Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

Sooo... what improvements/changes can be made to CIV:BTS? I've just found out that it's quite common to have more than the standard 7 civs in a game. Consider my mind blown. How do I do that? Are user-made civs of a decent quality? Does 50 make for a good game? etc etc. I've also just seen about the unofficial patches. Anyway, as you'll probably guess, I don't know much, so I'm wondering if there are any common alterations what I ought to implement.

Cheers
 
Welcome to CFC, hootsman!

Well, there are several options available to you if you do not use the "Play Now!" setting under the Single Player menu. If you select "Custom Game" (or whatever it's called), you will be met with a screen jam-packed with delectable options for you to dine on. Many people prefer to turn off barbarians and/or random events here... It's up to you. :)

As for third-party content, I can't really comment, but I can say this: the BUG mod (find it on this forum) will make your life so much easier.

(Or harder, if in fact Civ is not your life.)
 
It's as simple as going out to the forum view as normal - then instead of clicking the link to a thread, you click the number in the "Replies" column to the right. It's funny how it had never occurred to you before either. Amazing the things you can miss. :)

Never realised that the number was clickable. It's clearly visible through the line under the number, still I hadn't noticed it until now.

I'm impressed at your (almost) 1000 posts... nearly 1/3 of your total. ;)

:lol:

Sooo... what improvements/changes can be made to CIV:BTS? I've just found out that it's quite common to have more than the standard 7 civs in a game. Consider my mind blown. How do I do that? Are user-made civs of a decent quality? Does 50 make for a good game? etc etc. I've also just seen about the unofficial patches. Anyway, as you'll probably guess, I don't know much, so I'm wondering if there are any common alterations what I ought to implement.

Cheers

Many people use varying mods for this game. That's not unusual for games that have been available for a few years, but this game has many smaller mods and a few extensive mods. But even without mods, there are many options that can be chosen. Have you ever started a custom game? I notice that many starting players always choose the Play Now option and don't even realise that there are more options available with the custom game. Try it and add more civs or play with fewer civs or change some of the standard game rules. By the way, I prefer the standard number of civilisations for a map size.

There are mods that change the number of civilisations that can be chosen at the game setup. The normal maximum is 18. Note that playing with a mod that allows bigger than huge maps and more than 18 civilisations on a map is possible. But games tend to become pretty lengthy and if you don't have a monster computer, you'll get so called MAF errors (Memory Allocation Failure) at the end of the game.

Populair mods include but are not limited to:
-Fall from Heaven (total conversion mod for civ4 into a fantasy game)
-Rhye's and Fall of Civilization (big mod that mod civ4 into a game that follows the true history of earth, I'm not familiar with it)
-Unofficial civ4 patches (limited rule changes to the standard game which are considered to be BUGS according to the large majority of the Civ4 community)
-BTS Unaltered Gameplay (A mod that adds a huge number of changes to the user interface of civ4 and thereby makes the game more user friendly)
-Better AI (guess what this mod does?)
-Rise of Mankind (A mod that adds a huge number of elements to the game, some think it add too much.)

These mods can be found here.

There can be found even more mods in the Creation and Customisation subforums.

Oh, and of course, welcome to civfanatics!:dance::band::beer:
 
Thanks for both your replies!

Feeling pretty stupid at not having given the custom game function greater scrutiny. I see it has more map styles - are any of these recommended? I tend to like tectonic as it provides a variable, natural feeling landscape - random seems to feel too random (so varied that it was all the same, if you see what I mean).
 
Thanks for both your replies!

Feeling pretty stupid at not having given the custom game function greater scrutiny. I see it has more map styles - are any of these recommended? I tend to like tectonic as it provides a variable, natural feeling landscape - random seems to feel too random (so varied that it was all the same, if you see what I mean).

Check The Complete Guide To Map Generation. I personally also like fractal and I like Big and Small (islands mixed in). Archipellago, continents and Hemispheres are also popular.

Hmm, I just noticed that presently the pictures are not available in the thread. The thread creator said this about the issue. The pictures will regularly not be available I guess.
 
Thanks for both your replies!

Feeling pretty stupid at not having given the custom game function greater scrutiny. I see it has more map styles - are any of these recommended? I tend to like tectonic as it provides a variable, natural feeling landscape - random seems to feel too random (so varied that it was all the same, if you see what I mean).
Tectonic is a little more natural, but the AI doesn't seem to adjust to it that well, so it may favour the human player (this may be a good or bad thing depending upon your point of view).

My own favourite map is archipelago with low sea levels and snaky continents, with a couple of extra civs thrown into the mix (I usually play either large or huge maps at marathon speed). This map tends to give you plenty of land and plenty of strategic choke points; it keeps navies relevant; and there are lots of opportunities to take advantage of the BTS forts-as-canals feature, too.
 
Thanks for both your replies!

Feeling pretty stupid at not having given the custom game function greater scrutiny. I see it has more map styles - are any of these recommended? I tend to like tectonic as it provides a variable, natural feeling landscape - random seems to feel too random (so varied that it was all the same, if you see what I mean).
I also like the "realistic" land forms provided by the Tectonics script, although it tends to have an excessive amount of plains and very dispersed food resources. My favourite at the moment is the Big_and_Small map script, although Fractal is pretty good too. But there are many options - definitely have a look around and try a few! :)

I'll also throw a personal preference out there for you - feel free to take it or leave it depending on whether it appeals to you. My favourite setup is to play long (Epic or Marathon speed) games on Huge maps with the maximum number of civs (18). (You can make this number of civs higher with mods, but I usually find that's sort of overkill.) With a super-long game on a super-big map with a massive number of civs, I find it really enhances the whole civ experience. ;)
 
Thanks for both your replies!

Feeling pretty stupid at not having given the custom game function greater scrutiny. I see it has more map styles - are any of these recommended? I tend to like tectonic as it provides a variable, natural feeling landscape - random seems to feel too random (so varied that it was all the same, if you see what I mean).

I'm a having a very fun Next War game with Roosevelt on a Huge Archipelago with Snaky Continents - sort of a loopy, watery, Pangea with alot of chokepoints. Very neat.
 
I have BTS installed. Can I still play multiplayer with someone with only the original Civ 4? I only have the BTS cd with me.
 
I have BTS installed. Can I still play multiplayer with someone with only the original Civ 4? I only have the BTS cd with me.
Not sure if you can load original Civ4 without the CD, it's been a while since I've done that.

Apart from that, as long as your friend has patched their Civ4 to version 1.74, you should be able to play with them (on Civ4) with no problems. :)
 
Noob question here. Can the head of the AP declare a holy war on you if you are running the free religion civic?
 
Noob question here. Can the head of the AP declare a holy war on you if you are running the free religion civic?
If you have a city which has his religion in it, and you're either at war with him or only a "voting member" due to defying a previous resolution, then I'm fairly sure the answer is yes. ;)
 
If you have a city which has his religion in it, and you're either at war with him or only a "voting member" due to defying a previous resolution, then I'm fairly sure the answer is yes. ;)

In my current game Napoleon (the head of the AP) called a crusade against my neighbors the "heathen Germans", and massive stack of has appeared offshore. I am worried he might decide come after me next. I suppose I should capture a Christian city right quick.

It seems kind of unfair that they would do that. I mean your state doesn't recognize any particular religion why should you be considered heathens? :dunno:
 
I have BTS installed. Can I still play multiplayer with someone with only the original Civ 4? I only have the BTS cd with me.

Welcome to CFC :)

you can still play civ4 MP if both of you have the civ4 disc (or use a digital version of the game) - you cannot however start civ4 with the BtS disc :sad:
 
i have question about domination and conquest victories.

does the percentage of land needed for the victory include the land of you vassals?
do you win if you vassalise all other civilizations?
 
i have question about domination and conquest victories.

does the percentage of land needed for the victory include the land of you vassals?
do you win if you vassalise all other civilizations?
Half of the land of your vassals counts towards your domination limit. (For example, if your vassal controls 10% of the world's land, that adds 5% to your land percentage for domination.)

If you vassalise every other civ, you win a conquest victory. :)
 
Hello all, I'm new to Civ 4 and the boards. I have a basic question that my searches thus far have not hit on.

How do you manage the Maximum Population of a city?

That is, I understand how to manage population growth of a city through generating food points, however it always seems that I start hitting the population limit of a city and start increasing "Unhealthy" and "Unhappy" cities. So each city has a total population that it can support without dropping health and happiness, how do I bump that number.

I regularly end up having to stagnate at 6 population, please help me understand what I'm doing wrong.
 
Welcome TheHappyDespot! :banana::dance::banana:

The short answer is Happiness is more critical than health for growing a city. Some of the ways to increase happiness are:

- resources like gold +:) if a forge is in the city +:):)
- religion: adopt a religion and every city with that religion +:)
- buildings like coloseum +:); and the cultural slider can increase that
- adopt the civic hereditary rule and every military unit in a city gives +:)
- leader traits like charismatic give 1:); build a monument with charismatic and get an additional +:)

Of course there's more detail ad-infintum but that can get you started and I'll let my betters carry on.
 
Hello all, I'm new to Civ 4 and the boards. I have a basic question that my searches thus far have not hit on.

How do you manage the Maximum Population of a city?

That is, I understand how to manage population growth of a city through generating food points, however it always seems that I start hitting the population limit of a city and start increasing "Unhealthy" and "Unhappy" cities. So each city has a total population that it can support without dropping health and happiness, how do I bump that number.

I regularly end up having to stagnate at 6 population, please help me understand what I'm doing wrong.

For each population point, the unhealthiness figure and the unhappiness figure increases by one. To compensate, you also need to increase the health and happiness figure so that they are higher than the unhealthiness and unhappiness. If you can't, you should try to limit the food output or use slavery (ability of the slavery civic) to limit the size of the city.

There are many ways to increase the health and happiness of a city, most are related to health and happiness resources. You can connect them or trade for them. A complete list of the various ways to increase health and happiness can be found in the following articles:
Ways into Health
Ways into Happiness

And of course, welcome to civfanatics!:dance::band::beer:
 
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