Silly questions, w/poll.

[wodan11]

There are no silly questions, only silly people.

[Blaupanzer]

There are no silly questions, only silly people.

I must ... refrain.

[DaveV]

Does the shiny blue "build here" circle take into account hidden resources?

From what I've heard from people who should know, the blue circles don't know about hidden resources. The start position normalizer, on the other hand, does. So moving your settler away from the start position risks losing hidden copper or horses.

[ColdWizard]

I wonder because I started a new game, the blue circle indicated a somewhat dubious looking position on the coast (plains with a couple of hills). Later copper popped up in one of the plains squares. But maybe I'm just too n00b to fully assess the terrain as yet.

[rah]

The most hilarious thing is when on the opening screen you waste your first turn or two moving to where the blue circle is and then the next turn starts and all of a sudden there is no blue circle where you are but there's a new one a few squares away. That was the last time I paid attention to the blue circle.

[Blaupanzer]

Like rah, I've chased a few blue circle lures into settling on the fourth or fifth turn. In some ways I'm surprised how much of a disadvantage that creates, but it most definitely affects subsequent play. A delay of more than two turns is as much of a setback as losing your first expansion city. So, now I just settle the first settler, then select sites based on my current solution to this game's 'civ, land, neighbors' puzzle.

[Theben]

Rarely do I wait more than 1 turn to settle my capital. Never more than 2.

[ColdWizard]

That just means that the new blue circle is in an even better location

Does anyone else have trouble seeing where resources are in the jungle? I missed an elephant (I knew it was there but plopped a city down just above it and the city name bar blocked it, so I forgot for a few hundred years), rice, and bananas.

How long does it take for a city to culture flip? Do I have to "help" it? I'm the Dutch in Africa (and a very misshapen Africa at that) and I rushed to build a city up on the frontier so as to "close off" access to the continent. It's an Egypt-area city, and I parked some cultured great people in there/had them build culturish special buildings since another Civ is based in Iran. This Iran-area civ (I forget which one, purple color) put down a city in Greece. The city had a Dutch revolt event of some sort, but turns later is still the other civ, even though the square it's on is 98% Dutch, 1% other, the square to the right and the sea squares to the south are all Dutch. It's a mere size one, and has been so at least since the revolt event. I'm not really interested in the city per se, but it would be my first culture victim.

Also, I don't like open borders. "Enemy" units wandering around freely in my civ is disconcerting and brings up bad memories of civ2 mp games.

[Blaupanzer]

Coal on a forest or jungle is very hard to see, as is oil when it appears there in rare cases. However, if you leave the resources tags on all the time the pictures will remind you to exploit these hidden beauties.

[ColdWizard]

+1 rice, +1 wheat, +1 banana thanks to Blaupanzer. The wheat was near a future city site, the others merely inside the border. Jungle oil may be easier to see than suggested, but Good thing I already had the tags on.

Hammurabi's Greek city flipped, long after I thought it wouldn't. It had grown to a 2 and expanded it's own borders northward and gained influence in my edge, so I ignored it. Then Boudica took one of Hammurabi's cities and a few turns later the Greek one flipped to me. A lot of Babylonian influence to the north though so I don't have a fat cross. I have a GP headed that way. Would a culture bomb be better or just have it settle there?

[rah]

The most satisfying city flip is when it happens against human player in an MP game. Usually it only happens to the inexperienced players but every now and then...... And the best is you know they can see it coming and they're probably chopping or whipping culture building to delay the inevitable. Or they spend so many resources on building culture that you march in with a handful of troops and just take the city.
I appreciate "creative" much more in MP games. I'm not dissapointed when I'm not creative in an SP game, but in an mp game....

[ColdWizard]

What induces vassalization? Is it in the manual? The Saladin guy became my vassal out of the blue many turns after Hammurabi did. Hammurabi was in last place and getting smoked in his war with Boudica. But Saladin has a decent spread and not penned in like Hammurabi.

[Dis]

probably not in the manual. I don't even think they introduced vassals until the first expansion. Unfortunately I don't know all the factors that cause a civ to want to be your willing vassal. But if you are on good terms with them, or share a religion with them (or did early on before you went free religion), and they have common enemies that threaten them, and they are of small size, they may ask to be your vassal.

[ColdWizard]

I spread confucianism to all of Hammurabi's cities, but didn't really bother with Saladin. I might have traded tech with him, but not much beyond open borders. Basically I just ignored him all game, except when I got everyone to declare war on Boudica. Justinian got more free stuff than Saladin. Unless he was the one that founded hinduism. I helped spread it to try to gain votes for AP voting. Maybe that was it? I don't have a state religion though.

[Hauptman]

Generally speaking, willing vassalization requires maybe 2 things.

1) you are not their worst enemy.

B) Your power score is high enough to protect them from thier worst enemy.

and third, (does not require the other 2) they are getting the snot kicked out of them and noone else was willing to save them. I have had "furios" civs beg for my protection when thier own friends turn on them.