Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[DrewBledsoe]

non civ-related, but
normally can other games be tricked that way? (i.e no minspecwarning?)

Some can, some like Oblivion can't. in Oblivion's case, your comp's graphics card MUST support Hardware Transform and Lighting (mine doesn't grrrrh) and so far this is unbypassable (is that a word?).

It all depends upon the game. Many games refuse to identify intel "onboard graphics" for an example, and while these aren't very good, they are adequate with low graphics settings for most games. It's best to check a forum for the specific game to see if min specs can be bypassed. And it's pointless "tricking" a game into running, and then finding it's utterly unplayable with your current setup anyways....

 

[Roland Johansen]

^^roland, nice post.
Didn't read it all (sorry, but it IS long), but I wanted to say that VoU made a very nice article about production cities running workshops.
and here is another example of this kind of production cities.

note it's not perfect either :
I'm at my health cap, and growing isn't doing me any good, so I should have put another workshop instead of a farm + I left 1 town instead of a workshop. It could be 4 base hammers better, for little loss (I believe it didn't change anything in the outcome, this was the last space part).

A high food tile (wheat I think) combined with high production low food tiles, very nice and of course state property enhanced watermills to support the low food tiles are also superb. It's at 61 base hammers from terrain and engineers (64 with the settled great engineer, apperently you have a 300% production bonus when building this space part). If I see it correctly, it would have a maximum of 67 base hammers from terrain and engineers (70 with the settled great engineer) if you change the (non-wheat) farms and the town into workshops and lose one of the engineers. Very juicy city

By the way, only the last part of my post is about a production city and workshops. I mentioned other terrain improvements when talking about the other screenshots.

 

[Jerrymander]

If you build the Great Wall early, and it shows up, then you expand, can Babarians enter your cultural territory that isn't behind the Wall or not?

 

[Roland Johansen]

If you build the Great Wall early, and it shows up, then you expand, can Babarians enter your cultural territory that isn't behind the Wall or not?

No, they can't enter the cultural borders of any of your cities after you've build the Great Wall. The visual representation is just eye candy.

 

[KMadCandy]

No, they can't enter the cultural borders of any of your cities after you've build the Great Wall. The visual representation is just eye candy.

roland is correct but left out one detail i learned the hard way. the Great Wall works only on the continent where you build it. on a pangaea map, this isn't an issue. i was playing continents or something tho, and a barb popped up pretty late near a city i'd recently taken over, on another island. i didn't worry about him, figured "neener neener you're going to get frustrated over there." i was wrong. i still feel bad for my poor worker the barb killed when he was, to my utter amazement, able to walk into my borders over on that island, where the GW didn't count.

 

[a4phantom]

Good to know KMadCandy! Due to the lack of barbarians by the time one usually settles overseas, I bet most people would never discover that and those who do find out the hard way!

 

[ChrisShaffer]

How do you draw the nicer straight-line dotmaps? Like this one:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/aelflune/Emperor%20Challenge 4/Emperor17.jpg

I know how to draw scribble-y crayon-like lines, but how do you draw these neat rectangular lines?

 

[Abegweit]

How do you draw the nicer straight-line dotmaps? Like this one:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/aelflune/Emperor Challenge 4/Emperor17.jpg

I know how to draw scribble-y crayon-like lines, but how do you draw these neat rectangular lines?

It can be done in Paint, altho it's painful. Shouldn't the strategy layer have this built in, BTW? What other purpose would it have?

 

[Roland Johansen]

It can be done in Paint, altho it's painful. Shouldn't the strategy layer have this built in, BTW? What other purpose would it have?

You can draw in the strategy layer, but it is a bit hard to get nice straight lines. But I don't see the need to be able to create works of art or engineering with the strategy layer. Some rough lines are more than enough for my personal use (planning cities usually).

 

[ZeroAngel]

Well, I didn't get an answer in another thread so I thiought I'd try here.

On the world map religion tab, some religions in cities are shown white, others black, others a shade of grey.

What do these differeing colors mean?

Thank you.

 

[Abegweit]

You can draw in the strategy layer, but it is a bit hard to get nice straight lines. But I don't see the need to be able to create works of art or engineering with the strategy layer. Some rough lines are more than enough for my personal use (planning cities usually).

My point was that a BFC tool should be included in the strategy layer. Sure it's possible to use the atrocious stuff they actually do supply. Compare the elegance of CAII with this pathetic thing. Also in CAII, you can actually see things. Like resources, for example.

* Turn off the fog of war -- only in areas you've actually seen, natch
* Get rid of the clouds. I mean GAWD, this is supposed to be a Strategy Layer!
* Show the resources, and not using those dumb balloons either.
* Provide some decent tools like, as I say, a BFC

Then you might actually have something useful. What were they actually thinking anyway. Don't folks like Sirian know better?

 

[Roland Johansen]

My point was that a BFC tool should be included in the strategy layer. Sure it's possible to use the atrocious stuff they actually do supply. Compare the elegance of CAII with this pathetic thing. Also in CAII, you can actually see things. Like resources, for example.

* Turn off the fog of war -- only in areas you've actually seen, natch
* Get rid of the clouds. I mean GAWD, this is supposed to be a Strategy Layer!
* Show the resources, and not using those dumb balloons either.
* Provide some decent tools like, as I say, a BFC

Then you might actually have something useful. What were they actually thinking anyway. Don't folks like Sirian know better?

What's a BFC and what is CAII? You're using a bit too many abbreviations for me.

I agree that the clouds have no real function. But computer games regularly tend to focus too much on looks and not enough on functionality. This is an example of that trend, I guess.
I don't have a problem with the resource balloons. They don't look that great but are quite functional. They also offer extra information about what the resource will offer when improved with a certain improvement and they offer information about bonusses provided when resources are combined with certain buildings (extra happiness for silver when combined with a forge).
I don't get your point about the fog of war. You don't get updated information about the areas under the fog of war, so why would you like to remove it in the strategy layer. Wouldn't that be confusing?

 

[KMadCandy]

What's a BFC and what is CAII? You're using a bit too many abbreviations for me.

I agree that the clouds have no real function....
I don't get your point about the fog of war. You don't get updated information about the areas under the fog of war, so why would you like to remove it in the strategy layer. Wouldn't that be confusing?

BFC = big fat cross = 21 squares of a city once it gets the culture pop.

i'd like to have the clouds and fog of war (FoW) gone when i'm in the strategy layer. when i'm using it i am strictly looking at geography and planning stuff out. clouds simply just make that harder and add nothing. the fact that some areas are still in FoW carries the known risk that some of my planning may be obsolete by the time i try to carry out my plans. that risk will be there whether or not i have more user-friendly tools. making the geography i have already seen at one point easy to see when i'm out there in the strategy layer, rather than greyish due to FoW, makes that planning easier.

to me this issue is purely about the tools in the game, it won't alter gameplay. tools should be flexible and easy to use, otherwise why are they there? learning where to best place cities, and how to specialize different types of cities, is key strategy and takes a long time to learn. having to take screenshots and swap out programs to draw pictures just for the micromanagement of that is a pain in the neck tho, and certainly doesn't mean you're a better or worse player, just that you have to deal with more frustration. i know that some people resort to doing that. i don't do that, i think in BFCs and i mark just by signs in the game, but i'm an oddball.

 

[a4phantom]

What is this "strategic layer" of which you speak? How does one arrive in this magical land?

 

[Lord Parkin]

What's a BFC and what is CAII? You're using a bit too many abbreviations for me.

I don't get your point about the fog of war. You don't get updated information about the areas under the fog of war, so why would you like to remove it in the strategy layer. Wouldn't that be confusing?

CAII = CivAssist II (for Civilization III), I think.

 

[Lord Parkin]

What is this "strategic layer" of which you speak? How does one arrive in this magical land?

Zoom out until the point where you start seeing the clouds. You can then select the Strategy Layer option, which is the first little button on the left above the minimap. This will give you the option of drawing lines and similar pretty things on the map, if you so desire.

 

[Abegweit]

What's a BFC and what is CAII? You're using a bit too many abbreviations for me.

I agree that the clouds have no real function. But computer games regularly tend to focus too much on looks and not enough on functionality. This is an example of that trend, I guess.
I don't have a problem with the resource balloons. They don't look that great but are quite functional. They also offer extra information about what the resource will offer when improved with a certain improvement and they offer information about bonusses provided when resources are combined with certain buildings (extra happiness for silver when combined with a forge).
I don't get your point about the fog of war. You don't get updated information about the areas under the fog of war, so why would you like to remove it in the strategy layer. Wouldn't that be confusing?

BFC= Big Fat Cross, the area that a city can work. CAII, CivAssistII, is an elegant helper programme for Civ3 written by CFC's own Ainwood and Tomas. It is far more user-friendly than Civ3 itself, which in turn is infinitely better than Civ4.

Civ4 was a major step backwards in the user interface and the graphics. You can't see anything. You don't get animations for foreign movement pass your troops, just a stupid little message which (sometimes) tells you that the enemy is near some city. The Dialog Boxes are clunky and don't even have links. The civlopedia is also a step backwards.

And don't even get me started about what happens when you try to click on the map. Suddenly you are halfway across the world and you've just moved a unit to Timbuktu. Then, of course, Civ3 also had better picking too. For example, try to click on the city name if there is a unit in the tile just below it. Can't be done. This is simply atrocious.

Back to the STRATEGY layer.

What else would you use it for except dotmapping? Dump the FoW. Resources don't change just because you haven't been in the area in a while. Civ4 has does have a mode where it removes the FoW but you can't write on it and you can't use it to plan, since it takes away all the units and the city names. For the love of God, why?

For a STRATEGY layer, you need a BFC tool. You need to see the resources. EVERYWHERE. And the Civ3 display of them is infinitely better than Civ4. Hell. Civ1 was better.

As for the clouds, they are simply horrible. I don't have much objection to them in the world view, which is just eye candy anyway, but not in a STRATEGY layer.

 

[WillSen]

I've looked around everywhere I think, but does anybody know if there are any topics/stories/reports/discussions on the 600 BC scenario on the orriginal Civ IV. Its the one where you can play as either Rome/Persian or another civ that I can't remember
Thanks

 

[Drakeero]

Is there a way to make a 'custom' civilization? I'd like to use my favorite custom from Civ II.

And I don't mean a whole new civilization from scratch, I mean, different names, custom personality, and just recycle one of the other animations for the leader.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Is there a way to make a 'custom' civilization? I'd like to use my favorite custom from Civ II.

And I don't mean a whole new civilization from scratch, I mean, different names, custom personality, and just recycle one of the other animations for the leader.

Names of AI civs and leaders can be changed in the pre-game setup screen. First make sure to click "Custom Game" rather than "Play Now!" in the single player menu. Then, by clicking on the small icon to the left of each player's slot, you can set up their custom civ and leader names. You can also change your own civ and leader name (and you can further change your own names during the game by going to the "Game Details" button in the main menu, or alternatively by pressing "Alt-D").

For custom personalities, I'm not sure about how you'd do that, but what you can do is to select "Random Personalities" as an option in the game setup screen (again under "Custom Game" rather than "Play Now!"). "Random Personalities" makes it so that each leader will be randomly assigned a personality from amongst all the other leaders. For instance, you might have a Gandhi leader who really has the warlike Montezuma attitude assigned to him, or alternatively a Tokugawa leader who has the eager-to-trade Mansa Musa attitude assigned to him. You never know what you'll get.

Hope that helps somewhat.