Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lord Parkin]

Hmm, not that I know of, although there may be a way. If you load up a save of the game you were in though, and then exit to the main menu and start a new game, most of the settings will be preset to the exact same ones present in the game you last loaded.

 

[a4phantom]

I suggest you make an image of the CD/DVD and mount it with something like Daemon Tools (I use the old 3.47 non-adware version) or PowerISO, etc.

This is perfectly safe (downloading NoCD cracks from warez sites is very risky), easier to maintain (NoCDs have to be re-downloaded for every patch), and ethical -- not to mention legal.

The only downside is the image for Civ4 is around 1.5 GB in size, but with today's hard drives that's not unreasonable.

Alright I downloaded them and in a month when I'm reunited with my computer and Civ disks I'll try mounting it. Just to make sure I understand exactly what's happening here, if I use it to 'mount' Civ4 it would be making a complete copy of the play disk on my harddrive, which will let the game play as if the disk were in the drive? Cool, I have a fairly big harddrive and may never need to carry my disks around again. Does it work equally for playing DVD movies? Obviously they're a huge memory burden, about 8 gigs per DVD.

 

[eke4500]

Hi all

first off all my apologies for my question 'cause probably it has been asked and answered a million times...

When you guys/girls talk about "vanilla" i know u don't mean the icecream, but what do u mean?

Greetz

 

[a4phantom]

Hi all

first off all my apologies for my question 'cause probably it has been asked and answered a million times...

When you guys/girls talk about "vanilla" i know u don't mean the icecream, but what do u mean?

Greetz

Icecream. We love it, and play better when we're eating it.

Actually the vanilla version of the game is as it's released, i.e. Civilization 4 before the Warlords expansion, Civilization 3 before the PTW and Conquests expansions.

 

[Gherald]

Alright I downloaded them and in a month when I'm reunited with my computer and Civ disks I'll try mounting it. Just to make sure I understand exactly what's happening here, if I use it to 'mount' Civ4 it would be making a complete copy of the play disk on my harddrive, which will let the game play as if the disk were in the drive? Cool, I have a fairly big harddrive and may never need to carry my disks around again. Does it work equally for playing DVD movies? Obviously they're a huge memory burden, about 8 gigs per DVD.

It works for DVDs, too, which you can rip with a tool like DVD Decrypter (that's an old one, I think its dead now). But yeah, 8 gigs is a lot.

 

[IslandFox]

Never mind, found out how to get out of it.

 

[Dubzilla8]

Okay, I have a few questions I thought Id throw out before making a new thread or whatever. One thing I was curious about is what is so good about coastal cities? I read a thread that referred to a "corner city" which was set on a backwards L-shaped piece of land so that the city had a lot of water in its fat-cross. I just don't see whats good about unimprovable squares, as well as squares that only provide 2F/2G (with lighthouse) or even 1F/1G for the ocean squares which are unavoidable. I realize that its nice to have a harbor, and therefore ships, but wouldn't it be better to have minimal water in the fat-cross?
I'm also terrible at city placement, which bugs me to the point where I don't play as much as I would. I was wondering how many cities are typical by say 2000 BC, 1000 BC, 0, etc,... or however people measure this. And also what is prioritized when placing a city.
Finally, I was just curious how long it typically takes people to finish a game. Seems REALLY long and I don't know how people finish so many sometimes. I play on the standard speed setting.
Thanks in advance.

 

[a4phantom]

Okay, I have a few questions I thought Id throw out before making a new thread or whatever. One thing I was curious about is what is so good about coastal cities? I read a thread that referred to a "corner city" which was set on a backwards L-shaped piece of land so that the city had a lot of water in its fat-cross. I just don't see whats good about unimprovable squares, as well as squares that only provide 2F/2G (with lighthouse) or even 1F/1G for the ocean squares which are unavoidable. I realize that its nice to have a harbor, and therefore ships, but wouldn't it be better to have minimal water in the fat-cross?

In Civ4 the harbor doesn't have anything to do with ships. But I tend to agree with you, although late in the game when intercontenental trade is a crucial source of income coastal cities with harbors are very important. Keep in mind that for a Financial civ those coastal squares are 2f/3g with a lighthouse, but so is a grassland with a cottage on a river or a hamlet on any grassland. The thing you really want to avoid is a city with coastal squares but not touching any of them, so no ships, no harbor, no lighthouse.

 

[Dubzilla8]

a4Phantom, thank you for the reply. So when people say it is a mistake to have a city near the coast, but not on the coast, they simply mean to not place a city one square off the water so that the city is just outside of being able to produce oversea trade routes, naval units etc.?
So, my point being, you dont want water squares unless you are getting overseas trade, naval units, and so on. I always find myself where I might have a settler 1 square off the coast in order to reach certain resources and I can't decide whether to take the coast or the resources.

 

[CarpeDiem]

hi, what does it mean +12 free units with vassalage

 

[a4phantom]

a4Phantom, thank you for the reply. So when people say it is a mistake to have a city near the coast, but not on the coast, they simply mean to not place a city one square off the water so that the city is just outside of being able to produce oversea trade routes, naval units etc.?

Right, plus lighthouse and workboats.

So, my point being, you dont want water squares unless you are getting overseas trade, naval units, and so on. I always find myself where I might have a settler 1 square off the coast in order to reach certain resources and I can't decide whether to take the coast or the resources.

That's always the big question in city placement - is the city an end in itself (you want it to be a powerhouse of commerce and production with a huge population and culture) or is it a strategic city, placed where it is for the resources or location it controls (you want it as close as possible to essential resources such as iron or on chokepoints on a continent, you want it on a hill for defense)? If it's important to build a city one square from the coast, then do it, just remember it won't benefit very much from those coastal squares (not necessarily a big deal, a city has to be size 20 not counting specialists to even use every square), and if there's a fish or clam resource on one of those squares you'll have to build a workboat somewhere else to properly harvest it.

As for the value of lots of water squares, I'm not crazy about them but they're sure better than desert or tundra. Sometimes a coast is funny shaped so you can get a city on the coast with very few water squares that aren't coastal.

If a coastal city's fat cross includes an inland lake does the lighthouse bump up food production there? I'd assume not, but . . .

 

[fergus]

How do you create a unit because I would like to try

 

[Red Door]

Use 3ds Max 7.

But, be wary, it's a lot of work.

 

[a4phantom]

How do you create a unit because I would like to try

I'd see if there's a graphics warehouse around so you don't have to start from scratch, there was a huge collection of graphics and animations for civ3.

 

[fergus]

do you know where a I can find a graphic warehouse for civ4

 

[CarpeDiem]

vassalage!?!?! 12+ units?


what about vassalage whats it say railroad for..

 

[Red Door]

do you know where a I can find a graphic warehouse for civ4

Try 3d Cafe.

 

[CarpeDiem]

i have peter as a vassal, but i want to end this and give him freedom??

but when i go on current deals i cant cancel it says "im doing fine on my own"

 

[Dubzilla8]

Carpediem, I believe it means exactly what it says when it mentions +12 free units with Vassalage; basically, on top of how many ever free units you get based off of difficulty, you get 12 more. Once you surpass that number, then you start getting charged (I believe) 1 gold per unit that you own, per turn.

 

[CharleyS]

Civ IV is my first Civ title so I am relatively new. I have been perusing the strategy section and have seen some of the "Dot Mapping".
I was wondering how you do that.
Is it done in Civ, or in a program such as Photoshop?
Thanks.

Charley