Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

If you cap a civilization with vassals, do their vassals go independent or do they become your vassals?
I ask because I've noticed the option for vassal state is available (but red; "we're doing fine on our own") to me for a civ with 2 vassals, and just wish to know what would happen in advance.

They go independent.
 
In my current game, I have enough espionage points to Steal Technology from several of my neighbor's cities. So, I sent a spy to one of them to do so. When the spy got there the Steal Technology option was not available, even though the Espionage Screen still listed it at the same number of points as before, for that city. Is this espionage mission only available to a Great Spy? If so, which other ones are only available to a Great Spy? If not, can anyone suggest why I can't do that mission?
 
I understand any spy can steal.

Perhaps the AI didn't have any technologies that you didn't already have?

Yes, any spy can steal technology after it has been idle in a foreign city at least one turn, and you have enough espionage points required against that civ. You can only steal technologies that they have and you lack. Furthermore, you cannot steal a technology that you do not have the pre-requisites for, either (but you should be able to steal the pre-requisite).

Note, different technologies cost different amounts of spy points. So if they have Theology available, it will look cheap to steal tech from them, but something like Robotics will cost a lot more. If you just traded for Theo, the ESP page might not be updated to reflect the cost for the more expensive techs that would now be the only ones available to you.

Also, make sure you highlight the correct leader on the espionage advisor page before concluding that you actually have enough esp points against that civ to steal a tech.
 
Newb thread? Perfect, I'm just practicing using spoiler tags and images here.

Spoiler :
Pretending this is the secret image I would like to share...

prvv.jpg


E: Oh... how do you post your images, appearing as images, not links? (No, I'm not blonde. Stop laughing!)
E: I could SWEAR, I used this also before! :/ Thanks :)
 
Do it is possible to completely remove other nation only by using culture expansion?

Yes it is!

It is very difficult however. I culture conquered the capital of a weak vassal of mine. Just remember that their capital has the palace in it, which generates a lot of culture that you can do nothing about. If you build wonders near it, and use spies to spread your culture to his, you can kill off an opponent with just culture.
 
Do it is possible to completely remove other nation only by using culture expansion?
There was a challenge thread somewhere that was something like Tiny Pangaea / Settler / 18 civs / No War with the only victory condition being conquest. So you had to use cultural takeovers to get all of your cities. Even given the Settler difficulty and the smashed-together cities people had trouble.
 
I'm playng on huge map with two continents (6 (with me) civilizations in my continent and 4 in other). I just win it on noble. I have conquered 5 my neighbours cities (different civilizations) by using culture.
 
Yes, any spy can steal technology after it has been idle in a foreign city at least one turn, and you have enough espionage points required against that civ. You can only steal technologies that they have and you lack. Furthermore, you cannot steal a technology that you do not have the pre-requisites for, either (but you should be able to steal the pre-requisite).

Note, different technologies cost different amounts of spy points. So if they have Theology available, it will look cheap to steal tech from them, but something like Robotics will cost a lot more. If you just traded for Theo, the ESP page might not be updated to reflect the cost for the more expensive techs that would now be the only ones available to you.

Also, make sure you highlight the correct leader on the espionage advisor page before concluding that you actually have enough esp points against that civ to steal a tech.

I know it was the right leader/civ because I looked at several cities in the espionage screen before picking the cheapest one. The only tech he had that I did not have was flight, which I had been able to research for a long time but was pursuing other goals. My spy waited the required turn before trying the mission. Others were available but not steal technology. Eventually, I just researched it myself but since this was the first time I had tried to do that espionage mission, I thought that perhaps I was misunderstanding something. It remains a mystery.
 
I don't understand the resources box in the city screen. What's the significance of the three different columns? How can I tell which resources the city has access to?
When expanding a Corporation into a city, can the Corp use resources the city has by trade as well as those in its own area? How can you tell which is which from the City screen?
Is it possible for a city to access resources from outside its cultural boundaries? I keep getting recommendations to build Work Boats in cities without unused fish resources and when I put them on Auto, they just zoom off somewhere, and I only see them again if they're wrecked by enemies. What's going on?
 
I know it was the right leader/civ because I looked at several cities in the espionage screen before picking the cheapest one. The only tech he had that I did not have was flight, which I had been able to research for a long time but was pursuing other goals. My spy waited the required turn before trying the mission. Others were available but not steal technology. Eventually, I just researched it myself but since this was the first time I had tried to do that espionage mission, I thought that perhaps I was misunderstanding something. It remains a mystery.

Very odd. Maybe the AI had just conducted a counter-espionage mission against you and the esp screen only shows the normal cost, not the +100% cost? Did you wait 5 turns to get the maximum discount (50%) and still not have the option to steal tech? But is sounds like a glitch.
 
I don't understand the resources box in the city screen. What's the significance of the three different columns? How can I tell which resources the city has access to?
When expanding a Corporation into a city, can the Corp use resources the city has by trade as well as those in its own area? How can you tell which is which from the City screen?
Is it possible for a city to access resources from outside its cultural boundaries? I keep getting recommendations to build Work Boats in cities without unused fish resources and when I put them on Auto, they just zoom off somewhere, and I only see them again if they're wrecked by enemies. What's going on?

1) I don't reeally pay much attention to the resource box. If your city is connected to the capitol (by roads (wheel), rivers(fishing), coast(sailing), ocean(astronomy), or airports(flight) -- each requiring a tech to unlock) it has access to all the resources in your civ. If not, it only has the resources that it is connected to.
2) Yes. You don't need to tell the difference because there is no difference. The Corp advisor can help you decide which cities will get which benefits and at which cost.
3) No, except by trading for it from someone who has it. It CAN be outside the big fat cross of 21 squares that a city can use in the city screen, but it needs to be inside your colored cultural borders to be connected. Work boats are often used as the earliest coastal explorers. If there is no seafood it can connect, the auto function will put it on "explore" mode. Note, if you have unconnected seafood in another city, the workboat should head there. (It is often best to build the wb in a city that can build it efficiently rather than in the new city next to the fish).

I'm sure there are better answers to your question... but I hope this gets you started.
 
Hi there,

I have a problem that might be well known but didn't managed to find it anywhere (and to say all, i didn't look for it very much)

I have changed my PC and switched to Windows 7. Everything was fine installing Civ4 vanilla, but when i tried to play online, entering my nickname and my password, it just did nothing... so here is my question:

Is there anything specific one have to do in Windows 7 in order to play games online? (Note that when installing Civ4, it prompted me as if i wanted to add Civilization 4 to the Windows firewall exception list. Of course i said yes. When i checked for it, i saw it was an exception only for home use, not public. Is there any link with that? I tried to put it on public but Windows didn't allow me to do that (grey options and grey "ok" boxes))

If no, what is my problem?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi there,

I have a problem that might be well known but didn't managed to find it anywhere (and to say all, i didn't look for it very much)

That's fine... its what this thread is for, really.


I have changed my PC and switched to Windows 7. Everything was fine installing Civ4 vanilla, but when i tried to play online, entering my nickname and my password, it just did nothing... so here is my question:

Is there anything specific one have to do in Windows 7 in order to play games online? (Note that when installing Civ4, it prompted me as if i wanted to add Civilization 4 to the Windows firewall exception list. Of course i said yes. When i checked for it, i saw it was an exception only for home use, not public. Is there any link with that? I tried to put it on public but Windows didn't allow me to do that (grey options and grey "ok" boxes))

If no, what is my problem?

Thanks in advance.

I am no expert on Windows 7 (I'm still using XP). However, I have seen others on the forum with similar issues, and the answer usually is something like "You need to install Civ4 on a user account that has administrator priveleges, and grant the game administrator access" or some such. Then those boxes are not greyed out, from what I understand.

I suggest you do a search of the forum if you need more specific instructions how to do that, unless someone else can point you to the right answer. You could start here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=341244
 
What happens if your opponent builds the taj mahal and you capture it during the golden age?
 
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