Unable to see enemy moves in multiplayer

[spurious]

I've just started my first multiplayer civ 4 game - with 2 human and 3 AI players. All working OK, except that it is not showing me enemy moves and attacks at the start of my turn. Rather than zooming in on any enemy attacks on my pieces it goes straight to telling me what I've just built, discovered etc and then tells me I'm being attacked in text. So I can't see what is being attacked or where and I miss all the battles. I can't even manually move over to battle areas to see what's going on because I'm stuck on the 'what to build next' box.

I have 'show friendly moves' and 'show enemy moves' ticked.

Is this just a normal aspect of multiplayer or is there some setting that I need to change?

Thanks v. much in advance.

 

[StefOfDk]

That is pretty normal, I think. You just have to open the history list or whatever you can call it - there you can click to see where the battle is going on.

Computers, barbarians and wild animals always attack in the beginning of the turn and the result is already decided before you can move. Human players normally attack "simultaneously", that is when they push the button - not in the beginning or end of a turn.

The reason why there are no moving the screen to the battle is perhaps to save time. If you have to see all battles and all enemy moves, you would sometimes use a lot of time which is not so great in multiplayer battles.

 

[spurious]

Thanks v. much for the reply It's actually AI attacks that I'm having the problem with, but I see your point - guess I'll just have to try and get used to it. So much easier in single player when you can see exactly what has has been attacked and where - and enjoy the battles of course. Will try using the 'history' thing as you suggest.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Another thing you can do, which you'll appreciate, is go into options and check the option called "minimize popups". This will cause your build orders and research choices to be picked at the end of your turn rather than the start. You can always set them during your turn - they're just not forced upon before you get a chance to see what's going on around the empire. It's an option that once I enabled I'd never disable again.

The event log which StefOfDk mentioned, should cover most of your need to see where battles took place etc.

 

[Cashew]

The only way you'll get to see something happen is to have actually been watching the tile/s in question. You should always be aware of everything that is happening to your units.

This of course gives attackers somewhat of an element of surprise if they move at the very end of a turn, but you need to be ready for that.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Note there is also a forced 8s (I think that's how long it is) lag on any unit from its previous move to its next move. There's no quickly sneaking in a unit right before the turn timer runs out, to take a city the following turn.

Was the OP playing simultaneous or turn based turns?

If simultaneous turns, the need to minimize popups is even more important.

 

[spurious]

Many thanks for the minimize popups tip - this will help me enormously and I hadn't previously been aware of it! It is turn based turns that I'm doing but it still will be of great use in enabling me to zoom to what's going on.

 

[Cashew]

Then there's no 8 second rule. The 8 second rule only exists on simultaneous turns.