Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Wulture]

Why does discovering silver on mine gives it -1 shields?
And can you raze holy cities, and does anything special happen if you raze a holy city?

 

[jmas]

The decay STARTS at this point [...snip]

Thank you Lord Parkin, those were very helpful answers!

 

[DMOC]

Why does discovering silver on mine gives it -1 shields?
And can you raze holy cities, and does anything special happen if you raze a holy city?

The silver's inherent properties give it extra commerce (+5) and only +1 prod if a mine is built on it.

Non riverside non financial non-random event affected Plains hill mine: 4 hammers
Non riverside non financial Plains hill silver mine: 3 hammers, 5 commerce

A normal mine gives +2 hammers (so for a plains hill, which has a base 2 hammers, a mine gives it +2, so +4 total). A silver mine gives +1.

 

[IAM]

And can you raze holy cities, and does anything special happen if you raze a holy city?

Yes, I have razed Holy Cities. I didn't notice any penalty or negative relations factor (other than 'you razed one of our cities') but I could have overlooked it. Typically it's best to keep holy cities. Some exceptions are if you can not hold the city I raze it or sometimes it's just fun with a particularly annoying enemy.

 

[jmas]

Is London (which I captured from Lizzy) considered "adjacent to a river" for Hydro Plant-building purposes in the screenshot below?

My first thought was "no, because it doesn't say 'Fresh Water.' " However, it is on a hill. Does that mean it could be "adjacent to a river" and just wouldn't say "Fresh Water"?

Spoiler :

 

[Gwynnja]

I'm pretty sure hills on rivers still have fresh water. This issue perplexes me as well

 

[s.bernbaum]

Yes, I have razed Holy Cities. I didn't notice any penalty or negative relations factor (other than 'you razed one of our cities') but I could have overlooked it. Typically it's best to keep holy cities. Some exceptions are if you can not hold the city I raze it or sometimes it's just fun with a particularly annoying enemy.

I think it depends on the AI leader. In a recent game I razed a holy city in the process of eliminating HC (he attacked me repeatedly until I decided it was once too often, at a time when I did not have the finances to take over additional cities). From that time onwards, Tokugawa, who was not on the same land mass and never had that religion as his state religion, gave me an extra minus 2 diplomatic points because I had razed a holy city. The minus 2 diplo hit remained for the rest of the game. None of the other AI leaders seemed to care that I had done it, not even the other one with that religion.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Is London (which I captured from Lizzy) considered "adjacent to a river" for Hydro Plant-building purposes in the screenshot below?

My first thought was "no, because it doesn't say 'Fresh Water.' " However, it is on a hill. Does that mean it could be "adjacent to a river" and just wouldn't say "Fresh Water"?

Spoiler :

Looking at the screen shot. The adjacent river flares out at this point as it enters the sea. I have frequently seen this, where the squares adjacent to the flared out ends of rivers entering the sea do not say fresh water. I suspect this means that the flare out area is a marine estuary, rather than part of the river.

 

[BarrageQueen]

Is London (which I captured from Lizzy) considered "adjacent to a river" for Hydro Plant-building purposes in the screenshot below?

My first thought was "no, because it doesn't say 'Fresh Water.' " However, it is on a hill. Does that mean it could be "adjacent to a river" and just wouldn't say "Fresh Water"?

Spoiler :

No hydro, I'm afraid.

Being on a hill doesn't "cancel" the fresh water effect. What it does is prevent irrigation through the tile itself.

 

[zappara]

What is "BUG" that seems to be mentioned a lot on these forums? Some mod?

It's a mod that doesn't alter the gameplay in any way but it does enhance the game interface with lots of nice little features. Basically it shows game information in more user friendlier way. BUG is so good that many modpacks have merged it.

 

[kburlz]

Hey, I'm Kevin. This is my first post. I can't figure out when my units are eligible to be upgraded. For instance, when does a longbowman qualify to be upgraded to a musketman?

 

[BarrageQueen]

Hey, I'm Kevin. This is my first post. I can't figure out when my units are eligible to be upgraded. For instance, when does a longbowman qualify to be upgraded to a musketman?

You can train a musket when you have the gunpowder technology. So, in order to upgrade a longbow to a musket, you'd need the technology researched first, have the longbow in your territory, and have the gold required for the upgrade.

 

[Gwynnja]

You can train a musket when you have the gunpowder technology. So, in order to upgrade a longbow to a musket, you'd need the technology researched first, have the longbow in your territory, and have the gold required for the upgrade.

No. Nothing upgrades to a musketman. Longbows can be upgraded to riflemen with rifling, (maybe machine guns with railroad too, I don't remember,) infantry with rifling and assembly line, or mechanized infantry, with robotics and rifling. This can all be found in the civopedia, just look under units.

 

[Gwynnja]

If I build a forest preserve on a jungle, does it increase the chances of a forest growing adjacent or a jungle or both?

 

[Roland Johansen]

If I build a forest preserve on a jungle, does it increase the chances of a forest growing adjacent or a jungle or both?

Just a jungle. The preserve just increases the odds.

 

[jmas]

Thank you to everyone for the replies on the river issue..

 

[VollAufRisiko]

how do u get downloaded units into a game
also now when i start civ4 it wont start and i get the folowing message.
this application has failed to start becauseD3DX9_32.DLL was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem. why did it say that every time now it has never happend before. but i went to multiplayer and it installed a patch. im really worried i just bought this game today

Sorry this reply is a few days late. I had the same problem. I just bought the game 3 weeks ago and it wanted me to update to version 1.71 (i think that is right). I let it download and install, then got the same error (I use Windows Vista BTW). I ended up reinstalling the game, the only way I could get it to work again. I have not tried playing multiplayer over the internet (just against my wife on the other computer, using the same patch as me). So I am not sure if it will let you. Just give it a try and see what happens.

Also, from what I can tell (this may be wrong) it looks like 1.71 is just for Macs. Looking through the download section here I didnt see a 1.71 for windows anywhere, just macs. I read through the recent patch notes and it seems my version of the game has all the recent changes already in effect (like amount of wood per chop, etc). So, I wouldn't worry about the patch and just see if you can get on a multiplayer.

 

[BarrageQueen]

No. Nothing upgrades to a musketman. Longbows can be upgraded to riflemen with rifling, (maybe machine guns with railroad too, I don't remember,) infantry with rifling and assembly line, or mechanized infantry, with robotics and rifling. This can all be found in the civopedia, just look under units.

Hah. I checked and you're right. A longbow can be upgraded later to a rifle, but not to a musket. In fact, no unit gets upgraded to a musket. How strange.

 

[VollAufRisiko]

Easy - just go into diplomacy with each other, the same way you would with the AI. Click what you want to give to your wife, then click "Offer Trade". When it's your wife's turn, the offer will come up in her trade window, and she clicks "Offer Trade" to accept. (They screwed up on the naming in the latter case, but it works anyway. )

Any other problems, feel free to ask me. I frequently play hotseat games on a team with my girlfriend, so I have a lot of experience there.

Normally to get to diplomacy I click the rulers name in the score list in the lower right. When I do that on my wife's name it doesn't do anything at all. Is there another way to get to the diplomacy screen? We are playing simultaneous turns, not hot seat,if that makes a difference. Its annoying that I have three coal, she has 2 oil, and we can't share them with each other. Also, I'd like to gift her some cities since my turn are taking longer than hers, so we can even out the wait time.

 

[henrebotha]

how do u get downloaded units into a game
also now when i start civ4 it wont start and i get the folowing message.
this application has failed to start becauseD3DX9_32.DLL was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem. why did it say that every time now it has never happend before. but i went to multiplayer and it installed a patch. im really worried i just bought this game today

Sorry this reply is a few days late. I had the same problem. I just bought the game 3 weeks ago and it wanted me to update to version 1.71 (i think that is right). I let it download and install, then got the same error (I use Windows Vista BTW). I ended up reinstalling the game, the only way I could get it to work again. I have not tried playing multiplayer over the internet (just against my wife on the other computer, using the same patch as me). So I am not sure if it will let you. Just give it a try and see what happens.

Also, from what I can tell (this may be wrong) it looks like 1.71 is just for Macs. Looking through the download section here I didnt see a 1.71 for windows anywhere, just macs. I read through the recent patch notes and it seems my version of the game has all the recent changes already in effect (like amount of wood per chop, etc). So, I wouldn't worry about the patch and just see if you can get on a multiplayer.

It's not 1.71, it's 1.74, and you definitely do need it. It just makes the game better. To solve the problems with it (the D3DX9_32.dll and shader library problems), see this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=232577

Hah. I checked and you're right. A longbow can be upgraded later to a rifle, but not to a musket. In fact, no unit gets upgraded to a musket. How strange.

It's not that strange. When firearms first appeared, they were so radically different in use to any existing armaments that soldiers had to be trained in their use from scratch. Probably the weapon most similar to the musket was the crossbow, so if anything, only Crossbowmen should be able to upgrade to Musketmen.