Saltpeter discovered

[asbestosman]

WTH?

 

[GeoModder]

Congratulations, you can start gunpowder production.

 

[asbestosman]

Has anyone seen this before? I'm confused.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Its a random event having something to do with muskets (iirc), there's list of the events available somewhere here.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Event41
Saltpeter
Prereq: own 4 forest hill tiles AND GUNPOWDER
Obsolete: None
Active/Weight: 90/20
Result:
1.tiles gain +1 commerce

From the Random Events list.

 

[asbestosman]

Thanks. Weird that it didn't give me a popup notification.

 

[Dryhad]

Thanks. Weird that it didn't give me a popup notification.

Not if you weren't the one it triggered for. Probably some AI received the event.

 

[mystikmind2005]

Salt peter was a strategic resource in civ3 needed for building units like musketmen. It was probably a little bit too important a resource to ever afford missing out on so they got rid of it.

 

[Tibur753]

It wasn't that important in civ3 that it could lose the game for you if you didn't have it. Riflemen and everything past them didn't need it. I guess it might make a bigger difference in civ4 though, with riflemen farther up on the tech tree.

Anyway, back to the random event, why does it give the tiles a commerce bonus. Shouldn't it give a few muskets and be obsolete with rifling?

 

[Lockesdonkey]

I dunno. The stuff is good for other thing, though they would seem to indicate a food bonus: it's an ingredient in some fertilizers and was used in the Middle Ages for meat preservation (salting).

 

[Tibur753]

I dunno. The stuff is good for other thing, though they would seem to indicate a food bonus: it's an ingredient in some fertilizers and was used in the Middle Ages for meat preservation (salting).

Thing is that you need gunpowder for the Event to occur. Gunpowder is a renaissance tech.

 

[mystikmind2005]

Thing is that you need gunpowder for the Event to occur. Gunpowder is a renaissance tech.

I thought the Chineese discovered gunpowder well before that? Sure, they didn't realise its potential as a weapon but they did discover it all the same.

 

[Tibur753]

The Chinese researched gunpowder and entered the renaissance era centuries before the European Renaissance. But of course that wasn't called the Chinese Renaissance. The game is just based on European society. (This is why there are medieval and renaissance eras. They weren't called that anywhere other then Europe.)

 

[mystikmind2005]

The Chinese researched gunpowder and entered the renaissance era centuries before the European Renaissance. But of course that wasn't called the Chinese Renaissance. The game is just based on European society. (This is why there are medieval and renaissance eras. They weren't called that anywhere other then Europe.)

Interesting, but the Chineese did not undergo a period of rapid change that you could call a 'Renaissance' did they?

 

[Tibur753]

Wikipedia says that the Chinese invented gunpowder in the mid 9th century AD but knew about saltpeter 800 years earlier.

As for the Chinese renaissance, I don't think that China had anything similar to Europe's renaissance, but I'm not sure. I searched "Chinese Renaissance" on Wikipedia and nothing came up. Strangely enough, the 5th or 6th result was "Music for Civilization 4"

 

[IamJohn]

The Chinese researched gunpowder and entered the renaissance era centuries before the European Renaissance. But of course that wasn't called the Chinese Renaissance. The game is just based on European society. (This is why there are medieval and renaissance eras. They weren't called that anywhere other then Europe.)

The chinese discovered it, but never really did anything besides make some machines that made lots of noise and sometimes kill people. Europeans, after starting behind were the ones who really started making more then just rockets with them, so they're the ones credited with it. *shrug*

Sometimes it's less that you discovered something and more of actually using it for more then what you can think of at first glance.

 

[mystikmind2005]

Wikipedia says that the Chinese invented gunpowder in the mid 9th century AD but knew about saltpeter 800 years earlier.

As for the Chinese renaissance, I don't think that China had anything similar to Europe's renaissance, but I'm not sure. I searched "Chinese Renaissance" on Wikipedia and nothing came up. Strangely enough, the 5th or 6th result was "Music for Civilization 4"

Thanks for looking that up

 

[zenspiderz]

The chinese as mentioned did invent (discover?) gunpowder AND they DID use it for military purposes. Rockets (unguided!) and grenades (big as a football (soccar ball to you yanks)). They launched the grenades using catapults and came in three types (poison gas, incendary and your standard explosive.)

They also made fireworks with the stuff which is probably its most civilised use.

BTW the arabs were the first to make torpedoes and cannon using the gunpowder formula learnt from the chinese via the silk road which went through arabia.

& BTW the egyptians were the first to make and use hand-cannons (muskets).

 

[Eclipse-X010]

The Chinese Navy also used gunpowder to create incendiary explosives, along with early forms of cannons, celebratory (but still lethal) fireworks, and yes, they had grenadiers when the Europeans were still beating each other up with swords and clubs

I dunno. The stuff is good for other thing, though they would seem to indicate a food bonus: it's an ingredient in some fertilizers and was used in the Middle Ages for meat preservation (salting).

Yes, use a gunpowder ingredient to preserve your meat, very smart idea. New Game Unit: Exploding steak (Seriously though it's kind of strange that something used as a spice and a preservative can also be used as a lethal weapon)

 

[buffalo6542]

Rockets (unguided!)

Mulan is a prime example of military use.