Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Gwynnja]

OK, so I defied the Apostolic Palace on the resolution to stop trading with my vassal-by-conquest Sitting Bull. (As an aside, that seems kind of cheesy to direct a resolution at a vassal and not the master. As a further aside, Bull still hates me and I get no attitude bonuses for standing with him against the AP guys. Hm. )

I've noticed that since defying the resolution, I don't have a -5 for "TWCYAV" in all of my cities. Is the penalty only confined to cities with the same religion as the AP? If so, can I make it go away or reduce it by introducing new religions to those cities?

I'm pretty sure the only way to make the unhappy people from "the world considers us villains" go away is to vote yes on a resolution that passes. Either that or raze the apolistic palace alltogether.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I'm pretty sure the only way to make the unhappy people from "the world considers us villains" go away is to vote yes on a resolution that passes. Either that or raze the apolistic palace alltogether.

No the unhappiness just lasts a number of turns. It's 20 turns at normal speed and is probably adjusted by game speed settings. If one defies multiple resolutions in a row, then you can get a lot of unhappiness for a period.

 

[Gwynnja]

No the unhappiness just lasts a number of turns. It's 20 turns at normal speed and is probably adjusted by game speed settings. If one defies multiple resolutions in a row, then you can get a lot of unhappiness for a period.

ok that makes sense. but if the ap holds a vote and you vote with the winning side the unhappiness goes away right?

 

[dvs0826]

Noobie question here, but I just started playing. I am Russian and I cannot research Masonry. I have Mining but it also will not let me research Mysticism, although I was under the impression I only needed one or the other. Am I missing something basic here?

 

[JujuLautre]

You're not missing anything. You need either mining or mysticism to learn masonry.

Either you already have all these techs, or you're playing a mod coming with a different tech tree, or your installation has a problem. I don't see any other possibility.

 

[Gwynnja]

When I turn off a certain victory condition, does the AI know? I.e, I'm playing a OCC and have Domination and Culture turned off. When I ask Victoria to stop beating up on Ragnar, she says: "i'd rather win the game thank you very much"

 

[dvs0826]

Is there a way to see your maintenance and upkeep costs broken down by category (military, civics, etc)

 

[Roland Johansen]

ok that makes sense. but if the ap holds a vote and you vote with the winning side the unhappiness goes away right?

I don't think so. It just happens to be so that the end of the 20 turns period is very close to a third voting moment and thus people could have interpreted the result of that vote as the cause of the end of the unhappiness period.

When I turn off a certain victory condition, does the AI know? I.e, I'm playing a OCC and have Domination and Culture turned off. When I ask Victoria to stop beating up on Ragnar, she says: "i'd rather win the game thank you very much"

I don't think the AI will significantly change its game style when certain pregame settings have been changed from the standard. On the other hand, getting (conquering) more cities is often somewhat useful for every victory condition.

However, the AI will use certain routines to acquire legendary cities when this victory condition is checked while it will not use those routines when this victory condition is not checked. So the AI does adjust a bit.

Is there a way to see your maintenance and upkeep costs broken down by category (military, civics, etc)

Yep, the financial window (F2).

Oh, and welcome to civfanatics!

 

[sparkyboy17]

Having only played home consoles up to now and only within the past few weeks having bought a laptop i'm a complete noob to pc gaming. I liked the look of civ4 complete and i'm giving it a go and looking forward to getting engrossed however i've got a few very basic problems so far

1. i've installed the game but i don't seem to have an option to play either civ4 or civ4 warlords or civ4 beyond the sword individually, is this correct or has something gone wrong with the installation?

2. the game hasn't come with a manual and so i'm immediately lost i'm afraid. Is there a manual within the game or can i download it from somewhere?

3. Is there a tutorial option within the game as i can't seem to find it, so far at least?

I realise that these are all very basic questions and i feel incredibly stupid already but when you don't have a clue then best to ask i always say.

My heartfelt thanks to anyone willing to help me get started

 

[dvs0826]

Having only played home consoles up to now and only within the past few weeks having bought a laptop i'm a complete noob to pc gaming. I liked the look of civ4 complete and i'm giving it a go and looking forward to getting engrossed however i've got a few very basic problems so far

1. i've installed the game but i don't seem to have an option to play either civ4 or civ4 warlords or civ4 beyond the sword individually, is this correct or has something gone wrong with the installation?

2. the game hasn't come with a manual and so i'm immediately lost i'm afraid. Is there a manual within the game or can i download it from somewhere?

3. Is there a tutorial option within the game as i can't seem to find it, so far at least?

I realise that these are all very basic questions and i feel incredibly stupid already but when you don't have a clue then best to ask i always say.

My heartfelt thanks to anyone willing to help me get started

Hello,

I'm about as new as you are to the game, but strangely my situation seems to be exactly the opposite of yours. 1) Start->Programs->Firaxis Games and I have 3 different menu options: Civilization IV, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, and Civilization IV: Warlords. They are all individual. Actually I was a little surprised about this and I'm still not sure I fully understand the implications of this since I'm a bit new. But does it mean that you can't play Warlords and Beyond the Sword at the same time? I'm used to expansion packs simply adding stuff to the pre-existing game, not installing a brand new game that's a standalone program.

Second, there is an in game tutorial, but AFAIK it's not available if you run it as Warlords or Beyond the Sword. Only if you run it as vanilla Civ IV. Then it's on the main menu. You can learn most of what you need to know via the tutorial and searching around on these forums for guides and whatnot. Also, the game has an in-game Civilopedia which goes into detail about each technology, unit, building, etc. You can bring it up at any time if you're wondering what something is.

 

[JujuLautre]

Having only played home consoles up to now and only within the past few weeks having bought a laptop i'm a complete noob to pc gaming. I liked the look of civ4 complete and i'm giving it a go and looking forward to getting engrossed however i've got a few very basic problems so far

1. i've installed the game but i don't seem to have an option to play either civ4 or civ4 warlords or civ4 beyond the sword individually, is this correct or has something gone wrong with the installation?

2. the game hasn't come with a manual and so i'm immediately lost i'm afraid. Is there a manual within the game or can i download it from somewhere?

3. Is there a tutorial option within the game as i can't seem to find it, so far at least?

I realise that these are all very basic questions and i feel incredibly stupid already but when you don't have a clue then best to ask i always say.

My heartfelt thanks to anyone willing to help me get started

Don't know about 1/, sorry, I don't have civ4 complete; however, there is an easy check: you should have a folder in which Civ4 is installed, and in this folder, a Beyond the sword folder, and perhaps also a warlords folder. If all these are here, you should be able to play the game. If you don't have shortcuts, create them pointing to Civ4/Civilization4.exe, Civ4/Warlords/Civ4Warlords.exe, and Civ4/Beyond the Sword/Civ4BeyondSword.exe
2/ I heard there is a manual on the DVD; can't check by myself though
3/ There is a tutorial in the base game (without warlords and BTS); so as soon as you get an answer to 1/, you should get it

Hello,

I'm about as new as you are to the game, but strangely my situation seems to be exactly the opposite of yours. 1) Start->Programs->Firaxis Games and I have 3 different menu options: Civilization IV, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, and Civilization IV: Warlords. They are all individual. Actually I was a little surprised about this and I'm still not sure I fully understand the implications of this since I'm a bit new. But does it mean that you can't play Warlords and Beyond the Sword at the same time? I'm used to expansion packs simply adding stuff to the pre-existing game, not installing a brand new game that's a standalone program.

Second, there is an in game tutorial, but AFAIK it's not available if you run it as Warlords or Beyond the Sword. Only if you run it as vanilla Civ IV. Then it's on the main menu. You can learn most of what you need to know via the tutorial and searching around on these forums for guides and whatnot. Also, the game has an in-game Civilopedia which goes into detail about each technology, unit, building, etc. You can bring it up at any time if you're wondering what something is.

You can indeed play independently Vanilla Civ4, Warlords, and BTS. However, Warlords include all the contents of Vanilla Civ4, and BTS include all of warlords (scenarios excluded); so no worry about that. If you are new, I would advise you to begin with warlords (which ad some contents to Civ4 but is not dramatically different), and then when you feel more comfortable about the game, go with BTS.

 

[pkp]

cyrus would not flip his city

ok, so my fourth city on an early start was built like 3 tiles away from a city of cyrus, (not his capital) I used that city to go for a cultural victory and got one around 1800. but while that city flipped two of cyrus' other cities that were farther away, the close one never flipped. it hung at 11% persian and 79% mine all game but never flipped. I know that there is some randomness as to when a city will flip, but all game? also, he was running the civic that gives you 1 per military unit and he had like 20 units in the tile, would that be a factor? when the game ended, that city was a population of one because that it all it could support.

what prevents a flip in that flippin' situation?
in fact, in the trade screen, where you can peacefuly negotiate a city flip, it said (liberate) after the name

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

My laptop is a HP Pavilion dv6815m laptop, with 1 GB NVIDIA Geforce Go 7150m graphics, 2 GH AMD Turion 64 Mobile Tech TL-60 processor, 3 GB RAM, and Windows Vista Home Premium. The screen is 1280x800.

Should I go ahead and install and play civ 4 on this computer?

 

[GooglyBoogly]

he was running the civic that gives you 1 per military unit and he had like 20 units in the tile, would that be a factor?

Yes that is a large factor, each military unit decreases the chance for a city to revolt. If there are enough military units a city will never flip, even if 99.999% foreign, for the mechanics of culture flipping (amongst other stuff) look here

 

[Lord Parkin]

cyrus would not flip his city

...he had like 20 units in the tile, would that be a factor?

That would be why. Each unit on a tile decreases the flip chance by a certain %, depending on the unit's strength. If you have enough units in a city, it will never flip, regardless of the cultural pressure on it.

in fact, in the trade screen, where you can peacefuly negotiate a city flip, it said (liberate) after the name

That's different - the game recognises that you have more culture in the tile than your neighbour, and thus tags it as being up for "liberation". Of course, whether the AI will actually ever give in to a request for "liberation" without force is another question...

My laptop is a HP Pavilion dv6815m laptop, with 1 GB NVIDIA Geforce Go 7150m graphics, 2 GH AMD Turion 64 Mobile Tech TL-60 processor, 3 GB RAM, and Windows Vista Home Premium. The screen is 1280x800.

Should I go ahead and install and play civ 4 on this computer?

It sounds like you should have no problems with installing and playing Civ4 on that computer. I do recall that a small number of people have found that Vista has some minor issues when running the game, but hopefully that should not be a problem for you.

 

[dvs0826]

You can indeed play independently Vanilla Civ4, Warlords, and BTS. However, Warlords include all the contents of Vanilla Civ4, and BTS include all of warlords (scenarios excluded); so no worry about that. If you are new, I would advise you to begin with warlords (which ad some contents to Civ4 but is not dramatically different), and then when you feel more comfortable about the game, go with BTS.

I actually started with vanilla civ 4 and been enjoying it so far. At least until I can beat it on the 4th or 5th difficulty level.

On that note, simple question. What do I do if I don't want to build ANYTHING in a city when something is complete? Everything I build will cost upkeep that I'm not really prepared to spend since I have everything I need for the time being (until I finish researching a tech, for example). Is there any good answer here, or do you just keep popping out units in this case?

 

[Roland Johansen]

I actually started with vanilla civ 4 and been enjoying it so far. At least until I can beat it on the 4th or 5th difficulty level.

On that note, simple question. What do I do if I don't want to build ANYTHING in a city when something is complete? Everything I build will cost upkeep that I'm not really prepared to spend since I have everything I need for the time being (until I finish researching a tech, for example). Is there any good answer here, or do you just keep popping out units in this case?

Yes, you always have to build something in a city. Since buildings cost no upkeep, they're usually a good choice. Units can always be disbanded after construction so you can always build a unit and disband it again. After a little technological progress options like build science, build wealth and build culture should come up which provide some gold, science or culture income for your hammers. Still, these are inferior to building a useful building that improves the city, so only use them if there's really nothing interesting to build and there are no enemies to conquer.

After you get a bit more familiar with the game, this situation shouldn't come up anymore. It probably means that your technological progress was a little slow compared to your building speed which resulted in too few interesting options to build. Make sure that you focus more on research and less on production in your next games.

 

[Senior Tigr]

I've got great merchant and have reasearched both Corporations and Medicine, but Sid's Suchi construction icon is grayed out (Cereal Mills grayed out as well). The city I'm trying to build the HQ have many needed resources, one of them in its BFC.

Playing BTS 3.17.

Oh, sorry, forget the question. I have State property civic.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

It sounds like you should have no problems with installing and playing Civ4 on that computer. I do recall that a small number of people have found that Vista has some minor issues when running the game, but hopefully that should not be a problem for you.

Ok, thanks.

 

[dvs0826]

Is there any advantage to a city having multiple power sources (electricity / coal / etc) simultaneously? Or after you have say, a hydro plant, is it completely useless to build a coal plant?

Also, some bonuses apply "If a city's state religion is X". Is it possible for a city to have more than one state religion? Like I have one city that has the Judaism and the Hinduism icon below it, does this mean the state religion is both Hinduism and Judaism?