Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Vuldacon]

...and IF you do add or change the City Names, Do NOT have any spaces between the Names on the List.

 

[RobS]

Thanks for your answers.
Here's a question about a situation I've actually never experienced, at least not as the defender.
Lets say I have a transport ship loaded with a couple of land units in a port city. There are no other land units in the port city defending it. Now lets say that port city is attacked. Will my units that are loaded aboard the transport automatically disembark and defend the city, or will the transport with the units on board simply be sunk? I think I know the answer, namely, that they will be sunk, but can someone affirm it?
20 years of playing this game and I don't remember this ever happening to me as the defender. It would be pretty careless to do that anyway as a hooman against the AI.

 

[RobS]

Not a Folder but the City Names are in the Biq.
Open the Biq and go to Civilizations. There click on the Civilization: you want then you can read the City Names: on the Middle Left side.
City Names are listed in the Order that they will be named when Built in the Game.

Biq? Don't know what that is and don't see anything remotely looking like it.

 

[r16]

when in port units act as normal units , will take their turn in defending and providing support fire as usual . When ı invade another continent , where Als have spent 200 turns in peace between themselves but at war me , there will be 100s of units attacking the first town ı captured , meaning ı also need 100s . They will clutter the screen , so ı can leave many on board the ships , but ı would say fortifying units in the normal way makes them heal faster , loading a unit into ship must be the equal of pressing the spacebar , leaving the unit to slowly heal .

 

[tjs282]

20 years of playing this game and I don't remember this ever happening to me as the defender. It would be pretty careless to do that anyway as a hooman against the AI.

Embarked units will not necessarily be visible before you attack the town (e.g if there is a Worker hiding in the town, but he is not on a boat, then after all the non-embarked units are dead, the Worker will show as the top unit), but they will defend it [EDIT:] if they can!

i.e. all land-units with a D-value >0, even if on a boat in port, will defend against an attack on that town by enemy land-units.

Air-units on a docked Carrier (if set for Air Superiority at least 2 turns earlier, and with "Cancel Orders for friendly/enemy unit" turned off in the Preferences) may defend against Bomber-attacks (per the RNG) — but if the town is captured, they will be destroyed along with the Carrier.

Biq? Don't know what that is and don't see anything remotely looking like it.

The .biq is the ruleset file.

The one for Conquests/Complete is called (predictably enough) "Conquests.biq", and you can find it in the folder ../CivilizationIII/Conquests/

However, you can only see the details stored in a .biq file, by opening it in the/a Conquests Editor. The standard-issue Firaxis Editor*, which you can find in the same folder, is called Civ3ConquestsEdit.exe. When you start that program, go to the "Scenario" pull-down menu, choose "Custom Rules", and click through the "Changing the rules may break your game!" warning.

(Don't worry, the Editor automatically names your 'new' .biq as "Untitled.biq" so you can mess about with it to your heart's content, without any danger of over-writing anything vital).

The Untitled.biq -- initially -- contains all the standard Conquests rules and settings -- including the city-lists for each Civilization (Menu: Rules -> Edit -> Civilizations).

*There are also several homebrew Civ3-Editors available on Civfanatics. The most well-curated is probably the one written by @Quintillus, which allows additional functionality over the Firaxis Editor.

 

[Vuldacon]

As I remember, if a city is attacked with no one inside to defend, it will be captured. As for the Defending Units in the ship, they would then have to disembark to try to regain the city.
In other words, the Fighting Units on the Ship are Not there to Defend so the City will be captured. This is because it is Not the Turn for the Defenders on the Ship... Good Luck Next Turn and lesson learned to not leave your Cities Undefended

But you said the Ship is in Port so in that case the Defenders in the Ship should Defend.

 

[RobS]

As I remember, if a city is attacked with no one inside to defend, it will be captured. As for the Defending Units in the ship, they would then have to disembark to try to regain the city.
In other words, the Fighting Units on the Ship are Not there to Defend so the City will be captured. This is because it is Not the Turn for the Defenders on the Ship... Good Luck Next Turn and lesson learned to not leave your Cities Undefended

But you said the Ship is in Port so in that case the Defenders in the Ship should Defend.

I think I'll have to test this sometime when the opportunity arises, and I remember to save the game and do it, because you seem to be contradicting yourself. First you say that fighting units on a ship will not defend and the city will be captured, then you say "the Ship is in Port so in that case the Defenders in the Ship should Defend".
Should?

It seems to me that since all of a defender's ships (and planes) that might be in a (port) city are destroyed upon the city's capture, that any land units that may have been aboard transport ships would also be simply destroyed, although I don't think there would be a separate graphic for this, just the destruction of the transport. I'm guessing the same would happen with an aircraft carrier that was loaded with fighter planes.

 

[Vuldacon]

RobS... Like you I have not encountered this exact situation and I have been surprised before with what can happen in the Civ Games.

My Guess is the City would be captured and the Ship Sunk, Defenders Dead. That said, I do not know the programming that was done regarding that situation with a City.

 

[tjs282]

That said, I do not know the programming that was done regarding that situation with a City.

I have seen the situation described above, and more than once.

I have attacked what appeared to be an undefended city (or only a Worker visible), and found my units going up against AI-Knights or -Cavs that were — presumably — on AI-boats that hadn't left port yet (for whatever reason).

IIRC, I might even have posted such a situtation in the "Interesting Screenshots" thread at one point, but if so it would likely have been some years back now...

*Rummages*

Ah yes, here it is...

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/interesting-screenshots.192414/page-209#post-13819480

 

[Vuldacon]

tjs282... Good to know. I suspected the AI would Defend regardless of being in a Ship or Transport but I personally think the City and Ship full of Units should be Captured/Destroyed

 

[r16]

must be something that wrecks the land transport idea . Get an Ent , load two hobbits in it , let it move . An orc attacks on the way , ent crushes the orc , and yes , you will have to load the hobbits back .

as a troll who has a terribly boring life , ı invade a city , the Al attacks me , only "seeing" my 6-1-1 composite bowman ... Here comes a stack of 10 warriors and above and uh , suddenly Balrog appears , at 25-20-1 ... At each and every game ı play , ı can see that ... And happens to the Al , ı kill everyone , and the top graphic is a ship and ı still can't occupy it . lf ı can't kill the ship's load , the ship graphic will still remain , as if defending the town . Might have changed between Vanilla and Conquests , but ı would imagine it should be happening to everyone ?

 

[vmxa]

Happens all the time, had several today. Ship graphic, after an attack and I do not capture the town. I then know the ship has unit(s), that I have to kill.

 

[RobS]

What's the point of Coastal Fortresses?
I never build them because they apparently don't do anything. I'm pretty sure I've seen ships from Civs that I was at war with sail right past my Coastal Fortresses without anything happening.
I think I asked this question once before, some years ago, so perhaps many pages back. I read through the FAQ and it has nothing on Coastal Fortresses.
How do they work?

 

[Civinator]

What's the point of Coastal Fortresses?...How do they work?

Per example here is an explanation done by Lanzelot: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/most-pointless-useless-things.542239/page-2#post-13663047

It does not work by design... Apparently it fires at a "passing" ship, when the ship moves from one tile adjacent to the town to another tile adjacent to the town. But the AI has been programmed to move straight to your town, bombard and then retreat straight back again. Consequently the Coastal Fortress never fires...

There is to add:

If a ship really moves from one adjacent coastal tile of a city to another, the Coastal Fortress works like a unit in a fortress or with a 'Zone of Control' (ZOC) and automatically fires a shot on that ship with a bombard value of 8. As there is no animation of that action, it can only be noticed by looking at the health bar of the moving ship.

As that building has a defense against sea bombardments of 8, it is always the first building in a coastal city that is hit by such a bombardment.

All in all the unmodded Coastal Fortress is considered the most superfluos building in Civ 3. At least the maintenance costs of that building in C3C were reduced to zero.

 

[RobS]

Thanks for those clarifications, Civinator.
Therefore I suppose a Coastal Fortress could be useful if it's positioned next to a narrow, one-tile-wide strait where enemy ships would have to pass in order to get from one side to the other. In that case, I half-way suspect that the AI simply wouldn't move through there, although simply denying enemy ships to pass could be useful in itself.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I wonder if a CF would not be at least useful in being the first thing bombed by the enemy (or at least enemy ships), thus being a cheap layer of protection?

 

[r16]

must be a ship that can't leave harbour so that it will soak up some bombardment from enemy fleets . Nobody would bother with replacing and wasting at least a turn everytime it gets destroyed as a building . ı haven't have had one in years , so this is how ı remember it ...

 

[Takhisis]

Thanks for those clarifications, Civinator.
Therefore I suppose a Coastal Fortress could be useful if it's positioned next to a narrow, one-tile-wide strait where enemy ships would have to pass in order to get from one side to the other. In that case, I half-way suspect that the AI simply wouldn't move through there, although simply denying enemy ships to pass could be useful in itself.

Pffft. AI units will move through a ZoC on land if it's the cheapest in terms of MPs. I discovered that recently in my ongoing Korean game, the one in which I just built stacks of Hwach'a doom…

 

[timerover51]

I view it as another building that I can customize, primarily in terms of increasing the seacoast city production of food, shields, and money. My reasoning is that the fortress increases the secutiry of the port, and therefore makes trading safer and more desirable. A fortress will also increase the population of a port, becaue of the garrison, making for more comsumers.

 

[Takhisis]

It can also be detrimental to your happiness count if the garrison is oppressive, or beneficial if the garrison is a ‘valued member of the community’™.