Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

pixiejmcc · Aug 2, 2006

Lord Parkin said:
No, it's -25% of the TOTAL, original % that the city would have had if it had had NO bombardment. (Which makes sense - otherwise you'd bombard 100% down to 75%, then down to 56%, then 42%, 32%, ... in an infinite exponential relationship. And that just doesn't work. )

Aha.

Thank you.

So in simple terms no matter what the % defence you will always need no more and no less than 4 trebuchets to take it down to zero in one turn.

Sparta · Aug 2, 2006

pixiejmcc said:
Aha. Thank you.

So in simple terms no matter what the % defence you will always need no more and no less than 4 trebuchets to take it down to zero in one turn.

Pretty much, although there is the exception of using three trebuchets with the Accuracy promotion (+10% city bombard for 35% apiece) to get it down to 5% in one turn (you don't necessarily have to hit exactly zero to get decent odds sometimes, and this will save you upkeep cost on one trebuchet as well as possibly unit support costs of 1 gpt on that extra treb also). It can be a pain to manage getting three committed bombardment units promoted, but it's something to consider if you've got some XP 5/5 and 6/5 siege units, IMHO.

Accuracy is available after either city raider one or collateral one, IIRC. Good luck!

garbage0707 · Aug 2, 2006

Got some noob questions. And thanks in advance for taking the time to answer these.

First off, how do I know that my plane attacks and nukes are doing damage? I was really pumped the first time I built a nuke. Thinking back to my good ol RON days, I figure it would destroy everything in site. Alas, it doesnt, the units and the city are still standing. Samething with air attacks...same units are still standing??? What gives. Correct me if Im wrong but arent nukes supposed to destroy everything within a given radius?

Second of all, when I play single player and go to diplomacy screen, many of my options are in red and not available to me. What gives? Why would I be prevented from trading certain resources and what not?

Thats about all I have for now. Thanks again!

a4phantom · Aug 2, 2006

Sparta: Accuracy is available after either city raider one or collateral one, IIRC.

That's correct. I usually go with CR, since when I use suicide cats it's to weaken the strongest defender not the weak ones.

garbage0707 said:
Got some noob questions. And thanks in advance for taking the time to answer these.

First off, how do I know that my plane attacks and nukes are doing damage? I was really pumped the first time I built a nuke. Thinking back to my good ol RON days, I figure it would destroy everything in site. Alas, it doesnt, the units and the city are still standing. Samething with air attacks...same units are still standing??? What gives. Correct me if Im wrong but arent nukes supposed to destroy everything within a given radius?

Second of all, when I play single player and go to diplomacy screen, many of my options are in red and not available to me. What gives? Why would I be prevented from trading certain resources and what not?

I don't know about nukes, but when a bomber attacks it should say on the left hand side of your screen that you damaged a unit 20% or so, and that you caused collateral damage to 0-6 units. I don't think fighters do collateral damage but I could be wrong. Make sure you differentiate between the two bypes of bombing runs, air bomb which (I think) reduces a city's defensive value or destroys terrain improvements or air strike which blasts units. Also remember that air attacks cannot destroy units in Civ4, only bring them down to 50%. Even ships :mad:

You can't trade cities the other civ doesn't know about, those are in red . . . techs the other civ doesn't have prereqs to aren't even shown . . . if you mean resources and options on their side of the screen (the left, what you'd be getting out of the trade) it means that there's no price they'll accept for those, either because they consider it precious (military techs and resources) or because they're not that fond of you ("we just don't like you enough") or because you have nothing that's worth it to them. If you hold the mouse over the reddened options it'll say why.

Mikecu · Aug 2, 2006

Hi there. Got hold of Civ 4 yesterday and it's awesome. I've been having a little play about in marathon mode and I've found that after a while, a green mist seems to start rising from my cities. Can anyone explain what this is or tell me how I can prevent it from appearing?

Thanks,
Mike.

Gherald · Aug 2, 2006

That is called unhealthiness. Cities with more :yuck:

than

will consume 1 additional :food:

per

yuck: over :health:

) per turn.

You can get more :health:

in various ways, such as founding your cities next to fresh water, building aqueducts, not chopping forests in city radius, or hooking up resources like corn, wheat and building granaries for them, etc. Also having the expansive leader trait (which many regarded as the most useless in the game) will give +3 :health:

.

You can get fewer :yuck:

by not letting your cities grow as much (there is 1 :yuck:

per population number), chopping jungles in city radius, or not building things like forges, factories, coal plants. etc.

Note that in the city screen you can mouse over to see where your :yuck:

and

is comming from.

Mikecu · Aug 2, 2006

Thanks for the quick reply.

So - I need to go easy on the tree chopping, build an aqueduct, granary and make some farms. I'm going to start a new game and have a think about my city placement more carefully, I won't just go for the first tile my settlers suggest.

You said not letting the city grow as much - how do I do this? I noticed that one of my green faces came from the people complaining that it was too crowded.

Thanks,
Mike.

Gherald · Aug 2, 2006

Mikecu said:
I won't just go for the first tile my settlers suggest.

They usually suggest one that is next to fresh water.

You said not letting the city grow as much - how do I do this? I noticed that one of my green faces came from the people complaining that it was too crowded.

Yes, the too crowded is the game's way of reporting the 1 :yuck:

per population point.

To stop cities from growing, work less food tiles manually, or set "avoid growth" inside it.

Mikecu · Aug 2, 2006

Right, thanks for your help.

One final question: at what stage should I stop my city from growing? I think i had the number 7 in a star beside my city name - what number should I draw the line at?

Thanks,
Mike.

a4phantom · Aug 2, 2006

Mikecu said:
Hi there. Got hold of Civ 4 yesterday and it's awesome. I've been having a little play about in marathon mode and I've found that after a while, a green mist seems to start rising from my cities. Can anyone explain what this is or tell me how I can prevent it from appearing?

Thanks,
Mike.

That's stink coming out of your sewers. Your cities are unhealthy (they also have a little green sick face), which means they cost every food which prevents growth and causes starvation. Build aquaducts, graineries, hospitals and harbors. Conquer or trade for bananas, cows, clams, crabs, grain, etc. Build lumber mills instead of cutting down all your forests (it's best to cut down the ones on rivers). Do cut down all jungles within any city's limits. Consider limiting growth, because every population adds one point of unhealth. Also, whenever possible all cities should be built on rivers. Flood plains (desert squares next to rivers) also cause unhealth, but are a great source of food so usually worthwhile.

frankcor · Aug 2, 2006

Mikecu said:
Right, thanks for your help.

One final question: at what stage should I stop my city from growing? I think i had the number 7 in a star beside my city name - what number should I draw the line at?

Thanks,
Mike.

The star means that city is your capital. Build a Palace in another city and the star will move there, instead.

Stop the city growth when the number of unhappy faces :mad:

is equal to the number of happy faces

inside the city screen. As you build happiness causing buildings or gain access to happiness resources, the number of happy faces will grow and you can let the population start growing again. Don't worry as much about sick faces. Sickness slows your city growth for sure but doesn't hurt your production.

a4phantom · Aug 2, 2006

Mikecu said:
Right, thanks for your help.

One final question: at what stage should I stop my city from growing? I think i had the number 7 in a star beside my city name - what number should I draw the line at?

Thanks,
Mike.

Oops, I forgot to hit reply and someone beat me to the answer. You should stop growth when you have as many :mad:

as

(more

and you have problems, more

and you can grow more). You should start looking for health improvers when you have almost as many :yuck:

as

. In addition to working production and commerce tiles and improvements instead of food, you can also use specialists to limit growth since no specialist besides Super Merchant produces food.

Edit: grrr happened again! I'm obviously not the only one stuck at a computer all day waiting for work.

Question of my own: why are the circles (or star for capital) with the population number of my cities different colors? Pink, green, etc? My computer is a three day drive away so I can't check, maybe it's cities that originated from different empires and keep that color, but I don't think so. Also, will an English founded city always remain English, i.e. wanting to return to England as long as there is one, and you get a diplo hit from Engand for razing it even if you conquer it from Germany, forever?

Gherald · Aug 2, 2006

Mikecu said:
at what stage should I stop my city from growing?

There is no fixed number you should draw the line at. It depends on a multitude of factors such as the resources in the city radius, what improvements you have available to work, which ones you've actually decided to work at that particular point in time, what you are currently bulding in the city or will be building in the future, buildings you currently have in the city, available resources, technology status, how many specialists you are running or want to continue running, etc.

Principles like "stop growing whenever you don't have extra happiness available" may make sense most of the time, but they are by no means definitive.

Lord Parkin · Aug 2, 2006

Sparta said:
Pretty much, although there is the exception of using three trebuchets with the Accuracy promotion (+10% city bombard for 35% apiece) to get it down to 5% in one turn

Actually, in this case the city would be completely down to 0% (since 35% + 35% + 35% = 105%). But yes, I agree that you don't always have to get it down to exactly zero.

Raisin Bran · Aug 2, 2006

a4phantom said:
Question of my own: why are the circles (or star for capital) with the population number of my cities different colors? Pink, green, etc? My computer is a three day drive away so I can't check, maybe it's cities that originated from different empires and keep that color, but I don't think so. Also, will an English founded city always remain English, i.e. wanting to return to England as long as there is one, and you get a diplo hit from Engand for razing it even if you conquer it from Germany, forever?

Green star or circle means that your city is growing
pink (or red) there is starvation in the city
and white is when the growth is stagnant.

fergus · Aug 2, 2006

I read that there is a mod to play as the barbarians in the original non warlords civ4 anybody heard of it?

Harrier · Aug 2, 2006

In some cases it is difficult to know if posters are talking about the original Civ4 or the expansion- warlords.

Would it not be better if the warlords expansion had its own forum. :confused:

Raisin Bran · Aug 2, 2006

Harrier said:
In some cases it is difficult to know if posters are talking about the original Civ4 or the expansion- warlords.

Would it not be better if the warlords expansion had its own forum.

there is a thread on that subject in the site feedback section.

click here

frankcor · Aug 2, 2006

I have a question of my own -- I'm playing in a succession game and our savegames have grown larger than 500 Kb. Is there an inexpensive (meaning free) solution to posting them to the forums?

Samson · Aug 3, 2006

Here is quite a long list of places you can put stuff;

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