Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

No :/ It would be nice if it did

 

3 Questions.

1) When someone threatens you with war if you don't give them a certain tech, should you just give it to them and eat some humble pie. Maybe they are stronger then you military wise, but you have the higher score, better culture, technology, etc. Lets say they are also on a different continent and don't pose a huge threat.

2) Do most civilizations threaten/bully you mainly because you have a weaker military force? I know some like Montezuma will still do it even if you are more powerful.

3) Is it possible to be going for a cultural victory and maintain the most powerful army? I know it is possible but it seems hard, especially if you don't have a ton of cities for production.

 

If they are on a different continent, I would deny them, but if they are stronger than me militarily and are near me, I will just give them it.

Yes.

If you don't have a powerful army, the other AI will most likely attack you, so yes, it is possible, and as long as you don't mind losing a few turns on your cultural vitory, it is easily accomplished (the upkeep will lower the slider a notch or two, but it is survivable).

 

Absolutely. Check the Victoria ALC game, where I warred for most of the game and finished off with a cultural win. The key to that victory, in my opinion, was using Caste System and Artist specialists instead of the culture slider to achieve cultural victory without slowing down research (and, thereby, falling behind in military techs).

 

Is there a limit to the number of trade routes a city can have. If, for example, I have the lighthouse and 4 routes in place, will free market give me a 5th?

 

Yes you can have more than 4

 

The hardcoded limit is ten per city, but IIRC there is no way of getting there in a unmodded game ... I think 8 is the pratical upper limit :/

 

The trade route limit is controlled by a setting in GlobalDefines.xml called, not too surprisingly, MAX_TRADE_ROUTES. BtS sets this to 8. There is no way you could go over 8 in BtS anyway.

 

I have a question about Vassalage: It says adopting Vassalage will give you 12 free units, but I can never get them.Any help?

 

It doesn't give you free units. It makes it so you don't have to pay upkeep for more units than without the civic (you have to pay 1/turn for each unit over a limit; this increases the limit by 12).

 

Ah, that makes more sense...

 

Is there a Quick Play option, as there was in Civ3? Ie. an option to start a game with the same settings as last game.

I'm tired of going to the main screen, and then hammering down the enter-button ten times..

(I know about the Redo Map option in-game)

 

"Play Now" uses all default options, except the few things it asks you which are mostly one at a time with a separate screen for each.

"Custom Game" lets you set the options, pick the map and the map settings, and such and it is all from one screen. It defaults to the last settings used for the map and game options.

 

Nobody threatens you with war when demanding a tech, but they may well declare if you decline. A subtle and absolutely unimportant difference, but there you go.

Generally if someone is not a threat and if you don't want something from them, tech trades, resources, open borders or anything, then you may as well send them packing empty handed. However, having good diplomatic relations can be worthwhile and if they are not a threat to invade or to win perhaps you do want to reward them. It can be a valuable diplomacy booster.

 

As was noted by Mec, they aren't threatening you but they may declare war you if you decline. Some AI's are more likely to declare if you refuse (Washington and Bismark come to mind). Since the AI is usually very poor at naval invasions I usually don't worry too much. However, you might want to consider if it'll help your diplo situation to give it to them. Maybe you're close to being Friendly with them. As an addition, the AI gives equal weight to granting requests for cheap techs and expensive ones. So I'm more likely to give it to them for the diplo bonus if it's a cheapo tech most of the world knows. If it's Rifling forget it!

I'm not sure how much of the requests are due to your weak military. However, if they are a significant threat, you are usually better off giving in. It's usually hard to get enough of a military force to stop a declaration - it often takes 2x their power. Monty is one of the six psychos along with Genghis, Alex, Ragnar, Nappy and Shaka.

 

One question: Does the bonus provided by the preserved forest only work when your city is working that tile, or does it work no matter what tiles you are working?

 

You don't have to work the forest preserve. It just has to be in the BFC area of the city. If two cities have overlapping BFC areas and the forest preserve is in the overlap, then they both get the happiness even though only one of them could be working it (and possibly neither of them is doing so).

 

I am playing a vanilla hot-seat game. I have been warring on and off with Huayana Capac for a while now. He is currently annoyed with me and won't talk with me. The problem is I want to restart the war, but can't seems there are no options in the dialogue screen. I saw when I mouse over his name it says press Alt to declare war. I tried this and it didn't work either. Is there some other way to declare war or is this some sort of bug?

 

Hot seat. Good times
Anyway, how many turns ago did you declare peace with him? If it's less than 10, that's why (Peace Treaties except Cease Fires last 10 turns)

 

You may also have to go into the diplomacy screen and cancel the peace treaty if it's been more than 10 turns. Sometimes the treaty auto-renews.