Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[TheBirdMan]

Though it really isn't something, that makes any difference for me in a game, I do wonder a little:

Why do the AI make farms 3 tiles or more away from their cities? And even use turns/ressources on irrigate them?


Below is a screenshot from an area, which I just have taken from "The Pope" (Romans). I never change farm-tiles outside the city "foot-print" (except that I sometimes destroy them to have the forest spread back) - but is that an error?

 

[Lennier]

Are you playing the RI mod (as in your sit)? May be a thing/bug with that mod. I might farm outside BFCs for irrigation or improve a resource outside BFC for trade or corporations.

 

[Orion Pax]

Feel like I should know this but when an AI refusal to capitulate reads as “surely you must be joking,” what does that mean usually? To this point I thought I’d only gotten “we’re doing just fine on our own.”

Might it have something to do with having enough strength ratio to capitulate but not having racked up enough win points (taking cities, etc.)?

 

[TheBirdMan]

-->Lennier.

It isn't about collecting the ressources.

I know that humans can "collect" any bonus as long as they are inside the cultural border by making the "correct" improvement upon that bonus.
I also know that the AI uses a fort (at least in the RI mods) instead to collect the bonus .


It's about if the AI gets anything from making farms/irrigated farms outside their cities - I don't think it does, but I'm not sure.
The roads the AI makes more or less all-over the map..... well. I don't know what to say about that. Except I think it's ugly.

 

[lymond]

In the vanilla game, forts connect resources as well. (also on islands with a road) Forts also can create channels if built adjacent to water.

No, there's no benefit from building farms outside the BFC, unless you are chain irrigating from a source. Can't speak for the RI mod though. Maybe there is some benefit to it.

 

[TheBirdMan]

I pretty sure the R:I team hasn't made any changes to that. But "something" could have been carried over from Civ IV's earliest days.

 

[Samson]

My thought was there used to be a city there, hence the irrigation outside cultural borders. I cannot see any sign of one though, as it would have removed the forest.

 

[AcaMetis]

One reason to have redundancy in your irrigation chains is in case a dust storm event destroys a farm, that way you don't immediately lose half an empire's worth of irrigation. Another reason is in case you end up placing a city in that area later, so you already have some tiles improved. And AIs are not shy of sneaking cities into warzones where cultural borders make room to squeeze in a fancy piece of junk.

Whether either reason is why the AI places down farms outside of BFCs, though, in vanilla or modded, I can't say.

 

[TheBirdMan]

Ohh well. Thanks for all the answers friends

Then I'll just continue to clean-up the mess the AI makes. At least that within my own borders .

 

[frumpleraggins]

What essential UI mods should I use, and is there any way to minimize the amount of hangs when alt-tabbing in and out of the game? Also, in your opinion, what is the best "guide" for someone with a modicum of experience but not great at Civ IV?

 

[lymond]

What essential UI mods should I use, and is there any way to minimize the amount of hangs when alt-tabbing in and out of the game? Also, in your opinion, what is the best "guide" for someone with a modicum of experience but not great at Civ IV?

THE mod for UI is BUG/BULL. It can be installed in custom assets such that it does not need to be loaded, although BULL DLL file needs to replace the vanilla DLL file (but don't delete that). BUG in custom assets is great for forum games. BAT is a version of BUG/BULL + graphics. (I use it most myself for casual play.) Blue Marble improves terrain graphics (included in BAT), and also allows one to change the UI color and fonts. You can find all that here. Just 'bout everyone 'round these parts uses some version of these mods.

BUFFY is the BTS HOF mod. It includes BUG/BULL and the HOF mod (used for vetting). BUFFY is required for Game of the Months (GOTM), Succession Game of the Month(SGOTM), and the CFC Hall of Fame (HOF), which are great ways to enjoy the game. BUFFY can be found here. Some folks use this casually as well.

There are some guides out there though most are old. But really the best way to learn is to spend time over in the Strategy & Tips (S&T) forum here. You can find some games to play along with there and get advice as you go, or start your own game we call a shadow game. Folks will help you learn. A stickied post in that forum called "Beginner Help" will provide you some nice tips. A sub-forum to S&T does have some nice articles including "Know Your Enemy" which is very helpful understanding the AI and diplomacy.

Henry75 and Lain have there own threads, in S&T, that list/link their Let's Plays on Youtube, which is another great way to learn to play better. Most of their games are on Deity.

 

[f1rpo]

Feel like I should know this but when an AI refusal to capitulate reads as “surely you must be joking,” what does that mean usually? To this point I thought I’d only gotten “we’re doing just fine on our own.”

Might it have something to do with having enough strength ratio to capitulate but not having racked up enough win points (taking cities, etc.)?

Yes, looks like it (comments added by me):

Spoiler CvTeamAI::AI_surrenderTrade :

if (!isAtWar(eTeam))
{
   // ...
}
else // i.e. when at war
{
   // When their war success plus a constant is greater than the would-be master's
   if (AI_getWarSuccess(eTeam)
       + 4 * GC.getDefineINT("WAR_SUCCESS_CITY_CAPTURING")
       > GET_TEAM(eTeam).AI_getWarSuccess(getID()))
   {
       return DENIAL_JOKING;
   }
}
return NO_DENIAL;

This is at the very end of the function, so all other checks for capitulation have already been passed.

[...] Why do the AI make farms 3 tiles or more away from their cities? And even use turns/ressources on irrigate them? [...]

The AI doesn't know how to build irrigation chains purposefully, so it uses a low-priority routine named "irrigateTerritory" that just irrigates all non-workable tiles. It's the same in K-Mod (which Realism Invictus is based on).

[...] and is there any way to minimize the amount of hangs when alt-tabbing in and out of the game? [...]

I always play in windowed mode. (Just in case you hadn't considered that. )

 

[TheBirdMan]

Thank you SO much F1rpo.

A simple and yet very reasonable answer.

 

[Pangaea]

Wasn't there a similar thing happening with "We have our reasons...", e.g. "we are building a wonder"? Think that comment is also at the bottom of the list (or far down anyhow), so it won't necessarily show up if they already think we are too advanced for example.

 

[f1rpo]

@Pangaea: Yep, if I read that correctly, the order is:

"worst enemy" < "don't like you enough" < "becoming too advanced" <
"not just yet" < "have our reasons" < "would rather win"​

Here's the source code.

 

[D64]

I've been playing Civ 4 for years, but I feel like this is a newbie question, so here goes...

I am attempting to attack an enemy with a cavalry unit. I am corner/adjacent to the enemy, but there's unowned territory nearby (I just razed a nearby city) with a road that goes around a mountain and leads to the enemy's square. When I select my cav unit and right-click and hold on the enemy square, instead of attacking directly from my square, it wants to move my cav unit around the mountain. The cav unit won't have enough movement to get back to the stack, and doubtless it'll get picked off once it's isolated. I know why it's doing that, but how do I force the game to NOT move, and just attack?

 

[Lennier]

Pillage the road the stack is on first?

 

[Samson]

I've been playing Civ 4 for years, but I feel like this is a newbie question, so here goes...

I am attempting to attack an enemy with a cavalry unit. I am corner/adjacent to the enemy, but there's unowned territory nearby (I just razed a nearby city) with a road that goes around a mountain and leads to the enemy's square. When I select my cav unit and right-click and hold on the enemy square, instead of attacking directly from my square, it wants to move my cav unit around the mountain. The cav unit won't have enough movement to get back to the stack, and doubtless it'll get picked off once it's isolated. I know why it's doing that, but how do I force the game to NOT move, and just attack?

I THINK if you make the move it will go directly to the adjacent tile even though the displayed route is indirect. I could be wrong.

 

[D64]

Pillage the road the stack is on first?

I did that, and it worked for one cav unit. But I have others...

 

[D64]

I THINK if you make the move it will go directly to the adjacent tile even though the displayed route is indirect. I could be wrong.

I tested that, but it really does move it around the long way.