Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[The Simple Mind]

In a current game I'm playing I'm at war with Shaka. I probably don't have enough forces to destroy him. The 3 other civs on our continent have fuedalism but neither shaka nor I have it. Can Shaka:

• Capitulate to another civ when we are still at war and bring them into a war against me;
• Capitulate to another civ when we are at war and peace breaks out; or
• Only capitulate to another civ when we are at peace.

I am under the impression after some of the recent updates, option 3 is the correct scenario. Is this the case?

 

[TheLazyHase]

In a current game I'm playing I'm at war with Shaka. I probably don't have enough forces to destroy him. The 3 other civs on our continent have fuedalism but neither shaka nor I have it. Can Shaka:

• Capitulate to another civ when we are still at war and bring them into a war against me;
• Capitulate to another civ when we are at war and peace breaks out; or
• Only capitulate to another civ when we are at peace.

I am under the impression after some of the recent updates, option 3 is the correct scenario. Is this the case?

The first option is possible, but the AI treat it as being bribed into war with you IIRC.

 

[Silu]

In a current game I'm playing I'm at war with Shaka. I probably don't have enough forces to destroy him. The 3 other civs on our continent have fuedalism but neither shaka nor I have it. Can Shaka:

• Capitulate to another civ when we are still at war and bring them into a war against me;
• Capitulate to another civ when we are at war and peace breaks out; or
• Only capitulate to another civ when we are at peace.

I am under the impression after some of the recent updates, option 3 is the correct scenario. Is this the case?

First one is not possible. What's possible is peacevassaling to a Civ they are not at war with, which brings that Civ into war against you.

Second one is possible, he can capitulate to another Civ he's in war with - this breaks peace between him and you (provided you have peace with that war ally of yours he capitulates to).

Capitulation is only possible during war. Note the distinction between peacevassaling and capitulation - the former can be broken at any time, the latter can't.

 

[The Simple Mind]

Cheers Silu.

I should have said that the only war at the moment is between Shaka and I, so that would make option 3, vassal to 3rd party when peace has been agreed, the only capitulation / vassal option available to Shaka. That's what I thought & hoped.

TSM

 

[Silu]

Cheers Silu.

I should have said that the only war at the moment is between Shaka and I, so that would make option 3, vassal to 3rd party when peace has been agreed, the only capitulation / vassal option available to Shaka. That's what I thought & hoped.

TSM

No, he can peacevassal to anyone during his war with you, bringing his new master immediately in a war against you. So option 1 (after a fashion). Being in a war with someone doesn't prevent peacevassaling to some other Civ he's not at war with (seeking military protection from a stronger power).

 

[Mojotales]

Just today added the Beyond The Sword expansion and decided to look up the saved game I'd been playing only to have no clue where it is. Tried the different folders, no luck. Is there a standard kind of directory path for a previously saved game that can't be found now?

Thanks!

 

[dalamb]

On Windows, Beyond the Sword and Sid Meijer's Civilization IV should be 2 different subdirectories of My Games. Each has a Saves\single subdirectory of its own where your games should be.

 

[Mojotales]

Well, that's what I thought. In fact, if I open the older Civ IV -- pre-patch -- it's the older short games are listed and can be loaded the prepatch version. If I go through My Computer and search or look, there they are. However, if I go through BTS, not a sign of them anywhere. I did look prior to writing my original entry, of course, just thought they weren't being picked up by BTS which, I just verified, it isn't.

 

[kcd_swede]

Well, that's what I thought. In fact, if I open the older Civ IV -- pre-patch -- it's the older short games are listed and can be loaded the prepatch version. If I go through My Computer and search or look, there they are. However, if I go through BTS, not a sign of them anywhere. I did look prior to writing my original entry, of course, just thought they weren't being picked up by BTS which, I just verified, it isn't.

You cannot open a vanilla saved game in BtS, (or vice versa) its a different file extension.

 

[dalamb]

Vanilla, Warlord, and BtS behave in some ways like different games -- in particular, they don't share each others' save file formats and so you can't play a Vanilla game using BtS. They do share some code in a core .dll file, so there was once a BtS patch that affected your Vanilla games, but there's a lot that's separate.

I suppose some clever programmer could write something to "upgrade" some of a Vanilla save to BtS but there would be issues to resolve, like differences in the tech paths.

 

[kcd_swede]

Vanilla, Warlord, and BtS behave in some ways like different games -- in particular, they don't share each others' save file formats and so you can't play a Vanilla game using BtS. They do share some code in a core .dll file, so there was once a BtS patch that affected your Vanilla games, but there's a lot that's separate.

I suppose some clever programmer could write something to "upgrade" some of a Vanilla save to BtS but there would be issues to resolve, like differences in the tech paths.

Just curious... do you know if the worldbuilder maps saves are compatible across the different expansions?
It'd still be weird with leaders changing traits and UU's being all out of sync... but you could at least play the same map.

 

[dalamb]

Just curious... do you know if the worldbuilder maps saves are compatible across the different expansions?

Edit: see r_rolo1's answer below.

Spoiler original wrong answer :

No -- BtS and Vanilla have different filename extensions, which almost certainly means they have different formats. Nonetheless there's probably a lot of commonality, and some sort of conversion might be possible.

Maybe if I ever get back to recreational programming...

 

[Mojotales]

Ah, well, thanks for the rescue once again! When something doesn't work and I think I've tried everything and learn it just can't be done part of me feels better about myself, lol.

Mojo

 

[r_rolo1]

Just curious... do you know if the worldbuilder maps saves are compatible across the different expansions?
It'd still be weird with leaders changing traits and UU's being all out of sync... but you could at least play the same map.

As long as they don't have incompatible stuff ( say , trying to use Zara on Warlords or a UB in Vanilla ) WB files are compatible between X-paks. You just have to change the extension of the file This is far diferent of using a BtS normal save in warlords for a example, because the encription used in both X-paks is diferent , so even changing the extension in a game that doesn't have any incompatible stuff won't work.

 

[Yonez]

How do I remove a dot map BFC? I put a few down but things have changed and I want to remove one or two of them.

 

[Lord Parkin]

How do I remove a dot map BFC? I put a few down but things have changed and I want to remove one or two of them.

I'm assuming you're drawing lines on the map (not sure from context). Go into the Strategy Layer, and choose "Delete". Then click on the line(s) you want to delete.

 

[Bluesman]

Hi all, just starting up Beyond the Sword and I'm already hooked, although really dim-witted.

Am playing a game in which I believe I learned Animal Husbandry right off because there were animals everywhere. Made a pasture and captured pigs -- I'm a genius! >.<

Now I see horses and have horse riding, but they are a square or two outside my land boundary. I mention that because my Workers don't have the Pasture option appearing as a choice (and I think that's who had it before). Simple Q - what do I have to do to get ahold of horses and be able to make use of them?

Bluesman

 

[Silu]

How do I remove a dot map BFC? I put a few down but things have changed and I want to remove one or two of them.

If you're talking about the feature included in BUG Mod, a simple right-click in dotmap mode should do it.

Simple Q - what do I have to do to get ahold of horses and be able to make use of them?

The tile needs to be within your cultural boundaries, so settle a city close to them or extend your current boundaries through culture. The latter takes a long time if it's more than 2 tiles away so the former is usually preferred.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Hi all, just starting up Beyond the Sword and I'm already hooked, although really dim-witted.

Am playing a game in which I believe I learned Animal Husbandry right off because there were animals everywhere. Made a pasture and captured pigs -- I'm a genius! >.<

Now I see horses and have horse riding, but they are a square or two outside my land boundary. I mention that because my Workers don't have the Pasture option appearing as a choice (and I think that's who had it before). Simple Q - what do I have to do to get ahold of horses and be able to make use of them?

Bluesman

Welcome to the forum Bluesman!

In order to be able to build a pasture on a tile, you have to first have control of it - i.e. it has to be within your territory. So to get a hold of these nice Horses near you, the best bet is to send a Settler over and found a city next to them. (Not on top of them though, since this wastes potential hammers for the city and so is a bad move except in very limited circumstances.) Try to found the city so that you'll get at least one food resource as well as the Horse resource, for an optimal location.

Once you've founded a city next to the Horse resource, your Worker can build a pasture on it. Then to be able to make use of the Horses (i.e. building Horse units like Chariots and Horse Archers), you'll need to build a road on the Horse pasture and then roads to all cities you want to have access to the Horses. This will give your cities access to Horses for building Horse units; then the only thing you need to do is research the technologies needed for the units (e.g. Horseback Riding for Horse Archers). Then you can happily build away!

Hope that helps. Enjoy the game!

 

[m3brooklyn]

Hi everybody. I'm writing a short essay about Civ for a game design class, and I want to discuss the multiplayer game but I can't get one running. Can someone tell me whether the multiplayer version offers the Settler->Deity difficulty setting, and whether you get a ranking (Dan Quayle->Augustus Caesar) at the end?

Many thanks.