A few basic questions

[Matus]

Hey,

I had a few questions regarding gameplay, hopefully someone could help me out.

First, I often find that my cities are unhappy due to overpopulation, what is the best way to combat this besides stagnating the growth. Are there and tile improvements or buildings that help with this?

Second, what technology opens up defensive pact? Do you have to be allies with them for multiple years or what, i cant figure it out.

Third, How do i become permanat allies with someone? If my permanant ally and I are the only ones remaining on the map does that mean the game is over?

Fourth, and final. During some games, most notably during my recent hotseat games, i find that my main city does not want to grow (population wise). I am forced to not make any units until i get my population up to 2 or 3, or else ill be screwed later in the game with a city Pop of 1. This is even after i put the city on a 3 bread tile. anyone else run into this?

Thanks if you can answer any of these questions...

[Boris Godunov]

1) RTM. Unhappiness is countered by buildings (theaters, colosseums, temples, etc.), access to luxury resources, religion, and certain wonders.

2) Military Tradition. It's in the Civilopedia. Keep in mind you can't enter into any pacts while in a state of war.

3) You have to have had a defensive pact with a nation for a while (not sure how long exactly) before they will consider a permanent alliance. I'm not sure what happens if you and the other civ are all that remain, but I imagine you would win then, because it considers your civs "combined."

4) No idea why that would be. Did you check to see if all the population is working the land? Some may be specialists, which don't produce food. Also make sure your workers build tile improvements like farms.

[Matus]

cool, thanks for the quick reply.

But on #1 i was asking specifically about Overpopulation, i cant figure out how to get them from saying that the city is "too crowded". Do i need to build more cities?

[Boris Godunov]

Once your population starts to rise in a city, there will always be complaints about it being overcrowded--you just have to have enough happiness to counteract their complaints.

In other words, you can't reduce the unhappy points, only produce more happy points than there are unhappy points to prevent unrest.