Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[SpookS]

I was talking about starting a 'custom game', not a 'scenario game' but using a customised/pre made map eg rhye's map. I have found out how to do this with some simple modding of the map file.

Ah, ok. May I ask what you modded? I haven't played custom made maps with customized rules. What do you need to mod?

Was originally told to me by twiggins, but basically this: (hopefully the file attached properly)

This is a python file. When you run it from the Civ4 python console it will create a new mapscript based on the current map. It saves goody huts, resources, terrain, features(with feature variety), rivers, and the starting plot for each player.

Instructions:
1. Put my savemap.py file into your C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Python directory.
2. In the CivilizationIV.ini file, enable cheating by changing CheatCode = 0 to CheatCode = chipotle
3. Run CIV4. Load a scenario or load a game with the map you want to save.
4. If you want, use WorldBuilder to make any changes to the map.
5. Open up the python console by pressing Shift ~
6. Type "import savemap"
7. Here you have several options depending on what you want the filename to be.
7a)If you want the filename to be civ4map.py, type "savemap.savemap()"
7b)If you want the filename to be civ4mapx.py, where x is a number, type "savemap.savemap(x)"
Example: savemap.savemap(8) will make a file named civ4map8.py
7c)If you want to set the filename yourself(.py will be added on at the end), type "savemap.savemap("filename")"
Example: savemap.savemap("Earth") will make a file named Earth.py
8) Quit Civ4
9) Run Civ4
10) You can now select the map when you start a new game.

Thus, by following this, you can use a public map in a 'custom game'. I assume the file needs to be put into the warlords directory as above if you want to use it for warlords...

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thank you once again Roland.

I don't quite understand the above points. Are you saying it is possible to kill a city with nukes? I'm afraid I don't follow the points about base and random damage at all.

Note that I don't understand the entries of the file GlobalDefines.xml perfectly. I try to make sense out of them.

There is an entry related to population damage

<Define>
<DefineName>NUKE_POPULATION_DEATH_BASE</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>30</iDefineIntVal>

Which I interprete as meaning that a nuclear weapon always does an amount of damage between 0 and 30% of the population of a city.

Then, there exist two more entries related to population damage:

<Define>
<DefineName>NUKE_POPULATION_DEATH_RAND_1</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>20</iDefineIntVal>
</Define>
<Define>
<DefineName>NUKE_POPULATION_DEATH_RAND_2</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>20</iDefineIntVal>

This I interprete as meaning that a nuke has a chance to do even more damage to the population. Both of these extra amounts of population damage are between 0 and 20%. But I don't think they occur always because the first entry is called base and the second and third are called random.

Together, if all rolls occur and result in a maximum amount (very small chance), you could kill 30%+20%+20%=70% of the population of a city (if the city size is 20, this means it is reduced to 20-70% of 20= 6). However there is another entry which caps the maximum amount of population damage to 60%:

<Define> <DefineName>NUKE_NON_COMBAT_DEATH_THRESHOLD</DefineName>
<iDefineIntVal>60</iDefineIntVal>

Edit: After thinking it over. This entry could also be related to non-combat units like settlers and workers. Meaning that they have a 60% chance to die. I don't know.

Also about the SDI, shouldn't this mean that the chance of a nuke hitting is 50%?

The SDI intercepts the nuke with a chance of 75%. This means that it has a chance to hit of 100%-75%=25%

Also while on the subject of war weariness, it seems that this doesn't kick in for sometime, may be 50 turns in to a war (on quick). Could you explain how this works as well.

It's rather complicated. I did a search of the xml-files a while back and tried again to make sense out of them. There are a number of things that cause war weariness points, such as killing enemy soldiers and losing your own soldiers and capturing cities and losing your own cities and using nukes and getting nuked. The amount of war weariness points depends on the action (more war weariness for losing soldiers than for killing enemy soldiers) and where it occurs (more war weariness in foreign territory then in your own lands).
The war weariness points cause a certain percentage of your population to become unhappy (that's why there's more war weariness in big cities than in small cities).

Now why could it take a while for war weariness to accumulate? There are three reasons that I could think of.
1) The other party in the war started the war and in that case you will get a reduction of war weariness to start with so it takes a while for war weariness points to start accumulate into positive amounts.
2) You fight a defensive war in your own territory before you go on the offensive. A defensive war means less loss of units and any losses occur in your own territory, so it causes less war weariness.
3) There are buildings and civics and small wonders that reduce war weariness. These reduce war weariness by a certain percentage. So if the war weariness points aren't high enough to cause a higher percentage of war weariness than the amount of reduction caused by these buildings/civics/small wonders, then you won't have any war weariness.

How do I get into the xml (and use it to find what I want to know), so I don't have to bug you with my questions anymore.

I don't mind because it often gives me a reason to take a look at it myself. I've found out lots of things about this game because someone else asked about it.

The xml-files are stored in the folder ...\Civilization 4\Assets\XML
They can be opened, read (and edited) with any simple text editor. The problem is that there are a lot of these files and it is not that easy to find the right information. The best way for me is to do a search (Windows search function) in the whole XML directory for a certain word in each of the files. The information about nukes, I found by looking for the word nuke in each of the files. This resulted in about 25 hits (files) and I took a guess which file would have the sought after data and got lucky (the file names can help you in your guess, AudioDefines.xml is not very likely to contain the right data).

It seems to go back up by 3% each turn, could someone confirm this? I haven't tested it very thoroughy so I could well be wrong.

My guess is that each turn it'll go up by some +% of its original max defense value.

If I recall correctly, the percentage is 5% of the maximum amount. This would result in 3% if the maximum defence percentage were 60%.
It might be modified by game speed, but I do not think so.

i got very simple newbish questio??? how do you uninstall the game no before you rush to conclusions i will just uninstall it when i get the new battlefield becouse it dont let uninstall it

Go to Add and Remove Programs and select Sid Meiers Civilization IV.

Thus, by following this, you can use a public map in a 'custom game'. I assume the file needs to be put into the warlords directory as above if you want to use it for warlords...

This sounds like the kind of information that you would get in the Creation and Customization subforum. It all sounds quite complicated as someone needed to make a utility to get it to work. If I ever feel the need to play a custom map (with custom game rules), then I'll know where and what to look for. Thank you!

 

[pixiejmcc]

That is more clear. Thank you.

 

[itkovian]

I've seen many screenshots with the number of turns for production and growth in quotes next to the City Name...Is there a way to enable this in the default, or does it require a mod? If it is a mod, what is the name and does it work with GoTM? Thanks!

 

[Roland Johansen]

I've seen many screenshots with the number of turns for production and growth in quotes next to the City Name...Is there a way to enable this in the default, or does it require a mod? If it is a mod, what is the name and does it work with GoTM? Thanks!

It's one of the options that you can switch on. Go to the menu, then to options and look for an option that has to do with cities. You'll find it. If not, then ask again and I'll go take a look in the game and tell you how it is called.

 

[Raisin Bran]

If I choose theocracy as a civic, there is the "no non-state religion spread".

If I have no state religion, will this civic prevent me from having a religion?

If a missionary tries to convert my town he can't because whatever religion he wants to spread is not my state religion!?

 

[jUNGLE cHRIS]

this isn't about the game but wat the heck.
how do you quote people in your reply? Each time i push the "quote message in reply?" box it does nothing. what's goin on?

 

[jUNGLE cHRIS]

ok nevermind. i'm a big boy and i figured it out for myself.

 

[SpookS]

The old adage of civ 3 was about building irrigational and mines....however,I wanna know whether it is better to build irrigation or hamets or windmills etc? Please dont be too general as to what should be used.....as in other discussions throughout the forums. Thanks.

 

[Samson]

The old adage of civ 3 was about building irrigational and mines....however,I wanna know whether it is better to build irrigation or hamets or windmills etc? Please dont be too general as to what should be used.....as in other discussions throughout the forums. Thanks.

Simple answer, specialize you cities;

Production - irrigation and mines
Commerce - perhaps a couple of irrigation to get them growing, then cottages and windmills.

 

[Canis Latrans]

In order to make even bigger maps...

Would it be possible to make each continent its own "level", which you'd "save" and then enter another screen as a new "level" so as not to clog RAM and increase the overall size of the world you're building on/conquering?

I mean... the continent you're currently on would be the main screen, which you can scroll around on exactly as we do now. Same size, even. But down at the bottom would be small maps representing the rest of the planet. You click on it and it saves where you're at and loads the next continent. Those screens would be blackened by the Fog until you start exploring them. A normal game turn would escort you through every continent where you have a prescence...

Would this just be asking way too much of programmers and code? Is it just way too impractical?

 

[Raisin Bran]

If I choose theocracy as a civic, there is the "no non-state religion spread".

If I have no state religion, will this civic prevent me from having a religion?

If a missionary tries to convert my town he can't because whatever religion he wants to spread is not my state religion!?

Please help me Roland !

 

[catchsomezzz]

Hi all,

Does anyone know what exactly does the "We Love the ____ Day" do for the city?

Thanks!

 

[Raisin Bran]

Hi all,

Does anyone know what exactly does the "We Love the ____ Day" do for the city?

Thanks!

There is no maitenance cost for that city for that turn .

Correct me if Im wrong

 

[SpookS]

There is no maitenance cost for that city for that turn .

Correct me if Im wrong

There is no maintenaance for that city for several turns (9 if I remember right)

 

[Roland Johansen]

If I choose theocracy as a civic, there is the "no non-state religion spread".

If I have no state religion, will this civic prevent me from having a religion?

If a missionary tries to convert my town he can't because whatever religion he wants to spread is not my state religion!?

Please help me Roland !

I wasn't sure about the answer, so I was hoping that someone else would answer the question. I looked for it a bit and there was some discussion on the benefits of Theocracy. Apparently Theocracy prevents foreign missionaries from spreading a non-state religion. no state religion doesn't count as a state religion. Theocracy will not prevent any spread of a religion in this case.

Some other points:

-Theocracy doesn't prevent the natural spread of religions. When a city has no religion and is trading with a city that does have a religion, then the religion can spread to the city without a religion.

-You can spread non-state religions in your own empire using missionaries. Theocracy only stops foreign missionaries.

You can read a lot about the details of civics in this strategy article.

In order to make even bigger maps...

Would it be possible to make each continent its own "level", which you'd "save" and then enter another screen as a new "level" so as not to clog RAM and increase the overall size of the world you're building on/conquering?

I mean... the continent you're currently on would be the main screen, which you can scroll around on exactly as we do now. Same size, even. But down at the bottom would be small maps representing the rest of the planet. You click on it and it saves where you're at and loads the next continent. Those screens would be blackened by the Fog until you start exploring them. A normal game turn would escort you through every continent where you have a prescence...

Would this just be asking way too much of programmers and code? Is it just way too impractical?

It sounds as a smart idea, but I don't think it is easy to do for the modding community. By the way, the parts of the map that are not visible to you are not being animated, so the game is already doing something like this. You're just taking it a few steps further.
Some practical problems with your implementation would be that continents are not all the same, so you would have to divide the map in sections of a certain size and not just continents. If those sections then cut a continent in two, then that is not that nice.
Also, there is a problem when you want to send units from one part of the map to another part. It requires a lot of loading when you switch between parts.
Finally, the pathing algorithm that determines the shortest part between two points on the map (which is used for moving units but also for some costs formulas and other stuff) would have a problem when it only knows about a part of the map at each moment in time.

So I guess that certain things don't need to be in the memory at every moment (graphical stuff), but other things do need to be loaded in the memory at every moment. But I agree when you say that an efficiently programmed game wouldn't need to have such strict map size restrictions. The game doesn't need to have every detail of the map in memory at every moment.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Also while on the subject of war weariness, it seems that this doesn't kick in for sometime, may be 50 turns in to a war (on quick). Could you explain how this works as well.

Krikkitone just wrote an article about war weariness. You can find it here.

 

[Marcov72]

On the map you see percentages of a civ for example 100% Roman or 14% Roman. Tose areas are within the cultural borders. What do they mean. I dont seem to find an answer anywhere.

 

[Samson]

On the map you see percentages of a civ for example 100% Roman or 14% Roman. Tose areas are within the cultural borders. What do they mean. I dont seem to find an answer anywhere.

It is the percentage of the culture accumalated by that tile that is from each of these civilizations. The Civ that has the most culture AND has a city that could claim the tile will have cultural control over that tile.

I hope this makes sence, it seems a bit long winded, but I cannot think of a better way of putting it.

 

[Chose]

Can you abandon a city after you capture it (i wanted to raise the city but i pressed the wrong one and now that city is giving me -8 gold)