Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[deity#1]

can anyone help me when i try starting up civ it just comes up with the loading screen and then comes up with the windows error message saying sid meiers civilization 4 has encountered a problem and needs to close, anyone???

 

[Lord Parkin]

a4phantom: Regarding the work boat vs worker decision, well obviously it depends a little on the situation. But, generally speaking, 9 times out of 10 when I am in this situation I find it more useful to build the work boat first. A big plus is that when you do things that way, the worker will build faster (providing you are working the fishing boats tile with the extra food, which you should be). Plus you'll be growing as you build the Work Boat, which you won't be as you're building the Worker. So you are saving turns, most of the time.

The only occasion I can see where it might be more beneficial to build the worker first is if there are multiple excellent land resources in your capital's radius. For instance, I'm thinking that two Cows would warrant such a thing... streamline to Animal Husbandry, make a Worker your first (or second) build. Likewise two Wheats would also be good. If the resources are of different types (eg one Cow, one Wheat) then it isn't quite as useful to build the Worker immediately since you usually have to research multiple techs to build the tile improvements.

But really, as you can see, it's pretty situational. Just do what you reckon is best, it's probably better to use common sense rather than to just apply a mathematical formula to every new game (which would be tremendously complicated anyway).

I also have a quick question: Can anyone point me towards a good JPG -> Civ4 Map converter? Preferably one that works for Warlords too? I'm aware that such things exist, but I can never seem to find them!

 

[pixiejmcc]

Another question I wanted to ask: How is the percentage of tile ownership worked out? For example, why does Egypt own 56% of the tile and Germany own 44%? How does the culture from a city relate to the surrounding tiles?

And this probably a silly question but when Germany has so much culture that it now owns 51% of the tile, does the tile become Germany's?

 

[a4phantom]

can anyone help me when i try starting up civ it just comes up with the loading screen and then comes up with the windows error message saying sid meiers civilization 4 has encountered a problem and needs to close, anyone???

Yes, probably 2/3 of the times I try to start the game. Patches seemed to reduce the occurance, but with Warlords it's back to most of the time. Do you have an ATI graphics card? I think that's my problem, but when I try to update the driver there's a problem there too. I'm seriously pissed since Civ4 was one of the main reasons I took the plunge and bought a laptop. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that it's nearly impossible to play the scenarios because Civ4 has to initialize correctly twice in a row.

Here's the support site, if you have any luck please let me know!
http://www.2kgames.com/index.php?pr...'s+Civilization+IV,PC,2K_Games,civ4&p=support

 

[a4phantom]

Another question I wanted to ask: How is the percentage of tile ownership worked out? For example, why does Egypt own 56% of the tile and Germany own 44%? How does the culture from a city relate to the surrounding tiles?

And this probably a silly question but when Germany has so much culture that it now owns 51% of the tile, does the tile become Germany's?

Yes. Cultural ownership of a tile is determined by the strength and proximity of cultural centers. For example, if I have a culturally weak city very close to a tile and you have a cultural giant a small distance away, they will be in competition for the tile. I don't know the math of it, but when your culture in that tile rises to 51% you will take it away, giving you control of any resources and possibly starving my city.

 

[Lord Parkin]

It's also based on city age too, as I recall. An ancient city with a low culture will usually "beat" a newer city to tiles, even if the newer city has more culture (eg from a Great Artist)... at least for a time.

 

[a4phantom]

It's also based on city age too, as I recall. An ancient city with a low culture will usually "beat" a newer city to tiles, even if the newer city has more culture (eg from a Great Artist)... at least for a time.

I've never heard of that but it seems likely given the limited effects of culture bombing a recently captured city at moving the borders against yet uncaptured cities. Culture bombing gives you several rings of unclaimed territory, but rarely seems to move culturally contested borders at all. Not that it isn't still worthwhile to culture bomb captured cities as it immediately ends unrest.

 

[pixiejmcc]

I'd really like to know EXACTLY how it works so I can understand, why, for example, a culture bomb often has little effect against established borders.

 

[ggganz]

Well, some people say that giving the city your religion makes them want to flip to you more, but some people say that it just gives the city culture to fight you with. I would go with the former, unless your religion is also the other civ's state religion.

 

[a4phantom]

I'd really like to know EXACTLY how it works so I can understand, why, for example, a culture bomb often has little effect against established borders.

I would too, or at least a practical summary. I'm planning on crossing the ocean to seize Technochitilan from the Aztecs. I expect to be unable to continue the advance beyond that point, but for the top civ to capture the second civ's capital should direct the rest of the game the way I want, especially because that half of the world is Buddist and I will be taking their shrine along with some other wonders. Anyway, I have two Great Artists who will accompany the invasion force, and hopefully together they will help me keep Technochitilan. I will be double culturebombing the world's second greatest city without conquering or razing any of the surrounding ancient cities, so it'll be a good field test of how culture bombing works against established cities. Wish me luck.

Does anyone know how the AI calculates the effects of attacking a civ beyond whether it can beat that civ? Apparently not very well . . . Stalin is probably a jerk all the time, but he had nothing to gain and everything to lose by attacking a vassal of his only ally, and yet he did it.

My vassals refuse some of my most outrageous demands for cash, gpt and resources. Are they supposed to be able to do that?

 

[Lord Parkin]

You can keep Tenochtitlan anyway, can't you... in Civ4 militarily captured cities won't culturally revert. However, if you want to be able to use the surrounding terrain tiles and not have the city starve down to size 1, culture bombing would probably be a good idea. It'll also stop the (probably many) turns of resistance.

 

[a4phantom]

Yeah, I know the only danger of culture flipping would be to the nearby germans or Chinese, but to hold the city militarily I'll need a territorial buffer and cultural defenses (gunpowder age, rushing a wall wouldn't help). How much defense does 8000 culture give you anyway?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Depends on the game length. The cultural "bars" are set at different levels depending on the speed.

Normal speed:
0 - nothing
10 - 20% defence, first border expansion
100 - 40% defence, second border expansion
500 - 60% defence, third border expansion
5000 - 80% defence, fourth border expansion
50000 - 100% defence, final border expansion, Legendary culture

Quick speed: Half those values
Epic speed: 1.5 times those values
Marathon speed: 3 times those values

So generally 8000 culture will net you 80% defence, except on Marathon where it'll net you 60% defence. However, I believe the Culture of Great Artists is also scaled for difficulty level... based at 4000 on Normal speed, IIRC.

Hope that helps.

 

[holy king]

yeah its 6000 culture on epic by the GA

 

[toller pretzl]

I'm at war with a civ that has a city on a little island miles from us. Assuming that I can get it from them in exchange for peace, will there be a way for me to get rid of it ?

Will I just get a window that asks if they can join, and if I click 'no', will the city be destroyed ?

 

[Lord Parkin]

No, I don't think so. But you could always gift the useless city to a third civ, and let them increase their maintainence.

 

[toller pretzl]

No, I don't think so. But you could always gift the useless city to a third civ, and let them increase their maintainence.

Thanks, great tip Assuming anybody wants it, of course

 

[sebastien]

where a good civilopeadia french translation??

 

[pixiejmcc]

where a good civilopeadia french translation??

Have you tried civfr.com?

 

[sebastien]

i've tried and french people have the same problem ****ing translation
and civ.fr is a smaller site than this one