Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Zophos]

Oh yeah and why does the AI hardly ever build city improvements?

They do, but most buildings have a chance of being destroyed when the city is captured. So you will see fewer buildings in captured cities than is the norm for the civ you take 'em from.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I know some of the hardcores have argued fiercely about whether Academies are worthwhile compared to using every Great Scientist as a super specialist. For the rest of us, can someone provide some practical guidelines on when to use each?

I would make the choise based on the base science output of the city and whether or not I'm planning to use the representation civic (+3 science per specialist). A high base science output with a different civic then representation favours the academy, a lower base science output combined with the representation civic favours the great scientist.

Then, it's just some mathematics.

Example: My major science production city is having a base (before multipliers) science output of 50 (not too much since it's not the end game yet). It has a science multiplier of 2.5 (1 (base) + 0.25 library + 0.25 (observatory) + 1 (oxfords university) ). There is no university and no laboratory yet. (The total science output is thus 125 at the moment, but that's not important for the calculations.)

The academy would add 0.5* 50=25 science.
The great scientist under the represenation civic would add 9 * 2.5 =22.5 science and 1 production times the production modifier.

(I've purposefully chosen the number so that the choise is not clear.)

If the civilization would not be using the representation civic, then the choise would be clear as 6*2.5=15 is a lot less than 25. If the city would only have a base science output of 30, then the choise would again be clear as 0.5*30=15 is a lot less than 22.5 science and 1 base production.

You actually also have to estimate how the city will develop in the future as it can make on of the options more profitable in the long run.

I expect that the trade route output of this city will become a bit better since I will get another trade route in the city with economics and I will get bigger cottages in the city. I expect a base science output of 80 in the long run (that's a bit vague of course since it's difficult to estimate future trade route output). This increases the output of the academy to 0.5*80=40.
The city will get a university and a observatory in the near future and then the output of the great scientist under representation will grow to 9*3=27 and 1 base production.
So in the future, the academy seems better (in this theoretical example).

Note that the great scientist and the academy strengthen each others effect:
Lets take the future example and add an academy. The science multiplier would increase to 3.5 increasing the output of adding a great scientist in the future to 9*3.5=31.5 and 1 base hammer.
Lets take the future example and add a great scientist. This would increase the output of adding an academy in the future to 0.5 * (80 + 9) = 44.5

This means that it is often interesting to build an academy and add multiple great scientists to the same city.

When you do any comparisons between the two options, then estimate what your average science rate will be in the future and set it at that value before you compare the options. It is no use to put your science slider to 100% when you know that you'll need a lot of money in the future for unit upgrades. The science output of the academy at 100% science is a rather unrealistic estimate of the future in that case.

An optimized great science city will in the end game produce a few hundred science per turn (300-400 is surely possible with a good city location and good foreign trade routes). That can be as much as the combined science production of 3-4 other good science cities or your empire. On small maps, the effect of such a great science city is of course more noticible than on huge maps with an empire of 30+ cities.

edit: I just saw the thread that was discussing the great scientist vs academy. I didn't mention the bureaucracy civic that was mentioned there. It can make a big difference as bureaucracy increases the base commerce output by 50% and thus increases the output of the academy by 50%. Usually, this will mean that the academy is far more interesting in that city than a great scientist (assuming that the capital is geared towards commerce production).

Also, the thread mentions lightbulbing (you didn't ask about that). It can indeed be interesting to lightbulb a technology for various reasons. In the early game, there are many crucial technologies that improve your empire in many ways. Getting these advantages 10 turns sooner can be worth sacrificing a great scientist. If it allows you to trade for other valuable technologies, then the value increases further. Note that after a lot of tech trading, the computer will often not trade with you anymore ( "you're becoming too advanced"). This is purely linked to the amount of tech trades (allthough the AI seems to forget over time???) and the relationship with the AI. Some AI's are also more or less eager to trade techs. This 'penalty' is more noticable on the higher difficulty levels where you depend more on technology trades to keep up in the tech race. So therefore, I only trade for technologies that I really want to have at the higher difficulty levels. When to trade (early game vs late game) becomes part of the strategy.
In the late game there aren't many turns left to research stuff, so + 30 science for the last 20 turns of the game will be less interesting than +2000 science from lightbulbing a technology (values dependant on game).

Wow that's a lot. I stopped the workers being auto and did some crazy cottage building. Then I built Markets, Grocers, and Banks in all cities, got corporation, the spiral minaret, versailles and loads of courthouses. I got rid of some of the worse units. Now i'm gaining at 80%

so thanks!

It seems that you have rebuild the economy of your empire quite effectively. 80 % science sounds like a healthy economy. You must have noticed that controlling your workers yourself is far more efficient than automating them. You can develop the balance between food, production and commerce that you want and won't see the horrible scenario where an automated worker reimproves a town square with a farm.
As you have been automating your workers in the past, I wonder if you are aware of the fact that cities only use some of the improved tiles. They only use the tiles with white circles on them when you enter a city. Sometimes a city cannot use all of the improved tiles inside its area because of lack of food limiting growth. Building some farms or windmills can help. It would of course have been even better if you had anticipated the problem before it occured. Another reason why a city cannot use all of its tiles is because of the happiness and health cap.
This is especially important with cottages since they only grow when they are being worked by the population of a city. And growing your cottages is key to developing a healthy economy at the high difficulty levels.

Also note that with a science rate of 80%, the majority of your commerce is invested in science. So it becomes very useful to build buildings that increase the science output of the city by x% (library, university, etc.)

 

[Kudos]

This should probably be obvious, but I'm never sure of how it works:

If you trade a resource away that you have "1 of 1" of, do you loose the benefits of the resource? In other words, do you have to have "1 of 2+" to gain from the trade?

 

[Sisiutil]

This should probably be obvious, but I'm never sure of how it works:

If you trade a resource away that you have "1 of 1" of, do you loose the benefits of the resource? In other words, do you have to have "1 of 2+" to gain from the trade?

Yep, if it's your only (or last) instance of the resource and you trade it, you lose its benefits.

 

[Zophos]

This should probably be obvious, but I'm never sure of how it works:

If you trade a resource away that you have "1 of 1" of, do you loose the benefits of the resource? In other words, do you have to have "1 of 2+" to gain from the trade?

As Sisutil says, yes, that's how it works. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it sometimes. The AI has some weird blind spots.

For instance, it doesn't seem to realize that Copper is largely unnecessary once you have Iron, and I've traded Copper for 15-20 gold/turn to such an AI. I'd trade away my last Copper resource in a heartbeat under such circumstances (unless I was trying to build the Colossus or Statue of Liberty, of course).

 

[Crighton]

Ok this isn't the dumbest of questions I've ever asked but it is probably up there. Anyway . . .

Can someone show the math on Vassals? Is there any on it? What I'm really hoping for is some formula where it's like I have 6 cities vassal has three, whats my maintenance going up to as opposed to if he has six cities etc etc.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

EDIT: Fixed vocab error. $%&^$^&$%& public school education

 

[a4phantom]

Ok this isn't the dumbest of questions I've ever asked but it is probably up there. Anyway . . .

Can someone show the math on Vassalage? Is there any on it? What I'm really hoping for is some formula where it's like I have 6 cities vassal has three, whats my maintenance going up to as opposed to if he has six cities etc etc.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Can't help you with math but I'm all over vocabulary: when you say Vassalage people think you mean the Civic enabled by Feudalism.

EDIT: Don't blame school (not for this anyway, they probably did other things to you), I didn't mean that you'd used the word badly in the English sense, only in a bit of confusing civ-terminology. Vassals are unrelated to Vassalage, but only in Civ.

 

[Roland Johansen]

For a4phantom: I edited my reply to you in my previous post after reading a bit in the thread that you mentioned.

 

[a4phantom]

Thanks! My usual tactic has been to use Academies until my three best science producers have them, but I think this is too many. Next time I will try an Academy in my best city, which hopefully has the Great Library, and then put future Great Scientists in as super specialists, in anticipation of Oxford U.

 

[gfallen]

I have helicopters, and can't get the airlift a unit function to work. With the unit selected, I click on the airlift icon, get the altered pointer, click on the target tile, and nothing happens save that the the pointer goes away.

I also have an airport, but cannot figure out how to engage it.

I'm sure this is absurdly simple once you know how, but I don't, so it isn't, so I'd appreciate your help.

Thanks.

 

[cdrgomy]

I downloaded a great Europe map that has 11 civs. I'd like to add arabia because there is a huge void over threre. How do I go about adding a civ to a scenario?

Thanks

 

[roei1987]

hi there,
i downloaded the 1.52 patch in order to fix the problems in the civ 4 game. when i try to install it, an error message is appeared saying "the setup has detected that no version of Sid Meyer's Civilization 4 is installed. this update requires that a previous version of this application be installed".
what does this mean? is the patch unable to find the installed game, or do i need the 1.09 patch, or what??
i'd really appreciate it if someone helped me.
Thank you!

 

[Roland Johansen]

I have helicopters, and can't get the airlift a unit function to work. With the unit selected, I click on the airlift icon, get the altered pointer, click on the target tile, and nothing happens save that the the pointer goes away.

I also have an airport, but cannot figure out how to engage it.

I'm sure this is absurdly simple once you know how, but I don't, so it isn't, so I'd appreciate your help.

Thanks.

You can airlift units from one city of yours with an airport to another city of yours. You can only airlift one unit per turn from a city with an airport. The number of units per turn that can be airlifted to a city depends on whether or not it has an airport. If it has then the number is unlimited, if it hasn't then only one unit per turn can be airlifted to that city.

I don't know why you mention the helicopter. It has nothing to do with airlifting units.

How do I add civs?
I downloaded a great Europe map that has 11 civs. I'd like to add arabia because there is a huge void over threre. How do I go about adding a civ to a scenario?

Thanks

First of all, welcome to civfanatics!

The best place to ask about this would be the creation and customization subforum. It is the place where all the experienced modders reside.

I see that you have already asked the question in the thread where the map is presented which is the best place to start. However, you can also ask it in the main creation and customization forum. There are also some sticky threads on the top of that forum with guides on how to mod certain aspects of civ4.

hi there,
i downloaded the 1.52 patch in order to fix the problems in the civ 4 game. when i try to install it, an error message is appeared saying "the setup has detected that no version of Sid Meyer's Civilization 4 is installed. this update requires that a previous version of this application be installed".
what does this mean? is the patch unable to find the installed game, or do i need the 1.09 patch, or what??
i'd really appreciate it if someone helped me.
Thank you!

First of all, welcome to civfanatics!

The 1.52 patch isn't the latest patch, 1.61 is already out. You can find it here. However, I don't think that will do you much good as apparently something is wrong with your installation so that the patch doesn't recognize that the game is already installed. The game also has an internal upgrade (patch) system. In the start up screen with the revolving earth, you can choose advanced and then choose to download the latest patch (don't know how the exact menu option is called). Maybe that will work.

Otherwise, I would advise a reinstall of the game as apparently something went wrong the first time.

There is a special subforum dedicated to technical problems. The people there know a lot more about such problems as yours. You can find it here. Good luck!

 

[Mongolia]

What are acceptable Image files for the Custom Avator upload feature?

 

[Raisin Bran]

What are acceptable Image files for the Custom Avator upload feature?

Jpg and gif, 70X70 pixels and not over 4KB.

You can go to the Avatar help thread to get what you want edited in the right size.

 

[rotten]

Hi guys, i am newbie

Just an easy question

I didn't see the map when I start a game also if I go around with my unit. I onli see border of river and resources (pigs, horses...)... but if i play a scenario I see the map perfectly
It's normal? May I have problem with my video software?

Thanks for your answer and sorry for my english

 

[garciamedavar]

a. What is to Center the World Map?

b. It's really strange. My cities get connected to the trade network without any road. It seems that cities on coastal plots get connected even if I don't have the neccesary technology or even if the only explored way to my other coastal cities is blocked by enemy territory.
Any clue?

Look at the file I have posted, why is Avignon connected?

 

[roei1987]

You can airlift units from one city of yours with an airport to another city of yours. You can only airlift one unit per turn from a city with an airport. The number of units per turn that can be airlifted to a city depends on whether or not it has an airport. If it has then the number is unlimited, if it hasn't then only one unit per turn can be airlifted to that city.

I don't know why you mention the helicopter. It has nothing to do with airlifting units.



First of all, welcome to civfanatics!

The best place to ask about this would be the creation and customization subforum. It is the place where all the experienced modders reside.

I see that you have already asked the question in the thread where the map is presented which is the best place to start. However, you can also ask it in the main creation and customization forum. There are also some sticky threads on the top of that forum with guides on how to mod certain aspects of civ4.



First of all, welcome to civfanatics!

The 1.52 patch isn't the latest patch, 1.61 is already out. You can find it here. However, I don't think that will do you much good as apparently something is wrong with your installation so that the patch doesn't recognize that the game is already installed. The game also has an internal upgrade (patch) system. In the start up screen with the revolving earth, you can choose advanced and then choose to download the latest patch (don't know how the exact menu option is called). Maybe that will work.

Otherwise, I would advise a reinstall of the game as apparently something went wrong the first time.

There is a special subforum dedicated to technical problems. The people there know a lot more about such problems as yours. You can find it here. Good luck!

hi,
thank you very much... turns out i downloaded the wrong thing... what i originally downloaded was a digital distribution patch, which didn't work. i later tried the regular one, which did work... i have know idea what the difference is between the two, but i'm just glad it works!

 

[Sisiutil]

Hi guys, i am newbie

Just an easy question

I didn't see the map when I start a game also if I go around with my unit. I onli see border of river and resources (pigs, horses...)... but if i play a scenario I see the map perfectly
It's normal? May I have problem with my video software?

Thanks for your answer and sorry for my english

I had a simliar problem at first with the terrain being blacked out, but not the resources or improvements. I believe this is a bug that shows up on some systems that later patches fiixed, so you should probably ensure you're running the 1.61 patch.

In addition to patching, I myself performed two hardware upgrades. I bought a video card with 128 MB of video memory (my on-board one had 64), and I upgraded my system memory from 512 MB to 1 GB. That might be necessary for you as well, especially if the patch doesn't solve the problem.

a. What is to Center the World Map?

b. It's really strange. My cities get connected to the trade network without any road. It seems that cities on coastal plots get connected even if I don't have the neccesary technology or even if the only explored way to my other coastal cities is blocked by enemy territory.
Any clue?

Centering the world map is a bad name for it. What actually happens is some advance (building stonehenge, discovering calendar) reveals that your civilization is NOT, in fact, at the centre of the world. As a result, the game map gives you a more realistic idea of where exactly you are on the globe--i.e. not at its exact centre as your people so smugly assumed.

Remember that the civs to which you are connected may already have the required tech (Sailing, IIRC). And they may have Open Borders agreements with civs between you on the coast.

 

[Canterbury]

I asked this question a while ago but didn't get as complete a response as I would have liked (my explanation was a little confusing). So here goes again:

I'm trying to build the Three Gorges Dam. I've researched Plastics and my cities adjacent to rivers all have factories. However, some but not all of these cities are capable of building the Dam. Why is this? Is there another prerequisite?