Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[a4phantom]

There exists some normalising code that tries to make starting locations 'more equal' between the various civilisations (based on some valuation of resources and hills/flatland). So when you start out with a fairly poor starting location, then it is likely that there is something hidden.

That was the gist of my speculation. Thanks. And thanks for not saying "It depends", even though apparently it does!

 

[budweiser]

Can someone please explain the factors that make up the power rating in BTS?

I've been searching the forum but havent had any luck.

 

[Sisiutil]

Can someone please explain the factors that make up the power rating in BTS?

I've been searching the forum but havent had any luck.

I can't give you numbers for exact calculations, but your power rating is based upon the following (in declining order of importance):

1. Number of soldiers. Each military unit is comprised of a certain number of soldiers, including naval units. More technologically advanced units contain more soldiers, so the more modern the unit, the more powerful it is. This is by far the most important factor in the rating.
2. Certain buildings also contribute to your power rating, though not nearly as much as #1 does: Barracks, drydocks, walls, and castles (though I may be mistaken about the last one).
3. Tech level, especially techs that enable newer units.

There may be more, but their impact is probably pretty negligible. Also, promotions do not figure into your power rating at all--which is a little surprising; I'll take a smaller army of veterans over a bunch of non-promoted new units any day.

 

[plastiqe]

When, if ever.. is Civilization IV Complete coming out in North America?

I still play Civ III sometimes, but looking at the expansions (lol PtW) for that game I decided to wait until they'd finished Civ IV before I bought it. Well, it seems that they're done making expansions for Civ IV.. but then where is the battle chest?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Can someone please explain the factors that make up the power rating in BTS?

I've been searching the forum but havent had any luck.

I can't give you numbers for exact calculations, but your power rating is based upon the following (in declining order of importance):

1. Number of soldiers. Each military unit is comprised of a certain number of soldiers, including naval units. More technologically advanced units contain more soldiers, so the more modern the unit, the more powerful it is. This is by far the most important factor in the rating.
2. Certain buildings also contribute to your power rating, though not nearly as much as #1 does: Barracks, drydocks, walls, and castles (though I may be mistaken about the last one).
3. Tech level, especially techs that enable newer units.

There may be more, but their impact is probably pretty negligible. Also, promotions do not figure into your power rating at all--which is a little surprising; I'll take a smaller army of veterans over a bunch of non-promoted new units any day.

You can find the exact values in this article:

The Inner Workings of the Demographics Screen Explained

You need to scroll down to the part considering Soldiers. The number of soldiers is the same as the power rating. There were some tiny changes in BTS 3.13 compared to BTS 3.02, but nothing shocking. One element from the power rating not mentioned by Sisiutil is the total population size of your empire, the sum of the sizes of your cities. It's fairly influential at the start of the game until the power of individual units starts to become greater than that of even large cities.

At the start of the game population size, buildings, units and technologies all make up a decent part of your power rating. Late in the game, it's mainly units. That's not so weird as the later units take a lot more time and hammers to be constructed.

 

[a4phantom]

When, if ever.. is Civilization IV Complete coming out in North America?

I still play Civ III sometimes, but looking at the expansions (lol PtW) for that game I decided to wait until they'd finished Civ IV before I bought it. Well, it seems that they're done making expansions for Civ IV.. but then where is the battle chest?

I just got Civ4 and BTS from Amazon for a combined $35. I don't know if a battle chest would be enough better than that to make it worth the wait.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I have a question about the victory conditions screen. In my current game, there are two civs who are relatively advanced compared to me - China and Inca - and I'm concerned that China is going for culture victory. I noticed several turns ago China had cities around about 10k, 11k and 16k culture (this was observed in the victory screen). Yet now Inca has replaced them as the civ closer to culture victory, but his cities are something like 34k, 9k and 8k. See Huayana Capac being the wonder spammer he is has gotten many wonders in the one city.

My question is what exactly determines which civ ends up in this screen as the rival best in culture score? I'm guessing they just add the culture values of the top 3 cities. If this is true it's not a very good inidicator as this example illustrates, as I'm pretty sure China is going for a culture vic yet Huayana is not.

 

[dwest]

I love Civilization 4, but everytime I build a city that has more than 1 million in population, it becomes unhealthy. What is the cheat. What can I do to make my population grow and prosper?

 

[JujuLautre]

You cannot reduce the unhealthiness from population. 1 population = 1 unhealthy face.

However, it's not a problem as long as you have more healthy bonuses than unhealthy ones. So, collect health resources, build granaries, harbours, aqueduct, get environmentalism... See the article "Ways into healthiness" in the strategy articles section.

 

[a4phantom]

Does the AI commit to a victory condition and then forget the others? Or does it pursue multiple paths (chasing two rabbits, so to speak) at once?

 

[frankcor]

I have a question about the victory conditions screen. ... what exactly determines which civ ends up in this screen as the rival best in culture score?

From my observations, the leader is determined by which single city has the most culture which is even less reliable than summing the top three cities. I am not certain of my guess, though.

I do not recall ever losing to an AI via culture victory, and believe me, I have lost a lot of games. I don't think the AI tries for culture victories. Again, that's an opinion and I may be wrong.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I have a question about the victory conditions screen. In my current game, there are two civs who are relatively advanced compared to me - China and Inca - and I'm concerned that China is going for culture victory. I noticed several turns ago China had cities around about 10k, 11k and 16k culture (this was observed in the victory screen). Yet now Inca has replaced them as the civ closer to culture victory, but his cities are something like 34k, 9k and 8k. See Huayana Capac being the wonder spammer he is has gotten many wonders in the one city.

My question is what exactly determines which civ ends up in this screen as the rival best in culture score? I'm guessing they just add the culture values of the top 3 cities. If this is true it's not a very good inidicator as this example illustrates, as I'm pretty sure China is going for a culture vic yet Huayana is not.

From my observations, the leader is determined by which single city has the most culture which is even less reliable than summing the top three cities. I am not certain of my guess, though.

I do not recall ever losing to an AI via culture victory, and believe me, I have lost a lot of games. I don't think the AI tries for culture victories. Again, that's an opinion and I may be wrong.

The AI goes for culture victories in BTS. It was something that was added to the AI in the expansion pack (or more accurately the AI enhancement was developed in a mod called BetterAI and added to the expansion pack). In previous versions of the game, the AI wasn't aware of a cultural victory.

I don't know how the victory screen picks the leader in the cultural victory race. Seeing the values in his post, his explanation seems plausible. If it went by single city with the most culture, then I don't see why the Inca weren't the leader in that race from the start.

 

[a4phantom]

Does the AI commit to a victory condition and then forget the others? Or does it pursue multiple paths (chasing two rabbits, so to speak) at once? (bump!)

Does an army made up of Drill IV Oramo Warriors, Pikes and siege units sound effective? (bump!)

 

[CheScott]

Does the AI commit to a victory condition and then forget the others? Or does it pursue multiple paths (chasing two rabbits, so to speak) at once? (bump!)

Does an army made up of Drill IV Oramo Warriors, Pikes and siege units sound effective? (bump!)

In my experince, any army with a sufficient number of Siege Weapons is effective, but yes that sounds like a particularly good combination. With sieges to weaken them, those first strikes will come in extra handy and with a little luck most of them will come out with little or no damage.

 

[Copywriter]

I have two questions (I'm playing the regular CIV IV).

1. I'm learning the city screen and I'm trying to figure out just when the heck I can add specialists/workers without losing a circle (or when I can add a circle).

Am I correct in this:

Let's say I have 20 citizens - 5 mad = 15. Does this give me 15 options? So, I could have 12 circles and say 3 engineers (if food supports)?

2. I'm just wondering if you can change a city's name in the game. I'd love to capture a city and rename it.

Thanks!

 

[CCRunner]

1. Yes
2. Click on the city name when your in the city screen. That should let you rename it.

 

[Copywriter]

1. Yes
2. Click on the city name when your in the city screen. That should let you rename it.

Thanks!

I spent 8 hours last night playing and trying to figure out why the circles would magically disappear or allow me to add them.

Playing the "can I do this" game was rough since I had about 17 cities to manage AND it's my first Civ IV game.

Glad I can rename the cities.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Does the AI commit to a victory condition and then forget the others? Or does it pursue multiple paths (chasing two rabbits, so to speak) at once? (bump!)

I don't know. You need an expert who can read the code to answer that question. Maybe one of the creators of the new BetterAI mod knows the answer.

Does an army made up of Drill IV Oramo Warriors, Pikes and siege units sound effective? (bump!)

It's a good basis, but it needs some other units for specialty tasks. The mentioned units can defend the stack well. Depending on what units the enemy has, you need more Oromo's or more pikes. The siege units with city raider promotions should be able to decisively weaken defending units in cities and accuracy promoted siege units can remove the defence bonus from cities. If you need to defeat another stack of units, then combat promoted siege units (before BTS 3.17) or barrage promoted siege units (after BTS 3.17) should be able to do the job.
However, you also need a healer. Melee units make excellent healers as they can get both the woodsman III and the Medic promotions. But if you can't get that much experience to get both promotions on one unit, then a fast mounted medic unit can be excellent. You also need a few 2-move units. If your stack is attacked by another stack or a few lone units in enemy territory, then you want a unit that can leave the stack, kill a unit and move back into the protection of the stack without being a turn all alone and vulnerable. Knights, cuirassiers or cavalry would perform this task well in that era.

 

[Copywriter]

OKay, I've got a couple questions on expansion.

1. Is expansion a fixed amount, such as 1 tile N,S,E,W?

2. If my city is about to expand and there isn't any room on the North (for instance), does the growth get added in another direction?

Oh, one question about tech.

Let's say I trade "Assembly" to the AI, but it's not even close to being to that part of the tech tree, do they have to wait to use it or does it "learn" it regardless of their progression?

Thanks!

 

[AlleyGator]

I have been able to modify the WBS file for an already started map/game, but I want to know how to modify the actual units such as how many moves a unit can make in 1 turn and also is what units you start out with contained in the WBS file or is there a place to change that so you don't have to modify the WBS file for each new map?

OK a change to my question, I know to modify most things you do so in the XML file and I have been able to modify a few things such as the default color of certain civilizations, move points but what I can't figure out is how to make a unit specific to only 1 civilization and how do you change the units you start out with, both the kind of units and how many?

Thanks