Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Loukoum427]

I posted an explanation of interceptions once, here.

Hi,

This post prompted another question to me : I've always assumed that the strength + modifiers of the bomber is "fully" taken into account when dealing damages to the units it bombards (and into the chances of destroying improvements as well) ; I mean that a full-strength bomber will deal more damage than a damaged one. That's why, if I can, I usually promote my bombers with combat 1 + pinch in order to deal more damage to the most common defenders I find in my way, alias infantry. Am I correct in doing so ? Or would the damages have stayed the same if I'd promoted my bombers with combat 2 ?

 

[Ansive]

I'm pretty sure they do more damage to gunpowder units if you take pinch.

 

[nfw]

There is a threshold to the amount of damage an air unit can deal, I think it's 50%, so I usually take combat1, 2, then the +1 range promotion for bombers.

 

[Weakling]

Hi there, nice forum you got here. But first of all, I got a quick question regarding Civ IV (BTS): Do I need to work a tile with a resource in order to get the resource? Situation is that I got stone (with quarry) within the borders of one town, and I want stone in order to be able to build a wonder in another city - connected by road - faster. However, the city screen does not show stone as an available resource and it still takes the same time for the wonder requiring stone. I have not yet begun to work the tile with stone on it as this might cause starvation in the city...

 

[Sisiutil]

Hi there, nice forum you got here. But first of all, I got a quick question regarding Civ IV (BTS): Do I need to work a tile with a resource in order to get the resource? Situation is that I got stone (with quarry) within the borders of one town, and I want stone in order to be able to build a wonder in another city - connected by road - faster. However, the city screen does not show stone as an available resource and it still takes the same time for the wonder requiring stone. I have not yet begun to work the tile with stone on it as this might cause starvation in the city...

No, you don't need to have a citizen assigned to the tile for the resource to be available. You do need (a) the required improvement (in this case, a quarry, which it sounds like you have); (b) a route to the resource tile (generally a road); and (c) a route from the city with the resource back to the city where you're doing the building (again, generally, via roads, and/or via rivers/coast if you've researched Sailing).

 

[Weakling]

Thanks very much! I hadn't connected the resource tile itself to the cities

 

[AJ11]

No, you don't need to have a citizen assigned to the tile for the resource to be available. You do need (a) the required improvement (in this case, a quarry, which it sounds like you have); (b) a route to the resource tile (generally a road); and (c) a route from the city with the resource back to the city where you're doing the building (again, generally, via roads, and/or via rivers/coast if you've researched Sailing).

I think you need to connect both the resource and the building city to your capital as well. The game doesn't add the city to the trade network if it is not connected to the capital, and the same with the resource.

So, it is possible to have the improvement and have a road from the resource to the building city but still not having the resource showing up, if the route doesn't go through or is connected in any way to your capital.

 

[Danelius90]

I think you need to connect both the resource and the building city to your capital as well. The game doesn't add the city to the trade network if it is not connected to the capital, and the same with the resource.

So, it is possible to have the improvement and have a road from the resource to the building city but still not having the resource showing up, if the route doesn't go through or is connected in any way to your capital.

Connection to the capital is only necessary when trading with other civs IIRC.
So for instance, 2 non-capital cities can be connected to each other and not the capital and share one copper or whatever resource between them but the capital won't have it and you can't trade it with other civs.

 

[Gwynnja]

Can the AI get techs from huts?

 

[Ansive]

Yes, of course.

 

[AFS]

I didn't want to make a topic about this, so I'll ask here:

Does anyone of you guys (advanced players, it seems) ever use the Stop Growth button?

I use it a lot when hitting the happy cap, but it can get very tedious to check cities and activate and deactivate the button. So now I just ignore it, and I'm getting angry faces all over the place. A city with size 6 can work 6 tiles, while a city with size 10 and 4 angry faces work 6 tiles as well, so basically it's the same thing (except for extra maintenance costs)

So what should I do? Use the button or just let the cities grow until they stagnate automatically? I know that just letting the cities grow is sub-optimal, but I want an opinion for a high level player (for instance I've never seen TMIT use the button on his videos...). Maybe letting the cities grow past the cap it's not a big deal.

 

[Samson]

I didn't want to make a topic about this, so I'll ask here:

Does anyone of you guys (advanced players, it seems) ever use the Stop Growth button?

I use it a lot when hitting the happy cap, but it can get very tedious to check cities and activate and deactivate the button. So now I just ignore it, and I'm getting angry faces all over the place. A city with size 6 can work 6 tiles, while a city with size 10 and 4 angry faces work 6 tiles as well, so basically it's the same thing (except for extra maintenance costs)

So what should I do? Use the button or just let the cities grow until they stagnate automatically? I know that just letting the cities grow is sub-optimal, but I want an opinion for a high level player (for instance I've never seen TMIT use the button on his videos...). Maybe letting the cities grow past the cap it's not a big deal.

I not a very high level player, but I am OK. My understanding is that it is rarely a good idea to use the Stop Growth button, but not never. You can usually make use of the population somehow, with clever use of the whip or by building settlers or workers. Sometimes the rate for growth is too much, and a size 10 city with 4 angry faces will cost more maintenance than a size 6 city, so there is a down side of letting them grow.

 

[Ansive]

Either make 'em happy, whip them, reassign them to other productive tiles (with less food), or use specialists (0 food). You rarely need to use the stagnation button.

 

[nfw]

How much of a nerf would it be for FIN to require 3C rather than 2C?

 

[Abegweit]

Pretty big. For one thing, it removes the value of all the coast tiles.

 

[Sisiutil]

I didn't want to make a topic about this, so I'll ask here:

Does anyone of you guys (advanced players, it seems) ever use the Stop Growth button?

I use it a lot when hitting the happy cap, but it can get very tedious to check cities and activate and deactivate the button. So now I just ignore it, and I'm getting angry faces all over the place. A city with size 6 can work 6 tiles, while a city with size 10 and 4 angry faces work 6 tiles as well, so basically it's the same thing (except for extra maintenance costs)

So what should I do? Use the button or just let the cities grow until they stagnate automatically? I know that just letting the cities grow is sub-optimal, but I want an opinion for a high level player (for instance I've never seen TMIT use the button on his videos...). Maybe letting the cities grow past the cap it's not a big deal.

I not a very high level player, but I am OK. My understanding is that it is rarely a good idea to use the Stop Growth button, but not never. You can usually make use of the population somehow, with clever use of the whip or by building settlers or workers. Sometimes the rate for growth is too much, and a size 10 city with 4 angry faces will cost more maintenance than a size 6 city, so there is a down side of letting them grow.

Either make 'em happy, whip them, reassign them to other productive tiles (with less food), or use specialists (0 food). You rarely need to use the stagnation button.

In my opinion, it depends upon your appetite for micro-management. In general, turning on stagnation requires less MM. Both Samson's and Ansive's takes are more optimal, no question, but not every player has an appetite for pursuing optimal play through intense MM. (The BUG mod helps in this regard by making optimal whipping points more transparent, along with the ability to set reminders to whip, change tile/specialist assignements, etc.)

That being said, there is one MM task you must remember to perform, and that's turning stagnation off when the city can once again grow without adverse effects. I think this may be the biggest argument against using the feature; if you're turning it on to avoid having to check and adjust the status of every city on every turn, you'll most likely forget to turn it off and find your cities stagnating when they have room to grow.

 

[nfw]

Pretty big. For one thing, it removes the value of all the coast tiles.

Enough to turn it from one of the best to one of the worst? Or just mediocre?

 

[Abegweit]

Enough to turn it from one of the best to one of the worst? Or just mediocre?

It's already a pretty poor trait, IMO. I suppose it would still be better than PRO but it would be pretty bad.

It's interesting that the MP folks all love it. Undoubtedly this is because you can't trade your way up the tree like you can in single player. Logically then, it would be a much better trait with tech trading turned off.

 

[Turquoiside]

It's already a pretty poor trait, IMO. I suppose it would still be better than PRO but it would be pretty bad.

It's interesting that the MP folks all love it. Undoubtedly this is because you can't trade your way up the tree like you can in single player. Logically then, it would be a much better trait with tech trading turned off.

As you hinted at, most of the community would disagree. With or without Tech Trading, the increased commerce is more useful than just about anything another trait gives.

 

[Abegweit]

Who is this "most of the community" you refer to? Noble players? With the exception of DaveMcW, I can't think of a single good player who is enthusiastic about the trait.