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[DEO3]

So you know how when you build the great library and it asks you to choose a free tech? Well it turns out you can delay having to choose a tech by forcing the turn with shift-enter (sort of like how you can delay adopting social policies by dismissing the pop-up with a right click), allowing some pretty broken sling-shots. Bonus points if you're playing as Babylon:

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

I wish i could rename my units though because i would have called that one the black pearl

You can rename units when they get promoted. There's an edit button next to the "UNIT PROMOTED!" text.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Does the AI ever spend gold to outright buy units? I've been playing on Warlord (or whatever the third difficulty is) and warfare is magnitudes easier in this than Civ IV. I easily finished taking over my entire starting continent around the year 1500, and now it's around the year 1880, and I have conquered all of the island-based city states and about half of the other major continent on the map. I've taken out 5 of 8 civilizations and who knows how many city states. Everything is just so easy with the ability to outright buy military units. I'm bringing in around 350 gold per turn (even more if it's a golden age) and throughout the game I have been able to just purchase military units in cities closest to the front lines and send them in.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Also supposedly roads only cost maintenance if they are within your cultural borders which is rather silly but understandable

They're supposed to cost you maintenance even if you build them in neutral territory.

 

[Jeff-DSA]

I posted this on GB, but didn't get responses so I figured you guys could help...

I'm pretty deep into a Prince game where I've been focusing heavily on Culture and Economy. I've only fought two wars (one of which ended at the first chance to work a treaty), and I'm allied with every city state. I've been using my relationships with the city states to boost happiness and culture and using the militaristic ones to provide me with plenty of units to defend my borders and other city states from invasion.

Anyway, I'm currently getting about 475 culture per turn, so I'm blazing through the social policies and then...BAM! I adopt Autocracy and my people go into anarchy. Is this because I was adopting policies too quickly? My happiness when from +11 to -30 in one single turn. How long does this last, and do I need to fix this actively or does it resolve itself passively?

Sorry for the noob question, but I hadn't seen anarchy discussed and I'm not sure if it works the same in this as in previous Civ games (of which I have very limited experience anyway).

 

[AstroLad]

Anarchy happens when you adopt a policy that conflicts with another. For example, Liberty and Autocracy conflict so choosing Autocracy deactivates Liberty and puts you into anarchy. Don't know the time calculation (if any exactly) since I'm not at my PC and the manual doesn't even mention anarchy :lol

 

[Jeff-DSA]

Ah, crap. Yeah, I had Liberty. That's what did it. I built a handful of happiness generating buildings to try to dig out of the hole, but -30 is just crazy deep. Hopefully it's pretty short term.

 

[platypotamus]

So you know how when you build the great library and it asks you to choose a free tech? Well it turns out you can delay having to choose a tech by forcing the turn with shift-enter (sort of like how you can delay adopting social policies by dismissing the pop-up with a right click), allowing some pretty broken sling-shots. Bonus points if you're playing as Babylon:

I tried to figure out a way to do that as a golden age mucked up my timing and made my Great Library finish one turn before my research that would unlock some expensive tech or another. Good to know, if kinda cheatery.

 

[Sober]

So you know how when you build the great library and it asks you to choose a free tech? Well it turns out you can delay having to choose a tech by forcing the turn with shift-enter (sort of like how you can delay adopting social policies by dismissing the pop-up with a right click), allowing some pretty broken sling-shots. Bonus points if you're playing as Babylon

Damn, wish I knew that when the Oracle popped and I was one turn from getting CS. They need to fix that or, like in Civ4 they need to just give you beakers from the GS towards the tech of your choice. Same with GEs, they feel like cheating except GE points are hard to get or the specialists are pretty crappy (basically unemployed workers with GP points, ugh) so I don't mind the instarush, since I only save em for wonders anyway.

 

[DJ_Tet]

I sort of broke the game on my last playthrough so I thought I'd write a bit about it.

I was England on Prince with Archipelago island setup. I had a good initial draw with my own island and teched up to get embark and explore the oceans.

With early embark and trireme I sent a warrior off to explore ruins and barbarian camps. Soon he was pretty leveled up and I kept finding ruins.

I found four 'Ancient Weapon Upgrade' ruins (pretty sure it's random on what is in a ruin. The first time the warriors became pikemen, then spearmen. The next time they became rifleman and finally they became infantry :lol

I may have left out an upgrade I came across, but the point is made. I had a squad of infantry before 1000 AD. It took about 20 turns before I realized exactly how overpowered a squad I had, but soon set out to finish the game with Domination. I built a powerful navy, eventually upgrading to many Ships of the Line and bombarded capitol after capitol from the relative peace of the water. All the while I was escorting my infantry from place to place, conquering the capitols quickly.

By 1800 England ruled the world with her shocking Infantry squad and fleet of ships.

Have to admit it was funny listening to the rulers defy me with pikemen as I marched on with WWII era guns :lol


edit: That's pretty tame compared to entering the Industrial Era at 350 BC :lol

 

[Sober]

I sort of broke the game on my last playthrough so I thought I'd write a bit about it.

I was England on Prince with Archipelago island setup. I had a good initial draw with my own island and teched up to get embark and explore the oceans.

With early embark and trireme I sent a warrior off to explore ruins and barbarian camps. Soon he was pretty leveled up and I kept finding ruins.

I found four 'Ancient Weapon Upgrade' ruins (pretty sure it's random on what is in a ruin. The first time the warriors became pikemen, then spearmen. The next time they became rifleman and finally they became infantry :lol

I may have left out an upgrade I came across, but the point is made. I had a squad of infantry before 1000 AD. It took about 20 turns before I realized exactly how overpowered a squad I had, but soon set out to finish the game with Domination. I built a powerful navy, eventually upgrading to many Ships of the Line and bombarded capitol after capitol from the relative peace of the water. All the while I was escorting my infantry from place to place, conquering the capitols quickly.

By 1800 England ruled the world with her shocking Infantry squad and fleet of ships.

Have to admit it was funny listening to the rulers defy me with pikemen as I marched on with WWII era guns :lol


edit: That's pretty tame compared to entering the Industrial Era at 350 BC :lol

Goodie huts need to cap so they don't go past your current era for unit upgrades, or just give something else. I'm pretty sure I had a rocket artillery in 1600CE in one game. That's just silly. At least the AI didn't kill your infantry as it was embarking. That happened to me once, I left a longswordsman unit alone in the water (this was like 100 turns into the game) and a stupid babarian trireme comes and owns them.

 

[DEO3]

Maybe I should take a break.

 

[Danne-Danger]

Goodie huts need to cap so they don't go past your current era for unit upgrades, or just give something else. I'm pretty sure I had a rocket artillery in 1600CE in one game. That's just silly.

They should just give experience, or at most let you upgrade them for free once you have the tech to do so. The way it is now is silly and nonsensical. It's extra silly since the AI won't take advantage of Embark leaving all small islands for you to plunder.

I’ve had riflemen in B.C. eras plenty of times; it’s such an easy, game breaking exploit. It leaves most maps except for those that take place on one landmass completely broken in single-player, and the larger the map the bigger the problem. But even so, if they fix the ruins, there’s still the issue that the AI won’t do invasions over large chunks of water, so island and continent type maps will still be broken.

 

[platypotamus]

http://home.comcast.net/~donolsen3/Images/ach.jpg

Maybe I should take a break.

Wow, all the civs already? How many hours is that? I'm at 45 with I think 5 victories already.

 

[Sblargh]

Here's a bad strategy:
Say "I'll play one era at a time", because you will get in a fucking huge war and your whole afternoon is over.

 

[Fitz]

Does anyone know if there's any way to find out the specific upkeep cost for units? Or if there's a list somewhere, I'd really like some info on the topic but can't seem to find much.

 

[FutureZombie]

Here's a bad strategy:
Say "I'll play one era at a time", because you will get in a fucking huge war and your whole afternoon is over.

It's so hard to limit your play time with Civ. I find myself doing this a lot:

"Ok, this will be the last turn."

"That's not fair; nothing happened on this turn. The next one will be my last for the night."

"I really want to finish researching Plastics before I go to sleep, so this will be my last turn."


And so on, and so on.

 

[Jintor]

It's so hard to limit your play time with Civ. I find myself doing this a lot:

"Ok, this will be the last turn."

"That's not fair; nothing happened on this turn. The next one will be my last for the night."

"I really want to finish researching Plastics before I go to sleep, so this will be my last turn."


And so on, and so on.

Yeah. I mean, I have quite a few problems with Civ V and I still find myself awake at 4AM. Damn you, one more turn!

 

[Sblargh]

Does anyone know if there's any way to find out the specific upkeep cost for units? Or if there's a list somewhere, I'd really like some info on the topic but can't seem to find much.

afaik, is some kind of hidden mechanics as yet not figured out.
Only thing I noticed is that it takes into account only number of units and not types and the upkeep increases after some X number of units, so, for example:
You have 4 units and pay 10 gold, you make a 5th, 6th, 7th and still only pay 10 gold, but then you make the 8th and now you're paying 50 gold.
I'm not that sure if worker counts, but work boat definetly count as well as great people.

It would be nice to know what the X number is to find some sweet spot, like "X units each Y cities".

 

[DJ_Tet]

Goodie huts need to cap so they don't go past your current era for unit upgrades, or just give something else. I'm pretty sure I had a rocket artillery in 1600CE in one game. That's just silly. At least the AI didn't kill your infantry as it was embarking. That happened to me once, I left a longswordsman unit alone in the water (this was like 100 turns into the game) and a stupid babarian trireme comes and owns them.

Yeah I've learned that the hard way. Armed escorts at all times for me :lol

 

[AstroLad]

afaik, is some kind of hidden mechanics as yet not figured out.
Only thing I noticed is that it takes into account only number of units and not types and the upkeep increases after some X number of units, so, for example:
You have 4 units and pay 10 gold, you make a 5th, 6th, 7th and still only pay 10 gold, but then you make the 8th and now you're paying 50 gold.
I'm not that sure if worker counts, but work boat definetly count as well as great people.

It would be nice to know what the X number is to find some sweet spot, like "X units each Y cities".

Yeah I looked for it too before and couldn't find anything in the manual or strategy guide. I noticed because I was running tight on gold, started gifting units and it was saving me a ton of GPT, way more than I expected.

 

[Divvy]

So I've been playing this one Prince level game for the past 5 days.

I did it on the Earth map, but took off 2 Ais to give some more breathing room.

At first i was progressing pretty slowly. All the other AIs were hitting their age progressions a lot sooner than I was. It got the point when they were all making fun of me "you're nation's culture is pathetic" or "what did you forget to expand or something LOLOL"

Cut to 200 turns later:

That's me as Japan in the white. Japan's unit bonus (injured units attack at full power) plus the autocracy policy that gives injured units +25% attack power just steamrolls over everything.


Now Harun Al-Rashid has been the one most vocal about mocking me, and to be fair he's always been a few steps ahead of me tech wise. But now he will pay...

Vengeance will be so sweet.

 

[platypotamus]

Watch out, he's got a crossbow!

 

[Sober]

Damn Augustus started another war with me AGAIN. I beat him back even with cannons and riflemen when he had artillery and riflemen.

Also, that fucker declared war on me, so he popped the research agreement (they reallllly need to fix that) and gave me Steam Power, taking my UA away (Napeolon atm). Asshole. At least I snuck a GA into the front lines and culture bombed 4 tiles away from him, then razed one of his border cities. :lol

He even used the "I need more living space" line as he declared war on me.

 

[Fixed1979]

On my second game around 1910, game is so slow between actions it's almost unplayable. Pretty disappointed in that, otherwise having a great time with it.

 

[DrForester]

Vengeance will be so sweet.

See you really wanted the long promised boarder wall

 

[Sober]

Man, time victory feels so unsatisfying. Maybe because Catherine, Augustus, Hiawatha, and Siam (screw typing his name) all declared war on me on turn 498.

I also unlocked the Utopia project a turn earlier. Not enough time. And with the UN, I was one vote short of a diplomatic victory. And I'm pretty sure the last 50 turns of the game I was chaining Golden Ages just to make gold. God, cultural victories are hard.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Man, time victory feels so unsatisfying. Maybe because Catherine, Augustus, Hiawatha, and Siam (screw typing his name) all declared war on me on turn 498.

Why not just disable it? I haven't played a game with Time victory checked since my early days of Civ 4.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Why not just disable it? I haven't played a game with Time victory checked since my early days of Civ 4.

oh wow, didn't even realise this was possible but I suppose it's right there under the victory conditions list... nice.

 

[JoeMartin]

Some criticisms I have observed over the past few games:

1) City states, particularly maritime/culture city states, are an extremely poorly executed good idea.

1a) Money goes in, food comes out. Greece as an offshoot is overpowered - you are able to maintain a tremendous amount of allies on a very modest income. I just won a one city victory stupendously easily by allying 6 maritime CS for endless amounts of food which gave me endless amounts of specialists which resulted in an extremely easy Culture victory. Not that the other AIs in the game even cared that I was producing 400 culture per turn out of one city, they all seemed pretty okay to just be friends.

1b) Really, Firaxis, that's the extent of my interaction with city states? I occasionally pay them off for set bonuses? Wow you really ran with that idea, eh.

2) Fish tiles are overpowered. Food, gold and production in decent quantity all in one tile.

3) The AI is downright terrible at all things naval. Being on a different continent/island basically ensures your complete safety from any slightly intelligible attack from the AI.

 

[Totakeke]

2) Fish tiles are overpowered. Food, gold and production in decent quantity all in one tile.

Sure, if you just compare them between resources. But an inland city is still better than a coastal city most of the times.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Sure, if you just compare them between resources. But an inland city is still better than a coastal city most of the times.

Since most useful fish/whale tiles are right off the coast anyway, you can still have an inland city that can still access any choice water tiles that are just one hex out. You'd need a different city on the coast to produce the worker boats, of course.

 

[Totakeke]

Since most useful fish/whale tiles are right off the coast anyway, you can still have an inland city that can still access any choice water tiles that are just one hex out. You'd need a different city on the coast to produce the worker boats, of course.

Thus you'll still need a coastal city. Moot argument really. They aren't overpowered.

 

[Sober]

Is it just a bug or do GEs have some hidden max hammer benefit? I saved a GE from maybe 2 eras back, and I tried to rush Cristo Rendator and it only gave me 66-75% of the hammers I needed instead of sending it straight to finish. I've rushed wonders before so I'm not sure what's going on...

 

[Palmer_v1]

Is it just a bug or do GEs have some hidden max hammer benefit? I saved a GE from maybe 2 eras back, and I tried to rush Cristo Rendator and it only gave me 66-75% of the hammers I needed instead of sending it straight to finish. I've rushed wonders before so I'm not sure what's going on...

I believe they give you a set number of hammers based on the current era. I don't have the patience to test it to find out for sure.

 

[Corky]

two questions

1) God damnit, how the hell am supposed to be able to maintain an army without running out of gold in 10 turns? At the moment I'm around 1500 ad or something and I can't have more than one catapult and a couple of pikemen before hitting a deficit. And this is with like 9000000 tradeposts.

2) If I build a building that gives me something like [building land units is 25% faster]. Will this bonus pertain to all my cities or just to the city that has it/created it?

 

[zoku88]

^ How much are you paying in building maintenance? Road maintenance? Are all of your cities connected?

 

[RustyO]

Wrong thread, yeah, I know. :lol

Is Civ IV worth picking up for a casual?

Not hardcore enough a civ player for V (i.e can't be bothered for the price), and don't mind Revolution on the Xbox & DS

 

[Aaron]

Is it just a bug or do GEs have some hidden max hammer benefit? I saved a GE from maybe 2 eras back, and I tried to rush Cristo Rendator and it only gave me 66-75% of the hammers I needed instead of sending it straight to finish. I've rushed wonders before so I'm not sure what's going on...

Like in Civ IV, they have a set benefit. It just happens to be more than enough to complete earlier wonders.

3) The AI is downright terrible

You can stop right there. No matter what difficulty, the AI is pretty terrible at this game. The huge boosts they get at the highest difficulties doesn't entirely disguise their inability. If you survive their early game assault, you'll be able to win with no real challenge.

 

[Corky]

^ How much are you paying in building maintenance? Road maintenance? Are all of your cities connected?

usually its something like

33% unit maintenance
33% tile improvement
33% building maintenance

something along those lines, though most of the times unit maintenance is abit higher

 

[Earthstrike]

Maybe I should take a break.

Nah, you should start trying to play multiplayer.

 

[Najaf]

Vengeance will be so sweet.

That barbarian warrior up top looks to be giving you the 'ol evil eye.

 

[leroidys]

See you really wanted the long promised boarder wall

Whoah, where is the option to show bubbles for the resources?

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Whoah, where is the option to show bubbles for the resources?

I don't know what the hotkey is, but it's one of the overlay options you can pick from the bottom-right of the screen, next to the map.

 

[Aaron]

I don't know what the hotkey is, but it's one of the overlay options you can pick from the bottom-right of the screen, next to the map.

It's R oddly enough. G will turn on the grid. F fortifies units, etc.

 

[LCfiner]

two questions

1) God damnit, how the hell am supposed to be able to maintain an army without running out of gold in 10 turns? At the moment I'm around 1500 ad or something and I can't have more than one catapult and a couple of pikemen before hitting a deficit. And this is with like 9000000 tradeposts.

2) If I build a building that gives me something like [building land units is 25% faster]. Will this bonus pertain to all my cities or just to the city that has it/created it?

have you built enough gold increasing buildings in your cities? banks, markets, etc?

do you have trade routes between all your cities?

go into each city screen and check your gold production. and see how that changes when you allocate citizen focus for gold. there’s a chance the gold tiles in your cities might be abandoned in favour of food or production. you may need to adjust that for a couple cities to stay in the black


for question 2. just the city that built it.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Is there a list of hornets anywhere in the game? Some have them in brackets when you go to choose them, but some don't.

 

[Darklord]

Any tips on getting DX10 running decently? I put the game on max and it's smooth as butter 60 fps in DX9. DX10 goes at about 5 fps. What is gods name makes it take a hit that badly?

 

[moojito]

Wrong thread, yeah, I know. :lol

Is Civ IV worth picking up for a casual?

Not hardcore enough a civ player for V (i.e can't be bothered for the price), and don't mind Revolution on the Xbox & DS

I've never played it, but some people have been saying civ v is easier to pick up than civ iv. If you're not into it enough to pick up 5, I don't think 4 will be a good starting place. I'd maybe get the civ 5 demo and see if it draws you in.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Any tips on getting DX10 running decently? I put the game on max and it's smooth as butter 60 fps in DX9. DX10 goes at about 5 fps. What is gods name makes it take a hit that badly?

Had the same problem until I updated my video card drivers.