off random events. After some preliminary fighting, there were three Barbarian Archers left, and they were all at the gates of a city that was only defended by one Warrior. It was quickly building an Archer, but still had one turn to go with that. I clicked on "end turn" fearing the worst - but it turned out that when the Barbarian attack on the city started, the new Archer had already been completed, and he successfully defended the city against the attack. As I said, that got me curious about in which order events between turns happen.

 

[Samson]

Thank you, everyone, interesting discussion!

Unrelated: is there any good overview about in which order all the things that happen between clicking "end turn" and getting the next decision to make, happen? I got curious about that matter after a recent game where, early on, I got one of those massive Barbarian attacks that can sometimes happen as a random event if you haven't turned off random events. After some preliminary fighting, there were three Barbarian Archers left, and they were all at the gates of a city that was only defended by one Warrior. It was quickly building an Archer, but still had one turn to go with that. I clicked on "end turn" fearing the worst - but it turned out that when the Barbarian attack on the city started, the new Archer had already been completed, and he successfully defended the city against the attack. As I said, that got me curious about in which order events between turns happen.

I would like to second this question. I have been playing Civ3 and Civ4 a bit recently, and I THINK there are some important things that happen in different orders between the 2, but I would love to see an authoritative source.

 

[AcaMetis]

The player always moves first, AIs move next based on their turn order (which I believe is purely in team order - Team 1 moves before Team 2, Team 2 moves before Team 3, etc.), and finally Barbarians move last. If you have a city that's one turn from completing something when you end turn that build will complete before any AI or barbarian can move, since the player always moves first. If that build is a unit the unit will appear and will defend if attacked, although the unit obviously will not have any defensive bonuses from fortification and cannot have any promotions assigned beforehand. This is why some people will leave cities undefended if there's a unit with one turn left in the cue, because even if the city is attacked by whoever the unit will appear before any attacker can make a move and snipe the city unopposed.

 

[Samson]

When do units get their defense bonus? What about healing?

 

[AcaMetis]

...I'm not 100% sure in either case, but I think both happen at the start of your turn, basically after the barbarians make their move and before you take your turn, assuming a unit hasn't moved? Definitely don't quote me on that, though.

 

[Samson]

Is there a way to know the order the AI's take their go, without watching troop movements and working it out?

 

[AcaMetis]

IIRC AIs are listed in the trade screen (and others) in team order, so the top AI goes after you, than the next one, than the next, and so on until after the last AI Barbarians move. And then the turn rolls around back to you.

 

[Fizz'l]

Also note that if you play a scenario, then the human player does not necessarily move first.

 

[elmurcis]

Sometimes something strange happens during Permanent Alliance merge and our team (me and AI) suddenly gets huge "free" amount of beakers in research overflow - something like 2x of cost of Railroad tech (so can finish like 2 techs in 2 turns even if actual research pace is many times lower). Could it be bug, feature or something else?

 

[Fizz'l]

In my current game, I just made peace with Nappy, and when I went to see why he wouldn't open borders, it read "Not right now ... maybe we'll change our mind in a few years"... this is a new message for me. When do you see it, and what (precisely) does it mean?

 

[AcaMetis]

As far as I know that's the message for an AI refusing to open borders because you cancelled a prior open borders agreement, through means other than declaring war. I believe there's a chance each turn at the AI will "forgive" the slight, and at that point you'll be able to open borders again (provided you've got good enough relations for it, of course).

 

[Fizz'l]

As far as I know that's the message for an AI refusing to open borders because you cancelled a prior open borders agreement, through means other than declaring war. I believe there's a chance each turn at the AI will "forgive" the slight, and at that point you'll be able to open borders again (provided you've got good enough relations for it, of course).

I can't remember if I cancelled borders or not, but there's a good chance I did just before he DoW'd me. Also would explain why I haven't seen it before (because I don't normally cancel open borders with AI, unless it's requested by another AI).

 

[R82]

If you give cities your own names, what's the maximum allowed number of signs in a city name?

 

[ArchGhost]

In my current game, I just made peace with Nappy, and when I went to see why he wouldn't open borders, it read "Not right now ... maybe we'll change our mind in a few years"... this is a new message for me. When do you see it, and what (precisely) does it mean?

It's a cooldown on Open Borders implemented on the AIs. After enough time passes (I'm sure it's different for different leaders), and attitude threshold allows for it (AIs that don't like you won't OB), they will allow Open Borders again. It's intended to prevent you from abusing OB agreements with ceasefires to constantly use the AI's own roads to move into advantageous positions and keep chipping away at them.

It can show up if you cancel an Open Borders agreement manually or due to demand (though you likely won't see it because they will refuse to talk after breaking trade via outside demand!) or if either of you goes to war with one another. AIs can also randomly cancel OB without any diplomatic interaction (I never found out the mechanic for why they do this) and it may show up there too, IIRC.

You can immediately circumvent this cooldown (and any attitude threshold blocking) by joining a war against the AI's opponent -- they will instantly offer Open Borders if you are in a joint war.


A new one for me I saw today: I watched Saladin's SDI shooting down nukes over his French vassal's territory, he had no borders anywhere near France.. It makes me curious as to whether the SDI protects one's vassals too or it just intercepts ICBM from any enemy launching them on the map, which make more sense mechanically in the game.

 

[Fizz'l]

It's a cooldown on Open Borders implemented on the AIs. After enough time passes (I'm sure it's different for different leaders), and attitude threshold allows for it (AIs that don't like you won't OB), they will allow Open Borders again. It's intended to prevent you from abusing OB agreements with ceasefires to constantly use the AI's own roads to move into advantageous positions and keep chipping away at them.

It can show up if you cancel an Open Borders agreement manually or due to demand (though you likely won't see it because they will refuse to talk after breaking trade via outside demand!) or if either of you goes to war with one another. AIs can also randomly cancel OB without any diplomatic interaction (I never found out the mechanic for why they do this) and it may show up there too, IIRC.

You can immediately circumvent this cooldown (and any attitude threshold blocking) by joining a war against the AI's opponent -- they will instantly offer Open Borders if you are in a joint war.


A new one for me I saw today: I watched Saladin's SDI shooting down nukes over his French vassal's territory, he had no borders anywhere near France.. It makes me curious as to whether the SDI protects one's vassals too or it just intercepts ICBM from any enemy launching them on the map, which make more sense mechanically in the game.

He finally agreed to open borders again on the turn that he became pleased (coincidence? as Nappy normally opens borders at cautious) - seemed like a very long cooldown.

No idea about the SDI question - I normally try to get the UN no-nuke resolution passed ASAP because I don't want to have to deal with those things . According to the below discussion, however, it shouldn't protect his vassals unless he has units stationed in the vassal's territory:
SDI and nukes mechanics. | CivFanatics Forums

 

[s.bernbaum]

No idea about the SDI question - I normally try to get the UN no-nuke resolution passed ASAP because I don't want to have to deal with those things .

If you want to eliminate nukes entirely, which is what I have done, just set the GlobalInstance of the Manhattan Project to 0 so it can't be started by anyone.
The file containing the GlobalInstance of the Manhattan Project is Assets/XML/GameInfo/CIV4ProjectInfos.

Don't change the original file! Copy it to CustomAssets in the same named subfolders in your CIV document folder and make the change in the copy.