Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[cabert]

Is installing a graphic card able to be done by yourself or do you have to bring your computer to a technical place to install it? And if you have a more updated card will the computer run more smoothly because it will have more RAM? Thanks (Im thinking of buying a PNY 8600GT or a BFG 6200)

that's not the questions we answer to generally in this thread, but here is my guess :
anybody can change a graphic card, provided you buy a card that is compatible with your motherboard. Most motherboards are AGP or PCI-E, not both.
The game won't run better except if you previously had your RAM shared between video and system.

 

[ggganz]

I know that you cannot install a new piece of hardware in a laptop, because it involves cutting wires and stuff. But you should just be able to pop the card into the slot and use it. Most video cards have some memory, and have the capability to use some of the memory of the RAM. If the card did not have enough memory itself, it may have been using some RAM and thus slowing down your computer.
If you can't put the card you bought into a slot, buy the other type and try that (AGP or PCI-E).

 

[Abegweit]

You certainly can install new hardware in a laptop. Swapping out RAM and hard drives is pretty much universal. Many laptops support changing the video card too. Not all.

 

[ggganz]

Well, I know changing the hard drive is easy, but other hardware doesn't just go into a slot, does it? You have to send it in to upgrade, I thought. Oh, whatever.

 

[Abegweit]

RAM is always user-upgradeable. I have done it many times. Video cards sometimes are. I don't know of a computer which you have to send in for an upgrade. In my experience, if you can't change it, they aren't upgradeable at all.

 

[ggganz]

Well, in my old computer, I upgraded two things, one of them twice. I upgraded my video card (actually I should say, I upgraded to a video card, because I didn't have one before, it was just a small pink component that couldn't run Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). I also bought another 256 MB RAM chip to go into the other slot, giving me 512 MB, then later I removed them both and got two 512 MB for a grand total of 1 GB!
Now I have a laptop with 1 GB video memory and 2 GB RAM, check my PC specs in my profile.

 

[NSPaintball]

Thanks for the info guys hopefully i can upgrade my com and make it to run the next gen games and again thanks

 

[A's]

You know how caste system allows you to run unlimited artists, scientist, etc. Well what is the limit without CS? Anyone know? ^_^

 

[ggganz]

You can't have any without buildings that let you turn citizens into those.

 

[Oyeah487]

So I've been playing Civ4 for a while now and I've been trying to master prince. I'm having a lot of problems with the civs around me though. It seems like they get so easily annoyed and then absolutely randomly declare war on me. They ask for techs and gold, and I simply can't do that in Prince in order to keep pace. Also, I minimized the number of open border agreements so others wouldn't get pissed at me for having deal with another civ. I was wondering if you guys had any tips on appeasing, or staying out of trouble? If I had it my way, I'd keep to myself and not go to war. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[JujuLautre]

Diplomacy is very important in Civ. Some informations about it:
- you cant' make friends with everyone, as you noted
- to get bonus diplo points, you can try the followings: share a religion, share a favorite civic, share a war, and have fair exhanges
- military is important for diplomacy; your opponents will ask you more things and have a better probability to declare war on you if they sense you're weak (look at the power graph)
- be humble. Sometimes it's much better to give into demands of an AI to gain a long-term ally rather than to refuse and perhaps have a war in return.

Also, know your ennemies. Some have a high tendency to backstab you (alex), other to attack you just because they don't like you (monty), some would attack even their best friend if you pay the price (catherine) etc.

 

[Tilkki]

Can I block the techtree advancing from the medieval era somehow?

 

[CBPE]

Is there a way to consult the Civilopedia "off-game" (without load it)?

 

[Oyeah487]

I have a great scientist, in the long run is it better to have him as a great scientist, +2500 for education or build his special academy?

 

[ggganz]

Can I block the techtree advancing from the medieval era somehow?

Don't think so.

Is there a way to consult the Civilopedia "off-game" (without load it)?

Yeeees... this site is a Civ fansite, of course! On the main page (www.civfanatics.com) try clicking on the left on info center and the info centers for the other expansions for those things.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Can I block the techtree advancing from the medieval era somehow?

That would require some light modding.

Each technology in the file CIV4TechInfos.xml has a value called bDisable and it is valued 0. I wouldn't be surprised if valuing it 1 would actually disable that technology. But I must admit that I haven't tried that before. Ask around in the Creation & Customization forum for expert advice on modding.

I have a great scientist, in the long run is it better to have him as a great scientist, +2500 for education or build his special academy?

If there were a universal answer to this question, then why would there be 3 uses for this Great Person (4 with the Golden Age option).

Sometimes, you can really really use a technology and it will be great for trading purposes or being the first to that technology will give you a nice special bonus (like for instance the free technology for Liberalism).

The Academy increases the base science output of a city by 50%. That can be quite a lot in a good science city. If a city on average (at your typical science percentage) has a base science output of 60 (before bonuses of libraries and universities), then the Academy adds 50% of 60 is 30 science per turn. After 100 turns, that amounts to 3000 science. But of course, 100 turns is quite a lot of waiting time.

A great scientist specialist adds 1 hammer and 6 science per turn. Both are multiplied by various bonuses from buildings. For instance, with the bonuses from a forge, factory and power plant, the 1 hammer becomes 2 hammers. With the bonuses from a library, a university, an observatory, a laboratory, an academy and Oxford University, the 6 science becomes 6 + 250% of 6 is 21 science.

At the start of the game an Academy won't add that much as there are no cities with a great science output. But of course, it will add science during the length of the game, so the bonus will increase if you add an Academy to a city with a great potential science output. The bonus from the great scientist will also increase once building modifiers multiply the bonuses. Some of the power of lightbulbing a technology is lost at the start of the game because the technologies are so cheap at that point. The starting technologies cost a lot less than 2500 science.

All that being said, I probably use the great scientist most for building an academy and for (one of the contributors to) a golden age.

 

[lungnut]

Okay, this might be the idiot question of the day, but I've played a couple of late games now and have had a sizable battleship force, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to attack a city w/my battleships! (I played Civ2 extensively, skipped Civ3 completely).

 

[MrCynical]

Okay, this might be the idiot question of the day, but I've played a couple of late games now and have had a sizable battleship force, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to attack a city w/my battleships! (I played Civ2 extensively, skipped Civ3 completely).

You can't directly attack cities with ships in Civ 4 (or for that matter in Civ 3). You can bombard away their defensive bonus with some of the later ships (such as battleships), but you can't attack land units with them.

 

[lungnut]

How do you bombard them? I've tried to attack the cities (by selecting the city tile, as I would attack anything else), but I always get a red highlight (as if the game is telling me I can't attack/bombard.

 

[scienide09]

If the city can be bombarded, park your ship next to it. At the start of the ship's turn, there will be a bombard button in the orders menu.