20 Points of Clarification

[Mergle]

Originally posted by Stageon
@Mergle and Blake

Thanks for your replies, they were very instructive. Don't know why I didn't pick up on the 'main city tile' dynamics before, but it's great to know.

Blake, I enjoyed your Apolyton U articles tremendously...well done! You have a great style, dry sense of humor, and nice way of fully explaining what it is you're talking about.

Comments - So fast workers don't seem that great a UU...granted the other leader traits may be desireable. Also, I guess I still don't understand the Industrial+Stone/Marble deal... 40% the original price? Can someone lay down an equation or something?

You do get the fast worker for the whole game, though, unlike other UUs.

The way the maths on bonuses work is like this:
Bonuses add, so if you have +100% and +50%, you get +150%.

This means you get 250%, or 2.5x your base production. So it takes 1/2.5=0.4 i.e. 40% of the time to build.

[Stageon]

Gotcha. Thanks Mergle, Jamski.

[Stageon]

Originally posted by Arrian
The Heroic Epic requires a level 4 unit and West Point requires a level 5. They gotta be alive, yeah. I kept a chariot with ~20 XP around into the industrial era so I could build WP. Actually, he's still around in the modern era, hangin' out with 22XP, and finishing off really badly damaged enemy units. When I get him to level 6, I'll promote him to a Gunship.

-Arrian

Seriously though, I wonder what would happen if you ran out of promotions? I guess the last xp interval extends forever.

[JackRudd]

Let's see... the promotions a Chariot is eligible for seem to be:

Combat I, II, III, IV, V
Flanking I, II
Mobility
Shock
Pinch
Formation
Charge
Amphibious
Medic I, II
March
Blitz
Commando
Sentry

And then when it's promoted to Gunship, it can additionally gain:

Drill I, II, III, IV

For a total of 23 promotions; by my calculations, that requires over 500 XP.

[Diadem]

I see a lot of wrong answers here on the 3rd question. Allow me to correct.

A tile where you found a city normally produces 2 food. Even if you found it on terrain that has a higher base production, like floodplains. Founding it on a resource however can yield you a higher initial food production. You won't get the improved bonus though. This is very weird. A city on a floodplains (3 normal food) produces just 2 food. A city on a grassland-cow (3 normal food) produces 3 food. A city on a plains-cow (2 normal food) provides just 2. A city on a cow-floodplains (4 normal food) provides 3 as well.

A city tile may produce more hammers if your original unimproved tile produces > 1 hammer. I think this only happens on a plains-hill, and maybe if you found it directly on some resources. The same is true for commerce, and a financial civ's bonus works over this. Founding a city on wine near a river means 3 instant commerce.

A city tile never counts as improved. Founding it on a resources does not yield you the bonus production from that resource. It does, however, give you access to that resource, as soon as you have the required tech. For example founding a city on stone does not add hammers, but if gives you access to stone as soon as you research masonry.

[MasterDave]

Nobody has answered #20 yet about the coastline options on Pangea maps.

Here it is, cut n pasted from Sirians Technical reference on the map scripts:

SHORELINE - This setting chooses the level of "natural" terrain effects.

* "Random" - DEFAULT - 40% chance of "Natural", 30% "Pressed", 30% "Solid".
* "Natural" - Creates a solid core, then adds four to seven "subcontinental" regions
which can vary in shape and size, or even be a small island chain. These
often reach out in to the sea, forming snaky peninsulas or occupying
a "corner" of the main continent with a fat, unpredictable protrusion.
* "Pressed" - Creates a solid core, then adds two to four "larger" subcontinents. This
setting also shifts more to the north or south, at random.
* "Solid" - Nothing but the solid core, larger and with smoother shorelines.