Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Melhisedek]

IIRC there we had a military adviser back in CivIII days. Is there anything similar this time around?

 

[Roland Johansen]

IIRC there we had a military adviser back in CivIII days. Is there anything similar this time around?

Yes, another military advisor

You're probably not satisfied with the military advisor of civ4. You could take a look at the mods section. There is a quite good modded military advisor that might satisfy your needs.

 

[Melhisedek]

Well there is another mod that I miss really It was the mod which showed how many times your unit could upgrade through time (like axe 3 times or whatever it was) It did help me to understand relative values of the units. Right now I have loads of Cavalry that wont upgrade to land units later on AFAIK. Is there such a mod for Civ4 perhaps?

 

[Keaton]

Dear Sirs (and Ladies).

I see them all the time, but I must know.. How do you make a dot-map? I'm a mac user most of the year, but now that the semester is over I bought civ4 and am playing on a windows computer. I'm assuming its a simple screenshot and paint operation? I just want to check on this, because I'm killing time before I need to leave to see a movie. Do I run the program in window mode? What are the keystrokes?

Thank you all.
~Keaton.

 

[lost_civantares]

All you have to do for a simple one is to press "prntScrn" on the top of the keyboard, and then start windows paint, press control-v, and then just use the circle utility/ line utility as needed.

Some go really in depth, and use paint shop, and make it look much neater, but just using Windows Paint will work fine.

You can run civ4 in fullscreen, just press alt-tab or the windows button to get out, though for lower-end computers you will have to wait a bit before you get to paint (Which is in the lower part of the accessories menu).

 

[Roland Johansen]

Well there is another mod that I miss really It was the mod which showed how many times your unit could upgrade through time (like axe 3 times or whatever it was) It did help me to understand relative values of the units. Right now I have loads of Cavalry that wont upgrade to land units later on AFAIK. Is there such a mod for Civ4 perhaps?

Maybe, but I don't know about it.

The unit upgrade tree is not that complicated. If you've played the game a few times, then you'll know which unit you'll want to upgrade to what.

Cavalry can be upgraded to gunships who behave mostly like land units in civ4. But it takes a while to get from cavalry to gunships so that might be a problem and cavalry aren't that powerful anymore when infantry arrive on the scene. But you shouldn't build a huge load of cavalry anyway. They're not that effective in city conquest or city defence. They're more a kind of counter punching unit or a hit and run unit. Very useful to defend your borders against small incursions, but not the mainstay of your army.

 

[Melhisedek]

I notice that now :/ They got slaughtered in the last war I had... I mainly went for highest strength which didn't impress me :/ So should I go for Riflemen or grenadiers in this era?

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Well there is another mod that I miss really It was the mod which showed how many times your unit could upgrade through time (like axe 3 times or whatever it was) It did help me to understand relative values of the units. Right now I have loads of Cavalry that wont upgrade to land units later on AFAIK. Is there such a mod for Civ4 perhaps?

This isn't an in-game mod, but you can always print it out and have it next to you while playing. It's a spreadsheet that shows what each unit can upgrade to and the associated cost. The cost changes with game speed which can be selected via a drop-down menu at the top of the sheet.

See this post to download.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I notice that now :/ They got slaughtered in the last war I had... I mainly went for highest strength which didn't impress me :/ So should I go for Riflemen or grenadiers in this era?

This question is actually all wrong. It assumes that there is one unit better than all others. It would be a stupid game if it created 4 land units (cannon, rifleman, grenadier, cavalry) during this era, with one of them superior to all the others. What good would the other units be?

This war aspect of this game is based on a variation of the paper-rock-scissors game. Unit A defeats unit B, unit B defeats unit C and unit C defeats unit A.

In the gunpowder era, cannons are needed against cities. Riflemen with the right promotions can be used to attack cities and grenadiers with the right promotion can be used to attack cities. It depends on the defenders. You typically will use grenadiers because cities tend to be defended by riflemen (with city defense promotions) as they are typically the best at defending cities. Cavalry are good against grenadiers and cannon, riflemen are good against cavalry, grenadiers are good against riflemen.
Cannons are used to bombard the defenses of cities and to do collateral damage to groups of units. Cannons with city attack promotions or collateral damage promotions are good at doing the damage to the defenders of cities. Cannons with the precision promotion are most effective in reducing the defenses of a city.

Note that the promotions that you pick are very important to the outcome of the fights.

If you have been attacking cities defended by riflemen with cavalry, then probably your cavalry got slaughtered.

All of the various bonuses that units have vs. other units are documented in the game. Read that information and think a moment about which unit is most effective against which other unit. It might be confusing for a moment, but if you take a bit of time, then it should not prove to be very difficult. Good luck in your upcoming battles.

 

[frankcor]

Melhisedek, if you haven't observed this yet, Roland's answers are astute, insightful and almost always perfectly correct. This one is no exception.

As you now realize, "going for the highest strength" isn't always the best move. Check out the Grenadier, with a base strength of 12 compared to 15 for the cavalry. But note that it enjoys a 50% advantage over gunpowder units. Thus, ignoring all other bonuses, promotions or advantages, a cavalry goes against a rifleman at 15:14 strength while a grenadier goes against a rifleman at 12:7. (I'm away from my game computer so the numbers may not be perfect, but you get the idea)

 

[Nyte Ryder]

I have just a few questions please.

I am working on what is to become the best MOD yet. and i came across. A slight problem. I was doing the xml scripts and kinda got stuck on this file called "CIV4GoogyInfo.xml." While doing so i saw this...

<iGoldRand2>51</iGoldRand2>

and was baffeled. Any idea on what this means. And also is there anythng eles that I need to know about scripting. Thanks.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Melhisedek, if you haven't observed this yet, Roland's answers are astute, insightful and almost always perfectly correct. This one is no exception.

As you now realize, "going for the highest strength" isn't always the best move. Check out the Grenadier, with a base strength of 12 compared to 15 for the cavalry. But note that it enjoys a 50% advantage over gunpowder units. Thus, ignoring all other bonuses, promotions or advantages, a cavalry goes against a rifleman at 15:14 strength while a grenadier goes against a rifleman at 12:7. (I'm away from my game computer so the numbers may not be perfect, but you get the idea)

Thank you for the nice compliments. It therefore pains me that I have to slightly correct you post. The ideas are completely correct, but without access to your computer, the numbers are slightly off and that might cause some confusion.

A rifleman has a bonus against mounted units of 25%. This means that the rifleman has an actual strength of 1.25 * 14 = 17.5 vs the strength of 15 of the cavalry.
A grenadier has a bonus of 50% vs riflemen and that means that the grenadier has an actual strength of 1.5 * 12 = 18 vs the strength of 14 of the rifleman.
The cavalry has a significant disadvantage against the rifleman and the grenadier a significant advantage. Also note that riflemen and grenadiers can get terrain defence bonuses and cavalry cannot.

The cavalry has a retreat chance of 30% which means that if it is about to die, then it has a 30% chance of retreating. The retreating chance only applies if the cavalry is attacking, not when it is defending. This retreat chance can be quite valuable too and it can also be increased by the flanking promotions. The cavalry is also the most expensive of the three units and that should be considered too.

One can see that the bonuses can make a world of difference in who is the stronger unit.

I have just a few questions please.

I am working on what is to become the best MOD yet. and i came across. A slight problem. I was doing the xml scripts and kinda got stuck on this file called "CIV4GoogyInfo.xml." While doing so i saw this...

<iGoldRand2>51</iGoldRand2>

and was baffeled. Any idea on what this means. And also is there anythng eles that I need to know about scripting. Thanks.

It's quite ambitious to create the best MOD yet. Good luck.

I personally have no idea what this parameter means. We're not experts on modding in this 'newbie' questions thread, so you might get a better answer in the 'creation and customization' subforum where all the experts on modding reside. Some of us can answer some simple questions on modding, but this is at least beyond my knowledge.

I read on the main page of this fansite that a few experts on modding had created an article on the design aspects of modding. A creator of one of the greatest mods to date and a few of the game developers have contributed. You might be interested in reading it. It might help you create your mod. It can be found here.

edit: I looked it up. It might mean that you get a random number of gold between 1 and 51 when entering a tribal hut. This assumes that the lines come from the file Civ4Goodyinfo instead of Civ4Googyinfo. This number might be effected by game settings like difficulty level, game speed settings and barbarian level setting. I don't know.

 

[Maniac]

I have some questions about the handicap/difficulty level the AI uses.

First, is my assumption correct that the AI only uses the <AIxxx> tags of the relevant difficulty level, and the others not at all - that those are only for you?

Second, is my assumption correct that if you increase your difficulty level from Noble to Prince, that the AI still uses the Noble AI tags? As the AI diff level stays greyed out at Noble when you start a new game. Or does the AU automatically switch to the AI tags of your difficulty level?

Reason I'm asking is that I'd like to improve AI performance. And that's of course best done by increasing the AI bonuses instead of only making it more difficult for yourself by only raising your own diff level.

Since AI diff level always stayed greyed out in the game startup screen, I assume the only way to increase the AI diff level is by editing GlobalDefines.xml. As far as I can see, there are two possibly relevant tags there. Don't know their names exactly, but it's more or less:
Standard_Handicap
AI_Handicap

If I change AI_Handicap to Prince, when I start up a game, the AI still shows as on Noble though. Only if I change Standard_Handicap does the Ai show as Prince.

So I'm wondering, what do I have to change??
If I change AI_Handicap, will the AI use the higher diff AI tags despite still showing as on Noble? Or do I need to change Standard_Handicap and AI_Handicap??

 

[Roland Johansen]

I have some questions about the handicap/difficulty level the AI uses.

First, is my assumption correct that the AI only uses the <AIxxx> tags of the relevant difficulty level, and the others not at all - that those are only for you?

Second, is my assumption correct that if you increase your difficulty level from Noble to Prince, that the AI still uses the Noble AI tags? As the AI diff level stays greyed out at Noble when you start a new game. Or does the AU automatically switch to the AI tags of your difficulty level?

The AI plays at noble level and uses the noble level values for the human player. But these values are modified by the percentages denoted after the AIxxx modifiers. And these AIxxx modifiers are taken from a higher difficulty level (and thus improve) when you choose a higher difficulty level. So it becomes easier for the AI at the higher difficulty levels.
The human uses the other values not starting with AI.

I'm not 100% sure for each and every one of the parameters in this file. But as far as I know and have tested, it works this way.

For instance if you play at deity level, the following line means that the AI pays 60% of the unit upkeep cost that a human player would have at noble difficulty level with the exact same empire. The line is taken from the deity level handicap:

iAIUnitCostPercent>60</iAIUnitCostPercent

I hope this helps and explains what you want to know.

 

[daifuku]

hello friendly civfanatics,

i have a problem, which is that i'm largely clueless as to what to research after the initial stages, in which i research based on my resources.

now i do realise that this could be a rather huge question, so i'll make it a bit simple: what are some of the cues that are reliable when choosing what to research, in short or long term?

also, any tips on juggling specialists? again i'm clueless how i should balance them out. so far i've been too afraid/lazy to deploy them.

yes, i am a big time newbie, i won't deny that. in fact, i'll concur 100%.

and as always, answers are appreciated! thanks to Roland Johansen, a4phantom and veritass.

 

[Samson]

hello friendly civfanatics,

i have a problem, which is that i'm largely clueless as to what to research after the initial stages, in which i research based on my resources.

now i do realise that this could be a rather huge question, so i'll make it a bit simple: what are some of the cues that are reliable when choosing what to research, in short or long term?

It very much depends on your surroundings and your short and long term goals. Code of laws for courthouses is almost allways usefull.
Some examples;
Going to war? You probably want catapults so construction is a priority.
You cities getting big and having happiness problems? Monarchy and hereiditry rule probably good.
Lots of friends around? Probably worth going for alphabet and strat trading techs.

These are examples. I hope it gives you some idea of the thought prosseses that I go through when deciding what to reaserch.

also, any tips on juggling specialists? again i'm clueless how i should balance them out. so far i've been too afraid/lazy to deploy them.

It depends what you want them for. I tend to neglect specialists until I get the national epic. However I will sometimes try and get 1 or 2 early ones for a shrine or an accademy. Later I almost always use them for a golden age, so you want a spread.

You can build a lot of your early strategy on getting an expensive tech from a great person. You need to plan it using the speadsheet at (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads11/GreatLeaderFreeTechs.zip) and the description here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3647271&postcount=266).

 

[bad-aries]

Questions:
1. I have setup a game which cultural Victory as the only winning condition. So, does it mean if 2050 comes, the game will still be going on? I am now in 2066 and the game is still going.

2. How could I see how much culture is in a particular city? Looks like we need to have 3 cities each of them have 30000 culture to win, right?

3. Is Spy only be able to be built in Capital?

4. I set the game to War or no War at all time. In my game, no civ can make war. So, is it random to either war or no war? Can I choose always war or always no war?

Thanks.

 

[archphoenix]

obsoleted building question:
the official manual metioned that when a Great Wonder obsoleted, all it's benefit removed except culture.
Is there any exception on Great Wonder or common building?
I find that after monastery obsoleted, the benefit "can build monastic" is still availiable. and I do't know how to detect whether 10% sci output remain.

 

[Melhisedek]

Do forge and factory stack or is forge removed after factory is built?

 

[archphoenix]

Do forge and factory stack or is forge removed after factory is built?

stack.
forge+25%
factory+25%
+50% more if city has power.
that's 100% total