Noob Questions 101

[maxcavsm]

1) Organized (or the traits along these lines), where it talks of -50% maintenance, what does it mean when it talks of double output of courthouses (can't remember the exact phrasing)?

2) How do you get a game to "marathon" setting? All I have for settings are quick, normal and epic.

3) How do you set/deselect victory conditions?

4) Can you select OCC as a pre-generation condition?

5) Is there ever a point where you would want to set up a lumbermill on a forested hill, as opposed to mining and going for that infintesimal chance that you actually pop a luxury square (hasn't happened to me yet...at least I don't think).

6) Come to think of it, when you "mine" a square, if there is a luxury under it (as in the small percentage of finding due to mining), does it immediately happen, or does it happen over time (as in with the discovery of plastic or coal, does it pop then)? I've never mined a hill where next turn it tells me "BLING! You've discovered gold!"

7) Basic Beelining towards military superiority= axemen, swordsmen, catapults, musketmen, riflemen, cannon, infantry, tanks, modern armor?

[Major Guz]

Re: Noob Questions 101

Originally posted by maxcavsm
1) Organized (or the traits along these lines), where it talks of -50% maintenance, what does it mean when it talks of double output of courthouses (can't remember the exact phrasing)?

it means -50% city maintenance (top left corner of city screen stated maintenance = X, X goes in half).
Double production SPEED for courthouses. Mouse over the hammer icon in the top middle part of the city screen. If your city produces 10 hammers per turn, output is increased to 20 when building a courthouse.

2) How do you get a game to "marathon" setting? All I have for settings are quick, normal and epic.

Have you tried patching the game with the 1.52 patch. I have my game patched and marathon speed is always visible to me as a choice

3) How do you set/deselect victory conditions?

I guess in the play custom game screen, I don't know for sure

4) Can you select OCC as a pre-generation condition?

You can select it in the custom game start screen in the conditions of the game

5) Is there ever a point where you would want to set up a lumbermill on a forested hill, as opposed to mining and going for that infintesimal chance that you actually pop a luxury square (hasn't happened to me yet...at least I don't think).

Depends on situation I guess, I would rather mine that tile.

6) Come to think of it, when you "mine" a square, if there is a luxury under it (as in the small percentage of finding due to mining), does it immediately happen, or does it happen over time (as in with the discovery of plastic or coal, does it pop then)? I've never mined a hill where next turn it tells me "BLING! You've discovered gold!"

It never happened to me either so I wouldn't know, I guess it would pop up like the BLING you have found horses after discovering the wheel (or whatever tech it is)

7) Basic Beelining towards military superiority= axemen, swordsmen, catapults, musketmen, riflemen, cannon, infantry, tanks, modern armor?

I can't really answer that yet, I have played too little number of games, but it sounds good. But there are people here that can answer this question better than me.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Fallenhero]

5. You might want to save the forrest to keep the health bonus and a lumbermill with railroad makes the most of it.

6. It just happens. It maybe centuries later or just a few years. You get an announcement and viola you have gold in them that hill.

7. The Tech path you take depends on your long term goals or style of play as well as your short term needs.
Military techs are important but if you ignore the ones that develop your economy you won't have the cash to support your advanced units.

[Willem]

Re: Noob Questions 101

Originally posted by maxcavsm
2) How do you get a game to "marathon" setting? All I have for settings are quick, normal and epic.

Yes, it's only available if you have the 1.52 patch.

5) Is there ever a point where you would want to set up a lumbermill on a forested hill, as opposed to mining and going for that infintesimal chance that you actually pop a luxury square (hasn't happened to me yet...at least I don't think).

I've taken to not mining any forested hills at all but leaving them until I can build a Lumbermill. It gives me the exact same yield as if I had mined it, but the forest gives my city health benefits. The odds of something being discovered are only 1 in 10000, so it's not worth mining just for that.

6) Come to think of it, when you "mine" a square, if there is a luxury under it (as in the small percentage of finding due to mining), does it immediately happen, or does it happen over time (as in with the discovery of plastic or coal, does it pop then)? I've never mined a hill where next turn it tells me "BLING! You've discovered gold!"

The soonest it can happen would be the next turn as the odds are 1 in 10000 of it happening each turn. But it can happen at any time in the game once you've mined it. Though it also has to be worked as well.

7) Basic Beelining towards military superiority= axemen, swordsmen, catapults, musketmen, riflemen, cannon, infantry, tanks, modern armor?

You can't just focus on those or your research/tax rate might suffer. You need to keep things balanced in this game, that's the key to doing well IMO.

[JimG]

Are those odds of 1/10000 official? cos I've only played a few games so far and have had iron, coal and aluminium pop up in an existing mine (and in each case it was long after I could 'see' the resources)

[Willem]

Originally posted by JimG
Are those odds of 1/10000 official? cos I've only played a few games so far and have had iron, coal and aluminium pop up in an existing mine (and in each case it was long after I could 'see' the resources)

Yes it is. That's the number that appears in the XML file in the entry that contols the random appearance.

Incidentally, you can also cause resources to appear in all other improvements too. There's just isn't any number added there by default. I've given my Farms a 1/20000 chance of creating Rice, Wheat or Corn.

[Nacht]

Does that mean 1/10000 per turn per mine? Is that number adjusted for gamespeed? If not you would have much more chance to discover some new resource on marathon than on normal speed. Which is actually my experience.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Noob Questions 101

Originally posted by maxcavsm
5) Is there ever a point where you would want to set up a lumbermill on a forested hill, as opposed to mining and going for that infintesimal chance that you actually pop a luxury square (hasn't happened to me yet...at least I don't think).

I won't cut any forest down unless I need the hammers for a chop-rush.

[chiqss]

Originally posted by Nacht
Does that mean 1/10000 per turn per mine? Is that number adjusted for gamespeed? If not you would have much more chance to discover some new resource on marathon than on normal speed. Which is actually my experience.

I did experience that too , in the 3 marathon games I played , at least 10 ressources appeared overtime ... I had always pretty big empires though ( ie lot's of mines )

[Willem]

Originally posted by Nacht
Does that mean 1/10000 per turn per mine?

Yes.

Is that number adjusted for gamespeed?

No, it's a constant value.

If not you would have much more chance to discover some new resource on marathon than on normal speed. Which is actually my experience.

I guess you're right, I never really thought about it. I've only played Marathon so I have no way to compare.