Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Copywriter]

{{{Copywriter}}} - OK, tacky cyberhugs, but what do you expect from a girl?! Just felt like it. The game takes a while to learn properly and we all struggled at first (apart from Sisutil, but he's a demigod anyway).

It's not normally a waste to build anything inside your BFC, because . I normally work my cities' surroundings to death,

I would say that once you get Machinery you can build windmills as well as mines on hills, and personally I like to save a few hills around my cities for then (particularly those with little fresh water nearby, since Windmills give extra food as well as commerce and (later on) production, but if you have a good city site with a lot of hills in the BFC, mine them all (apart from a few for windmills) and the city will work them once it grows properly. A good location is a hilly area near a coastline, particularly with seafood handy; that makes sure you do have a few food producing tiles to grow the workers to work the mines. As they said, even without a resource being found mines produce extra production as well; my problem is often the reverse, how to get cities without hilly surroundings to up their productivity when all the forests have run out. Answer - workshops, for which you only have to have Metal Casting.

{{{Crowqueen}}}




Last night I just started to discover the meaning of water on tiles (rivers). I noticed that through my capital and near cities were some rivers and these tiles allowed for better stuff.

Now that I know about BFC, thanks, I feel my gameplay has made a big leap (oh and citizens/circles/city screen).

I'm just playing vanilla now (hope to finish my first game before I die). Can't wait to try Warlords and BTS.

Is there a Civ V coming down the road (announced, etc) or is this it for the series (aside from add-ons)?

 

[Crowqueen]

Is there a Civ V coming down the road (announced, etc) or is this it for the series (aside from add-ons)?

There is Civ Revolutions for the consoles and Civ IV Colonization coming out sometime in the autumn (?) but Civ V...not yet. Undoubtedly there will be, but I think they are between projects at the moment and Colonization might be there to plug the gap. IIRC there are about four or five years between Civs and this one only came out about 2 1/2 years ago, so my expectations are that they will wait another few years yet with BtS, alas, probably being the last add-on. However if you get bored of all this there are always the mods and scenarios to play on and I've gone back to try and beat Civ II and Civ III again too.

It's such a successful series that I doubt they will just dump it. I would expect it though to be released after another quantum leap in processing power or graphics conventions since Civ III was 2D and isometric (?) whereas Civ IV made the transition to 3D. Civ II was flat but the Test of Time package made the graphics a bit more like Civ III's. I suspect Colonization won't be the last game to use the engine, but I think BtS is the last expansion pack for Civ IV.

 

[Sisiutil]

The game takes a while to learn properly and we all struggled at first (apart from Sisutil, but he's a demigod anyway).

You should have seen my first Civ IV game--played as Rome (of course), founded my third city to claim iron, then sat around for turn after turn waiting for the stupid borders to expand to include the iron tile because I didn't understand anything about culture or how to make them do that!

 

[Broufar]

The Manual that comes with vanilla says that there is supposed to be a movies menu in the advanced section, but I can't find it. What's wrong?

 

[Copywriter]

There is Civ Revolutions for the consoles and Civ IV Colonization coming out sometime in the autumn (?) but Civ V...not yet. Undoubtedly there will be, but I think they are between projects at the moment and Colonization might be there to plug the gap. IIRC there are about four or five years between Civs and this one only came out about 2 1/2 years ago, so my expectations are that they will wait another few years yet with BtS, alas, probably being the last add-on. However if you get bored of all this there are always the mods and scenarios to play on and I've gone back to try and beat Civ II and Civ III again too.

Yeah, I'm getting Civ Rev for the PS3 and DS.

Civ V in about 2 - 2.5 years is fine with me. Perhaps by that time I will have actually played Warlords, BtS and the Colonization one that's coming.

You should have seen my first Civ IV game--played as Rome (of course), founded my third city to claim iron, then sat around for turn after turn waiting for the stupid borders to expand to include the iron tile because I didn't understand anything about culture or how to make them do that!

LOL. You just made me feel much better. My first Civ IV game isn't that bad. Yes, there's hope!

 

[Chaz2772]

someone please tell me ow to download mods off of here!!!!!!!!!!!!
do i open or save it and if i save it where do i save it too???

 

[JujuLautre]

Depends on the MOD. You should ask directly to the person making it or in the thread or subforum dedicated to the MOD. Also i'm sure most of them have readme's.

 

[Copywriter]

someone please tell me ow to download mods off of here!!!!!!!!!!!!
do i open or save it and if i save it where do i save it too???

As JujuLautre said, it depends on the mod.

Hit the downloads section and download what you want. Open the rar or zip file and there should be a ReadMe doc in there. Some mods have the install instructions on the download page.

Typically, a straight mod's folder goes in your Civ IV mods folder. You can then select it when you start the game. There's also a way to modify a file to auto load a particular mod.

 

[Copywriter]

I've got a question on city building.

Let's say the place I'm about settle on has horses (or rice or whatever). Should I settle on that title with the horses or 1 next to it?

I was thinking you lose the resource if you settle on it. Is that right/wrong?

Thanks

 

[JujuLautre]

Settling on a resource has some advantages:
- you will get the resource as soon as you get the tech to harvest it (calendar for dye)
- you will get access to the resource as long as you control the city (can't be pillaged)
- you will sometimes get a stronger output into the center square of your city, if the tile you settle on has more than 2 food, or more than 1 production, or more than 1 commerce (true even without a resource, but it happens less often)

However, you won't be able to build the right improvement, so you may lose some valuable output per turn (like the hammers and commerce from a pasture on the horses).

It can make sense to settle on if:
- it places the city in a great position, outwheighting the loss of the improvement
- you want a resource early or non-pillageable
- the resource + improvement is not so good (sugar for example)
Or a combination of these

 

[Copywriter]

Ah okay, thanks.

I haven't done it yet, but the opportunity came up earlier and I was just curious if there was some sort of benefit to doing it. Sounds like there isn't.

Oh, here's a question. The game talks about using your ship to stop trading or something from enemy cities. What does this stop and do you just place your ship in the tile next to the city or?

Thanks

 

[Roland Johansen]

Oh, here's a question. The game talks about using your ship to stop trading or something from enemy cities. What does this stop and do you just place your ship in the tile next to the city or?

Thanks

What you're describing sounds like the blockade function. It blockades trade and the the harvest of resources from a 7 by 7 area centred on the ship. It is useful to starve a city from sea based resources (food, commerce) and it is useful to stop sea-based trade routes from that city. Simply said, it hurts the city. The blockade function is available in the expansion pack BTS once you select the unit. If you use a privateer, then you'll even get some plunder.

 

[Shizotizo]

how do you get started? I just want to play, can someone help?

 

[Roland Johansen]

how do you get started? I just want to play, can someone help?

That's a really general question. Pressing Play Now in the Main menu should get a game started after you choose some settings. But I guess that you want to know how to play the game. In that case, maybe this walkthrough can help you:

Walkthrough.

 

[a4phantom]

- you will sometimes get a stronger output into the center square of your city, if the tile you settle on has more than 2 food, or more than 1 production, or more than 1 commerce (true even without a resource, but it happens less often)

If I settle the city directly on a flood plain, will it produce extra food? I knew the hill/plains trick.

 

[r_rolo1]

No... flood plains are a feature, like forests , and not a terrain type . Settling removes all the features, thus removing the FP and letting only the terrain type ( desert )

 

[Broufar]

The Manual that comes with vanilla says that there is supposed to be a movies menu in the advanced section, but I can't find it. What's wrong?

..........

 

[Roland Johansen]

The Manual that comes with vanilla says that there is supposed to be a movies menu in the advanced section, but I can't find it. What's wrong?

I think the manual is wrong here. Manuals are typically written a few months before the game is finished and thus are bound to contain some mistakes as the game is still under development.

 

[Wenla]

I have seen (many times) black glow on my city (yech), and yellow glow (yech again), but this one is new for me... blue, little bit sparkling glow (no normal celebration glow for a day, but constant, at least so far). It doesn't look like bad one, but good one (only impression). I couln't find this from manuals or forums, but I'm sure that somebody knows and tells me meaning of that.

Adv. thanks

Wenla

alias

"Old dog can learn new tricks"

 

[kaos429]

I have seen (many times) black glow on my city (yech), and yellow glow (yech again), but this one is new for me... blue, little bit sparkling glow (no normal celebration glow for a day, but constant, at least so far). It doesn't look like bad one, but good one (only impression). I couln't find this from manuals or forums, but I'm sure that somebody knows and tells me meaning of that.

Adv. thanks

Wenla

alias

"Old dog can learn new tricks"

If I understand you correctly my guess is that you have a unit in your city that has not been promoted.