Apolyton Civ4 PREVIEW (By Solver) - Part 3 online

[DeepO]

Originally posted by lockstep
I don't see when despotism would be better than communism, but maybe things start getting weird on demigod.

That's because of the way corruption works in communism: from a certain number of cities, you lose all production everywhere. Despotism still gives you a couple of cities which will function.

BTW, changing to despotism is an exception, normally monarchy is the preferred one once republic doesn't keep your citizens happy.

DeepO

[Xmudder]

Originally posted by Solver

The most recent screenshot has Organized Religion at +25% building speed, almost as good as a forge. This is a chnage from +1 happy person per city. Can you comment on that? It seems that Organized Religion will be a very desirable civic, and Montheism a "get first" tech.

Uhmm, you misunderstood it. It's not +25% building speed, it's +25% shields when building buildings, or in other words, +25% build speed for city improvements. It's very good for getting infrastructure in place, those Markets and other stuff.

Ah... still a nice little civic once you get the techs for Market, Library, Temple, Granary, etc. and are ready to build city improvements instead of units. I assume the bonus stacks with forge? And that the bonus for forge stacks with the Industious bonus to wonder building? And that Organized religion building bonus stacks with the favored buildings of the various traits (+125% production of Granary for Expansionist under Organized Religion, for example)?

Originally posted by Solver

What is enabled by Prining Press? The icons look intriguing.

Meh, I don't know the tech tree by heart yet. Link to icons? I could tell you from those.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/techtree/

One other concern: Given that you have to protect your workers and settlers from wild animals, and given that settlers and workers have a move of 2, how do you protect them? Warriors only move one and Scouts only have a strength of 1? Chariots?

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Xmudder
One other concern: Given that you have to protect your workers and settlers from wild animals, and given that settlers and workers have a move of 2, how do you protect them? Warriors only move one and Scouts only have a strength of 1? Chariots?

heh... either start moving your escorts early, or only move your settler one tile at the time

DeepO

[lockstep]

Originally posted by DeepO
That's because of the way corruption works in communism: from a certain number of cities, you lose all production everywhere. Despotism still gives you a couple of cities which will function.

Obviously, I never came close to this number of cities - at least not while in Communism.

[lockstep]

Regarding settler movement of 2: At last I can move my first settler one tile (to a better starting spot) and still found my first city in 4000BC.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by lockstep




Obviously, I never came close to this number of cities - at least not while in Communism.

You get there easily enough, only you don't realize it because you're in republic or demo. Communism had one of the lowest appeals in Civ3, which meant too many people tried it once or twice, it didn't work, and they never tried again. I'm very pleased this should change with CIV as both the corruption system differs and there are more civics to build your own society from.

DeepO

[DeepO]

Originally posted by lockstep
Regarding settler movement of 2: At last I can move my first settler one tile (to a better starting spot) and still found my first city in 4000BC.

Yeah... and workers can move a tile and start building a road immediately, instead of requiring me to remember next turn what it was supposed to do on a non-improved tile

DeepO

[Solver]

Ah... still a nice little civic once you get the techs for Market, Library, Temple, Granary, etc. and are ready to build city improvements instead of units. I assume the bonus stacks with forge? And that the bonus for forge stacks with the Industious bonus to wonder building? And that Organized religion building bonus stacks with the favored buildings of the various traits (+125% production of Granary for Expansionist under Organized Religion, for example)?

Org. Religion is my favorite religious civic. I like that and the easier building of Missionaries. And yeah, favored buildings for your traits become really, really cheap.

The way stacking works, with everything in Civ4, is that there's a base value and then the sum of modifiers is applied. Like, you produce 10 shields a turn on the basic level, and then your bonuses are added on top of those 10.

With Settlers, you can indeed start moving escorts ahead of them, or use Chariots, or risk it and run quickly .

[Aks K]

Disregard this.

Aks K

[Aks K]

Originally posted by Solver
Meh, I don't know the tech tree by heart yet. Link to icons? I could tell you from those.

Look at my attached.

Aks K

[Solver]

One of the things it does is increase the commerce bonus from Villages/Towns.

[Xmudder]

Trade Routes

Can you explain how trade routes work? Does each city trade with the most profitable city to trade with, or is each city restricted to a limited number other cities that can use it to trade with.

Once you build a second city, does it automatically start a trade route with the first city if there is a road / river / coastal connection? Third city?

If this is the case, it seems that cities 2 and 3 will usually pay for themselves, as each trades with the other 2, offsetting maintaince costs.

City 4 will get 2 trade routes, but it won't create trade routes in the previous cities, so it's likely city #4 will cost more than it makes.

[Solver]

Each city will automatically create trade routes where most profitable. The number of trade routes depends on several factors. Early in the game, a likely scenario is this: you found a second city that is connected to your first. Both cities have a +1 trade route, but the new city increases maintenance by 3, so you have -1 net.

Trade routes are pretty profitable later on, though, and the techs that increase the number of them are important.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

How about international trade routes, Solver. Do they appear in a similar fashion, and how are these ones impacted by civics choices and diplomatic factors?

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

[Solver]

They appear similarly, but you must have Open Borders for that. Closed borders = no trade routes with that civ. That is the biggest incetive to sign Open Borders, really. That, and the relations boost it gives you.

The Mercantilism civic shuts down all foreign trade routes. It's another of the civics that I really like. My favorite civics (not neccessarily to run, but as a concept) are the ones that have both an upside and a downside, like Mercantilism here. When I discover the tech for it, I always sit and ponder whether I want to switch or not.