Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[bestbrian]

Remember that nothing upgrades to muskets. You need to tech rifling or military science (for grenadiers, or chemistry if not playing BtS).

And even then, you're probably better off using binary research for upgrades, anyway.

 

[doug_fir]

I'm not sure what you mean by "research sound effects". Do you mean the quotations that get read aloud every time a technology is researched in the game?

I believe so.

 

[Bloodstone]

And even then, you're probably better off using binary research for upgrades, anyway.

My bad, I was using "Gunpowder" in the generic sense just refering to when I would be upgrading a lot of units, should have probably said milt. science, or rifling. That said, I hadn't thought of the Binary research angle, so I will have to check it out, thanks for the tip. This is only my 3rd BtS game, so I'm still getting my head around some of the differences from Vanilla/Warlords.

 

[Sisiutil]

I believe so.

The .MP3 files containing the technology quotations are found in C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds\Tech (the original vanilla Civ IV Leonard Nimoy quotations) and in C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets\Sounds\Tech (the Sid Meier quotations for the techs added in BtS).

I do not feel comfortable posting any of those .MP3 files here because I'm not sure if that would be a violation of copyright or not. If you want some examples I would suggest that you buy the game--it's not that expensive now that its successor has been released.

 

[doug_fir]

Thanks so much. I'll head out and see if I can find a used copy of Civ4 somewhere.

 

[Bloodstone]

Silly question of the week. I've seen this statement before but never thought to much of it:

"+100% Great General emergence within cultural borders"

This of course is one of the benefits of building the Great Wall, and I'm a little confused or just dumb. You get a GG when you have enough XP, where else would he emerge? Or is it supposed to be a round about way of saying that you'll get double GG points for kills within your cultural borders?

 

[bestbrian]

Silly question of the week. I've seen this statement before but never thought to much of it:

"+100% Great General emergence within cultural borders"

This of course is one of the benefits of building the Great Wall, and I'm a little confused or just dumb. You get a GG when you have enough XP, where else would he emerge? Or is it supposed to be a round about way of saying that you'll get double GG points for kills within your cultural borders?

You're last sentence is correct, Sir.

 

[Verarde]

How is this possible?

This is RFC, I am playing as Spain. How are the Incans able to produce 2 food and 1 hammer on a peak?! Is it a special ability that they have?

 

[Samson]

How is this possible?

This is RFC, I am playing as Spain. How are the Incans able to produce 2 food and 1 hammer on a peak?! Is it a special ability that they have?

Yes, it is their unique ability, they can work mountains for 2 food and 1 hammer (the power of terrices?). In the same way that you as spain get something good with your ships (more movement IIRC, but it could be more sight).

 

[TippedScale]

So quick question thats really put a halt to my session:

This is my second game ever(i started with BTS) and i'm in 1822 on cheiftan, about to invade the Babylonians, but first i wanted to upgrade my galleons and frigates to the new ships you unlock for researching combustion. It says i need either uranium or oil to build/upgrade these units, and as it stands i have 2 uranium mines connected with roads to 2 cities on my south american(earth2) expansion.

The problem is that even though i have 2 uranium mines with roads, and one of the cities with a uranium mine attached has a water trade route with my capital, it still says i don't have any uranium, and uranium isn't listed in any of my cities.

What have i done wrong?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

You need to research fission to get uranium as a resource. You can use the bonus tile yield when you research physics though.

 

[TippedScale]

awesome thanks, i love that this thread is a thing that exists.

 

[Yxklyx]

I noticed that on the Espionage screen (with BUG - not sure it matters) that Investigate City shows as Blue and not Green and that I can only investigate a couple of cities. I'm very close to reaching the minimum value needed for Investigate City - so why can I already see some of them?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

It varies depending on the city. Distance from your capital and whether they have your state religion in the city effect it.

EDIT: You can click each individual city in the list on the ep screen to see what points are required.

 

[s.bernbaum]

I noticed that on the Espionage screen (with BUG - not sure it matters) that Investigate City shows as Blue and not Green and that I can only investigate a couple of cities. I'm very close to reaching the minimum value needed for Investigate City - so why can I already see some of them?

Like ParadigmShifter said. More details: When you click a city for that civ, the number of points will change for everything. Green means, you can do it (or in the case of the passive stuff, you are doing it). Blue means you can almost do it and if there is no change in the amount of EP you and the target are each generating, you will be able to do it in a couple of turns or so.

 

[TippedScale]

In what situations would you want to settle a great person in a city? It seems like thats just a generally bad option relative the others.

 

[Sparrow3]

In what situations would you want to settle a great person in a city? It seems like thats just a generally bad option relative the others.

IMHO, You should not have GP join city unless you really need the gold or research credits this provides. Your best bet is to save him to research a specific tech or for a Golden age. Unlike some earlier versions of Civ, BTS allows you to have multiple Great People.


EDIT: In my current game I have just had a Great Prophet born in the city of Cahokia (Native American Empire). We are too far into the game to research a religious Tech and I had one Great Prophet in the city, already. I can not use two Great Prophets to start a Golden Age (The GP must be dissimilar).

So, I have a choice:
1) I can have one Great Prophet join the City as a specialist.
2) Gift him to a friendly AI Civ in hopes of improving relations.

 

[Sisiutil]

In what situations would you want to settle a great person in a city? It seems like thats just a generally bad option relative the others.

Great General: Settling these as military instructors in your best production/military cities makes a lot of sense. In fact, until Military Science comes along and opens up Military Academies, it's the best use of a GG once you have your super-medic. Yes, you can use GGs for super-units, but having several units with an extra promotion out of the gate (without having to change civics) is much more useful than having one or two units with 3 or 4 promotions--especially since there's still a very good chance that you could use them. Bonus: when you run Representation, those settled GGs contribute 3 each.

Great Prophet: Settling a GP is definitely an option. Their best use is building shrines, but if you don't have a holy city and aren't likely to acquire one, you don't need him for that. Most of the techs they'll lightbulb are either cheap (Meditation, Monotheism) or relatively useless (Divine Right); Theology is a definite exception, though. Settling him provides a boost in both and , which can make a huge difference, especially in the early game. Building Stonehenge and/or playing as Egypt will often generate an early GProphet, and settling him will often be your best use for him--you could save him to build a shrine or to lightbulb Theology, but that's a lot of turns to keep a GP sitting around when he could be doing something useful, like boosting your research slider thanks to that extra income.

Great Merchant: Lightbulbing, trade missions, and founding a corporation are all better uses of a GM, but if you have a strong Wall Street city then settling a GM there can be very powerful--not only for the extra , but also for the +1 . I sometimes do this if I have a poorly-placed shrine city (for a very popular religion) that's short on food and good cottage tiles, especially if the shrine income justifies making it my Wall Street city.

Great Scientist: If you happen to earn a very early GS, long before he can lightbulb anything useful and expensive, you'll probably get more use out of him by settling him. It might be tempting to build an Academy instead, but early in the game you'll probably get a bigger boost from a settled GS than from an Academy. Of course, over time that will gradually inverse; also, you might prefer to save the GS until he can lightbulb something, even if it's a few (or several) dozen turns away.

Great Artist: Unless you're playing for a cultural victory, GAs are relatively useless, especially compared to the other Great People. Saving them to start or help start a Golden Age is usually the best use for them. However, if you have a city under cultural pressure and don't want to fight a war to correct the issue, settling a GA there is better than culture-bombing it, as the GA provides constant +12 that can gradually turn tiles your way. A culture bomb may gain you more tiles immediately, but its effects are one-time only and will diminish over time.

Great Engineer: For most of the game, you're better off using these extremely-valuable and hard-to-come-by Great People to rush wonders. They also lightbulb some extremely useful techs. Late in the game, however, their usefulness diminishes--in which case, settling them in your best production cities (Ironworks, HE) for the extra hammers is the best use of them.

Great Spy: If you're in need of espionage, building Scotland Yard in a good specialist city, followed by building all the espionage boosters there and running spy specialists, will yield a lot of . If you generate any more GSpies after building SY, settle them in this city. If you build the Great Wall and generate a GSpy very early on, you may want to settle him for the huge early-game boost; you'll be generating 16 when most civs are only managing 4 (the boost that early in the game is nothing to sneeze at either). You'll have to weigh the benefits of that against running an infiltration mission followed by tech-stealing. Usually settling is better if you have several neighbours, as you'll likely be able to achieve tech parity through careful tech trading.

 

[Ataxerxes]

IMHO, You should not have GP join city unless you really need the gold or research credits this provides. Your best bet is to save him to research a specific tech or for a Golden age. Unlike some earlier versions of Civ, BTS allows you to have multiple Great People.


EDIT: In my current game I have just had a Great Prophet born in the city of Cahokia (Native American Empire). We are too far into the game to research a religious Tech and I had one Great Prophet in the city, already. I can not use two Great Prophets to start a Golden Age (The GP must be dissimilar).

So, I have a choice:
1) I can have one Great Prophet join the City as a specialist.
2) Gift him to a friendly AI Civ in hopes of improving relations.

IIRC that sort of gift doesn't improve relations. I know you don't like settling GP's but consider the impact he could have on a future Wall Street City. Could get up to 15 GPT. There's also the possibility of a holy city you capture later.

 

[iampliny]

Just grabbed Civ IV, Warlords, BTS & Colonization. Played Civ II a little 15 years ago, but I'm basically a noob.

2 quick questions -

1. Does it make any sense to *not* start out with BTS? Any downside to playing the expansion instead of first getting my feet wet with the original Civ IV?

2. Are expansions cumulative? In other words, is there a way to play that gives me the the triremes and Great Wall from Warlords, but also the new spy system, scenarios, etc. from BTS?

Thanks, and I look forward to playing!