Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[dalamb]

I agree with CCRunner: it is rarely appropriate to settle on a resource, since working it in the BFC instead usually gives you additional benefits like extra hammers, food, or commerce. I suspect the most common reason for settling on top of a resource is if you're really concerned about pillaging...

Like, for instance, a GOTM (Game Of The Month) a year or so ago which was Rome, Always War, Raging Barbarians -- say hello to wave after wave of pillagers! Rome desperately needs to keep its iron for building those powerful praetorians, so settling on top of one of the few available sites made a lot of sense. At least one of your cities would always have access to it, and more if they could be connected via rivers or coastline so you didn't have to worry about roads being pillaged.

 

[BarrageQueen]

Thanks for the answer. But there is one part where I am scratching my head about... or some expression like that, lol.



When is it best not to settle on a resource?

It's like how the others are saying. Generally, it's best not to settle on the resource tile itself. Perhaps 95% of the time or more. The economic benefits are simply greater when it is improved rather than settled on. However, there can be extenuating circumstances as mentioned, mostly due to urgency or security. But as a rule of thumb, it's usually good to try to incorporate the resource in the big fat cross instead of settling on the resource.

 

[Gwynnja]

settling on top of stone/marble is often beneficial; it will generally/often/usually mean more food than the plot would ordinarily get and more production than the city would ordinarily get. plus, you'll save worker turns which early on are quite valuable.

 

[cleanzero]

How dows tile management work ? What's the criterion for which when you select one tile an other becomes deselected ? Should number of managed tiles equal the city pop units ? What does it mean that in order to become a village a cottage tile must be worked ? I often find it difficult inside city screen to figure out on which tile the cottage is.

Moderator Action: I moved this to the Quick Answers thread. I'm sure that's where you meant to put it. --Padma

 

[henrebotha]

settling on top of stone/marble is often beneficial; it will generally/often/usually mean more food than the plot would ordinarily get and more production than the city would ordinarily get. plus, you'll save worker turns which early on are quite valuable.

Yes, but as far as the yield matter goes you would have to compare the two scenarios (as in settling on the resource versus settling off it). Yes, your city tile may have more (for instance) production; but does settling on that resource mean that your citizen that was going to work the resource would have to work a non-resource tile? If so, does the resource city + improved non-resource tile have a greater total yield than the non-resource city + improved resource? Think about that.

 

[ZachScape]

Thanks a lot everyone. You are all being a lot of help.
But, how will I know if cities or improvements will work a tile better? Will the knowledge come with experience?

 

[dalamb]

Experience certainly helps, but so does advice. For example:

When you look at a possible location, you can ask yourself "what will my total resources look like after I develop some of the tiles around me?" Tiles produce food, hammers, and commerce. If you expect to work a 1-food, 3-hammer tile such as a mined grassland hill, you might need a farmed 3-food grassland tile to provide the extra food needed to work that square (each citizen requires 2 food). Better than the grassland would be pastured sheep or pigs, which give even more food, which is why a lot of people consider a low-food location very low priority unless the resource(s) it has around it look extremely valuable (such as copper early in the game, so you can build axemen).

In a recent game my stone was on a desert tile; once mined, it gives only 3 hammers and no food. I never considered settling on it; if I did so, I'd have had (I think) the standard 2 food, 1 hammer, 1 commerce, which might work out better than three hammers if it looked like I was low on food from other tiles.

I hope this helps.

 

[henrebotha]

I think dalamb misunderstood ZachScape.

Founding a city does two things to the tile it is on.

First, it removes all terrain features (jungle, forest, flood plains, city ruins, and maybe nuclear fallout, not sure), thereby nullifying their effect on yield (for instance, nullifying the +1 hammer that you get from a forest).

Second, if that tile then has a yield of less than 2 food, 1 hammer, and 1 commerce, the city will boost its yield to exactly that.

So, for instance, since a plains hill already has a higher hammer yield than that (2), it retains the higher value (which is why plains hills are great to settle on, especially for your first city).

However, resources are not terrain features; hence, they remain on the tile, and their bonuses are added above and beyond the city's yield. So if you have stone on your city tile, then that's an additional +1 hammer. In this case, if you have stone on a plains hill, the yield would be 2F3P1C if you settled a city on it, or simply 5P (I think) if you quarried it.

It's up to you to decide whether the extra 2F1C outweighs the extra 2P.

(Actually, now that I think about it, food is likely the "weightiest" of the tile yields (as in 1F > 1P > 1C), so one should always settle on a zero-food tile if possible in order to grab the free meal.)

 

[ZachScape]

Actually, both of you are answering my questions. But I only build farms on resources that require it. Big cities for end up being sick and mad. So instead or farms, I build cottages, and on hills I either build mines or windmills. Sometimes I group a bunch of workers to switch the tile from mine to windmill in a late game if I don't need any more city buildings or an expanded military. So I end up having a solid economy and a better than average military. Citizen's wellbeing is my weak point.

 

[henrebotha]

A very easy way to keep your citizens happy, if you have a strong economy, is to use the culture slider, while making sure that the unhappy cities have colosseums, theatres, and (I think...) broadcast towers. These buildings will boost happiness if you crank the culture up.

Also, I'm very much a novice compared to essentially everyone here, but you may want to try figure out how to actually manage big populations. I seem to do just fine, making fairly liberal use of the culture slider to keep people happy.

As for health... Can't really help you there.

 

[MosheLevi]

I have a few questions.

- Is there a hot key to go to next available Worker?

- I have a few cities with food shortage. If I trade with my allies and get more food from them will that help with the city food shortage I have?

- What is the counter unit to SAM Missile Infantry?

- My capital have 300+ Production (after 450 turns) while my other cities have less than 50.
Yet when I look at the capital city window I don’t see 300 hammers. I see 50 at the most. How can that be?

 

[henrebotha]

How dows tile management work ? What's the criterion for which when you select one tile an other becomes deselected ? Should number of managed tiles equal the city pop units ? What does it mean that in order to become a village a cottage tile must be worked ? I often find it difficult inside city screen to figure out on which tile the cottage is.

I don't know how the game determines which tile to deselect but you can select any combination you want so it's not important. Simply deselect a tile before you select another one.

What you call "tile management" is what the game calls "working a tile". You can work one tile per population point in your city; also, the tile on which your city rests is also worked "for free" (meaning that you don't need a population point to work it).

For a cottage to grow, simply make sure it has a white circle around it on the city screen.

If you have difficulty figuring out where the cottage is, turn on the game grid (Ctrl+T), then count how many squares across and down from your city the cottage is. You can then easily find it in the city screen.

I have a few questions.

- Is there a hot key to go to next available Worker?

- I have a few cities with food shortage. If I trade with my allies and get more food from them will that help with the city food shortage I have?

- What is the counter unit to SAM Missile Infantry?

- My capital have 300+ Production (after 450 turns) while my other cities have less than 50.
Yet when I look at the capital city window I don’t see 300 hammers. I see 50 at the most. How can that be?

The "W" key goes to the next active unit, but I don't know if there's one specifically for workers.

To counter SAM Infantry, you can use Infantry (especially when defending) or Tanks (especially when attacking).

Remember that things like Ironworks, Forges, Factories, etc multiply your production. So even though you may only be working tiles with a total hammer yield of 50, the net production may be several hundred, depending on buildings, civics, and leader traits.

 

[Frozen In Ice]

I wasn't sure whether to put this question here or in BTS forum, but anyway: Can you load a vinilla BTS game in 3.17? I currently have a game going and I would like to patch, but I don't want my game messed up either.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I've been looking for a place that describes all the map features for Civ IV - Soren's map script is great, but it doesn't really get into what big and small, rainforest, fractal, boreal and a couple of others are.

Any thoughts?

 

[Lord Parkin]

I wasn't sure whether to put this question here or in BTS forum, but anyway: Can you load a vinilla BTS game in 3.17? I currently have a game going and I would like to patch, but I don't want my game messed up either.

I'm not completely sure. However, you can always do a "dual install" - just make a copy of your Firaxis Games folder, put it inside another folder of a different name (eg FG Backup), then apply the patch. If your game doesn't work on the patched version (the Firaxis Games folder), just boot up the unpatched version (from the FG Backup folder).

I've been looking for a place that describes all the map features for Civ IV - Soren's map script is great, but it doesn't really get into what big and small, rainforest, fractal, boreal and a couple of others are.

Any thoughts?

This might be what you're looking for. It's slightly out of date, but most map types are covered.

 

[Gwynnja]

When the circumstances are right I like to give my economy a religious building boost with the +2 from the AP, +1 from the spiral minaret, and +2 from the university sankore. I thought, however that the bonuses applied to the state religion running at the time of completion, so I switched previous so that I wouldn't have to deal with AP issues. It seems tho that is only the case for the AP, because when I switched back to the popular religion, I still got hammers from the former religion, but the beakers and gold only applied when I had the new religion. Is this correct?

 

[r_rolo1]

AP hammer bonus are tied to the AP religion buildings . Sankore and Spiral Minaret bonuses are tied to your state religion, and will change if you change religion

 

[Frozen In Ice]

I'm not completely sure. However, you can always do a "dual install" - just make a copy of your Firaxis Games folder, put it inside another folder of a different name (eg FG Backup), then apply the patch. If your game doesn't work on the patched version (the Firaxis Games folder), just boot up the unpatched version (from the FG Backup folder).

Thanks, I will try this out!

 

[TheAlakazam]

Hi, everyone,

I have a quick question. Is there ANY way to get Isabella to adopt Free Religion? I have the UN and have tried to hold the elections for universal Free Religion, but she will not settle for anything other than a NEVER. =[

Thanks =]

 

[CCRunner]

You can switch it with spies, assuming you have BTS, as long as you are also in free religion. I think it's possible for her to change as well. Does she have the holy city? That makes it a lot less likely for any AI to switch religions/no religion even though they'd still get the benefits of the shrine.