Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Gwynnja]

Just grabbed Civ IV, Warlords, BTS & Colonization. Played Civ II a little 15 years ago, but I'm basically a noob.

2 quick questions -

1. Does it make any sense to *not* start out with BTS? Any downside to playing the expansion instead of first getting my feet wet with the original Civ IV?

2. Are expansions cumulative? In other words, is there a way to play that gives me the the triremes and Great Wall from Warlords, but also the new spy system, scenarios, etc. from BTS?

Thanks, and I look forward to playing!

BTS has the original and warlords expansion pack built into it. Just start with that. Colonization, if I understand it correctly is basically a mod and stands alone from the others.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Just grabbed Civ IV, Warlords, BTS & Colonization. Played Civ II a little 15 years ago, but I'm basically a noob.

2 quick questions -

1. Does it make any sense to *not* start out with BTS? Any downside to playing the expansion instead of first getting my feet wet with the original Civ IV?

2. Are expansions cumulative? In other words, is there a way to play that gives me the the triremes and Great Wall from Warlords, but also the new spy system, scenarios, etc. from BTS?

Thanks, and I look forward to playing!

Welcome to the forums! Colonization is completely different from Civ IV. I tried it and didn't care for it.

1. You're right, start with BTS. No downside that I can think of.

2. They're pretty much cumulative. You still have Triremes and Great Wall in BTS (2nd best wonder, IMO). The only difference is Warlords scenarios aren't available with BTS. Not a big loss, I'll take Rhye's over all Warlord scenarios any day.

Have fun with your new-found addiction! The forum and strategy articles are a great way to learn.

 

[iampliny]

Thanks Gwynnja and Ataxerxes for the replies! BTS it is.

Just played the tutorial to the mid 1500s to get some initial schooling. That Ghandi sure doesn't seem to mind me massing my catapults outside Delhi too much.

I'll check out the strategy guides here next. Cheers.

 

[ForwardSSBM]

Hello everyone,

My first post here. I just got BTS and have played about 30 hours so far, I love this game! Anyways, I'm realizing there is a ton of stuff to learn and thus I have joined these forums. One things I've seen mentioned is capturing other cities workers, how do I do that?

I'm also wondering about the multiplayer. In a lot of other games that have multiplayer it is the standard of play that and what the community is built upon, e.g. tournaments. Is it the same with the Civ series? Or is the challenge mostly contained in single player and trying to win on the higher difficulty levels?

 

[Shoes]

Civ is mostly a SP game, but there is quite a lot of MP going on. As for capturing the workers, all you have to do is to declare war and then step on their worker.

 

[Verarde]

Question about scoring:

Let's play True and False!

True or False: The earlier the finish date, the higher the score.

True or False: The higher the difficulty level, the higher the score.

True or False: The type of victory helps determine the final score.

I am pretty sure the first two are True, not sure about the last one. Help?

 

[Ataxerxes]

Question about scoring:

Let's play True and False!

True or False: The earlier the finish date, the higher the score.

True or False: The higher the difficulty level, the higher the score.

True or False: The type of victory helps determine the final score.

I am pretty sure the first two are True, not sure about the last one. Help?

Yes to first 2. Third is sort of true. Victory type helps determine the final score because a Dom win will have higher population and land. A Domination win will nearly always outscore a Culture of Space unless there's a HUGE tech difference and the other two were close to Domination anyway.

 

[Gwynnja]

I rarely have any trees by the time I get to biology, but sometimes I'll have patches of jungle. If I drop a settler in the middle of it and feed it sushi will the jungle preserves give me free specs with national park?

 

[Jezz]

Settler, Chieftain, Warlord, Noble, Prince, Monarch, Emperor, Immortal, and Deity

Which of the Civ4 difficulty levels is the same as Regent from Civ3? (the base difficulty level where AI gets no bonuses or handicaps?

Thanks

 

[s.bernbaum]

Which of the Civ4 difficulty levels is the same as Regent from Civ3? (the base difficulty level where AI gets no bonuses or handicaps?

Thanks

I have never played Civ3, so I don't know what Regent is. However, based on your parenthetical comment, Noble is the level where neither you nor the AI gets any bonuses. Below Noble you get bonuses. Above Noble the AIs get bonuses. The further the level is from Noble, the greater the bonuses. This is based on your level, not the AI's. If you use Custom Game to start a game, instead of Play Game, you will see that the AI is always marked as Noble, only your level can be selected. This is normal. It is confusing and probably a poor choice by the game designers but the only one that means anything is your level.

 

[snepp]

I would say that in Vanilla Civ 4 prince is pretty close to regent, in BTS with better AI it's probably noble.

 

[Sisiutil]

Which of the Civ4 difficulty levels is the same as Regent from Civ3? (the base difficulty level where AI gets no bonuses or handicaps?

Thanks

That would be Noble level.

 

[Gwynnja]

What is "ping-ing" the map. I did it on accident.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

It highlights a tile for your teammates in multiplayer.

 

[Carwyn]

I just happily updated my computer last week and installed Win XP Pro 64 bit. I've got the game installed just fine, but when I play multiplayer with my friends the game goes OOS very early in the game (about the time we plant cities). What do I need to do to make sure my 64 bit system is working properly? Will that keep me from playing MP with my friends (who have 32 bit systems)?

There is only one user - me - and I'm the listed Administrator. The game seems fine single player. What do I start to look for?

Thanks!

 

[Luthor_Saxburg]

Very very basic question: what is the difference between Beyond the Sword, Warlords and Colonization? Are they expansion packs or work autonomously?

If I have to choose between them which do you recommend?

Thanks for your help!

 

[bestbrian]

Very very basic question: what is the difference between Beyond the Sword, Warlords and Colonization? Are they expansion packs or work autonomously?

If I have to choose between them which do you recommend?

Thanks for your help!

Basic Civ IV (commonly referred to as Vanilla) was the initial release. Warlords and Beyond the Sword were expansion packs. Colonizaion is a stand-alone game that utilizes the Civ IV game engine.

Beyond the Sword is the latest expansion, and the version most refined mods are based upon. The only thing you're missing by skipping Warlords are the scenarios.

You can buy Civ IV Complete fairly cheap from Amazon, and it includes all of the above games.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Very very basic question: what is the difference between Beyond the Sword, Warlords and Colonization? Are they expansion packs or work autonomously?

If I have to choose between them which do you recommend?

Thanks for your help!

BTS absolutely, no question. As Bestbrian noted, you can get Civ IV Complete for very little now.

Warlords scenarios aren't worth much. RFC for history or Fall from Heaven for fantasy are great scenarios/mods, however, that come with BTS.

 

[Verarde]

Yes, I agree. At times now I feel bad for asking for Complete for Christmas 2 years ago, feels like it was a waste of Dad's money. Coulda just gotten me BtS and have been done with it!

 

[Carwyn]

I just happily updated my computer last week and installed Win XP Pro 64 bit. I've got the game installed just fine, but when I play multiplayer with my friends the game goes OOS very early in the game (about the time we plant cities). What do I need to do to make sure my 64 bit system is working properly? Will that keep me from playing MP with my friends (who have 32 bit systems)?

There is only one user - me - and I'm the listed Administrator. The game seems fine single player. What do I start to look for?

Thanks!

Just an update - once I made sure all my drivers were up to date and all my Windows updates were loaded, we didn't have any more problems and I'm up and playing! Yay!