Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[henrebotha]

I don't think it's a good idea from a game balance point of view. Being able to attack and kill units during peace is extremely powerful, especially if you can combine it with closed borders (as privateers can cross closed borders without declaring war). Essentially, any tile one space away from your borders can be freely pillaged and any units in those areas freely attacked and you can move back over the borders without a chance to be stopped. On top of that, no one else can build such a land privateer to return the favour to you or to follow these units of yours into your borders. You can freely slaughter settlers who are on their way to found new cities without having to declare war. Also the normal privateers were made 3/4-th of the strength of the other military sea unit of its time (the frigate) in order to balance its strength of hidden nationality. I didn't see any mention of that in your post with your proposed reiver unit.

So yes, I think the unit is grossly overpowered. However, maybe the guys you're playing with won't notice that.

I realised this after submitting my post. You also make a good point there - you'd be able to run the Reivers back into your borders and thereby prevent retaliation.

EDIT: Yeah, I still think it's too much. Even if the unit can only attack units or only attack improvements, it would still be too easy to completely cripple a civ right off the bat, leaving them easy pickings for you. (Once you have two or three Reivers on each nearby civ, you can stop building military and just build up your own civ, eventually DOWing and conquering each backwards neighbour in turn.)

 

[j_jon]

Yeah, come to think of it, the Reiver could also freely capture workers and never have to build it's own.

Starting to sound WAY too powerful.

Glad I asked first.

 

[henrebotha]

Yeah, come to think of it, the Reiver could also freely capture workers and never have to build it's own.

Starting to sound WAY too powerful.

Which is a shame, because it's a cool concept.

 

[j_jon]

What about the 'explore rival territory' feature without the 'attacking without declaring war' feature? And perhaps taking the unit's strength down a bit? Also is there a way to turn off it's ability to capture units? Is that what <NoCapture>1</NoCapture> (or whatever) does?

 

[j_jon]

Which is a shame, because it's a cool concept.

Yeah, I really wanted to find a way to make use of it it some form or another. I didn't really want to just have a stronger replacement for something. And the fact that somewhere way down the line someone I'm related to probably was one of these things makes me like it even more.

 

[henrebotha]

Yeah, I really wanted to find a way to make use of it it some form or another. I didn't really want to just have a stronger replacement for something. And the fact that somewhere way down the line someone I'm related to probably was one of these things makes me like it even more.

Same reason I like the idea of playing an Afrikaans civilization, with Boer Commando unique units.

What about the 'explore rival territory' feature without the 'attacking without declaring war' feature? And perhaps taking the unit's strength down a bit? Also is there a way to turn off it's ability to capture units? Is that what <NoCapture>1</NoCapture> (or whatever) does?

I think explore rival territory is a nice addition - wouldn't even have to turn down the strength. However, it doesn't really synergise with anything... It's more of a separate ability. The one exception is fighting long-distance wars, when you have a civ between you and your target, would be possible without needing open borders with the middleman. However, Horse Archers are available at a time when borders aren't that big yet and so they are unlikely to run into this situation. Also note that this would most likely completely obsolete the Explorer.

 

[j_jon]

I think explore rival territory is a nice addition - wouldn't even have to turn down the strength. However, it doesn't really synergise with anything... It's more of a separate ability. The one exception is fighting long-distance wars, when you have a civ between you and your target, would be possible without needing open borders with the middleman. However, Horse Archers are available at a time when borders aren't that big yet and so they are unlikely to run into this situation. Also note that this would most likely completely obsolete the Explorer.

That's true. Plus it's kind of a departure from what the unit is supposed to be. They're not meant to go far from home.

 

[j_jon]

I suppose I could go the route of the Gaelic Warrior and give the units a free promotion. Something like Flanking I (paired with the First Strike Immunity and 20% Withdrawl Chance already built into the Horse Archer) could help simulate a highly mobile mounted unit adept at hit and fade tactics.

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know if your leader's traits influence the reward you get from huts at all? I played through with a Charismatic/Expansive leader and got gold, a couple free techs, a map, and scouts. On another, I played through with a Philosophical/Imperialstic leader and got a couple gold and three Warriors in a row.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Anyway, I have a question that borders on being a bug...but not worth its own thread I think. Does anyone know why in the early game, when meeting a civ or two their land area shows up on the F8 screen as exactly 1.00% or 2.00%, even when it's not? It happens with both AI and multiplayer - it'll eventually go away at some undetermined point a little later into the game as far as I can tell.

I'd always assumed that it was deliberate, so that you didn't get an exact percentage (which would allow you to calculate the exact number of land tiles the civ owned). But then again, that isn't a very useful thing to be able to do, and the demographics give you exact numbers anyway (if you're not playing with too many people).

So yeah, I'm not sure about whether this was intentional or not. Try mentioning it in the bug thread and see what they say.

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know if your leader's traits influence the reward you get from huts at all? I played through with a Charismatic/Expansive leader and got gold, a couple free techs, a map, and scouts. On another, I played through with a Philosophical/Imperialstic leader and got a couple gold and three Warriors in a row.

Traits have nothing to do with the rewards you get from huts; it's all based on difficulty level. For instance, on Settler level you will have a chance of popping a Worker (and possibly a Settler, I can't remember), as well as high odds of getting a technology (20% from memory), and low odds of barbarians (10% from memory). On the other hand, on Deity you will never get Workers or Settlers, you will only get techs about 10% of the time (from memory), and you will get barbarians 40% of the time (from memory).

The numbers are something like that, anyway - I can't check the XML right now but it's in those general vicinities.

 

[dalamb]

Regarding j-jon's unit: would it tone down his unit enough if it was more like the spy, who can be "discovered" and have its nationality revealed? In addition to reducing its power in other ways; suppose it were a horse-archer replacement whose combat stats weren't much better than chariots?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Regarding j-jon's unit: would it tone down his unit enough if it was more like the spy, who can be "discovered" and have its nationality revealed? In addition to reducing its power in other ways; suppose it were a horse-archer replacement whose combat stats weren't much better than chariots?

What would happen if it was discovered? An automatic declaration of war by the owner of the unit?

Note that it is actually very clear who is the owner of the unit since its a unique unit. It's just that the AI doesn't know how to handle the situation. If a human player would use such a unit against another human player, the human player who is being attacked should just directly declare war (to be able to retaliate) as that is what the attacking player is actually doing.

 

[theonlyjess]

I just bought civ IV gold edition, and there is no "tutorial option". Its the first time I've ever played the game, and REALLY need that tutorial. Anyone know how I can find, install and use the tutorial?

 

[Roland Johansen]

I just bought civ IV gold edition, and there is no "tutorial option". Its the first time I've ever played the game, and REALLY need that tutorial. Anyone know how I can find, install and use the tutorial?

I've got the vanilla game plus the two expansions and the option to play the tutorial is only present when I start the vanilla game. I guess there are multiple ways to start the game with the gold edition and I guess you've used the wrong executable.

For me:
D:\Games\Civilization 4\Civilization4.exe

starts the vanilla game.

D:\Games\Civilization 4\Warlords\Civ4Warlords.exe

starts the warlords expansion.

D:\Games\Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe

starts the Beyond the Sword expansion.

(However, the standard install path is C:\Program Files\Civilization 4\.... )

 

[theonlyjess]

I've got the vanilla game plus the two expansions and the option to play the tutorial is only present when I start the vanilla game. I guess there are multiple ways to start the game with the gold edition and I guess you've used the wrong executable.

For me:
D:\Games\Civilization 4\Civilization4.exe

starts the vanilla game.

D:\Games\Civilization 4\Warlords\Civ4Warlords.exe

starts the warlords expansion.

D:\Games\Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe

starts the Beyond the Sword expansion.

(However, the standard install path is C:\Program Files\Civilization 4\.... )

Thanks
So...how do I choose those different paths?

NEVER MIND - I worked it out! HOORAY!! Thanks

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thanks
So...how do I choose those different paths?

NEVER MIND - I worked it out! HOORAY!! Thanks

Oh, I just noticed you're new to this site. And there is a traditional

welcome

on this site for newcomers.

Edit: By the way, I should have mentioned the various tutorials on this site available to players new to the game. I personally like this one:
Sulla's Civilization IV Walkthrough . I read it when the game just arrived on the market in 2005 (without the expansions), so it's a tutorial for the vanilla game.

 

[henrebotha]

I suppose I could go the route of the Gaelic Warrior and give the units a free promotion. Something like Flanking I (paired with the First Strike Immunity and 20% Withdrawl Chance already built into the Horse Archer) could help simulate a highly mobile mounted unit adept at hit and fade tactics.

I have actually thought about how I would change Cavalry to better represent Boer Commandos. If you read up on the kind of tactics they used in the Second Boer War/South African War (Wikipedia is great for this), you'll see they were exceptional proponents of guerilla warfare. In this, I feel they are similar to your Reivers - they are both mounted units who are great at hit-and-run type efforts. Yes, Flanking would be one way to go about it; but there is another ability which I quite like the idea of, which is: give the unit the ability to receive defensive bonuses. If it's overpowered, knock a point off of their Strength. If it's underpowered (not likely!), give them Guerilla I for free.

It's up to you, but I think a free Flanking I is probably closer to your unit's flavour; however, I don't know if it would be strong enough. Find a way to make them a tiny bit better. Maybe knock a handful of hammers off of the price, or give them some non-combat promotion for free (Sentry? Or maybe that 'movement cost' one).

 

[NecroAngel]

It's probably not best for this thread, but I'm not sure where to ask it. Is there any way to re-map the buttons so I can enter chat by typing enter and end turn by pressing tab?

 

[RagnarIceblood]

I dont understand the hammer giving resources; e.g. stone.
Stone gives +1 hammer.
But when I look at a city screen, and count the number of hammers, this number is not counting in.

 

[PieceOfMind]

I dont understand the hammer giving resources; e.g. stone.
Stone gives +1 hammer.
But when I look at a city screen, and count the number of hammers, this number is not counting in.

The +1 is only for the single tile (if the stone were not there the yield of that tile would be one less). When you improve it with a quarry you get a couple more hammers. The point of your cities having access to stone is not to gain an extra but to be able to get a bonus when producing buildings where stone gives a +100% boost to production.

 

[RagnarIceblood]

The +1 is only for the single tile (if the stone were not there the yield of that tile would be one less). When you improve it with a quarry you get a couple more hammers. The point of your cities having access to stone is not to gain an extra but to be able to get a bonus when producing buildings where stone gives a +100% boost to production.

Right. I guess I get confused by the city screen, up right where it lists all the resources. It lists all health giving ones as +1 health etc. , so why I dont see +1 hammer you explained.

But why are they listed there then, if the city itself dont get a bonus, but the tile do?