Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[IAM]

What does mean center map? What it does? Stonehenge and calendar do it...

Shows where you are in relation to the world. If playing earth map and the map gets centered then you would see you are in Africa for instance.

 

[Dusk]

What does mean center map? What it does? Stonehenge and calendar do it...

Before Stonehenge and Calendar, the minimap is centered on your empire. When you build/discover one of them, the minimap "zooms out" and is centered on the entire map, letting you know roughly where you are in the world.

 

[Soundwαvє ▼]

Ok guys, thanks!

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Can anyone link me to good vanilla Civ 4 mods for empire management (basically just interface upgrades, without changing game mechanics itself)? And would they work with unmodded saves?

 

[r_rolo1]

You can try Ruff's Cobbled SG Modpack. It is the "father" of the BUG mod for BtS and has a lot ( obviously not all ) of the core features of BUG.

 

[frizzy]

Is there any easy way to tell which of my cities have airports?

 

[IceCreamMan]

What do the little espionage symbols that some leaders have in the list of scores mean?

 

[Dusk]

Is there any easy way to tell which of my cities have airports?

Not that I know of. I think you'd have to have some sort of mod to enable this. I believe cities in Civ II or III had a small airport symbol next to them. Not sure why this isn't available in Civ IV.

What do the little espionage symbols that some leaders have in the list of scores mean?

If the epsionage symbol is shown next to a civ, it means you currently have the higher ratio of espionage points. If the symbol isn't showing, it means he has more points towards you than you have towards him.
If this happens you should increase your espionage point generation or modify the weight accordingly to have a higher chance of catching enemy spies.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

You can try Ruff's Cobbled SG Modpack. It is the "father" of the BUG mod for BtS and has a lot ( obviously not all ) of the core features of BUG.

Perfect! Thanks a lot.

 

[IceCreamMan]

If the epsionage symbol is shown next to a civ, it means you currently have the higher ratio of espionage points. If the symbol isn't showing, it means he has more points towards you than you have towards him.
If this happens you should increase your espionage point generation or modify the weight accordingly to have a higher chance of catching enemy spies.

Ok, thanks for that. My guess was exactly the opposite

 

[22bebo]

Is there any easy way to tell which of my cities have airports?

Yeah. You have to go to the scoring screen, I believe, and then look at the last page. In the buildings list it will tell you how many you've built. To figure out which cities have them, I don't know, but that tells you how many, if you're doing it for a quest.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I think I read once that by using spy to set the city into revolt 3 times in rapid succession should help. Long time ago, back when I was noob, so I may simply have misunderstood something.

Hmm, I'm not aware of any way in which that would help. Except I guess it'd prevent the city from producing culture for 3 turns, which would slightly increase your % gain on them. But still, I wouldn't think that would be a major factor in taking the city. Maybe there's some mechanic I'm unaware of there.

Not that I know of. I think you'd have to have some sort of mod to enable this. I believe cities in Civ II or III had a small airport symbol next to them. Not sure why this isn't available in Civ IV.

Yeah, I always wondered why they didn't include that. The airport symbol in particular was useful for seeing at a glance where you could airlift and where you couldn't, for one thing.

Ok, thanks for that. My guess was exactly the opposite

Yeah, mine was too when I first started playing BTS.

 

[Sisiutil]

Is there any easy way to tell which of my cities have airports?

The BUG mod with BULL installed along with it will provide you with an option to display a little plane icon as part of the city bar in map view. Very handy if you're doing a lot of airlifts.

 

[Yxklyx]

The BUG mod with BULL installed along with it will provide you with an option to display a little plane icon as part of the city bar in map view. Very handy if you're doing a lot of airlifts.

I suppose you could also rename the city when the airport is built, like put an asterisk after the name.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I suppose you could also rename the city when the airport is built, like put an asterisk after the name.

True, but that's extra effort and micromanagement. It's something the game should really take care of for you.

 

[IAM]

I suppose you could also rename the city when the airport is built, like put an asterisk after the name.

I like that idea. Not just for airports but to rename cities based on hammers. buildings, science basically any information that you deem important. Three or for items could be added to the name with just a few symbols or numbers.

 

[Dusk]

If you're using city specialization, I think many people rename their cities. Hammerville and Goldtown springs to mind

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

What would be the most important concerns for an intercontinental invasion of another continent whose ultimate goal is a conquest victory? I'm alone to develop on my own continent(decent number of prod cities, lots of cottage cities), and I'd like to keep important considerations in mind before I make contact and eventually wipe out the other nations. Things like how many ships to build, diplomatic moves, etc.

 

[r_rolo1]

That is extremely situation dependent. You will need far less ships if you can use a AI territory in the other side to organize things. Railroads in the other side also make things more dificult ( altough if you can use planes, missiles or gunship teams to cut the lines before the disembark, things become less hard OFC ). The diplo situation makes it all diferent as well: if you are facing a AI that is warring other AI, you need far less troops in the initial assault than if the civ has never had been in a war and has a unspent SoD ...

Basically the thing revolves around one thing: your first wave should be enough to survive the expected AI 1st response for enough time for you to bring reinforcements. The rest is map dependent...

P.S if you really have a enourmous dif to the enemy civ , you can simply nuke them atleast 4 times and demand vassaling ( this if you can acept vassals obviously ). It is far less cost intensive

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Expected AI response. So plenty of garrison troops then. I guess I'll ask questions when I know more. Probably too early to be planning everything.