The Complete Guide to Terrain, Improvements, Resources, and City Placement (v.2)

[CHAZMAN]

Great!!!! Lots of Help. Thanks!!

 

[Unk]

Hi everyone, you may (or may not) find this helpful.

I have taken the information in the original post and turned in into a Word document. I fixed some of the spelling and the formatting of some of the data to hopefully make it more readable. I also fixed the data error SKSmokes mentioned.

I also changed the images for the terrain improvements to be tables so that they are more easily edited (and can also be pulled into kroyms Civ IV Reference Charts http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144897) That is all I did, I did not adjust any of the meaning of the text, or try to update it for patch information.

View attachment A Comprehensive Guide to Terrain.doc

Peace

 

[floppymoose]

Maybe this is answered elsewhere, but I haven't been able to find it:

I know that many resources connected to cities give health or happiness, but if you mouse over these resources in the trade diplomacy window they will also say +1 food/gold/hammers. Since the fpc values for these resources aren't neccessarily +1, what are these values in the mouseover talking about? I know it's not true that the +1 food resources add a food to every conneced city, even though I was hoping that was what it meant! ;-)

Thanks for any help.

 

[MestreLion]

Luxury Resources: provide +1 happiness (for only one of each type) to all cities connected to your trade network. These resources are: Dyes, Furs, Gems, Gold, Incense, Ivory, Silver, Spices, Sugar, Wine and Whales. These also add commerce to your cities. Of these, Ivory, Furs and Whales eventually become obsolete. They retain their FPC value but lose the happiness bonus to your cities.

(...)

Strategic/Production Resources: Most of these resources are essential, as they allow you to create certain unit types or increase wonder production. They also add production value to your cities (Uranium being an exception, which adds more commerce). These resources are: Aluminum, Coal, Copper, Horses, Iron, Marble, Oil, Stone, and Uranium.

Ivory doesnt add extra commerce, it adds extra production. But, as they do provide happiness (and certainly is not strategic), i guess its ok to keep it under the "luxury" category, adding a note for the exception (like Uranium)

 

[MestreLion]

Coming to think of it, maybe the categories for resources could be slightly changed...

When we are talking about tiles and terrain, we are interested in maximing (or at least evaluating) a city. And a city can only work the tiles within its radius, so we are interested in those 20 tiles (21 with the city itself).

So, for the sole concern of city and terrain evaluation, we are interested only in the FPC value of a resource. Happiness (and health) shouldnt matter that much, because you can benefit from these even if the resource is far away form the city workable radius (provided theres a trade route, improvement, tech, etc etc). As for the FPC base and improved bonus, they are only felt if the resource is inside the radius.

My point is: for the purpose of that specific section of the article, resources should be categorized by the FPC (base) bonus they provide. This mean we would have this cattegories: Food (because they provide food, not because of health), Production (no matter if strategic, required for units or speeds wonders) and Commerce (former Luxury, no matter if they also provide happiness)

This way, Uranium would fall into Commerce, and Ivory into Production, and categories would have no exceptions.

As for happiness, health, strategic, unit building and rushing wonders benefits, they will be granted for ALL cities, no matter where the resource is (as long as connected, improved, etc, etc). These benefits could (and should), however, be mentioned as side effect. But the way it is now, it looks like the commerce bonus is a side effect of the resource category that provides happiness (luxury). This may be true for the macro strategy point of
view, but when it comes to terrain evaluation, its the oposite! (imho, of course)

Oh, by the way... what an AWESOME guide!!! Wow... really comprehensive, absolutely astonishing! Congratulations!

 

[MestreLion]

Luxury Resources: provide +1 happiness (for only one of each type) to all cities connected to your trade network. These resources are: Dyes, Furs, Gems, Gold, Incense, Ivory, Silver, Spices, Sugar, Wine and Whales.

... and Silk

 

[Dagnabit]

Thanks from a complete rookie. Most threads I try and read are overwhelming using acronyms and un-explained strategy assumptions that do not help a new player like myself. Just the expanation of the "Fat Cross" and a Cities workable tiles has helped me better stratigize my fledgling Civ IV experience. A great guide I will spend many hours absorbing.
Tom (an ol codger)

 

[Zombie69]

You can find the term "fat cross" in the manual, if you care to read it. As for other terms in articles here, i suppose someone should make a list of all Civ 4 specific slang with definitions (pop rushing, CS slingshot, etc.) and make that an article in its own right.

 

[Zombie69]

The only exception is on Tundra, which cannot have a farm built on it without being directly adjacent to a river.

Maybe i was dreaming, but in my current game, i'm pretty sure i saw the AI build a farm on a tundra tile that wasn't adjacent to a river. It was adjacent to a lake though, so it did have fresh water. I think you should ajust that statement in the article to reflect this.

 

[Shigga]

You can find the term "fat cross" in the manual, if you care to read it. As for other terms in articles here, i suppose someone should make a list of all Civ 4 specific slang with definitions (pop rushing, CS slingshot, etc.) and make that an article in its own right.

I had the same idea and I am on the task already, any help is appreciated

 

[MestreLion]

Has Stuporstar abandoned this thread? This guide is awesome, and i would really love that the corrections on Ivory and Silk, for example, mentioned some posts ago, were incorporated on the main post.

Please, Stuporstar, dont leave us! This guide is my main reference every time i start a new game! Its handy for the entire game, but for the first cities, its vital!!!

 

[Stuporstar]

Hi everyone. First off, I'd like to apologise to everyone for abandoning this guide for so long. I really haven't had the time to play Civ at all or visit these forums for months now.

I'd just like everyone to know that you don't need my permission to re-distribute or even alter or update this guide in any way. All I ask is a little acknowledgement in any such case.

I originally wrote this guide to help me understand the game better while I was playing it, and I'm glad it's helped a lot of other people too.

Unfortunately, it seems I won't have the time to do a proper update on this guide for at least a couple months yet. I'd like to thank everyone who's posted suggestions and omissions in this guide. Since I don't have the time to play the game right now, it's been left up to all of you to find out just what else needs to be in this guide. Back when I had the time, I used to rigorously test everything new that was pointed out to me. Since I haven't had the time, the discussions surrounding this article has become very important in keeping the information up to date.

Sometime within the next couple months I will make all the suggested corrections and update this guide. If there is anyone or any number of people who could aid me with this, perhaps by compiling all this new information, verifying it and pointing out anything that has changed with the patches since the first update, it would help me update this a lot sooner and I will add you to the list of authors for this guide. In the meantime, I will make sure to check in the forums, at the very least, once a week for any posts or PMs relating to this guide.

Thank you all so much for your help in keeping this info coming, even in my absence. After all, it's not really my guide anymore. It's yours.

 

[Waryn]

Quick question that I think I know the answer but would like confirmation...

Does a resouce have to be within a city's "fat cross" to use? I thought it only needed to be improved (ie within cultural borders) and connected by a road.

Am I correct, or does it have to be within the city proper?

 

[McLMan]

You get the happiness or health benefits of an improved resource anywhere within your cultural borders. You can only get the production/commerce/food bonus' if the resource is within a city's "fat cross" and is being worked by a citizen.

You'll get faster answers to simple questions if you ask them in this thread.

 

[Torvoni]

Excellent guide.

Everyone should read it.
Then think about it.
Then read it again.

 

[Willburn]

This guide needs a bit update for bts. (caste system giving +1 hammers to workshops)

 

[grandad1982]

Amazing. I was wondering what happened when you settled on top a resourse, and now I know!

 

[Hoticehunter]

Just thought I'd mention this since I didn't see it mentioned (maybe my search function decided to be lazy and not work though), but not only can cities act as canals, but forts can too. In fact, forts act as a city in every way possible except for providing culture, production, etc. They act as canals as cities do, an air base as cities do, and units with +city defense will get that defense in forts.

But my question is, if workers can build canals (through forts), why can't work boats build bridges? I want to be able to build a massive bridge connecting continents the way you can connect seas using forts.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

This thread is quite old, but I saw a few posts about how certain resources with the noRiverSide tag set to 1 could be beside rivers. After testing, I can confirm that these resources cannot spawn ALONGSIDE rivers, but can spawn diagonal of rivers, such as a river bend, and receive fresh water, commerce or levee bonuses. I guess it was for balance purposes, as the stronger resources with a river would be overpowered.

 

[Zedseayou]

I may be wrong, but I remember that forges give happiness if you have gems and gold or something like that? Sorry for resurrection and/or repost, Ifound nothing with search.