Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[pholkhero]

1. If I play without declaring WAR, will someone eventually declare WAR on me? Should I listen to these complainers wanting more room? (See #3 below).

Yes, someone else will, on higher difficulty levels. Yes, you should, sometimes, listen to them. Do not, however, listen to the voices in your head.

2. Should I adopt a religion as the State's religion if I am the first to discover it? Then, not worry when I discover new, better (joke!!) religions?

Sometimes you should.

3. Is it better to turn off growth eventually? Do I want my cities to be as big as possible?

Is there a maximum size/ optimum size city? (Also, see #4 below).

Yes, once you start encountering those red angry faces, stop growing. It is less important to stop when you get Mr Yucks. Optimum size is dictated by conditions.

4. Cities. When you go to the city screen, and the white circles indicate where your citizens are working, is you city benefiting from all of the farms/other stuff with roads that you have built, if they are not in white circles? (Assume that EVERY square around the city [and indeed within your cultural borders] have been improved and roads built.)

A city can only work the same number of tiles as number of citizens it has (the number the city is). So, no, those without white circles are unworked. AND, those outside the 'fat cross' (a 20-tile cross with the city in the center, radiating 2 tiles out, not counting diagnols ~ check the SG or reports for some dotmaps to see some), will NEVER get worked so you dont' need to improve them.

5. Is there an "unclick" method?

Just click something else.

6. Where do I get my "How to make friends and keep them" tutorial? i.e., how to pick your big ally? How do you make and keep him?

Various ways. Religion is a good start.

Advice: Read the boards more, esp. Succession Games or single player reports. Try realmsbeyond.net, too, or google "Sulla walkthrough". Also, play more, on higher levels, on bigger maps, etc. You'll get the hang of it.

 

[AndersenDK]

1. About war and the settler thing.
The thing "We need a settler" is just a suggestion that the game come up with - don't follow it blindly, a lot of times it suggets it, even when Im runnig 50 % science, and the only ground on the map that have not been settled is arount "Antartica"..

Someone might declare war on you, but maybe not - you can be 100% sure.

2.
It depends if the religion is one of the early ones like Hinduism, Jewisme or Buddhisme.. Look at what religion your nearby civs have, is there some of the other civs you want to work close together with? Then its good to look at their religion, its one of the biggest modifiers in the diplomacy relationsships.

3. Big is not always god - but mostly If fx you can see, that the city is gonna need food if its growing futher, then I would stop the growth

4. and 5. .. Im not sure - better let someone smarter than me answer on this.

6. As I mentioned above, religion is important. You can also make a lot of trades. If he fx have rice and you also do, you can trade his rice for yours.. No change for any of you, but your relations improve, if you trade with him.

To choose who I wanna be friends with.. Hmm, it I tend to preatty much let things work out myself, so I almost never find me together in a alliance with fx Monty, because he is very aggresive.. I find it best to be together with one at your level, but mostly a little under you. Not one that would eventually become a treat to you victory - some you can use as a lapdog

Hope for more input - this could turn out interesting.

I hope it was understandable for the most

 

[Moonsinger]

Are you trying to build it in a city with a courthouse?

Yes, I'm trying to build it in a city with a courthouse.

 

[scienide09]

Yes, I'm trying to build it in a city with a courthouse.

The Forbidden Palace is a national wonder. Have you already built two national wonders in that city?
Also, I assume that you haven't built the Versailles world wonder in the same city? They can't both go there.

 

[Argoth]

For question number 5... Are you talking about if you accidentally click a tech and want to change which one you're researching? If so, just clikc on the progress bar at the top of the screen, and it will turn into all the icons of each tech, and just select a different one. You don't loose the beakers you had invested into the previous tech, so all is well.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

You don't loose the beakers you had invested into the previous tech, so all is well.

The manual says that your people will begin to forget progress implying that beakers would start disappearing on an abandoned tech at some point. I never seen that happen though. Does anyone know if this can happen and what's the time frame if so?

Anyone help me on this:

Question of my own:
I thought I read somewhere that war weariness and the cost to upgrade units is really toned down for the AI. Is this true? Is there anything else the AI experiences different from human players? In the past I usually extend a war in an effort to bring the attacking civ's economy to a halt with war weariness when I don't let them out of a war. Is this really accomplishing anything?

 

[Wolverine6]

Hey what's happening everyone?
1. Can someone please explain to me why I keep getting rated Dan freakin Quale at the end of the game despite getting one of the highest scores, building all the necessary buildings for people to be happy (and even get a decent amount of "We love the President" celebrations, and building some wonders, while playing at the Noble level. What am I doing or not doing? Is last place really justified?
I will admit I do on occassion have to let some cities "starve" in order to remove some of those ugly faces and I'm not very good with implementing religion. But for real, last place ranking?

2. Also, it seems as though I'm the only one picking fights even when I click the "Agressive AI" option within a Custom game. I hope this isn't affecting my final ranking because war is fun.

Other than that, I'm lovin the game. I appreciate in advance your timely response(s).

 

[scienide09]

@Wolverine6

Welcome to the forums.

I don't know if this will help, but I'll try to answer your questions.

1. In-game score and final game score are two different things. A killer in-game score does not guarantee you a high ranking at the end, as you've already seen. May I ask, what kind of victories have you been getting?
I ask because to calculate final game score, CivIV uses, in part, a 'time bonus' based on how many turns have passed. That is, early-game victories (eg. by conquest) get a high time bonus, while late game wins (space race, diplomatic) give a lower bonus, as more turns have gone by.
While there are different adjustments for difficulty, map size, etc., in my opinion the calclation puts too much emphasis on this time bonus. All of my late game victories, even when I've soared in the in-game score, have sucked.
Maybe just don't pay attention to it?

2. The fact that you are picking the fights should not affect your final-game ranking.
It will, however, play havoc with your diplomatic relations with other civs. And wars, generally speaking, can delay the building of wonders and researching techs, which help improve the in-game score. Also, if the war goes badly and you lose a city or two, then that has a negative effect on the in-game score. At the same time, a successful war in which you take a couple of good cities helps your in-game score.

Sorry for the longish post. I probably could have been more concise with that.

 

[Wolverine6]

Thanks a lot for your timely reply.
The only victories I have accomplished (which have all been small world continents, quick play, with about 5 other civs) are the most in-game points by 2050, which hence explains why the low rating. I thought it had something to do with my management of cities actions. That's still lame though because I have a hard time accomplishing any of the other victories any sooner even though I usually am maxing out research to 100% or 90% the whole time.
Maybe I am researching the wrong (unnecessary) stuff. Is there a Tech tree out there that has recommended paths?

Another "newbie" question is "If I have Rice (1 of 1) and I trade that Rice for say Wine to another person, do I lose the affect of having the Rice (+1 Health)?

Thanks again!

 

[lost_civantares]

Another "newbie" question is "If I have Rice (1 of 1) and I trade that Rice for say Wine to another person, do I lose the affect of having the Rice (+1 Health)?

Thanks again!

Yes you do louse the effect. What is being said is that there is one rice available that you can trade out of the one total.

 

[Snerk]

Do banks only add 50% to wealth prodused in a city? So if all the commerse in a city goes to sciense then a bank would be useless in that city, even if its got huge amount of commerse?

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Do banks only add 50% to wealth prodused in a city? So if all the commerse in a city goes to sciense then a bank would be useless in that city, even if its got huge amount of commerse?

That is correct. If there's no percentage of commerce left over for wealth, the bank would be useless.

 

[Snerk]

Cheers alphabeta, but i've got one more:

Is there any way of finding out what the AIs are trading amongs themselves?
If i want to stop an AI from getting a resourse its trading to itself, i never no wich AI i should ask to stop trading with it.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Cheers alphabeta, but i've got one more:

Is there any way of finding out what the AIs are trading amongs themselves?
If i want to stop an AI from getting a resourse its trading to itself, i never no wich AI i should ask to stop trading with it.

In the foreign advisor screen, specifically the "relations" screen, you should be able to tell. When you first open the screen, all of the AI's attitudes and current trade deals toward you are visible when you mouseover them. If you select another AI (such that they are highlighted) mousingover other AI's will reveal the trade deals and attitudes between the AI civ being mousedover, and the highlighted civ.

I run a mod for the foreign advisor, but I think the relations screen behaves like this in the stock game as well.

 

[pub hero]

Wolverine6, the end game scoring can be a little whack. Sometimes it depends on the scenario type (i.e., if you're having a duel and win domination in 1400 AD obviously you'll have some kind of insane score). Oddly enough, my best score is about 34,000 and I got that in one of my first games - which was a normal continents scenario domination win. Doesn't matter if I get a domination win in the 18th century or launch in 1880 I can't beat that bloody score. :\ Hmm.

But really it shouldn't take that long @ 90% research. The 2050 victory is probably why your scores aren't that high, are you sure you're hooking up all of your resources? (mining gold, farming wheat, etc). Are all of your cities hooked up by trade? If they are and you're building the essential buildings (libraries, universities and the like). Focussing on military too much can stunt the holy hell of your progress as well, it's best to only go in military mode when you know **** is gonna hit the fan or if you plan on invading. And early on in the game, it's important to try to block off another civ if you can prevent them from expanding into your territory. Just keep trying different things and maybe give Sulla's walkthrough a read.

 

[ditb]

Hello again!

How do I change my civ’s official religion? I am tired of being called an infidel!

Please enlighten me. Thanks in advance for your reply.

Dave

 

[stoutheart]

Haven't been able to find the answer to this one, so if it's somewhere else, my apologies. I've got two interested players at my house, and can find two (or maybe more) to join in. So, cutting to the chase,

Is it possible to play as teams in Hotseat mode?

Haven't figured out how to do it yet, or if there's a mod or XML trick to it. Please give me a hint.
Thanks

 

[lost_civantares]

Yes there is stoutheart (and welcome by the way!).

After you click "Hot Seat" and then "New Game", select for each civ the same team number, so that each team has its own number, ie "1" for the first three civs and then "2" for four other civs. (circled in the screen shot).

Hopefully that helps!

 

[stoutheart]

Hopefully that helps!

Thank you, Thank you! Unfortunately, I think the missus is gonna hate you for a couple days!

 

[lost_civantares]

@stoutheart- You're welcome

My question:

Why would the computer want me to settle at its circle instead of where the settler is?


It would only give me more desert and mountains, which would do nothing for my city and take away useful terrain and resources.