Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[EMan]

I've often researched Sanitation in upper-level space-games and then watered everything for more scientists. I haven't figured out any way to determine if this actually pays off though. Nor determined how often it would pay off instead of not paying off.

My Rule Of Thumb is: Build Metros if you have to, otherwise just build more cities....It's cheaper & you don't have to deal with pollution.

(Unfortunately), an exception to this Rule applies to most of my own (current) games.....HOF Huge Histographic.......The limit is 512 cities on the map (including the AIs') and you WILL need to have many Metros if you want to Maximize Game Points!

 

[Verarde]

Yes; Green is Grasslands, Brown is Plains.

However, you can only irrigate from fresh water until you get electricity right?

 

[Aabraxan]

Yes, but you can "drag" the water as far as you need to (assuming there is at least one source you can get to), and you can irrigate through a city.

 

[Verarde]

Ah. I didn't know that little trick. Thinking about it, I suppose it would be logical.

 

[Aabraxan]

Keep it in mind if the river's ever on the other side of a hill . . .

 

[CKS]

While you can irrigate through a hill city in conquests, I don't think you can in vanilla. I don't know about PTW.

 

[darski]

While you can irrigate through a hill city in conquests, I don't think you can in vanilla. I don't know about PTW.

I don't agree with this. I used that trick all the time and I only have had C3C for about a yearand a half.

 

[vmxa]

I cannot say for sure, but I can say I never hear of it prior to C3C.

 

[IvanDolvich2]

A city extends water through hill terrain in both Vanilla and PTW, as well as C3C. As a long time vanilla player it is a trick I used often.

 

[Optional]

Does anybody know how the price of an embassy gets determined?

I always thought distance was the most important factor, but my current game contradicts this.
I first bought an embassy with Carthage on the other continent (I wanted to know whether they had made contact with our continent yet) and the price was strangely cheap... 50 gold.
A touch later I bought an embassy with my nextdoor neighbour in Amsterdam and the price was... 61 gold.
I've been counting tiles to see if I had somehow been mistaken in the real distance, but Carthage was about twice as many tiles away as Amsterdam. So how come?

 

[vmxa]

Just a guess, but what about the number of towns each nation had at the time?

 

[Optional]

That seems to have something to do with it. The oldest save I have is of 1375BC, I believe I got the embassy with Carthage the turn before, and at 1375BC Carthage has 8 towns. An embassy with the Netherlands would then have cost me 43 gold, and the Netherlands have 10 towns in that save (I didn't check it at the time, but I can look back).
Then at 1325BC Amsterdam finishes the Temple of Artemis, but that doesn't influence the price of an embassy there, it would still have costet 43 gold.
But at 1250BC an embassy there all of a sudden costs 61 gold, and that's also the moment they're up 12 towns. When they went from 10 to 11 towns the embassy didn't become more expensive, but at 12 towns it costet more.

Hmm... that's interesting. If they become more expensive with more towns, it might be handy to keep an eye on the amount of towns they have, and buy an embassy just before an increase, although I doubt whether I would have the discipline to keep track of these kind of things.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

I always thought it was the size of the capital. I tend not to pay much attention to the prices I'm paying for embassies, but the larger ones usually cost more.

 

[CKS]

The formula for the price of an embassy is given in the espionage mission article in the war academy:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/espionage_missions.php

It depends on population and distance from your empire.

 

[Optional]

Yes, that's it! I browsed the War Academy myself but didn't think of looking at an article about espionage - building an embassy is friendly, espionage unfriendly, so my mind isn't making the connection...
So the modifiers are distance, whether it's a town, city or metropole, and pop.
That makes sense; Carthage was size 2, but Amsterdam was size 7, and the embassy had become more expensive when it grew to city-size.

 

[Hellfiredoom]

After completing a game, on the Historical Ranking screen (where the barbarian hits the "carnival strength tester-thingy") the highest I ever get is "Ruler the Magnificent", which is one level below the top ranking. So what is the top ranking called?

 

[darski]

After completing a game, on the Historical Ranking screen (where the barbarian hits the "carnival strength tester-thingy") the highest I ever get is "Ruler the Magnificent", which is one level below the top ranking. So what is the top ranking called?

Magnificent is the top ranking.

 

[vmxa]

It's in the Civilization III\Text\labels.txt file
History will remember you as:
the Worthless
the Pathetic
the Foolish
the Meek
the Cruel
the Terrible
the Fair
the Strong
the Clever
the Conqueror
the Lion-Hearted
the Great
the Wise
the Magnificent

 

[Hellfiredoom]

It looks like there is space for one more ranking in the screen which didn't make sense to me... after winning a game, what could be better?

Thanks for the responses guys!

 

[Moosezilla]

How about Lucky?