Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Roland Johansen]

Shift+click aWhen I do a military queue load, I build a unit to within 1 turn of completion, then I Ctrl+click to put a different unit ahead of it in the queue. Note that you cannot build up multiple units of the same type this way. If the build-up extends beyond 10 turns, hammers will start to deteriorate in some of the oldest builds, so I sometimes have to move them back to the start of the queue for a turn or so. Obviously, you want to plan this so that you do the civics change in less than 10 turns, but sometimes things don't always work out that way.

You seem to suggest that if you don't put any hammer in a unit for 10 turns, then put hammers in it for 1 turn, then you will be able to not put any hammers in it for 10 turns without losing hammers. I don't think 1 turn of construction resets the timer. I remember trying this once with a building (which has a counter of 50 turns before the decline of hammers starts) and it didn't work.

 

[Mesousa]

And the man himself answers, great.

When I do a military queue load, I build a unit to within 1 turn of completion, then I Ctrl+click to put a different unit ahead of it in the queue. Note that you cannot build up multiple units of the same type this way.

So I can't "prepare" more than for example one each of Maceman, Catapult and Crossbowman this way in one city? I had been wondering how long these queues are, and apparently they are much shorter than I thought, unless you have a lot of different useful unit types.

If the build-up extends beyond 10 turns, hammers will start to deteriorate in some of the oldest builds

Is there any information how (fast) this deterioration works? Is it a fixed amount or a percentage of hammers?

Can you overcome the deterioration in the capital by switching to Bureaucracy? I'd guess production bonuses can't get applied retroactively, but I've seen stranger things in this game.

What about upgrades? If you are building a Warrior, have Hunting and hook up cooper, it gets changed to a Spearman. What if the Warrior is queued behind an Archer and a Chariot? I assume it still gets changed to Spearman but the Spearman doesn't get any extra hammers, so while the Warrior was only one turn away from completion, the Spearman won't be, correct?

 

[Sisiutil]

You seem to suggest that if you don't put any hammer in a unit for 10 turns, then put hammers in it for 1 turn, then you will be able to not put any hammers in it for 10 turns without losing hammers. I don't think 1 turn of construction resets the timer. I remember trying this once with a building (which has a counter of 50 turns before the decline of hammers starts) and it didn't work.

A good point. Which makes it all the more important to try to time this sort of thing carefully. It's a bit of a trade off--for the cost of a few hammers, you can have a much larger army ready to pop out once you change civics; or you can have a smaller army but play optimally and not waste any hammers.

So I can't "prepare" more than for example one each of Maceman, Catapult and Crossbowman this way in one city? I had been wondering how long these queues are, and apparently they are much shorter than I thought, unless you have a lot of different useful unit types.

That's correct, one Maceman per city. I was pointing out in another thread--I think the current ALC--that the ancient and classical eras aren't very good for this tactic, first because you probably don't have the required civics, and second because there are fewer units to choose from. The Medieval era is great for this because of the variety of units.

I was pointing out in another recent post that this tactic ensures you have a big military since all your cities get devoted to military builds for several turns. And it's a hoot to check the power graph once the builds are complete and imagine the AIs soiling their shorts.

Is there any information how (fast) this deterioration works? Is it a fixed amount or a percentage of hammers?

I'm not sure; I just know it starts happening with units after 10 turns, though I'm not even sure if that's game speed dependent. Someone else want to weigh in here?

Can you overcome the deterioration in the capital by switching to Bureaucracy? I'd guess production bonuses can't get applied retroactively, but I've seen stranger things in this game.

Well, switching to bureaucracy won't add hammers to those a pre-built unit or building has, but it will add to the hammers going in to complete the build. Then again, to run Bureaucracy, you have to forgo running the +XP granting vassalage civic. I'm usually switching away from bureaucracy to finish the builds, not to it.

What about upgrades? If you are building a Warrior, have Hunting and hook up cooper, it gets changed to a Spearman. What if the Warrior is queued behind an Archer and a Chariot? I assume it still gets changed to Spearman but the Spearman doesn't get any extra hammers, so while the Warrior was only one turn away from completion, the Spearman won't be, correct?

That's right, though this is another tactic I've used as well. For example, I want a bunch of cannons to be available shortly after I finish researching Steel. Well, there's no point waiting for the tech to finish before getting started. I'll start building Trebuchets in several cities as Steel nears completion, timing the end of the build for the turn Steel finishes or shortly thereafter. The hammers accumulated towards the Trebs are kept and go towards the Cannons. This also works for several other units as well, such as Knights and Cavalry.

 

[Mesousa]

All right, thanks a lot. I'll be sure to try this thoroughly as soon as possible.

 

[ori]

I'm not sure; I just know it starts happening with units after 10 turns, though I'm not even sure if that's game speed dependent. Someone else want to weigh in here?

I know VoiceOfUnreason had this in one of his excellent VocumSineRatio threads - but a casual search of this forum brings this:

Decay doesn't scale in time or in degree - CvCity::doDecay. Meaning that the decay begins just as many turns into the build at any speed, and the amount of decay per turn is 1% of the hammers invested (rounded up) at all speeds.

Correct answer already posted. BUILDING_PRODUCTION_DECAY_TIME ( = 50 turns ) for buildings, UNIT_PRODUCTION_DECAY_TIME ( = 10 turns ) for units. Answers found in GlobalDefines.xml (ie - that's the file to change if you want to mod this).

Oh, and I was insufficiently specific earlier. 1% per turn is for buildings; units decay at 2% per turn.

If I'm reading the code correctly, hammers invested in projects never decay.

Also, the unit you are building should never decay (there's branching logic to excuse whatever is currently on the queue from the decay check).

 

[The D Man]

Why do I instintly raze cities?

 

[ori]

Why do I instintly raze cities?

Cities are automatically razed when they have only 1 population point or always when you are playing one city challenge.

 

[Chick_gozur]

what happens if i build a city on cows, or iron for example? can i still build a mine or a pasture? does the resource provide it's bonuses?

 

[Roland Johansen]

what happens if i build a city on cows, or iron for example? can i still build a mine or a pasture? does the resource provide it's bonuses?

Welcome to civfanatics!

Once you get the ability to connect the resource, you will get the resource bonuses. That is, you will get health from the cow and you will get to build swordsmen when you can connect iron. However, you can't build the special terrain improvement and the terrain tile won't be as profitable as it usually is.

The output in food, hammers and commerce of the center city tile is equal to the output of the unimproved tile without any overlays (forest, jungle, floodplain) and with a minimum of 2 food, 1 hammer and 1 commerce.

For example, the output of an unimproved grasland cow tile is 3 food. So the output of a city placed on this tile would be 3 food, 1 hammer, 1 commerce. A grassland cow tile with a pasture would produce 4 food and 2 hammers.

Because a center city tile has a minimum production level, it is usually efficient to build the city on a low productive tile like desert. A desert tile would be improved with 2 food, 1 hammer and 1 commerce, while the grassland cow tile would lose a food, lose a hammer and gain a commerce. However, it is even more important to get good terrain on the tiles around the city so sometimes you are forced to place the city on a good productive tile.

 

[BrantleyL1]

Please have a look at the screen shot...

I took this island/city... Of course, it reset to a 1x1 city. It later expanded to 3x3. But, it's stuck at size 2. Stagnent.

How do I make it grow??

 

[MangleMeElmo]

Please have a look at the screen shot...

I took this island/city... Of course, it reset to a 1x1 city. It later expanded to 3x3. But, it's stuck at size 2. Stagnent.

How do I make it grow??

Wait until the borders pop so you can work the clams with a fishing boat. Also, get rid of that workshop unless you're using State Property.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Please have a look at the screen shot...

I took this island/city... Of course, it reset to a 1x1 city. It later expanded to 3x3. But, it's stuck at size 2. Stagnent.

How do I make it grow??

As MangleMeElmo said, the clam tile is the best food producing tile. You're in the late game so a city can produce culture. That might be the best way to get a quick border expansion. Use high production tiles to produce more culture per turn if that is possible without starvation.

You'll also want a lighthouse there fast to get more food from coastal tiles like the clam tile.

Because the city doesn't have access to fresh water, you won't be able to get good farms there. Even after biology, a non-irrigated grassland farm will only produce 3 food and that just isn't that great at that stage in the game.

The coastal clam tile will produce 5 food if you have a lighthouse, which is a surplus of 3 (2 eaten by the citizen working the tile). Together with the 2 food from the center tile which are free (no citizen needed to work that tile), you would have a surplus of 5 food when only working those 2 tiles at size 1.

The (flatland) plains tiles will have a shortage of 1 food (producing 1, eaten 2 by the citizen working the tile), the plains workshop tile even a shortage of 2 food if you're not in state property (shortage of 1 if you are in state property). The plains hill tiles will have a shortage of 2 food. Because food is a problem in this city, I would build windmills on the plains hills tiles or otherwise you will never have enough food to work all of the tiles. With a windmill, the plains hill tiles will only have a shortage of 1 food each.

So the 5 plains tiles (hills and flatland) will all have a shortage of food and you only have a surplus of 5 food after working the clams tile, so you should limit the shortage of food in these 5 tiles to a maximum of 1 per tile.

Personally, I will often create temporary farms in such a city to get it growing faster as it is too small to be useful that late in the game. But in the end, I would replace those farms with more useful improvements again. Especially since the farms cannot be irrigated and are thus pretty poor improvements.

 

[Dwayne Wade]

For obtaining resources like gold and copper, do I need to have someone working on it? Because it won't let me put a white circle around it on the city display.

 

[Roland Johansen]

For obtaining resources like gold and copper, do I need to have someone working on it? Because it won't let me put a white circle around it on the city display.

To obtain gold or copper, you need a mine on the tile and a road-river connection to your cities. You do not need to work the tile with a citizen from one of your cities. The tile does need to be inside the cultural radius of one of your cities.

To work the tile, the tile needs to be inside the workable area of one of your cities, that is not the same as the cultural radius of your cities. The workable area of your cities is a fat cross, a 5 times 5 area minus the corners centered around the center city tile. It's the same area that you get after the first cultural expansion. If you click on the tile, a white circle will appear on the tile signifying that you're using the tile.
Oh, you also cannot use a tile that is being occupied by an enemy unit.

Only one city can work a tile, even if the tile is within the fat cross of two of your cities. In one of the cities the tile will be usable, while in the other city, it will be darkened and unusable. When you click on a darkened tile, it will become bright again and be usable, but now it will not be usable in the other city.

 

[Lennart1994]

hi guys i downloaded for civ4 the custom nation austria, but what i have to do now? where i have to paste it in the civ4 folder?

pls help

 

[JujuLautre]

if it's a Mod, you should extract or copy the mod into the "Mod" folder (something like civilization4/Mod, or civilization4/Warlords/Mod if you're using warlords)

 

[porto_alegre_xP]

I have a question
how I change the name of a civilization, but just for one time that I play (that isn't the civilization that I am playing)?

 

[TTAB]

A friend of mine just got civ 4 but is complaining that his game only gets to play 10 turns before the game ends. Has this happened to anyone and if so how do you fix it?

 

[RockTheCazbah87]

I have a question
how I change the name of a civilization, but just for one time that I play (that isn't the civilization that I am playing)?

Umm... go to the in-game menu, your details, and whoosh.
Or you can do it when you pick your leader beforehand.

 

[Sisiutil]

I have a question
how I change the name of a civilization, but just for one time that I play (that isn't the civilization that I am playing)?

If it's not your own civ, you'd have to edit the XML. Head over to the Creation and Customization forum and I'm sure someone can help you out.

(Just as a guess, I think you'd need to modify the information in CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml. You can find this file in C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Warlords\Assets\XML\Civilizations (assuming you're playing Warlords). I'd make a copy and place it in C:\Documents and Settings\your_name\My Documents\My Games\Warlords\CustomAssets\xml\civilizations just to keep the game files pristine.)

A friend of mine just got civ 4 but is complaining that his game only gets to play 10 turns before the game ends. Has this happened to anyone and if so how do you fix it?

I believe that happens if your copy of Civ4 is not legit. Your friend either needs to go to the store and buy a copy, or go back to the store where he bought it and complain.