Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

This is not the thread to insult new players. This is a thread to help new players. Of course, some of the questions won't be the smartest and the answers could be found in the manual (printed or not) or in the civilopedia. But there is a lot of documentation concerning this game and you can't expect players who might be completely inexperienced with these types of games to remember everything they read. And of course, some don't read the rules but just start playing the game and get stuck. It's a game after all. You're supposed to have fun, not read whole rulebooks.

Comparably, if students would remember everything they would read in a textbook, then many more would only get A's at school.

This is the thread that is supposed to make it easier for players to ask stupid beginner questions which they don't dare to ask anywhere else because of responses such as yours.

In my opinion you're way out of line here.:thumbsdown:

What did he say :(
Just needed some help here cuz I'm totally new to Civ, and I bought the Civ4 Gold Edition and started playing BTS straight away without any experience.

With the help I've gotten so far, I'm kinda grasping the game play mechanics already, though the amount of things to do seem overwhelming.

Thanks everyone for your help! :goodjob:
 
What did he say :(

The remarks were insulting and were removed by a moderator to avoid further flaming and counter-flaming. A warning was given and the poster must now behave well to avoid getting banned. Better to leave it at that, no need to further discuss it.

Just needed some help here cuz I'm totally new to Civ, and I bought the Civ4 Gold Edition and started playing BTS straight away without any experience.

With the help I've gotten so far, I'm kinda grasping the game play mechanics already, though the amount of things to do seem overwhelming.

Thanks everyone for your help! :goodjob:

I actually missed your question. It's a pretty general one.

The amount of micromanagement is up to the player. You can check each of your cities every turn to see what they're producing and how much hammers are still needed and which tiles they are using, individually manage every one of your workers and check all of your diplomatic relations and trade options every turn which would be micromanagement hell in the eyes of most. On the other hand you can fully automate the building orders in your cities by using governors, never look at your cities (fully trusting the governor), automate your workers, automate your explorers and rarely look at the trading options with other civilizations and then the game runs almost on autopilot. Most players also don't like that as they don't feel in control any more.

You have to decide for yourself how much micromanagement you want to endure. I personally like to manage my empire in detail and it of course has its rewards as you will probably do a better job than the AI control will. But you will have to know what type of micromanagement is useful and what isn't. If you have given your city a build order and it will take ten turns to finish, then it is generally not very useful to take a look at that city during those 10 turns. The city will ask you for a new build order after those 10 turns. You might want to take a look when the city grows and new tiles are being assigned to citizens, but most players don't do that and trust the governor to pick a good tile.

Most players agree that it is a good idea to manage your workers yourself, especially in the early game. However, when you're new to the game and don't know yet how to improve the lands around your cities, then it might not be such a bad idea to put the workers on automatic. However, it might be a good idea to control a few workers yourself so that you can change some tile improvements into tile improvements which you consider better. If you use the check in the Options menu 'leave improvements' (or something like that), then the AI won't change your changes back.

I don't know how many TBS games you have played, but they all typically have some relatively high level of micromanagement. These types of games appeal to those who like to manage their empires (or other game elements). However after some experience with the game, you tend to find out how you can efficiently manage your empire without having to check everything every turn.

If you have a more specific answer about micromanagement, then I might be able to give a more specific answer. Good luck with your game.
 
I have a question about trading. When I pick my trade, lets say I am trading Pigs for example, it lists "1 of 2". Once traded does that mean I only have one pig farm producing health/happiness? ( I believe thats what they produce ). Is it possible to trade away to zero production from something for yourself?

If that is the case how does this effect trading technology? Would my Civ "forget" a technology if I trade it with another Civ? ( That idea seems crazy to me but I just want to clarify )
 
You get the benefits from a ressource as long as you control at least an instance of this ressource. So unless you have corporations, having 1 or 5 fish is exactly the same.

But if you trade away the last instance of a ressource you posess, you just lose its benefits; And can regain them by getting this ressource back. This can be usefull, for instance if you can trade your only instance of stone to a civ for better things when you don't need stone anymore.
 
You get the benefits from a ressource as long as you control at least an instance of this ressource. So unless you have corporations, having 1 or 5 fish is exactly the same.

But if you trade away the last instance of a ressource you posess, you just lose its benefits; And can regain them by getting this ressource back. This can be usefull, for instance if you can trade your only instance of stone to a civ for better things when you don't need stone anymore.

I see. So resources of the same type do not grant cumulative benefits. I guess in the example I gave, ( which was a trade I made last night ) trading away 1 pig made no difference in my Civ's benefit.

Is Technology " forgotten" if traded ?
 
Specialists: What am I doing wrong?

I can't tell if my problem is a personality thing, or if I'm completely overlooking an elementary game mechanic here. But I can't ever seem to get a city to the point where it can comfortably support citizens specialists. At least, not until later in the game. As far as I can tell, there are a couple reasons for this... tell me which is correct:

1. You just have to let your city starve if you want significat specialist action.

2. Only cities with certain opportune tiles (Maybe food heavy?) are suitable for supporting specialists.

3. Other.


I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to 'tune' a city to produce certain types of great people, and it seems impossible to me to win a cultural victory due to this limitation.
 
Specialists: What am I doing wrong?

I can't tell if my problem is a personality thing, or if I'm completely overlooking an elementary game mechanic here. But I can't ever seem to get a city to the point where it can comfortably support citizens specialists. At least, not until later in the game. As far as I can tell, there are a couple reasons for this... tell me which is correct:

1. You just have to let your city starve if you want significat specialist action.

2. Only cities with certain opportune tiles (Maybe food heavy?) are suitable for supporting specialists.

3. Other.


I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to 'tune' a city to produce certain types of great people, and it seems impossible to me to win a cultural victory due to this limitation.

2 is correct. If you have no food specials in the city radius and can't build farms, it's very hard to run specialists.
 
Specialists: What am I doing wrong?

I can't tell if my problem is a personality thing, or if I'm completely overlooking an elementary game mechanic here. But I can't ever seem to get a city to the point where it can comfortably support citizens specialists. At least, not until later in the game. As far as I can tell, there are a couple reasons for this... tell me which is correct:

1. You just have to let your city starve if you want significat specialist action.

2. Only cities with certain opportune tiles (Maybe food heavy?) are suitable for supporting specialists.

3. Other.


I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to 'tune' a city to produce certain types of great people, and it seems impossible to me to win a cultural victory due to this limitation.

Each citizen of your city, be it a citizen working the land or a specialist, will need 2 food to support him. The citizens working the land typically provide food for themselves, the specialists don't. So to employ several specialists in a city, you will need to compensate by working food heavy tiles with the citizens that are working the land. In some cities this can be relatively easy because the city has food resources and citizens working those tiles provide an abundance of food. In other cities, you have a mix citizens working tiles with enough food to feed themselves and citizens working low food tiles (typically hill mines). These cities won't be able to support specialists.

Enter a few cities of yours and look at the upper centre-left part of the screen. Next to the food bar is the amount of food that the city is producing which if you count will typically be the sum of the food produced by citizens working the land. Next to the amount of food that the city is producing is the amount of food that your citizens are eating. This is typically 2*the number of citizens in your city (which is equal to your 2*city size). Only when the healthiness is lower than the unhealthiness in your city will the city need one additional food for each point of extra unhealthiness (shown to the right of the food bar).
The surplus food is used to make the city grow and gain additional citizens once the food bar is filled. The city starts with a food surplus of 2 provided by the centre city tile which doesn't need to be worked by a citizen.


Look at a few of your cities and look at the amount of food they are producing and the amount of food they are eating. See how you could increase and decrease the food surplus in these cities by working certain tiles or by building farms on certain tiles which are now improved with different improvements. If you play around a bit with the citizens and theorize a bit about adding additional farms to the city, then you should get a feeling how you could create more specialists in a city.

By the way, the game isn't about maximizing the number of specialists in your cities. Very often, it is better to work land tiles than use a specialist. As said earlier, specialists don't provide any food, so you need to put a citizen on another high food tile to provide the food for the specialist and the citizen working the high food tile. The citizen working the high food tile isn't adding anything to your city as food is only a means to an end. You need food to feed your citizens so they can produce hammers and commerce and to grow your city so you have more citizens producing hammers and commerce. But food by itself doesn't add anything to your city (exception: slavery pop-rushing).

I'm not saying that specialists are useless, far from it (it's the best way to get great persons). But their use is situational. If you have a city that is naturally producing lots of food (multiple food resources), then you won't have to build lots of farms (which don't produce hammers and commerce) to be able to employ specialists. In that case, the 'cost' of the specialists is fairly low. If you have to build many farms on tiles to be able to employ specialists, then the cost of the specialists is high and just working the land is typically more efficient.

There are 2 main ways to acquire a cultural victory. Both employ multiple religions to get multiple cathedrals in the 3 great cities to multiply the culture production.

1) Develop your empire normally where you build several cathedrals in the 3 great cities and improve the land around the 3 great cities to maximize the commerce output of these 3 great cities. Then when the cathedrals are in place and the free speech civic is improving the commerce output of your cities and adding a culture bonus (or later after broadcast towers), you maximize the culture slider so that these 3 cities convert all of their commerce into culture.

Advantage: highest culture production possible in these cities. Disadvantage: low science production (nothing from the science slider, only scientist specialists) once you maximize the culture slider.

2) Develop your empire normally where you build several cathedrals in the 3 great cities and improve the land around the 3 great cities to maximize the food output of these 3 great cities. Use the caste system civic to employ many artist specialists which can be supported by the high food output of the cities.

Advantage: you can put the science slider at any level that you desire. The culture production in the city is largely independent from this slider. Disadvantage: The culture output is significantly lower as with method 1 after the slider is moved to 100% culture, but higher before the slider is moved to 100% culture.
 
Here's a question.... (or two)...

Since only tiles that are withing the fat cross of your city are worked, there is really little benefit to building outside your fat cross - with a couple of exceptions...

(1) Lumbermills - does not seem to matter how far they are from the fat cross. Building ONE allows for building railroads. (Is there any benefit to building more - outside your fat crosses??)

(2) Special food resources (corn, rice, pigs, etc.)... again, even when outside your fat cross, building them seems to make that resourse available.

Once I have all my fat crosses built the way I like them, I usually set my workers to "build trade network". They build roads & railroads for a LONG time, but eventually, they all end up in a city doing nothing.

What do I do with them??
 
Here's a question.... (or two)...

Since only tiles that are withing the fat cross of your city are worked, there is really little benefit to building outside your fat cross - with a couple of exceptions...

(1) Lumbermills - does not seem to matter how far they are from the fat cross. Building ONE allows for building railroads. (Is there any benefit to building more - outside your fat crosses??)
You do not need a lumber mill to build railroads (certainly not in vanilla or warlords). There is no value in building lumbermills outside your fat cross.
(2) Special food resources (corn, rice, pigs, etc.)... again, even when outside your fat cross, building them seems to make that resourse available.
You can build on any reasorce (food / health, happiness, strategic) to get the civ wide benifits.

The other thing that is worth building is forts.
Once I have all my fat crosses built the way I like them, I usually set my workers to "build trade network". They build roads & railroads for a LONG time, but eventually, they all end up in a city doing nothing.

What do I do with them??
There are a number of things:
Change the tile use as needs change (ie. get the cities up to full size then build workshops over the farms).
Improve newly concered land.
Clean up after nukes.
Use as bait to get enemy AIs to expose their units to attack.
Give to your friends / vassles.

It MIGHT be worth disbanding a few, but I do not tend to, they are very valuble when you need them.
 
Here's a question.... (or two)...

Since only tiles that are withing the fat cross of your city are worked, there is really little benefit to building outside your fat cross - with a couple of exceptions...

(1) Lumbermills - does not seem to matter how far they are from the fat cross. Building ONE allows for building railroads. (Is there any benefit to building more - outside your fat crosses??)

There is no relation whatsoever between the building of lumbermills and the ability to build railroads.

(2) Special food resources (corn, rice, pigs, etc.)... again, even when outside your fat cross, building them seems to make that resourse available.

If you improve resources with their enabling improvement (or a fort in BTS), then the resource will become available. If the tile is not within the fat cross of one of your cities, then you cannot use this highly productive tile to help the food, production and commerce of one of your cities, but you can get the resource benefits from the resource. So food resources provide health, luxury resources provide happiness and strategic resources enable the building of certain units.

Once I have all my fat crosses built the way I like them, I usually set my workers to "build trade network". They build roads & railroads for a LONG time, but eventually, they all end up in a city doing nothing.

What do I do with them??

If you plan to do some conquering, then you can use them to improve the conquered land. If you will not conquer any enemies, then they become useless. You could keep a few to repair any damage to your infrastructure from random events and wars or build railroads later in the game, but it's probably cost efficient to disband most of them so that they don't cost you any upkeep.
 
If you improve resources with their enabling improvement (or a fort in BTS), then the resource will become available. If the tile is not within the fat cross of one of your cities, then you cannot use this highly productive tile to help the food, production and commerce of one of your cities, but you can get the resource benefits from the resource. So food resources provide health, luxury resources provide happiness and strategic resources enable the building of certain units.
In addition to Roland's excellent post: it's usually a good idea to place your cities so that special resources are within the fat cross. Food resources especially, since they can make a huge amount of difference to the growth and hence production/commerce of a city. Resources within the fat cross are even more important than they were in Civ3. ;)

Even if you have already placed cities in a particular game, it is probably worth placing additional cities to make use of the resources which are not in any city's fat cross. :)
 
I have Civ4 for my Mac and it says that i need 1MB of free disk space and re-launch it. Were can I find how much disk space I have?
 
I have Civ4 for my Mac and it says that i need 1MB of free disk space and re-launch it. Were can I find how much disk space I have?

You'll get the best help in the Civ4 Mac subforum - just post there again and I am sure someone with a Mac will answer :)
 
I have Civ4 for my Mac and it says that i need 1MB of free disk space and re-launch it. Were can I find how much disk space I have?

Hi there. I have Macs and PCs, so might be able to help.

To check your drive space, control-click on your your HD icon, and select "Get Info." Chances are you may just need to delete a few old files -- some music you no longer need or movies you'll never watch again?

If that doesn't work, then try the CivFanatics Mac forums, which can be found by following this link.
 
question:

Would I be able to gain a copper resource if this resource is outside of my borders but i build a road from my city to connect to it?
 
question:

Would I be able to gain a copper resource if this resource is outside of my borders but i build a road from my city to connect to it?

The copper resource doesn't need to be inside the fat cross of a city, but it does need to be inside the cultural borders of your civilization.
 
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