Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[a4phantom]

Thanks RJ. The problem was Shaka, and I got him to attack his hated English neighbors by declaring war on Liz first, then inviting him to join. The English had no route to reach me, so I was free to attack China. The problem was of course rapid war weariness from being at war with three nations (Egypt vassalized China and came to their defense), but I made peace with Liz fairly soon (she gave me a little cash).

1. Now that military Academies give +50% production, do you still consider them a poor investment? I built one in my West Point city because I thoughtlessly built Heroic Epic and National Epic in the same city.

2. If someone (Egypt) vassalizes a nation (China) that I'm at war with, are they automatically at war with me?

3. Is there any way to encourage a Vassal or Master to end a voluntary (not capitulation) bond?

 

[sanabas]

Different map types and/or sizes seem to have different domination limits, both for population and land area. Is there a table somewhere showing % for various maps?

Anybody know this one?

 

[Bum Mahoney]

Hey peoples...

All new here, and the site is a bit overwhelming. I was wondering if someone could give me a little overview for the Warlords patch, something called Vanilla CIV as opposed to the original game?

Much appreciated, thx.

JaKob

OK, so Now I got that Vanilla is unpatched and warlords cost cash. What about the 1.61 patch. Is it a must? More fun than the original?

 

[shahzadmasih]

Hi, This post is very informative, however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

 

[Roland Johansen]

Thanks RJ. The problem was Shaka, and I got him to attack his hated English neighbors by declaring war on Liz first, then inviting him to join. The English had no route to reach me, so I was free to attack China. The problem was of course rapid war weariness from being at war with three nations (Egypt vassalized China and came to their defense), but I made peace with Liz fairly soon (she gave me a little cash).

1. Now that military Academies give +50% production, do you still consider them a poor investment? I built one in my West Point city because I thoughtlessly built Heroic Epic and National Epic in the same city.

There was a lengthy discussion in another thread about the military academy and whether or not it was worth it (compared to Great Military Instructors). Most of us thought it was a bad choise and suggested to improve the production percentage. Most suggested a percentage of 33% or something like that, but I wanted 50%. I'm happy to see that Firaxis listened to me. They know the world revolves around me!



Yes, I think that a 50% bonus makes them fairly useful but not overpowered. I try to create as many level 4 units (10+ xp units) from the cities as I can. Usually by creating a city with Heroic Epic (+100% hammers for units) and West Point (+4 xp). Together with the Pentagon and a barracks, this city only needs one Great Military Instructor to breach the 10xp border. If you can't get the Pentagon, then you'll need two. You can also use some civics to get to the 10 xp border. Such a city usually has a big production bonus (+100% from West point and +100% from forge+ power plant + factory) and the +50% production is at that point in the game not that great anymore. You might consider building up a second city with instructors to get to the 10 xp border. But you'll need multiple instructors for that goal as that second city doesn't have West Point. A city with forge, factory and power plant has a production rating of 200% of normal. A military academy adds 50%, so it's worth about 1/4th of a city at the end of the game. And that sounds about right. So you'll have the choise between a quarter city production now or building up another city with multiple instructors to get a full city producing level 4 units sometime in the (distant) future. At that point in the game, I like the military academy.

(note that estimating the worth of a military academy at 1/4th of the production of a city is a bit rough. Your first military production city usually has the best base production so the military academy's bonus is a bit greater than 1/4th of the production of your second best production city.)

The military academy bonus is of course greater at the start of the game when the big production bonusses aren't available yet, but at that point in the game, I can't produce level 4 units and that will be my first goal.

2. If someone (Egypt) vassalizes a nation (China) that I'm at war with, are they automatically at war with me?

Yes. But since the patch, the AI vassalising your enemy realises this and will take it into consideration before vassalising your enemy.

3. Is there any way to encourage a Vassal or Master to end a voluntary (not capitulation) bond?

Not something that I can think of right now.

Different map types and/or sizes seem to have different domination limits, both for population and land area. Is there a table somewhere showing % for various maps?

Sorry, nobody here seems to know. I did a search through the xml-files, but didn't find anything related to map size or map type.

However, logic determines that there should be a relation to the number of opponents on a map. Otherwise a two player game would end rather quickly.

This is from the file CIV4VictoryInfo.xml

<iPopulationPercentLead>25</iPopulationPercentLead>
<iLandPercent>78</iLandPercent>
<iMinLandPercent>51</iMinLandPercent>

When I started a normal sized continents map with 17 opponents I had to get 51% of the world's land (F8 menu). When I started a normal sized continents map with 1 opponent, I had to acquire 74% of the world's land. When I started a normal sized continents map with 0 opponents, I had to acquire 76% of the world's land.

Some other minor tests lead me to believe that the formula below could describe the land percentage needed to get a domination victory

Percentage land needed = maximum (78-N*2 , 51)
where N is the number of civilizations on the map, you included.

Note that I could easily be wrong as I only tested it for a few minutes, no major rigorous testing here.

Hey peoples...

All new here, and the site is a bit overwhelming. I was wondering if someone could give me a little overview for the Warlords patch, something called Vanilla CIV as opposed to the original game?

Much appreciated, thx.

JaKob

OK, so Now I got that Vanilla is unpatched and warlords cost cash. What about the 1.61 patch. Is it a must? More fun than the original?

Welcome to Civfanatics!


This site has some great info pages. This one will help you get some information about the Warlords expansion pack. If you want, you can compare it with the original game, which has a similar info page.

I would surely patch the game. There are a few bugs in the original game that were fixed in the various patches. Also, some game elements were better balanced in the patches. You can use the ingame update system to patch the game (Title screen click advanced -> check for updates) or download the patch on this site here.

On that page, you can also read what was changed in the latest patch. In your main game directory will be a readme.htm file containing all the changes in all of the patches upto 1.61 (the latest) after you have installed the patch.

Hi, This post is very informative, however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

Welcome to civfanatics!

Your question is not very clear. I don't know about what subject you want information.

 

[Rycheman]

Quickie.
When saving a game on civ4 is it possible to overwrite a previously saved game?Ihave to keep going to the saved game file to delete old saves, which seems like a waste of time,surely you can overwrite.Please let me know how,thanks.

 

[Raisin Bran]

Quickie.
When saving a game on civ4 is it possible to overwrite a previously saved game?Ihave to keep going to the saved game file to delete old saves, which seems like a waste of time,surely you can overwrite.Please let me know how,thanks.

Yes it is possible. The way I save my games is like that.

I have a total of 3 saved games. When I want to save I press on escape and choose save game.

On the save game pop-up I double click on the game I want to overwrite. The game is going to prompt you asking if you really want to overwrite it ... just say yes.



Welcome to CFC

 

[a4phantom]

Yes, I think that a 50% bonus makes them fairly useful but not overpowered. I try to create as many level 4 units (10+ xp units) from the cities as I can. Usually by creating a city with Heroic Epic (+100% hammers for units) and West Point (+4 xp). Together with the Pentagon and a barracks, this city only needs one Great Military Instructor to breach the 10xp border. If you can't get the Pentagon, then you'll need two. You can also use some civics to get to the 10 xp border. Such a city usually has a big production bonus (+100% from West point and +100% from forge+ power plant + factory) and the +50% production is at that point in the game not that great anymore. You might consider building up a second city with instructors to get to the 10 xp border. But you'll need multiple instructors for that goal as that second city doesn't have West Point. A city with forge, factory and power plant has a production rating of 200% of normal. A military academy adds 50%, so it's worth about 1/4th of a city at the end of the game. And that sounds about right. So you'll have the choise between a quarter city production now or building up another city with multiple instructors to get a full city producing level 4 units sometime in the (distant) future. At that point in the game, I like the military academy.

Yeah, that's why it's annoying (although not unreasonable) that barracks now only gives 3 exp. Since everything else adds in 2s or 4s, it just doesn't line up right to 10!
I like to put my first instructor in my Heroic Epic city, to crank out 2 promo units early in the game. Then I spend future GGs as instructors in other cities, so they'll all produce 2 promo units. As I approach Military Tradition, I use one GG as a warlord on a chariot with at least 6 xp to make a super-healer with an extra movement point that'll get free upgrades all the way to gunship, and this lets me build West Point. I use one more GG to kick my West Point/ Heroic Epic city up to +11 experience (WP+rax+2 instructors). After that the threshold for GG production is very high and my units rarely fight battles without excellent odds, so I can't count on too many more GGs, but I stick those on other production cities. Building Military Academy in your Red Cross city might be a good idea too, although RC is wasted if you're building tanks and gunships there.

 

[boesveld]

As this is the quick answers / 'newbie' questions thread, you shouldn't hesitate to answer a question here. However, your question is rather hard to answer as many things could have gone wrong.

I see that you have already asked the question in the mod thread. I'll bet that the mod creator will give you an answer soon. But until then, I want to make sure that you've really loaded the mod as that is not really clear from the above description.

Inside the game, you click advanced -> load a mod and then pick the mod and click the ok button in the lower right corner. Then the game should restart and load the mod. Often the name of the mod will then be displayed in the upper right corner of the title screen and when you click advanced -> about this build, then the bottom line of the info screen should show the mod that you're using.

Does this function correctly for you?

You can also order the game to always start using a certain mod. This cuts back on the loading time of the mod because the game doesn't need to restart to use the mod.

In order to achieve this you'll have to make a small change in the ini-file.
Go to ...\Civilization 4\Warlords and double click _Civ4Config.

Go to the line


; Specify a Mod folder (Mods\Mesopotamia), '0' for none
Mod = 0

and change the 0 into Mods\[folder in which you installed the mod]

(I don't know the name of the folder in which this mod is installed as I haven't installed this mod myself, you'll have to find that out for yourself. Don't place [] around the name as I did above.)

Thanks so much for your explanation! I did a complete reinstallation of the game and then re-downloaded the game. It does now appear to load the mod, and when I hit "About this build" it names the mod appropriately. I haven't had a chanc to really play it and see if all is in working order, but I think I'm on the right track thanks to you.

I am an old Civ player from back in the day of Civ I and II, then didn't play for years until I bought this one. My knowledge base is woefully outdated!
Thank you for taking the time to help me out - really nice of you!
Ron

 

[Berserker8778]

When I'm loading a scenario (in Civ4), there's a fixed number of civilizations I can choose from. Is there any way I could introduce another civilization of my choosing (ie. polynessians in 1000AD - Earth)? I'm not wholley sure how to use the worldbuilder yet.

 

[a4phantom]

I am an old Civ player from back in the day of Civ I and II, then didn't play for years until I bought this one. My knowledge base is woefully outdated!
Thank you for taking the time to help me out - really nice of you!
Ron

I loved Civ3 but most people here would probably say you didn't miss anything.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I thought Civ3 was pretty great myself.

When I'm loading a scenario (in Civ4), there's a fixed number of civilizations I can choose from. Is there any way I could introduce another civilization of my choosing (ie. polynessians in 1000AD - Earth)? I'm not wholley sure how to use the worldbuilder yet.

If you just want the name of the civilization to appear as the "Polynesians", this is just a simple text edit. You can change each civ's details in the screen when you're setting up the game - just click the little icon to the left of the boxes saying "AI", and you can rename them however you'd like.

If you're talking about actually introducing new leaderhead graphics and traits and such, then I can't help you, but someone else may be able to. Leaderheads are very tricky to make, and your best bet is probably to download them - but introducing new trait combinations should be a fairly easy edit of the XML files (at a guess).

 

[Elmstr]

I've got a (nooby) question: I've got civ 4 now and warlords is out, i'm wondering if i can just download civ 4 warlords or the new patch so i dont have to buy the expancienpack or something?

 

[Zophos]

I've got a (nooby) question: I've got civ 4 now and warlords is out, i'm wondering if i can just download civ 4 warlords or the new patch so i dont have to buy the expancienpack or something?

Warlords is an expansion pack - you have to own the base game and then pay additional money for the expansion. Patches are free, but you can't use 'em unless you own the thing you're patching (so you can download the 2.08 patch if you want, but you can't do anything useful with it unless you've bought Warlords).

 

[Berserker8778]

I thought Civ3 was pretty great myself.

If you're talking about actually introducing new leaderhead graphics and traits and such, then I can't help you, but someone else may be able to. Leaderheads are very tricky to make, and your best bet is probably to download them - but introducing new trait combinations should be a fairly easy edit of the XML files (at a guess).

I'm actually referring to customizing the fixed civilizations used in scenario-based maps. I don't want to change leaderheads, but include newer civilizations (live a custom mod of a civ, or introducing a new civilzation in a map where the civs cannot be changed.)

 

[Deetwo]

About the dark terrain- I did make sure I have downoaded and installed the patch, but that's not the problem. The cities and farms are visible, but other explored terriain is black. Roads are visible built over black terrain. Any other ideas? Thanks!

 

[Steve2000]

About the dark terrain- I did make sure I have downoaded and installed the patch, but that's not the problem. The cities and farms are visible, but other explored terriain is black. Roads are visible built over black terrain. Any other ideas? Thanks!

Make sure your video card is supported by the game. Min specs are a 64MB Nvidia or ATI card with Hardware T&L. Most people on this forum have discovered that the recommended specs are the "real" required specs, i.e. 128MB card with pixel and vertex shaders. If your video card is not up to snuff, especially if you have integrated video, you may need to upgrade. I would say post your system specs, here or in the tech support forum and see what people have to say - include CPU, RAM, and Video Card info.

 

[a4phantom]

Also make sure your video card has the latest driver (patch) available for it. If that doesn't work, make sure your computer has the most up to date BIOS. From Nov 05 to October 06 I had a problem with Civ4 and Warlords where it often wouldn't start up right, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, patching, lowering the graphics level, updating the software on my computer, everything. Finally it started working every time, it was an update to some obscure part of my computer's software or a hardware driver that did it.

 

[Zophos]

Min specs are a 64MB Nvidia or ATI card with Hardware T&L. Most people on this forum have discovered that the recommended specs are the "real" required specs, i.e. 128MB card with pixel and vertex shaders.

Yes and no. I play quite successfully (vanilla 1.61 and WL 2.08) on an Inspiron 600m laptop (1.8 GHz/512MB) with a 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000. I just have to turn all the options down to 'low', single-unit gaphics, etc. I get some slowdown in very busy scenes, but it's still quite playable.

 

[merma8d]

How do I get above Dan Quayle in the ratings. That is hysterical to me BTW. I don't understand how I win the game, time trial, space race but never rank hugher than Dan Quayle. ok well maybe once. Suggestions?