Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[SvenSlayer]

Okay, I'm a newbie to Civ4 (have played the others, though). What happens to all your hammers when you change production?

For instance, if I'm halfway through building a Warrior and then add an Archer to the production queue while removing the Warrior from the queue, where do all those hammers disappear off to? Do they change into gold? In the older games the shields were moved to the new production.

I'm probably missing something simple.

 

[Harrier]

Okay, I'm a newbie to Civ4 (have played the others, though). What happens to all your hammers when you change production?

For instance, if I'm halfway through building a Warrior and then add an Archer to the production queue while removing the Warrior from the queue, where do all those hammers disappear off to? Do they change into gold? In the older games the shields were moved to the new production.

I'm probably missing something simple.

The hammers stay with that unit (warrior in your example) or building.

The new build starts from zero, when you return to build the warrior the previous hammers are still there. The number of hammers accumulated will however reduce over time.

 

[AtriumComplex]

I'm playing a game with a friend and we're wondering if Stonehenge gives free monuments to premenant allies? What happens to a premenant allies' vassal?

 

[indian]

dude are all my maps supposed to be in the load scenario page

Please answer my question.

 

[Lord Parkin]

indian, I'm not sure but I think you need to save your maps to several different places. My Documents/My Games/[Civilization IV]/Saves/Worldbuilder is one place I think, and then you also want to put it in the "PublicMaps" folder in that same area (My Documents/My Games/[Civilization IV]), and also the "Public Maps" folder inside Program Files/Firaxis Games/[Civilization IV]. I'm not sure exactly which of those three are necessary, so I just put my maps in all three folders. You should then be able to load them via "Load Scenario" inside Civilization IV.

I'm playing a game with a friend and we're wondering if Stonehenge gives free monuments to premenant allies? What happens to a premenant allies' vassal?

I'm not exactly sure... though monuments will be long obsolete by the time Permanent Alliances become available. If you're thinking of team games though, then yes - Stonehenge will give the benefits of Monuments for both you and your teammate. This is true of most wonders, with only a few notable exceptions (Taj Mahal being one - only the builder gets the Golden Age, not any of his teammates).

 

[112]

in the worldbuilder how can you change player starting positions, cause in the map that im building half of the civ's start in the ocean

 

[JonnyB]

Hi I'm new here. Thanks for all the advice on specializing cities, I usually would build what was suggested but not anymore.

My question is, Is there a way to obtain Technology either by stealing it or forcing someone to give it to you? I remember in civ 1 you could get tech by invading cities or diplomats stealing them. The spies in Civ4 seem to lack that ability.

 

[MrCynical]

You can't steal tech any more, but you can try demanding it off weaker civs.

 

[Red Door]

Please answer my question.

Yes, but don't tell people to answer your question.

 

[ggganz]

in the worldbuilder how can you change player starting positions, cause in the map that im building half of the civ's start in the ocean

Put a settler where you want it. You can place a unit of another civ by changing the selection in the drop-down menu in player mode.

 

[JonnyB]

What do the pros do with their great people? I tend to use mine right away and if I don't need them for their unique ability (great work, finish production) I use them for a research boost but when I invade AI's they often have a GP in the city so I wonder if I should be saving them for when I really need them or for golden ages.

 

[ggganz]

I'm no pro, but I usually use my to do the thing that the one type can do, (look at the number threes here for sprecifics) or research a

 

[frankcor]

What do the pros do with their great people?

It should come as no surprise that the most common answer is "It depends on the situation." Civ4 has never been a game of memorized, always work, actions. Personally, I rarely save Great Persons for golden ages.

 

[smartus]

What do the pros do with their great people? I tend to use mine right away and if I don't need them for their unique ability (great work, finish production) I use them for a research boost but when I invade AI's they often have a GP in the city so I wonder if I should be saving them for when I really need them or for golden ages.

I am an Emperor player and I use great people right away. Only when I have merchant + artist and it's a good time for a golden age (building wonders) I go for GA. I would never use more than 2 GP for GA.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, same here. I agree that it's kind of difficult to get any "general rules" for the use of Great People, since so much depends on the situation.

However, in the interests of getting a sort of "newbie guide" as to what's best for most situations... well, here's a few points I can think of:
- Don't save up Great People for golden ages until the mid-late game. Early on, in almost every situation you'll be better off using the Great Person for one of their specific purposes. Plus, it will take far too long to save up Great People early on in the game... better to wait until you've built more Wonders, got more specialists, perhaps have got Pacifism... and on the whole, are generating Great People a heck of a lot faster.
- Never use more than 2 Great People for a Golden Age, it just isn't worth it in almost every situation. 3 may be possible towards the end of a long game, but even then you'll probably be better off just using the Great People as specialists or tech-helpers.
- Try to emphasise the kind of Great People that are actually useful to you. Generating masses of Great Merchants might be fun, but it won't really help you all that much. If you're hording religions - try to build an early Wonder emphasising Great Prophets (Oracle or Stonehenge are good), build Temples and employ Priests. If you're a techmonger, go for the Great Scientists (Great Library will help a lot in this regard). If you want to grab some good wonders for yourself, roll out the Great Engineers (getting Forges for Engineer citizens is a must, and several wonders will help, including the Great Wall, Pyramids, and Hanging Gardens).

That's a few of the "general" tips for Great Person use. Perhaps someone else can offer some additional hints, or elaborate on mine.

Anyway, hope that helps somewhat.

 

[Keraunos]

"Depending on situation" is the best answer. IMHO

Yesterday I used artist's "culture bomb" to take over Aztec town behind my lines. It caused a war, though (which I didn't wanted, as I played them earlier against common enemy, Spanish - the only civ that didn't follow my religion .

Question: In hotseat game, can you reply enemy turn - so that you know where did enemy go, which units fought etc.? Or is it as with Civ3 - that only last player can see enemy moves?

 

[Lord Parkin]

There's a "combat log" which functions in sort of the same way, if that's what you mean. The button is in the top-left corner of the screen in-game.

 

[Mikan Cyclone]

Hello. These might have been asked earlier on ( I know the second one has, I can feel it), but I searched through the thread and got nothing, so here I am.

First and most important, on a single player game, is it possible to switch between civilizations? (ex. Play as Japan then switch to Russia)

Second, is it possible to delete a religion once it takes root in your city? I know the answer is probably no, but still, you might have found something I haven't

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Lord Parkin]

1. No, I don't think so.
2. Unfortuntely not. At least, not without cheating. (Of course, you can always go into the WorldBuilder and remove the religion from the said city... but that's hardly any fun. )

 

[pixiejmcc]

Collateral damage has changed in WL. Could someone explain exactly how? Where as before each collateral damage battle was carried out in a similar way to a normal battle now, the collateral damage inflicted is standard. E.g. With catapults... an axe will always receive 0.5 (10%/hp) damage. A knight always 0.7 (7hp).

So simply put the amount of damage received goes up as strength increases however the hp lost decreases. Not well explained but i think u will understand .

And whilst on the subject of catapults. If a spear attacks a stack of catapults and elephants, it will hit an elephant. If a spear attacks a stack of archers and catapults it will hit an archer. If a spear attacks a stack of catapults and warriors it hits a warrior. Is there any rule or pattern to these discrepancies? I understand they will be taken out next patch.

This is probably best answered by Guru Roland: I am really struggling with how site from coastal tiles works. I know that you can see one tile beyond a coastal tile. but it seems u can't see an ocean tile beyond a coastal tile. Is that correct?

Oh and I worked out exactly how the sentry promotion works. It is much like a city, it is as though there is a standard unit stading on each tile adjacent to the sentry unit. So, if the sentry unit stands on a flat tile in the middle of a ring of hills he will see a long way.

And finally, I asked earlier about slavery. What i really wanted to know was (and I didn't make this very clear) How does the number of turns having an unhappy face work? It seems to me that if you slave again before the 6 turns elapse you will have another unhappy face for 6 turns plus another 6 minus the number of turns since you last slaved.

For example if u slave on the very next turn, it will last for 6 + (6-1) = 11 turns.

Thank you all for your stream of knowledge in advance.

Bumpety bump