Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Sisiutil]

I've been searching for a post addressing this, but I can't find any... does anyone know what "triggers" the change in victory/defeat sounds from the normal sounds to the longer, bass-er victory sound and the DUH-da-dah strings?

Is it having a warlord attached to a unit? That seemed to do it for me in my last game, but I'm wondering if that's just coincidence. Is it discovering Composites maybe? Or after building your first armored unit? I have no idea, because all of those things happened so close to each other in my last game, and I haven't played Civ 4 long enough to figure this out through trial and error.

Thanks!

I think those sorts of sounds are triggered by entering different "eras" in the game (medieval, renaissance, modern). Those start of those eras are, in turn, triggered by certain technologies.

Browsing through the original Civ IV folders, I found a piece of music which runs for nearly 2 min called UN. I've never heard that in the game, not even when I build the UN or when there are elections (although I've never had a diplo victory). So, does anyone know what is that?

I'm not completely sure, but yes, it may be the music that plays after a diplomatic victory. It's been a while since I won diplomatically so I can't say for sure.

 

[axident]

No, it is the era you are in. Every two eras it changes.

Thanks.

Sisiutil, I've been following your ALC thread, btw, and it's made me a lot more flexible about how I play; I used to be chronic builder who wanted to be left alone, but I notice that you pay a LOT of attention to dip relations. That saved my hide in my last game, a Monarch game where I was isolated on a smaller continent while everyone else traded techs like mad on a huge continent far away. After first contact, I played diplomat as well as I could and gambled that nobody would attack me and my nonexistent army, and using that leverage, I eventually got a tiny tech lead over the biggest AI (China) and bribed them a few times to start wars. Unfortunately that just won them more and more cities and it became clear that I needed a space race win. After bribing China one last time to attack India (which somehow managed to get to Apollo first--probably because I avoided trading with China as much as possible and wound up giving India a lot of very good tech swaps), that delay bought me the time I needed to finish Apollo, the elevator shortly after, and it was smooth sailing. China wound up with a whopping four vassals to add to its already-huge empire, but it was several pieces shy of the spaceship when I finished. So thanks for the informative threads on ALC.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Ingrate! Frankcor put a curse on your enemies so that they would be confused and unable to plan strategies or fight wars effectively. How can you not appreciate such an overwhelming blessing?

So for all newbies out there. You see, you can still incur the wrath of those religious civ nutcases. Even when you adopt no relegion and stay a blissfull heathen.
Is it to much to ask that you gods work for me? I expect you to crush me instead of my enemies for my offerings, so I don't need to be peacefull.

hmm... I feel a bit weird. It just doesn't make sense. Maybey you are mortal? nah, it can't be.

 

[frankcor]

Everytime I start thinking I am immortal, I play a game at Emperor level. I get snapped back to reality in just a couple of hours.

Playing Civ is like being a Roman Centurian and having a slave whose job is to stand behind your right shoulder in battle whispering "You are mortal. Someday you will die."

 

[Evil_Himmler]

mine's uploaded from my pc. i didn't bother to check if there were any hello kitty ones already at CFC, i rather doubt it.

hmm i dont mean to sound noob but how do you upload a avitar?

 

[Sisiutil]

hmm i dont mean to sound noob but how do you upload a avitar?

I believe you have to have been a member of the forum for at least a month and have at least 25 posts. So hang around and keep asking questions!

 

[cabert]

I think I have enough posts for a personnal avatar now.
Anyone knows where to find a cool, big mouthed, one?

 

[KMadCandy]

shucks. found some videos (based on talking heads) but no stills. and they're not how i think of you anyway.

when i typed that last sentence the thought popped into my head that you might should use this but really really that's not how i think of you either! it was just totally random, out of nowhere. i just need sleep i think. *runs away and hides*

 

[cabert]

shucks. found some videos (based on talking heads) but no stills. and they're not how i think of you anyway.

when i typed that last sentence the thought popped into my head that you might should use this but really really that's not how i think of you either! it was just totally random, out of nowhere. i just need sleep i think. *runs away and hides*

Good idea!
Not the pic you gave me, but the muppet show.
I'm a froggie after all!
Let's find a kermit picture : edit : done. I like it. What do you think?

 

[frankcor]

It's not easy being green.

 

[MusX]

where could i find a list of parameters that can be used while launching civ4 (warlords), if they exists.
generally i need two things:
- resolution parameters
- full screen on/off

i would like to have two shourcuts, one for fullscreen 1600x1200 game, second one for windowed 1280x1024

thx in advance

 

[Abegweit]

where could i find a list of parameters that can be used while launching civ4 (warlords), if they exists.
generally i need two things:
- resolution parameters
- full screen on/off

i would like to have two shourcuts, one for fullscreen 1600x1200 game, second one for windowed 1280x1024

thx in advance

It's a two-step process. Here are the command line options for civ4 from the firaxis site.

mod=foo // specify the modname
multiple // allow multiple civ instances to run
ini=foo // specify the ini file
/altroot=foo // specify alternate root for save files
/FXSLOAD=foo // specify file to load

So you make two .ini files and set the FullScreen, ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight options accordingly. Then make shortcuts for each file.

 

[zygut]

three n00b questions: what criteria should I use to decide if I should build a farm or a cottage? the AI sometimes highlites both, and so I have no idea what to pick, I am sure that there must be reasons why I would pick one over the other but I have no idea what those are.

second question: I've got a city that is unhappy. I've built all the happiness improvements that I have the research for, what else can I do to improve the happiness?

third: it seems really hard to take enemy cities... I build about 10 catapaults, push them over to the cities, bombard until the city defenses are 0% and then try to attack, but I loose pretty much all units (catapaults, swordsmen, etc.), what am I missing?

 

[a4phantom]

three n00b questions: what criteria should I use to decide if I should build a farm or a cottage? the AI sometimes highlites both, and so I have no idea what to pick, I am sure that there must be reasons why I would pick one over the other but I have no idea what those are.

The AI highlighting something is a pretty useless indicator. The answer to your question depends entirely on circumstances. If there are a lot of floodplains or food resources (pigs, corn, etc), you probably don't need any farms except on the corn or wheat or rice. If you have a lot of hills and will be mining them (it's a production city), you want farms to compensate for the low food income of those mined hills, or for that matter unchopped forests. If the city is going to be your great person farm, you want more farms than usual to feed the specialists. If you're going to be harvesting desert squares for iron or incense, you may want some farms to make up for the absence of food on those tiles. With experience you'll learn to play it by ear.

second question: I've got a city that is unhappy. I've built all the happiness improvements that I have the research for, what else can I do to improve the happiness?

Add religions. Each religion lets you build a temple, for +1 happy, and the more religions and temples you have the more cathedrals/synagogues/mosques/etc you can build in your big cities. Make sure every city has your state religion for another +1 happiness. Some civics (Representation and Hereditary Rule and Nationalism I believe) add happiness under certain easily met conditions. Colonize, conquer or trade for luxury resources like ivory and gold. Get any wars you're in quickly over and done with. Also, slavery plays a huge role in managing and creating unhappiness, but I'm not the man to explain that (there's a link somewhere).

third: it seems really hard to take enemy cities... I build about 10 catapaults, push them over to the cities, bombard until the city defenses are 0% and then try to attack, but I loose pretty much all units (catapaults, swordsmen, etc.), what am I missing?

Cities on hills are always hard to take (+25% to all defenders, +75% to archers). Make sure you're not attacking across a river (-25%). Make sure attacking units have City Raider promotions, and are at full health when you attack (bring a medic unit and camp outside the enemy city while your siege units bombard to heal up damage from enemy counterattacks). Are you behind in tech? Catapults and swordsmen in sufficient numbers should overcome archers, but if the enemy's gotten to longbowmen you need macemen and trebuchets. Also, attack with the catapults before the swordsmen if you're not, the catas have a chance to withdraw when they're losing and the collateral damage is less effective if there are only a few defenders left to hurt or they're already damaged.

 

[ggganz]

three n00b questions: what criteria should I use to decide if I should build a farm or a cottage? the AI sometimes highlites both, and so I have no idea what to pick, I am sure that there must be reasons why I would pick one over the other but I have no idea what those are.

second question: I've got a city that is unhappy. I've built all the happiness improvements that I have the research for, what else can I do to improve the happiness?

third: it seems really hard to take enemy cities... I build about 10 catapaults, push them over to the cities, bombard until the city defenses are 0% and then try to attack, but I loose pretty much all units (catapaults, swordsmen, etc.), what am I missing?

The AI highlighting something is a pretty useless indicator. The answer to your question depends entirely on circumstances. If there are a lot of floodplains or food resources (pigs, corn, etc), you probably don't need any farms except on the corn or wheat or rice. If you have a lot of hills and will be mining them (it's a production city), you want farms to compensate for the low food income of those mined hills, or for that matter unchopped forests. If the city is going to be your great person farm, you want more farms than usual to feed the specialists. If you're going to be harvesting desert squares for iron or incense, you may want some farms to make up for the absence of food on those tiles. With experience you'll learn to play it by ear.



Add religions. Each religion lets you build a temple, for +1 happy, and the more religions and temples you have the more cathedrals/synagogues/mosques/etc you can build in your big cities. Make sure every city has your state religion for another +1 happiness. Some civics (Representation and Monarchy and Nationalism I believe) add happiness under certain easily met conditions. Colonize, conquer or trade for luxury resources like ivory and gold. Get any wars you're in quickly over and done with. Also, slavery plays a huge role in managing and creating unhappiness, but I'm not the man to explain that (there's a link somewhere).



Cities on hills are always hard to take (+25% to all defenders, +75% to archers). Make sure you're not attacking across a river (-25%). Make sure attacking units have City Raider promotions, and are at full health when you attack (bring a medic unit and camp outside the enemy city while your siege units bombard to heal up damage from enemy counterattacks). Are you behind in tech? Catapults and swordsmen in sufficient numbers should overcome archers, but if the enemy's gotten to longbowmen you need macemen and trebuchets. Also, attack with the catapults before the swordsmen if you're not, the catas have a chance to withdraw when they're losing and the collateral damage is less effective if there are only a few defenders left to hurt or they're already damaged.

Regarding happiness, it is not Monarchy (which is a tech) but Hereditary Rule (which you need monarchy or the Pyramids to have as a civic) that gives you 1 happiness for each millitary unit stationed in the city.

 

[vorlon_mi]

second question: I've got a city that is unhappy. I've built all the happiness improvements that I have the research for, what else can I do to improve the happiness?

third: it seems really hard to take enemy cities... I build about 10 catapaults, push them over to the cities, bombard until the city defenses are 0% and then try to attack, but I loose pretty much all units (catapaults, swordsmen, etc.), what am I missing?

You can also trade for luxury resources with a neighbor. Perhaps trade an
extra food resource for a luxury. For those resources already inside your
cultural boundaries, be sure to build the improvement that harvests them
(e.g, plantation for silk) and build a road to it.

Build *lots* of catapults -- like you're already doing. After bombarding
the defense to 0, you will want to send some of the catapults on
"suicide missions". That is, have them attack the city, knowing that
they will lose. Why? Because they will cause collateral damage, and
inflict some damage on *all* the units defending the city, as they lose.
Each city defender unit will be strong against some attackers, and weaker
against others. You can see the city's best defender, and try to use
its nemesis. Consider using mounted units after the suicide catapults,
since they have a chance to withdraw before they are killed.
Axemen with city raider promotions are great for the final push.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Build *lots* of catapults -- like you're already doing. After bombarding
the defense to 0, you will want to send some of the catapults on
"suicide missions". That is, have them attack the city, knowing that
they will lose. Why? Because they will cause collateral damage, and
inflict some damage on *all* the units defending the city, as they lose.

Keep in mind that there's a maximum of 50% collateral damage that can be inflicted by Catapults - eg, Axemen can only be collaterally bombarded down to 2.5/5, Longbowmen to 3.0/6, etc.

Each city defender unit will be strong against some attackers, and weaker
against others. You can see the city's best defender, and try to use
its nemesis. Consider using mounted units after the suicide catapults,
since they have a chance to withdraw before they are killed.
Axemen with city raider promotions are great for the final push.

I disagree; use the units with the highest win percentage first (ideally 95-97%+), so you're not wasting your other units. If no unit has a decent win percentage, then you can consider sending in some weaker units first to "soften up" the enemy troops so that your stronger units can finish off the job.

 

[axident]

Are you behind in tech? Catapults and swordsmen in sufficient numbers should overcome archers, but if the enemy's gotten to longbowmen you need macemen and trebuchets. Also, attack with the catapults before the swordsmen if you're not, the catas have a chance to withdraw when they're losing and the collateral damage is less effective if there are only a few defenders left to hurt or they're already damaged.

Actually cats and enough swordsmen and axemen with some CR promotions, even CR I is enough, can take out longbowmen. I had to sacrifice a ton of cats and swords to take a heavily fortified longbowmen-infested city on a hill in a recent game, but it was their last big city, so I splurged. Against non-hilltop cities, suicide cats with a couple of barrage promotions will still kick much longbowmen ass.

 

[cabert]

three n00b questions: what criteria should I use to decide if I should build a farm or a cottage? the AI sometimes highlites both, and so I have no idea what to pick, I am sure that there must be reasons why I would pick one over the other but I have no idea what those are.

Farms give food, cottages give commerce.
If the city is too low on food to grow, a farm is better.
If the city is a dedicated Great Person Farm or simply designed for assigning specialists, a farm is better.
If the city is specialized in production, a farm is better.
In all other circumstances (= the city has enough food already, is commerce or hybrid, you don't run a Specialist Economy), a cottage is better.
Note that if the city has enoug hfood already and is dedicated to production, a watermill or a workshop can be even better.

second question: I've got a city that is unhappy. I've built all the happiness improvements that I have the research for, what else can I do to improve the happiness?

check my signature for a complete overview (edit : right word at the right place) of happiness
The most efficient way to get happiness is to expand your land and grab loads of happiness resources + building the things that give the most happiness bonus for the resources you have.
For example, if you have gold, gems and silver, you should rush to Metal Casting and build forges.
HR of course is a definitive answer to happiness issues, but it's rather costly IMHO.

third: it seems really hard to take enemy cities... I build about 10 catapaults, push them over to the cities, bombard until the city defenses are 0% and then try to attack, but I loose pretty much all units (catapaults, swordsmen, etc.), what am I missing?

promotions, maybe?
Or just numbers?
If you attack superior defender (= less than 50% odds when you attack), you should have superior numbers (= at least 2 units per defender).
If you face overwhelmingly superior troops (=less than 10% odds), you should have overwhelmingly superior numbers, including loads of catapults that you send in first.
Don't let the enemy heal between attacks, all your troops should attack in the same turn.

 

[a4phantom]

Actually cats and enough swordsmen and axemen with some CR promotions, even CR I is enough, can take out longbowmen. I had to sacrifice a ton of cats and swords to take a heavily fortified longbowmen-infested city on a hill in a recent game, but it was their last big city, so I splurged. Against non-hilltop cities, suicide cats with a couple of barrage promotions will still kick much longbowmen ass.

Well yes, enough cats and swordsmen will also take down marines, but you don't want to base your strategy around that in most cases. I was trying to help him understand why he's failing to take cities, not cover every possible contingency.

Hey Cabert, would you mind saying something really bloodthirsty? I want to be able to say that Kermit told me to burn and pillage.