Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Bloodstone]

Quick help please.
Can someone clarify for me what "Oracle->Metal Casting slingshot" means or does, or the relative theory behind it?

I've looked through my beginners guide (Thanks Sisiutil!) and can't seem to find anything about what a "slingshot" would be. Thanks

 

[Ghpstage]

Quick help please.
Can someone clarify for me what "Oracle->Metal Casting slingshot" means or does, or the relative theory behind it?

I've looked through my beginners guide (Thanks Sisiutil!) and can't seem to find anything about what a "slingshot" would be. Thanks

The term 'slingshot' generally refers to picking up a relatively expensive or particularly useful tech early by means of "beelining" (researching straight at it), bulbing (great people ability) or the free tech bonuses from Oracle or Liberalism. Or a mix of those.

In this case it simply means building the Oracle and picking Metal Casting as your free tech. Its not a bad tech to get, its a very expensve for the period so it saves a lot of , gives access to Forges which are a very good building and the Colossus is a nice wonder to get if you have Copper and quite a lot of coast tiles.
Monarchy or Code of Laws, while considerably less costly are two very good alternatives to Metal Casting to get from the Oracle, that don't require a lot of luck or planning to get.

 

[Gwynnja]

I'm winding down a game where I'm trying to win by domination but one of my opponents is attempting cultural. If I capture his culture cities, vassalize him and gift them back, will he keep all his culture and culture producing buildings?

 

[Ansive]

When you capture a city all culture producing building are destroyed (except wonders).
So if you gift him the city back he will still have the same culture value, the wonders will generate again but he will have to rebuild all his temples, cathedrals, libraries, universities, theaters etc.

While it might slow him down, it might not be enough. Though, all the new buildings will not have the double culture of 1000 years.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Thanks for the quick replies, Frost and bernbaum!


How do you chain irrigation, exactly? I have seen reference to this, but I used to always automate my workers, so I don't know if there's an "irrigation" improvement, or if I build a lot of farms in a row, or what.

Frost and Ansive covered this well. I just want to add that you can't build an irrigation chain across tundra (unless the tile is on a river or lake), desert (except flood plains), or snow/ice tiles.

 

[jaytea1946]

I am creating warriors, workers and improving tiles. I do NOT understand what to research and why I'm researching and what impact what I choose has as the game moves forward. How do I gain points, how do I get gold, and how do I speak to other civs that introduce themselves. Thanks

 

[Samson]

I am creating warriors, workers and improving tiles. I do NOT understand what to research and why I'm researching and what impact what I choose has as the game moves forward. How do I gain points, how do I get gold, and how do I speak to other civs that introduce themselves. Thanks

Well, one good reason in the eary game to reaserch is to get to a milatry tech like bronze working or archery. Then instead of building warriors you can build archers or axemen (if you can find copper). These are much better than warriors so you do not need as many, and can build better things. As you get more techs you get better units, more buildings and generally move from a stone age to a modern society.

One of the first things you should be building is settlers. You want to expand to a few cities when you can. Then you need gold to pay for them.

To get gold you probably need to work cottages. You can get it from gold mines etc. but to start with try cottages.

You can get to other civs from the forgen advisor, f4.

Oh, And welcome to civ fanatics:

 

[bestbrian]

I am creating warriors, workers and improving tiles. I do NOT understand what to research and why I'm researching and what impact what I choose has as the game moves forward. How do I gain points, how do I get gold, and how do I speak to other civs that introduce themselves. Thanks

Welcome to the addiction.

Read this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632

 

[AdMech]

Thanks, Frost + Ansive + bernbaum.

Another noob question: What exactly does a granary do? I know it stores food, but I'm not sure what this means in game terms, other than somehow (how?!) helping my city grow. Does it add an extra breadslice er summat?

I also notice that a couple of my cities seem to require on the order of seven+ farms to reach 20 pop (that is, to be producing 40 food). This seems like entirely too many to me. Will this situation ever happen*, or is it a sign the city is just plain worthless? Maybe I would be better served by aiming for a lower population for these cities?

*Ever happen not by mistake, that is. I did count up the food before founding the city, but I decided it was worth it due to bonus resources and so forth. Now I'm not so sure.

 

[bestbrian]

Thanks, Frost + Ansive + bernbaum.

Another noob question: What exactly does a granary do? I know it stores food, but I'm not sure what this means in game terms, other than somehow (how?!) helping my city grow. Does it add an extra breadslice er summat?

I also notice that a couple of my cities seem to require on the order of seven+ farms to reach 20 pop (that is, to be producing 40 food). This seems like entirely too many to me. Will this ever happen, or is it a sign the city is just plain worthless? Maybe I would be better served by aiming for a lower population for these cities?

When your population grows 100% of the food required is depleted, and the counter begins back at 0. With a Granary, the counter returns to 50% (essentially, doubling growth rates). Additionally, Granaries add health, and, if playing as Inca, culture.

The amount of food required by a city depends on the available food resources, hammer sources, and its purpose (what do you want the city to do?).

Sistuil's Beginner's Guide is a good place to start; you can find it in the War Academy.

 

[AdMech]

When your population grows 100% of the food required is depleted, and the counter begins back at 0. With a Granary, the counter returns to 50% (essentially, doubling growth rates). Additionally, Granaries add health, and, if playing as Inca, culture.

The amount of food required by a city depends on the available food resources, hammer sources, and its purpose (what do you want the city to do?).

Thanks; it makes sense now.

Re: food, that makes sense too, but it just seems to me like that many farms is a waste somehow and shouldn't be done. Maybe not!

Sistuil's Beginner's Guide is a good place to start; you can find it in the War Academy.

You also linked to it in your post above mine!

 

[Bloodstone]

Sisuitil's guide is an invaluable resource. In fact the War Academy section has an immense collection of articles that are geared towards helpful strategies. Another big help is to spend a good amount of time with the in game Civilopedia which will help you understand alot of the game mechanics.

 

[AdMech]

Two final questions (for now!):

1.) How does a city's population affect that city's commerce/hammers, if at all? Beyond being able to work extra tiles, that is.

2.) When you trade a resource, do you lose access to it?

Sisuitil's guide is an invaluable resource. In fact the War Academy section has an immense collection of articles that are geared towards helpful strategies. Another big help is to spend a good amount of time with the in game Civilopedia which will help you understand alot of the game mechanics.

Yep; I've read every non-PDF file I can get my hands on. (I don't like PDFs because I'm lazy, but I finally bit the bullet and downloaded Sisuitil's. ) Just so y'all know I'm not relying on you for everything... The problem has now become just remembering and keeping all this stuff in mind. I'll read a whipping guide, then whip efficiently but forget to specialize my cities... d'oh!

I haven't really looked at the Civilopedia much, possibly because I found CivFanatics too quickly , but I'll check it out.

 

[Ansive]

The game might be confusing at first, it took me about 2 games after moving from Civ 3 to grasp how the basics of Civ 4 work, especially how to generate commerce and understand civics. (and that's vanilla, I wouldn't recommend jumping straight to Beyond the Sword)

1. You only generate as much commerce and hammers as the tiles you work produce. Of course population can be taken off the land and turned into specialists which generate more hammers or gold or research.
While the population size does not affect the bonus of a corporation, it does however increase the maintenance cost, a lot!

Population also influences a city's trade route yield.

Spoiler :

5% bonus for every population after 10. (it adds up with harbor 50%, customs house 100%, temple of artemis 100%, duration of peace between the civs 3% per turn up to 150%, connection to the capital 25%, oversea trade 100%). All these add up and modify the base trade route yield (which is usually the foreign city's population divided by 10)... in the late game coastal cities can generate over 40 commerce just from trade routes...

2. If it is your only source, the yes, you lose the bonus health, happiness or access to enabled units/buildings. The tile bonus still works for the city working it though.

The more you play the game the better you get at it, as you understand more and more mechanics.

 

[bestbrian]

Two final questions (for now!):

1.) How does a city's population affect that city's commerce/hammers, if at all? Beyond being able to work extra tiles, that is.

2.) When you trade a resource, do you lose access to it?


Yep; I've read every non-PDF file I can get my hands on. (I don't like PDFs because I'm lazy, but I finally bit the bullet and downloaded Sisuitil's. ) Just so y'all know I'm not relying on you for everything... The problem has now become just remembering and keeping all this stuff in mind. I'll read a whipping guide, then whip efficiently but forget to specialize my cities... d'oh!

I haven't really looked at the Civilopedia much, possibly because I found CivFanatics too quickly , but I'll check it out.

Take a look in the Strategy Forum. There are A LOT of walk-through games; they can be pretty invaluable. Oh, and I disagree with the guy above: jump right in and play BTS, and forget Vanilla and Warlords. It's the game you're going to be playing, and it's the one most refined mods are based on, so it's the one you've gotta learn.

Happy Civing.

 

[Morganknight]

If I am installing Civ IV, the complete edition, do I still need to run the BTS patch?

 

[Arakhor]

If you want BTS v3.19, yes, I believe so.

 

[bestbrian]

If you want BTS v3.19, yes, I believe so.

No, I don't believe he does. If you have the version that allows you to play without having the disc in drive, then you're already at 3.19.

 

[Ataxerxes]

I am creating warriors, workers and improving tiles. I do NOT understand what to research and why I'm researching and what impact what I choose has as the game moves forward. How do I gain points, how do I get gold, and how do I speak to other civs that introduce themselves. Thanks

Welcome to the forums!

Definitely read Sisiutil's Guide.

You gain points by building wonders, gaining population, land area, technologies. That said, don't worry about points very much.

You get gold in a variety of ways - goodie huts often give gold, running the slider at less than 100% (a lot of newer players try to run 100% all the time, not always a good idea), having a Shrine, etc.

The Civilopedia and the single page guide you got with the game show what the various techs do. I wouldn't research Archery very fast, but Bronzer Working is very important. You want to research techs for your workers to improve tiles early and Alphabet lets you trade techs with other leaders.

If you have the listing of Civs at the lower right of your screen, click on the Leader/Civ to speak to them.

It takes a couple of games to learn, don't worry. It's a very complex game, which is a large part of the appeal. If you use the custom game screen, you can turn off a lot of items to concentrate on learning the basics. You might even try Always Peace - once.

 

[Bloodstone]

If I am installing Civ IV, the complete edition, do I still need to run the BTS patch?

Start a game of BtS and check the version. There is an option in the main menu that will tell you which version you have.

The digital download of CivIV complete included the 3.19 patch, where as some of the Boxed versions of Complete went out with the 3.13 patch. You will definitely want to make sure your running the 3.19 version as it is the most current and fixes most of the Bugs.