Stupid Civ IV Questions Vol. 1

[Aegis]

These are all questions which I have pondered, yet have not had a definitive answer on. Would someone more knowlegeable please be willing to help a poor chap come to a greater understanding of this game?

1) Unit support. I know that it exists, yet I do not know what the rules are. How many units are allowed per city/size city? Does the unit support differ under the various Civics or is it always a constant? If it does vary, where I can I find a chart explaining the differences?

2) Maintenance Costs. Do worker improvements (ie. camp, farm, cottage) or building improvements (ie. temple, library, grocer) have any bearing whatsoever on maintenance costs or have any other hidden cost?

Thank you for your sage wisdom and guidance.

 

[777]

These aren't stupid question and I'm too waiting answers for these

 

[Minesweeper]

As am I. I am also trying to find a way to delete a misplaced city?!?

 

[Psyringe]

Unit support is dependent on the size of your population, and you get additional support from certain civics. I don't have any details unfortunately.

You only pay maintenance for cities, not for buildings or terrain improvements or anything else.

You cannot raze your own cities. Gift it to a rival you're going to attack, then attack and raze it.

 

[Aegis]

Unit support is dependent on the size of your population,

Would that "population" be the number of workers in each individual city added together (ie. City size 6 + City size 12 + City size 8 etc.) or the total number of people in your civilization (ie. 2,386,900)?

You only pay maintenance for cities, not for buildings or terrain improvements or anything else.

Phew! =o)

Thank you for these clarifications. I have been wanting to demystify the process and this has helped a lot.

 

[Psyringe]

Would that "population" be the number of workers in each individual city added together (ie. City size 6 + City size 12 + City size 8 etc.) or the total number of people in your civilization (ie. 2,386,900)?

The former, I think. But this is second hand information and I'm not sure I'm recalling it correctly. Check the strategy forum, the info should be somewhere there (I stay clear of that forum because I like to develop strategies myself, and since other people develop much better strategies there, it kind of spoils the fun for me. )

 

[jupiterkris]

(formulae as explained by Roland Johansen)


Unit Maintenance formula

Define population size N;
Define difficulty level bonus D,
= 5 at Deity, 6 at Immortal, 7 at Emperor, 8 at Monarch, 10 at Prince, 12 at Noble, 16 at Warlord, 22 at Chieftain and 28 at Settler level.
Terms between [ ] are rounded down:

Free Unit Support = [0.24 * N] + D.
Additional Free Unit Support from Vassalage Civic = [0.1 * N] + 5.

Free Military Unit Support = [0.12 * N] + 2.

Define the handicap modifier H,
= 0 at Deity, 10 at Immortal, 20 at Emperor, 30 at Monarch, 40 at Prince, 50 at Noble, 60 at Warlord, 70 at Chieftain and 80 at Settler level.

Unit Handicap = [(H/100) * (Free Unit Support + Free Military Unit Support)] .

Final Unit Manintenance = [(100-H)/100 * (Free Unit Support + Free Military Unit Support)] .


Civics Upkeep formula

Define total size of population N and number of cities M.
Define a civic multiplyer C, that is equal to 0 if a free civic is used, 1 if a low cost civic is used, 2 if a medium cost civic is used and 3 if a high cost civic is used.
Define the dificulty modifier D, which is equal to
1 at deity, immortal and emperor level,
0.95 at monarch level,
0.9 at prince level,
0.8 at noble level,
0.7 at warlord level,
0.6 at chieftain level,
0.5 at settler level.
Define modifier O, that is 1/2 if the leader is organized and 1 if the leader is not organized.
Terms between [ ] are rounded down:

Civic Upkeep =
Goverment civics:
[O * [ D * ( [ 0.05 * C (N-8) ] + [ 0.2 * C (M-1) ] ) ] ]
Legal civics:
[O * [ D * ( [ 0.05 * C (N-9) ] + [ 0.2 * C M ] ) ] ]
Labor civics:
[O * [ D * ( [ 0.05 * C (N-10) ] + [ 0.2 * C (M+1) ] ) ] ]
Economy civics:
[O * [ D * ( [ 0.05 * C (N-11) ] + [ 0.2 * C (M+2) ] ) ] ]
Religion civics:
[O * [ D * ( [ 0.05 * C (N-12) ] + [ 0.2 * C (M+3) ] ) ] ]


ps - hope I didn't make any error in the transcription

 

[Aegis]

Thank you very much, JupiterKris! I read what you had to say awhile ago and it has definitely helped my understanding of the game mechanics.

My new question now, is if you plant a city on top of a hill, do you get a production bonus on your main city circle?

 

[enchanter100]

Wow, is there some easy mod or in game way of finding out cost of each unit and how many are free?

 

[Ranos]

Thank you very much, JupiterKris! I read what you had to say awhile ago and it has definitely helped my understanding of the game mechanics.

My new question now, is if you plant a city on top of a hill, do you get a production bonus on your main city circle?

On Plains Hills you get a bonus, but not on Grassland Hills. If you build on top of a resource, you get bonuses to production or commerce depending on the bonuses the resource gives.

 

[cleverhandle]

My new question now, is if you plant a city on top of a hill, do you get a production bonus on your main city circle?

Only on a plains hill. Then your city tile generates 2 hammers instead of 1. Nice boost early on.

@enchanter100: Just hover over the "unit cost" part of your financial advisor. It will say something like "Support for 15 units (free support for 12)". That means you have 27 units, and are paying for 15 of them. This is then reduced slightly by a difficulty level handicap. Each non-free unit costs 1gpt.

 

[Bushface]

Something is missing from the calculation formulae given in JupiterKris's post (#7 in this thread) and that is the basis for establishment of the population figure , N in the formulae. Is this the total of pop'n points for all your cities, or your total population as shown in the demographics screen ? The latter does not appear to me to have any other possible significance.

 

[Aegis]

Thank you for the answers, everyone. The mysteries are slowly unravelling. =o)

 

[Wretchosoft]

Nobody's mentioned this, but Vassalage increases the number of free units you can support. I'm not sure by how much though.

 

[Bushface]

On the Civics screen you can roll over all the civics, including those not yet available to you, and a pop-up panel tells you its effects while the bottom bar changes to show the cost change which would result from such selection. Only if you make a selection AND click 'revolution' does your selection take effect, irreversibly for a few turns.
On the Finance screen, rolling over most of the figures brings up a breakdown such as telling you how you city maintenance cost is made up. One blatant omission from this screen is that your net income is not shown, though total income and total expenditure are.

 

[PeeBlockIgloo]

Is there a way to disband one of your own cities?

 

[Memphus]

The last thing you may want to consider for unit upkeep is that when in foreign territory they cost more

I.E. Go to war move in 10 units, extra 10 unit upkeep,

I am sure there are formulas for this but I am unsure of them and know that it exists

@PeeBlockIgloo:

No you can't

You can: Try and give it away to an AI
You can raze a city upon capture

 

[robaughjr]

Is there a way to disband one of your own cities?

Not unless you use worldbuilder, gift it to the ai then capture/raze it before they can get it properly defended.