Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[The Thracian]

Is there a link for a world builder guide which would answer all my questions?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thanks for your help RJ- I have done that, however, I just see a stack of units, an archer in view- I don't know how to see what are the other units! is there an option in the world builder to see what units are in this starting stack? if I hover the cursor over them, it does not show which units are there, as it does in game...

I was hoping there would be an xml file I could look into or something!

Place a unit of yours next to it and exit the world builder. In the normal game, you can see what units are in a stack when you can see the stack.

There maybe is an xml file, but I don't know which one and looking to find out which file it is is more work then doing this.

I took a look at the file CIV4HandicapInfo.xml and there is some info in there:

Take a look at the modifiers iAIStartingExploreUnits, iAIStartingWorkerUnits and iAIStartingDefenseUnit .

Probably the modifier iAIStartingExploreUnits signifies the number of extra scouts, the iAIStartingWorkerUnits the number of extra workers and the iAIStartingDefenseUnit the number of extra defence units. As the AI starts with archery at the higher levels, these can be archers.

But all of this is not exact without looking at the world builder after starting a game.

Is there a link for a world builder guide which would answer all my questions?

You've asked the question a few times and nobody here seems to have the answer. You could try a forum search with Worldbuilder as a parameter. Maybe you can find something in that way. I know that I've read an article about extra cheating/World Builder functions that are enabled by editing the cheat code chipotle (from memory) in the civilization4.ini file. So a search for chipotle could also help.

Oh, doing a search myself with chipotle found me this thread. It might be useful. I didn't check it out myself. Try some searches yourself or ask for help in the Civ4 - Creation & Customization sub forum if this is not the thing you're looking for.

 

[The Thracian]

That world builder manual looks good. I'm checking it out now

 

[Maniac]

Well, you've answered your own question there.
No, the AI doesn't play at your level. Instead, the AI gets a number of penalties (for difficulties below noble) and bonuses (for difficulties above noble) in comparison to you.

Ah that explains why I don't seem to notice an improvement in AI behaviour when playing on higher difficulty levels.

Thanks!

 

[The Thracian]

The world builder manual is great, thanks Roland

 

[Hakim]

Some buildings give bonuses if you have certain resources, eg forge gives +1 happy face if you have gems. Questions:
1. Does that resource have to be within city radius or or just somewhere within borders?
2. The bonus are only given to/for that specific city right? It bugs me that it isn't indicated in the list of buildings to the left in the city view.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Some buildings give bonuses if you have certain resources, eg forge gives +1 happy face if you have gems. Questions:
1. Does that resource have to be within city radius or or just somewhere within borders?

The resource has to be within your borders and connected to your trade network. You'll see the number before the happy faces generated by the resource go up from 1 to 2 after you've build the building.

2. The bonus are only given to/for that specific city right? It bugs me that it isn't indicated in the list of buildings to the left in the city view.

Yes as the building is only present in the city where you build it.

 

[Snerk]

Im a little confused about unit maintenance. Someone please let me know if i got this right.

There are three kinds of unit maintenance costs.

1, unit upkeep: 1 gold you pay for each of all your units no matter where they are, though you get some units for free.

2, military upkeep:
1 gold you pay for each of your military units no matter where they are, but ONLY if you have pacifism civic enabled. Minus free support fore some units.

3. Unit supply:
1 gold you pay for each unit you have outside of your borders. Free support for some.

Have i got it right?

 

[Hakim]

Thanx Roland.

Once sweetpetes q is answered, I'd like to know if there's any way I can establish a new religion in one of my cities, after the texh have been discovered. The reason is I want to do a temp switch to that religion to be able to trade with a civ with a neg attitude (I know I can have "no religion" as state religion, but that's not always good enough).

 

[Roland Johansen]

Im a little confused about unit maintenance. Someone please let me know if i got this right.

There are three kinds of unit maintenance costs.

1, unit upkeep: 1 gold you pay for each of all your units no matter where they are, though you get some units for free.

2, military upkeep:
1 gold you pay for each of your military units no matter where they are, but ONLY if you have pacifism civic enabled. Minus free support fore some units.

This is correct. By the way, the free unit support is dependent on your total population (the sum of all your citizens in all of your cities). So larger cities reduce your unit upkeep.

There is also a discount called 'handicap cost' which is dependent on the difficulty level. This further reduces your unit upkeep.

3. Unit supply:
1 gold you pay for each unit you have outside of your borders. Free support for some.

The free support is always for 4 units. For the other units, you pay 1/2 gold per unit outside of your borders.

Have i got it right?

You can read more about it here.

Thanx Roland.

Once sweetpetes q is answered, I'd like to know if there's any way I can establish a new religion in one of my cities, after the texh have been discovered. The reason is I want to do a temp switch to that religion to be able to trade with a civ with a neg attitude (I know I can have "no religion" as state religion, but that's not always good enough).

It's not that easy. If you are the first to discover the religion, then one of your big cities with few religions (typically) will become the holy city. This city has the religion and can build a monastery or use the organized religion civic to build missionaries to spread the religion to your other cities. It can also build the shrine of that religion when you have a great prophet. Each further city that gets the religion can also use a monastery or the organized religion civic to build missionaries.

However, if you weren't the first to discover the technology, then someone has to spread the religion to you. Religion can spread naturally to your cities when your trading with someone with another religion but only when your city doesn't have a religion already. If your city already has a religion, then you have to wait until an AI decides to build a missionary to spread the religion to you.

You could also use an aggressive approach. You conquer a city with the religion in it and use it as a starting point to spread the religion through your empire. Although this war wouldn't help you to get a good relation with this neighbour. You could also try to obtain such a city by culture flipping it, but that typically takes a while.

It might be easier to try to spread your religion to them and ask them to switch to your religion. This typically only succeeds when a lot of his/her cities have your religion and he/she doesn't have a very bad relation with you. You might have to give something in return for the religion switch. However, sometimes they will even switch religion without you asking for it. This typically happens when your religion is present in more cities then their current state religion and when many nations have your religion as their state religion.

 

[Hakim]

Thanx man! I have not explored the religion thing much, shrines and such doesn't interest me (yet). After reading your answer I'll experiment with missionaries more though, I only use them to get my own cities hooked up.

Well, I suspected there wasn't any straightforward way to get their religion. The current plan is to establish a city on their continent and hope it will get it.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thanx man! I have not explored the religion thing much, shrines and such doesn't interest me (yet). After reading your answer I'll experiment with missionaries more though, I only use them to get my own cities hooked up.

Well, I suspected there wasn't any straightforward way to get their religion. The current plan is to establish a city on their continent and hope it will get it.

Hmm, a holy city of mine got over 200 gold per turn with a shrine, bank, marketplace, grocer and Wall Street at 0% tax. Might that get you interested in shrines? (I must confess that this was in the late game when I had converted many cities to this religion).

 

[Zello]

Just wondering...
I read somewhere that when you have a civilian 'working' a mine there is a chance that they will discover a new resource.

I also read somewhere that it's a good idea to put up mines everywhere because when a worker creates a mine there is a small chance to discover a new resource (as shown on screen when you mouse-over the build mine option), so that even though the mine is outside city radius if a new resource is discovered it can be linked back the the cities by road.

are either of these true?

 

[Snerk]

Cheers roland!

 

[Roland Johansen]

Just wondering...
I read somewhere that when you have a civilian 'working' a mine there is a chance that they will discover a new resource.

I also read somewhere that it's a good idea to put up mines everywhere because when a worker creates a mine there is a small chance to discover a new resource (as shown on screen when you mouse-over the build mine option), so that even though the mine is outside city radius if a new resource is discovered it can be linked back the the cities by road.

are either of these true?

If I'm correct then each turn that a mine is present on a tile, there is a small chance that a resource is found. The mine does not need to be worked and can thus be outside the fat cross. The chances are that small that it typically happens once or twice during a game on a large map. Because the chances are so small, it is extremely unpredictable and it could never happen with lots of mines on a huge map or it could happen the turn after you've build you first mine on a small map. And you might find that one mining resource that you miss or you might find your 12-th gold resource. You shouldn't let the decision to build a mine or a windmill be dominated by this small chance to find a resource. It's just a nice bonus.

 

[lost_civantares]

Sorry Roland but I'm pretty sure that I remember reading Sirian saying for the possiblity of a resource pop the land must be worked, and so therefore in the cities radius, otherwise people would go mine spamming everywhere. I looked, but I didn't find the link for this, but I'm pretty sure that I remember this right.

 

[mjs0]

If I'm correct then each turn that a mine is present on a tile, there is a small chance that a resource is found. The mine does not need to be worked and can thus be outside the fat cross. The chances are that small that it typically happens once or twice during a game on a large map. Because the chances are so small, it is extremely unpredictable and it could never happen with lots of mines on a huge map or it could happen the turn after you've build you first mine on a small map. And you might find that one mining resource that you miss or you might find your 12-th gold resource. You shouldn't let the decision to build a mine or a windmill be dominated by this small chance to find a resource. It's just a nice bonus.

From the SDK:
This is in routine CvPlot::doimprovment where it does the following:

The plot must be owned and worked




If the plot is improved and has no bonus then for every bonus resource

it verifies the civ has the relevant tech to reveal the resource
if the XML definition of the bonus resource has a non-zero value for iDiscoverRand then a random number is generated between 0 and iDiscoverRand.
If the generated number is 0 then that resource is found.



​

If we look in the XML, mineable resources have iDiscoverRand set to 10000, all other resources have this set to 0.

The net of this is that, by default, there is for each worked mine (that is not on a bonus) a 1 in 10000 chance per mineable resource per turn of the resource being discovered


(To be precise the probability may be 1 in 10001 as I'm not sure if the random number generator does '0 to x' or '0 to x-1')

 

[Roland Johansen]

I wasn't sure of my statement, that's why I said 'If I'm correct...'. It's good that I was corrected, thank you.

Maybe I shouldn't have said anything as I wasn't sure. Thanks for all the details, mjs0. I didn't know that the 1 in 10000 chance was considered for every resource that has been discovered.

However, I still think (just from experience on huge maps), that the decision to build a mine, windmill or cottage on a hill shouldn't be influenced by the chance to discover a resource. The chance is just far too small and thus it can't be relied on to happen. And if you discover a resource, then it might just as well be a resource that you already have.

 

[p dandy]

Here's a forum newbie question actually. Is there an official Warlords thread? If so, can someone point me to it. I have this one question that doesn't actually warrant the start of another thread.

In the image gallery I noticed that there was a picture of multiple archers with different skins and then I saw a picture of a single archer (European skin?) and it was titled flavor unit. My question is are we getting "region"-based skins for units now? Or are these archers from the scenarios and Firaxis was just showing off some units using the WorldBuilder?

 

[mjs0]

Roland, glad to help since you do such a great job answering many of the questions on this thread!

I am in complete agreement on your approach to this feature. If something gets discovered that's great but having this as something you plan for and go after aggressively would be a bit like having the lottery as your retirement plan!