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Civ4 hidden secrets (not cheats... secrets)
I don't mean how to cheat but what all the little icons and stars and such mean in the game.
For example I just found out that the little star next to the religious icon for a city designates that city as your Holy City for that particular religion.
Things like this can help people from dragging their GP all over the map to find the city and build a shrine.
Some other helpful tips:
- A beaker, hammer, etc. on the left of the row of city icons indicate that the city is the top research, manufacturing, etc. in your empire.
- Stars: a star on the left indicates the presence of a center-of-empire effect: Versailles or Forbidden Palace. A star around the population figure is your capital.
- Stars: a star on a religious icon indicates the Holy City for that religion.
- Tiles: Smoke and flame will rise from forges at your mines, or a shed will show up, on tiles being worked by a city. These are not the same as cottages.
- The population circle indicates growth:
- The percentage is the cultural defense bonus applied to units defending the city.
- You can zoom in and see the wonders and improvements you've already built in the city. Which will come in handy once you can recognize them by sight... for each civ with different architectural styles.
- Using the '/' key will allow you to scroll through your active Workers.
- When in the domestic advisor screen, if you select a city, the production queue will be shown in the bottom half of the screen. You can manipulate the production queue directly from here. You will also have access to the governor options.
- Your city must be working the tile a cottage is on for it to grow into a hamlet, etc.
- If you are the first to sail around the world you receive an extra movement point for all of your ships.
- There's a strategy layer you can access by zooming out a certain distance. This lets you draw lines and make signs on the map for strategic purposes. You must zoom out until the icons above the minimap change and then click on the "Turn On Stratagy Layer" icon.
- With a unit selected, hold ALT and hover over an enemy unit. The odds and a breakdown of bonuses is displayed.
- Submarines can travel UNDER ice tiles.
- Airlift: You can airlift workers and artillery pieces.
- At the top of the flag for each unit or stack, there will be one or more small circles. The color of these circles represents the movement status:
- The number of circles at the top of the flag for each unit or stack is the same as the number of units in the stack, up to about 9 total.
- A hydroelectric plant seems to be buildable if a city has a river anywhere within its city radius, but the Three Gorges Dam only seems to be buildable if the city is directly on the river.
- If you have "Score Display" on you will notice everyone's score in the lower right-hand corner of the display. If you hover over your name a pop-up will tell you how your score is being calculated.
- If you chop down a forest within someone else's borders with whom you have an open borders treaty, you will not get the hammers (it is yet to be discovered if they get the hammers or they simply are not awarded)
- If you are at war with some civ together with another civ, you can ask your "ally" to coordinate attacks against a specific city by choosing an option "Let's talk about something else" and then choosing joint attack.
- In the diplomatic advisor screen, you can left click on a portrait of another ruler to see what is his attitude towards other rulers. If you then mouse over other ruler's portraits, you will have a complete break-down of why they like or dislike him - which can be useful if you want to manipulate them into, either, signing a peace or going for war.
- When trading techs, the AI will normally not agree to trade any tech which allows it to build a wonder, until such wonder is built.
- When trading resources, a number in brackets on your side of the screen shows a total number of resources you own, including the one you are using. This means that if you have only (1) resource and you trade it away, you won't be able to use it. On the other hand, the number of the AI side always means extra resources.
- Discovering a technology obsoleting a wonder or a building has effect only on your civilization, not other civilizations. So if you discover Calendar, your opponent who built Stonehenge still can use it until he gets Calendar as well.
- Hold down both the right and left mouse buttons to grab and drag the map.
- Rivers provide a trade connection to the sea allowing inland cities to have trade connections with distant lands, no coastal city required. Trade routes can be quite convulted. An ocean-going boat from "Coastal CityA" to "Coastal City B", then a caravan along the road, to a river, where a boat then sails down the river and across the lake to "Landlocked City C".
- If a captured base has an acadamy, the acadamy will give 4 culture a turn, thus a captured base with an acadamy can focus on stuff other than building a theatre or whatever. (this might be a bug since no other captured buildings give culture so don't depend on it after a patch)
Anyone else figure anything out? Remember, not in the manual but helpfull (or an easter egg, if you like
).
Tom P.
For example I just found out that the little star next to the religious icon for a city designates that city as your Holy City for that particular religion.
Things like this can help people from dragging their GP all over the map to find the city and build a shrine.
Some other helpful tips:
- A beaker, hammer, etc. on the left of the row of city icons indicate that the city is the top research, manufacturing, etc. in your empire.
- Stars: a star on the left indicates the presence of a center-of-empire effect: Versailles or Forbidden Palace. A star around the population figure is your capital.
- Stars: a star on a religious icon indicates the Holy City for that religion.
- Tiles: Smoke and flame will rise from forges at your mines, or a shed will show up, on tiles being worked by a city. These are not the same as cottages.
- The population circle indicates growth:
- Green dots = growing cities
- Gray dots = stagnant (or very slow growth) cities
- Red dots = starving cities
- The percentage is the cultural defense bonus applied to units defending the city.
- You can zoom in and see the wonders and improvements you've already built in the city. Which will come in handy once you can recognize them by sight... for each civ with different architectural styles.
- Using the '/' key will allow you to scroll through your active Workers.
- When in the domestic advisor screen, if you select a city, the production queue will be shown in the bottom half of the screen. You can manipulate the production queue directly from here. You will also have access to the governor options.
- Your city must be working the tile a cottage is on for it to grow into a hamlet, etc.
- If you are the first to sail around the world you receive an extra movement point for all of your ships.
- There's a strategy layer you can access by zooming out a certain distance. This lets you draw lines and make signs on the map for strategic purposes. You must zoom out until the icons above the minimap change and then click on the "Turn On Stratagy Layer" icon.
- With a unit selected, hold ALT and hover over an enemy unit. The odds and a breakdown of bonuses is displayed.
- Submarines can travel UNDER ice tiles.
- Airlift: You can airlift workers and artillery pieces.
- The units that are airlifted must start their turn in the city. If they move to the city, they cannot airlift until the next turn.
- They can only airlift to another city (which doesn't have to have an airport).
- Only one unit can airlift into a city per turn.
- At the top of the flag for each unit or stack, there will be one or more small circles. The color of these circles represents the movement status:
- Red=out of move points
- Green=full movement
- Yellow=some movement used but still has points remaining
- White=fortified.
- The number of circles at the top of the flag for each unit or stack is the same as the number of units in the stack, up to about 9 total.
- A hydroelectric plant seems to be buildable if a city has a river anywhere within its city radius, but the Three Gorges Dam only seems to be buildable if the city is directly on the river.
- If you have "Score Display" on you will notice everyone's score in the lower right-hand corner of the display. If you hover over your name a pop-up will tell you how your score is being calculated.
- If you chop down a forest within someone else's borders with whom you have an open borders treaty, you will not get the hammers (it is yet to be discovered if they get the hammers or they simply are not awarded)
- If you are at war with some civ together with another civ, you can ask your "ally" to coordinate attacks against a specific city by choosing an option "Let's talk about something else" and then choosing joint attack.
- In the diplomatic advisor screen, you can left click on a portrait of another ruler to see what is his attitude towards other rulers. If you then mouse over other ruler's portraits, you will have a complete break-down of why they like or dislike him - which can be useful if you want to manipulate them into, either, signing a peace or going for war.
- When trading techs, the AI will normally not agree to trade any tech which allows it to build a wonder, until such wonder is built.
- When trading resources, a number in brackets on your side of the screen shows a total number of resources you own, including the one you are using. This means that if you have only (1) resource and you trade it away, you won't be able to use it. On the other hand, the number of the AI side always means extra resources.
- Discovering a technology obsoleting a wonder or a building has effect only on your civilization, not other civilizations. So if you discover Calendar, your opponent who built Stonehenge still can use it until he gets Calendar as well.
- Hold down both the right and left mouse buttons to grab and drag the map.
- Rivers provide a trade connection to the sea allowing inland cities to have trade connections with distant lands, no coastal city required. Trade routes can be quite convulted. An ocean-going boat from "Coastal CityA" to "Coastal City B", then a caravan along the road, to a river, where a boat then sails down the river and across the lake to "Landlocked City C".
- If a captured base has an acadamy, the acadamy will give 4 culture a turn, thus a captured base with an acadamy can focus on stuff other than building a theatre or whatever. (this might be a bug since no other captured buildings give culture so don't depend on it after a patch)
Anyone else figure anything out? Remember, not in the manual but helpfull (or an easter egg, if you like
).Tom P.
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