obsolete?

[drsparnum]

What does it mean for a building to obsolete exactly. For example, monestaries go obsolete with Scientific Method (as far as I recall).

1. Do all of them in the world become obsolete when anyone gets that tech or do your monastaries go obsolete when you get scientific method.

2. Does an obsolete building still generate culture, but not do its "other" effect (in the case of monastaries, +10% science and can build missionaries)? A wonder that keeps chugging along culturally even after it was obsolete could add alot of culture.

3. Does an obsolete building disapear as if you never built it (I know this is easy to check in the left panel on the city screen, but I'm at work and just started thinking about this)? If it doesn't...then do you keep paying maintenance on it?

4. What if a building is functionally obsolete. Coal mines give your factory power, but are unhealthy. Hydro plants do the same thing without the penalty. If you built a coal plant and then build a hydro plant..does your coal plant disapear? What about nuclear plants? Do they replace coal (they've got a different sort of downside)? Does your city just use the most recently built powerplant? If you build the 3 gorges damn, do all of your coal plants in cities that could build a hyrdo plant "shut down."

5. If a wonder goes obsolete does it still use up the total number of slots for wonders a city has? I think if a wonder goes obsolete you can replace it, but I'm not sure.

6. If a rescource goes obsolete (can't whales?), can you still trade it? Can you still get it traded to you?

7. What about the opposite of obsolete....err...useless until a later date. I've seen where I could trade uranium to an AI that I'm pretty sure couldn't use it. Right? I've also seen uranium in AIs that couldn't use it, but also couldn't trade it to me....right?

[Unimatrix11]

Kinda related: If you build the Eiffel-Tower and get free broadcasting towers in your cities, do you still have to invent mass-media to make them actually work ?

[Amarsir]

The quick answer is that the culture stays, the "active effect" disappears.

1. Do all of them in the world become obsolete when anyone gets that tech or do your monastaries go obsolete when you get scientific method.

The second one. You can delay Scientific Method quite a long time if you have a lot of monastaries to preserve.

2. Does an obsolete building still generate culture, but not do its "other" effect (in the case of monastaries, +10% science and can build missionaries)? A wonder that keeps chugging along culturally even after it was obsolete could add alot of culture.

Correct. Additionally, in the case of monastaries, you can still create missionaries off of them in the late game after monastaries go obsolete, although you can't build new ones. (That's a bit weird, took me a while to get the hang of it.) And yeah, while the obelisk-generating feature of Stonehenge isn't huge in the long run for a culture victory, the +10 per turn where it's built can be.

3. Does an obsolete building disapear as if you never built it

It stays and adds culture. No idea on the maintenance, or if it even causes any to begin with.

4. If you built a coal plant and then build a hydro plant..does your coal plant disapear?

I believe the building stays but the health penalty disappears. Same for 3 Gorges. That could matter if, say, you lost the 3 Gorges city or the hydro plant got destroyed.

If a wonder goes obsolete does it still use up the total number of slots for wonders a city has?

World wonders aren't limited per city. Only national wonders are, and none of those go obsolete.

If a rescource goes obsolete (can't whales?), can you still trade it? Can you still get it traded to you?

No. Well, if you can't use it then you can't get it. Sometimes you'll see a trade for fur, whales, or ivory get cancelled out of nowhere - it's because the opponent made it obsolete. Less clear to me is if you had an outgoing deal to give ivory and it became obsolete for you - would the trade partner still get it if it isn't obsolete for them yet. I think they still do but I'm not 100% on that.

7. I've also seen uranium in AIs that couldn't use it, but also couldn't trade it to me....right?

I think they can trade it to you, they just won't. If you haven't gotten to the point where it's revealed then you certainly can't harvest it yet let alone use it. But if someone else mines it they could theoretically trade it to you. No idea why you'd want it though.

[Amarsir]

If you build the Eiffel-Tower and get free broadcasting towers in your cities, do you still have to invent mass-media to make them actually work ?

Nope, once you have 'em you have 'em. In fact, I think if you're far enough behind you can capture cities that have buildings that you haven't researched yet - although I'm not completely certain of that.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Amarsir
No idea on the maintenance, or if it even causes any to begin with.

Buildings don't have maintenance costs in Civ 4, only the cities themselves do.

[Willem]

Re: obsolete?

Originally posted by drsparnum
7. What about the opposite of obsolete....err...useless until a later date. I've seen where I could trade uranium to an AI that I'm pretty sure couldn't use it. Right? I've also seen uranium in AIs that couldn't use it, but also couldn't trade it to me....right?

It's kind of dumb the way they've done this. I had one game where Ghandi hadn't discovered Iron Working yet, but he kept bugging me to trade him some Iron. It didn't really make any sense that he'd want something he couldn't even use at the time.

[unamablebuiler]

in the case of iron he probabably could use it if he didnot have copper cause axemen and spears use copper or iron AFAIK

[Willem]

Originally posted by unamablebuiler
in the case of iron he probabably could use it if he didnot have copper cause axemen and spears use copper or iron AFAIK

True but if he didn't have Ironworking, he wouldn't even know about the existance of Iron and therefor couldn't ask for it. Besides, he already had Copper at the time and didn't need it for making those units.

[Son of David]

I agree with removing the science effects of monastries with scientific method but there's no reason to take away the ability to build them.

They are useful for spreading happiness with free religion etc.

You can actually queue the building of a monastery, and even if you have researched scientific method in the meantime the city will still build the queued monastery.