Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[civfanchambers]

Anyone have trouble running civ4 bts with windows 8?

Just bought a new computer today, windows 8. So far civ4 runs without any problems. My old 2007 computer died a few days ago. So sad, but my new shiny comp makes me happy.

 

[nfw]

No issue with civ4 and win8 here


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[elmurcis]

What are conditions for AI to offer me peace vassal? Power ratio? Diplo relationships? Distance between our lands? Just last game (huge/17 AI) I got 3 peace vassals (mansa, asoka and saladin) and was curious - why?

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

I'm no code diver, but I think it's mainly power and diplo. It doesn't seem like they take into account possible future enemies (or lack thereof). And I don't think distance has anything to do with it- I've turned down many a vassalbeg from AIs (well, Mansa) that were on a different continent pre-Astro.

Spoiler :

("Hey, guy I just met from a random Caravel! I know it'll be fifty turns before you could land so much as a Warrior over here, but can you protect me from Monty?")

 

[cybersailer]

when i look at AI civ improvements, it appears that there are sometimes farms and towns built on terrain that is not in the city radius. i understand farms may be needed to connect irrigation. Question: why the "unnecessary" farms and towns? do they add something i'm not aware of?

thanks in advance...

2nd question. if i build three gorges dam, hydro power (and others) remain available. is there advantage to building them, too?

thanks

 

[TheMulattoMaker]

when i look at AI civ improvements, it appears that there are sometimes farms and towns built on terrain that is not in the city radius. i understand farms may be needed to connect irrigation. Question: why the "unnecessary" farms and towns? do they add something i'm not aware of?

Well, when it comes to tile imrovements, the AI is stupid. Really stupid. Extraordinarily stupid. This morning I saw two Chinese workers on a grassland forest. Qin had one chopping the forest (4 turns). The other was building a lumbermill (5 turns). :suicide:

(So, while it is possible to learn an occasional tidbit from watching the AI, usually if it doesn't look like it makes sense, it just doesn't make sense.)

2nd question. if i build three gorges dam, hydro power (and others) remain available. is there advantage to building them, too?

There can be. If you popped the Coal Fuel event at some point, then I believe while 3GD takes away the coal plants' , you still keep the +4 from the event. Also, you'll still need some sort of power plant in every city not on the same continent as 3GD.

 

[cybersailer]

There can be. If you popped the Coal Fuel event at some point, then I believe while 3GD takes away the coal plants' , you still keep the +4 from the event. Also, you'll still need some sort of power plant in every city not on the same continent as 3GD.

thanks for both.

more specifically:

i build hydro in cityA.

then build 3GD in cityA (all cities are on same continent).

after 3GD is complete and i have power everywhere, i still have the choice to build hydro (any city on any river/same continent). does this add anything extra?

 

[nfw]

No I think it is just a bug


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[God-Emperor]

It is a "bug" until some other civ takes the city with 3GD and half your cities no longer have power and the other half get their coal power pollution back...

Still, it is rarely useful to build more power plants of any type on the continent after you have the 3GD.

 

[cybersailer]

is micromanaging worthwhile?

eg. researching optics. 3 turns remain with set to 90%. this also give me +8 /turn (24 total)

if i reduce to 60% at this point i will still get optics in three turns, but will get +45 /@ turn. (135 total) - net gain 111

this seems desirable. am i missing something???

thanks...

 

[Lemon Merchant]

is micromanaging worthwhile?

eg. researching optics. 3 turns remain with set to 90%. this also give me +8 /turn (24 total)

if i reduce to 60% at this point i will still get optics in three turns, but will get +45 /@ turn. (135 total) - net gain 111

this seems desirable. am i missing something???

thanks...

It is desirable, and you aren't missing anything.

Slider noodling is a good strategy because it helps to build wealth for unit upgrades, rush buying, etc. It takes a little more attention to do it, but the rewards are definitely worth it in the long term.

 

[6K Man]

is micromanaging worthwhile?

eg. researching optics. 3 turns remain with set to 90%. this also give me +8 /turn (24 total)

if i reduce to 60% at this point i will still get optics in three turns, but will get +45 /@ turn. (135 total) - net gain 111

this seems desirable. am i missing something???

thanks...

You'll still get Optics in 3 turns, but you'll have less science overflow into the next tech, meaning that it might take longer to research that one. This might or might not matter, but that's the tradeoff - money for science.

 

[Ghpstage]

is micromanaging worthwhile?

eg. researching optics. 3 turns remain with set to 90%. this also give me +8 /turn (24 total)

if i reduce to 60% at this point i will still get optics in three turns, but will get +45 /@ turn. (135 total) - net gain 111

this seems desirable. am i missing something???

thanks...

In civ 3 micro-hell was absolutely the way to do play in all areas of the game, be it in city growth, production or research, as overflow , , were all wasted.
In this game however the overflow goes into the next tech or build so there isn't any real need.
There are slider/tech micro tricks in the game, the most prominent one (binary research) hordes small stockpiles of gold to take advantage of multipliers and trades that will/may come into play in the future, but unless you are playing Immortal+ there will be far more useful things to learn for now.

Micro in itself is very useful in civ 4, and appears all over the place. The most important areas of micro are found in city and worker management.

 

[cybersailer]

first of all thanks for all three replies.

In this game however the overflow goes into the next tech

i understand there is overflow, but is that from one turn or is it accumulative from all (three, in this case) turns? in other words is the overflow from just the last turn? should i convert 2 turns to and then let the 3rd turn overflow into the next tech?

 

[s.bernbaum]

The overflow is from the last turn. However, (for an arbitrary numbers example) if you had 3 turns left to finish research and you were getting 50 points per turn towards 120 needed to finish the research, you would overflow the "extra" 30 from the last turn. If you increase research so that each turn is providing 55, then the overflow from the last turn is 45. If you decrease the amount per turn to 45 instead, then the overflow is 15. In summary the overflow is, in all cases:

(number of turns to finish) * (points per turn) - (total number of points needed to finish) = overflow

In other words, there is no overflow until the last turn but if you decrease the amount put into research on earlier turns, you decrease the overflow of the last turn or even increase the number of turns needed to finish that research.

 

[cybersailer]

(number of turns to finish) * (points per turn) - (total number of points needed to finish) = overflow

In other words, there is no overflow until the last turn but if you decrease the amount put into research on earlier turns, you decrease the overflow of the last turn or even increase the number of turns needed to finish that research.

ahhhh! now i get it. there IS no free lunch

thanks to all

 

[TheSunIsDark]

If something gets double-production, and it has, for example, 98 out of 100 hammers, and overflows, are the overflow hammers still doubled? If there were 6 base hammers, would there be 10 overflow or 5? Is it worth micromanaging something with a production boost to maximise the overflow?

 

[Ghpstage]

If something gets double-production, and it has, for example, 98 out of 100 hammers, and overflows, are the overflow hammers still doubled? If there were 6 base hammers, would there be 10 overflow or 5? Is it worth micromanaging something with a production boost to maximise the overflow?

No it goes back to the base value so 5.

 

[prestonjnr]

Good evening!

My friend and I are long term and avid Civ fans, going all the back to the original Civ but are new to multiplayer.

We can set new games up and we can easily play along when we are both on line but this isn't always suitable as we live on at either ends of European continent.

Is it possible to set up a multiplayer game in Civ V where we can play alternative turns and do it via email notification or something similar and be on line at separate times?

If anyone can offer assistance on this matter, it would be hugely appreciated!

Lee

 

[Ghpstage]

EDIT
TheMulattoMaker pointed out it was civ 5 you were talking about.....
Play By Email doesn't exist in in civ 5 AFAIK, but I think hotseat does. So a possible workaround would be to email a hotseat game back and forth after each turn.