Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[VollAufRisiko]

Ah, 1.74 is close to 1.71. Anyway, that thread you linked seems to have some good info. Maybe I will go try it again when i get home. You mentioned the patch makes the game better, what is there that is different? Is there a link to the patch changes somewhere?

 

[vincible]

Two questions.

When my empire gets big, I'd like to use city automation on less-important cities in order to make the turns go faster. But the automated cities make dumb decisions. Is there anything I can do to influence the decisions being made under automation? In particular, I'd like to ensure that they never rush production--if they were important enough to deserve a rush-bought granary, I wouldn't be automating them! It'd also be nice to set rules like "prioritize building a market before you build a library" or "don't build units" or whatever.

Second, are there any quick rules of thumb for which units will benefit more from a First Strike promotion versus a strength promotion?

Thanks for your help!

 

[kburlz]

No. Nothing upgrades to a musketman. Longbows can be upgraded to riflemen with rifling, (maybe machine guns with railroad too, I don't remember,) infantry with rifling and assembly line, or mechanized infantry, with robotics and rifling. This can all be found in the civopedia, just look under units.

That's not really my point. I'm just asking what is required to upgrade an unit? Why is it sometimes you can and sometimes the icons are dark and you can't upgrade.

 

[VollAufRisiko]

That's not really my point. I'm just asking what is required to upgrade an unit? Why is it sometimes you can and sometimes the icons are dark and you can't upgrade.

I think you just need the tech, the money, and to be within your culture boundaries.

 

[BarrageQueen]

It's not that strange. When firearms first appeared, they were so radically different in use to any existing armaments that soldiers had to be trained in their use from scratch. Probably the weapon most similar to the musket was the crossbow, so if anything, only Crossbowmen should be able to upgrade to Musketmen.

Well well. Using that logic, how is a longbow upgradeable to a rifle? Or a mace to a rifle! I get what you're saying about the first appearance and all that, but it's still odd that archery units cannot upgrade to a musket, but can turn into a more advanced gunpowder unit later. Anyways, this is beyond the scope of the Q&A so

 

[BarrageQueen]

That's not really my point. I'm just asking what is required to upgrade an unit? Why is it sometimes you can and sometimes the icons are dark and you can't upgrade.

You're probably either short of gold or not in your territory, as mentioned in my original reply.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Two questions.

When my empire gets big, I'd like to use city automation on less-important cities in order to make the turns go faster. But the automated cities make dumb decisions. Is there anything I can do to influence the decisions being made under automation? In particular, I'd like to ensure that they never rush production--if they were important enough to deserve a rush-bought granary, I wouldn't be automating them! It'd also be nice to set rules like "prioritize building a market before you build a library" or "don't build units" or whatever.

You could just create a long queue of buildings in the city. I, like most people on this site, don't trust the AI with command of my cities.

Second, are there any quick rules of thumb for which units will benefit more from a First Strike promotion versus a strength promotion?

Thanks for your help!

Units that have an advantage against their opposing units will benefit from first strikes more than from combat promotions. It will help them to suffer very little to no damage from these battles which will help the speed of a war. Some examples:

-A longbowman (or other defensive unit) in a city with a castle (or large cultural defence value) being attacked by large numbers of inferior units or equal tech units with few promotions.
-A tank (or other strong unit) attacking bombed (or otherwise wounded) units.
-A unit attacking a unit from an earlier tech period.

Drill promoted units also suffer less collateral damage, so another example is:

-A unit in a stack that is going to be attacked by units that inflict collateral damage.

Note that the first drill promotions are very weak while the later ones are very strong. Drill I is especially useless while Drill IV is extremely strong. So don't go for drill promotions when you're not expecting the unit to get more drill promotions in the future.

The combat promotion will be better in situations where the combatants are somewhat equally matched.

Oh and welcome to civfanatics!

 

[henrebotha]

1.74 changelog: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6183

 

[henrebotha]

When my empire gets big, I'd like to use city automation on less-important cities in order to make the turns go faster. But the automated cities make dumb decisions. Is there anything I can do to influence the decisions being made under automation? In particular, I'd like to ensure that they never rush production--if they were important enough to deserve a rush-bought granary, I wouldn't be automating them! It'd also be nice to set rules like "prioritize building a market before you build a library" or "don't build units" or whatever.

Actually, you can influence the governor's decisions somewhat: below the whip/rush buy buttons, there are toggle buttons you can use in each city to emphasise food, emphasise hammers, emphasise commerce, emphasise great people, deemphasise growth, or another thing that I forget. (Apparently, if your Workers are automated, these selections will also influence what they build around a particular city.)

 

[VollAufRisiko]

1.74 changelog: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=6183

thanks for the link. there do not seem to be very many changes, and really nothing that changes the game much (from what i can tell form the notes and my 3 weeks game experience). it doesnt appear to be worth the effort of jumping through all those hoops to get the patch working, at least for those who have no intention of playing online and needing the most current version.

did i overlook something?

 

[henrebotha]

It just helps fix bugs and game balance. It's not such a huge mission to get the patch working - I downloaded two files and put them in my Civ folder and that was it.

 

[ori]

if you make sure to update microsoft's directx9c the 1.74 patch should not cause any troubles - however it does if the directx update is not done...

 

[Gwynnja]

That's not really my point. I'm just asking what is required to upgrade an unit? Why is it sometimes you can and sometimes the icons are dark and you can't upgrade.

I think you just need the tech, the money, and to be within your culture boundaries.

Also, if the unit that you're upgrading to needs different resources (a horse archer needs only horse + tech, while a knight needs horse + iron + tech) you need to be positioned somewhere with access to those resources.

 

[dodgerphreak]

Does chopping jungles not create work like chopping forests do? I noticed the other day while I had a bunch of workers methodically removing the jungles from around my city that I seemed to not be getting any work from their chopping... I was mainly chopping for the work and to remove the unhealthy *bonus* that comes from the jungles. Am I doing something wrong or has it always been this way?

 

[Gwynnja]

Does chopping jungles not create work like chopping forests do? I noticed the other day while I had a bunch of workers methodically removing the jungles from around my city that I seemed to not be getting any work from their chopping... I was mainly chopping for the work and to remove the unhealthy *bonus* that comes from the jungles. Am I doing something wrong or has it always been this way?

Chopping jungles doesn't contribute production the way chopping forests do; it's more of a necessary evil. the land underneath is often lush, green, grassland.

 

[Yxklyx]

So let me get this straight. EPs all come from the same source so if I steal a tech, it's possible that my EPs for that Civ will drop below the point where I can what they're researching?

 

[Roland Johansen]

So let me get this straight. EPs all come from the same source so if I steal a tech, it's possible that my EPs for that Civ will drop below the point where I can what they're researching?

True.

However, the amount of EP needed to see what someone is researching is far less than the amount of EP needed to steal one of their technologies. So if you keep investing EP to steal more of their technologies, then you'll very soon be above the threshold to see their technological research again.

 

[Bowsling]

What does it mean to REX someone?

 

[bestbrian]

What does it mean to REX someone?

REX= Rapid Expansion.

I'm not sure about the mechanics involved in doing this to another person, but I have my suspicions.

 

[IAM]

REX= Rapid Expansion.

I'm not sure about the mechanics involved in doing this to another person, but I have my suspicions.

@billybomes27 REXing ussually involves chopping or whipping settlers and capturing land early to get good city sites for food, stratagic metals, flood plains, etc.