Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[frankcor]

Wow, thanks, Samson!

 

[a4phantom]

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.

Thank you! I've been very occasionally wondering that for almost a year now.

 

[JaeKayLMNOP]

I have two questions, both of which are somewhat related to diplomacy and foreign relations:

My first question is, how is another nation's level of approval for you calculated? In other words, what separates "Furious" from "Annoyed" from "Cautious" from "Pleased" from "Friendly". I know it has something to do with the various grievances and praises for your civilization that every other leader has, because each of them is given a number value. But specifically how many more "+" than "-", or vice-versa, do you need to obtain each "ranking"? Does it vary with civilizations?

My second question has to do with religion. I'm playing a game where previously, some civilizations did not like me in a large part because of my religion. So, I decided to attempt to convert many of these civilizations with Missionaries, and I was largely successful. My question is: If you want a civilization to flip religions, is it more effective to convert their larger cities, or does it not matter? Does the computer calculate a civilization's major religions based on the amount of cities possessing a given religion, or by the overall population that possesses that religion?

Thanks!

-Jason

 

[drew61267]

Hello there, just found this thread and saw that it has 165 pages...so forgive me if this question has been asked and I didnt find it.

How do I add building options to the worker unit. What I would like to do is allow the worker to be able to change terrain, I miss the old terraform option for modern workers in previous civ games.

If someone has knowledge of what needs to be modified so that my workers can change desert to plains, plains to grassland, build forests, build hills, tunnel through mountains to make roads and railroads, change land to water and extend land over water. Please let me know.

Thanks

 

[a4phantom]

I have two questions, both of which are somewhat related to diplomacy and foreign relations:

My first question is, how is another nation's level of approval for you calculated? In other words, what separates "Furious" from "Annoyed" from "Cautious" from "Pleased" from "Friendly". I know it has something to do with the various grievances and praises for your civilization that every other leader has, because each of them is given a number value. But specifically how many more "+" than "-", or vice-versa, do you need to obtain each "ranking"? Does it vary with civilizations?

I don't know but how much of a benefit you get (how big the + or - is) depends on the Civ. For example, having a different religion than Vicky will probably only get you a -2, whereas Isabel will hate you (-6 or something). Nothing will get you too big a + with Tokugawa. Since civs' reactions are staggered, I suppose the numbers probably aren't.

My second question has to do with religion. I'm playing a game where previously, some civilizations did not like me in a large part because of my religion. So, I decided to attempt to convert many of these civilizations with Missionaries, and I was largely successful. My question is: If you want a civilization to flip religions, is it more effective to convert their larger cities, or does it not matter? Does the computer calculate a civilization's major religions based on the amount of cities possessing a given religion, or by the overall population that possesses that religion?

Dunno that one either but I suspect it's number of cities. Also, a civ that owns a holy city will be extremely reluctant to convert to a religion that it doesn't have a holy city for.

 

[a4phantom]

Hello there, just found this thread and saw that it has 165 pages...so forgive me if this question has been asked and I didnt find it.

How do I add building options to the worker unit. What I would like to do is allow the worker to be able to change terrain, I miss the old terraform option for modern workers in previous civ games.

If someone has knowledge of what needs to be modified so that my workers can change desert to plains, plains to grassland, build forests, build hills, tunnel through mountains to make roads and railroads, change land to water and extend land over water. Please let me know.

Thanks

There's probably a mod for that, but remember that it'll give you a big advantage if the AI's not programmed to do that intelligently. I sure wish you could replant forests for late game health, although they'd have to make them unchoppable for hammers or something like I think they did in Civ3.

 

[Farsider44]

In conquest editor how do you allow the unit and city brush to place units and cities

I checked everywhere but couldn't find

 

[lost_civantares]

Are you talking about civ3? If so you're in the wrong forum, go to the civ3 Quick Questions thread.

 

[Farsider44]

oops
JK
JAY KAY
sry

 

[Roland Johansen]

Hmm, I'm not sure about the direct way, but I DO know that if you play multiplayer games (Direct IP), then the name that you last used there will be the default for all new games that you start (until you change your name in Direct IP).

Oh, and Roland, here's the results of my first test. I must admit I was surprised how accurate and true to randominity they were. I'm hoping to do a few more hundred-unit battles just to be sure, though. But it looks like it could just be my tendancy to get bad luck in singular battles.

EDIT: File attached.

Hi. Sorry that I didn't react to your post earlier. I like your attitude that you really did perform such a test. You did a good test here and it's good to hear that we now agree on the issue. You would have had more results to work with if you would have picked two units that were somewhat less comparable in combat strength so that the 'perfect win' situation would occur more often. Now, you only have 4 perfect wins, a number that too small to use for statistics. We can't say a lot about the result directly following a perfect win. However, if you're satisfied with the results, then no more tests are needed.

How is the type of great person you get defined? I get ALOT of prophets.

I know that I'm a bit late with this response, but I haven't had time to read this thread lately. This is a little bit more complicated as was first explained to you by Samson (allthough his explanation is close to the truth). The exact answer can be found in this strategy article. Go down to the section titled 'Odds to get a specific type of great person'.

I was thinking about nuclear plants... I usually build one or two just to tempt fate. But exactly how small is that 'small chance' of a meltdown?

Better late than never. The chance is 1 in 2000 or 0.05% per turn per nuclear plant. So if you own 20 nuclear plants for 100 turns, then you can expect one of them to melt down. Of course, it might not happen at all or it might happen to three of your nuclear plants. That's the luck part.

My first question is, how is another nation's level of approval for you calculated? In other words, what separates "Furious" from "Annoyed" from "Cautious" from "Pleased" from "Friendly". I know it has something to do with the various grievances and praises for your civilization that every other leader has, because each of them is given a number value. But specifically how many more "+" than "-", or vice-versa, do you need to obtain each "ranking"? Does it vary with civilizations?

It's not completely linked to the relationship value. If Isabella has just asked you to change religions to her religion and you refuse, then the relation might be +1 and annoyed (the +1 is build up of +2 years of peace, +2 open borders, +3 fair trade deals, -4 wrong religion, -2 you refused to convert to ...). A number of turns later, the relation might return to cautious. There is an immediate relational effect to negotiations and after a while it returns to one that is more related to the relationship value.
There's a large xml file which determines the relational consequences of refusing deals and demands and having the same civics or religion as other nations. It's not that easy and not really required or very beneficial for playing the game. I've looked at the file once and didn't find it worthwhile for my gaming strategy.

My second question has to do with religion. I'm playing a game where previously, some civilizations did not like me in a large part because of my religion. So, I decided to attempt to convert many of these civilizations with Missionaries, and I was largely successful. My question is: If you want a civilization to flip religions, is it more effective to convert their larger cities, or does it not matter? Does the computer calculate a civilization's major religions based on the amount of cities possessing a given religion, or by the overall population that possesses that religion?

I think that it is based on the value of having the new state religion in its empire versus the old one. Religion civics offer greater benefits to the larger cities, so I think that the AI takes that into account. So I usually try to convert the larger cities.

However, you should also know that larger cities and cities with multiple religions are more difficult to convert. You should take that into account before you decide which city you are going to convert.

How do I add building options to the worker unit. What I would like to do is allow the worker to be able to change terrain, I miss the old terraform option for modern workers in previous civ games.

If someone has knowledge of what needs to be modified so that my workers can change desert to plains, plains to grassland, build forests, build hills, tunnel through mountains to make roads and railroads, change land to water and extend land over water. Please let me know.

This might not be that easy. Civ terrain consists of basic terrain (plains, grasland, desert, etc.) and overlays (forest, jungle, floodplains, etc.). With the normal worker routines, you can only change (remove) overlays.
I would go to the Creation and Customization subforum and ask your question there. They are the experts with modding the game.

I know that some people created a mod which allowed forests to be replanted. That is actually not that difficult, but the way they programmed it, made it fairly balanced. It took so much time that it was not economically beneficial to rebuild and chop forests continuously.

The problem with modding this kind of stuff is that the AI is not programmed to handle it and thus will probably not use it at all, weakening its competitiveness considerably.

 

[a4phantom]

There's a large xml file which determines the relational consequences of refusing deals and demands and having the same civics or religion as other nations. It's not that easy and not really required or very beneficial for playing the game. I've looked at the file once and didn't find it worthwhile for my gaming strategy.

I'm only a moderate player (despite my obsessive posting) and I think after playing for awhile one developes enough of an instinctual knowledge of what harms and helps relationships seriously (with Civs only not girls, but we know what really counts) not to need to try and decode the hard numbers. But what's harder is the variation by Civ. I know religion is fatally important to Izzy and less important to the English queens. I know Tokugawa will almost never sign Open Borders and that Monty will sooner or later attack. But if anyone knows of an article that lists the personality of every leader, please point it out.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I'm only a moderate player (despite my obsessive posting) and I think after playing for awhile one developes enough of an instinctual knowledge of what harms and helps relationships seriously (with Civs only not girls, but we know what really counts) not to need to try and decode the hard numbers. But what's harder is the variation by Civ. I know religion is fatally important to Izzy and less important to the English queens. I know Tokugawa will almost never sign Open Borders and that Monty will sooner or later attack. But if anyone knows of an article that lists the personality of every leader, please point it out.

In the following article, someone posted some excell sheet with all kinds of information about the leader personalities and their influence on diplomacy. The information is taken from the xml-files and is thus very complete. But it's like reading about the internal mechanism of a machine and that mechanism is so detailed that knowing every screw and axis of the machine doesn't make you a great operator of the machine. Also, I don't think that you want to memorize every tiny bit of information about each personality in the game. At the moment that you know this, then you probably lose interest in (a part of) the game or you'll enable random personalities (in the pregame settings). At least, that is my opinion.

It can be nice to have some feeling for what kind of things play a role in diplomacy and that is something that you might learn from taking a look at these excell sheets.

 

[a4phantom]

In the following article, someone posted some excell sheet with all kinds of information about the leader personalities and their influence on diplomacy. The information is taken from the xml-files and is thus very complete. But it's like reading about the internal mechanism of a machine and that mechanism is so detailed that knowing every screw and axis of the machine doesn't make you a great operator of the machine. Also, I don't think that you want to memorize every tiny bit of information about each personality in the game. At the moment that you know this, then you probably lose interest in (a part of) the game or you'll enable random personalities (in the pregame settings). At least, that is my opinion.

It can be nice to have some feeling for what kind of things play a role in diplomacy and that is something that you might learn from taking a look at these excell sheets.

Hmm I wasn't looking for their dental records, just summaries of their behavior patterns But I'll take a look, thanks!

 

[13ig_VV]

how is it that u advance ages in the game? is there like a certain technology u have teo discover or a certain number? or is it just random or something else?

 

[Roland Johansen]

how is it that u advance ages in the game? is there like a certain technology u have teo discover or a certain number? or is it just random or something else?

Each technology belongs to a certain age. If you discover a technology of a new age, then you advance to that age.

By the way, welcome to civfanatics!

 

[Mozza]

Would I be right in assuming that under Free Religion, I am better off with as many religions as possible in each city?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Generally speaking, in a single player game, yes. (In a multiplayer game though, unless you control a lot of the religions it may not be wise to let your rivals "spy" on your cities...)

 

[Mozza]

How do you "spy" via religions?

Is it only in multi-player as I've never done that.

 

[Lord Parkin]

If you own the holy city to a religion, then you get a "line of sight" benefit wherever that religion is spread. Basically, this means that every city in the world with your state religion will be revealed to you, defences and all. Thus you can plan much more effectively for military campaigns and the like.

It's in single player too, but the AI don't understand how to use it properly (or more likely, already has the information anyway). Whereas to a human opponent, it can prove to be a huge and decisive advantage.

 

[Mozza]

If you own the holy city to a religion, then you get a "line of sight" benefit wherever that religion is spread. Basically, this means that every city in the world with your state religion will be revealed to you, defences and all. Thus you can plan much more effectively for military campaigns and the like.

It's in single player too, but the AI don't understand how to use it properly (or more likely, already has the information anyway). Whereas to a human opponent, it can prove to be a huge and decisive advantage.

Aha! this in no way damages my planned mod. Thank you.