Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[ChrispyChris]

haha oh okay, I'm sorry. Well thank you ma'am. haha I have some more questions.

Is there a way to get some ships into the sea without having a settlement built directly on the coast?

My buddy is going to trade me an excess gold resource. I am wondering how I can pay him wealth for it. Is that possible?

 

[UnforcedError]

They stop working (you won't get your +1 any more). As far as the "-30 per 3", are you talking about how the building costs 30 and will take 3 turns to build?

Not entirely true as obsoleted buildings always keep their culture. So a normally built monument will keep the +1 culture and will double up after 1000 years. But if you had the monuments due to Stonehenge they will disappear.

I don't understand this much better than you do, but: tiles do not produce gold, they produce commerce. From what I can gather, commerce has little effect on your gold balance, it impacts your research points (beakers) per turn instead. What I really don't know is why.

Commerce affects your gold / research / culture / espionage balance, depending on the slider.

haha oh okay, I'm sorry. Well thank you ma'am. haha I have some more questions.

Is there a way to get some ships into the sea without having a settlement built directly on the coast?

My buddy is going to trade me an excess gold resource. I am wondering how I can pay him wealth for it. Is that possible?

Ships can only be built in coastal cities.
You can trade resources for gold as soon as you have Currency. But you can also them gift for free.

 

[ChrispyChris]

When we get happiness from deer or gold, they go to the other cities through trade routes. My friend however is fishing in one city but not getting the bonus in his other city that doesn't sit on the coast. He is actually even fishing from the coastal city into the borders of the landlocked one, but no bonus. Is it because fish has to go through water trade?

 

[jarhead_leif]

EDIT:
1: He must acquire "sailing" technology.
2: The cityA (coastal) must be connected to cityB (landlocked)

If the cities are landlocked but the borders get the fish resource
1: He needs atleast 1 other coastal city (to build a WB, ofc) or should build a fortress(w construction) on the coast (doesn't have to be inside the bfc nor cultural borders) connected with roads to the city.
2: Settling a city 1 tile away from coast is a bad move, unless he has a very good reason.
3: A coastal city from a friendly neighbore is connected to his (landlocked) city. And are to be open-borders.

 

[ChrispyChris]

Might I ask why it's bad? That's the only way to build any kind of ship, right? I thought to build workboats and such, you would need a settlement on the coast.

Also, what is BFC?

 

[UnforcedError]

Might I ask why it's bad? That's the only way to build any kind of ship, right? I thought to build workboats and such, you would need a settlement on the coast.

Also, what is BFC?

If you settle 1 tile away from the coast you cannot build workboats.

Big Fat Cross (the 20 tiles your city can potentially work if they are within your culture radius).

 

[jarhead_leif]

Might I ask why it's bad? That's the only way to build any kind of ship, right? I thought to build workboats and such, you would need a settlement on the coast.

I meant a gap bet. the city and the coast(water tile). Those may not build WB, lighthouse, ship, etc., and make water tiles useless.

Also, what is BFC?

It stands for "big fat chicken"..err I meant "cross". 21 tiles(including the city itself) when you open up the city screen. ^^

 

[ChrispyChris]

I am so confused now on the water part of this game. How do I go about building workboats and other navy then if I don't build my settlement touching the water? Edit: So I just leave a one space gap? Thanks!

Why does a settler have a small square of blue around him? Is this a place I can build while he is just standing there, or is this the area I would have borders around if he did settle in that spot?

How does trading through rivers work? Does a settlement have to be on the river, or can a road touch a river and then further down the river, say even across the map along the river, have another road connect to another settlement. Would that open up trade? Thanks.

 

[AdamCrock]

When we get happiness from deer or gold, they go to the other cities through trade routes. My friend however is fishing in one city but not getting the bonus in his other city that doesn't sit on the coast. He is actually even fishing from the coastal city into the borders of the landlocked one, but no bonus. Is it because fish has to go through water trade?

We cannot get happiness from deer only from fur which is obsoleted (why ecology ?)
And if we do -> it goes to all (connected road or river) cities and always just +1 no matter how many resouces You accumulate ) it may be as well as +5 deers but You will get only +1 each city connected to the city that has deer. If Your friend cities are not getting the fishies -> build more roads Connect the cities, remember if Your friend has no astrology he cannot connect via ocean water squares

edit : BFG is a shortcut from Big Frakkin' Gun from Quake ! xD

 

[jarhead_leif]

Why does a settler have a small square of blue around him? Is this a place I can build while he is just standing there, or is this the area I would have borders around if he did settle in that spot?

Best possible tile for settlement. But there are times they should not be taken into consideration.

How does trading through rivers work? Does a settlement have to be on the river, or can a road touch a river and then further down the river, say even across the map along the river, have another road connect to another settlement. Would that open up trade? Thanks.

Yep. They count as roads (only difference is they are located in between tiles).

 

[ChrispyChris]

Oh , nevermind. I understand now ha. You confused me with your post where you were explaining how it would make all water tiles useless. I thought you meant that would happen if I built touching the water. I read it over and over and finally put it together with your edit haha.

 

[AdamCrock]

Oh , nevermind. I understand now ha. You confused me with your post where you were explaining how it would make all water tiles useless. I thought you meant that would happen if I built touching the water. I read it over and over and finally put it together with your edit haha.

coastal squares work as roads when You have the "sailing" technology , plenty usefull on archipelago maps

 

[ChrispyChris]

Thanks for that. I didn't know a whole lot about the water concept yet in this game, so I love learning new things.

 

[jarhead_leif]

coastal squares work as roads when You have the "sailing" technology , plenty usefull on archipelago maps

Also "astronomy" for intercontinental trade routes. No trades across oceans without the proper tech.

 

[God-Emperor]

If the city is not next to the ocean, how exactly would you get a workboat across that 100 mile chunk of land between you and the ocean?

Of course the city has to be directly on the water. The terminology may be confusing you. "Coast" is the actual name of the type of water tiles that are right up against the land (you can see it in the help that shows for the plot when you move your mouse over it - the lighter colored ones up against the land are called "coast", the others are called "ocean"). But here in the real world "the coast" is also what people call the land that is next to the water. So if someone says you have to put the city next to the coast do they mean next to the land next to the water or do they mean next to the water? Terminology issues.

To build anything having anything to do with the water the city has to be immediately adjacent to the water.

There is also a size requirement for the body of water in order to build various things. Any body of water under 10 plots in size is a freshwater lake and you can not build much of anything for such a small body of water (which is not so small). There is also a size 20 requirement for some things. This makes seas of size 10-19 be in a sort of indeterminate zone where you can build some things but not everything. A lighthouse (or UB equivalent: the Viking trading post or Carthage's cothon) only requires 10, a customs house (or Portuguese Feitora) also needs only 10, but a drydock requires 20. The Great Lighthouse needs 10, as do the Colossus and Moai Statues. Ships (galley, trireme, etc.) need size 20, except workboats which have no specific size requirement but are the only unit with the "bPrereqBonuses" flag set so you should not be able to build them if the body of water has no resources in it.

That may or may not clear things up...

 

[AdamCrock]

I have learned that 20 (water tiles) is the "magic number". City needs to be placed next to minimum 20 tiles body of water (any) to be able to build naval units You can build lighthouses with less than 20 tiles body of water thou - not sure how much was that.

 

[Ghpstage]

Best possible tile for settlement. But there are times they should not be taken into consideration.

The AI suggestions come up as blue circles, and these are absolutely awful and are best turned off!
The 9 tile square around settlers that I belive Chris was talking about shows the initial city borders upon settling, and won't appear if the city cannot be settled (which happens if its only 2 tiles from another city on the same 'continent'). A continent in civ 4 being any landmass, even a 1 tile island.

1: He must acquire "sailing" technology.

You don't need Sailing for a coastal city to have its seafood resources connected (in most circumstances), water tiles inside your cultural borders can be traded across without Sailing or Astro, and the same applies to rivers. You do not even need to have Fishing technically if you capture a city with improved seafood resources

Two worldbuildered pictures to hopefully explain a bit more,

Spoiler :

The above pic just shows cities connected with neither fishing nor sailing using 'touching' cultural borders (diagonals count!) and a road to a river which opens up into the coast within Perisas culture allowing trade between all cities. The symbol above the cities name just shows that the city is connected to the capital.
Oh and is the blue square surrounding the settler in the picture what you had in mind Chris? If so my original answer was correct

Spoiler :

Second one just shows that a city can have access to seafood resources improved within its borders long before Sailing
Technically the tile containing the fish is ocean by the way, if its not within a civs cuture then they can't even send any ships onto it till Optics!

 

[AdamCrock]

Fishing fishy fishing without fishing technology Talk about giving man a fish ! - He will take a whole civ !

 

[damerell]

I know but You cant build Alu units in the city with Alu + CreCon corps (Cre will "eat" all alu)

EDIT: Very sorry I was wrong with unability to make units, tested it - yup You are still able to build alu units with no alu as a map "resource" in cities with both Alu corp and Creative Con. corp. Sorry if I misled someone.

Because you are wrong in the general case; corporations do not consume resources in any way.

 

[Choeimok]

So, let's say you have the Colossus but find out there are some decent Astro islands, not a Terra map like new world but enough for 5-10 cities. The AIs don't have Astro yet. Is it worth researching it?
In my last game on Prince/Fractal/Spain I had crazy production land and with it already had conquered two of the 3 AIs on my continent. I already had Mining when I got Optics and found three backwards AIs with 3 different religions, and I went for it, and the new cities were actually productive. But generally speaking?