Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Roland Johansen]

Does that remain true if you're at war?

Yes.

minimum of ten characters per post

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

@Hyoga

The only way as far as I know of connecting those resources with your empire without settling a city there. Is when those resources are connected to a river on to the ocean. And you should have sailing to enable sea trade.

 

[Hyoga]

Ok, thanks to both of you Roland and Zombie, here's what I got:

To get water-locked resources to connect to the capital all I need is:
1) A coastal city on the capital's continent.
2) A coastal city on the water-locked continent OR
2) A river on the water locked continent.
3) Sailing.
4) Roads connecting the resource.

Safe to assume that a river in the capital's continent works just fine if I have no coastal cities on the continent?


With that, I have another scenario in mind.

Suppose this is what I have:

S= Sea
R= Land based resource
C= City
X= Enemy culture border and land
- = My land
I = Ice

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
SXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXS
SXXX---------------XXXS
SXXX----C----R-----XXXS
SXXX----------------XXXS
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

No river, no ability to build a coastal city. We're assuming that the enemy also has all the land beyond the sea; my city is tiny and vulnerable, heh. All I have are the dashed tile.

So I have access to the resource, but no access to water. Would Flight solve this problem so long as I have an airport built in the water-locked city and on a continental city? Here's hoping.

Thanks a lot again guys.

 

[a4phantom]

Yes. A city with an airport cannot be cut off from another airport. This applies to trade routes, resource hook ups, and unit airlifts. In civ2 airlifted units had a chance of being shot down but this is no longer the case.

 

[Hyoga]

Excellent. Thanks Phantom.

So until the meta-game, when Flight becomes available, locking a city away from the water, like that described above, is a viable strategy for resource denial?

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

yes, as long as you don't have openborders with that civ. all cities of that civ surrounded by your culture, has no acces to resourcers other than the resources found in the cities border.

not clear in your previous post that you understand that the river on the locked of continent should end in the sea. otherwise they wont end up in your city.

 

[Hyoga]

Cool. I got it all now. Thanks a lot guys. I'll enjoy my games much more now.

As for the river thing Zombie, I was clear on it needing to end in the sea but I just figured it was implied since rivers always have to end at sea, at least in the real world. Works like that in Civ too, no? Though I guess they could end in a large lake instead... or a sea locked off by continents, neither of which would be helpful at all, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

As it stands though, I'm good. Informed and inspired. Much appreciated.

 

[turfcat]

Hi Aussie,
With your system you should have no problem. Celerons sometimes go a little slow compared to pentiums. The only problem on my system is the world builder runs a little slow sometimes. HAVE FUN!!!

 

[frankcor]

There's another alternative to getting the benefits of those resources on the peninsula -- sign an open borders agreement with the light-blue civ (Cyrus? or Wang?) with an outpost on the peninsula, then build a road from that city to your resources. They'll be connected to your trade network as long as the open borders agreement stays in effect.

 

[Trabpukcip]

I have three questions:

1- How do you set difficulty levels in multi-player games. Each player seems to set his how difficulty, but how is the AI level set? Sorry for being so noob....

2- I just beat the AI at monarch on a standart map in single player and it took every single bit of wisdom and energy I had to just get my head above the water... (finished by time victory)... Is it normal or am I completly hopeless?

3- Is there anyway one can hurry the production of spaceship parts, cause in the game above, I was four turns away from a space victory... and I had every improvment that I know of that could have speedened up the process? It's quite frustrating because the score of a spacerace is much better than the on from time...

Thanks for the answers....

 

[Roland Johansen]

I have three questions:

1- How do you set difficulty levels in multi-player games. Each player seems to set his how difficulty, but how is the AI level set? Sorry for being so noob....

A lot of the difficulty level modifiers are modifiers for the human player only. Research costs, happiness and health bonusses of the human player are level dependant and thus a human player at emperor level has higher research costs and lower happiness and health bonusses than one at noble level. A lot of the settings for the AI are equal to the human players settings at noble level. For instance, the happiness and health bonusses for the AI are always the same, independent of the difficulty level of the human player.

However, a few AI modifiers are dependent on the difficulty level settings of the human player. I actually don't know what happens to these settings when two human players in multiplayer play at different difficulty levels. It could be that an average modifier is used and it could be that the lowest or highest is used. I don't know.

2- I just beat the AI at monarch on a standart map in single player and it took every single bit of wisdom and energy I had to just get my head above the water... (finished by time victory)... Is it normal or am I completly hopeless?

Noble level is seen as the 'even or fair' difficulty level where AI and human player share the same rules and the AI has no advantages over the human player, but actually even at that level there are some small bonusses for the AI player. At monarch level, the AI already has some advantages over the human player, so it's a bit of a struggle. I don't know how many games you've played of this game (probably not a lot as you're visiting this thread), but there are many players who don't manage to beat monarch even after playing this game for a considerable time. So, well done!

The game has a steep learning curve and you will learn a lot of things in your first 2-3 games. But it also has many layers and even after playing 10 long games (not just tiny map games), you will still learn new things. Reading stuff on this forum will also let you learn new strategies and tactics, especially the War Academy articles are very useful.
Also different map settings and different victory conditions lead to a different game with different tactics. A huge archipellago map leads to a hugely different gaming experience as a tiny pangea map.

For instance, you probably haven't used pop rushing or chop rushing as much as many of the high level playing people would do. Just because you haven't discovered the efficiency of it yet. And you're probably trying to get zero overlap between your cities which is in general also not the most efficient city layout.

3- Is there anyway one can hurry the production of spaceship parts, cause in the game above, I was four turns away from a space victory... and I had every improvment that I know of that could have speedened up the process? It's quite frustrating because the score of a spacerace is much better than the on from time...

Thanks for the answers....

No, you can't speed up the building of space race parts, but you can rearrange the tile improvements around your space ship building cities once you start building those in big numbers and the cottages (towns by now) are not needed anymore for research. A city with mines and workshops and watermills (with state property) can get an impressive production level.

A civilization with the space elevator and research labs, forges, factories and power plants in every one of the space ship part building cities has a 200% production bonus in those cities (building at a rate of 300%). A good production city should be able to get a raw production output close to 50. Multiplied with the production bonus that amounts to 150 hammers added to the space ship parts per turn in such cities. The city with the ironworks should get a 300% production bonus (building at a rate of 400%) and thus get a production output of around 200 if the city was build in a good location. With such production rates, even the expensive docking bay can be build in about 10 turns (normal game speed).

Note that sometimes, you don't have the ideal location for great production cities, but don't forget to improve the land around these cities to maximum production. That is very important to get a decent rate of building space ship parts. It of course hurts to destroy those nice towns that took so long to grow, but it's the best way to win the space race quickly. Of course, you shouldn't destroy the cottages around the cities that are needed to fund your research of the other space ship parts. But after all of the space ship parts are available, the cottages are not needed anymore.

I totally don't care for my score. I have been playing this game since it came out and I have no idea how high I score in a typical game or what my top score is.
The scoring mechanism encourages fast victories. A faster victory exponentially increases your score. Start a duel map with the romans and conquer your single opponent as fast as possible with your preatorians. I bet your score is about 10-100 times as high as your present high score. It isn't even that hard to do this at deity level, further increasing the score (difficulty level is also a part of the score). But that accomplishment doesn't make you an expert player in my book.

 

[a4phantom]

2- I just beat the AI at monarch on a standart map in single player and it took every single bit of wisdom and energy I had to just get my head above the water... (finished by time victory)... Is it normal or am I completly hopeless?

Somewhere between normal and very impressive. I've played the game a lot and the only time I've even played Monarch I stacked the deck (duel sized world with Inca). I won, but I don't know if I could win at Monarch without choosing a super civ (this was back when Incas were Aggressive).

 

[Lord Parkin]

My advice is to take small steps at first... the difficulty levels really are at good intervals. Don't go straight from Warlord to Monarch, since you'll most likely find it extremely tough. Try going up a single difficulty level at a time when you beat the previous one, as this is a better way to learn and improve your game in my experience.

By the way, it's a lot easier to beat the AI at high difficulties when playing with multiple other rival human players. Noble becomes trivial when playing with a decent number of humans in a PBEM, so generally in PBEMs I play now we start the game at a minimum of Monarch level (and even then the AI tend to get pounded pretty badly).

A civilization with the space elevator and research labs, forges, factories and power plants in every one of the space ship part building cities has a 200% production bonus in those cities (building at a rate of 300%). A good production city should be able to get a raw production output close to 50. Multiplied with the production bonus that amounts to 150 hammers added to the space ship parts per turn in such cities. The city with the ironworks should get a 300% production bonus (building at a rate of 400%) and thus get a production output of around 200 if the city was build in a good location. With such production rates, even the expensive docking bay can be build in about 10 turns (normal game speed).

Yep. And don't forget the bonuses from having resources (in particular Aluminium) when building some Spaceship parts. That increases the build rates to 400% and 500% for those cities, respectively.

 

[a4phantom]

3- Is there anyway one can hurry the production of spaceship parts, cause in the game above, I was four turns away from a space victory... and I had every improvment that I know of that could have speedened up the process? It's quite frustrating because the score of a spacerace is much better than the on from time...

Thanks for the answers....

You can hurry your production relative your rivals by attacking them. Even if you're not into conquest as a matter of expanding your territory (I am), build an army before you get the technology to begin producing spaceship parts. Then, when the spacerace begins, attack the leading AI. Not only will you destroy some unfinished parts and lots of science and manufacturing capability if you capture or raze a few core cities, but because you pre-built your army before Apollo program became an option it won't seriously affect your space race, while the AI will have to focus on defense or lose the cities it needs to build its ship. With luck you might destroy its Apollo project, which I assume it would have to rebuild, and if you're attacking the lead civ you might even capture the Space Elevator.
I should disclaim that violence is my solution to everything.

Is there a religion mod that isn't part of a mod so huge it's almost a new game? I like the differentiated religions of Total Realism, but there's no way I'll have Civ time enough to mentally unpack that behemoth.

 

[cabert]

I have three questions:

1- How do you set difficulty levels in multi-player games. Each player seems to set his how difficulty, but how is the AI level set? Sorry for being so noob....

no idea
I never play MP.

2- I just beat the AI at monarch on a standart map in single player and it took every single bit of wisdom and energy I had to just get my head above the water... (finished by time victory)... Is it normal or am I completly hopeless?

In fact time victory on monarch is harder than any other victory condition .
Either you were lucky that none of the AIs launched, or you played it really good to prevent them from doing it.
Anyway, monarch is hard enough to provide a challenge to most players.
So,

If you focus a little more on a specific victory condition, you should be able to win easier in your next games IMHO.

3- Is there anyway one can hurry the production of spaceship parts, cause in the game above, I was four turns away from a space victory... and I had every improvment that I know of that could have speedened up the process? It's quite frustrating because the score of a spacerace is much better than the on from time...

2 things :
1) production of the space parts isn't that much of a problem if you start building them soon enough.
2) space parts aren't rushable. But you can use overflow to get them faster, or chopping. I use both a lot, and if you have enough cities, you can get all the parts built on the same turn (by chopping for the slower builder).
I like it when on turn n the AI has all the casings, all the thrusters and I have nothing, then on turn n+1, I launch .
In P66602 : fix another trash game, we went for space with montezuma crazyeye: not the most straightforward victory condition for this guy) at monarch level. It's not really a SG, since there are as many games played as players in the team, but we discussed the ways to speed up the finish, and you can see what where the conditions to get there "easily". I launched in the very late 19th century = time was not really an issue.

 

[Lord Parkin]

1- How do you set difficulty levels in multi-player games. Each player seems to set his how difficulty, but how is the AI level set?

The AI will always play at Noble level; the other players set their difficulties with respect to the AI. Generally in multiplayer it's considered standard to have all players playing at the same difficulty level (whichever one you decide on), just for fairness issues. Unless one player is quite considerably less experienced than the others, they should not give themselves a difficulty handicap. And certainly I wouldn't advise it for players who are of a fairly similar level of playing.

But about the AI, as I said the human players structure themselves around the AI. If one human is on Warlord level he'll receive bonuses specific to his civ (extra happiness, health, lower upkeep, faster tech rate, etc), while if another is on Monarch he'll receive penalties specific to his civ (lower happiness, health, higher upkeep, slower tech rate, etc). Obviously quite a large imbalance can develop due to these differences, which is why I advise settling on a difficulty between the human players, then all playing at that difficulty level (whether it be Chieftain, Prince, Emperor, whatever). The AI will always have a standard happiness, health, upkeep, tech rate, etc (the same as what is standard for the human player on Noble level). Like Roland I am also not sure what happens to other difficulty level factors (for instance the unit upgrade price for the AI, which is dependent on the difficulty level of the human players)... I assume that there would be some sort of 'average' difficulty level calculated though, or else either the highest or lowest difficulty would be taken for the purposes of those calculations.

2- I just beat the AI at monarch on a standart map in single player and it took every single bit of wisdom and energy I had to just get my head above the water... (finished by time victory)... Is it normal or am I completly hopeless?

How long have you been playing? It takes a considerable amount of time to actually get used to Monarch and be comfortable with that level, especially if you hadn't played Civ games prior to Civ4. If it's only one of your first dozen or so games, I'd be impressed that you've managed to do well enough to win by the time victory already. I started with Civ3, and it took me considerably longer to move up the difficulty levels in that game (of course it was a little easier to move up the difficulty levels when I switched to Civ4 though, due to that Civ3 experience).

3- Is there anyway one can hurry the production of spaceship parts, cause in the game above, I was four turns away from a space victory... and I had every improvment that I know of that could have speedened up the process? It's quite frustrating because the score of a spacerace is much better than the on from time...

There's a bit of a trick to the Space Race, in that it isn't actually your production capabilities that matter so much (unless it's a really tight race). Instead, the key is in the technologies beforehand - in other words, in order to win the Space Race you want to have a high science output, not necessarily a high production output. After all, if you're discovering the techs 10 turns before anyone else is, then you've got no real competition in launching the Space Ship ahead of everyone else, even if you have a relatively low production rate in your cities.

 

[Trabpukcip]

Just for your information, I'm realtivly new to civ4 (5 single player games). But my experience in civ goes back to civ1... that's why I quickly went to monarch. All those 100s of hours playing civ3 weren't a waste after all...

 

[ordinaryguy]

Just for your information, I'm realtivly new to civ4 (5 single player games). But my experience in civ goes back to civ1... that's why I quickly went to monarch. All those 100s of hours playing civ3 weren't a waste after all...

Of course. Experience is good. That's why the manual said that civ veterans (those who have played earlier versions) are encouraged to start at noble or more difficult. Now if only I had some experience...... I'm still stuck at warlord level

 

[feldmarshall]

I've never played civ4 multiplayer but i'm just curious. do you wait all the way until other player finish their turn? that will be a kind of boring i think.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I've never played civ4 multiplayer but i'm just curious. do you wait all the way until other player finish their turn? that will be a kind of boring i think.

You can use turn timers and a game mode where everyone can do there move at the same time (simultaneous moves). Simultaneous moves of course has its own problems, but it improves the game for people who don't like to wait.