Quick Questions and Answers

[clearbeard]

i'm having an issue that i'm hoping can be realized by you pro's.

sometimes when i give orders to my builders to build a road, they cancel the project the next turn. i can't tell why this is happening. i thought it might have to do with one of my military units passing through the hex but then it seemed to happen also without any traversing through. enemy units within close proximity have seemed to cause this in the past but they are far away currently? not sure how far they have to be and if this is even the cause for sure.

i was going to post a screen shot but it won't let me take one.

thanks in advance! glad you guys are working toward a FAQ, i didn't realize how long it took for it to come together. appreciate it.

Sometimes it seems if you click on a worker, it will cancel his work order, whether you do anything else with him or not. The detection range for enemy units canceling work orders is also larger than you might expect (3 or 4 hexes at least). It may not even require the unit to be visible, so an enemy ship sailing by might do it.

You should be able to take screenshots from the Steam overlay menu (shift-tab). F12 is the default key from there.

 

[robal1991]

What is the 'zone of control' and how does it affect enemy's movement?

 

[Cicerosaurus]

If you have an enemy unit within a few hexes it will make a worker cancel an action and give it the opportunity to escape (this is an effort I believe to enable your worker to avoid capture).

However workers can stop an action for other reasons. If you are constructing a trade route to a town, if another worker, Great Person, or AI unit stops movement on the ordained path, the worker will cancel the action. It will not have an alternative route. Pretty annoying.

 

[ShahJahanII]

What is the 'zone of control' and how does it affect enemy's movement?

In addition to the above post, if you move from a tile adjacent to an enemy unit directly to another tile adjacent to an enemy unit, you loose all movement points for that unit.

 

[Optional]

What is the 'zone of control' and how does it affect enemy's movement?

Every unit and every city has it. Enemies suffer a movement penalty when they move from one adjacent hex to another (so not towards or away from an adjacent hex).
What the movement penalty exactly is I don't know. A 2 unit becomes a 1 unit, that's easy, but with units that have more movement you would have to know the exact formula to know how it affects them. Also you will come across cases where there's double adjacancy, or a city with a unit in it; stacking movement penalty or not?
On water it also works, but I've noticed naval units do not provide zone of control to land units or vice versa.
Sorry for the crosspost, SjahJahanII.

 

[clearbeard]

Every unit and every city has it. Enemies suffer a movement penalty when they move from one adjacent hex to another (so not towards or away from an adjacent hex).
What the movement penalty exactly is I don't know. A 2 unit becomes a 1 unit, that's easy, but with units that have more movement you would have to know the exact formula to know how it affects them. Also you will come across cases where there's double adjacancy, or a city with a unit in it; stacking movement penalty or not?
On water it also works, but I've noticed naval units do not provide zone of control to land units or vice versa.
Sorry for the crosspost, SjahJahanII.

Zone of control movement costs ALL of a unit's movement, regardless of how many it has. As far as I know, it's only for movement adjacent to a given unit or city. Moving from a hex next to one enemy unit to a hex next to a different enemy unit has no penalty.

 

[Optional]

Zone of control movement costs ALL of a unit's movement, regardless of how many it has.

Thanks for clearing that up! Also to ShahJahan. I hadn't discovered that myself yet.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Thanks for clearing that up! Also to ShahJahan. I hadn't discovered that myself yet.

Yes, even Panzers are affected by the ZOW.

 

[degini]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I notice in the LPs many of the "pros" do, most of the AIs stay Friendly throughout the game. When I am playing, regardless of what I do they tend to get to guarded pretty fast and stay there.

What can/should I do to keep them happier?

 

[Cicerosaurus]

They seem to get pretty cross with me quickly. It depends (as usual) on a number of issues. With a standard map I find the AI's on a separate continent tend to a lot friendlier. On the same continent those further away are the same- proximity causes problems.


Also, don't be shy about giving luxuries if asked if you have plenty. (I won't give gold). And keep as big a military as you can afford in the context of your play. I'm not sure if the AI takes notice but I always update or replace obsolete unites as soon as I can- once you are attacked you may not have time.

 

[smallfish]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I notice in the LPs many of the "pros" do, most of the AIs stay Friendly throughout the game. When I am playing, regardless of what I do they tend to get to guarded pretty fast and stay there.

What can/should I do to keep them happier?

Well, the first thing is to keep in mind, as Cicerosaurus said, the AI loves their lebensraum (I wonder if they're all Hitler in disguise or something) and looks at your civ like some untermensch in need of the liberating light of their OWN civilization. Some of them are just damn savvy enough to keep this train of thought hidden (ie. Napoleon and Hiawatha), but they will eventually show off all their true colors as the game progresses.

War is inevitable, the best thing one can do is to repeatedly check the diplomacy status for any changes in the AI's line of thought, and always trade with them. On full friendly, they will accept "Open Borders = 50 g, various lux items = 240 g, 4 strategic resources = 180 g"; anything less, and you can be certain that they are up to no good and should start preparing immediately (if you haven't).

 

[Optional]

On full friendly, they will accept "Open Borders = 50 g, various lux items = 240 g, 4 strategic resources = 180 g"; anything less, and you can be certain that they are up to no good and should start preparing immediately (if you haven't).

Or if they're shelling out more gold for Open Borders, that's also suspicious.

I haven't watched those Let's Play videos, but it's unusual that most AI's will stay friendly with you throughout the game. They covet your lands, they're building the same wonders, they're competing for the same city states, they want to win the game, etc. Anything can make them upset, and it can't always be helped.

Also, don't be shy about giving luxuries if asked if you have plenty.

They will only ask for things if you have signed a declaration of friendship, and signing those is often not a good choice; it deteriorates the relationships with civs that or on a bad footing with the civ you are friends with.
Also, if you have luxuries for spare, see if you can sell them first. Selling lux is a good way of making money.

 

[smallfish]

Or if they're shelling out more gold for Open Borders, that's also suspicious.

I've never seen them go more than 50g - its always lower if something is amiss.

Maybe this was prepatch old civ

 

[Optional]

I've only had it once that I was offered more, and I forgot the exact amount or the exact circumstances. Maybe they had troops already very close to my borders, or a settler they were desperate to send through my lands.

 

[smallfish]

I've only had it once that I was offered more, and I forgot the exact amount or the exact circumstances. Maybe they had troops already very close to my borders, or a settler they were desperate to send through my lands.

Was it be before the latest patch?

I distinctly remember before August that selling lux to a friendly civ would net you up to 300g (now its 240), for instance.

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: The question by whyspr is now here.

 

[Maurice007]

Every time i want to play a game on the internet, i find no open game available and if i create one i usually have to wait 20-30 minutes for someone to join. Is the Civ5 community that poor? I remember that years ago when i used to play Civ4 there were around 20 open games all the time and i couldn't decide which one to join.
How do you guys play over the internet? Is there a chatroom or something where Civ5 players meet and agree to start a game? Because as far as i can see, the online Civ5 is pretty much dead.

 

[anandus]

Every time i want to play a game on the internet, i find no open game available and if i create one i usually have to wait 20-30 minutes for someone to join. Is the Civ5 community that poor? I remember that years ago when i used to play Civ4 there were around 20 open games all the time and i couldn't decide which one to join.
How do you guys play over the internet? Is there a chatroom or something where Civ5 players meet and agree to start a game? Because as far as i can see, the online Civ5 is pretty much dead.

I believe it matters what Steam-server you use (New York is a good one, I heard), also joining Civ5-groups in Steam will also make it easier to find games, I think

 

[Carl5872]

I think part of it is that CiV really isnt designed well for multiplayer games with strangers. Even if you play on quick settings, the game will most likely take hours, which few people will have to play in one sitting. Even if you save the odds of coordinating everyones' schedules to continue is very remote.

I enjoy marathon and only play with people I know personally and usually in the same room but on different computers.

One solution (if it doesn't already exist) would to start a thread devoted purely to scheduling civ games. You could post what times youre available and the settings you prefer.

 

[anandus]

One solution (if it doesn't already exist) would to start a thread devoted purely to scheduling civ games. You could post what times youre available and the settings you prefer.

You can do that in the Multiplayer forums, I believe