Some game mechanic questions (and spec-related one)

[aersch]

For convenience I number the questions.

1.
I'm wondering what the range of Forbidden Palace maintenance reduction is?
I've conquered Western and Eastern Europe in Earth scenario, and I'm thinking if a Forbidden Palace in Eastern Europe can reduce costs in the whole region?

2.
Do workers produce railroads when automated on trade network, or improvements?

3.
Also, what processor is required to make the game run smoothly even at late game? I'm getting tired by the lag... have an E2200 dual-core processor.

Thanks.

 

[Skallagrimson]

1. FP has the same effect as the palace in the reduction of distance-related city maintenance. It's not so much "range" but a recalculation of what the distance-to-palace will be for cities nearer to FP than to either Versailles or the Palace. FP can reduce costs for the whole region if you are not in State Property.

2. If they *can* build railroads, yes.

3. Try adding more system memory. Max it out to the amount your operating system can address. That fixed the issue for me.

 

[r_rolo1]

1- AFAIK FP works like the palace in that regard

2- Yes

3- Dunno. But what i can tell you is that Civ IV is a monocore game and if you're not using a lot of other programs in paralel, a PIV 2,8 Mhz monocore will beat in performance a 2,2 Core 2 Duo if all the rest is the same ( learned the hard way.... ). But the real bottlenecks in civ IV performance are the graphical card and the RAM.... so it might be better to look there first.

 

[aersch]

Thanks!

Another question I have, is if it is possible to adjust "specialization" of cities after a while? I only want some cities to provide military units, the rest I want dedicated to production and science. Any tips for this?

 

[Skallagrimson]

Thanks!

Another question I have, is if it is possible to adjust "specialization" of cities after a while? I only want some cities to provide military units, the rest I want dedicated to production and science. Any tips for this?

That's standard city specialization right there. 2 unit pump cities and as many as possible of the others focus on commerce, although the map will still throw a few extra production cities at you, in which case you can alternate between which prod cities are building improvements and wonders, and which ones are pumping units.

 

[aersch]

Thanks.
But it ain't possible to make a commerce city into a production-based one?

And how do you know if you're going to make a city production or commerce?

 

[kossin]

Commerce cities usually indicate a strong cottaged land, which, unless you are running Universal Suffrage, doesn't provide much hammer-wise (ignoring rush-buying).

Speciality is usually determined by the landscape. A BFC with many green and flood plains is more fitted to be a commerce city, whereas a city with several hills would make a better production center.

 

[aersch]

I see, because of the minerals in the hills and the food from the plains, I take it.
So a city in rocky/hilly terrain should optimally NEVER be a commerce city?

Doesn't each city need to manage its own food? That would make the production cities quite small.

Does science count as production? And what is the meaning of commerce? Wealth?

Sorry, lots of questions. I want to improve in this game.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Edit: EmperorFool explained it better with the graphics.

 

[EmperorFool]

Commerce commerce is turned into Research science, Gold gold, Culture culture, and Espionage espionage depending on the Commerce Sliders (the +/- buttons and %s at the top-left of the screen). Tiles and Trade Routes generate while buildings such as Libraries, Markets and Court Houses multiply , and .

The land will typically dictate the type of city you build along with your needs. To work hills you'll need food resources (Corn, Rice, Pigs, Cows, Deer etc) or Farms. An irrigated Grassland Farm provides 3, but the citizen working it eats 2, so that single farm can allow you to work a single Grassland Mine (1 3). To work a Plains Hill Mine requires two Grassland Farms. This is where food resources in the city's BFC (Big Fat Cross) really boost your cities.

 

[aersch]

Thanks for explaining!

So, even a production city must have enough food sources (such as farms) to maintain its production?

 

[EmperorFool]

Each population point (citizen) of a city requires 2 to survive. Any excess is added each turn to the city's Food Storage (the orange bar at the top-center of the City Screen), and any deficit is subtracted from it. When the storage reaches the top, the city grows; when it goes below 0, the city shrinks (starvation). The higher the surplus , the faster the city can grow.

Every city adheres to these rules.

The tile the city is founded on generates 2 (3 if you found it on a food resource, but don't do that normally) which feeds its first citizen. This means all the on the tile that the first citizen works goes to growth. If you work a Plains Hill Mine, the city will never grow. This is why it's good to have a food resource to work immediately, allowing the city to grow rapidly so you can work other tiles.

Food by itself isn't valuable*; it's what you do with it that matters. You can use it to

• feed citizens working high- tiles,
• feed citizens working high- tiles,
• feed specialists that generate , , and directly,
• feed specialists that generate Great People gp Points

* A higher population--while costing you more in Civics Upkeep expenses--can be useful for higher AP/UN votes and winning a Domination victory.

 

[r_rolo1]

* A higher population--while costing you more in Civics Upkeep expenses--can be useful for higher AP/UN votes and winning a Domination victory.

It also boosts the trade routes.

 

[DaveMcW]

I've never seen a domination victory where pop mattered.

 

[aersch]

Then I take it food is crucial for every city, no matter the specialization.
That helps me sort a few things out.

Another question I have is:
can one bomber take out a fort? I'm using a bomber for such a thing, but it just keeps on failing.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Then I take it food is crucial for every city, no matter the specialization.
That helps me sort a few things out.

Yes, you need food in every city. It's pretty hard to specialize a city that stays at pop 4 or less forever . How are you going to run mines, specialists, or actually grow into cottages without food?!

 

[EmperorFool]

It also boosts the trade routes.

Oh right, I forgot this one--probably the most mportant.

I've never seen a domination victory where pop mattered.

Same here, but I didn't want to drop a blanket generalization like that (food doesn't matter by itself) without clarifying the few cases that it does.

 

[Joshua368]

An alternative to growing your own cities up is the nuke the rest of the world to oblivion. Your population percentage will rise just the same.

 

[Skallagrimson]

I've never seen a domination victory where pop mattered.

A unit pump at size 18 is obviously going to pump the units faster than one at size 12, with 3 farms supporting 3 more mines. This is why those who completely disregard their city's health feel they have to win early-game or can't win at all, because they just plain don't know how to manage for mid-game productivity.

The AIs rarely build adequate infrastructure, which means their new unit production mid-game will be severely lacking, which means the need for a tech lead in the mid-game isn't as desperate since you can out-produce and overwhelm the AI with numbers. Use Civ's unrealistic game mechanics against them.

 

[aersch]

A unit pump at size 18 is obviously going to pump the units faster than one at size 12, with 3 farms supporting 3 more mines.

So the ratio between food, production and growth stays the same? That is, if the population increases, so does also the food production, together with mines?