Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[babylon5v]

Thanks Psyringe. I'm actually using XP so that makes the problem even more strange. I guess I'll post in the Better Bug AI forum as well.

 

[dalamb]

Anyone ever seen a colony break away from its master? Is it possible?

Yes I have. I'm afraid I don't recall the exact rules, but I think that if the colony becomes significantly stronger compared to the master than at the time it vassalized, it can break away. This can also happen if the master becomes significantly weaker, that is, if you're capturing the master's cities.

 

[charlesb96]

Yes I have. I'm afraid I don't recall the exact rules, but I think that if the colony becomes significantly stronger compared to the master than at the time it vassalized, it can break away. This can also happen if the master becomes significantly weaker, that is, if you're capturing the master's cities.

It is a 50% rule. If vassalated, (capitulation) because of war, and the vassal goes to 50% more land and population of the master (IE, the master is losing cities and/or the vassal is gaining them) then vassal breaks away. Also if the vassal goes to 50% less of land it had at time of agreement it will break away. If the vassal asked to become one in peace time, it may end the agreement after 10 turnes, and/or it grows to 50% more than it started with, it MAY break away, I don't know what the chance is.

 

[PolishNoble]

Thanks for the economics advice, Ataxerxes, Psyringe, and kcd swede!

 

[thebastard]

probably asked many times before...

Is it possible to convert to a different religion while building the AP? In my current game it said that i couldn't continue the construction when I converted from Buddhism to Confu 1 turn before finishing the AP (btw. - what happened to the invested hammers?).

 

[Ghpstage]

probably asked many times before...

Is it possible to convert to a different religion while building the AP? In my current game it said that i couldn't continue the construction when I converted from Buddhism to Confu 1 turn before finishing the AP (btw. - what happened to the invested hammers?).

Yes, you can.
But....
The city you build the AP in must have your new state religion, i'm betting the city you were building the AP in had Buddhism but not Confucianism. If you spread Conf there you should be able to carry on from were you were forced to stop.

 

[thebastard]

oh man, your guess is right. thanks for a quick reply!

 

[Walter_Wolf]

Is there a "study" or thread about gains from goodie huts depending on which unit/border pop/city founding you use for popping?

 

[azbestor]

Is there a "study" or thread about gains from goodie huts depending on which unit/border pop/city founding you use for popping?

You will find most info in Refernce Guide, it should be in War Academy in References section.

 

[Walter_Wolf]

Thanks
I checked the guide, and it just lists the event (gold, tech, experience, ...) probabilities.
You know the info you get for scouts and Explorers - "better results from Tribal Villages"?
That sentence would mean (to me at least) there are some "WhichUnitPoppedTheHut" modifiers besides the ones listed in the reference guide.

btw, the guide looks great at first look, and I think I'll send a postcard. Hopefully the author still collects them

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Is it ever possible to build tile improvements on your vassal's land? I'm playing as Rome on a Europe map and have no easy access to Oil. There's several off the coast of Iceland though, which is uninhabited and separated by ocean. The easy way would be to drop two cities there right after Astronomy and set them free, then come back with a few work boats after I tech Plastics and build the rigs for them. (And take a nominal fee, of course ) But it's my understanding that you can never build anything other than roads in someone else's land, even if it's your vassal. If I wait, I'm pretty sure Joao (or someone) will help himself to Iceland. Do I have to hold on to those expensive colonies until I get Plastics, then free them? Or (if I free them immediately) can I trust them to put top priority on buiding the rigs ASAP (assuming that I'll have to gift them Plastics)?

 

[Ghpstage]

I don't think you can improve vassal tiles yourself, but you could gift them Workboats to use when they have Plastics.
Really though, 2 cities will not make for an expensive colony, with trade route income and any tiles they can work they will more thasn likely pay for themselves.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Thanks
I checked the guide, and it just lists the event (gold, tech, experience, ...) probabilities.
You know the info you get for scouts and Explorers - "better results from Tribal Villages"?
That sentence would mean (to me at least) there are some "WhichUnitPoppedTheHut" modifiers besides the ones listed in the reference guide.

btw, the guide looks great at first look, and I think I'll send a postcard. Hopefully the author still collects them

Scouts and explorers "reroll" the result if they get barbarians. There's a limit of 10 rerolls though I think (which is so unlikely to occur).

Border pops are better since they don't pop barbs either and can't get experience too - I think.

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

...2 cities will not make for an expensive colony, with trade route income and any tiles they can work they will more thasn likely pay for themselves.

Well, it'll wind up being five cities when it's all said and done... and I don't know if I can trust the AI to put the other three in the right places to get all the seafood, which'll be the only real source of food. So I figure I'd probably have to make all five cities for them myself.

...you could gift them Workboats to use when they have Plastics.

That's kinda what I was thinking. Build the cities, send out the fishing boats, and make improvements on the fur/gold/whatever- then see what my maintenance is like (and probably free them after recoiling in horror). Then when it's almost time, I'll just park another boat on each oil, gift them Plastics and the boats, and hope my colony's governor has a modicum of common sense.

 

[Brian5150]

Is there anyplace within this 878 page newbie section that walks you through the city screen? For example, if I remove a citizen, where does he go? Why is there a plus/minus sign next to each of the specialists (the 6 guys alongside the right) and if I change them, how does it exactly change things? How does the food and production bars work? What exactly are the numbers telling me? Why are the research costs different from time to time? Why are there not enough circles to "work" each village/town/hamlet in my city? Do I need roads between the villages, or just between the main cities? Or between farms and towns for that matter?
Everything I found seems to assume I know more than I really do.
Thanks for the help!

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

CFC experts, kindly proofread this. It's late and I'm sleepy, wanna make sure I got my data straight.

Is there anyplace within this 878 page newbie section that walks you through the city screen?

Well, I can't predict the future... but probably this post here, and the next two or three after it. I'll take a stab at giving you some basics (then hopefully people that know a lot more than me can finish the job.

Okeedokee. First of all, your BFC (Big Fat Cross). It's normally the 20 tiles surrounding your city, roughly circular- but it looks like a fat cross. Kinda like this:

X X X
X X X X X
X X O X X
X X X X X
X X X​

Where "O" is the city, and the "X"s are tiles you can work. Each tile has to be inside your cultural borders and not worked by any other city. If it's available for your city to work, the FPC (FoodProductionCommerce) icons will be small. If the city is working the tile, the FPC icons get bigger, and the white circle appears around it. When you add up all the yields from every tile the city is working, you get its base output. After each citizen eats their 2, whatever surplus the city grew goes into the orange food bar. When this bar fills up the population increases. Whatever the city produced get increased (by a variety of things- certain buildings, certain Civics, etc.) and you get your city's actual production output. This goes into the blue production bar- when this one fills up, whatever you have the city working on is finished. All the your tiles produced gets added to by trade routes (among other things), split into science, gold, espionage points, and culture (depending on what percentages you have your sliders set to). The , , , and each then have their own multipliers which give you your final outputs from that city.

Now then. Citizens and specialists. Specialists are the Spies, Engineers, Merchants, Artists, Scientists, and Priests that you can have working to increase , , , , or . Each Specialist also adds 3 to the city's Great Person Point output. "Citizen" can refer to any of the people in your city, but more specifically means the nearly-useless little guy at the bottom of the column of specialists. I guess he's kind of an unspecialized specialist. My numbers might be a little off (plus there's several different ways to increase their output), but:

Spy +4 espionage points, +1 science
Engineer +2 production
Merchant +3 gold
Artist +4 culture, +1 gold
Scientist +3 science
Priest +1 production, +1 gold
Citizen +1 production

Each specialist/citizen you have working in the city adds whatever espionage/production/gold/science/culture it creates to the city's base total (before all the multipliers, I think). The little boxes with the +/- next to each specialist lets you add or subtract one of that particluar type of specialist. When you reach the max amount, the + box will disappear. Certain buildings/Wonders throughout the game let you add more specialists. For instance, say it's early in the game and you have a city that won't let you run a Scientist. Build a Library, then you should be able to run up to two, but no more. (It should say "2 Max" when you hover over it.) Later on if you build an Observatory you can run three. (Running the Caste System civic lets you run as many Artists, Scientists, or Merchants you want in any city.) To make another specialist, click on one of the worked tiles with the white circle. The city will stop working the tile and another specialist will appear on the right side. (Make sure it's the type of specialist you actually want to use.) To start working a tile again, click on the tile. This will cause someone in the city to stop working wherever you have them working- sometimes it's one of the specialists, sometimes it just moves from one tile to another, so check afterward that everybody's still working where you want them.

Why are there not enough circles to "work" each village/town/hamlet in my city?

You can only work as many tiles as you have population points in the city- specifically, population not working as a specialist. With 20 workable tiles normally available in the BFC, this means the city's population has to reach 20 before you can work all of them- and that's without any specialists. If you want to run an engineer, a scientist, and two priests in the city, you would need to get to population 24 before all the tiles were being worked.

Why are the research costs different from time to time?

The costs of each tech are different- they generally get higher the later in the game they occur. At the beginning of the game, your civ is probably only producing 9 or 10 per turn. Towards the end, you may be producing several thousand. The later techs are more expensive so there will still be a few turns in between discoveries.

If you meant that your research rate fluctuates, there are a lot of things that can cause that. Overall commerce output, what % you have your science slider set to, how many scientists you have, your Civics, etc.

Do I need roads between the villages, or just between the main cities? Or between farms and towns for that matter?

You don't necessarily need roads to your cottages/hamlets/villages/towns, or for regular farms/mines with no resources. You do need roads to connect improved resources, unless there's a river doing that job for you. If you have, say, Wheat in your BFC, you'll automatically get an extra food just because it's Wheat. If you build a farm there, you'll get another two food. But your city won't have access to the Wheat resource (for the bonus) until there's a route from the wheat farm to your city (road, river, or both). If you have a regular hill, you can put a Mine on it and get the +2 without a road. If that hill has Iron, you'll get another +2, but until the route to the city is there, the city won't have access to Iron.

You also need routes connecting your cities to the trade network. Whichever cities you have connected to your capital with roads, rivers, or coastline will all share the same resources. Plus it's a good idea to have roads connecting different parts of your empire for the added unit mobility.

What exactly are the numbers telling me?

Sorry... getting sleepy, no clue which numbers you're referring to.

 

[Walter_Wolf]

Scouts and explorers "reroll" the result if they get barbarians. There's a limit of 10 rerolls though I think (which is so unlikely to occur).

I didn't know that. Usefull info.

Border pops are better since they don't pop barbs either and can't get experience too - I think.

Now, that's a real paradigm shift . I mean great out of the box thinking.

Thanks a lot

EDIT: Also, if you don't settle any cities, on the first turns you can't get any techs.

 

[Danelius90]

Why are the research costs different from time to time?

do you possibly mean why the same tech can have a different number of beakers needed? in that case, difficulty, map size and other factors play a part in this. And there are modifiers on the beakers you produce too (plus a magic beaker )
there is a good article in the academy all about research... or a thread I saved somewhere.

 

[Brian5150]

Thanks for all the help. That makes the game that much more fun. Thanks again
Brian

 

[Heliac]

...plus a magic beaker...

Please elaborate?