Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[VollAufRisiko]

ah, thanks for the link. ill read up.

Another newb question: should I be building my first city right where my settler starts? sometimes i delay several turns before I decide on a spot. That could put me a ways behind in a religion race. What is the norm?

 

[Perplexity]

Civilizations aren't supposed to stick around when you capture their last city right? If they still have a unit somewhere do they remain in the game?

Default is for the civ and remaining units to disappear when the last city is captured/razed.

There's an option one can set to make units survive even when the last city is captured/razed -- I think it's called "Require Complete Kills".

 

[Yxklyx]

Default is for the civ and remaining units to disappear when the last city is captured/razed.

There's an option one can set to make units survive even when the last city is captured/razed -- I think it's called "Require Complete Kills".

OK Thanks, Willem must have hidden an outpost somewhere.. doesn't show up on my spy screen. Only cities you've seen, appear on the spy screen?

 

[IAM]

Another newb question: should I be building my first city right where my settler starts? sometimes i delay several turns before I decide on a spot. That could put me a ways behind in a religion race. What is the norm?

I settle the spot given, for my capital, well over 95% of the time. But after the first city I only go with the suggested city site maybe 40% of the time.

 

[henrebotha]

ah, thanks for the link. ill read up.

Another newb question: should I be building my first city right where my settler starts? sometimes i delay several turns before I decide on a spot. That could put me a ways behind in a religion race. What is the norm?

I think I have moved my first Settler in two games. The rest of the time, he stays.

The computer takes hidden variables into account when placing your first Settler - like resources you can't see yet, for instance.

 

[Gwynnja]

What does it mean when I get a city with enough happiness that it has a "We love the Monarch (in my case) Day?

All it means is they are celebrating cause they are so happy

They have to be healthy too.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Thanks, I checked more and it seems my brand new video card is overheating. I thought that was a symptom of overheating, just didn't expect it on a new card, but I downloaded some diagnostic software and sure enough.

Hmm, perhaps you could install more fans in your computer? (Assuming it's a custom PC?) Not sure what else would help. My video card occasionally gives me trouble when there's not enough air flow - I just increase the ventilation to compensate.

OK Thanks, Willem must have hidden an outpost somewhere.. doesn't show up on my spy screen. Only cities you've seen, appear on the spy screen?

I think that's the case. You can see if a leader has more than 1 city by going into the diplomatic window and checking whether they have any cities to trade. As for when they have just 1 city, you could always try to find it by trading world maps (you'd have to make peace and have them reasonably happy with you though, unless you traded with another AI that knew them).

 

[6K Man]

The computer takes hidden variables into account when placing your first Settler - like resources you can't see yet, for instance.

Are we absolutely sure of that? I remember debating this point a while ago.

Also - do you mean the computer takes territory that is covered by FOW into account, or that the computer takes resources that need a tech to reveal them (like Copper or Uranium) into account, or both?

If yes to one or both, does this only apply to the first Settler placement or to all suggested blue circles?


All that aside - I seldom move my first Settler unless it is one off a coast or river, or if I can settle on a hill with no loss of decent tiles.

 

[Wulture]

What tiles can copper, iron, uranium etc spawn on? Civilopedia wont tell me

 

[6K Man]

What tiles can copper, iron, uranium etc spawn on? Civilopedia wont tell me

I think I've seen them on all tiles except mountains, coast and ocean.

Unless you mean spawn as in pop randomly from a worked mine... in which case, just hills obviously.

edit: oil resources will of course be located in ocean at times.

 

[VollAufRisiko]

So my wife and I are playing a MP where we are on a team. I'm on noble, she is one difficulty lower (we just started in on Civ IV a week ago). We decided to try to conquer the world since she is Elizabeth and I am Julius. I got my UU out as soon as I could and have been at war the entire game. She has been building up cottage farms to finance our tech research.

We are playing on a Huge Pangea with 18 civs, and we started in the far top left corner of the map. Even though I have been at war the entire game, taking cities as quickly as I can get my army to them, we have only eliminated 3 Civs and it is 1830AD. I am going as fast as I can, and I have a team mate researching as fast as possible to help me out, but we aren't anywhere close to taking the whole world and I think we are going to run out of time.

We are beelining to Tanks since they can move farther per turn, which should speed up the invasion. Other than, that, how are you supposed to be able to conquer an entire HUGE map in time?

Is there a good strategy guide someone can link me to? In the strategy articles I have not found an article that goes over basic domination strategy, just specifics for high difficulty games.

 

[ori]

the starting plot normalizer (i.e. the code that determines where to place a settler) is part of the map generation. This does take into account the complete BFC (the 21 tiles that the city can work if build where the settler stands - including the city plot itself). It does take into account all resources regardless of whether they are already revealed or not.
The blue circles only take into account what is revealed and what you can see (i.e. if you have not revealed any tiles - it won't use them, if you don't have the techs to see the resource, it won't use it.
Note that in many map scripts the starting plot also takes into account distance between teams and e.g. on inland sea can only fudge the placing by a few plots - so it does not have to be the best spot, but it usually is quite decent within the immediate area...

 

[6K Man]

So my wife and I are playing a MP where we are on a team. I'm on noble, she is one difficulty lower (we just started in on Civ IV a week ago). We decided to try to conquer the world since she is Elizabeth and I am Julius. I got my UU out as soon as I could and have been at war the entire game. She has been building up cottage farms to finance our tech research.

We are playing on a Huge Pangea with 18 civs, and we started in the far top left corner of the map. Even though I have been at war the entire game, taking cities as quickly as I can get my army to them, we have only eliminated 3 Civs and it is 1830AD. I am going as fast as I can, and I have a team mate researching as fast as possible to help me out, but we aren't anywhere close to taking the whole world and I think we are going to run out of time.

We are beelining to Tanks since they can move farther per turn, which should speed up the invasion. Other than, that, how are you supposed to be able to conquer an entire HUGE map in time?

Is there a good strategy guide someone can link me to? In the strategy articles I have not found an article that goes over basic domination strategy, just specifics for high difficulty games.

I don't play team/MP, so I may be off base here, but it seems to me that you can't have that complete a division of responsibilities between the two of you. If you're always at war, then you will presumably be building units mostly and not the buildings you need in order to take advantage of the techs she's giving you. You'll want Forges, Factories, Airports, West Point, Heroic Epic, etc, with which you can pump out units faster. Paradoxically, you'll have more units (and better units) if you don't exclusively build units.

Similarly, she could be building units and gifting them to you, you may need to gift the better commerce cities to her, etc, etc. Not sure if that is part of the issue.

A save would be helpful as well, to take a closer look at what's happening.

 

[VollAufRisiko]

I think you are right. Splitting up the responsibilities the way we did may not be very effective.

You'll want Forges, Factories, Airports, West Point, Heroic Epic, etc, with which you can pump out units faster. Paradoxically, you'll have more units (and better units) if you don't exclusively build units.

I have built these buildings in my key production cities. Maybe I am just building too much other stuff in my towns that I shouldnt be. I built some banks, maybe a library or two. Most of the random buildings are in towns I captured from AI players (I didnt specify earlier; we are teamed in a FFA against non-teamed AI). I guess I should use newly conquered towns to create troops as well. Maybe I can get a second stack out attacking.

Similarly, she could be building units and gifting them to you, you may need to gift the better commerce cities to her, etc, etc. Not sure if that is part of the issue.

I have several wonders/buildings she doesnt so my units come out at 10 or 12 experience in some cities. She has not built any Barracks yet. This is an idea though.

A save would be helpful as well, to take a closer look at what's happening.

Not quite sure what this means. I can upload a saved file for you to look at and see where the game is at?

 

[Yxklyx]

When do Forest Preserves become available?

Is there a new up to date comprehensive terrain guide? The one linked from the War Academy is a bit out of date.

 

[Noahdocaralho]

I got a question that is so noob, so noob, so noob, I'm gonna ask it and register again lol.

I can't seem to find the answer anywhere, I've looked and looked around, not only in this forum.

it is related to Civ2, but I can't find the Newbie Questions post in the Civ2 section, sorry. I bet you know it anyway

the question is: how to capture a city? all I can do is attack, and the city disapears, even those damn Barbarians can do it, why can't I? plz help me out

 

[Yxklyx]

I got a question that is so noob, so noob, so noob, I'm gonna ask it and register again lol.

I can't seem to find the answer anywhere, I've looked and looked around, not only in this forum.

it is related to Civ2, but I can't find the Newbie Questions post in the Civ2 section, sorry. I bet you know it anyway

the question is: how to capture a city? all I can do is attack, and the city disapears, even those damn Barbarians can do it, why can't I? plz help me out

size 1 cities disappear (razed) when you enter them - unless they have city walls. I think in Civ 2, each time you defeat a unit in the city, the size goes down by 1 (unless it has city walls I think).

 

[Crowqueen]

The city is too small and it is razed rather than occupied.

Generally, through observation only, it happens -

- if the city is at 1 pop only
- if it has not yet grown (attacking a city can reduce it to 1 pop but the option will be there to occupy it when it is captured)

Any more criteria gratefully accepted. This applies to barbarian cities as well.

 

[IAM]

I think you are right. Splitting up the responsibilities the way we did may not be very effective.

I've played some hot seat huge pangea multiplayer with 18 civs. My partner did have one wonder building city but other than that tech military research etc. were split. When attacking an AI team we would plan a series of cities to attack in order while protecting each others flank. I'm not saying that's a better way but it worked well.

Some things like having both of you reasearching the same tech is important.

Not quite sure what this means. I can upload a saved file for you to look at and see where the game is at?

Yep, or a screen shot.

 

[VollAufRisiko]

Another question: how is your score calculated? Is score a useful measure of a Civ's strength in the game, or does it weight things like culture generation more heavily than tech or military strength?