Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Roland Johansen]

Does the +4XP bonus provided by West Point apply to all units built by your civilization or only to those built in the West Point city?

It only applies to the units build by the West Point city, so you'd better build it in a city with a good hammer output and maybe add the heroic epic to that city to further boost the production of units in this city. Adding great instructors to this city to further boost the experience of units from this city or adding a military academy to further boost the production speed of this city can also be useful.

4 Quick questions:

1. How do you pull up the combat/event log?

Press CTRL-TAB or the button in the upper left corner of the screen. This new screen has 3 tabs of information.

2. In BTS, does parking your spy in your own cities yield any counter-espionage benefit?

Yes, but adding addition spies is useless and adding a spy to a city with a security bureau is also useless. See the thread 'spy detection' for more information. It contains several useful posts.

3. What are some desireable traits/start techs for cultural victory?

Industrious so that you may build some more world wonders in the three cities that you select to become legendary cities. Creative gives a little culture and gives production bonuses on culture producing buildings, but I don't think you really need that as you'll be able to build those buildings in the potentially legendary cities anyway. If you're planning to create legendary cities by setting the culture slider to 100% at some point in the game, then the additional commerce output of the financial trait might be useful. If you plan to use many great artists, then the extra great persons created by the philosophical trait might help.

All in all, I don't think the traits are very important for a cultural victory. It has more to do with the strategy that you use to create the three legendary cities.

Starting technologies seem even less important. It could be nice to start with mysticism so that you might claim one of the early religions. The culture bonus from a cathedral is very large and it's very beneficial to get several cathedral type buildings in the potentially legendary cities. It's easier to get such religions if you found them yourself.

4. Espionage--what is the difference in end results between stirring unreast (+unhappy) or poisoning supply (+unhealthy)?

One gives 8 unhappiness which decreases by 1 per turn, the other gives 8 unhealthiness which decreases by 1 per turn.

 

[neckface]

One gives 8 unhappiness which decreases by 1 per turn, the other gives 8 unhealthiness which decreases by 1 per turn.

Excellent, but when would you choose one instead of the other? What's the strategic difference between the two?

PS thanx for the answers!

 

[Lord Parkin]

What exactly determines whether a city will be destroyed when captured. I thought it was the same as Civ3 - either the city has to be size 2 or the borders have to have expanded. This morning I took out an AI capital with a chariot rush and then sat patiently waiting for the culture of the new capital to grow. When I took that city, it died

What gives?

Hmm, I'm not sure. I thought that the rules you described were what applied to city capture as well.

Excellent, but when would you choose one instead of the other? What's the strategic difference between the two?

PS thanx for the answers!

The unhappiness-producing mission will most often be more useful since it generally packs a more powerful punch. However, in a few situations where a city has a huge amount of extra happiness and is low on health (for instance, large cities with access to lots of happiness resources, or a Globe Theatre city), the unhealthiness-producing mission will be most effective.

 

[ori]

cities are autorazed IF
1) the city has no more than 1 population point
AND
2) the player capturing it has NO culture in it (i.e. has not owned it and produced culture in it before).

 

[Abegweit]

cities are autorazed IF
1) the city has no more than 1 population point
AND
2) the player capturing it has NO culture in it (i.e. has not owned it and produced culture in it before).

These two conditions were certainly true in this case. I'm just about certain I've taken size 1 cities before, however. Can it be that the rule is that it has never had more than 1 pop? Or am I having (still another ) Senior Moment?

 

[JujuLautre]

Does the +4XP bonus provided by West Point apply to all units built by your civilization or only to those built in the West Point city?

Only in the WP city

4 Quick questions:

1. How do you pull up the combat/event log?

2. In BTS, does parking your spy in your own cities yield any counter-espionage benefit?

3. What are some desireable traits/start techs for cultural victory?

4. Espionage--what is the difference in end results between stirring unreast (+unhappy) or poisoning supply (+unhealthy)?

1/ there's a button on the top left corner of the screen, under the science/gold/culture/espionnage percentage

2/ Yes; but I couldn't tell you the exact benefits

3/ Financial is good for a cottage-based culture. Philo is good for lots of artists. Spiritual is good for the cheap temples. And the starting techs do not matter, it's too early in the game.
In fact you should check MadScientist's games in the startegy forum. His last game (Shaka, a gentleman of culture) is all but a controversial way to win a culture win

4/ One bring unhalthy faces (reduce food, possibily poulation) and the second unhappy faces (citizens do not work, possibly starve); the first one is usually more difficult to fight, the second one usually easier. Anything else?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Excellent, but when would you choose one instead of the other? What's the strategic difference between the two?

PS thanx for the answers!

I agree with Lord Parkin.

Your goal is to kill population. When a city has unhappy people, then they will not be working the land and since population working the land will generally gain about 2 food per citizen, this has a rather large effect on the food output of the city. So the city will starve pretty fast.
A city loses 1 food for each point of unhealthiness over the health level of the city. So the city will still starve but will starve slower.

At the start of the game, happiness is often harder to acquire and at the end of the game health is often harder to acquire (because of all the buildings and resources which cause unhealthiness after assembly line). Usually it is good to know which of the two will cause more problems for the target city. If the target city is very close to the happiness limit, then a foment unhappiness mission can be devastating. If the city can however counter the unhappiness by using the hereditary rule civic and some units or if the city has lots of excess happiness and not a lot of excess health, then the poison water supply mission will be more effective.

These two conditions were certainly true in this case. I'm just about certain I've taken size 1 cities before, however. Can it be that the rule is that it has never had more than 1 pop? Or am I having (still another ) Senior Moment?

"never had more than 1 pop", that sounds very familiar. I always play with no city razing but I remember reading this sometime in the past somewhere on this forum.

 

[ggganz]

Has anyone run into a (BTS) time game that ends beyond 2050? My current game is set to end at 2080! I started as 'Ancient' as always but, for whatever reason, this game is getting an additional 30 years.

Can you upload a savegame file?

 

[nanomatrix]

I have CIV4 Gold running on 3ghz XP system with Nvidia 7600 and I have a problem.
I'm running a medium fractal world with default options. At about 1560AD I decide to build Notre Dame in the city of Sparta. 3 turns before it's completed the City Build Menu pops up with this message, "You cannot complete the construction of Notre Dame in Sparta. What would you like to work on instead?" No explanation - nothing. My only option is to select something else from the build menu.

Has anybody seen anything like this before?

Thanks,

 

[ori]

These two conditions were certainly true in this case. I'm just about certain I've taken size 1 cities before, however. Can it be that the rule is that it has never had more than 1 pop? Or am I having (still another ) Senior Moment?

"never had more than 1 pop", that sounds very familiar. I always play with no city razing but I remember reading this sometime in the past somewhere on this forum.

Roland is right - and actually with the culture I was also off a tad. I now checked the code (it is not all in one place in the code so I refrain from quoting it - if anyone cares: look for "raze" in CvPlayer.cpp)
Anyhow, the following leads to autorazing:
One City Challenge checked AND the capturing player is human
OR
City never had more than 1 pop AND the capturing Team has no more than 25% culture in the city

The following prevents autorazing:
No City Razing is checked
OR
the capturing team has more than 25% culture in the city

There is another item that prevents autorazing which I quote - but it makes my head go all since what I understand is that it says you cannot autoraze the city if you capture it but don't own it after capturing it

bool CvPlayer::canRaze(CvCity* pCity) const
{
    i(...)

    if (pCity->getOwnerINLINE() != getID())
    {
        return false;

 

[ggganz]

I have CIV4 Gold running on 3ghz XP system with Nvidia 7600 and I have a problem.
I'm running a medium fractal world with default options. At about 1560AD I decide to build Notre Dame in the city of Sparta. 3 turns before it's completed the City Build Menu pops up with this message, "You cannot complete the construction of Notre Dame in Sparta. What would you like to work on instead?" No explanation - nothing. My only option is to select something else from the build menu.

Has anybody seen anything like this before?

Thanks,

Someone else finished it before you.

 

[nanomatrix]

ggganz, thanks for the prompt reply.

Is there a way to accelerate production? ...like buying it with gold?

 

[Niklas]

Does anyone have a complete rundown on the conversion between turn numbers and years, or knows where it could be found? I'm particularly looking for the conversions for normal speed, though seeing the other speeds would be interesting as well.

nanomatrix: You can accelerate in two ways. Either by 'whipping', i.e. spending your population, which requires the Slavery civic (available with Bronze Working). Or by buying with gold, which requires the Universal Suffrage civic (available with Democracy (or Pyramids)).

 

[Mesousa]

Has anyone run into a (BTS) time game that ends beyond 2050? My current game is set to end at 2080! I started as 'Ancient' as always but, for whatever reason, this game is getting an additional 30 years.

I think the lowest difficulty levels extend gameplay a bit beyond 2050. Settler lasts until 2100, for instance, and 2050 doesn't become the limit until Warlord or Noble level. Though I might be confusing things with an older Civ version.

 

[ggganz]

I surely doubt that.

 

[dalamb]

nanomatrix: You can accelerate in two ways. Either by 'whipping', i.e. spending your population, which requires the Slavery civic (available with Bronze Working). Or by buying with gold, which requires the Universal Suffrage civic (available with Democracy (or Pyramids)).

That's for normal buildings. While they still work with Wonders, Wonders require so much production that the normal speedups don't help much. Instead, what matters most is access to critical resources, e.g. Pyramids go twice as fast if you have stone, Oracle wants marble, Schwedagon Paya wants gold. Aside from that: start building early. There have been plenty of times when I had a city that could have started a particular wonder, and I built a few things that seemed less important but more urgent instead.

 

[JohnYoga]

Civ Helpers,

I just want to say "Thank you!" for taking time out of your busy day to help other Civilization players out.

Regards,

JohnYoga
San Diego

 

[ggganz]

Aw, you made me think there was another juicy question for me to answer!!

 

[Giovanni Caboto]

What is the math behind the calculation of votes for UN resolutions?
I am striving for a diplo victory and had too few votes at the first election. Question is now, does it derive from land possession or from population, in other words, do I have to act as warmonger or should I grow up cities. (One AI votes for me, one for the competitor, one abstains and it appears not to be easy to pesuade the abstaining to vote for me).

 

[ori]

Does anyone have a complete rundown on the conversion between turn numbers and years, or knows where it could be found? I'm particularly looking for the conversions for normal speed, though seeing the other speeds would be interesting as well.

Its not exactly what you are looking for, but:
look here also using the culture calculator linked in my signature you can among other things calculate the turn number corresponding to a specific date and the date corresponding to a specific turn number for all Civ4 versions and speeds.

I think the lowest difficulty levels extend gameplay a bit beyond 2050. Settler lasts until 2100, for instance, and 2050 doesn't become the limit until Warlord or Noble level. Though I might be confusing things with an older Civ version.

ggganz is right in doubting that - in an unmodded game with time victory enabled the game ends in 2050 - no exceptions.

What is the math behind the calculation of votes for UN resolutions?
I am striving for a diplo victory and had too few votes at the first election. Question is now, does it derive from land possession or from population, in other words, do I have to act as warmonger or should I grow up cities. (One AI votes for me, one for the competitor, one abstains and it appears not to be easy to pesuade the abstaining to vote for me).

each player gets one vote per pop point in each of his cities - e.g. you have 2 size 5 cities, you get 10 votes. The Attitude explained link leads you to a break down on what attitude means and what attitude they have to have towards you to abstain or vote for or against you.