Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Argoth]

If you build a city on a resource (sugar in my case), do you still get the resource?

 

[a4phantom]

If you build a city on a resource (sugar in my case), do you still get the resource?

Once you have the technology to harvest that resource, you will get the benefits of having it in your trade network, but the city itself would get more gold/food/hammers for having that resource in its fatcross and working it than being built on top of it.

 

[Argoth]

Well I have two additional sugars in the fat cross along with the one I'd get from building on it, so I don't think it would be that much of a loss.

Also, I notice people often talk about "fishing villages", but I've also seen people refer to a city as a fishing village, even if there's only one source of fish in its cross... Does this refer to something other than just a city with a lot of sea resourses?

 

[Matty R]

Patch it up right away. It's under "advanced" in the opening menues when you start up the game. The game was released a real mess, I don't think it even started to stabilize until 1.51.

==I've got another question. I started a new game and went straight for Buddhism. Working through mysticism then meditation. I didn't miss any turns, so I was researching these 2 things in succession with no skips. How is it that the Spanish managed to found Buddhism 4 turns before me?==

The Spaniards start with mysticism. If you don't start with mysticism, don't count on founding Hinduism or Buddism. In any case, I'd try for Hinduism since the AIs seem to jump for Buddism since Meditation is slightly cheaper than Polytheism. But polytheism is more immediately useful, and leads to Monotheism which founds Judaism. But don't get addicted to trying to found all the religions, it'll put you behind on developing your land with farms (agriculture), mines (mining), cottages (pottery) and animal resources (animal husbandry). Plus you want to discover bronze and iron working early so you can be sure to found cities by iron.

==Ooh. Another question. I've founded Hinduism and Judaism, and they were each founded in seperate cities. I'm currently building a road between them. Will I have to choose a single religion once the 2 cities are linked, or can I have different religions in different cities?==

There is no way to eliminate a religion from a city where it exists, and religion does not naturally spread to cities where another already exists (but you can add additional religions with missionaries, which is a good idea because it allows more temples/monestaries and thus more happiness/culture/research).

Then there is the question of which religion your nation will have as a state religion. If you pick Hinduism, make sure to spread it to your Jewish and third city. If you pick Judaism, spread it too all your cities. It pretty much comes down to whether you can live without hamburgers or hotdogs - unless the other civs are picking up either religion (look at their names in your lower righthand corner). You want to have your state religion 1. be the same as the civs you want to be friends with and 2. be represented in *all* your cities for the +1 happiness and various bonuses in each city depending on your religious civic. It's also nice if you have the holy city of your state religion, but not essential. If Isabella of Spain is nearby and has founded Buddism, expect hostility from her throughout the game. Every ruler will sour on you a bit if you have a different religion, something like -1 to -4 on diplomacy, and Isabella is the worst. Since converting to Buddism wouldn't work well for you and she won't convert away from it if she has the Buddist Holy City, don't expect good relations with her. So you should see whether Judaism or Hinduism is present in the cities of your other neighbors, convert your empire to whichever your neighbors are, and then send missionaries to their cities (requires open borders and either monastaries or the Organized Religion civic) to make sure they convert and stay with your religion. Shared religion is one of the most important factors in who likes you and who hates you. Hopefully you can isolate Spain and Buddism in a sea of Hinduism or Judaism.

==I'm planning on building a third city and founding Christianity in it. Would that be a good idea?==

Sure, why not, but I'd focus on keeping the neighborhood Jewish or Hindu (whichever you decide to be). Christianity comes with a free missionary but by the time it's founded the early religions usually have a foothold. Your goal is to contain Buddism, because you don't want Isabella to have any friends.

Thanks. Thats cleared alot up. I've got v1.52. Don't know where I got 1.09 from.

 

[a4phantom]

Thanks. Thats cleared alot up. I've got v1.52. Don't know where I got 1.09 from.

Oh, then I wouldn't suspect a bug for your problem. 1.52 wasn't too buggy, most of the 1.61 changes (I think) were gameplay, balance and multiplayer tweaks. I know, did you change religion or any civics? The turns of anarchy that come from a revolution when you're not Spiritual (what leader are you using anyway?) could explain the delay in building schedule.

Argoth: Well I have two additional sugars in the fat cross along with the one I'd get from building on it, so I don't think it would be that much of a loss.

If it's the best place to put the city, go for it. You'll get an automatic hookup to the sugar. Just remember that there's usually more production/food/commerce to be gained by having resources in the fat cross but not under the city.


==Also, I notice people often talk about "fishing villages", but I've also seen people refer to a city as a fishing village, even if there's only one source of fish in its cross... Does this refer to something other than just a city with a lot of sea resourses?==

My guess is that it's a city put in a lousy location just to give you access to some sea resources but I've never heard it. It's also important to have at least one coastal city, even if it's in a crummy location to develop itself.

 

[Matty R]

Oh, then I wouldn't suspect a bug for your problem. 1.52 wasn't too buggy, most of the 1.61 changes (I think) were gameplay, balance and multiplayer tweaks. I know, did you change religion or any civics? The turns of anarchy that come from a revolution when you're not Spiritual (what leader are you using anyway?) could explain the delay in building schedule.

I've been playing as the Egyptians, so I start with Spirituality and Creativity. I'm starting to understand things alot better now, thanks to you. I think the skipping turns thing is because I'm building on hills or in forests, where theres a movement cost. Thats all I can think of.

I've got another question. Can barbarian cities be emptied of defenders, then destroyed/captured without my forces getting damaged too much? One of my warriors defended himself against an archer in a barbarian city, defeated him and ran back to where I placed him. Then another barbarian archer popped up in the dead archer's place, even though I'd killed both archers that where defending the city.

I'm going to go into a custom game for practice, before I reattempt the campaign mode or whatever its called.

 

[Argoth]

@a4phantom: Look here (about half way down the page) at the city Elephantine. Sulla says "Elephantine is just getting started, but will be a strong fishing city down the road," but there are no fish around the city and most of the land is desert. Seems like a crappy spot for a city to me... What am I not seeing?

One more question (for now). Is it worth building a city just to get resources you already have? Technically you could do that and then just trade them for something you do need, but I'm not sure if this would be a good idea.

Thanks!

 

[a4phantom]

I've been playing as the Egyptians, so I start with Spirituality and Creativity. I'm starting to understand things alot better now, thanks to you. I think the skipping turns thing is because I'm building on hills or in forests, where theres a movement cost. Thats all I can think of.

If you're spiritual than anarchy does not explain the problem. Either I'm misunderstanding what you're reporting or else it's a bug, try installing 1.61, it's a good patch for balance anyway.

I've got another question. Can barbarian cities be emptied of defenders, then destroyed/captured without my forces getting damaged too much?

How much damage your forces take conquering any city depends on how powerful they are compared to the defenders and luck, although even powerful units get chewed up and sometimes even lose when attacking weaker units in cities. If you're attacking archers (strength 3 +25% when defending cities +5-25% for fortification) with warriors (strength 2), you're going to be slaughtered. You need at least axes to dislodge archers in a city (although if you're Egypt a lot of war chariots might do it). Swordsmen are the best for taking cities early on, but you have to wait for iron.

One of my warriors defended himself against an archer in a barbarian city, defeated him and ran back to where I placed him. Then another barbarian archer popped up in the dead archer's place, even though I'd killed both archers that where defending the city.

They built another one before you killed the second. The AI is often stupid enough to attack units outside their cities with units that it should keep for defending the city, but it wouldn't do that unless there was at least one more archer in the city.

It often helps to put a warrior (strength 2) alone on a tile next to the city on the turn before you attempt to conquer it, preferably on a forest (+50% defense) or hill (+25%) or across a river (+25%). The AI may attack it with an archer (strength 3, first strike), which will likely kill it but will be badly hurt in the process (you may also kill the archer, or cause it to be stuck outside the city during your turn and thus easily killed and unable to contribute to the city's defense). Since you are storming the city the next turn, the archer will not be able to heal or utilize any promotion it earns killing your warrior. You're certainly not going to successfully attack an archer defending a city (+25% archer bonus when defending cities, +50% more if the city's on a hill, +5-25% for fortifying, +0-60% walls or culture, possible city defender bonus) with that warrior, so it's a worthy sacrifice. The AI's a real sucker for this, it doesn't like letting you loiter outside its cities with units it can kill. In fact I discovered this when an AI archer in a city (Paris) under seige attacked a lone Quechua, the Inca warrior replacement that gets +100% against archers and thus killed what would have been a formidable defender (Paris had walls and was on a hill) easily, leaving me two archers to dig out instead of three. I'd feel bad about using this tactic so much except that there's ample historical justification for false displays of weakness provoking charges out of safety and into ambushes. Heck, using it against Harold's Saxons gave William the Conqueror victory in the only successful cross-channel invasion of England in 1000 years.

I'm going to go into a custom game for practice, before I reattempt the campaign mode or whatever its called.

Why confuse yourself more? Custom games add complications for when you're already familiar with the game. It's up to you of course but I'd stick to the real thing on the easiest setting till you get the hang of it, and of course keep asking questions.

Argoth:
1. ==Look here (about half way down the page) at the city Elephantine. Sulla says "Elephantine is just getting started, but will be a strong fishing city down the road," but there are no fish around the city and most of the land is desert. Seems like a crappy spot for a city to me... What am I not seeing?==

You're right, Elephantine is in such a lousy place it's not at all worth the upkeep. Sulla is either being sarcastic or has lost his mind. The only thing Elephantine will bring to Sulla's empire is earlier access to those cows, but he already has cows near Heliopolis. Actually what he says about Heliopolis never being a good food city isn't terribly true either, those forests are over grasslands, there's a cow, and at least one of them (upper left) is irrigatable. I think Sulla's a big leaguer, so maybe he's a lot better than me and I just don't get what he's doing, but I don't get what he's doing.

2. ==Is it worth building a city just to get resources you already have? Technically you could do that and then just trade them for something you do need, but I'm not sure if this would be a good idea.==

If it's a single luxary or health resource you already have, no not worth the settler production much less the upkeep. Is there a good city location maybe 3 squares away (or 2 diagnal) that will eventually give you the resource without saddling you with a worthless city? If it's iron or horses or oil or coal, then it depends on if anyone else needs that resource. In Civ three if you were quick you could settle near all the irons that the map generator intended for your neighbors, relegating them to pussycat status until gunpowder (musketmen) and keeping them on the defensive until military tradition (cavalry) or conscription (riflemen) if you used their iron age weakness to take their horses too. This strategy doesn't work as well in Civ4, partly because defensive units (archers and gunpowder) don't require resources and mostly because extra cities are now so expensive. Plus the map seems to distribute strategic resources more . . . strategically.

 

[fontzmark]

Hi
I have donwloaded and used some mods, how do you download the HOF games? I downloaded the HOF mod...HOF-1.61.004, in the correct place, but I always get the error...Mods\HOF-1061.003\ is an ivalid mod directory, ignoring.
Could someone explain how to download a HOF game? Or just enlighten me a bit on using mods and HOF games?
thanks!

 

[Matty R]

Thanks for the reply. I'm starting to understand alot more now.

 

[a4phantom]

Thanks for the reply. I'm starting to understand alot more now.

I was terribly lost at night in the suburbs of Oxford once (yes pathetic I know) and an English kid helped me out. So don't mention it

 

[Roland Johansen]

@a4phantom: Look here (about half way down the page) at the city Elephantine. Sulla says "Elephantine is just getting started, but will be a strong fishing city down the road," but there are no fish around the city and most of the land is desert. Seems like a crappy spot for a city to me... What am I not seeing?

A fishing village is a term used by some of the regular people here on the forum to refer to a city that will mostly use water tiles (coast or ocean). These cities are typically not very good cities and will be especially weak in production since water tiles don't give any hammers. Still, the commerce provided by the water tiles is usually clearly above the cost of the city, so it is a netto profitable city. Also coastal cities usually get good trade routes which improves the commerce yield of these fishing villages even more.

Elaphantine is for instance not a great city and will never become a truely great city. But in industrial/modern times it will use 7 coastal tiles, 1 ocean tile, 1 pasture cow, 1 mine grasland hill, 1 mine plains hill, 2 windmill desert hills, 2 floodplain cottages, 1 grasland river cottage (if I were to improve it) for 44 commerce and 20 hammers from terrain and some 20-30 commerce from trade routes (assuming free speech and universal suffrage civics and some foreign trading parties for trade routes). All of this is probably further increased by various buildings (about doubling the output). Long before that the city will break even (cost being equal to income from city). It's not a great city but decent and clearly gives you more than it costs. It's placement also allows another fishing village on the island to the west which by the way is a far more typical fishing village.

Hi
I have donwloaded and used some mods, how do you download the HOF games? I downloaded the HOF mod...HOF-1.61.004, in the correct place, but I always get the error...Mods\HOF-1061.003\ is an ivalid mod directory, ignoring.
Could someone explain how to download a HOF game? Or just enlighten me a bit on using mods and HOF games?
thanks!

Welcome to civfanatics!

What are the HOF games? I guess Hall of Fame games? The most logical spot to get an answer to this question would be the thread supporting the mod that you downloaded. Following is some general information concerning installing mods in civ4.

Mods should be installed in the directory Mods of your main CIv4 directory, not the Mods subdirectory C:\Documents and Settings\[Your Name]\My Documents\My Games\Civilization 4\Mods

Each Mod should be installed in a separate subfolder of the mods directory. You can only use one mod at a time. Mods can be used by selecting the Mod from the Advanced options of the main menu of the game or by enabling them in the Civilization4.ini file.

I guess that you have enabled the mod through the Civilization4.ini file but specified the wrong directory there. I would advice you to check the civilization4.ini file again to see if you have correctly specified the mod directory.

 

[mezzano]

Where can I find "map description" (if such thing exist)?

 

[Muki]

I just noticed a strange thing that I reallly cant understand.. meditation and masonry are both worth 144.. but to me it shows that it takes 12 turns to research meditation and 10 for masonry..I looked around and noticed that many techs that are worth the same, actually take different ammount of turns to research.. I'd apreaciate if someone could explain how this works cause atm I am confused

 

[frankcor]

I just noticed a strange thing that I reallly cant understand.. meditation and masonry are both worth 144.. but to me it shows that it takes 12 turns to research meditation and 10 for masonry..I looked around and noticed that many techs that are worth the same, actually take different ammount of turns to research.. I'd apreaciate if someone could explain how this works cause atm I am confused

Good question, Muki. You get research bonuses for researching a technology for which you possess the prerequisites.

You will also find that technologies get cheaper as more civilizations research them.

 

[luxmissus]

Real newbie here.

All I generate is "Great Prophets." What am I doing wrong? I am playing the Russians in a Chief level game.

I did a search but it gave me threads not posts, so sorry if this is a dup. Told you I was a newbie.

 

[Muki]

Luxmissus...automated cities tend to emphasize priests and therefore you get many great prophets, so to get other great persons you need to specialize your cities yourself..in city screen, right side you see those 6/7 faces.add few other spezialists and you will get another type of great person (hopefully)

Frankcor TY..now it makes alot more sense

 

[Roland Johansen]

Where can I find "map description" (if such thing exist)?

Sirian wrote a Civilization IV Map Scripts Guide. Sirian is the employee from Firaxis who created the map scripts.

 

[a4phantom]

Real newbie here.
All I generate is "Great Prophets." What am I doing wrong? I am playing the Russians in a Chief level game.
I did a search but it gave me threads not posts, so sorry if this is a dup. Told you I was a newbie.

It's not relevant here but remember that "Russians" could be Peter or Cathy.

Usually by default you get artists and prophets because many Wonders and your palace lean you towards those. Great Engineers and often the best (becauce they build most Wonders in one turn) and also the rarest. That's why many people aim for the Pyramids and forges (which allow an Engineer specialist)

In my last game I had the funny problem of cranking out tons of Great Engineers and no Great Prophets when I had the holy city of Buddism which every civ on my continent subscribed to. I turned all my specialists to priests, and yet I still got Great Engineers! Every game I play from now on is going to be devoid of Great Engineers because I blew my karmic quota on this game. Also I'm Gandi (Industrious, +50% to wonder construction) with both stone and marble (+50% to most wonders between the two of them) so the Engineers aren't as crucial as usual.

PS People don't need to point out that they're newbies. It doesn't matter (and it's usually obvious). Most of us were newbies yesterday, only a few folks here are experts, and everyne is learning more as we go along, so stop apologizing!


frankcor: Good question, Muki. You get research bonuses for researching a technology for which you possess the prerequisites. You will also find that technologies get cheaper as more civilizations research them.

Do you have numbers on the mechanics of that or practical application tips for how to make use of it? Presumably someone's written a very long article somewhere . . .

 

[frankcor]

Do you have numbers on the mechanics of that or practical application tips for how to make use of it? Presumably someone's written a very long article somewhere . . .

How'd I know you were going to ask that? The answer is here.

BTW, I've been meaning to ask, is your forum name the same airframe as the F4 Phantom?