Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Luthor_Saxburg]

Thanks Bernbaum & Lord Parkin. Very usefull indeed.

It's probably something that should be detailed in the War Academy, but it doesn't seem to be there.

I did try to glance through there before posting here but couldn't find anything.

- Techs now cost 50% more, but you combine your research with your ally.

This is the same ratherless of the two allied civs researching the same tech or different techs?


Regarding the Internet - I was in a game (SP) that I had the internet and all was going fine until there was a new civ and I stopped receiving new techs that two civs had. I did not check if there were any Permanent Alliances, which could have been the reason for two civs having the tech and me not (if they had a PA which I did not notice).

 

[Lord Parkin]

This is the same ratherless of the two allied civs researching the same tech or different techs?

Yes, all tech costs are increased by 50%, whether you and your ally are researching them together or separately. Though given that you each get free techs from one another at the start of the alliance, and that even with the tech cost increase you still get new techs faster than you otherwise would in most situations, it's a pretty good deal.

For the record, in teams of 3 or more - which can only happen if you set them up at the start of the game, not through PA's - the tech cost is increased by 50% per extra player. So for a team of 3, your tech costs go up by 100% - i.e. double cost techs, but with (potentially) triple the research power. A team of 4 has tech costs increased by 150%, and so on.

Regarding the Internet - I was in a game (SP) that I had the internet and all was going fine until there was a new civ and I stopped receiving new techs that two civs had. I did not check if there were any Permanent Alliances, which could have been the reason for two civs having the tech and me not (if they had a PA which I did not notice).

Sounds weird. Maybe it was the PA thing, I couldn't say for sure without seeing the game.

 

[Canaris]

Is there some way to limit tundra/ice/deserts generation ?? Because its getting really stupid when i play on tropical map and i cant a place to build a city without 1 or 2 useless tiles because this damn tundra and deserts are everywhere :/ .
I dont remeber that problem in Civ4 but in BTS its really annoying :/

 

[Verarde]

The only solution there is not to play on a Tropical map. Fractal gives a nice balance of tiles.

 

[GGracchus]

Pangaea will also solve this.

 

[Akbarthegreat]

Is there some way to limit tundra/ice/deserts generation ?? Because its getting really stupid when i play on tropical map and i cant a place to build a city without 1 or 2 useless tiles because this damn tundra and deserts are everywhere :/ .
I dont remeber that problem in Civ4 but in BTS its really annoying :/

If you play RevolutionDCM, there is a map script which allows you to erase tundra/desert/ice.

 

[mcc1200]

How do I make the game ask me what to build next after finishing construction? (instead of just making the city build something itself)

I believe it was this way in my previous game, but then I started the next one and it just starts building warriors or whatever after finishing construction and I can't find the way to switch it off anywhere in the settings.

 

[God-Emperor]

How do I make the game ask me what to build next after finishing construction? (instead of just making the city build something itself)

On the city screen find the Draft button. Two rows of buttons down from that (under the two rush buttons) the leftmost button is the production automation button. Turn that off.

 

[mcc1200]

The button is on non-flashy, so I believe it is turned off. I even tried to get it the other way, it still does it.

"Whatever has been built. Townplace started producing Archer."

 

[s.bernbaum]

If the button has a yellow border, it is on. If it does not have a yellow border, it is off. Make sure none of them have a yellow border and then see if the problem persists.

 

[mcc1200]

Yes, all my cities have it turned off.

EDIT: I double checked. It's turned off. What I've noticed is that it does not always happen, it just did start producing an archer after producing a settler, but the game asked me what to do after producing a missionary. It's extremely annoying, especially when a couple of cities finishes production at once and then I have to find them fast before the notification disappears or I end up building useless nonsense.

 

[krikav]

Is there some way to limit tundra/ice/deserts generation ?? Because its getting really stupid when i play on tropical map and i cant a place to build a city without 1 or 2 useless tiles because this damn tundra and deserts are everywhere :/ .
I dont remeber that problem in Civ4 but in BTS its really annoying :/

I can't help but wonder, why 1 or 2 useless tiles should be a problem in a city?
If you have such harsh demands on potential city sites, that they need to have 20 perfect tiles, you will find hardly any good city spots.

Maybe you are abit too demanding?

Cities don't need to be perfect, they just need to be good!
And we all know that "perfect is the worst enemy of good."

 

[ajsciri4]

I've only finished one game, ever. I usually get bored halfway through and decide to do something different. My only game was a domination win on Noble, so I decided maybe I needed a challenge to hold my interest, but I'm not good at anything above Noble. Are there any write ups or anything on the higher levels that explains exactly what and why they're doing what they're doing? I saw a few of TMIT's games on Youtube, and they were helpful, except that sometimes he doesn't explain what he's doing.
Links, please?
Thank you guys so much for helping out the newbie Civvers.

 

[Sisiutil]

I've only finished one game, ever. I usually get bored halfway through and decide to do something different. My only game was a domination win on Noble, so I decided maybe I needed a challenge to hold my interest, but I'm not good at anything above Noble. Are there any write ups or anything on the higher levels that explains exactly what and why they're doing what they're doing? I saw a few of TMIT's games on Youtube, and they were helpful, except that sometimes he doesn't explain what he's doing.
Links, please?
Thank you guys so much for helping out the newbie Civvers.

You could check out my own ALC games (link in my sig). There are other series in the Strategy forum that are similar.

"Late game fatigue" is pretty common with Civ. It's possible to reach a point, long before the game's definition of victory is achieved, where you have acquired everything you need to dominate and win. Your gameplay from that point on consists largely of going through the motions because most of the challenge is gone. Many players, myself included, will often abandon that game and start a new one at that point.

With that being said, I have also played some incredibly close games where everything was down to the wire. IIRC, the Hannibal ALC was like that.

 

[MaxWar]

I've only finished one game, ever. I usually get bored halfway through and decide to do something different. My only game was a domination win on Noble, so I decided maybe I needed a challenge to hold my interest, but I'm not good at anything above Noble. Are there any write ups or anything on the higher levels that explains exactly what and why they're doing what they're doing? I saw a few of TMIT's games on Youtube, and they were helpful, except that sometimes he doesn't explain what he's doing.
Links, please?
Thank you guys so much for helping out the newbie Civvers.

As Sisiutil pointed out, late game fatigue is common, usually when you are totally owning, or totally owned. However when you get a close game where nothing is decided till the very end, it can keep being interesting.

If you want a write up for games played above noble, you can check the Story and tales Subforum . Some stories are played at prince and above. For instance, my own story "Welcome to Randomland" ( See Sig) Is fairly detailed gameplay wise and is played at Monarch. Pretty much kicking butts in it also. ( Sorry for the shameless self-promo )

 

[ajsciri4]

Thanks to the both of you. Let me describe my situation:
Warlords, by the way. As Russia, I have 7 or 8 cities at around 1 AD I believe. All of them are fairly decent cities so I'm kinda glad I have a stable empire for once. I have two other civs on my continent, but there is still room for me to expand without me crushing them, so I don't. They're barely behind me in tech so I wouldn't say I'm killing them. But for some reason, I can play maybe 10-15 turns and tell myself, "this is pointless." Then I quit and reload the save the next day. It's fatigue, but for no real reason. Any other ideas on how to hold interest?

By the way, I kinda like hectic games, so the one I finished and won was me playing as Rome on an 18-civ duel sized Pangaea. Culture + infantry, rockin it.

 

[Jwitti]

YES that's what I do when I'm bored

 

[ketan]

I always try to go for the earliest possible domination. I think the aim should never be winning, but really winning before the modern era. If I am unable to accomplish it, I feel dissatisfied, and sometimes even quit.

But getting domination before 1900s is always challenging and fun. I also think this is doable on noble and below for Pangaea maps at least....haven't been able to do it on continents however.

 

[GGracchus]

On noble it's easy to get domination/conquest on continents pre-1900, if you count getting conquest and having dom land/pop as well. Just get combustion/industrialism/flight, start getting transports/marines/fighters, and go conquering. On noble you can get this pre-1900.

 

[s.bernbaum]

ajsciri4 said:

But for some reason, I can play maybe 10-15 turns and tell myself, "this is pointless." Then I quit and reload the save the next day. It's fatigue, but for no real reason.

There is nothing wrong with getting tired of the play, saving the game and then reloading the save another day to continue, which is what you describe. That is the way that I always play. I never finish a game in one sitting and I nearly always finish my games. Sometimes it may be days before I come back to a game and load the most recent save. Always I do this many times before finishing a game. A CIV game need not be played in one sitting.