Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lanzelot]

Founding on an iron hill also gives 6 shields. (And a BG with furs probably as well?!)
But then: the extra shields from coal, iron, furs, etc also already apply at size 7-12 and also for non-industrial civs, so nothing special here.

 

[Takhisis]

I myself would leave the hill with iron unbuilt so that you can squeeze extra shields out of it with mining and (eventually) railroads.

 

[darski]

can someone explain why civs will do anything they can to avoid making money and why they will give up all the best for a meager slice of bread. My guv is supposed to emphasize production. I have noticed they will give up [2 shields, 2 food and 2 trade] for nothing but [2 food] when I take a worker or settler. it is so annoying if I don't spot the cheating and don't know how many turns are wasted to this. On the money bit, I can't tell you how many times I find them working an empty tile when there are plenty of developed tiles to choose from - should I remove the emphasize production or something.

 

[vmxa]

Hi darski, good to see you still playing. You know that the gov is not to be trusted, sad and more work for the player. No idea why they make silly moves, but they will.

 

[Takhisis]

Two words, darski: Artificial Idiot.

 

[darski]

that's what I thought - thanks guys

 

[EMan]

Maximizing Score for Histographic Victories:

If my city has a Sea tile within its borders, I'm assuming I score one (Territory) Base Point for that tile, even if it's 3 tiles from my City Center?

Bad Assumption as it turns out!
I'm in the middle of a level 5 (Emperor) HOF Histographic (high-scoring) game, so wanted to know the scoring potential of the Sea tiles, so I could place my coastal cities accordingly. Since no one (Civ 3-active) seems to know the answer to my question, I set up a test scenario to find out for myself. Here's what I found out:
Sea Tiles - First, the Bad News:
They DON'T score Territory Points.

Now, the Good News:
They DON'T count towards the Domination Limit and,
They score 1 or 2 Happiness Points depending on whether you place a Happy/Content/Specialist citizen on their tile.

 

[Takhisis]

Oh, right, domination victories are always about land, not water tiles. I'm not sure how lakes (landlocked Coast tiles) are counted, though.

btw how can you place a Specialist on a tile?

 

[EMan]

I'm pretty sure a landlocked coastal tile, for scoring purposes, is treated the same as any healthy land tile or sea tile-bordering coastal tile for that matter.

...btw how can you place a Specialist on a tile?

Good Point..........Stand corrected: Should be Content or Happy citizen. (I was just thinking that if you had an Unhappy citizen on a Sea tile scoring 0 points, you could turn it into a Specialist and score 1 point).

 

[Lanzelot]

This had already been confirmed by the time CivAssist came out: coastal tiles (which includes lakes) count towards the domination limit, sea and ocean tiles don't. (That's the way CA calculates the dom tile count, and I have never seen it wrong.)

 

[EMan]

The question that nobody answered until I tested it was: Do Sea Tiles within your city's borders score as 1 Base Territory Point or 0? The answer is 0.

But, logically you're right: If the Sea tiles don't count towards the Domination Limit, why would they score Territory points, even though they can provide Happiness points!?

The net-net is that, if you're going for a High Score win (Histographic), build cities on the coast to take advantage of the "free" Happiness points provided by Sea tiles. (I.e. Scorewise: 2 Grassland tiles equate to 2 Coastal tiles + 1 Sea tile).

 

[SupTo]

Really stupid question but I couldn't find anything on it.. Is there a way to show tile yields like in future titles?

 

[tjs282]

Really stupid question but I couldn't find anything on it.. Is there a way to show tile yields like in future titles?

Not a stupid question if you don't know where to look.

Right-click on any tile, then click on 'Terrain Info' in the pop-up menu. This will show you current yield for that tile, taking into account any resource-bonuses, tile-improvements such as irrigation, roads, etc. and current government nerfs/buffs (Despot-penalty, or Rep/Dem commerce-bonus).

Or look in the Civilopedia (click the 'Aa' button in the upper-left corner), which (via a sub-menu) lists all the terrain types, how each can be improved, and what that improvement will provide.

And also...

Welcome to CivFanatics!

 

[Takhisis]

Welcome! Remember that the info you get is what you would get from that tile if you exploited it in ideal conditions, with the resources and improvements your current technological level allows you to use.
It doesn't take into account, for example, how corruption and waste would affect the total yield of a city. For that you have to go into the city screen.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I have never moved my capital before, but am thinking about it now, at least in the abstract. How does one determine whether that is appropriate, and what would be the criteria for picking a new capital?

 

[Takhisis]

I'd suggest moving your capital to Kaminaljuyú or Lagartero so that it's at the centre of your domains.

You're building a wonder so if the race is tight I'd suggest waiting until the wonder's completion is assured.
Since you have few cities a palace should not be very expensive to build… depending on how (much) you plan to expand it might be better to just wait until you can build a forbidden palace at the other end of the continent instead.

Also, you're about to get Feudalism so Sun Tzu's Art of War could be buildable with the Golden Age… don't waste your GA shields on units if you can help it.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I'd suggest moving your capital to Kaminaljuyú or Lagartero so that it's at the centre of your domains.

Those seem like they are more remote - except for building the Forbidden Palace, which I already put in Tikal. Oops. But perhaps I could move the capital to a more remote location, like Yaxchilan?

You're building a wonder so if the race is tight I'd suggest waiting until the wonder's completion is assured.

No one else is building the Temple of Artemis (I usually don't, either), so that is not a problem.

Since you have few cities a palace should not be very expensive to build…

I know, I did not pack them very tightly, but more so than I have previously ... I used to just put them where convenient, which I tried to do this time but as close together as I could. Question about that, since I have a space to put one: if I build a city right next to a volcano, can I get nailed if it erupts?

Also, you're about to get Feudalism so Sun Tzu's Art of War could be buildable with the Golden Age… don't waste your GA shields on units if you can help it.

True, and I plan to build it right away. Good advice on units, though ... I should switch over to some useful buildings at this point.

 

[tjs282]

Those seem like they are more remote - except for building the Forbidden Palace, which I already put in Tikal. Oops. But perhaps I could move the capital to a more remote location, like Yaxchilan?

Why would you move your capital even further away from (what could become) your core towns? To minimise distance corruption in as many towns as possible, you want your Palace to be as central as possible...

Question about that, since I have a space to put one: if I build a city right next to a volcano, can I get nailed if it erupts?

Yup. To be 100% safe from eruptions, you should leave at least one free tile between your town and a volcano.

Although the AI doesn't realise this (of course). I remember seeing at least one 'interesting screenshot' in that thread (maybe one of @Kirejara's?), where it was pretty clear that an AI-capital (the Byzzies?) had got blasted in the early game, since their current capital was not the first city in that Civ's list, and there was a suspicious pile of ruins directly under a nearby volcano...

That said, IIRC, eruptions are 'scheduled' (in the .biq) at a probability of approx. 1 per 6000 years anyway, so most volcanoes will only blow once per game each on average — and after that, it's likely relatively safe to build next to them...

True, and I plan to build it right away. Good advice on units, though ... I should switch over to some useful buildings at this point.

What VC are you going for, in this game? 100K Culture?

But if rather Conq/Dom, maybe consider just switching the ToA-build over to SunTzu...

 

[justanick]

With the VP in Tikal there is little incentive to move the palace. I would worry more about basic things such as the the lack of workers. The Maya are a great civ, but their UU is very bad(essentially a downgrade of the Swordsmen) except for triggering the GA early, which at least under some circumstances is a good thing. Ideally the workers are recruited and have completed improving most tiles before the GA starts.

 

[Takhisis]

Those seem like they are more remote - except for building the Forbidden Palace, which I already put in Tikal. Oops. But perhaps I could move the capital to a more remote location, like Yaxchilan?

Nah. If you're staying in the same continent and don't plan to expand overseas then you should consider moving the capital to Carthage.

No one else is building the Temple of Artemis (I usually don't, either), so that is not a problem.

Oh, good.

I know, I did not pack them very tightly, but more so than I have previously ... I used to just put them where convenient, which I tried to do this time but as close together as I could. Question about that, since I have a space to put one: if I build a city right next to a volcano, can I get nailed if it erupts?

It will get nailed. And those tiles would be better employed as part of Palenque and Tikal's urban area in any case.

True, and I plan to build it right away. Good advice on units, though ... I should switch over to some useful buildings at this point.

Definitely. Make sure to make the AI go to war against each other rather than you until you're ready.