Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Dresden]

Favorite Religion does have a small effect outside of the founding choice. When an AI evaluates which religion is best for it, the favorite gets a 25% bonus so in a situation where the favorite and another religion are spread pretty equally in their territory and there's little difference in Holy City commerce between the two the favorite does get a preference.

 

[6K Man]

It is most annoynig to have your rifles thwarted by a civ under the bonus of the Citizen Itza (probably misspelt). The bullets don't pierce rocks UNLESS the civ that has built the wonder knows about gunpowder.

This bug can laso be used to own and run both the UN and the AP at the same time (just capture the UN and do not research the UN tech)

That Itza thing just makes no sense - if anything, the effect is backwards. IMO, Wonders should obsolete in one of 3 ways, depending on the wonder:

1. If it's a wonder that affects you and you alone without any effect on or input from other civs (like the Great Library granting 2 extra scientists, or the Kremlin allowing faster rushbuying), it should obsolete when the owner learns the obsoleting tech.

2. If it's a wonder that has an effect on someone else (like Chicken Pizza granting a bonus against pre-Gunpowder units), it should obsolete for the other party when THEY learn the obsoleting tech. After all, it's the other party that is being affected by the wonder, not the owner.

3. If it's a wonder that has global effects (like the Great Lighthouse creating extra trade routes with cities worldwide, or the AP), it should obsolete when either the owner OR a majority of the other civs in the world learn the obsoleting tech.

And when a wonder is obsoleted, ALL its effects should vanish, with the possible exception of ongoing culture. I can't tell you how annoying it is to research Mass Media but not lose the -5 happiness penalty from defying an AP resolution. Plus, having captured the AP, I no longer have the option of razing it or agreeing to the next resolution to make the unhappiness go away.

 

[Lord Parkin]

And when a wonder is obsoleted, ALL its effects should vanish, with the possible exception of ongoing culture.

Erm... surely Great Person points should still accumulate from obsoleted wonders. You're not opposing that, are you?

 

[6K Man]

Erm... surely Great Person points should still accumulate from obsoleted wonders. You're not opposing that, are you?

No need for the face, my ideas aren't exactly binding on anyone

But now that you mention it, I'm not sure why a nation that is building jet planes and recycling plants should still GPP towards a Great Scientist from having a long-obsolete Great Library, for example.

 

[Perplexity]

How do I set a rally point? How does it work, exactly?

What other tips / keyboard shortcuts can you offer for managing large numbers of units?

Thanks.

 

[sercer88]

Hi,
I thought I remember reading something about "play as the barbarian" in a promo for Civ 4 BTS, or something like that...but I cannot find that scenario anywhere... Could someone please set me straight (either let me know there isn't any such scenario, or point me in the right direction?)

thanks,
sercer88

 

[Lord Parkin]

Hi,
I thought I remember reading something about "play as the barbarian" in a promo for Civ 4 BTS, or something like that...but I cannot find that scenario anywhere... Could someone please set me straight (either let me know there isn't any such scenario, or point me in the right direction?)

thanks,
sercer88

That's a scenario for Warlords. You'll need to have Warlords installed. Just load up Warlords and go to the Scenarios menu, and you'll find it.

 

[Rorybob]

I seem to be having problems in the combat aspect of the game.
I played it on Settler (the lowest difficulty rating) on my first game, seemed to be about two ages ahead of the AI with at least double the score (for example, I was modern when they had Grenadiers around their cities) and I started to invade a neighbouring Nation.
I sent in two or three Infantry units, and they seemed to die against Grenadiers, who have about half the strength, and they were in open land with no defensive bonuses that I could see, so I am a bit puzzled.
For the moment, I am avoiding combat altogether, as it always ends badly for myself.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I sent in two or three Infantry units, and they seemed to die against Grenadiers, who have about half the strength, and they were in open land with no defensive bonuses that I could see, so I am a bit puzzled.

Two or three? This is probably your problem.

When invading a rival nation, even when they're technologically inferior, you need to bring along a decent sized army. The exact definition of a "decent sized" army varies depending on the rival and on the game, but generally at least a stack of 10 units (more if it's a larger map or more difficult level) is necessary for any gains (cities and land!) once you get past the ancient ages. You also need variety - don't bring along just one unit type, bring along some others as well, particularly siege units. Infantry are usually fairly good if you're fighting technologically inferior civilizations, but backing them up with Cannons or Artillery will significantly speed up your conquest. (Infantry cannot bombard down city defences, nor cause collateral damage to AI unit stacks.)

I hope that helps. It's hard to give specific advice without a screenshot or savegame though. If you'd like further advice, consider posting a new thread with a savegame in the forums - the people around here will be more than happy to help you out.

 

[6K Man]

I seem to be having problems in the combat aspect of the game.
I played it on Settler (the lowest difficulty rating) on my first game, seemed to be about two ages ahead of the AI with at least double the score (for example, I was modern when they had Grenadiers around their cities) and I started to invade a neighbouring Nation.
I sent in two or three Infantry units, and they seemed to die against Grenadiers, who have about half the strength, and they were in open land with no defensive bonuses that I could see, so I am a bit puzzled.
For the moment, I am avoiding combat altogether, as it always ends badly for myself.

Did you check the combat odds before attacking? (if you don't know, you do that by clicking on your attacking unit and dragging - without releasing the mouse button - over the unit you want to attack)

That point aside, healthy Infantry should win the vast majority of combats against healthy Grenadiers. Were your units wounded? 3 Infantry will usually win against 3 Grenadiers, but will gradually get worn down and be killed if facing 6+ Grenadiers.

 

[Captin Zebra]

if you had a string of islands that were separate from your continent with cities on them, could you turn them into one colony even though the cities aren't technically on the same continent as each other?

 

[CCRunner]

If one island had two cities you could turn that into a Colony and then gift all the other cities to them. Otherwise, no.

 

[vhhawk]

What the heck causes inflation, and (how) can it be managed?

And secondly, is there a cure for Civ addiction?

 

[CCRunner]

What the heck causes inflation, and (how) can it be managed?

Inflation is caused naturally as the game progresses. There's nothing you can do to stop or reduce it. In order to manage it, you need to increase your income somehow, most likely by increasing commerce.

The exception is if you own BTS. In that case there is a random event that reduces the inflation rate by either 10% (for free) or 25% (for some money)

And secondly, is there a cure for Civ addiction?

You do realize your asking on a site for civ fanatics right?

 

[vhhawk]

You do realize your asking on a site for civ fanatics right?

Good point

Thanks for the inflation information, and all the other good info.

 

[PieceOfMind]

From Ori's Random event list

Event64
Federal Reserve
Prereq: Free Market Civic AND at least 1000 gold AND CORPORATION
Obsolete: None
Active/Weight: 90/200
Result:
1.-10% Inflation
2.pay 200 gold AND -25% Inflation

If you want this event to appear you better make sure you have 1000 gold available as often as you can. Sadly, in some games there is zero chance of it appearing, so there's no way of knowing whether you should even bother keeping that gold in the treasury.

I don't know who would ever take option 1 if you had to have 1000 gold already. Once corporations come about, inflation can become a huge annoyance.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

Harder difficuilties also have greater inflation - you should be prepared to deal with it when moving up a difficuilty level.

 

[Perplexity]

I have questions about trade negotiations.

Does requesting an unbalanced trade hurt your relations in any way?

What about repeated requests in general. For example, say you want to do tech+gold for tech. Is there any downside to starting at X gold, then offering X+10, then X+20, etc., until he accepts? Is there any faster way to find out how much you need to pay?

What about using the "what is the price for peace?" option. If he offers, say, 100 gold.. does this mean he will always refuse to give 101 gold instead? Would he still have refused to give 101 gold if you didn't do "what is the price for peace"?

 

[sercer88]

I'm pretty sure that when you do the "what is the price for peace" option, then that is the best deal you are going to get.

As for your first two questions, I don't think so...but I've never seen an instance where the AI accepts a "better" deal than what is offered if you just select the option "what will you give me for this?" or "what do you want for this?"

 

[phoenix_sprite]

I've played this game for 3 years now and I've always ignored this but is the program "GameSpy" that downloads with Civ4 necessary? It makes my computer load slowly when I first open it. (MSN opening + Gamespy + Anti-virus = LONG LOAD TIME).