Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Greeneyedzombie]

Just be carefull how many extra civs you choose. I've noticed that the map screws up if you choose many extra civs then there are supposed to be on the map.

 

[diablodelmar]

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

Yeah I realised that soon after. Silly me.

Just be carefull how many extra civs you choose. I've noticed that the map screws up if you choose many extra civs then there are supposed to be on the map.

It's less I want! I always seem to end up in a small corner of the map surrounded by two massive Civilizations who were better at expanding than me.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

It's less I want! I always seem to end up in a small corner of the map surrounded by two massive Civilizations who were better at expanding than me.

Use axes for breathing space, or choose some more civs, choose high water setting for less land so the ai won't be that big.
The ai will always be able to settle more and faster then you on prince and above. Without CoL and currency you cant afford more then 3-6 cities.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Use axes for breathing space, or choose some more civs, choose high water setting for less land so the ai won't be that big.
The ai will always be able to settle more and faster then you on prince and above. Without CoL and currency you cant afford more then 3-6 cities.

Sorry, this is not completely true. It is hard to expand faster than the AI on the higher difficulty levels, but with enough cottages to maintain the costs of your cities and well improved land, it is possible to catch up to the AI. The AI may have build its second city faster than you, but you can catch up later. I've had way over 6 cities before I invented code of laws and currency, but I must remark that I play on huge maps and the research costs are higher there so you naturally expand more before reaching certain technology levels.

Of course, if you also want to build many world wonders, then you will not be able to expand as fast as the AI. Also, you won't be able to expand as fast as the AI if your starting position is awful (arctic zones or something). And if you think that it is a must to maintain a research rate above 50%, then you also won't be able to maintain a good expansion rate. But it is possible if you focus largely on cottages and bigger cities so that you can maintain the increasing costs.

The biggest problem on the highest levels (emperor and above) is that the low happiness and health caps prevent you from getting big enough cities to maintain the number of cottages needed to maintain all of your cities. So if you don't find enough health and happiness resources in the neighbourhood, then you have a problem. On the highest levels, these resources are even more important and you should actively expand towards them.

All of this said, you can't expect to beat the AI at the expansion phase in your first game at the higher difficulty levels. It does take some experience. But to say that it is impossible is a bit too much.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

point taken. lets refrase it. You most likely wont be able to afford to out expand the ai.
Tevreden?

 

[ggganz]

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.

I don't understand your question. How can you not understand it if you can understand what we are saying?

 

[DrewBledsoe]

I don't understand your question. How can you not understand it if you can understand what we are saying?

A lot of people find it easier to understand a foreign language when written down, rather than spoken out loud. He wants someone to type exactly what Nimoy says at the start, so he can read it, and then understand it.......unfortunately Im too lazy

 

[ggganz]

In the beginning, the Earth was without form, and void.
But the Sun shone upon the sleeping Earth and deep inside the brittle crust massive forces waited to be unleashed.
The seas parted and great continents were formed. The continents shifted, mountains arose. Earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves. Volcanoes erupted and spewed forth fiery lava and charged the atmosphere with strange gases.
Into this swirling maelstrom of Fire and Air and Water the first stirrings of Life appeared: tiny organisms, cells, and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats.
But the seeds of Life grew, and strengthened, and spread, and diversified, and prospered, and soon every continent and climate teemed with Life.
And with Life came instinct, and specialization, natural selection, Reptiles, Dinosaurs, and Mammals and finally there evolved a species known as Man and there appeared the first faint glimmers of Intelligence.
The fruits of intelligence were many: fire, tools, and weapons, the hunt, farming, and the sharing of food, the family, the village, and the tribe. Now it required but one more ingredient: a great Leader to unite the quarreling tribes to harness the power of the land to build a legacy that would stand the test of time:
a CIVILIZATION!




EDIT: Poorly punctuated. The words are right, though.

 

[Roland Johansen]

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.

The sound fragment is stored in:

...\Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack\OpeningSlideshow.mp3

You can play it with Windows Media player or another player to your liking. I've written down the text below. I hope that I didn't make any mistakes. It's also not my native language. I remember when I first heard the text in Civilisation 1, I also didn't fully understand everything as my English was pretty poor then. It's a good text though, really gives you the civilisation feeling.

If you don't know some of the words, then you can use online dictionaries, such as Wiktionary or Allwords.com which also has a button to hear the pronunciation of a word.

The text:

In the beginning, the earth was without form and void. But the sun shone upon the sleeping earth, and deep inside the brittle crust, massive forces waited to be unleashed.
The seas parted and great continents were formed, mountains arose, earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves.
Volcanoes erupted and spewed forth fiery lava and charged the atmosphere with strange gases. Into this swirling maelstrom of fire and air and water, the first stirrings of life appeared. Tiny organism, cells and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats. But the seeds of life grew and strengthened and spread and diversified and prospered. And soon, every continent and climate teemed with life.
And with life came instinct, and specialisation, natural selection, reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals. And finally, there evolved a species known as man. And there appeared the first faint glimmers of intelligence.
The fruits of intelligence were many. Fire, tools and weapons. The hunt, farming and the sharing of food. The family, the village and the tribe. Now, it required but one more ingredient: a great leader. To unite the quarreling tribes, to harness the power of the land, to build a legacy that would stand the test of time, a civilisation.

I don't understand your question. How can you not understand it if you can understand what we are saying?

It's sometimes easier to read a foreign language at your own speed then to quickly translate it in your head when you hear it. In the Netherlands, we even have a listen test at the English exams from high school and for some it is the hardest part of the exam. You get to hear a sound fragment from an interview, usually with some disturbing background noise to make it harder and then get a few questions about it to see if you understood the sound fragment correctly. It takes a while before you learn a foreign language at a level that you can easily listen to it and don't have to slowly translate every word.
I for instance know Dutch (native language), German, English and French. I could pass a listen test in Dutch, German and English, but would certainly fail the test in French. My French is pretty poor. I can slowly translate most of the words in newspaper to understand the meaning of an article, but find it hard to talk in French or listen and understand French speaking people.

point taken. lets refrase it. You most likely want be able to afford to out expand the ai.
Tevreden?

Ah, a Dutch guy too. Sorry that I attacked your position a bit. Hey, you must also like the addition of the Netherlands to the 'Beyond the Sword' expansion pack then. Although, I would even buy it without that. It has enough great additions.


Edit: too slow...

 

[ggganz]

I just posted that. I copied it off some website. I had the feeling that something was added, and I was right. They added "the continents shifted".

 

[Roland Johansen]

I just posted that. I copied it off some website. I had the feeling that something was added, and I was right. They added "the continents shifted".

Yes, yes, you were quicker. You don't have to rub it in.

I didn't know that it was posted on some website, I just wrote it myself by listening to the text. However, you can find about anything on the internet, so that isn't that strange.

 

[Komdu]

Hi,

This is one of my first post here on CFC (even though I have been a member for a while). I would definitely classify myself as a newbie so please mind my relative ignorance. I have two questions: 1) How may I cite another person's mod as part of one of my own and 2) if I play GOTM (vanilla Civ 4) non-competitively (I haven't gotten past "warlord" on my own) i.e. I don't submit my game to HOF, could I still contribute to the "spoiler" discussions.

Thanks

 

[rebakan]

Thanks very much.Yes, as I am Brazilian, and has a poor English knowledge, it's easier to understand written words than spoken ones.but I'm a ersonal fan of leornard nimoy, i watched all his movies, so I do want to understand his words.I'll keep in my pc this text, it's beautiful! thanks, Roland Johansen, and ggganz for your answers.I do appreciate it.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Ah, a Dutch guy too. Sorry that I attacked your position a bit. Hey, you must also like the addition of the Netherlands to the 'Beyond the Sword' expansion pack then. Although, I would even buy it without that. It has enough great additions.


Edit: too slow...

Ah that's ok. That will maybe learn me write things how I mean them, instead of how I think. Or to learn to write as fast as I think.
As for the Dutch, I would rather see them as the Low Countries, inlcuding Belgium and Luxembourgh then as a seperate country.

Hi,

This is one of my first post here on CFC (even though I have been a member for a while). I would definitely classify myself as a newbie so please mind my relative ignorance. I have two questions: 1) How may I cite another person's mod as part of one of my own and 2) if I play GOTM (vanilla Civ 4) non-competitively (I haven't gotten past "warlord" on my own) i.e. I don't submit my game to HOF, could I still contribute to the "spoiler" discussions.

Thanks

1, ask permission of the mod maker if you can use his mod. and usually you should put it in a readme that you used that mod and his maker.
2 Not sure, but I think you can, as long as you keep to the rules set up for spoilers. In spoiler tags, etc..

 

[Roland Johansen]

Ah that's ok. That will maybe learn me write things how I mean them, instead of how I think. Or to learn to write as fast as I think.
As for the Dutch, I would rather see them as the Low Countries, inlcuding Belgium and Luxembourgh then as a seperate country.

You have a point there as the Low Countries was at the height of its strength and commercially the dominant force in Europe when when Flanders and the Netherlands were one nation within the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. But it is probably not that easy to sell that to the general public who probably have never heard about the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. Also, the Low Countries have had a similar culture for a long time although there have been serious religious differences between protestants in the north and catholics in the south.
I think, the Low Countries would be a good name, but wouldn't sell that well.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

You have a point there as the Low Countries was at the height of its strength and commercially the dominant force in Europe when when Flanders and the Netherlands were one nation within the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. But it is probably not that easy to sell that to the general public who probably have never heard about the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. Also, the Low Countries have had a similar culture for a long time although there have been serious religious differences between protestants in the north and catholics in the south.
I think, the Low Countries would be a good name, but wouldn't sell that well.

Flanders never has been part of the republic. And to say there where religious differences is an understatement. Better words would be a religious civil war in the netherlands.
W'll can always hope we will see at least some belgium cities in it.

 

[Komdu]

Thanks, Greeneyedzombie. I will certainly follow your advice on question one and don't plan to go against the spoiler rules.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Flanders never has been part of the republic. And to say there where religious differences is an understatement. Better words would be a religious civil war in the netherlands.
W'll can always hope we will see at least some belgium cities in it.

You are right, that was later after the period of the republic and was pretty short lived. But still the area of the low countries has a similar culture and in that sense belongs together. So you're right that it could have been called the Low Countries to represent the whole region.

Oh, and I like to use understatements. The religious differences were one of the main reasons that the nation of Belgium became independent from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and many other wars in that period have a religious starting point like the independence of the Republic of the Netherlands from Spain.

If they would use some Belgian cities for the Netherlands in this game, then that would probably not be appreciated by some Belgians who really don't want Belgium seen as a part of the Netherlands. I don't think Firaxis will do that, gaming companies tend to be conservative.

By the way, are you from Belgium?

 

[BrantleyL1]

My plan for learning a bit is working... When last heard, I had four opponents left on my continent: Isabella, Mansa, Toku & Saladin.

On the other main continent is Lizzy and Jules. Monty has a rather large Island all to himself. They havve NEVER tried anything.

I wiped out Saladin, then Toku. Somewhere just before I finished off Toku, Mansa declared on Isabella. She asked for help & I refused. That may have played into my later problem... Wiped out Mansa with Tanks & riflemen. Gave one of Isabella's cities back to her And finished the UN. Thinking I might have a decent chance for a diplo victory somewhere in the 1970s or so... No such luck. Even though I later killed off Mansa for Izzy - I think she still holds it against me. (She abstained once, but consitantly votes for Jules. 4 or so votes later, I can't muster enough to win.

Thought about cultural victory until I remembered that it's 50,000 points (not 10K, like I was close to).

So, since domination requires 40% of the population (and I have 60%) and 60% of the land mass (and I have 58%), it's bye-bye Izzy. Once I take a couple of her remaining cities, I'll have enough land mass.

I'm wondering if I should have just declared on her right after I wiped out Mansa. Is there a time period for the "we long to return to our homeland" complaint and/or the "War, unh, what is it good for?" to wear off??? Mansa's former cities were REALLY unhappy!!

 

[BrantleyL1]

In the game described above, A couple of my older cities have a problem. One of them has decreased to size '1'. Other nearby cities have stabilized in the low-to-mid teens and one at around 21 or so. This one now at size '1' is surrounded by a fair number of cottages and a few farms.

Why does that happen? What can I do to get it to build again?