Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Sisiutil]

If you make a trade agreement with a civ can you declare (on that Civ) within the mandatory agreement period (the first 10turns)? If so, is there any penalty for doing that (breaking a trade agreement before the 10 turns)?

Yes, declaring war is the one time you can break a trade agreement before 10 turns is up. And no, there's no penalty related to breaking the trade agreement; the " You declared war on us!" penalty more than makes up for it, methinks...

One other thing that's kinda-sorta of related: if you make a trade agreement with another civ, and a third civ asks you to stop trading with that civ before 10 turns have passed, then the trade agreement remains in place (though I think Open Borders may be an exception; then again, I've never tested it).

 

[Michkov]

Is there a way to launch Civ so it takes one directly to the game in Pitboss mode, in the same way to open savegame?

 

[Leathaface]

Does anyone know how to zoom out/in on the map using a touchpad?

Staying with my family ATM and they only have a laptop. No reverse scroll on a mouse!!

 

[Pangaea]

I have a scroll area to the right on mine, which works. But it should work to scroll in and out if you use two fingers and move up or down on the touchpad too. At least it does here, and it's quite common. Not as responsive though :/

Page Up and Page Down keys work too.

 

[Leathaface]

Page Up and Page Down keys worked a wonder, thanks

BTW, i'm back home now. But at my families place the laptop could only run all settings on low, on a crap resolution. (around 800 X 600). The laptop couldn't even process clam out on the sea, the hammers on a mine (only an empty mine) nor food on a farm, only the bare green on the farm. During battles isntead of 3 of my longbowman defending the city only 1 appeared. (when there was infact 3 defending.)

Back to my Aurora R4 with 1920 X 1080 with GTX 580 and i7 3930k

 

[Viltrumite]

Does anyone have a guide to the interface of Civ IV? Maybe just a screenshoot and you could identify the stuff?

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Does anyone have a guide to the interface of Civ IV? Maybe just a screenshoot and you could identify the stuff?

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but you could take a look at Sullla's Civ4 walkthrough. I think he points out a lot of interface-type details as he goes along.

 

[God-Emperor]

The manual that comes with the game includes some UI explanation.

If you bought a boxed version of the game, you might have an actual printed manual. Otherwise there should be a PDF file somewhere in the folders where the game is installed that is named after the language you selected when installing it - this is a manual that is 116 pages long and probably identical to the printed manual. The file I got is called ENGLISH.PDF, yes it is in all capitals, located in the base Sid Meier's Civilization 4 folder - there isn't one in the Warlords folder or the BtS folder. Chapter 2 includes information on what is what in the UI.

 

[Leathaface]

I've a question about city placement when there are 2 fish resources on the other side of plains. Look at this pic:

Spoiler :

See the copper in the lower middle of the screen? I want to build a city 2 tiles north of the copper. But would I be able to get the 2 sea food recourses? Or can I only get the sea food resource on the side my city is founded?

According to the Big Fat Cross I should be able to.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

I don't think so. You could get the copper, oyster and one fish but I can't see you getting two fish.

 

[Leathaface]

Sorry! I didn't clarify myself enough. I just want the oyster and the fish on the right, not the fish in the top left. (south of France border.)

 

[Verarde]

Yes, you will get the clams, fish, and copper if you settle 2N of the copper.

 

[tdy99]

I usually use BUG mod, but I am playing a standard BTS PMEM game that loads without BUG. I noticed that without BUG, I can't tell how many more turns of "cruel opression" unhappiness I have in a city. It's been so long since I played without BUG that I forgot that that was a feature of the mod and not just a normal game feature. Anyway, how can you tell how many turns of whip unhappiness you have left with just standard BTS?

 

[Samson]

I usually use BUG mod, but I am playing a standard BTS PMEM game that loads without BUG. I noticed that without BUG, I can't tell how many more turns of "cruel opression" unhappiness I have in a city. It's been so long since I played without BUG that I forgot that that was a feature of the mod and not just a normal game feature. Anyway, how can you tell how many turns of whip unhappiness you have left with just standard BTS?

If you mouse over the whip button, the tooltip says something like "Causes 2 unhappiness for 14 turns". The number of turns it reports is the number of turns remaining + the number of turns caused by 1 whip, so if this was normal speed there would be 4 turns remaining.

 

[lvdz]

A stupid question, really, but I need some clarification:

Are the tradeable ressources in the diplomatic screen extra ressources not used by my civilization?

 

[salty mud]

No. If the trade screen says you have one of a resource, that means you have one of that resource only and trading it away means you will lose its benefit. More than one and you can trade without losing the resource's specific bonus.

 

[lvdz]

No. If the trade screen says you have one of a resource, that means you have one of that resource only and trading it away means you will lose its benefit. More than one and you can trade without losing the resource's specific bonus.

Thanks for the quick answer.

So, if I understand correctly, my whole civ benefits from only one ressource of a kind, and the bonuses provided by the ressources are not cumulative. Let's say I have two cows available, I can trade 1 and it won't change anything, is this correct? Or am I mistaken and the bonuses add up?

 

[Pangaea]

Thanks for the quick answer.

So, if I understand correctly, my whole civ benefits from only one ressource of a kind, and the bonuses provided by the ressources are not cumulative. Let's say I have two cows available, I can trade 1 and it won't change anything, is this correct? Or am I mistaken and the bonuses add up?

Yes, I believe that is correct. Even if you trade away the cow, as long as a citizen works it, you still get the benefits of its hammers and food. But by trading it away, you can get additional benefits depending on what resource you get back: , or

I have a question about espionage. I have BUG (not sure if this is a BUG feature or not), and in the espionage screen there are listed percentages beside each leader. What does this mean, and how does it go up or down? Is it independent of the various EPs into each civilization?

The percentages are high (over 100) for all leaders. Does this mean they have spies in my cities?

 

[r_rolo1]

That is the ratio between the total EP that particular AI have put against you against the total EP you have put against them since the beginning of the game. it is a regulr game feature and that number is actually a modifier in the EP missions cost ...

Having 100% + ratios means that the AI have been putting more EP on you than you on them

 

[Pangaea]

Really? That doesn't seem right to me when I'm looking at the screen.

Look at this screenshot.

Spoiler :

For example, Lincoln. I have more EPs than him on me (assuming the numbers are correct), but it's 107%.

Hammurabi has almost exactly twice as many points as me, with 150%.
But Pericles and Suleiman have about 3 times as many points as me, but 'only' 143% and 129%.

Maybe I'm missing something, or misunderstood what you wrote, but there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation.