super newbie questions :)

[Acidyl]

Hi, I'm completely new to civilizations games, the closest experience to these type of games being Settlers 2. I'm just playing the tutorial for a second time and I got a few questions before I try something bigger.

1) Are you supposed to fill the entire land up?? I mean, I understand farms giving food, mines and such production and cottages gold (although I seem to get little effect of this one for some reason) but am I to fill up every piece I have with something to get more food or gold, or should I try to optimize my need or even except some cities just to be unhappy / starving??

2) I have no idea what I'm doing at the moment, I just click whatever research seems interesting, switching religion and form of government to what seems right to me, an aquaduct here, a extra town there, now a preatorian, then research this or that without really knowing or even understanding whether I'm doing the right thing.
Should I read up first to now what leads to what or should I just accept the game taking me on a guided tour and learn along the way somewhat?

I mean, somethings are clear of course, you need a mine on a place with gold and a pastery on a place with horses, but as far as farms and cottages, I just build them about evenly without understanding alot of whatthe changes are to my gold supply and such.
I mean, I thought that with my current +3 of gold/ turn, if I built a cottage with +1 gold, the next turn it would be +4 gold /turn, which it isn't.
A simple link to better explanation of this would be nice .

Also, when I go to the city screen, you see these blue circles on the place around your city, and changing them seems to influence your food income but not the gold income?

Great game, but very confusing at the moment.

 

[DaveMcW]

Hi Acidyl, welcome to CFC!

Gold is a bit confusing for newbies. The gold coin and money bag icons really represent commerce, which is converted into gold (stack of coins) and science (beakers). The 100% +/- bar in the top left of your screen controls how much commerce is allocated to science and gold.

A balanced amount of cottages/farms/mines will generally keep your economy on the right track. After you get a better understanding of what each does, you can tweak the ratios to squeeze out more production.

 

[Leifmk]

Hi, I'm completely new to civilizations games, the closest experience to these type of games being Settlers 2. I'm just playing the tutorial for a second time and I got a few questions before I try something bigger.

1) Are you supposed to fill the entire land up?? I mean, I understand farms giving food, mines and such production and cottages gold (although I seem to get little effect of this one for some reason) but am I to fill up every piece I have with something to get more food or gold, or should I try to optimize my need or even except some cities just to be unhappy / starving??

The really important thing, which it sounds like you may not have understood yet, is this:

At any given time, a city can only be working a limited number of terrain tiles within its radius. That is, up to one tile per "point" of population (the number next to the city's name), plus the tile it's actually built on. You only get income (food, production, commerce) from tiles that are being worked. You have to go into the city screen and click on the bit of the map shown there to change which tiles you are working.

 

[Acidyl]

The really important thing, which it sounds like you may not have understood yet, is this:

At any given time, a city can only be working a limited number of terrain tiles within its radius. That is, up to one tile per "point" of population (the number next to the city's name), plus the tile it's actually built on. You only get income (food, production, commerce) from tiles that are being worked. You have to go into the city screen and click on the bit of the map shown there to change which tiles you are working.

Thanks to both of you. Makes alot more sense now, especially with the above advice. I understand gold better now to, although it stills seems hard to forsee how much the income rate will change caused by my actions.

I think I understand it right now that chosing of what to research and what to build next varies to your choice of strategy, which is something I'll have to learn myself.

Think I'll start reading some more on the forums to, probably will help me to.

Thx again, and catch you around .

 

[picardathon]

For the most part, cottages are THE way to go if you're a peacenik. If you've seen the cottages info, they say (X turns until hamlet) or (You must work this tile for hamlet)
An important micromanagement tool is that you can actually pick which tiles are being worked, emphasizing nearby mines if you need a new wonder, food if you want to do some pop choppin', and commerce if you don't need the other two.

 

[Fragment]

Hi,

for terrain improvements, check out the commands for workers. There are 3 "automate" type buttons, you can totally automate the workers (build 1 per city). Later you'll have to break the automation habit, since automation is only good up until the noble level or so.

Regards.

 

[fuji]

Well this was all very helpfull !

 

[picardathon]

Well, automation can be useful later on. I just have them build trade networks after they've built near each city, eventually I have a road system throughout my empire!

 

[Beernutts]

Also, when I go to the city screen, you see these blue circles on the place around your city, and changing them seems to influence your food income but not the gold income?

Yeah, when I 1st started, I didn't know what those circles on the city screen meant either.

Those circles determine which tiles your city "works" and this determines how much gold, food, and hammers you're city produces. Each circle represents 1 population, so as your population gows, you get more circles.

So, if you look on your city screen, you can move circles from, say a 4 hammer tile to a 4 food tile, then you're populaiton will grow quicker, but your production will drop. You can also remove a circle and put in a "citizen specialist", which are the little guys on the bottom right side of the screen.

Also, you're cottages must be worked for them to grow, so look at your city screen and make sure a circle is on the tiles where your cottages are (if you can without starving).

The more you play, the more you'll understand. I'm still kinda new myself, but I just beat my 1st prince game, and I think I really understand it well now. Keep reading this forum too, it helps alot.

Also, see sulla's walkthrough, located here:

http://www.civ4info.com/Sullla/civ4.html

Hope that helps.
Nutts

 

[JavalTigar]

It is my believe this is required reading for any new civ player

http://sirian.warpcore.org/civ4/dawn.html

Welcome to the forums

 

[TCGTRF]

It is my believe this is required reading for any new civ player

http://sirian.warpcore.org/civ4/dawn.html

Welcome to the forums

Javal, love your quote. Nice to see Sam Adams was thinking between batches of beer.

Tom

 

[JesusOnEez]

Read through some of the succession game threads...they usually go into fairly good detail about strategy...the one in my sig was for noobers so have a trawl through that.

 

[KHSOLO]

Hi, I'm completely new to civilizations games, the closest experience to these type of games being Settlers 2. I'm just playing the tutorial for a second time and I got a few questions before I try something bigger.

1) Are you supposed to fill the entire land up?? I mean, I understand farms giving food, mines and such production and cottages gold (although I seem to get little effect of this one for some reason) but am I to fill up every piece I have with something to get more food or gold, or should I try to optimize my need or even except some cities just to be unhappy / starving??

2) I have no idea what I'm doing at the moment, I just click whatever research seems interesting, switching religion and form of government to what seems right to me, an aquaduct here, a extra town there, now a preatorian, then research this or that without really knowing or even understanding whether I'm doing the right thing.
Should I read up first to now what leads to what or should I just accept the game taking me on a guided tour and learn along the way somewhat?

I mean, somethings are clear of course, you need a mine on a place with gold and a pastery on a place with horses, but as far as farms and cottages, I just build them about evenly without understanding alot of whatthe changes are to my gold supply and such.
I mean, I thought that with my current +3 of gold/ turn, if I built a cottage with +1 gold, the next turn it would be +4 gold /turn, which it isn't.
A simple link to better explanation of this would be nice .

Also, when I go to the city screen, you see these blue circles on the place around your city, and changing them seems to influence your food income but not the gold income?

Great game, but very confusing at the moment.

Also usefull is to know that cottages ONLY grow when being worked on.

My strategy is that i always choose growth and research until my cities are about 8 or 9 and while this happens i go to the city screen and look at the blue circles (the ones beign worked on) and thats when i choose which titles to grow cottages, or build farms and so on.

That way i wont grow a cottage in a title thats not being worked on thus making me much more efficient than the AI.

 

[katank]

As for improvements, a simple guide.

On Prince and below, chop every forest except for tundra forest, those should get lumbermills later (otherwise they are not so useful). Farm every plain, cottage every grassland/flood plain, mine every hill. Build whatever you need for accessing bonus resources.

On Monarch or above, be less aggressive about chopping as you need the health some times.

Read the strat forums more.