Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

My biggest confusions actually come at the start up screen. I've been a platform gamer my whole life so this also contributes to it. But why are some options only available in certain start options. Ex. diff leaders, civs, maps, and options from the "start now, advanced, custom game, scenerio, custom scenerio?" one other quick question if I do custom scenerio and when it gets to the options for victory all the boxes are Xed. Does that mean I have to UN-X it to allow to win by that victory? Thought it was weird cause not other options are Xed?
 
It just means that those victories are set automatically. "Un-X" anything you do not want loaded.
 
Hey everybody,

I'm not really a newbie, but I haven't been on the forum in ages, as my husband and I opened a business right before the economy tanked, so we've been working 7 days a week to stay afloat. I had surgery last week and was stuck at home for a few days, and what better way to spend them by dusting off Civ 4!!

Anyway, I have a few questions, and any help is greatly appreciated!

*Trade Routes for Land-Locked Cities
I've noticed land-locked cities can only have domestic trade routes (trade by roads). I was wondering - if my land-locked city has an airport, and another foreign city has an airport, can they trade? (I keep forgetting to look late game.) Any other ways to get foreign trade routes for land-locked cities?

*Non-State Religion Spread with Theocracy
I was running Theocracy (Hinduism), which should be no non-state religion spread. However, I was able to spread a second religion I founded (Taoism) to my cities. ???? I know from experience that I can't spread non-state religion to other civs running Theocracy, so, WTH? (what the hell?) Is this a bug? (ps, no I didn't accidentally change my state religion, that's what I thought at first too.) I was glad for the extra cash from the second city, but felt like I was cheating.

*Upgrade Paths - Partly A Complaint
After a very successful military campaign, I had a *bunch* of units with 5 promotions, and a ton of cash. Woo hoo! Then stupid Robotics came along and my poetically diverse army of veteran Infantry, SAM Inf, and Mach Guns turned into a homogenous fleet of Mech Infs. D'oh! If I had held off on upgrading them, could some of them have turned into something else? Modern Armor maybe? Does anything upgrade to Tank or Marine? And, in that vein, is there an abbreviated list of upgrade paths somewhere?

Anyway, thanks for reading, and thanks for any insight. As soon as my incisions heal I'm back to work all the time, so I will be disappearing into the Fog of War again soon, but, hey, good to see you all, and glad to see the forums are still going strong! -Laina
 
is there an abbreviated list of upgrade paths somewhere?
I use the in-game civilopedia.

Hmm.. had no idea friendly civs can declare :O

I find winning diplomacy peacefully to be very difficult, more so then domination/conquest. How do you get civs to vote for your diplomatic victory? I have the best overall standings of all the civs (huge maps) but the civs that'll get me over the threshold abstains. The Apostolic Palace is even more of a headache.
 
i followed king leoniduss xml tutorial thing, and made a new civ, but when i load the mod, i cant play as it. it just doesnt show up. i dont understand:confused: can any1 help?
 
Hey everybody,

I'm not really a newbie, but I haven't been on the forum in ages, as my husband and I opened a business right before the economy tanked, so we've been working 7 days a week to stay afloat. I had surgery last week and was stuck at home for a few days, and what better way to spend them by dusting off Civ 4!!

Anyway, I have a few questions, and any help is greatly appreciated!
As someone else who took a bit of a hit from the sour economy recently and found solace in Civ, welcome.

*Trade Routes for Land-Locked Cities
I've noticed land-locked cities can only have domestic trade routes (trade by roads). I was wondering - if my land-locked city has an airport, and another foreign city has an airport, can they trade? (I keep forgetting to look late game.) Any other ways to get foreign trade routes for land-locked cities?
Land-locked cities can still have foreign trade routes provided there are enough foreign cities with which you have Open Borders and a clear route (via road (enabled by The Wheel), via river or coast (enabled by Sailing), or over Ocean (enabled by Astronomy).)
*Non-State Religion Spread with Theocracy
I was running Theocracy (Hinduism), which should be no non-state religion spread. However, I was able to spread a second religion I founded (Taoism) to my cities. ???? I know from experience that I can't spread non-state religion to other civs running Theocracy, so, WTH? (what the hell?) Is this a bug? (ps, no I didn't accidentally change my state religion, that's what I thought at first too.) I was glad for the extra cash from the second city, but felt like I was cheating.
Theocracy prevents foreign missionaries from spreading their religions to your cities, or via trade routes, IIRC. Domestic missionaries for non-state religions still work. This is why you can gift a missionary for a non-state religion to a civ running Theocracy and have them successfully spread the religion for you.
*Upgrade Paths - Partly A Complaint
After a very successful military campaign, I had a *bunch* of units with 5 promotions, and a ton of cash. Woo hoo! Then stupid Robotics came along and my poetically diverse army of veteran Infantry, SAM Inf, and Mach Guns turned into a homogenous fleet of Mech Infs. D'oh! If I had held off on upgrading them, could some of them have turned into something else? Modern Armor maybe? Does anything upgrade to Tank or Marine? And, in that vein, is there an abbreviated list of upgrade paths somewhere?
No, nothing upgrades to Tanks or Marines. Tanks can upgrade to Modern Armor, but nothing else can.

I think this graphic of upgrade paths is still accurate, though it doesn't include Tanks:

meleearcherygunpowder.png
 
just finished my first ever civ 4 game. Should go right to bts? It seems like most of you guys say it's just an improved version?
 
just finished my first ever civ 4 game. Should go right to bts? It seems like most of you guys say it's just an improved version?

I would go right to bts if you already own it. If you don't own it yet then I would just keep playing vanilla until you can stomp the computer and pretty much know how the AI works.
 
*Trade Routes for Land-Locked Cities
I've noticed land-locked cities can only have domestic trade routes (trade by roads). I was wondering - if my land-locked city has an airport, and another foreign city has an airport, can they trade? (I keep forgetting to look late game.) Any other ways to get foreign trade routes for land-locked cities?
I believe that inland cities get international trade routes just as coastal ones do. The actual trade route passes along the roads to your harbors (also Forts count in the latest BTS version) and traverse on the seas from there on.

The game calculates the best routes for every city, though, and your inland cities might just not make the cut - from the point of view of your trading partners. (Those Coast tiles gives your coastal cities an advantage on :commerce:.) Try to make a Cottage heavy inland city instead of a mining oriented one!

Or you could just resign with the fact that inland cities can't build the Customs House in any case, and just leave the :commerce: generating to your seaboard cities. They will mostly suck at :hammers: anyway, so you need all the production you can get from your landlocked cities. City specialization is a sound strategy.
 
I am trying to run a specialist economy. I spread myself too thin so I have been trying to put as many merchant specialists as possible in every city. But every time I turn around, I have spies and engineers as specialists. I have been turning my culture slider down just to see how low I can go before I get frowny faces but then when I get angry citizens, i bump the slider back up and they go be whatever specialists they want.
1)Is there any way to prevent this?
2)Is there anything else I could be doing that rearranges my specialists?
3)is it better to run merchant specialists and run your research slider up a little or is it better to run scientists and leave your research slider low?
4) also, I swear I max out my production tiles but every time I turn around some of my bonehead citizens stop farming the land, and go play James Bond. Even when I have emphasize food ticked. How do I stop the little turd-buckets from leaving the farmland to be spy specialists?
 
just finished my first ever civ 4 game. Should go right to bts? It seems like most of you guys say it's just an improved version?
As long as you don't feel overwhelmed with the complexity of the game as is, I'd say go for it. There's bound to be some confusion with all the additions, but if you don't mind that, then sure.:goodjob:

Since most people here play BTS you might as well. It helps if you need advice or try to learn from reading posts. You might just get more confused if you get too used to Vanilla and then the rules are changed when you upgrade to BTS.
 
I am trying to run a specialist economy. I spread myself too thin so I have been trying to put as many merchant specialists as possible in every city. But every time I turn around, I have spies and engineers as specialists. I have been turning my culture slider down just to see how low I can go before I get frowny faces but then when I get angry citizens, i bump the slider back up and they go be whatever specialists they want.
1)Is there any way to prevent this?
2)Is there anything else I could be doing that rearranges my specialists?
3)is it better to run merchant specialists and run your research slider up a little or is it better to run scientists and leave your research slider low?
4) also, I swear I max out my production tiles but every time I turn around some of my bonehead citizens stop farming the land, and go play James Bond. Even when I have emphasize food ticked. How do I stop the little turd-buckets from leaving the farmland to be spy specialists?
This is also one of my biggest headaches, so I'm looking forward to a solution...

I believe its a bug that comes from the fact that the developers of BTS thought that the Spy specialist wasn't good or attractive enough, so they made it the specialist with the highest yields of them all. This is why the AI/governor thinks its the best one to have in any given city since it, clearly, is the best specialist. Personally I'll probably end up modding the Spy specialist down to size, and see if it helps to make it the worst specialist there is.:rolleyes:

As to your monetary troubles, there's other ways of generating :gold:. You could try to have a couple of dedicated trade cities (preferably coastal ones with the Customs House) that run Merchant specialists. More income could be generated from building the Bank in the rest of your cities, and maybe also Market and Grocer. Try founding a religion and building the associated shrine. Later on, found a corporation and spread it to others.

As to research, I usually don't even try to max out the research slider. I use specialized cities with Scientist specialists, Academies and settled Great Scientists instead. This way all my cities can contribute with generating tax income, as they aren't wasting their :commerce: on generating a measly few :science:. When I rise the tax rate to 50% its time to invest in buildings that generate :gold: in all of my cities, as all three of them give an additional 100% tax income.
 
This is also one of my biggest headaches, so I'm looking forward to a solution...

I believe its a bug that comes from the fact that the developers of BTS thought that the Spy specialist wasn't good or attractive enough, so they made it the specialist with the highest yields of them all. This is why the AI/governor thinks its the best one to have in any given city since it, clearly, is the best specialist. Personally I'll probably end up modding the Spy specialist down to size, and see if it helps to make it the worst specialist there is.:rolleyes:

As to your monetary troubles, there's other ways of generating :gold:. You could try to have a couple of dedicated trade cities (preferably coastal ones with the Customs House) that run Merchant specialists. More income could be generated from building the Bank in the rest of your cities, and maybe also Market and Grocer. Try founding a religion and building the associated shrine. Later on, found a corporation and spread it to others.

As to research, I usually don't even try to max out the research slider. I use specialized cities with Scientist specialists, Academies and settled Great Scientists instead. This way all my cities can contribute with generating tax income, as they aren't wasting their :commerce: on generating a measly few :science:. When I rise the tax rate to 50% its time to invest in buildings that generate :gold: in all of my cities, as all three of them give an additional 100% tax income.
Thanks for the help. So short term, >50 turns to the end of the game, you wanna grab one more tech real quick and ta heck with the long term strategy, do you run merchants or scientists? OR do you run merchants in wal street and scientists in oxford?
Lastly, is there ANY way to make it so that the specialists i select stay selected? or does it just reset whenever it wants? and if it resets whenever it wants, does it reset just before your turn ends or just after your turn starts? (i.e. does it do any good at all to reset my specialists EVERY SINGLE TURN, or does the computer just do what it thinks is best and change them right before i would get the benefits I want?)
 
Hello, this is my first post. I have just installed BTS, download the newest patch and after installed the bat bull & bug. Because i have seen interesting options us civalerts & advanced combat odds. After all this i can play private games and nobles club downloaded games, but i am not able to run games of the month downloaded games or even scenarios or mods that are in the program. Is this normal? What am i doing wrong? Probably i am not installing Well the Bug, Bull & bat software. Do i have to run the three of them? In a certain order?
Ty for your help
forgot to say that the software is original and 100% legal
 
Last night I was having a nice little war against the Vikings, capturing some of their cities and razing others. When I conquered the last Viking city, there was no option to burn it (only the "yes, keep it" and "examine city first" options). Is this normal?
 
Gaah! i want my newly built units to "auto-fortify", is there a command or mod that can help me, it drives me KraZy! especially on large multiplayermaps. :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash:
 
Thanks for the help. So short term, >50 turns to the end of the game, you wanna grab one more tech real quick and ta heck with the long term strategy, do you run merchants or scientists? OR do you run merchants in wal street and scientists in oxford?
I'm not sure I comprehend the first portion of your question, but generally speaking I wouldn't mix specialists. I'd let the Oxford city run Scientists all the time, while the Wall Street city runs Merchants. It would be a viable tactic to use specialists in this fashion, though, even if it could mess up your plans as to what :gp: you're trying to cultivate.

I consider the science/tax/culture/espionage settings (for :commerce:) to be the short term solution to whatever my current priorities are. So, if I really need the next Tech I'll max research until its done, or if I really need the money I'd rise my taxes until I've upgraded or what ever. Also, if I'm expanding rapidly it would take too much time to build both the Courthouse and the Theater in every new/acquired city. In that case I would probably just rise the :culture: percentage temporarily until my borders have expanded everywhere. Or if I lack 1000 some :espionage: points to be able to perform a certain mission, I'd divert :commerce: to this aim temporarily.

But I could of course employ the corresponding specialists in my cities instead - if they are available. (I would probably need to build that Theater first in order to have a Artist specialist, unless I'm running Caste System.) You could try both approaches to see what works best - for you.

Lastly, is there ANY way to make it so that the specialists i select stay selected? or does it just reset whenever it wants? and if it resets whenever it wants, does it reset just before your turn ends or just after your turn starts? (i.e. does it do any good at all to reset my specialists EVERY SINGLE TURN, or does the computer just do what it thinks is best and change them right before i would get the benefits I want?)
I believe that the AI/governor assigns citizen duties between turns, and this happens whenever the city changes size or whenever unhappy citizens become content - and vice versa. You can cycle through your cities with the arrow keys once in the City Screen, or you can use the City/Domestic Advisor (I forget the actual name, but you can get there by pressing F1) to see what your cities are up to. (Click on a city name and you see what specialists are active at the bottom of the screen. Its kind of a hassle to actually change them in this mode, but its doable.)

I do believe that you can influence what the hell the governor is doing with your city, but only to a point. There's no point in telling him to prioritize :science: however, because then you automatically will get a Spy specialist (which actually generates some :science:) when its time to assign another citizen.

I've actually incorporated Great Spies into my overall strategy (for Tech stealing) - because I'm bound to get one sooner or later. The chance isn't that big for say 5 Scientists and 1 Spy (1/6), but when it happens I will have the required Spy units ready to deploy. When I'm not getting the surprise ninja character :rolleyes: the Spy specialist is actually helping me get out more Great Scientists, as the :gp: points generated are valid for whatever type of :gp: you end up generating. My problem is all the non research cities that waste citizens on Spy specialists. I really don't need those :espionage: points since I'm gonna use the inevitable Great Spy to infiltrate the enemy. Duh!

I, lastly, think that you could get some help with these issues by using some mod. I don't use these myself (for whatever reason) but they really sound super!:goodjob: Read some previous posts in this thread for more info on these.
 
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