Some (advanced?) assorted questions..

[Alan McG]

Hi folks,

I have a bunch of unrelated open questions I was hoping someone would be able to answer! Here we go:

1. -What’s the range for wind/solar farms? I’ve found that constructing them outside of actual city range will still give my city power, and I get to save a tile for city projects.

2. Why do golden ages sometimes give you 3 bonus effects instead of 1? 

3. Do you consume coal only by having a coal mine? I try to prevent climatic change by severely limiting the number of units that will use coal (like battleships). But my consumption always seems to be quite on the high side, higher than everyone else’s.

4. Why do monuments give you 2 slots for epics, but heroes only give one the first time they die?

5. Why does sending a trade route with Portugal and/or Owls of Minerva expands city states borders sometimes? I don’t know if this is a Portugal thing or an Owls thing, but I’ve noticed it frequently

6. Is there any way of controlling the resolutions in the world council? To me the best resolution is the border control treaty as I can culture bomb other players and city states, but many times during a game never get that possibility once - and sometimes I get it several times 

7. Happiness and luxury resources.. Is there any way to see which luxury resource a city is using? For example there is this great merchant/admiral that grants you a copy of a resource in your capital city; but what happens if a different city already had that resource? 

8. Using power: is this an ‘all or nothing’ situation? So if a city needs 10 power and only has 8, are all buildings that could use power just not performing? Or some of them and some won’t (which would seem logical to me)?

Thanks!

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

I'll try to answer some of these to the best of my ability.

Why do golden ages sometimes give you 3 bonus effects instead of 1?



The Golden Ages that give three bonuses instead of one are called Heroic Ages. A Heroic Age is when you enter a Golden Age immediately after you were in a Dark Age.

Using power: is this an ‘all or nothing’ situation? So if a city needs 10 power and only has 8, are all buildings that could use power just not performing? Or some of them and some won’t (which would seem logical to me)?

They'll still work, they just don't give the Bonuses they normally would if you do have enough power.

 

[Alan McG]

Thanks man. On this one:

They'll still work, they just don't give the Bonuses they normally would if you do have enough power.

Yeah, I get they work without the bonuses, my question was.. would *some* buildings still get bonuses? Say for example I my city has a research lab, a supermarket, and a broadcast station at their respective centers. I don't have enough power for all of them, but I do have enough for the supermarket and broadcast station (for example); would I still get bonuses on those, or is the 'powered' status just a binary parameter

 

[Kaan Boztepe]

Do you consume coal only by having a coal mine? I try to prevent climatic change by severely limiting the number of units that will use coal (like battleships). But my consumption always seems to be quite on the high side, higher than everyone else’s

if you have coal stored or have coal production that coal is vailable for use in your buildings like powerplants and units like ironclads battleships etc

Why do monuments give you 2 slots for epics, but heroes only give one the first time they die?

there are multiple ways to gain relics not only deaths of heroes. more slots are always welcome

Why does sending a trade route with Portugal and/or Owls of Minerva expands city states borders sometimes? I don’t know if this is a Portugal thing or an Owls thing, but I’ve noticed it frequently

if a city state increases population it will increase its territory. the city state will increase its population if any player , AI or player , will complete its quests. i assume you are sending a trade route to a citys state when its quest is to receive a trade route

Is there any way of controlling the resolutions in the world council? To me the best resolution is the border control treaty as I can culture bomb other players and city states, but many times during a game never get that possibility once - and sometimes I get it several times

unfortunately i am unaware of a solution to this . i nelieve it is random

Happiness and luxury resources.. Is there any way to see which luxury resource a city is using? For example there is this great merchant/admiral that grants you a copy of a resource in your capital city; but what happens if a different city already had that resource?

the game will automatically assign the various available luxuries you have to the cities in need. each copy of the resource is good for 4 cities so if you have more cities you will need more copies of the same luxury

I do have enough for the supermarket and broadcast station (for example); would I still get bonuses on those, or is the 'powered' status just a binary parameter

just binary i am afraid. the game does not priotize a single building automatically to have "some" bonuses. it is assumed the whole city has continous brownouts and nothing works as intended

 

[kaspergm]

1. What’s the range for wind/solar farms? I’ve found that constructing them outside of actual city range will still give my city power, and I get to save a tile for city projects.


Afaik. any tile within city borders applies the power, like you say, so max range would be 5, given that's max distance a city can acquire tiles.

3. Do you consume coal only by having a coal mine? I try to prevent climatic change by severely limiting the number of units that will use coal (like battleships). But my consumption always seems to be quite on the high side, higher than everyone else’s.


Having the coal mine itself will not cause consumption, nor will it cause climate imprint. Any building that uses coal power (as supplied by the coal power plant) or any unit that runs on coal (beware those ironclads and battleships (yes, they run on coal!?)) will leave a climate imprint, even when the units are sitting idle.

5.Why does sending a trade route with Portugal and/or Owls of Minerva expands city states borders sometimes? I don’t know if this is a Portugal thing or an Owls thing, but I’ve noticed it frequently


I'm not aware of any such effect. The only link between borders and trade routes I know of is Cree civ ability.

6. Is there any way of controlling the resolutions in the world council? To me the best resolution is the border control treaty as I can culture bomb other players and city states, but many times during a game never get that possibility once - and sometimes I get it several times.


No, it's random.

7. Happiness and luxury resources.. Is there any way to see which luxury resource a city is using? For example there is this great merchant/admiral that grants you a copy of a resource in your capital city; but what happens if a different city already had that resource?

Not sure if there's a way to see, but pretty sure that the GP ability works by simply giving that resource to your capital as if it was working it. I think that means you can sell off a copy if you have another city already with access to this resource. The "extra" resource from the GP will, however, not allow you to build an industry or corporation if you run that mode. Overall, this GP ability is a very bad ability, particularly on the admiral, giving that the number of different sea resources are normally very few and scattered around the entire map, making them easily accessible by normal means.

 

[Linklite]

1. No range, it provides power to the city it belongs to.
2. If you go from a Dark Age to a Golden Age, you get a Geroic Age instead, which gives you the wxrea dedications. Hence some intentionally go for DA - you get an additional dedication overall.
3. Shouldn't do. Have you compared what they're doing to you? I find the AI is seriously lagging by that time if the game and rarely has coal.
4. I don't know.
5. Shouldn't do. There's no mentioned trait for this. I've never noticed. Bug or coincidence?
6. I'm unaware of any mechanic for this. I strongly suspect not. At least, not without modding.
7. Luxuries are generally automatically assigned to the city that needs it the most. I think there is a report screen for this, but I'll have to check and get back to you later.

 

[Aurelesk]

1- Wind and Solar Farms give Power to its parent city, even if it is outside of the workable range. The triple Power from the Biosphère works too. But the Tourism from Power through Biosphère only work if the TI is in a workable range of its parent city.

2- If you managed to unlock a Golden Age while being in a Dark Age, you go to a Heroic Age instead. It allows to choose 3 dedications instead of 1.

3- Coal usage are from units and Coal Power Plant. If you deleted all your unit but still have Coal Power Plant, you may use Coal to power city. The game doesn't check the "greener" source of energy, and will in priority the strategic resource you have the most (Coal, Oil or Uranium) as long you have a Plant and the city in range for it.

4- Every Heroes can generates 2 Relics. 1 on death, and 1 can be dig up with an Archeologist. It can be within 6 tiles range of its first death.

5- City-States broders extend with Envoy. +1 tile for each Envoy (if you are currently in the lead. With Owl of Minerva, since you have a free Envoy for each Trade Route, the City-State will always extend by at least 1 tile if you were the Suzerain.

6- No, you cannot choose directly the resolution. But by savescumming and changing the event of the turn, you can somehow change the resolutions. You still have no direct control overall.

7- No, but you can check in city panel how much Luxury Resource the city enjoys (Amenity from Luxury Resources). You cannot control how many Luxury a city can enjoy (no management, while the game is all about making too much micro-management). Something to know: if you have 1 or 10 of the same Luxury, you will enjoy only 4 Amenity from it. Trading your 9 spare Luxury will not reduce your Amenity.

8- It is not a all or nothing situation. But I don't know which building are taking priorites, or if the priorities are from the last building built. I need further testing...

 

[MrRadar]

8- It is not a all or nothing situation. But I don't know which building are taking priorites, or if the priorities are from the last building built. I need further testing...

Incorrect.

Using power: is this an ‘all or nothing’ situation? So if a city needs 10 power and only has 8, are all buildings that could use power just not performing?

Yes, it is 'all or nothing'. A city is either fully powered or not, and if not, then all boosts from power are cut from all the buildings. Take care, when you launch all those terrestrial lasers.

3- The game doesn't check the "greener" source of energy, and will in priority the strategic resource you have the most (Coal, Oil or Uranium) as long you have a Plant and the city in range for it.

Again, incorrect. A more advanced source takes precedence, and all kinds of green energy always replace resource consuming energy. However, green energy is only local, and cuts out polluting energy only for the city in whose tiles it is built. While polluting energy may be regional via factories. So if you built green energy for the city with a coal plant and stopped coal consumption for that city, coal can still be consumed to power other cities with no own green energy within the effect area of the factory of that IZ.
Hover the mouse over the lightning icon in the city banner for a tooltip or go to the power tab of the city for more detailed info.

By the way, if you're trying to prevent climate change, keep in mind, that as of the first NFP update a year ago (or so), Climate Change, and more specifically - Deforestation factor mechanism is bugged. When Deforestation Factor kicks in, it starts right from the maximum value of 50% and then decreases gradually, instead of starting from 10% and increasing, they must have reversed the formula or smth. The result is that this factor is applied retroactively and while this turn the Deforestation factor may be 0% and the carbon footprint may be, let's say, 2000, next turn the Deforestation factor is 50% and the carbon footprint 3000 just because this 50% factor applied. As a result, a few climate change phases may happen over next few turns, turn after turn.

 

[Aurelesk]

Incorrect.

Are you really sure about that? I made the tests last year and while I found I enjoyed some of the yield, I didn't managed to find which one took priority. I will redo some test on my next play session and post the results here. But I would no be surprised you are right.

Again, incorrect. A more advanced source takes precedence, and all kinds of green energy always replace resource consuming energy.

You are right: I didn't word the sentence well. Greener for me was Coal < Oil < Uranium, and if the game needs to burn Strategic Resource in order to power the city, then it burns the one you have the most, not the one that produce the less CO2. But the game always take renewable energy first, then complete with Power Plant.

 

[Alan McG]

Thanks y'all for the quick responses. I'm glad to see there were some conflicting responses, means I was not an idiot for not knowing these!

So the last couple of bits to clarify then would be:
a) Wind/Solar farms - so it seems then as per the responses above as long as a they are built within territory owned by the city (even if outside workable land), it will work. This makes sense since I've definitely been building plants outside of workable tiles and still gotten the benefits. This means tho, those solar/wind farms would only apply to that parent city? So they don't have any range that would make them also power another city close by?

b) For the coal consumption and climate change.. so I never build coal plants, ever. At most I'd have one battleship. My CO2 emissions are still super high as per the graphs. Does that mean then that just by virtue of accumulating coal (I do have coal mines, and I have the maximum amount of stored coal), it'll still count? I don't quite deforest much, as I tend to just build lumber mills instead.

Thanks again to everyone for chipping in.

 

[MrRadar]

Are you really sure about that? I made the tests last year and while I found I enjoyed some of the yield, I didn't managed to find which one took priority. I will redo some test on my next play session and post the results here. But I would no be surprised you are right.

I've found a suitable save to doublecheck, there was an unpowered city with a research lab and a broadcast centre, each requiring 3 power, for the total of 6 power. So I've built 2 solars for the total output of 4, pressed next turn and checked to see that neither building gave boosted yields under 4/6 power satisfaction.

This means tho, those solar/wind farms would only apply to that parent city? So they don't have any range that would make them also power another city close by?

Yes, they don't have any range nor area effect, they only supply their own city. Green power is local only, the same goes for hydroplants and thermal plants.

b) For the coal consumption and climate change.. so I never build coal plants, ever. At most I'd have one battleship. My CO2 emissions are still super high as per the graphs. Does that mean then that just by virtue of accumulating coal (I do have coal mines, and I have the maximum amount of stored coal), it'll still count? I don't quite deforest much, as I tend to just build lumber mills instead.

Accumulation does not pollute, only consumption of polluting resources, any kind of consumption: for units, for powerplants, and for laying railroad. Each tile of placed railroad consumes 1 iron and 1 coal (just that one turn, not permanently). If you place a carpet of railroad network, you can create quite a carbon footprint. So maybe it was railroad in your case?
Soothsayers in Apocalypse mode also pollute when they cause disasters, iirc.

 

[kaspergm]

Oh yeah, pollution by putting down railroad tracks, I forgot that was a thing.

 

[Alan McG]

then I'm honestly still a bit baffled about the pollution.. I do avoid railroad tracks as well, since I assumed that did consume. I think I'll take a few screenshots next time and post them here, see if someone has any ideas!

 

[MrRadar]

then I'm honestly still a bit baffled about the pollution.. I do avoid railroad tracks as well, since I assumed that did consume. I think I'll take a few screenshots next time and post them here, see if someone has any ideas!

Posting a save file of your game probably would be better.

 

[Aurelesk]

I've found a suitable save to doublecheck, there was an unpowered city with a research lab and a broadcast centre, each requiring 3 power, for the total of 6 power. So I've built 2 solars for the total output of 4, pressed next turn and checked to see that neither building gave boosted yields under 4/6 power satisfaction.

I am late to party. I made the test and you are right: a city is either fully Powered or Unpowered. Even if you are lacking just 1 Power to power all the city, you will not gain any of the Power yield.

Even if it is unfair to burn some Strategic Resources for nothing, the game still have a priority tactic. I don't know if it tries to fully power the oldest cities or the cities that need most Power, but the game will try to fully power a city before starting to check for the next city.
I don't know how to word it, but the game doesn't even the burning capabilities: my biggest city burnt all the strategic Resources, leaving nothing for my newest / smallest / less in need of Power cities. It still has flaws: a city was 1 Power short of being fully powered. So the game burnt all my remaining Coal in order to fail to Power that city, while my little cities could have burn 1 Coal each to full power them.

Oh yeah, pollution by putting down railroad tracks, I forgot that was a thing.

I believe the game consider putting the Railroad as burning 1 Coal. But when you put the Railroad, it will not burn additional Coal per turn.

 

[Victoria]

means I was not an idiot for not knowing these!

Indeed, the game hides these details and also has bugs. So a warning, the global warming is not always updated at the end of every turn.

then I'm honestly still a bit baffled about the pollution

I did do a study on it when it first came out. It is quite tricky when you start having multiple coal plants within range of each. You may have a bug, it is certainly not unusual but a save without mods is useful.

 

[Ordnael]

the game will automatically assign the various available luxuries you have to the cities in need. each copy of the resource is good for 4 cities so if you have more cities you will need more copies of the same luxury

7- (...) Something to know: if you have 1 or 10 of the same Luxury, you will enjoy only 4 Amenity from it. Trading your 9 spare Luxury will not reduce your Amenity.

I find these answers conflicting. Do I need more than one copy of the luxury for me or not? I'll rephrase the question: If I have 8 cities should I keep 2 copies of the same luxury resource for me in order to provide 1 amenity for each city?

 

[Linklite]

I find these answers conflicting. Do I need more than one copy of the luxury for me or not? I'll rephrase the question: If I have 8 cities should I keep 2 copies of the same luxury resource for me in order to provide 1 amenity for each city?

Each unique luxury will only provide amenities for four cities, and only one copy qualifies. There is absolutely no benefit to having two copies of the same luxury, so you might as well trade it. If you have two copies of the same luxury, the second one will be of no use to you. When you get large numbers of cities, this becomes a problem, because there are only so many unique luxuries on the map.

 

[Victoria]

There is absolutely no benefit to having two copies of the same luxury,

Apart from if using monopolies or if duplicates help due to a resolution

 

[Tech Osen]

Oh, a civ quiz!

Aurelesk gave the answers I would give.

Indeed, the game hides these details and also has bugs.

That's a thing in most games these days. Not sure if this got worse when we went from buying a physical copy in a store with an actual manual to downloading everything