Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Sisiutil]

Is this in cities with a food surplus so that you don't need the food from the cottages? Or do you temporarily starve the population? (just curious)

Do you usually build the Pyramids and use Representation? I usually don't build the Pyramids (and normally don't build many wonders in general), it's a bit too expensive for me at that point in the game. Especially if I don't have stone. A 6 science scientist is quite nice to use.

Have you ever gone for a full specialist based economy with barely any cottages.

I rarely starve cities, so the ones in question usually have a food surplus--or I swap around the tiles worked so they do.

Like you, I rarely build the Pyramids. I usually only try if I'm playing as a Philosophical or Industrious leader and I have stone near my start.

I have really only tried a SE twice: the first time was in the ALC Frederick (vanilla) game. The other time was off-line. I suppose I should try it a little more often, but I'm just very used to the CE and know how to make it work. I'm also not the world's best micro-manager, which is kind of required for the SE.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I much prefer the cottage economy myself, especially with Financial civs. That's just a personal preference though.

I've heard that the game cheats in the late stage. While I can't confirm this for certain, I find it highly suspicious that all of a sudden at a certain point in the game, other civs start advancing and learning techs at a lightning pace. And I must say, it is VERY difficult to resist the urge to go into the in-game worldbuilder and add the techs I need or remove them from my foes (call it "stealing technology' without an actual spy). Not that i would suggest such a thing of course..lol. But I'ts really really really hard to resist. [particularly if you, like me, are NOT a "game purist".

The game does not 'cheat' in this way.

It is natural that in a game where everyone else is on a supercontinent, and you are on a small island, that you will fall way behind in technology. This is because you have no-one to trade technologies with, while everyone else is trading around like mad. You shouldn't underestimate the power of trade.

Also, there are natural 'step points' in the game where commerce and production take huge leaps up. Commerce increases drastically once civs discover Liberalism and Printing Press, while production increases slightly with Democracy (and in huge bounds when Assembly Line has been researched). Thus, if you fall too far behind, then you will naturally reach a 'trough' where it becomes almost impossible to catch up to the other civs in technology. You want to try to avoid this rut if at all possible.

You may also have not built enough cottages. If you are on a small island of your own, maximising cottages becomes even more important.

Now, as for the possible routes to victory. As long as you have set yourself up alright, perhaps with a few early game wonders, a few Great Artists, and a lot of cottages all over the place, then the easiest route to victory in a situation like yours should be the Cultural Victory. Once you have researched to Liberalism and Democracy, stop producing any science and turn the culture slider up to full. Build as many different Cathedrals as you possibly can in your three leading culture cities (hopefully at least a couple of religions were founded on your island). The road to victory should hopefully now become clear, as long as the other civs aren't too close to a Space Race victory themselves. (In my opinion you would be exceptionally unlikely to win a Space Race victory from the position you describe yourself in.)

Hope that helps a little.

 

[a4phantom]

Right, trying to win a Space Race with a serious tech deficiency is like trying to win a beauty pageant with chicken pox. Go for culture or diplomacy (Miss Congeniality!).

 

[PhilippK]

I've seen abbreviations for different kinds of economies used on the boards. I could figure out that CE means cottage economy where most of your commerce is produced by cottages/towns, and SE indicates that your economy is powered by specialists. But what does FE mean? Are there other stereotypes how to build up an economy?

 

[cabert]

I've seen abbreviations for different kinds of economies used on the boards. I could figure out that CE means cottage economy where most of your commerce is produced by cottages/towns, and SE indicates that your economy is powered by specialists. But what does FE mean? Are there other stereotypes how to build up an economy?

It's a deviation of the SE.
It means Flexible Economy, and is farm powered .
It means essentially using food to max specialists or production via whipping /drafting.

 

[feldmarshall]

can I view the chance of GP emerge in my city? if yes, where?
what determines the rate of GP? some people says farm. how it works?
if you choose to build "culture" in one of your city does it affect all your cities or only that particular cities? thanks

 

[cabert]

can I view the chance of GP emerge in my city? if yes, where?

Yes, but it's not a chance, it's a rate (GPPoints accumulate and when the bar is full, you get a GP). You see it at the bottom right of the city screen.

what determines the rate of GP?

the GPP sources are wonders and specialists.
world wonder gives 2 GPP/turn
specialist gives 3 GPP/turn
Citizens don't count towards GPP, though.

some people says farm. how it works?

some people

farms give food, food allows you to hire specialists, specialists give GPPs.

if you choose to build "culture" in one of your city does it affect all your cities or only that particular cities?

If you build culture it's only in that city.
If you move the commerce slider, it's empire wide.

 

[Sparta]

can I view the chance of GP emerge in my city? if yes, where?
what determines the rate of GP? some people says farm. how it works?
if you choose to build "culture" in one of your city does it affect all your cities or only that particular cities? thanks

1) Just hover the mouse over the bar that displays the accumulated Great Person Points (GPP) (should be right under the resource listings on the right in the city details screen, IF that city is actually generating GPP (otherwise it will not appear)), and a popup window will tell you how many points you are currently at, how many you have to reach to generate your next GP, and also the percentages for your chances of various great people (e.g. if you run two scientists and a merchant constantly, your odds would be 2/3 GS and 1/3 GM. Note that the game counts 'sources' as opposed to points for calculating percentages - a national wonder generating 1 GPP per turn will add just as much weight to that great person type as a world wonder generating two or a specialist generating three points.). (Also note that you can use that little mouse-hover tooltip trick to get stats and info about numerous other things as well, like slavery unhappiness, commerce details, production details, etc.)

2) Basically, you'll need ever-increasing numbers of GPP per great person to generate them. It should start out at 100 required for the first great person, meaning you would need to wait 100 turns after a 1 GPP national wonder, 50 turns after a 2-GPP world wonder, or go through 34 turns of running a 3-GPP specialist (or further combinations like that). The next great person would cost 200 points, the one after that 300, and I think it may even increase at a higher rate later on but I can't recall for sure. As such, generally the most efficient way of getting a lot of great people is finding a very high food surplus city, farming the heck out of it, and running as many specialists as possible. (Adding the National Epic to that city (for double GPP) will obviously help a lot as well, and Globe Theatre can sometimes be a good addition also to augment poor production through judicious use of the whip.)

3) I'm not positive, as I don't think I have ever built culture, but I would certainly assume it would just give culture in that city only (ostensibly adding overall culture to your empire's total, but not directly adding culture to any other individual cities). That would be the way building commerce or science would work at least, so I would assume it would be the same for building culture. IMHO though, you'd typically be better off investing that production in a handful of military units such that you could just 'annex' the offending culture source anyway.

Hope that helps some. Have a good one!

 

[Samson]

3) I'm not positive, as I don't think I have ever built culture, but I would certainly assume it would just give culture in that city only (ostensibly adding overall culture to your empire's total, but not directly adding culture to any other individual cities). That would be the way building commerce or science would work at least, so I would assume it would be the same for building culture. IMHO though, you'd typically be better off investing that production in a handful of military units such that you could just 'annex' the offending culture source anyway.

Hope that helps some. Have a good one!

I cannot add much to the exelent advice here, but this is definatly the way building culture works. The only reason I build cuture is to get the first cultural expansion, so the city can work all 20 tiles within its fat cross. It is frequently the best way to do this, esp. if there are high power tiles that it could use.

 

[Samson]

If you capture or raise a civs capital, does it destroy their spaceship still (like it did in every version up to 4)?

 

[Sisiutil]

If you capture or raise a civs capital, does it destroy their spaceship still (like it did in every version up to 4)?

Nope, not anymore. You have to completely destroy the civ to destroy the space ship.

 

[a4phantom]

I cannot add much to the exelent advice here, but this is definatly the way building culture works. The only reason I build cuture is to get the first cultural expansion, so the city can work all 20 tiles within its fat cross. It is frequently the best way to do this, esp. if there are high power tiles that it could use.

Good idea! What tech enables you to build culture? I know drama lets you dedicate commerce to culture.

Nope, not anymore. You have to completely destroy the civ to destroy the space ship.

Although taking or razing their core industrial cities, and capturing their aluminum probably takes them out of the race unless they're almost there. Do vassals ever build spaceship parts?

 

[whydirt]

Is there a guide somewhere that explains all of the map subcategories such as the coast types for Pangaea and the types for custom games that aren't in the Play Now area (like Balanced)?

 

[deleted]

deleted

 

[ori]

Do vassals ever build spaceship parts?

they do - and they might even win the game

Is there a guide somewhere that explains all of the map subcategories such as the coast types for Pangaea and the types for custom games that aren't in the Play Now area (like Balanced)?

Sirian's Map Guide
it does not include Shuffle (which randomly selects continents, pangaea or archipelago) and fractal (which is an alternative continents map).

What's the shortcut to run the game with a certain mod?

either open CivilizationIV.ini and change Mod= 0 to Mod= mods\ModName
or create a shortcut and change the commandline to:

"...\Civilization4.exe" mod= mods\ModName
or
"...\Civ4Warlords.exe" mod= mods\ModName

the space between mod= and mods\ModName is necessary

 

[a4phantom]

they do - and they might even win the game

I'd like to see that. I'm going to start letting my vassals build space ship parts and demand them as tribute.

 

[cabert]

Good idea! What tech enables you to build culture? I know drama lets you dedicate commerce to culture.

It's music

 

[Lord Parkin]

world wonder gives 2 GPP/turn

It's worth noting that the Great Wall is an exception since 2.08, only giving 1 GPP/turn for balance purposes (presumably so that one can't easily use the Great Engineer to quickly grab another early wonder... thus making the Great Wall less overpowered).

Good idea! What tech enables you to build culture? I know drama lets you dedicate commerce to culture.

Music.

Although taking or razing their core industrial cities, and capturing their aluminum probably takes them out of the race unless they're almost there.

Spies help too.

they do - and they might even win the game

Do you mean that vassals can win the game seperately from their masters if they complete the spaceship first, or is it a 'combined' victory?

 

[cabert]

Do you mean that vassals can win the game seperately from their masters if they complete the spaceship first, or is it a 'combined' victory?

the vassal wins, and the master cries

 

[a4phantom]

the vassal wins, and the master cries

Has anyone ever seen that actually happen? That's gotta be hilarious (unless it's your own vassal). I would be willing to lose to see someone else's vassal win, and I suppose it could happen since reasonably intact AIs do become vassals to other AIs.

Thanks to everyone who said Music.