Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[tiny01]

unzip them

zhelve i have unzipped them with wrar36b2!!!

 

[tiny01]

Originally Posted by tiny01
As this was the newbie section I was wondering if I could ask for some help with mods.
I have downloaded several mods, placed them in the Civ4 mods folder,checked they worked with v1.61(which they did)Then in the game I loaded one of the mods up,and played a game but nothing was different. I then tried it with the other mods and still nothing different was coming up!
Have I done something wrong?Please help!


unzip them
__________________


I have! please can someone help me!!

 

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by tiny01
As this was the newbie section I was wondering if I could ask for some help with mods.
I have downloaded several mods, placed them in the Civ4 mods folder,checked they worked with v1.61(which they did)Then in the game I loaded one of the mods up,and played a game but nothing was different. I then tried it with the other mods and still nothing different was coming up!
Have I done something wrong?Please help!


unzip them
__________________


I have! please can someone help me!!

A longshot, but try clearing out the XML cache.

To do this, reload Civ4 while you have the Shift key pressed. You should see the message "Loading XML -uncached".

 

[Roland Johansen]

I'm sure the answer to this is hidden somewhere in the documentation or amongst these threads, but the shear mass of expertise out there is overwhelming me .. hence the post to this thread ....

Having enjoyed a few games (and got to victory in fewer) of Civ4, I installed SEVOMOD, using the very simple instructions with the download.

I'd now like to try the Fall From Heaven mod which looks great (something to kill many more hours / days /weeks) of time I should be spending doing something else. I want to be able to switch back to the "normal" game, including SEVOMOD, and I'm a bit wary of losing the various links. Can anyone reassure me, or tell me how to make sure both are available and choosable please ???

Also, if I pick up a new unit, new building or fairly small mod like that ... how do I install it, without losing all the SEVOMOD stuff ?

IanM

You can install other mods in the mods folder, just as you did with the sevomod. Each mod gets a different directory.
In the install instructions of the sevomod, there is an option to change the civilization.ini file. If you did this, then you reconfigured civ 4 in such a way as to automatically load the sevomod. Normally, you can choose which mod, you want to use after you've started the game.
So there are 2 options.
1) Change the civilization.ini file each time you want to use a different mod. The game will then keep using that mod until you reconfigure the civilization.ini file settings again.
2) Change the civilization.ini file settings back to normal and you can choose which mod the game will use inside the game. The game will restart using the files of the mod you select.

Keep in mind that civilization 4 likes to remember the files it used last time in the cache (makes the game start faster). So if you don't delete this cache directory, then the game might become confused and use the different files of the 2 mods. That will probably result in multiple errors.

The cache directory can be found in
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\My Games\Civilization 4\cache
for most users.

If you can't find it, then do a search of your harddrive for the directory or file cache where you enable searching for hidden files and folders. There is only one directory cache which is also a subdirectory of civilization 4.

Originally Posted by tiny01
As this was the newbie section I was wondering if I could ask for some help with mods.
I have downloaded several mods, placed them in the Civ4 mods folder,checked they worked with v1.61(which they did)Then in the game I loaded one of the mods up,and played a game but nothing was different. I then tried it with the other mods and still nothing different was coming up!
Have I done something wrong?Please help!

Some mods don't change a lot or don't change obvious things, so make sure you know what should be changed and watch for those changes.

You could delete the cache as I recommended in the section above and was also recommended by Harrier.

The game has 2 mods directories. Be sure to place the mod in the subdirectory mods of your main installation directory (not the subdirectory of 'Documents and Settings\[blabla .....]\Civilization 4\').

Good luck.

Oh and of course:

Welcome to civfanatics, IanM and tiny01

 

[GoldEagle]

Whenever I look at the Demographics page, my trade always says "0/0". How can I fix this?

 

[lost_civantares]

First of all never trust the Demografics page, it may help you place where you are, but it is not a definite measure.

As for inreasing trade I would (probably) say that it has to deal with industry or maybe the amount of gpt you are extracting (but that doesn't make as much sense because I doubt that you would have 0/0 trade if you we just on your own in the modern age).

 

[GoldEagle]

So how do I increase it?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Whenever I look at the Demographics page, my trade always says "0/0". How can I fix this?

This statistic has to do with the amount of foreign trade routes you have. If you have closed borders with every other nation or you don't have any road/sea/river connections with any other nation, then you can't trade with them. This must be the case in your game.

If you use the civic mercantalism, then other nations can have trade routes with your cities, but you can't have trade routes with their cities.

Foreign trade routes are 2.5 times as profitable as domestic trade routes. You can only have 1 foreign trade route per foreign city of each nation that you have open borders with (and road/sea/river connections). So having open borders with many nations helps.
The number of trade routes in each of your cities also increases if you discover certain technologies and use certain civics. Currency and the corporation increase the number of trade routes per city by 1 and the free market civic also increases it by 1. Furthermore, the Great Lighthouse increases the number of trade routes in coastal cities by 2.
You can see the income from trade in your cities by entering them and viewing the city screen. It's in the left upper section.

 

[GoldEagle]

This statistic has to do with the amount of foreign trade routes you have. If you have closed borders with every other nation or you don't have any road/sea/river connections with any other nation, then you can't trade with them. This must be the case in your game.

If you use the civic mercantalism, then other nations can have trade routes with your cities, but you can't have trade routes with their cities.

Foreign trade routes are 2.5 times as profitable as domestic trade routes. You can only have 1 foreign trade route per foreign city of each nation that you have open borders with (and road/sea/river connections). So having open borders with many nations helps.
The number of trade routes in each of your cities also increases if you discover certain technologies and use certain civics. Currency and the corporation increase the number of trade routes per city by 1 and the free market civic also increases it by 1. Furthermore, the Great Lighthouse increases the number of trade routes in coastal cities by 2.
You can see the income from trade in your cities by entering them and viewing the city screen. It's in the left upper section.

Wow. You are the Civ 4 God.

Thanks, I have no clue how you know all of this...but you rule

-GE

 

[Roland Johansen]

Wow. You are the Civ 4 God.

Thanks, I have no clue how you know all of this...but you rule

-GE

Civ 4 God, hmm, sounds good

Serious, some information can be found ingame if you look for it (civilopedia, information in the tech tree, etc.). Most of the detailed information comes from some of the strategy articles in the strategy articles forum. Lots of interesting stuff can be read there. A lot of that information was found by looking at the xml-files that determine the internal game rules.

 

[Quercus]

You can install other mods in the mods folder, just as you did with the sevomod. Each mod gets a different directory.
In the install instructions of the sevomod, there is an option to change the civilization.ini file. If you did this, then you reconfigured civ 4 in such a way as to automatically load the sevomod. Normally, you can choose which mod, you want to use after you've started the game.
So there are 2 options.
1) Change the civilization.ini file each time you want to use a different mod. The game will then keep using that mod until you reconfigure the civilization.ini file settings again.
2) Change the civilization.ini file settings back to normal and you can choose which mod the game will use inside the game. The game will restart using the files of the mod you select.

Keep in mind that civilization 4 likes to remember the files it used last time in the cache (makes the game start faster). So if you don't delete this cache directory, then the game might become confused and use the different files of the 2 mods. That will probably result in multiple errors.

The cache directory can be found in
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\My Games\Civilization 4\cache
for most users.

If you can't find it, then do a search of your harddrive for the directory or file cache where you enable searching for hidden files and folders. There is only one directory cache which is also a subdirectory of civilization 4.





Some mods don't change a lot or don't change obvious things, so make sure you know what should be changed and watch for those changes.

You could delete the cache as I recommended in the section above and was also recommended by Harrier.

The game has 2 mods directories. Be sure to place the mod in the subdirectory mods of your main installation directory (not the subdirectory of 'Documents and Settings\[blabla .....]\Civilization 4\').

Good luck.

Oh and of course:

Welcome to civfanatics, IanM and tiny01

I got very excited seeing the Byzantium Mod--had just been fantisizing about being a Byzantine Emperor--and downloaded it to the Mod file (not the one in Docs and Settings) and unzipped it just fine. I started CivIV with the shift key down, which gave me the uncached IML, and shen I start the game "Amra's_Byantium_v.1" appears in the upper right corner. Okay! But when I go to choose a civ, Byzantium is not a choice. Any further tips? Thanx!

 

[Melhisedek]

Ok, (un)happiness is killing me Most of it is because it is too crowded it seams. Rome is size 14 and people are *****ing all over the place Now in Civ3 I could build different +happiness buildings but I don't have any options except Colosseum which I already have, religion is Christianity and I have Temple.

So now it seems I should have my cities below a certain population limit right? Are there any rules for that? Like keep them size 8 before you hit monarchy, than size 12 untill hospitals and so on? (this is just for example, not sure if it works this way)

 

[Gherald]

In the city screen to the left of the food/hammer bars you can see, for example:

12 14

When becomes even with , I check the "Avoid growth" option near the bottom right.

And I uncheck it when becomes higher than

I wish there was a way to automate this process. I'd much, much, much rather run a specialist with extra food than grow beyond happiness limit and waste food on unhappy citizens.

As for ways to get happiness, military units and the civic Hereditary Rule can be very effective. I prefer getting multiple religions and temples, though.

 

[Melhisedek]

Oh so you can have multiple religions in same town? Dang didn't know that, I kinda wasted my missionaries on other civs :/

Well I "solved" it by going back to slavery and killing a few of the citizens and than manually choosing tiles till I got stagnating...

Is it ok going back and forth between civics? I mean just for one such thing? Also do different civs get different civics?

 

[Samson]

Is it ok going back and forth between civics? I mean just for one such thing? Also do different civs get different civics?

If you are spiritual, this is a good strategy, switching civics often to gain small benifits. If you have a turn of anarchy each time you need a VERY good reason to change civics.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I got very excited seeing the Byzantium Mod--had just been fantisizing about being a Byzantine Emperor--and downloaded it to the Mod file (not the one in Docs and Settings) and unzipped it just fine. I started CivIV with the shift key down, which gave me the uncached IML, and shen I start the game "Amra's_Byantium_v.1" appears in the upper right corner. Okay! But when I go to choose a civ, Byzantium is not a choice. Any further tips? Thanx!

I guess that in a mod called the Byzantium Mod, you should be able to play as Byzantium. I have no further advice. Maybe something went wrong with installing it, but I don't know what. I would ask questions in the thread about that mod.

Ok, (un)happiness is killing me Most of it is because it is too crowded it seams. Rome is size 14 and people are *****ing all over the place Now in Civ3 I could build different +happiness buildings but I don't have any options except Colosseum which I already have, religion is Christianity and I have Temple.

So now it seems I should have my cities below a certain population limit right? Are there any rules for that? Like keep them size 8 before you hit monarchy, than size 12 untill hospitals and so on? (this is just for example, not sure if it works this way)

In addition to the good advice by Gherald, I would like to add that most happiness in the game comes from happiness resources and some buildings that enhance the happiness bonus from these resources. Each happiness resource that you connect to your empire through roads/rivers/coastal areas and the right terrain improvement and each happiness resource that you acquire through trade will increase the happiness in each of your cities by 1. You can easily watch the effect in your cities by looking just before and just after you've connected a resource or gained one through trading. There's a list of happiness, food and strategic resources present in each city and the hapiness and health effects are noted next to the resource. Some buildings double the happiness bonus from some resources. When such a building is present, you'll see a +2 next to the affected resources. For instance, a forge doubles the happiness bonus from gold, silver and gems. A marketplace also doubles the happiness bonus of various resources. All of this is clearly documented in the game, so you can easily look up the effect of a marketplace on your happiness situation if you don't remember it anymore. Just mouse over the marketplace in the building list and it shows the effects of the building.

 

[GoldEagle]

Ok, (un)happiness is killing me Most of it is because it is too crowded it seams. Rome is size 14 and people are *****ing all over the place Now in Civ3 I could build different +happiness buildings but I don't have any options except Colosseum which I already have, religion is Christianity and I have Temple.

So now it seems I should have my cities below a certain population limit right? Are there any rules for that? Like keep them size 8 before you hit monarchy, than size 12 untill hospitals and so on? (this is just for example, not sure if it works this way)

You could always hit "Turn On Avoid Growth" in the lower middle city screen, to the right of the building options.

 

[Melhisedek]

Well I seem to get the hang of it now, so there are no recomended city sizes, just how much happiness you can produce right?

It is 1300AD and I still haven't got to war

 

[IanM]

Roland you're a star. Thanks for the advice. Everything now working perfectly.

IanM

 

[Roland Johansen]

Glad to hear that everything works now.