Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Blizz]

Is it possible to beat the game (on any difficulty) without chopping down forests?

 

[karadoc]

Is it possible to beat the game (on any difficulty) without chopping down forests?

I don't see why not, except that it would make it more difficult. Many of the calender resources usually come with forest or jungle on them, so you'd probably miss out on using any of those unless you build a city right on top of them. There would also be many situations where the forest would get in the way of you building a more useful tile improvement, like a farm, mine, or cottage. So it's likely that you'd be working sub-par tiles for the whole game. But all that said, there's no special rule that says "you must chop at least one forest to win". On the lower difficulties I think it could probably be done easily - by conquering other civs that have already gotten their forests out of the way.

 

[Silu]

Is it possible to beat the game (on any difficulty) without chopping down forests?

That's a common challenge variant. Depending on the map, I'd say it makes things ~1-3 difficulty levels harder. Still doable on Immortal with some map luck. Not sure about deity

 

[Blizz]

Thanks guys and one more question: How big can a single city's cultural boarders get?

 

[Nemesis77]

I'm not sure that has this question been asked/answered already, but anyway....

I'm currently downloading Civ4: Complete from Steam. Now, how do those expansions actually work? I mean, will there be one Civ4-game that contains all the cumulative improvements the expansions introduced, or do I have to specificly play (for example) Civ4: Warlords in order to have the improvements introduced by Warlords? If that is the way it works, then how could I have a game that contains all the improvements introduced by the expansions (Warlords + Beyond the Sword)?

 

[karadoc]

The expansions are each run separately. However, Beyond the Sword has all of the gameplay features of Warlords plus more, so it's more or less the definitive expansion. The only reasons I can think of for playing Warlords instead of BTS are that maybe you don't like some of the features in BTS, or you want to play a special Warlords scenario.

 

[Silu]

Thanks guys and one more question: How big can a single city's cultural boarders get?

City borders can pop 5 times (the threshold for the last pop being very high as it's the "Legendary" status needed for culture victories), so with the initial ring they can stretch 6 tiles in a 3-tile wide frontier to each cardinal direction. For the diagonals the borders are approximately circle-shaped - I can never remember exactly how the later pops work in these areas but I would guess there're pretty pictures of that in these forums somewhere

 

[Silv Something]

The description doesn't mention anything about rising sea levels. Also, it says that the patch makes global warming "less likely, less severe, and easier to counter", so I very much doubt that they'd even consider allowing rising sea levels to engulf a whole city.

Actually, I wasn't entirely serious when I said I wanted a mod that does that anyway. I do think it could be interesting, but I don't think it would be a good gameplay feature to have the possibility of randomly losing a city. I think global warming as it is in the game now is fair enough. A handful of tiles turning to desert by 2000 seems reasonably realistic, and not game breaking.

If you look at the 2 images one of them shows how the terrain changes. It says "rising seas optional".

I contacted Minor Annoyance, the maker of the mod, and he said that cities and forts will not be swallowed up by the seas. Wonder what the map would be like with only cities, forts and desert hills.

 

[CivIVMonger]

I am playing a Deity Earth 1000AD scenario and I am doing suprizingly well. It is 1620 and I am not behind in tech beyond maybe astronomy. I am being the Holy Roman Empire and conquered the Vikings and managed to out-culture the french enough to where there cities are quite small, while mine are thriving. I just got Rifling and I *do not* want to trade that to the AI. I have Nationalism too, teching through Chemistry and then Steel with good n'uff speed to be done before 1700. Now, here is my question:

France has a large collection of antique units like Longbows and Pikemen. However, he has other units like Cuirassiers and Musketeers. There are a total of about 25 mixes of these units stationed in his three mainland cities. I have alot of and pop. Could I just draft an insane amount of Rifles and build like Cats or something to get the defence down? or should I do a waiting game and risk my conquest al together and wait for a more assured Steel? This is difficult judging by the fact that it is Deity... Help?

Also
I might even post a "Help a Monarch trying Deity" thread but the advice here would also be appreciated. Thank you,

CivIVMonger

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Is there a way to tell if you're able to have trade routes with another civ before granting open borders?

I know the symbol in the scoreboard indicates whether or not your capitals are connected for purposes of trading resources etc., but this does not always mean you'll be able to establish trade routes with them. One such example if when you do not have sailing, but your trade buddy does. The symbol will show, you'll be able to trade resources, but you will NOT be able to benefit from trade routes, while your sailing ally will be. This is assuming there's no land connections.

Speaking of land connections, can you establish trade routes through another civ? Do you need open borders with the "civ in the middle"? If not, I imagine going to war stops trade through their lands.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thanks guys and one more question: How big can a single city's cultural boarders get?

City borders can pop 5 times (the threshold for the last pop being very high as it's the "Legendary" status needed for culture victories), so with the initial ring they can stretch 6 tiles in a 3-tile wide frontier to each cardinal direction. For the diagonals the borders are approximately circle-shaped - I can never remember exactly how the later pops work in these areas but I would guess there're pretty pictures of that in these forums somewhere

A diagonal tile is counted as 1.5 orthogonal tile rounded down. This means that a single diagonal movement counts as distance 1 while 2 diagonal movements count as distance 3. Using this measurement method, you can easily predict which tiles will be covered by a cities culture when its borders expand.

An additional limitation exists that limits the culture borders to distance 2 out into the coast/ocean.

I am playing a Deity Earth 1000AD scenario and I am doing suprizingly well. It is 1620 and I am not behind in tech beyond maybe astronomy. I am being the Holy Roman Empire and conquered the Vikings and managed to out-culture the french enough to where there cities are quite small, while mine are thriving. I just got Rifling and I *do not* want to trade that to the AI. I have Nationalism too, teching through Chemistry and then Steel with good n'uff speed to be done before 1700. Now, here is my question:

France has a large collection of antique units like Longbows and Pikemen. However, he has other units like Cuirassiers and Musketeers. There are a total of about 25 mixes of these units stationed in his three mainland cities. I have alot of and pop. Could I just draft an insane amount of Rifles and build like Cats or something to get the defence down? or should I do a waiting game and risk my conquest al together and wait for a more assured Steel? This is difficult judging by the fact that it is Deity... Help?

Also
I might even post a "Help a Monarch trying Deity" thread but the advice here would also be appreciated. Thank you,

CivIVMonger

Something that removes the city defence bonus plus riflemen will easily beat defending longbowmen and musketmen and cuirassiers will seldom win against riflemen. However, when your potential enemy is close to researching riflemen through research or trading with a third party, then your riflemen won't do and you would like to have a good collateral damage method like cannons. The enemy will instantly upgrade all its defenders to riflemen at deity level.

Of course, it's still possible to win with catapults/trebuchets + riflemen against defending riflemen, but its a far more fair battle meaning that you will have higher losses and will lose many catapults/trebuchets in order to inflict collateral damage on the rifleman defenders.

Riflemen are ideal units to be drafted due to their single pop cost and high production value. As long as they face inferior units, drafting is a very effective way to dominate the battlefield in this era.

Note that if the enemy is numerically superior to a large extent, then they can still inflict damage upon you. Especially if they have many collateral damage inflicting units plus cuirassiers. Enough drafted riflemen and luring the enemy SOD into your territory to defeat it can however nullify that risk.

Is there a way to tell if you're able to have trade routes with another civ before granting open borders?

I know the symbol in the scoreboard indicates whether or not your capitals are connected for purposes of trading resources etc., but this does not always mean you'll be able to establish trade routes with them. One such example if when you do not have sailing, but your trade buddy does. The symbol will show, you'll be able to trade resources, but you will NOT be able to benefit from trade routes, while your sailing ally will be. This is assuming there's no land connections.

Speaking of land connections, can you establish trade routes through another civ? Do you need open borders with the "civ in the middle"? If not, I imagine going to war stops trade through their lands.

You can predict a lot about the availability of trade routes by reading and understanding this post, which explains the notion of a 'home plotgroup'. However, you don't have full information about the availability of trade routes between other civilisations and thus can't predict everything.

If you have read the linked post, then you'll understand that it not only depends on your 'home plotgroup' but also the connection of other civilisations 'home plotgroups'.

 

[Leo_The_Lip]

I bought Civ 4 last week and have been playing the tutorial to get familiar with the new rules (I last played Civ 3 some three years ago). There's no mention of roads in the Civilopedia, so I don't know exactly what they do now that don't automatically generate commerce in the tile.

Other than movement, it seems roads are needed to activate resources. Is there any reason to put roads in every tile as in the older versions?

 

[Googlie_Mooglie]

1) Is there any way to stop the computer from assigning my citizens to certain specialties or to back off entirely? It is pretty annoying to be trying to pop a great prophet and I pop a golden age (also known as a great spy) because one of my cities has moved population into great spy points.

2) My friend and I play pretty regularily and we always use the same parameters (size, speed, victory conditions, etc). However, there are certain leaders that we don't like playing against. I wanted to know if there was a way to make an initialization file for CIV IV BTS so that CIV starts a game based on the parameters in the file and I don't have to spend the time choosing leaders for each game. Currently we randomly choose leaders from the list of leaders we like and then entering them into the game. I would like to write some code that would set up this "initialization file" and then launch the game from that.

Thanks in advance,

The Great Googlie Mooglie

 

[realott]

Hey!
I just started playing Giant Earth Map (latest version) with Bts but i cant see the action menu down the screen (the menu with pictures like "build a city", "automate the worker", the map, and so on.
Can I have it back from options? Anyone can help please?
Thank you!

 

[Baldyr]

Other than movement, it seems roads are needed to activate resources. Is there any reason to put roads in every tile as in the older versions?

No need to build roads all over the place. Rivers have that function now (+1 ) and they both count as trade routes. A special resource has to be connected to your capital via your "trade network" (consisting of roads and rivers) for it to benefit you.

Also, the game assigns automatic trade routes (see post above) to cities connected by their trade networks. (These extend over ocean tiles according to your technology.) These are vital for you economy as they generate base , but they require an Open Borders agreement.

The way to increase yield for a tile in Civ4 is to build a Cottage instead. This is the most powerful improvement an it will eventually grow (if worked) into a Town.

edit: Also, Railroads only have an effect (+1 ) on improvements like Mine, Quarry, Workshop and Lumbermill (maybe Well). No need to blanket the whole map.

 

[CivIVMonger]

A diagonal tile is counted as 1.5 orthogonal tile rounded down. This means that a single diagonal movement counts as distance 1 while 2 diagonal movements count as distance 3. Using this measurement method, you can easily predict which tiles will be covered by a cities culture when its borders expand.

An additional limitation exists that limits the culture borders to distance 2 out into the coast/ocean.



Something that removes the city defence bonus plus riflemen will easily beat defending longbowmen and musketmen and cuirassiers will seldom win against riflemen. However, when your potential enemy is close to researching riflemen through research or trading with a third party, then your riflemen won't do and you would like to have a good collateral damage method like cannons. The enemy will instantly upgrade all its defenders to riflemen at deity level.

Of course, it's still possible to win with catapults/trebuchets + riflemen against defending riflemen, but its a far more fair battle meaning that you will have higher losses and will lose many catapults/trebuchets in order to inflict collateral damage on the rifleman defenders.

Riflemen are ideal units to be drafted due to their single pop cost and high production value. As long as they face inferior units, drafting is a very effective way to dominate the battlefield in this era.

Note that if the enemy is numerically superior to a large extent, then they can still inflict damage upon you. Especially if they have many collateral damage inflicting units plus cuirassiers. Enough drafted riflemen and luring the enemy SOD into your territory to defeat it can however nullify that risk.



You can predict a lot about the availability of trade routes by reading and understanding this post, which explains the notion of a 'home plotgroup'. However, you don't have full information about the availability of trade routes between other civilisations and thus can't predict everything.

If you have read the linked post, then you'll understand that it not only depends on your 'home plotgroup' but also the connection of other civilisations 'home plotgroups'.

Thank you RJ. Should I build the cheap cats/trebs first before I draft like crazy so that I can afford better production (even though they are cheap)?

 

[s.bernbaum]

No need to build roads all over the place. Rivers have that function now (+1 ) and they both count as trade routes. A special resource has to be connected to your capital via your "trade network" (consisting of roads and rivers) for it to benefit you.

Also, the game assigns automatic trade routes (see post above) to cities connected by their trade networks. (These extend over ocean tiles according to your technology.) These are vital for you economy as they generate base , but they require an Open Borders agreement.

The way to increase yield for a tile in Civ4 is to build a Cottage instead. This is the most powerful improvement an it will eventually grow (if worked) into a Town.

I agree but want to add that when your workers have nothing more productive to do, have them build roads everywhere that you may want to move troops, especially near your borders. This will give you a tactical advantage if (or more likely when, if you are not an aggressive invader yourself) you get invaded.

 

[s.bernbaum]

1) Is there any way to stop the computer from assigning my citizens to certain specialties or to back off entirely? It is pretty annoying to be trying to pop a great prophet and I pop a golden age (also known as a great spy) because one of my cities has moved population into great spy points.

In the city screen there are several buttons in the lower right corner. Two of them are a person's head and a computer screen. These are the governor. One of them automates production and the other one automates citizen selection (which means specialists). Mouse over them to see which is which. If they are on they have yellow borders. Also the mouse over will include a message to click the button to turn it on or off, depending on the current status. Turning this off will make it so no specialists are selected if tiles can be worked instead. If specialists must be selected, they will be whatever you last chose, if any more of those are available. The governor will not change any of your choices with this off.

 

[Roland Johansen]

1) Is there any way to stop the computer from assigning my citizens to certain specialties or to back off entirely? It is pretty annoying to be trying to pop a great prophet and I pop a golden age (also known as a great spy) because one of my cities has moved population into great spy points.

2) My friend and I play pretty regularily and we always use the same parameters (size, speed, victory conditions, etc). However, there are certain leaders that we don't like playing against. I wanted to know if there was a way to make an initialization file for CIV IV BTS so that CIV starts a game based on the parameters in the file and I don't have to spend the time choosing leaders for each game. Currently we randomly choose leaders from the list of leaders we like and then entering them into the game. I would like to write some code that would set up this "initialization file" and then launch the game from that.

Thanks in advance,

The Great Googlie Mooglie

In the city screen there are several buttons in the lower right corner. Two of them are a person's head and a computer screen. These are the governor. One of them automates production and the other one automates citizen selection (which means specialists). Mouse over them to see which is which. If they are on they have yellow borders. Also the mouse over will include a message to click the button to turn it on or off, depending on the current status. Turning this off will make it so no specialists are selected if tiles can be worked instead. If specialists must be selected, they will be whatever you last chose, if any more of those are available. The governor will not change any of your choices with this off.

s.bernbaum is right that an active governor will mess with your specialist settings. However, it isn't true that an inactive governor will never ever mess with your specialist settings. When a city grows or when an enemy military unit moves onto one of your active tiles, then a new use has to be chosen for the citizen. And when the available tiles are poor, it might choose a specialist.

The BUG mod can help a bit with this as you can choose the options of this mod in such a way that you'll get a warning when a city grows. The BUG mod is a mod that doesn't change gameplay rules but adds a lot of helpful stuff to the game interface. It has been integrated in many other mods.

And of course, welcome to civfanatics Googlie_Mooglie!

Thank you RJ. Should I build the cheap cats/trebs first before I draft like crazy so that I can afford better production (even though they are cheap)?

Seems sensible to do that.

You could also count how long it will take for the cities to recover from a draft and just slowly draft without emptying your cities or accumulating unhappiness while you build the trebuchets. When you've finished the trebuchets, you can finish with some quick drafting just before the war.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

You can predict a lot about the availability of trade routes by reading and understanding this post, which explains the notion of a 'home plotgroup'. However, you don't have full information about the availability of trade routes between other civilisations and thus can't predict everything.

If you have read the linked post, then you'll understand that it not only depends on your 'home plotgroup' but also the connection of other civilisations 'home plotgroups'.

Thanks Roland. I suppose it's difficult because I have to predict what the other civs home plotgroup looks like. I never made any use out of the trade groups display in the world view. What's the difference between dark grey and light grey?