Zero Growth??????

[janet killeen]

Before you ask I have read the manual - well... most of it, I am a newbie and cannot understand why I have zero growth and / or overcrowding in many of my cities. I'm building hospitals and have researched sanitation etc - working my way through the list of buildings in what I consider to be a logical fashion, is there anything I can actually do? - unfortunately I have run out of available land to expand to.

Please someone give me some advice

[bongo]

Just to repeat the basics:
Cities will grow as long as they have a food surplus, you need an aqueduct(available with construction) or river to grow past size 6 and a hospital(sanitation) to get beyond 12. Harbors give extra food on sea squares, granaries also speed growth.....

Still not sure what your problem is, when does your cities stop growing?

[Tiberius]

The growth of your cities doesn't depend on hospitals or any other city improvement (edit: oops, forgot about harbors).
Each citizen of a city eats 2 "food points" (graphic = 2 bushels of wheat) and each tile the city works produces a certain number of food points (how many depends on type of the tile, tile improvements and government) . When the city produces more food than its citizens eat, there is a food surplus and the city grows (after filling up the whole food box, or only the half of it if the city has a granary). If there is insufficient food from the tiles being worked to feed all the population, the city doesn't grow anymore (actually it can even starve and lose population)

Aqueducts and hospitals are needed to let the cities grow over 6/12. (hospitals also reduce diseases caused by nearby flood plains and jungles). They don't speed growth.

Overcrowding is just that: overcrowding. It makes citizens unhappy. You can't do anything against overcrowding, except for shrinking the cities (building settlers, workers, or even starving a city - but you don't want to do that). You can however fight against the unhappiness caused by overcrowding: secure as many luxuries as you can (connect them with roads or import them), build happiness improvements and/or wonders and if this isn't enough use the luxury slider.

[janet killeen]

They seem to stop at various stages, the problem is that when they do I can't build what I need to build in order to try and fix the problem - presumably I have to then hurry/buy the production?

Am I missing the point?

[Tiberius]

I'm not sure I understand: they stop growing or they stop building?

If they stop building, they must be in civil disorder (more unhappy than happy citizens).

Unhappiness can cause zero growth, too. If the citizens are unhappy and you have the governor on, he will take pop from worked tiles and make them entartainers. Entertainers produce happy faces (make unhappy citizens content) but don't work and thus don't produce food anymore. They still consume food, though.

[Tiberius]

"Must Read" threads for newer players / posters

Civilization III Info Center

Check out these two links, they contain very valuable info, and not only for new players. You will find quickly answers for most of your answers.

If you still can't find the answer in those links, the best solution is to post here a screenshot or a save (you can attach them to your post). You know the saying: a picture tells more than 1000 words

[janet killeen]

Well, the advisor tells me there is zero growth, (presumably population, and any building works will be complete in 9999.... turns.

How do I get the Governer up?

There seems to be a lot of things I can't seem to find out how to get to.
for instance I wanted to form an alliance with a country but I simply couldnt find a screen to do this with.
The manual tells you what you need to do but doesn't seem to explain how to get to the relevent screens

To the other responder - I will check out the links you suggest.

Sorry to be so dumb but I am struggling a bit.

[Rasputin]

sounds like your citys are going into revolt due to unhappiness caused by the overcrowding, as stated above you need t oget more luxaries and make sure the citys all conencted by roads to share those luxuries.

i find most citys will grow faster than you keep people happy so it a matter of balancing this by building happy impriovments too, temples, cathedrals etc... or jsut turn some citizens into entertainers. in city screen double clcik on the city centre and it will move your citizensd around to try and make them happy , you may need to have your city have excess entertainers and therefore have negative growth for short periods to maintain some production. Build the temple or rush it during this period, then once you got the hasppy impriovement built or built roads to bring luxuries in to city, switch back the entertainer to a productive citizen.

[Tiberius]

How do I get the Governer up?

Right click on the city, then click on "Contact Governor"; this will open the Governor screen.
Until you learn more intimately how civ3 works, let the governor manage happiness. You can also tell the gov. what to emphasize in that particular city, or for the whole empire: food, commerce or production.

It'd be better for you in the long run to learn how to micromanage your cities for maximum effciency, without using the governor. However, for the time being, use it.

[janet killeen]

Thank you all for your help - I actually think my main problem is knowing how to access all the particular menus and screens.

[latka]

F1 key is your friend.

If the city name on the left appears in pink, then you are in revolt. Click on the city name to access the city screen.

[Rasputin]

Re: Zero Growth??????

Originally posted by janet killeen

Before you ask I have read the manual - well... most of it

me thinks this most of it, was really little of it

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by janet killeen
Thank you all for your help - I actually think my main problem is knowing how to access all the particular menus and screens.

If you still have questions about the issue, post a save here. Then each city can be looked at and the solution found.

BTW metros (cities over 12 pop) can get to the point that there is no way to grow. Once they are producing all the food they can.

Cities with 9999 are either maxed out and need a structure to grow or are rioting and need to be pacified.
This can be done with luxs, by ising the slider or if in a more represive form of government adding MP's (if not or only 1).
You will not be able to built happiness structure while in roit mode.
Anyway the solutions are too many to cover without a look at teh empire.

[janet killeen]

I have no unhappy people - no rioting, I'm starting to think I simply built my towns too close together and they just can't produce any more. Is population limited to the physical amount of squares because the each seem to have 1 square each?

As for the 9999 this is not widespread just a few - I guess I can live with that.

I do have one specific question - if I can't right click on an opponents unit I can't find a way of making contact. I've looked through all the advisors screens, it's probably just a keystroke I'm not aware of.

The other thing is the book says if I want to put an embassy in I should double click the capital city - who's theirs or mine - neither seems to work? is there another way?

By the way I can get the governer of my cities up now by pressing 'G' but not the way described in this thread. Do you think I need to apply a patch/update or something?

[Tiberius]

1. A screenshot or a save would be useful. We could tell you exactly what's happening, but this requires now just too much speculation.

If you can't or don't know how to post screeshots, at least describe us in detail a city: size, how many happy-content-unhappy citizens it has, what kind of tiles it is working (irrigated plains, mined hill, coast, etc), improvements in the city (granary, aqueduct, etc), how many luxuries you have and so on.

2. F4 - the Foreign Advisor screen. You will see pictures of your opponents ("leaderheads"); double click on them for contact.

3. Their capital. There is an easier way of doing it, but I should know if you are playing vanilla Cibv3 or the PtW (Play the World) expansion pack? PtW has a much easier way of handling espionage missions (including establishing an embassy). I don't remember how was it handled in the original civ3.

4. You mean, there is no "Contact governor" option if you right click a city? Hmmm, is this perhaps a PtW addition as well?

Unfortunately I don't have the game here and thus I can't give you more precice answers right now.