Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[n0xie]

To my horror, 2 turns after i gave him the tech in which he declared war with roosevelt, he completed the taj mahal!!! Is that even possible? I mean the taj mahal is 700 hammers, meaning he has an average production rate per turn of 350 hammers?!?!?

The most likely explanation is that he had a Great Engineer either already in his city, or it came available in those 2 turns. You can sacrifice your Great Engineer to complete a World Wonder in 1 turn (up untill a certain point, after that it will just add a lot of hammers so it will decrease the amount of time to build the wonder dramatically). A lot of People try to 'force' a Great Engineer by building the Pyramids (gives you GE points), Forge (makes it possible you can assign one of your population as Specialist Engineer), and sometimes even The Hanging Gardens (also gives GE points). The idea is that the chance of getting a GE is pretty high this way, and typically the GE is used to rushbuild the Great Library (although you can use him to build any wonder).

I want more barbarians, specialy animals in my game. And I want them to be more active and hang around a bit longer. How can i make this happen? I've seen theres a "Raging Barbarians" option, whats that about?

If you switch 'Raging Barbarians' on you will get... more Barbarians (you answered your own question )

 

[Snerk]

If you switch 'Raging Barbarians' on you will get... more Barbarians (you answered your own question )

Thanks, i will do that. How do barbarian cities work. Do they have to be pre-placed in the map before starting the game. Or can barbarians who appear in the fog of war make cities?

 

[n0xie]

Barbarians can settle anywhere in the fog of war, but are more likely to settle if complete 'dark' spots. Just as they spawn at random, the chance for them to settle is city is random as well, and rather small. (afaik at least). You will notice that if you leave an area 'alone' for a long time (i.e. don't break the fog of war) chances go up that a barbarian settlement arises there.

 

[Snerk]

Thanks again

 

[ditto]

The most likely explanation is that he had a Great Engineer either already in his city, or it came available in those 2 turns. You can sacrifice your Great Engineer to complete a World Wonder in 1 turn (up untill a certain point, after that it will just add a lot of hammers so it will decrease the amount of time to build the wonder dramatically). A lot of People try to 'force' a Great Engineer by building the Pyramids (gives you GE points), Forge (makes it possible you can assign one of your population as Specialist Engineer), and sometimes even The Hanging Gardens (also gives GE points). The idea is that the chance of getting a GE is pretty high this way, and typically the GE is used to rushbuild the Great Library (although you can use him to build any wonder).

Oh god, completely forgot about Great Engineers, duh. So i basically owned myself in my arrogance lol. Oh well, might make this more interesting then since i am no longer the wonder hog on top of being the tech leader heh. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[n0xie]

In any other case I would just recommend capturing the city with the wonder but since it's the Taj Mahal...

 

[Snapper1]

Hello All,

Civ IV is my first go on the Civ series and I am having mucho fun with it. The game is awesome, but I still have a lot to learn.

Quick question that I have come across several times now. Here goes (I'll use a hypothetical scenario)...

I'm early in the game and say my capital is at level 3 for population, which requires 6 units of food per turn. I am in the process of training (building) a worker to develop city upgrades. Let's say I'm generating 9 food/turn and 4 hammers/turn. I would expect to have a surplus of 3 bread per turn, which would allow my population to grow towards level 4. Instead, the food surplus is shifted to help the 4 hammers for a total of 7 hammers/turn going towards construction of the worker. Instead of 6/6 or 9/6 to the left of the population bar, it just says 0 with obviously no population growth. Once the worker is completed, it went back to what I would expect--food goes toward population and hammers toward production.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening. I can't figure out why this happens or how I can change it. Thanks!

 

[MrCynical]

When building workers and settlers your surplus food is used as production. there is no way to change it as this is how it is supposed to work. In previous versions of Civ building workers and settlers actually cost population, but for Civ 4 it was decided to simpler to prevent growth during there production. It's done like this so you can't effectively build up your population with hammers, as well as food, and to discourage building settlers from the outset.

 

[Snapper1]

Cool, that makes sense.

Thanks for the quick response, Mr Cynical! I owe ya one.

 

[Gherald]

and to discourage building settlers from the outset.

Or to encourage building settlers and workers when you start next to a huge food resource like corn, fish, or pigs, which makes perfect sense...

 

[Gherald]

In any other case I would just recommend capturing the city with the wonder but since it's the Taj Mahal...

There are other cases. Notably the Oracle, but also Stonehenge to some degree.

 

[Snerk]

Do you get any bonus from having a super healthy or super happy city? Or is it the same as long as you have more healty/happy faces then unhealthy/unhappy faces?

Thank you

 

[Clownfish]

I played CivI and II before and now I'm playing my first game of CivIV - excellent game!

The probably very basic question: How are resources used? When I put my workers on automatic, they built a mine on an iron ore within the city limits but OUTSIDE the area on which I can put citizens to work and produce hammers and food etc, i.e. pretty far away (though connected with roads). Now the iron symbol appears in connected cities and it sais "+1 hammer". But this hammer doesnt' seem to add to my total production! Near the city, I'm using tiles with a total of X hammers. My production speed is exactly X hammers! Where did that +1 hammer from iron go? What's the point with it??

Thanx!

 

[Samson]

I played CivI and II before and now I'm playing my first game of CivIV - excellent game!

The probably very basic question: How are resources used? When I put my workers on automatic, they built a mine on an iron ore within the city limits but OUTSIDE the area on which I can put citizens to work and produce hammers and food etc, i.e. pretty far away (though connected with roads). Now the iron symbol appears in connected cities and it sais "+1 hammer". But this hammer doesnt' seem to add to my total production! Near the city, I'm using tiles with a total of X hammers. My production speed is exactly X hammers! Where did that +1 hammer from iron go? What's the point with it??

Thanx!

Having access to iron allows you to build many units (eg. swordmen), and adds a 100% to the build rate of some wonders (eiffel tower?). The +1 hammer refers to the tile value (what you get if you put a citizen on it) but this is secondary to having the resorce.

And welcome to CFC!!

 

[Clownfish]

Thanx, Samson!

 

[_alphaBeta_]

I played CivI and II before and now I'm playing my first game of CivIV - excellent game!

The probably very basic question: How are resources used? When I put my workers on automatic, they built a mine on an iron ore within the city limits but OUTSIDE the area on which I can put citizens to work and produce hammers and food etc, i.e. pretty far away (though connected with roads). Now the iron symbol appears in connected cities and it sais "+1 hammer". But this hammer doesnt' seem to add to my total production! Near the city, I'm using tiles with a total of X hammers. My production speed is exactly X hammers! Where did that +1 hammer from iron go? What's the point with it??

Thanx!

The +1 hammer is telling you that iron added 1 hammer to the tile it occupies. Of course if you improve the tile with a mine it will be more than that. If the tile isn't workable by a city, it doesn't matter either way, in which case the +1 hammer doesn't affect anything. It's a pretty useless stat.

All the resources are like this.

 

[ChicagoCubs]

It's done like this so you can't effectively build up your population with hammers, as well as food, and to discourage building settlers from the outset.

Actually, it allows a city that will never grow past 1 or 2 to effectively produce settles and workers. If you settle in a tundra/glacier area and never really grow, you can still slowly produce settlers from this city for future expansion.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Actually, it allows a city that will never grow past 1 or 2 to effectively produce settles and workers. If you settle in a tundra/glacier area and never really grow, you can still slowly produce settlers from this city for future expansion.

Even better if it has one food source and a bunch of useless tiles that you don't want to work anyway. you've just found your settler and worker supply for the rest of the game.

 

[vicpoppa]

I've had this game for a week and would first like to echo the sentiments of everyone on this site... that "This game rocks".

Second, I would like to point out to all the newbies (like me) that everyone should read WoundedKnight's strategy guide on Civ IV. It is comprehensive and well-written. Here's the link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141825

Lastly, sorry if my questions have been asked before on this thread. I didn't feel like going through all 51 pages to get an answer. Call me lazy

Q1) What effect does health/unhealthiness have on a city? At first I thought it affected your growth or production but it didn't seem to.

Q2) How is the final score calculated? (The one used to measure yourself to say... Dan Quayle... not to say that I was compared to him )

Q3) I've read debates about the use of a great artist. Between the "culture bomb", attaching them to your city or getting them to build their special place... if you're going for a cultural victory I don't see why you wouldn't ALWAYS use the "culture bomb". Am I way off base here? 4000 Culture Points are hard to come by.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MrCynical]

1) For each net point of unhealthiness (each that isn't balanced out by a ) the city gets a penalty of 1 food per turn. Unhealthiness will thus slow your city's growth by reducing its food surplus, and may well cause the city to stagnate.

2)It's based on a number of factors; Land area, population, tech researched, the wonder you've built, the difficulty level and the date of your victory.

3)If you get a great artist early on you may be better off in the long run merging it into the city than using it as a culture bomb. As a superspecialist they give 3 gold per turn and 14 culture per turn. Since the culture in particular can easily be multiplied by a few hundred percent by things like civics and cathedrals this can add up to more than 4000 culture over the course of a game, and you have the added bonus of the 3 gold each turn, which can also be increased by modifiers. In the late game a culture bomb is usually a better use, because there aren't enough turns left for a merged great artist to produce that much.