Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[DrewBledsoe]

can you get a shorter path? I don't think so :
here are the techs researched :
myst>poly>priesthood>writing>masonry>monotheism>theology (oracle)>paper>maths( trade for, trade for alpha if needed) >education (lightbulbed)>gunpowder

note that if you avoid fishing and mining and meditation, you can lightbulb gunpowder too.
A totally peaceful CE with just one GS farm could do this nicely, just add pottery to this tech path.

I assume this is with no barbarians on, and no opponents on, or always peace?I'd Love to see you defending with those warriors right up until gunpowder ......just one barb axeman could probably destroy your whole empire, never mind anything an ai might send.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I'm having difficulties in starting up the online multiplayer games. I have an account at gamespy but it won't do anything when I try and log in. I can't even start a new account, it does nothing.

Any suggestions?

Welcome to civfanatics!

Your question is a bit vague. We don't know what exactly doesn't work. There is something at gamespy that apparently doesn't work for you, but that's really not a lot to work with. I would advice you to ask your question more clearly.

However, I will probably not be able to help you anyway. The best way to get help with multiplayer problems is probably by asking your questions in the Multiplayer and PBEM forum or in the Technical Support forum. There is even a thread in that forum about firewall and router problems, you can find that thread here.

A likely cause for problems would be a firewall. You could try to see if you can get connected when you shut down your firewall. If that works, then you at least know the source of the problem. Note that I don't advice playing multiplayer games without a firewall. It's just for testing what could be the source of the problem.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

if you demand from a civ to become your vassal, can they break free like a voluntary vassalship, or does it count as caputilation?
In my last game I demanded a civ on the other continent to become my vassal. And he agreed.

 

[Rancid Sushi]

I assume this is with no barbarians on, and no opponents on, or always peace?I'd Love to see you defending with those warriors right up until gunpowder ......just one barb axeman could probably destroy your whole empire, never mind anything an ai might send.

Chariots are an option if horses are close, or the bee-line could divert slightly to Iron Working. Still, I'm having second thoughts as I'm not sure such a bee-line is a good idea on Monarch.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Chariots are an option if horses are close, or the bee-line could divert slightly to Iron Working. Still, I'm having second thoughts as I'm not sure such a bee-line is a good idea on Monarch.

Of course, I agree. Even taking archers is possibly survivable. But the tech path quoted involves no military techs whatsoever, which is almost certainly suicidal.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

if you demand from a civ to become your vassal, can they break free like a voluntary vassalship, or does it count as caputilation?
In my last game I demanded a civ on the other continent to become my vassal. And he agreed.

Im pretty sure this counts as a ten turn deal, as its not technically a capitulation. Therefore yes, they can break free, if they want to.......(why have I just started humming a Queen song in my head )

 

[Rancid Sushi]

Of course, I agree. Even taking archers is possibly survivable. But the tech path quoted involves no military techs whatsoever, which is almost certainly suicidal.

I'm in the process of testing the Ottoman Gunpowder bee-line right now on Prince level. I managed to trade for IW and pull off an early war of expansion while bee-lining Gunpowder. It is now around 750 AD (epic speed) and I have Gunpowder half-way done in research. I also have a religious ally on the other side of the map (fractal, but it gave me pangea). I'll keep you guys posted. Things could go perfectly or fail completely, we'll see. I'm doing well in techs because I've managed to trade for such things as IW and Monarchy while following the religious bee-line of Monotheism--->Theology--->Paper--->Education--->Gunpowder. Building Stonehenge and the Oracle helped speed me along, as I was able to pop for CoL which makes expansion easier.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

I'm in the process of testing the Ottoman Gunpowder bee-line right now on Prince level. I managed to trade for IW and pull off an early war of expansion while bee-lining Gunpowder. It is now around 750 AD (epic speed) and I have Gunpowder half-way done in research. I also have a religious ally on the other side of the map (fractal, but it gave me pangea). I'll keep you guys posted. Things could go perfectly or fail completely, we'll see. I'm doing well in techs because I've managed to trade for such things as IW and Monarchy while following the religious bee-line of Monotheism--->Theology--->Paper--->Education--->Gunpowder. Building Stonehenge and the Oracle helped speed me along, as I was able to pop for CoL which makes expansion easier.

It's interesting to see I suppose its because Im so conditioned to playing huge maps and marathon, that my first and foremost consideration, must be the barbs. If you beeline bw, and don't get copper, then you'd better get archery damn quick if you want to survive. Tech trading is millenia away.

The only way you can possibly survive these dedicated tech beelines, is by having a small or crowded map, with no room for barbs, and a pretty compliant ai (i.e. no "aggressive ai" option set) and no inherently aggressive neighbours.

Different maps / Different Speeds = Different Strokes / Different Folks...

 

[Rancid Sushi]

It's interesting to see I suppose its because Im so conditioned to playing huge maps and marathon, that my first and foremost consideration, must be the barbs. If you beeline bw, and don't get copper, then you'd better get archery damn quick if you want to survive. Tech trading is millenia away.

The only way you can possibly survive these dedicated tech beelines, is by having a small or crowded map, with no room for barbs, and a pretty compliant ai (i.e. no "aggressive ai" option set) and no inherently aggressive neighbours.

Different maps / Different Speeds = Different Strokes / Different Folks...

I diverted slightly to get Alphabet and a few worker techs, but the important thing is that I'm the only one with Gunpowder now. After that, it was just a tech away from Liberalism (had to reserach Philo, of course), which I popped for Nationalism. Now I'm drafting Jannies, traded for Music, and am researching Military Tradition to seal the deal on this game. It's practically over, the only thing left is to declare war and bulldoze through my continent. Poor Longbows and Macemen won't stand a chance. So, essentially the bee-line was successful....this time. I still have yet to test this on Monarch.

EDIT: The bee-line worked great, but I decided it wasn't worth finishing the game because of some weird diplomatic complications. I declare on Kublai and nearly wipe him out while he's at war with Isabella, then he capitulates to Isabella. The strange thing is, she then declared war on me automatically. I really thought you were supposed to make peace automatically if your enemy capitulates to your war ally. Can't figure what went wrong. Hope this gets fixed in BTS.

 

[BrantleyL1]

Here's my plan for the time being... Any comments appreciated.

I've got Riflemen. I thhikn I've met everyone at this point. I'm in first place. The year is something past 1500 (I forget). I'm working on getting to railroads, but not 100% sure why - except maybe force of habit.

Surviving on my continent are:
Isabella
Mansa
Toku
Saladin

I'm at war with Saladin. (My choice.) He is weak.
I bribed Mansa to declare on him, too.
Toku was a war with him, but they made nice. Until they made peace, their war enabled me to get a few of his cities. Mansa's attack has already taken a bit of the pressure off me.

My plan is to wipe out Saladin. He has 3 cities left. Then go after Toku. He is the next most weak and does not require me to cross anyone else's territory. I'm not sure how many cities he has, but I think it's about 6.

So, who next? Isabella or Mansa? What factors should I consider?

Mansa and I have had pretty good relations. Some trade. Plus he agreed to war with Saladin with only a minor tech (I forget which).

Isabella has been very stand-offish. Is she always that way? Not interested in open borders. Does past experience in that area ever have later effects on diplo? I almost NEVER allow open borders until later - when I've got my territory pretty well sealed. I HATE it when they bring a settler thru my territory to settle in that spot in-between or way in the corner (usually in the ice and snow where I really DON'T want to settle.

 

[Samson]

So, who next? Isabella or Mansa? What factors should I consider?

It would be imposible to really tel you, just not enough information. The factors I consider are;

The big one, is someone going to win before you finish this load of wars? If so then you have to take them out.
Then, which war would benifit me most? The things I would consider are;
Who has the best tiles? I really like flood plains.
Who has reasorces I want?
Who has wonders I want? Sometimes this can make all the difference, Particully the pyramids (less important by the time you get to riflemen) and versise (sp?, the one that is like another FP).
Who has cities I want? This is usually less important, the AI is just rubish and you usually have to build them up pretty much from the ground anyway.

The you have to consider the cost of the war. It sounds like the chance of you loosing is minimal, so the import things are the length of the war (and so how long you have to endure the WW) and the likely casulties. Is one short of a vital defensive tech? As the AI get very cheap upgrades, pretty well as soon as they get a new tech (such as rifling) they will upgrade all their defenders. The dissernce in attacking just before and just after one of the big defensive techs (feudalism, gunpowder, rifling, assembly plant) is enormous.
Does anyone have a UU ATM (not relavent here).
Who has the most strength (basically number of units).
How easy would the invasion be? To be able to attack his core cities early in the war is a big advantage.
How many cities are on hills? Normally not a big thing, but sometimes makes a difference.

Any use?

 

[BrantleyL1]

I need some help on bee-lining Gunpowder.

I'm wondering about the viability of gunpowder these days...

I played a game (from the Realms beyond forum) that allowed you to pick a tech to start with. The moderator then sent you a game with that tech and you played from there. You played as "Mao" at the monarch level.

I chose gunpowder. I figured that "rifling" would be too powerful and wanted a bit of a challenge. Basically I found that Monarch is a level or two above my abilities at this point.

Musketmen would take 40 turns at the start. So, I waited. By 2320BC, they were down to 11 turns - less with whipping, so I went for them. They were very useful in killing off barbs, but when I attempted to go after Monty, he put up a formidable defense and I found myself unable to stop him.

Someone suggested that riflemen would do the trick-so I tried that and had much better results.

I think that I might try the game again, build a LOT of them and use them strictly for defense - but after I get better. I was thinking that muskets would overcome my noobiness. (It didn't!)

 

[Rancid Sushi]

I'm wondering about the viability of gunpowder these days...

I played a game (from the Realms beyond forum) that allowed you to pick a tech to start with. The moderator then sent you a game with that tech and you played from there. You played as "Mao" at the monarch level.

I chose gunpowder. I figured that "rifling" would be too powerful and wanted a bit of a challenge. Basically I found that Monarch is a level or two above my abilities at this point.

Musketmen would take 40 turns at the start. So, I waited. By 2320BC, they were down to 11 turns - less with whipping, so I went for them. They were very useful in killing off barbs, but when I attempted to go after Monty, he put up a formidable defense and I found myself unable to stop him.

Someone suggested that riflemen would do the trick-so I tried that and had much better results.

I think that I might try the game again, build a LOT of them and use them strictly for defense - but after I get better. I was thinking that muskets would overcome my noobiness. (It didn't!)

Musketman aren't worth bee-lining Gunpowder. Jannisaries however....

Well, the last game I played proved that an Ottoman Gunpowder bee-line can be a game breaker when done correctly. I just got caught up in a weird web of alliances and the tangled diplomacy made the game not worth playing. Still, the bee-line was a success because I got Gunpowder long before anyone else and obliterated two rivals before anyone else managed to get Gunpowder.

 

[Dwayne Wade]

I just brought Civ and Warlords and I installed. When I tried playing it game me an error: Failed to allocate video memory. Please try reducing your graphic settings. File:/Source/main/Civilization4/SDKs/Gamebryo2_0/CoreLibs/NiDX9Renderer/NidX9RenderedTextureData.cpp, Line:170.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[DrewBledsoe]

I just brought Civ and Warlords and I installed. When I tried playing it game me an error: Failed to allocate video memory. Please try reducing your graphic settings. File:/Source/main/Civilization4/SDKs/Gamebryo2_0/CoreLibs/NiDX9Renderer/NidX9RenderedTextureData.cpp, Line:170.

What am I doing wrong?

Its to do with your video card. Does it let you in to the game at all? If so, then go to "advanced" then options, and then graphics settings, then turn all options to low graphics, and also low textures.

If it doesn't let you into the game, find the civ.ini or warlords.ini (by default I think its installed in /mydocs/my games/civiv, and open the .ini file. Find the line Hideminspecwarning=0 (which means false and change ithe 0 to a 1 (true). This might work. If it doesn't, the first line in the same file is HideOutOfVRamWarning...if this is set to 0, you could try setting it to 1. Again might work...if not I don't know what to suggest...good luck

P.S. you need to save the .ini file after youve changed it btw.

 

[Dwayne Wade]

It lets me into the game. The error occurs when it is about to load the actual playing. I think my video card might not be good enough. It says its RADEON 7000/ RADEON VE Family. Kinda dissapointing, I was really excited about this.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

It lets me into the game. The error occurs when it is about to load the actual playing. I think my video card might not be good enough. It says its RADEON 7000/ RADEON VE Family. Kinda dissapointing, I was really excited about this.

Try some of the stuff I mentioned in the post above yours, it might work

 

[rebakan]

Is there any way to get the full text spoken by Spock in the beginning of the game, to non-American people like me understand it?
I would like listening and read it so i can understand all his words.
Thanks.

 

[diablodelmar]

How do I choose the number of Civs in a game? I haven't noticed that option. I'm using Warlords by the way.

 

[Thedrin]

Select custom game setup instead of 'play now!'.