Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[UnforcedError]

Nope, nothing to do with the fact that some of these cities were recently captured. Happens to cities I settled too. Its always the last/bottom city on the list. I can access the build cue on all the other cities, just not that one.

Here's a screenshot of it after selecting the city: http://imgur.com/CxwZo1N

Can you access the build queue while cycling through the cities (with the arrow buttons)?

 

[Rundown]

I am playing a large map right now and I have no money to research because I have expanded too much too quickly.

So my question is what's better to build as improvements to deal with high maintenance costs, to cut down on costs, to create more gold? At this point in the game I can only build Markets or Courthouses so which improvement is better to make?

 

[s.bernbaum]

Usually courthouses are much faster to build and can be built usefully in all cities. So, I would build them first and then add markets in commerce cities. Also work tiles that generate commerce and build harbors in all port cities to increase trade yield. If things are really looking bad, you can have some cities just build wealth until your economy gets back on its feet. If you have cities with extra food, switch some of the population from working tiles to being scientists. That way you will still have research going on. I not infrequently expand until income is all going to gold and none to research, while most of my cities have a scientist or two to keep the research going strong.

 

[UnforcedError]

I am playing a large map right now and I have no money to research because I have expanded too much too quickly.

So my question is what's better to build as improvements to deal with high maintenance costs, to cut down on costs, to create more gold? At this point in the game I can only build Markets or Courthouses so which improvement is better to make?

If you can build Markets you have Currency which is exactly what you need. Just build wealth in some cities and make sure they're also using good hammer tiles, so that you can up your research. Check how much you would gain from Courthouses and Markets before you actually build them. They cost lots of hammers which could as well go into wealth.

 

[justinian66]

Can you access the build queue while cycling through the cities (with the arrow buttons)?

Cant do that either.


But its getting even weirder now . I just started a conquest of my neighbor and the problem seems to have disappeared (for now...)

 

[Jastrow]

I knew the answer to this, but have forgotten... Lets say I want to, for example, turn on the governer, or assign ALL my 30+ cities to build wealth... Wasn't there a way to click so that doing it to one city applies to all? I cant find it anymore.

 

[UnforcedError]

Cant do that either.


But its getting even weirder now . I just started a conquest of my neighbor and the problem seems to have disappeared (for now...)

That sounds like a bug I never heard of. Which patch version are you using?

I knew the answer to this, but have forgotten... Lets say I want to, for example, turn on the governer, or assign ALL my 30+ cities to build wealth... Wasn't there a way to click so that doing it to one city applies to all? I cant find it anymore.

You can SHIFT + select all your cities on the city screen to assign a global build or to turn on the governor everywhere.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

ad Justinian: It seems you are using a mod, maybe that could be an issue?

 

[Olson]

Is there a chart/list of years with the corresponding turn #?

I was watching a YouTube walkthrough of a BtS game and noticed, instead of a clock, there is a turn# indicator which Warlords doesn't seem to have.

 

[Olson]

What makes a "Fractal" map unpredictable? I'm not noticing anything unpredictable about it (ie. no snow tiles next to a desert, etc.).

[Edit: no, I wasn't hoping for odd terrain placement but the in-game description states "unpredictable" and that's what I thought it meant. 'Shuffle' is defined as, "Randomly creates a Pangea, Continents, Archipelago, or Fractal map", whereas, 'Fractal' is defined as, "An unpredictable map type". Kind of makes one wonder what's the difference between 'Shuffle' and 'Fractal'.]

 

[Jwitti]

It just does random shorelines and continent shapes.. if you want jungles on desert and Ice oases next to it then play Fantasy_Realm (custom game)

 

[Lennier]

It does a little more than that. You might get a pangea-style, continent-style, arcipello-style, or something in between. And even continent-style might not be a 50/50 split between the continents. But as Jwitti said, if you want grassland incense and ice wheat, go for Fantasy_Realm. I tried that one once and it made my brain hurt.

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

Is there a chart/list of years with the corresponding turn #?

I scoured the forums, looking for a chart I know I've seen somewhere, with no luck. I did find this thread where ori shows the code that drives the dates- if I have time later, perhapsibly I'll do the math and put together a rudimentary list.

I was watching a YouTube walkthrough of a BtS game and noticed, instead of a clock, there is a turn# indicator which Warlords doesn't seem to have.

I believe this is a feature of BUG; however, it's been so long since I played without it that I can't remember. I know one of the sub-mods of BUG lets you set up the clock in certain ways- for instance, I always have mine switch between % of game finished and turn number/total turns in game, I know I couldn't do that before BUG.

EDIT for clarity: Since that last sentence is a but muddled, and I don't have a helpful screenshot, here's an example: Say I'm on turn 75 of a 500-turn game- my clock would alternate between "75/500" and "15%".

EDIT THE SECOND: Aha! My wanderings have finally borne fruit! Just had to jump a few hundred pages back. Hope that helps, Olson.

 

[UnforcedError]

Is there a chart/list of years with the corresponding turn #?

I was watching a YouTube walkthrough of a BtS game and noticed, instead of a clock, there is a turn# indicator which Warlords doesn't seem to have.

Here's a reference table you can do the calculations yourself with.

 

[Olson]

Here's a reference table you can do the calculations yourself with.

Perfect! Thanks. I searched the forums but just kept coming up with GOTM threads. I just have to remember 4000BC is Turn 0 until I click next turn.

[Edit: made my spreadsheet/chart (autofill is such a wonderful feature).] Thanks again, UnforcedError.

 

[Olson]

I scoured the forums, looking for a chart I know I've seen somewhere, with no luck. I did find this thread where ori shows the code that drives the dates- if I have time later, perhapsibly I'll do the math and put together a rudimentary list.



I believe this is a feature of BUG; however, it's been so long since I played without it that I can't remember. I know one of the sub-mods of BUG lets you set up the clock in certain ways- for instance, I always have mine switch between % of game finished and turn number/total turns in game, I know I couldn't do that before BUG.

EDIT for clarity: Since that last sentence is a but muddled, and I don't have a helpful screenshot, here's an example: Say I'm on turn 75 of a 500-turn game- my clock would alternate between "75/500" and "15%".

EDIT THE SECOND: Aha! My wanderings have finally borne fruit! Just had to jump a few hundred pages back. Hope that helps, Olson.

Thanks. While I have so little interest in BtS itself, the more I learn of the BUG mod's features the more I'm tempted to see if the BtS specs are the same for Warlords (I've got an old XP-PC w/ min. spec for C4W) just for BUG.

 

[Kallikrates]

Turns are shown in BTS even without BUG.

 

[Olson]

I had one game that made me wonder if city ruins influence AI decisions of where to settle. Over the course of the game I ended up razing the "same" city several times. Each time I razed it, the AI would build another city in a tile adjacent to the ruins. By the end of the game there was a cluster of ruins showing where the city had been placed each time. It was almost as if the AI took the ruins as a warning "This is not a safe location for a city -- build elsewhere."

On the other hand, I have had plenty of games where the AI rebuilds a city directly on top of the ruins from the last razing, so ruins are not an automatic "settle elsewhere." Maybe they are a factor influencing the decision, but if the surrounding resources and tiles are good enough then the AI settles there again anyway?

EDIT: City ruins also have the unfortunate feature of being treated as a "bonus" and a tile can only have one bonus. Floodplains are actually desert tiles with a floodplain bonus. If the city was built on a floodplain, then the ruins will remove the floodplain bonus and leave the tile as a desert tile.

I walked right into an ungarrisoned Timbuktu (Pop.1) in 3880BC and created a ruin on a floodplain; settled adjacent and couldn't figure out why I was getting only 1 commerce from it.

 

[UnforcedError]

I walked right into an ungarrisoned Timbuktu (Pop.1) in 3880BC and created a ruin on a floodplain; settled adjacent and couldn't figure out why I was getting only 1 commerce from it.

If the city's using a FP to build its first defender you're normally safe to wait with the declaration until it's 1T away from growing. Why not get another city instantly?

 

[Lennier]

The bigger question is "Why reply to a seven-year-old post?"