Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Roland Johansen]

Later in the game, a city with lots of riverside tiles can be made into a production powerhouse with watermills and workshops, though this has been nerfed a little bit in Beyond the Sword (State Property's boost to those tile improvements has been removed in favour of a 10% production boost in all cities).

In BTS, workshops and watermills still get the food bonus in state property AND the civic gives a 10% production bonus. The 10% production bonus is not that impressive however as you already have a high production bonus in your cities at that time and 10% more isn't that great.

 

[ggganz]

But the higher the base production, the more the 10% adds.

 

[Sisiutil]

In BTS, workshops and watermills still get the food bonus in state property AND the civic gives a 10% production bonus. The 10% production bonus is not that impressive however as you already have a high production bonus in your cities at that time and 10% more isn't that great.

Right, and let's not forget that SP negates the new corporation feature--which is logical in several respects. SP was overpowered before, it needed the nerfing it got. It also needed a downside, and now it has one.

 

[hogie12345]

Thanks ,Roland Johansen and ggganz for answering my question.

When I reached a certain level of technological advancement,
I could hear music....

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Right, and let's not forget that SP negates the new corporation feature--which is logical in several respects. SP was overpowered before, it needed the nerfing it got. It also needed a downside, and now it has one.

But State Property now has a new mistress called Caste System, which Im sure will be explored in depth as more games get played..............

 

[MangleMeElmo]

Too bad worskhops don't benefit from Biology.

 

[Chick_gozur]

what is wotm?

 

[scienide09]

Probably the Warlords (game) of the month.
You didn't give any context, but that's probably what you're talking about.

 

[PlugInPortnoy]

What is the hammer for?
What are artists and citizens good for?
What other ways except building more farms are there to keep my cities from starvation?
Are Libraries and Courthouses and such really crucial like the game makes them out to be? If so, why?
How do I get rid of the it's too crowded complaint?

 

[mwr]

Im trying to play a mod i downloaded, but cant figure out how to install it. How does one get a mod to work?

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

What is the hammer for?

Hammers is production, the more hammers you have the higher your production is.

What are artists and citizens good for?

Artist generate culture. Citizens give 1 hammer. Its better to make them specialists.

What other ways except building more farms are there to keep my cities from starvation?

farms, plantages, fishing grounds and pastures all generate food. There is only a finite amount of food. You can only stop your city from starving by not letting it grow larger then the amount of food you have.

Are Libraries and Courthouses and such really crucial like the game makes them out to be? If so, why?

Libraries increas the amount of beakers you generate, and allows you to run scientist specialists. Without your science will lag behind other civs in the late game. Courthouses reduces mantenaince cost of your cities. Without it you are hard pressed to finance more then a couple of cities. Markets increase the amount of gold the city produces and allow you to run merchant specialists. Further it can increase the happinis cap with certain resources. Without courthouses and markets (or other gold increasing buildings) you can not support a large empire or army.

How do I get rid of the it's too crowded complaint?

You can't. With one exception, the city where you build the globe theater all unhappinis dissapears.

 

[Gainy]

PlugInPortnoy
The hammer represents production or productivity. Units, buildings and wonders require a certain amount of hammers in order to be created. If you are wanting to build a Warrior for instance; a warrior costs 15 hammers (i think), if your city produces 1 hammer per turn it will take 15 turns to build a warrior.

Each content or happy citizen of each of your cities can work a tile within the city's radius. From working a tile you can either gain growth (food), productivity (hammers) or commerce (coins). Instead of having your citizens work tiles you can remove them and make them into specialists. The basic specialist will only produce one hammer per turn. If you construct a cultural building such as a theatre you can make them into an artist (specialist). Per turn an artist produces; extra culture for your city, 3 great person points and I think some gold also. Accordingly artists are good if you want more culture, great person points or gold.

If your cities are beside the sea you can build a lighthouse which increases the output of each water tile by 1 food, assuming you assign a citizen to work them. A city needs to be right beside the sea in order to build a lighthouse.
You may also create work boats. Assuming you have a water resource in your cities radius such as fish or clam, the work boats will allow you to build fishing nets or something which will increase the food output of that tile.
A great merchant will add 1 extra food per turn to a city if you settle him in it.

Libraries boost a city's research by 50% or something. If a city is producing a good amount of research then a library will increase its research output significanty - which really is crucial if you want to keep up with your rivals in the technology race.
Courthouses save you money if your city has high maintenance costs. Cities that are far away from your capital generally have quite high maintenace, so building courthouses in these can be useful if you need to save money. The same goes for large cities. Large cities have quite high maintenance costs, courthouses are useful in these too.

The only way to get rid of the its too crowded complaint is to starve your city (resulting in lower population). This generally isn't a good idea. A better idea is to make those people happy again by building happiness improvements - colluseum, temples etc. More ways of making people happy are by getting happiness resources - gold, sugar etc. Having a state religion in your city will make people happy.

----

Your questions are quite basic. If you have access i'd recommend reading the manual. If not some people here have taken time to write helpful articles. Have a look at the FAQ on the civfanatics mainpage or some of the stickies on this forum.

mwr
That's quite a vague question. It will probably depend on which mod you downloaded. The mod may come with a 'readme' file or something, read it. If not have a look in the creation and customization forums for a thread related to the mod. There should be instructions there, if not you've got more chance of finding help there anyway (ask).

fu greeneyedzombie!!

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Read teh readme of the mod. But most mods should be put in the mods folder where the game is installed. Don't use the folder under my documents/my games.

 

[ggganz]

How do I get rid of the it's too crowded complaint?

You can't get RID of it, but as long as you have more happy faces than mad faces, it won't make any difference. To get more happy faces, build Temples, get religions, adopt certain civics, etc. There are many ways.

Don't use the folder under my documents/my games.

Why not?

 

[BrantleyL1]

[snip] ...farms, plantages, fishing grounds and pastures all generate food. There is only a finite amount of food. You can only stop your city from starving by not letting it grow larger then the amount of food you have.

Thanks for that comment. This brought to mind a BIG question. I've seen starvation and gone back in and adjusted the tiles worked - where possible - to increase the about of food.

BUT, how do you prevent a city from exceeding it's food capacity??

I know there's some other considerations - like unhappiness. Go to war, they become unhappy... More unhappiness than happiness causes unhappy citizens. Unhappy citizens don't work, but they DO eat. That's a problem.... This can be worked out over time. Build temples, stop the war, convert specialists back to workers, etc.

I've heard others mention "happiness cap". So, to reiterate... Is there a way to make a city stop growing? Is there a good time to do this?

 

[Sisiutil]

Thanks for that comment. This brought to mind a BIG question. I've seen starvation and gone back in and adjusted the tiles worked - where possible - to increase the about of food.

BUT, how do you prevent a city from exceeding it's food capacity??

I know there's some other considerations - like unhappiness. Go to war, they become unhappy... More unhappiness than happiness causes unhappy citizens. Unhappy citizens don't work, but they DO eat. That's a problem.... This can be worked out over time. Build temples, stop the war, convert specialists back to workers, etc.

I've heard others mention "happiness cap". So, to reiterate... Is there a way to make a city stop growing? Is there a good time to do this?

Most of my cities do, eventually, stop growing. There's simply not enough food available. The situation you don't want to be in is to have a +1 food surplus, as the city will grow to its cap and then start to starve. You may have to shift around specialists, tiles worked, and tile improvements to get each city up to its maximum, and with overlap, some cities will inevitably have lower and higher caps than others.

The new corporations in BtS offer a way to deal with this, as two of the corporations, IIRC, can provide a food surplus to each city with the corporation.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thanks for that comment. This brought to mind a BIG question. I've seen starvation and gone back in and adjusted the tiles worked - where possible - to increase the about of food.

BUT, how do you prevent a city from exceeding it's food capacity??

I know there's some other considerations - like unhappiness. Go to war, they become unhappy... More unhappiness than happiness causes unhappy citizens. Unhappy citizens don't work, but they DO eat. That's a problem.... This can be worked out over time. Build temples, stop the war, convert specialists back to workers, etc.

I've heard others mention "happiness cap". So, to reiterate... Is there a way to make a city stop growing? Is there a good time to do this?

It's actually not a simple issue. You'll have to decide yourself how big you want your cities to get.

If the city becomes unhappy or unhealthy when it would grow one size bigger, then it usually is a bad thing to let it grow any further (exception: you want to use the new citizens for pop-rushing). The governor buttons in the city has an avoid grow option that will stop the city grow. But you usually don't want to waste food production. It's a bad thing to let a city use a farm in a situation where you don't want it to grow. It is better to use a mine or cottage for extra hammers and commerce.

I will sometimes reimprove my city tiles just so that the city won't grow any further. I will change windmills into mines and farms into cottages. The other situation where a city is growing slowly and is way below its happy and health cap also happens. In that case, I will try to get more high food tiles.

It is best to have varying food production in the tiles around your city. In that way, you can choose how fast the city will grow by just switching between tiles and without having to reimprove the tiles.

It is important to learn how to improve the area around your cities so that you get a good commerce and production income while having the amount food production to get the city to the happy/health cap and not bigger.

 

[cabert]

To brantleyL1, check my signature for happyness and health summaries.

Depending on the game, I have 2 different attitudes towards this "stop growth at happy cap" issue.

1) MM tiles every now and then so that I starve the city BEFORE it grow beyond the happy cap. It's sometimes beneficial to work a 2F2C and leave a 6F tile unworked for a few turns.
2) Let the city grow 1 or 2 points above the happiness cap, then whip 4 or 5 pop points away. This is very efficient if you whip things like forges or markets, giving you happiness and improving the city's output.

 

[BrantleyL1]

Let the city grow 1 or 2 points above the happiness cap, then whip 4 or 5 pop points away. This is very efficient if you whip things like forges or markets, giving you happiness and improving the city's output.

Do you regress back to slavery?? Whipping is an interesting idea. I don't think I've ever used it to intentionally used it to reduce population. But it could be very useful to build a forge, market, or factory.

My thought is about later in the game - when your cities are bigger. I've usually got more "advanced" civics at that point. If I'm not Philosiphical, won't I have to revolt for a turn back to slavery and then again back to a more "advanced" civic??

 

[cabert]

Do you regress back to slavery?? Whipping is an interesting idea. I don't think I've ever used it to intentionally used it to reduce population. But it could be very useful to build a forge, market, or factory.

My thought is about later in the game - when your cities are bigger. I've usually got more "advanced" civics at that point. If I'm not Philosiphical, won't I have to revolt for a turn back to slavery and then again back to a more "advanced" civic??

I usually play "domination like" games, giving me loads of happiness resources. Late in the game, I don't face unhappiness a lot. Unhealthiness may happen due to buildings and power.

Before emancipation, there is no "more advanced civic" than slavery. I don't regress, I just stick with it for 99% of the game