Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Stapel]

You will get those hammers when the resistance is over. You can even see them during the resistance by moving you mouse over the value of the hammers just before the production bar.

I'm pretty sure I did NOT see them when moving the mouse over the production bar (that's why I posted this).

 

[Roland Johansen]

^^ It does have somthing to do with visibility.
In BtS, you need to see the units to be allowed to bomb them.

You can't strike (hit units) a city that you don't have visibility over at that moment, but you can bomb (hit defence bonus) it. Maybe that has something to do with the strange occurrence.

Because it clearly does. Let me be clearer:

* Turn 1: The city is dimmed. I can't see the units in the city, and I can neither bomb nor unit strike it. I can, though press R for a recon mission. The plane flies over, and, voila! Now I can see the units. Now other planes from that same city can bomb and/or unit strike, for exactly the reasons you list.

* Turn 2: The city is clear, I can see what's there, I can bomb and/or unit strike away.

* Turn 3: The city is dimmed again. I can't even see the units in the city. In order to see them again, I have to spend another recon mission.

Note, this is NOT the situation you describe--where I can see the city, but the strike graphic never turns green, either because it has no defenses left, or there are no units left to strike.

That's weird. The visibility from a reconnaissance mission should only stay for that one turn during which you performed the reconnaissance mission. It only lasts for one turn in my games. Couldn't there be some other unit or reconnaissance plane which is allowing you visibility? Could it have to do with the difference between the bomb and strike mission (as above discussed with Cabert). You can perform one (the bombing mission) without even requiring visibility, so maybe you assumed you had visibility. I'm not sure what's going on, so I'm just asking some questions to come nearer to the source of the matter.

By the way, I think the reconnaissance mission is a bit buggy. It provides line of sight a bit too similar to land units. If you're scouting over a mountain, then you can look over hills to the tiles on the other side, but if you're scouting over flat terrain, then hills block your line of sight. Really weird and rather stupid.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I'm pretty sure I did NOT see them when moving the mouse over the production bar (that's why I posted this).

Not the production bar, the hammer count in front of the production bar. It does show 0 hammers before you mouse over it, but if you hold your mouse over it, then it should show the hammer count of the forest chop. (I just tested it with BTS 3.13 + Bhruics patch.)

 

[Stapel]

Not the production bar, the hammer count in front of the production bar. It does show 0 hammers before you mouse over it, but if you hold your mouse over it, then it should show the hammer count of the forest chop. (I just tested it with BTS 3.13 + Bhruics patch.)

That's what I did.....

I'll check again tonight, to be sure. It's a multiplayer gaem, so we'll have to wait for the 'real' result a few days.

 

[Mknn]

That's weird. The visibility from a reconnaissance mission should only stay for that one turn during which you performed the reconnaissance mission. It only lasts for one turn in my games. Couldn't there be some other unit or reconnaissance plane which is allowing you visibility?

It's certainly something along these lines. It also seems to treat each airbase independently. I actually have two cities (A & B) bombing/striking a single enemy city (C). A has visibility of C always, and can bomb and/or strike depending on the defenses/vulnerability of units. B can always bomb (as Roland says), but has to either bomb or recon in order to strike. But, if I recon, it gives visibility for more than one turn ...

By the way, I think the reconnaissance mission is a bit buggy. It provides line of sight a bit too similar to land units. If you're scouting over a mountain, then you can look over hills to the tiles on the other side, but if you're scouting over flat terrain, then hills block your line of sight. Really weird and rather stupid.

Yes, it treats a recon as only pertaining to the single tile you aim for. It is as if the pilots have their eyes closed on the way there and back ...

While on the subject of air attacks, is anyone else confused by why jet fighters can't kill units, esp. ships?

 

[BrantleyL1]

* What determines aerial visibility during war?

Which reminds me of one of my other [innumberable] questions...

My main experience is with vanilla - i've only had BtS a short while....

It seems that there is some sort of restriction on bombing units & using fighters agaist them.

I would THINK that I could take a fighter (or bomber) and attack a unit. Then take another plane and attack again and another, etc. But, it seems that it won't let me. The first one does x% damage and that's it. It also seems that it won't let me attack them the next turn either.

Am I missing something, making a mistake or is there some restriction on air attacks??

 

[Roland Johansen]

It's certainly something along these lines. It also seems to treat each airbase independently. I actually have two cities (A & B) bombing/striking a single enemy city (C). A has visibility of C always, and can bomb and/or strike depending on the defenses/vulnerability of units. B can always bomb (as Roland says), but has to either bomb or recon in order to strike. But, if I recon, it gives visibility for more than one turn ...

If you can upload a savegame with some specific instructions on how to repeat this weird reconnaissance behaviour, then we might find out what is happening. Otherwise, I'm afraid I can't help you any further. I've not observed this weird behaviour in my games. It could be a bug in the game which doesn't occur very often or it could be something which you missed during those turns. I really can't know.

While on the subject of air attacks, is anyone else confused by why jet fighters can't kill units, esp. ships?

Normally in warfare, fighters and bombers will weaken enemy units so that the ground troops have an easier job. A bombing campaign will never kill every single enemy soldier. In case of ships, I think you have a point. Fighter-bombers and torpedo bombers do destroy ships completely. Ships are bigger units which cannot effectively hide from airplanes like individual soldier can.

If you would allow airplanes to kill ships in the game, then this has to be balanced well. Some of the ships (destroyers for instance) must have a fair chance to actually kill (not just wound) the attacking airplanes and the AI must use enough carriers to actually defend its ships. It could work if implemented correctly.

The combat model in civilization IV is fairly simple, so it's not too hard to shoot holes in it by mentioning some unrealistic elements.

 

[s.bernbaum]

It's only useful to damage units to the maximum just before a normal land-based attack as without that, all damage will just slowly heal back when you stop bombing.

Actually, I have found another reason to bomb AI troops, at least in vanilla, which is what I play. If a large stack is advancing on a position where I do not have sufficient ground troops to deal with it nor any that can get there in a hurry but I do have a large air force in range, I bomb the AI stack down to 50%. The AI stack stops moving and goes into heal mode. After that I can bomb the stack with one to three bombers, depending on the stack size, each turn to return it to 50%. Even if I do nothing else the AI stack is effectively knocked out, since they are forever in heal mode, as long as I can keep the one to three bombers hitting them each turn.

 

[Atticus]

BTS question: I have eight overseas cities with a large map, but when trying to make them independent I can only liberate Carthage which is on my own continent. I'm playing with this unofficial patch, and before installing it, colonies could be done (but it started a war). After installing the patch I however played some turns more, so the civics are now different, do they have some effect? Or this a bug of the unofficial patch?

 

[JujuLautre]

THe only feature added to the patch that I think could cause your problem is related to the colony bug. Basically, do you play with ma number of civs (18)? If so, you cannot create colonies with Bhruic's patch. This is to avoid a bug.

 

[Atticus]

Thanks, that's the reason! What a shame, it was good and interesting game...

BTW: Does anybody know if that problem can be avoided with that mod which allows 24 civilizations?

 

[Mesousa]

I think the answer is yes, but I'd like to be sure:

If I create a game while using Bhruic's unofficial patch (not installed as a mod, but replacing my normal dll), others who don't use it can load and play a save from that game?

 

[Picklerclarkson]

The game asked me if I wanted to switch to Hinduism so I had a revolution. Then a turn or two later it says my units are on strike or something like that? My question is how do you get rid of the strike and why did it happen in the first place? Thanks!

 

[Michael Parenti]

I was just wondering why the leader faces do not change with the era any more?

I remember in Civ 3 the leaders used to change as they advanced throughout the eras, that is, the same leader from ancient era wore different clothes and looked different in the industrial era.

Is there something I have to enable in the options to view that, or is that just not included in Civ 4? I have both expansion packs as well by the way.

Thank you.

 

[SexyDude76]

If I build a fort on a Forest or Jungle tile, will I loose the forest/jungle?

 

[JujuLautre]

The game asked me if I wanted to switch to Hinduism so I had a revolution. Then a turn or two later it says my units are on strike or something like that? My question is how do you get rid of the strike and why did it happen in the first place? Thanks!

Nothing related to the revolution. It's because you have too much expenses (look at the f2 screen), and given the state of your civ, you're not able to pay for them, even when putting every commerce into gold (gold slider at 100%). In this case, your units go on strike, and they will begin to disappear starting from the next turn.
Needless to say this is a really bad situation. The main reason would be that you overexpanded and did not take care of your economy.

Is there something I have to enable in the options to view that, or is that just not included in Civ 4? I have both expansion packs as well by the way.

This is not included in Civ4.

If I build a fort on a Forest or Jungle tile, will I loose the forest/jungle?

If you're playing with BTS (and perhaps only starting from patch 3.03, not sure), you will keep it. Otherwise, you will lose it.

 

[JohnYoga]

Hello Folks,

I may have asked the following questions years ago, but I forget the answer...

OK, let's say that the leader(s) have several negatives against me: I am worshipping a heathen religion, our closed borders spark tension, I am buds with a civ they don't like, etc...

1. Is there a way to mitigate these issues (aside from my fixing the above issues, which may be near-impossible/don't want to do, like changing my religion if I established it)?

I read about how some give tributes to leaders to get them to be happy with you, but I don't know how that works.

Is there some type of counter somewhere that I can see, that lets me know I am making him incrementally happier and happier, where he/she finally moves me up a notch (say, from annoyed to cautious)? How do I know how much, what type, and how often to give tribute...Where I can say: "OK, I see the counter going up X amount if I give him 10 gold a turn, and I see it go up Y amount if I give him a pig, etc?

2. How do you get a Leader to go to war for you? Obviously he's probably wildly pleased with you, but boy this trick would be great to figure out how to do!

Thank you for your time in responding.

Regards,

JohnYoga
San Diego

 

[JujuLautre]

To increase a leader's attitude to you:
- adopt their state religion; or if you don't want/can't, take no religion
- adopt their favorite civic (assuming they adopted it too)
- make fair trades
- give in their demands
- open borders (take some time to get a bonus)
- trade ressources (same)
- be at peace (+1 for peace is still +1)
- share a war with them
- make a defensive pact

Do I forget something?

Also, to bribe a leader to war with another leader:
- this leader has to have a minimum relation to you (for some it's only cautious, for others it's friendly...); if you don't have it, they will say "we just don't like you enough"
- it also has to have a maximum relation to the other leader (for some it's friendly, for others it's annoyed...); if they don't have it, they will say "we will never betray our close friends"
Also, a leader will not go to war with another civ if he/she is already planning a war (will say "we have enough on our hands right know); and perhaps also they can't be bribed if they are already at war (not sure here)
Finally, they will sometimes deny it saying "we would have nothing to gain", or "we are afraid of their strength". which is clear enough imho, but can't be given any easy rule.

 

[JohnYoga]

Thanks Juju,

So, I guess there is no gauge to know how often, or for how long giving tribute will lift me up a notch.

I have never been able to bribe a civ into warring another civ, no matter how much they like me, and/or hated another civ. I must be doing something wrong. Even when I tribute like for like and have open borders with them for the entire game. I guess I now need to dismantle both my religion and civics, and make them the other civs to do this?

There should be a way to know "giving tribute effectiveness". What you write above makes me think it's a guessing game. If I waste enough resources on the other civ, maybe they will like me more...there is no way of knowing...

Thanks again for your response.

JohnYoga

 

[Melhisedek]

how do you quick save and load?