Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[ggganz]

How do you stop games from lasting a ridiculous amount of time? Even with quick mode on my games are like 5 hours, and I don't even get to build tanks etc.

How do I get Iron properly? It usually takes a long time for me to find some, and even then I get extremely little. Only way I've managed so far is to get some off other leaders.

Do you know of any good guides to get started and learn how to play this game semi-decently?

Thanks.

Hello, and welcome to CFC and the forums.

U forgot smilies.

Welcome to the forums!

Well, if you don't want games to last so long, try to wipe out all of your enemies sooner.

It doesn't matter if you have one iron resource, or a thousand (same goes for any resource). They can supply all of your cities (as long as it is connected) and it will never run out.

 

[AlexMax]

Hi, newer player (just bought Civ IV and BTS off of Steam) and I got a couple of questions.

First of all, is there a quick way to access the civpedia from inside the game?

Second of all, I'm in serious need of perspective. Techs, health, production, culture, I sorta know how they fit together but don't really know how to balance them correctly to accomplish my goals.

My first game was Stalin, and I tried to create a nation with a decent sized army, but right before I quit the game I was build and teching anything that 'sounded good' and I just quit when I realized I had no idea about what direction what I wanted to go in and how I intended to get there. I also had no idea how big of an army I was expected to have early on, or when a good time to 'attack' someone might be, and the A.I.'s weren't really aggressive towards me at all. Also, it doesn't help that most stuff I read assumes you have a somewhat familiar knowledge of how all of the game mechanics interact.

Hopefully, somewhere in that mess of stream-of-consiousness writing someone can figure out how to help me 'get Civilization IV'.

EDIT: One more question, is it a good idea for someone as green as I am to jump into mutliplayer? If so, is there any particular type of game I should look out for, both good and bad?

 

[Steve3000]

Hi

Could someone tell me how the number of votes your civ gets at the Apostolic Palace and the UN are decided. I figured it might be the total of the population of all your cities that have the same religion as the Apostolic Palace ( for the Apostolic Palace) but that doesn't seem to tally.

Thank you in advance.

 

[ori]

Hi, newer player (just bought Civ IV and BTS off of Steam) and I got a couple of questions.

Welcome to CFC

First of all, is there a quick way to access the civpedia from inside the game?

In the upper right hand corner is an icon that looks like a book - click it. I am sure there is some key shortcut as well but I don't know

Second of all, I'm in serious need of perspective. Techs, health, production, culture, I sorta know how they fit together but don't really know how to balance them correctly to accomplish my goals.

Have a look at some articles in the War Academy, e.g. Sisiutil's Strategy guide for beginners.

Hi

Could someone tell me how the number of votes your civ gets at the Apostolic Palace and the UN are decided. I figured it might be the total of the population of all your cities that have the same religion as the Apostolic Palace ( for the Apostolic Palace) but that doesn't seem to tally.

Thank you in advance.

UN: one pop point = one vote
AP: is supposed to be the pop points in all cities with the AP religion

 

[Wolvesdude]

In the upper right hand corner is an icon that looks like a book - click it. I am sure there is some key shortcut as well but I don't know

Try F12.

I'm considering buying CivIV, but I'm not absolutely sure whether my computer can handle it. I have the demo and it seems to be sluggish - not jerky, just mouse movement is not sharp etc. Is this just the way the game is, or is it my computer?

Anyway, what I'm really after is some idea of computer specs needed to play the game with a playable level of performance.

My computer: 512MB RAM, 2.8GHz Pentium 4, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
It's about 4-5 years old, so probably a bit virused

Thanks!

 

[Roland Johansen]

Try F12.

I'm considering buying CivIV, but I'm not absolutely sure whether my computer can handle it. I have the demo and it seems to be sluggish - not jerky, just mouse movement is not sharp etc. Is this just the way the game is, or is it my computer?

Anyway, what I'm really after is some idea of computer specs needed to play the game with a playable level of performance.

My computer: 512MB RAM, 2.8GHz Pentium 4, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
It's about 4-5 years old, so probably a bit virused

Thanks!

Welcome to CFC!

Your computer can handle Civ4, but not comfortably. As long as you will not play the larger maps, you should be ok. The mapsizes are duel, tiny, small, standard, large and huge. The large and huge maps won't give you huge problems at the start of the game, but when you get near the end of the game and the full map has been discovered, your computer won't be able to handle them. The biggest problem is the amount of memory. To play huge maps, you need about 1.5 GB to 2 GB of memory.

Note that many players don't even play the larger maps because they find that the game then takes too long and becomes boring with many cities to control. However, others find that the small maps cannot represent empires of serious size. I can't know your preferences.

By the way, immediately patch the game after you've bought it. There were some graphic bugs and other bugs in the first versions of the game. This can be done easily from the ingame update function.

 

[cabert]

Try F12.

I'm considering buying CivIV, but I'm not absolutely sure whether my computer can handle it. I have the demo and it seems to be sluggish - not jerky, just mouse movement is not sharp etc. Is this just the way the game is, or is it my computer?

Anyway, what I'm really after is some idea of computer specs needed to play the game with a playable level of performance.

My computer: 512MB RAM, 2.8GHz Pentium 4, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
It's about 4-5 years old, so probably a bit virused

Thanks!

just clean it up, and add another 512MB and you'll be able to play without trouble.
Maybe not top graphics, but who cares?

 

[BrantleyL1]

I'm considering buying CivIV, but I'm not absolutely sure whether my computer can handle it. I have the demo and it seems to be sluggish - not jerky, just mouse movement is not sharp etc. Is this just the way the game is, or is it my computer?

Anyway, what I'm really after is some idea of computer specs needed to play the game with a playable level of performance.

My computer: 512MB RAM, 2.8GHz Pentium 4, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
It's about 4-5 years old, so probably a bit virused

Someone elsewhere recommended this as a test to see how your CPU performs...
http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html

I've been meaning to try it, but have not got a "round tuit"... Mine seems to run fine, but every now and then (<1/month), it blows up - usually right after I do a map trade late in the game and finally see the other continent - so, I surmise it's a memory error of some sort.

 

[ori]

just clean it up, and add another 512MB and you'll be able to play without trouble.
Maybe not top graphics, but who cares?

QFT
Civ is really a RAM junkie - all else does not really matter but RAM is an issue. And since WinXP probably uses most of your RAM anyway you might want to consider buying some more...

 

[NecroAngel]

How do you view replays?

Is it important to make sure each of your cities have a specific purpose? E.g having 1 city solely for money, one solely for science, one solely for military?

 

[ggganz]

How do you view replays?

Go to the Hall of Fame in the Main Menu.

Is it important to make sure each of your cities have a specific purpose? E.g having 1 city solely for money, one solely for science, one solely for military?

Not very important, but it is a good idea.


I have a question: I used to be able to use custom unit buttons by manipulating the <button></button> values in CIV4UnitInfos.xml, but that value is gone in BtS!!! Where can I find a value to change, because right now I can't use the custom unit buttons!!!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!! :suicide:

 

[Steve3000]

Is there anything to be gained from a village, town etc. that is too far from any city to be "worked"? I ha.ve my workers set to automatic and they are building villages that can't be worked

 

[ggganz]

Is there anything to be gained from a village, town etc. that is to far from any city to be "worked"?

There's replays?

 

[Steve3000]

Thank you for the quick response.

Follow up question: Is there any way to have workers who build villages, that are useless, punished.

 

[Steve3000]

sorry double post.

 

[ggganz]

Follow up question: Is there any way to have workers who build villages that can't be worked punished.

What are you talking about?

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Thank you for the quick response.

Follow up question: Is there any way to have workers who build villages, that are useless, punished.

Send them to work in an arctic gulag if it makes you feel any better..........

 

[Magnus of Borg]

Quick question:


Can I initiate a voting on UN resolution or are those votings random? How do I do that?

 

[cabert]

Quick question:


Can I initiate a voting on UN resolution or are those votings random? How do I do that?

to initiate something in the UN, you need to be elected SG

 

[hnmcc]

I've just been told that I can no longer build broadcast towers in the various cities where I've been building them for several turns.

Why is this?