Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Silu]

How can I make the game not play the movies when I start it?

Switch the appropriate value in CivilizationIV.ini (My Games/blabla area) , namely "NoIntroMovie = 0" to = 1

 

[Darth Fred]

I'm playing a BTS game and can't attack the opponent I want to. Some how we have a 10 turn peace treaty that can't be canceled. Does anyone ahppen to know how this happens and how it can be undone? This is the second time now. The first time my CPU crashed and I wasn't able to ask about it or even finish the game. Well, it's gone and happened again.
F

 

[IAM]

I'm playing a BTS game and can't attack the opponent I want to. Some how we have a 10 turn peace treaty that can't be canceled. Does anyone ahppen to know how this happens and how it can be undone? This is the second time now. The first time my CPU crashed and I wasn't able to ask about it or even finish the game. Well, it's gone and happened again.
F

A resource or tech trade can create a 10 turn enforced peace. It just goes away after 10 turns. So if you are going to attack an opponent no trading

 

[CivIVMonger]

That's what I'd like to avoid doing.

Where?

Beyond the Sword ---> Advanced ---> Options ---> Graphics ---> No movies.

I don't know if it works for you but it certainly does for me...

 

[Silv Something]

A resource or tech trade can create a 10 turn enforced peace. It just goes away after 10 turns. So if you are going to attack an opponent no trading

That means that you can declare war after 10 turns, not that after 10 turns you automatically go back to war.

 

[Darth Fred]

A resource or tech trade can create a 10 turn enforced peace. It just goes away after 10 turns. So if you are going to attack an opponent no trading

I don't recall trading anything, but I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks.
F

 

[kcd_swede]

I don't recall trading anything, but I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks.
F

Actually, its not "trading" (I give you this - you give me that) that will yield you an enforced 10 turns peace, but giving in to demands (Could you spare X for a good friend? We demand you give us X!) that gives you 10 turns of peace.

And it doesn't matter whether you are making the request/demand or the AI is making the request/demand... either way you get 10 turns peace.

Some folks use this to delay an imminent attack... demand 5 gold from a neighbor and get the peace for 10 turns if he gives in. If he doesn't give in ... well, he was going to attack you anyhow, right?

 

[PieceOfMind]

AfterShafter and a few others said that Xbows are so great as offencive units? I just don't get that at all, sure they are cheap, but 6 with no offencive advantages really defines it as a city defender and not a city taker. How could this unit possibly be any good on the offencive?

Cho-ko-nus primarily. They are awesome units.

Ignoring cho-ko-nus I don't know of anyone who'd recommend using xbows as the primary attacker in a stack. However there is one cool way to use xbows which also works with longbows. I'd only reocmmend this with Protective civs by the way...

Use things like xbows or longbows only after attacking with siege units or other more powerful attackers. Drill units can be excellent defenders but under the right circumstances they can be decent (not excellent but decent) attackers. The right circumstances IMO means the defender is injured or at a huge strength disadvantage (e.g. rifles attacking longbows or worse).

With xbows in particular, the idea is that by using them to mop up defenders after siege has attacked, you can earn some nice xp (often 2 or 3 xp at good odds, unlike city raider units which'll usually get 1 or 2xp at best) and then use the units as good defenders of the newly captured city.

As with any units with first strikes, it takes some mental effort to use them correctly.

As a quick example, suppose you attack a city with about 8 defenders. After at least 2 or 3 siege units you might start sending in a couple of combat or CR promoted maces. Once you're down to 2 or 3 defenders left they might be really injured already. You might think "beauty! some more easy xp for my CR maces", but actually they'll probably only earn 1xp each and will probably not win the battles unscratched. On the other hand, use a D2 or D3 longbow or crossbow and you will probably kill the injured defender without taking a single hit, earning 2xp probably, and only having slightly lower overall survival odds than that CR mace.

To sum up, I wouldn't recommend using xbows as attackers by themselves, but complementing other attackers (especially siege units) they can be great units as they can do the attacking and defending.

 

[Darth Fred]

Actually, its not "trading" (I give you this - you give me that) that will yield you an enforced 10 turns peace, but giving in to demands (Could you spare X for a good friend? We demand you give us X!) that gives you 10 turns of peace.

And it doesn't matter whether you are making the request/demand or the AI is making the request/demand... either way you get 10 turns peace.

Some folks use this to delay an imminent attack... demand 5 gold from a neighbor and get the peace for 10 turns if he gives in. If he doesn't give in ... well, he was going to attack you anyhow, right?

That makes more sense than the trade thing. As I said, I didn't recall trading anything. However, I HAD been pushing him around and taking his lunch money... it's Ghandi after all.

F

 

[Darth Fred]

Do cultural borders shared with a vassle work the same as with an enemy? That is, can they be "pushed back" in the same fashion?
F

 

[PieceOfMind]

Do cultural borders shared with a vassle work the same as with an enemy? That is, can they be "pushed back" in the same fashion?
F

No. The way culture clashes are handled with vassals is a special case actually. Usually with rival civs both having their culture on a tile, the civ with the most culture on the tile will own it (you can check this by hovering your mouse over the contested tile). The way culture accumulates on tiles is a little bit complicated but there is a strategy article discussing how it works.

Quoting VoiceOfUnreason:

Tile Culture (TC): The value of a civs culture in a tile. Each turn a city adds culture to the surrounding tiles inside its borders. The amount added is Cpt plus a bonus of 20 for every zone (or border pop). So tiles close to a city get a bigger bonus and also they have been accumulating the culture for a longer period. More than one city can add TC to a tile in a turn. It is TC that determines who controls a tile. To be under control the tile needs to be inside the border of at least one of the city of its civ and to have the highest TC. Another civs might have higher TC in the tile but it is not within their borders and so outside their control. Yet another civ might have borders that extend over the tile but the TC is not high enough.

from http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=286229

With vassals, you probably already realised but the master will always get to control a contested tile with his vassal if its inside the BFC of one of the master's cities. I'm pretty sure for tiles outside of the master's BFCs the normal rules apply.

 

[CivIVMonger]

Cho-ko-nus primarily. They are awesome units.

Ignoring cho-ko-nus I don't know of anyone who'd recommend using xbows as the primary attacker in a stack. However there is one cool way to use xbows which also works with longbows. I'd only reocmmend this with Protective civs by the way...

Use things like xbows or longbows only after attacking with siege units or other more powerful attackers. Drill units can be excellent defenders but under the right circumstances they can be decent (not excellent but decent) attackers. The right circumstances IMO means the defender is injured or at a huge strength disadvantage (e.g. rifles attacking longbows or worse).

With xbows in particular, the idea is that by using them to mop up defenders after siege has attacked, you can earn some nice xp (often 2 or 3 xp at good odds, unlike city raider units which'll usually get 1 or 2xp at best) and then use the units as good defenders of the newly captured city.

As with any units with first strikes, it takes some mental effort to use them correctly.

As a quick example, suppose you attack a city with about 8 defenders. After at least 2 or 3 siege units you might start sending in a couple of combat or CR promoted maces. Once you're down to 2 or 3 defenders left they might be really injured already. You might think "beauty! some more easy xp for my CR maces", but actually they'll probably only earn 1xp each and will probably not win the battles unscratched. On the other hand, use a D2 or D3 longbow or crossbow and you will probably kill the injured defender without taking a single hit, earning 2xp probably, and only having slightly lower overall survival odds than that CR mace.

To sum up, I wouldn't recommend using xbows as attackers by themselves, but complementing other attackers (especially siege units) they can be great units as they can do the attacking and defending.

Thanks. I messed up though, by "Xbows" I ment Longbows. Great advice thoguh, you do seem adamant about your Drill promotions.

 

[AndrewHk2]

Hey!

Okay, so I've dived into the game (without even spotting the tutorial, which may or may not have been a big mistake - either way, I've been following Sulla's Civ4 walkthrough)!

So far I'm kinda just ticking along, exploring various things I can research and learning how to tap the land resources. Here's a screenshot of where I'm up to, followed by a few questions:

- In my corn tile, what does the loaf of bread mean?

- Is that tile fully connected and fully utilized by my city?

- How do I use my workboat to exploit the fishing tile?

- How do I "upgrade" my workboat to a fishing boat?

- How come when I click on one of the circles in this city view, it alters the brown "growing" bar at the top?

Thank you in advance for the help!

 

[IAM]

- In my corn tile, what does the loaf of bread mean?

- Is that tile fully connected and fully utilized by my city?

- How do I use my workboat to exploit the fishing tile?

- How do I "upgrade" my workboat to a fishing boat?

- How come when I click on one of the circles in this city view, it alters the brown "growing" bar at the top?

Thank you in advance for the help!

1- loaf is 5 bread slices.

2- Yes. It has a farm and a road connected to the capitol. So you get the health benefits and if you 'work' the tile you use the food for your city. Every population point in a city allows you to work a tile.

3&4- Click on the workboat while it is over a seafood resource and click on the net. It will turn into a fishing boat and be permanently attached to that seafood resource unless it gets destroyed.

5- Every population point allows you to work one tile in the BFC (Big Fat Cross) Working tiles with more food allows you to grow faster or complete worker/settler faster.

These answers are very brief but hopefully will help get you started.

 

[CivIVMonger]

Hey!

Okay, so I've dived into the game (without even spotting the tutorial, which may or may not have been a big mistake - either way, I've been following Sulla's Civ4 walkthrough)!

So far I'm kinda just ticking along, exploring various things I can research and learning how to tap the land resources. Here's a screenshot of where I'm up to, followed by a few questions:

- In my corn tile, what does the loaf of bread mean?

- Is that tile fully connected and fully utilized by my city?

- How do I use my workboat to exploit the fishing tile?

- How do I "upgrade" my workboat to a fishing boat?

- How come when I click on one of the circles in this city view, it alters the brown "growing" bar at the top?

Thank you in advance for the help!

It would answer countless questions for you to take 30/45 mins and play the tutorial.

 

[Silv Something]

A resource or tech trade can create a 10 turn enforced peace. It just goes away after 10 turns. So if you are going to attack an opponent no trading

I don't even think it takes that long! Maybe 20 minutes, if you don't keep playing.

Unless, of course, you have BtS.

 

[CivIVMonger]

How do you post Photobucket Screenshots onto a forum game? I have an account, I really feel dumb having to ask this, but I really am clueless, I tried and failed. It will be a good help to my series and thanks in advance.

 

[Sisiutil]

How do you post Photobucket Screenshots onto a forum game? I have an account, I really feel dumb having to ask this, but I really am clueless, I tried and failed. It will be a good help to my series and thanks in advance.

1. In Photobucket, select and copy the IMG code for the image.
2. In the CFC forum, place the cursor at the point in the post where you want the image.
3. Paste (CTRL + V) the IMG code.
4. Voila!

 

[CivIVMonger]

1. In Photobucket, select and copy the IMG code for the image.
2. In the CFC forum, place the cursor at the point in the post where you want the image.
3. Paste (CTRL + V) the IMG code.
4. Voila!

Thanks.

Oops! I did the URL instead...

EDIT: Would I have to resize the

 

[3drawegroeg]

What happens if I complete the Taj Mahal while I'm in a Golden Age? Does the Taj Mahal induced golden age start after the one I'm in finishes or do I lose the benefit of the Taj Mahal?