Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lord Parkin]

Questions:
1) Is it possible to destroy your own city? If so - how, as old trick with reducing it to zero by building settlers/workers won't help..

Nope. Only real way I know of to destroy it is to gift it to another nation, declare war on them, retake the city, and raze it.

2) How to change standard game to include MP option "RandomSees", so I get another result in every combat, which brings me to..

Don't you mean SP option? You can't get new random seeds in MP, it would open too many doors to accusations and allegations of cheating. In SP games though, you can select "Don't Preserve Random Seed" or somesuch in the game options, before you set up the game. You have to create the game inside "Custom Game" (instead of "Play Now!") to do this.

3) How to defeat those f%#!%#!^#! Praetorians??? I tried Rhye's mod as Greece on Monarch - and the Romans are flooding me with them. I tried countering them with Axeman, but they have like 3 Praets for every 2 Axes of mine.. They also pillaged my infrastructure back to Stone Age. Ok, disregard this question, I'm simply angry

Axes are the best bet. Usually Praetorians are fairly tough anyway, they make up for Rome's useless traits. However, since it's a mod it's possible that things aren't balanced up properly. Or that one side is meant to lose. In either case, it won't be the same even ground you'll be fighting on in normal games.

4) Any good, universal or easy solution to increase performance of Civ4? Some options turned on/off (and where to find them)?

Turn graphics details down... all of them, really. Low quality textures, smaller resolution, whatever. In any event you're still not going to run it with an ancient computer, but it'll do better on a mid-range computer, which is something at least.

 

[JonnyB]

Nope. Only real way I know of to destroy it is to gift it to another nation, declare war on them, retake the city, and raze it.
QUOTE]


I'm fairly certain this won't work if the city was originally built by you. That if you retake a city you created then razing it is no longer an option.

 

[Keraunos]

Nope. Only real way I know of to destroy it is to gift it to another nation, declare war on them, retake the city, and raze it.

Pity

Don't you mean SP option? You can't get new random seeds in MP, it would open too many doors to accusations and allegations of cheating. In SP games though, you can select "Don't Preserve Random Seed" or somesuch in the game options, before you set up the game. You have to create the game inside "Custom Game" (instead of "Play Now!") to do this.

Indeed, that's where I found it. But then I won't be able to use any mods that use premade map. That's why I tried to look in .ini file, but failed.

Axes are the best bet. Usually Praetorians are fairly tough anyway, they make up for Rome's useless traits. However, since it's a mod it's possible that things aren't balanced up properly. Or that one side is meant to lose. In either case, it won't be the same even ground you'll be fighting on in normal games.

That's probably the case. Maybe it's me who doesn't like easy solutions

Turn graphics details down... all of them, really. Low quality textures, smaller resolution, whatever. In any event you're still not going to run it with an ancient computer, but it'll do better on a mid-range computer, which is something at least.

Already done I thought about some "hidden" options, not easily accessible. I'm looking for a way to play on Large maps (most earth maps go in this size). I have AMD 2.0 and Radeon 9600 (not so bad ), but only 256 RAM and Win XP - which is below minimal reqs

EDIT: Thanks for feedback

EDIT 2: One more question, I assume a simple one. How to make roads/railroads destructable by air force. From historical perspective this is more then reasonable.. First you gain air superiority, then you destroy enemy infrastructure (so he won't send reinforcements easily), then you invade.

This is the problem I recently encountered during playing WW2 North Africa scenario, as Allies. Vichy France send like 15-20 artilleries from all it's cities, to counter my invasion, and my one city can't outproduce his 6, even weak ones Effectively a stalemate

 

[Samson]

How do hammers degrade when you switch from a production project?

Eg. you start on a wariour, then start a work boat when you get fishing. Someone said that you start to lose the hammers after 10 turns. Is this correct? Does it vary with game speed? Can you work on the work boat for 9 turns, put 1 turn into warior then carry on with the work boat for another 9 turns?

Thanks.

 

[FuRRie]

Hammers aren't carried over to other projects anymore.
The game does remember who many hammer you have put in a building or a unit.
So you can start buidling a workboat, ad a warrior in front of the boat in the qeue and then finish the boat.

 

[Samson]

Hammers aren't carried over to other projects anymore.
The game does remember who many hammer you have put in a building or a unit.
So you can start buidling a workboat, ad a warrior in front of the boat in the qeue and then finish the boat.

But it the workboat takes ages (lets say you are only at 1 hammer per turn, so it takes 30 (?) turns. The number of hammers invested in the warior will drop. DO you know how (in what manner) this happens and if 1 turn on the warior will stop it happening?

 

[indian]

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

Please answer my question.

 

[Keraunos]

Please answer my question.

It had already been answered. Twice. Look on previous pages, Lord Parkin answered, IIRC.

Two more questions, rather complex ones :

1) I know that buildings no longer have maintance costs, but..does building improvements increase civic cost? I can feel significant raise of civic cost throught game (and I mean city maintance mostly) even when I expand only lightly. Why? Is it becouse I build city improvements/cities grow/factor increases geometrically instead of aritmeticaly?

2) What is the math behind calculating unit you can freely maintain altogether/on enemy territory? Is every unit counted, or only military ones? And is ocean/territory not owned counted as "enemy territory"? I think so, but I'm looking for confirmation..

3) I repeat my previous question - how to make roads/railroads destructible by airforce?

 

[Ifyouhavetoask]

1) I am playing a game via direct ip with a friend. We are teamed together from the start (i.e we both chose team 1). Is there a way we can trade gold?

2) How can i form a permanent alliance with an A.i player?

 

[Lord Parkin]

1) I know that buildings no longer have maintance costs, but..does building improvements increase civic cost? I can feel significant raise of civic cost throught game (and I mean city maintance mostly) even when I expand only lightly. Why? Is it becouse I build city improvements/cities grow/factor increases geometrically instead of aritmeticaly?

Well, I'm not much help with the general mathematics, but I do know (fairly certain) that building improvements does NOT affect maintainence costs. (Except for the Courthouse and Zulu Barracks, which lower maintainence as they claim of course. ) What DOES affect maintainence from cities (and this is probably what you're experiencing) is the SIZE of those cities.

As more pop points are added to a city, the maintainence increases. So naturally, throughout the course of the game, your maintainence will grow as your cities do (and incidentally, your civic cost will grow in the same fashion). The obvious way to counter this is to make sure that you need every city that you found, and that every city you found is able to pay for itself (ie has plenty of arable land and some good resources around).

2) What is the math behind calculating unit you can freely maintain altogether/on enemy territory? Is every unit counted, or only military ones? And is ocean/territory not owned counted as "enemy territory"? I think so, but I'm looking for confirmation..

I'm interested in this too. I *think* every unit counts, but I can't be sure. Also, the maths is a bit illusive to me - it appears to go in "steps", with a certain threshold of units causing a 2-3 gpt rise in upkeep costs, but individual units sometimes not making a change. Again, I'd be interested to hear from a more informed individual.

3) I repeat my previous question - how to make roads/railroads destructible by airforce?

No idea sorry.

1) I am playing a game via direct ip with a friend. We are teamed together from the start (i.e we both chose team 1). Is there a way we can trade gold?

Yes, gold can be traded between teammates just as it can in the normal game. That is, one of you must have Currency first.

2) How can i form a permanent alliance with an A.i player?

First you must make sure to select "Permanent Alliances" in the Custom Game menu when you set up the game. If you do not (which is the default), then you will not be able to sign Permanent Alliances, ever (within that game).

If you've ticked on Permanent Alliances though, then once you get a certain technology (Military Tradition, I think?), then Permanent Alliances become available. I've never used them myself, but I presume they appear in the diplomacy screen. They'll probably be redded out for all but your closest friends, though.

 

[frankcor]

Keraunos, Lord Parkin did a better job than I could on your 1st question. I have no clue on the 2nd one. I'll take a stab at the 3rd:

3) I repeat my previous question - how to make roads/railroads destructible by airforce?

You can't. You can bomb improvements in tiles but not roads or railroads. It's pretty frustrating, sometimes but I suppose the developers found that capability just too overpowered.

 

[Keraunos]

You can't. You can bomb improvements in tiles but not roads or railroads. It's pretty frustrating, sometimes but I suppose the developers found that capability just too overpowered.

That's why I'm looking for a way to mod it - now I'm searching through XML. And try WW2 North Africa Scenario as Allies. Even with air superiority I find invasion impossible, as Vichy sends masses of artillery via railroads :/ And my two cities will never outproduce

Anyway, in Normandy crippling the infrastructure was one of the important factors that helped to keep Germans away for a while, and kept their reinforcements away..

Unfortunately, in Improvements.xml there are all the cottages, farms etc., but no roads

And, as usual , thank you for your answers, Lord Parkin
Still Civ4 newbie, and I can't play a lot becouse all those lags are so frustrating

 

[Keraunos]

Yet another question comes to mind. I never played Civ4 up to modern times, except mentioned WW2 North African scenario. But I don't know is there something wrong with airforce, or am I doing something wrong..

Am I right that "intercept" mission is very diffrent from "air sup" of Civ3?
As I see it now, "intercept" mean only "defend" - there is a chance that he'll intercept incoming enemy aircraft. Here are my "strange" experiences:

1) Playing as Allies, I had 9 Fighters guarding Gibraltar.. I think it's much, but..enemy bombers conducted successful missions like 50% of the time, keeping my infrastructure destroyed. And even successful interdictions led to something like 5-20% damage! 1-2 turns, and they were able to destroy again. 9 fighters couldn't stop 5 bomber squadrons enemy had??

2) Another strange thing - this time Egyptian front. Both sides have large fighter force, but..it gives no use of airpower AT ALL! Becouse the side that conduct air mission is unable to do any damage to enemy airforce, each mission is a sucide mission - as aircraft will be intercepted and damaged.

Civ3 was much better in that manner - "air sup" was simply a fight between units - both sides got damage, and the winning side could at least employ it's bombers it so hardly invested into..

Are my (as stated - limited) observation correct? Or am I missing something?
Can someone show me a point in leading modern war if airforce is useless? How do you use your airforce in modern war?

 

[royfurr]

So, a simple but consequental question. I've played several games and keep having Persians and Egyptians amonst my OPFOR. Tired of seeing them and want to see other civs, not yet experienced, as opponents. In earler versions of Civ I believe in setup you could exclude a specific civ from your possible opponents. Other than specificing your opponents (I have always used random for them, wanting to be experince discover as to the others), CAN you exclude a Civ? The setup screen doesn't seem to allow this, It seems only RANDOM or specificng a particular Civ for each of the possible slots. I want RANDOM but also Excluding some of them. No way to do this?

And by the way how does the number of the little circles on the top of your units Nationality flag vary? Sometimes they are 3 or 5, and I think there are different color but not sure on that. Whats the deal there?

Thanks to you all, in advance.

OH if it is important on this issue, I am playing 1.61 Vanilla.

 

[Keraunos]

So, a simple but consequental question. I've played several games and keep having Persians and Egyptians amonst my OPFOR. Tired of seeing them and want to see other civs, not yet experienced, as opponents. In earler versions of Civ I believe in setup you could exclude a specific civ from your possible opponents. Other than specificing your opponents (I have always used random for them, wanting to be experince discover as to the others), CAN you exclude a Civ? The setup screen doesn't seem to allow this, It seems only RANDOM or specificng a particular Civ for each of the possible slots. I want RANDOM but also Excluding some of them. No way to do this?

And by the way how does the number of the little circles on the top of your units Nationality flag vary? Sometimes they are 3 or 5, and I think there are different color but not sure on that. Whats the deal there?

Thanks to you all, in advance.

OH if it is important on this issue, I am playing 1.61 Vanilla.

AFAIK, you cannot exlude the Civ as an in-game option. Probably it's easily doable with modding, but I thought similar thing about religion, and removing some proved difficult

Do you mean the dots above nationa flags? If so, this is the number of units on this field. As it comes to diffrent colours: yellow means ready, white means fortified, red means out of move, IIRC

 

[Sparta]

As it comes to diffrent colours: yellow means ready, white means fortified, red means out of move, IIRC

Just a (very) minor nitpick: I believe that yellow means that some portion of its allotted movement for the turn has been used up (i.e. white means it still has full movement for that turn available, and yellow would indicate, for example, a mounted unit that has used one move out of two, or a regular unit that has moved once or twice on roads but still has some movement left).

Edit: Oh, and I have very little experience with modern warfare, but FWIW, it seemed to me that airforce should ideally be bomber-heavy and used offensively - my (limited) observations seemed to concur with yours that fighters are heavily ineffective against any decent number of bombers, as they rarely intercept bombers anyway and (almost?) never kill them even if they do. Anti-air seems more difficult in this iteration than in previous civs, IMHO. I think if I got to that stage in a game, I would try to go bomber-heavy and hope to use them as close air support for a decent tank force, with which to blitz into their border territories to try to limit the range of their air offensives as quickly as possible. Don't know about the WWII scenario, but I guess I would still try even naval power to limit air attacks rather than invest too much into fighters, which in my admittedly limited experience seem to prove ineffective in defensive roles.

 

[Keraunos]

I won't ever see modern warfare until I buy new hardware ..but since I plan it, maybe I'll soon will. Thanks for feedback

And, of course, you're right with colours

 

[russinmn]

I don't think I heard/saw an answer to a question I posted: how can I get an opponent to start a war against me? In one of the civ versions, you could simply leave an unguarded city near their borders and they would bite on it. Sometimes, you could piss 'em off by starting diplomacy and then doing nothing or -- better still -- offer them ridiculous trades. And on a different note, can I get opponent A to fight opponent B?
I know that being weak can sometimes induce an opponent to attack. Would it work to "appear" weak; i.e., having only warriors as defenders with lots of cash and then upgrade them when attacked?

 

[frankcor]

An AI will attack you when their diplomatic relationship goes negative enough. Sometimes that's -5, sometimes -7. So hover over their name in the score table and the relationship items will appear. That will give you a list of things that you can try. If the AI is happy with your past trades, then break some trades with him. Demand tribute. Trade wth his worst enemies. It's all listed there.

Of course, if your power exceeds that of the AI, they may never become furious enough to declare war on you.

 

[royfurr]

AFAIK, you cannot exlude the Civ as an in-game option. Probably it's easily doable with modding, but I thought similar thing about religion, and removing some proved difficult

Do you mean the dots above nationa flags? If so, this is the number of units on this field. As it comes to diffrent colours: yellow means ready, white means fortified, red means out of move, IIRC

Thanks for the input Keraunos. By "on this field" I presume you mean that tile?

Regarding "can't exclude" a civ ... BUMMER! I am just so sick of seeing the Egyptians and Persians, they have been in the last 4 games in a row. I know ITS RANDOM but come on, I want to be able to get some of the ones I have'nt seen yet! I don't want to go into world builder to see oponents as it reveals map details that I would rather discover in play. Reloading the start isn't an option IMO because you don't know whom it is out there until you've played a while. My games are very slow; I have only so long to play each day and session, I like to look everything over, make careful decisions, and consequentally it typically takes a long time per turn- getting to say 1000 BC takes me about a week or 1.5 wk. of RL time.

Drat not being able to exclude Civs you've seen too many times!