Video Games Nerd alert...CIV 5 coming out on Sept 21... - Page 6

**Buck** · 09-28-2010, 02:45 PM

That's never happened to me...

So last night I decided to start up a 1 on 1 game and moved the clock to the fastest mode and started in the Renaissance Era. I played for like 5 hours and I'm barely in the 1900s. This game is super long, no matter what.

allen_kcCard · 09-29-2010, 07:21 AM

Looks like the crash on starting the game up was if I had background processes running that were taking up much memory, and updating my drivers seemed to help with it as well, but that saved game is still crashing right after I get a message that Bismark reached the industrial era, so I gave up on that game and started another and hope it doesn't happen again.

What is the process the rest of you follow for trying to deal with unhappiness? At first I was pretty much ignoring it other than trying to build some building for it as it was plausible, but then when I went to war at first and was annexing cities I was quickly stuck with like -20 happiness for a ton of turns and it killed my productivity through that stretch. So I started making puppets instead of annexing, and that helped some, but not enough, and now I'm starting to try to limit growth since so much of it was coming from population....but even with that my new game dipped down to -1 or so already. I'm not sure if I am just trying to expand too fast with settlers early on, or what. The settlers also royally piss off my neighbors and they typically declare war on me, but as long as one of my scouts got lucky and hit on some weapons upgrades to be archers I can kick their asses all over the place and just end up wiping out their cities with an archer and warrior.

Starting my first day back at work since getting it (and being off for 5 days), so now I will actually read the manual over for the first time.

**Saulbadguy** · 09-29-2010, 07:41 AM

Build lots of happy buildings, trade for luxuries, adopt policies that increase happiness.

allen_kcCard · 09-29-2010, 07:53 AM

For the happy buildings, sometimes I end up - in happiness before those types of buildings are even an option yet. Trading for luxuries seems to be a bit of an issue at times since there are so many times that just when I need it the most (in war) I end up losing them because the people that are my competitors are the ones that I would have been trading with, and the computer AI is so hard headed on wanting something like 4 of my luxiries for one of theirs, so I tell them to F off.

Do you just let your population go up on the default setting for the tiles to be worked?

**Buck** · 09-29-2010, 01:12 PM

What the hell? I have never even fallen under 9 happiness, and I am usually always above 20. You must be building like 5 cities from the get go...

allen_kcCard · 09-29-2010, 01:46 PM

I've been building one scout, maybe two, then a worker, and then start building settlers. I typically get in about three settlers about the time that the neighbors get pissed and try to snatch up the choice plots of land close by to seal off expansion areas from others or cover up luxuries. With that, I am normally still in the green on happiness, but since I am on the brink of early war at that point, as soon as I start sacking enemy cities I go into the negative fast. Worst was when I had my first large scale war and took about 5 cities and annexed them and was at -20 happiness or worse for like 30 turns until they all built courthouses.

**Buck** · 09-29-2010, 01:50 PM

Don't start wars then. Let it ride out a little while first.

allen_kcCard · 09-29-2010, 02:03 PM

I don't start them, they do for all the expansion. First they give a message to me about being pissed for me settling in their area or buying up land slots, then they will normally try to ask for open borders, and then soon after a couple of them will seem to declare war at the same time.

Silock · 09-29-2010, 04:27 PM

Don't settle new cities if you have less than 5 happiness. Don't build scouts, as they are completely useless. Explore with warriors instead.

When you take a new city, build a settler with it, then raze the city to the ground. Use your new settler to build a city where the old one was. Far less unhappiness that way.

allen_kcCard · 09-29-2010, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silock

Don't settle new cities if you have less than 5 happiness. Don't build scouts, as they are completely useless. Explore with warriors instead.

When you take a new city, build a settler with it, then raze the city to the ground. Use your new settler to build a city where the old one was. Far less unhappiness that way.

Main thing I want from the scouts is to find ruins and hope for a weapons upgrade. Then you get an archer out of it really early that you can get 30 xp out of just bombarding barbarians. I've never built an archer early on, but use at least one of the scouts I created until they are obsolete. They also keep their movement, so I have an archer than can move two spaces over any terrain, which really kicks ass when I want to move and shoot.

Good idea on the raze and replace, but not sure how long it would take to build a settler from that town itself...worth checking out though. I'd probably puppet it for 2 rounds to get past the rebellion time after conquring, then annex for as long as it takes to create the settler, then raze, and then settle back over top.

Silock · 09-29-2010, 07:45 PM

Once you start going up in difficulty, ruins with weapons upgrades are almost impossible to find. Either the computer has found them first, or your first warrior has. Plus, the ruins' bonuses go way down in the higher difficulties.

**Buck** · 09-29-2010, 07:56 PM

Scouts are pretty much useless, although I usually build 1 in the very beginning.

My economic and cultural advisers always recommend I build them, but I never do.

Silock · 09-29-2010, 07:57 PM

I never build scouts, simply because warriors have 2 movement points, too. Sure, the terrain thing is a nice perk, but for me, it's just not worth wasting the hammers. I'd rather get a worker out early.

allen_kcCard · 09-30-2010, 07:32 AM

I've been playing on the middle difficulty, prince I think it is...started another game last night that had another scout get the upgrade and still have him going at turn 100 now taking on India on another continent that was able to be reached by one little arm of coast that reached out between the ocean with just one other longswordsman and a frigate bombarding off the shoreline. He has enough experiance that he can almost get the boost that will increase his attacks by one, and then I think the +1 range will come pretty soon after that, but I might skip that one since he will upgrade to a rifleman evenually and the range thing it wasted. As a crossbow now with all those upgrades he is a one man wrecking crew and the longswordsman does great to keep him with some cover. I've had to pull back a couple times to rest, but the two of them took one city down to about 50% and killed about 8 units of swordsman/elephant archers. I might just end up going all out on the promotions for him and see how a crossbowman does against infantry and tanks later.

Here is something I just found where someone did some of the same types of things when I was trying to find a list of all the promotions.

"+1 range, 2 attacks per round, +75% damage to all types of terrain, the ability to shoot over even mountains at no penalty.

This guy has singlehandedly destroyed two entire civilizations so far, and is the only thing keeping the garmans from flowing in from the south to eradicate everything on my peninsula.

The story behind him is, Rome started aggressively settling right next to Mecca, so I figured, I won't stand for this ☺☺☺☺, war it is. Problem was Rome itself was surrounded by desert and protected by a river, making melee assaults suicide, and I was getting attacked by barbarians from all angles so I couldn't send in reinforcements. 2 swordsmen and 1 archer unit camped outside Rome for something like 50 turns, the swordsmen getting shot at by the city and its garrisoned archer, and my archer shooting Rome with double experience from the Honor policy.

When rome finally fell the archer had 3 range and 2 attacks per turn, so I upgraded him to a crossbowman and he just did everything from then on. I wish it had a kill counter because he must've killed 100 units by now.

fancy picture: http://img838.imageshack.us/f/civ5lvl14cros.jpg/"

The only thing I would have to add to a story like that is that my crossbowman was formed from a scout that was the first unit I built, and he can move through any terrain with 2 moves. Sure...warriors can move 2 as well on good terrain, but it is great to be able to lead units to a forest or mountain, have them bogged down and hardly moving while I can still take one step and shoot when I need to.

The second scout I had made never got an upgrade and I gifted him to a maritime city-state once I'd explored everything on my initial continent.

allen_kcCard · 09-30-2010, 07:46 AM

As for the happiness thing, the game I started last night is going a lot better. There are a couple of times that I had it drop to -10, but that only lasted as long as it took the city I was razing to burn down and get out of my effects. China had declared war on me for the second time and I have them on one side and england on the other with only city states on the continent with us otherwise. So, instead of messing around with them I decided to burn them all to the ground, puppeted their capital, and am building about 6 settlers to fill in the void of blackened earth there the chinese used to be. All the food I'm getting from the two maritime city-state allies means the new cities will for like mad, so I'll probably get some more lower happiness even with avoid growth on, but I will be churning out theaters/circuses/coloseums as fast as I can as well.

BTW....maritime allies kick ass.

09-28-2010, 02:45 PM	#1
Buck Take a Chill Pill Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Carolina Casino cash: $8299900	That's never happened to me... So last night I decided to start up a 1 on 1 game and moved the clock to the fastest mode and started in the Renaissance Era. I played for like 5 hours and I'm barely in the 1900s. This game is super long, no matter what.
Posts: 44,563

09-29-2010, 07:21 AM	#2
allen_kcCard Veteran Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $4363183	Looks like the crash on starting the game up was if I had background processes running that were taking up much memory, and updating my drivers seemed to help with it as well, but that saved game is still crashing right after I get a message that Bismark reached the industrial era, so I gave up on that game and started another and hope it doesn't happen again. What is the process the rest of you follow for trying to deal with unhappiness? At first I was pretty much ignoring it other than trying to build some building for it as it was plausible, but then when I went to war at first and was annexing cities I was quickly stuck with like -20 happiness for a ton of turns and it killed my productivity through that stretch. So I started making puppets instead of annexing, and that helped some, but not enough, and now I'm starting to try to limit growth since so much of it was coming from population....but even with that my new game dipped down to -1 or so already. I'm not sure if I am just trying to expand too fast with settlers early on, or what. The settlers also royally piss off my neighbors and they typically declare war on me, but as long as one of my scouts got lucky and hit on some weapons upgrades to be archers I can kick their asses all over the place and just end up wiping out their cities with an archer and warrior. Starting my first day back at work since getting it (and being off for 5 days), so now I will actually read the manual over for the first time.
Posts: 2,768

09-29-2010, 07:41 AM	#3
Saulbadguy When a nightmare becomes real Join Date: Nov 2003 Casino cash: $2436966	Build lots of happy buildings, trade for luxuries, adopt policies that increase happiness.
Posts: 46,969

09-29-2010, 07:53 AM	#4
allen_kcCard Veteran Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $4363183	For the happy buildings, sometimes I end up - in happiness before those types of buildings are even an option yet. Trading for luxuries seems to be a bit of an issue at times since there are so many times that just when I need it the most (in war) I end up losing them because the people that are my competitors are the ones that I would have been trading with, and the computer AI is so hard headed on wanting something like 4 of my luxiries for one of theirs, so I tell them to F off. Do you just let your population go up on the default setting for the tiles to be worked?
Posts: 2,768

09-29-2010, 01:12 PM	#5
Buck Take a Chill Pill Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Carolina Casino cash: $8299900	What the hell? I have never even fallen under 9 happiness, and I am usually always above 20. You must be building like 5 cities from the get go...
Posts: 44,563

09-29-2010, 01:46 PM	#6
allen_kcCard Veteran Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $4363183	I've been building one scout, maybe two, then a worker, and then start building settlers. I typically get in about three settlers about the time that the neighbors get pissed and try to snatch up the choice plots of land close by to seal off expansion areas from others or cover up luxuries. With that, I am normally still in the green on happiness, but since I am on the brink of early war at that point, as soon as I start sacking enemy cities I go into the negative fast. Worst was when I had my first large scale war and took about 5 cities and annexed them and was at -20 happiness or worse for like 30 turns until they all built courthouses.
Posts: 2,768

09-29-2010, 01:50 PM	#7
Buck Take a Chill Pill Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Carolina Casino cash: $8299900	Don't start wars then. Let it ride out a little while first.
Posts: 44,563

09-29-2010, 02:03 PM	#8
allen_kcCard Veteran Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $4363183	I don't start them, they do for all the expansion. First they give a message to me about being pissed for me settling in their area or buying up land slots, then they will normally try to ask for open borders, and then soon after a couple of them will seem to declare war at the same time.
Posts: 2,768

09-29-2010, 04:27 PM	#9
Silock MVP Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Overland Park Casino cash: $10020882	Don't settle new cities if you have less than 5 happiness. Don't build scouts, as they are completely useless. Explore with warriors instead. When you take a new city, build a settler with it, then raze the city to the ground. Use your new settler to build a city where the old one was. Far less unhappiness that way.
Posts: 19,908

09-29-2010, 07:45 PM	#11
Silock MVP Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Overland Park Casino cash: $10020882	Once you start going up in difficulty, ruins with weapons upgrades are almost impossible to find. Either the computer has found them first, or your first warrior has. Plus, the ruins' bonuses go way down in the higher difficulties.
Posts: 19,908

09-29-2010, 07:56 PM	#12
Buck Take a Chill Pill Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: South Carolina Casino cash: $8299900	Scouts are pretty much useless, although I usually build 1 in the very beginning. My economic and cultural advisers always recommend I build them, but I never do.
Posts: 44,563

09-29-2010, 07:57 PM	#13
Silock MVP Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Overland Park Casino cash: $10020882	I never build scouts, simply because warriors have 2 movement points, too. Sure, the terrain thing is a nice perk, but for me, it's just not worth wasting the hammers. I'd rather get a worker out early.
Posts: 19,908

09-30-2010, 07:32 AM	#14
allen_kcCard Veteran Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $4363183	I've been playing on the middle difficulty, prince I think it is...started another game last night that had another scout get the upgrade and still have him going at turn 100 now taking on India on another continent that was able to be reached by one little arm of coast that reached out between the ocean with just one other longswordsman and a frigate bombarding off the shoreline. He has enough experiance that he can almost get the boost that will increase his attacks by one, and then I think the +1 range will come pretty soon after that, but I might skip that one since he will upgrade to a rifleman evenually and the range thing it wasted. As a crossbow now with all those upgrades he is a one man wrecking crew and the longswordsman does great to keep him with some cover. I've had to pull back a couple times to rest, but the two of them took one city down to about 50% and killed about 8 units of swordsman/elephant archers. I might just end up going all out on the promotions for him and see how a crossbowman does against infantry and tanks later. Here is something I just found where someone did some of the same types of things when I was trying to find a list of all the promotions. "+1 range, 2 attacks per round, +75% damage to all types of terrain, the ability to shoot over even mountains at no penalty. This guy has singlehandedly destroyed two entire civilizations so far, and is the only thing keeping the garmans from flowing in from the south to eradicate everything on my peninsula. The story behind him is, Rome started aggressively settling right next to Mecca, so I figured, I won't stand for this ☺☺☺☺, war it is. Problem was Rome itself was surrounded by desert and protected by a river, making melee assaults suicide, and I was getting attacked by barbarians from all angles so I couldn't send in reinforcements. 2 swordsmen and 1 archer unit camped outside Rome for something like 50 turns, the swordsmen getting shot at by the city and its garrisoned archer, and my archer shooting Rome with double experience from the Honor policy. When rome finally fell the archer had 3 range and 2 attacks per turn, so I upgraded him to a crossbowman and he just did everything from then on. I wish it had a kill counter because he must've killed 100 units by now. fancy picture: http://img838.imageshack.us/f/civ5lvl14cros.jpg/" The only thing I would have to add to a story like that is that my crossbowman was formed from a scout that was the first unit I built, and he can move through any terrain with 2 moves. Sure...warriors can move 2 as well on good terrain, but it is great to be able to lead units to a forest or mountain, have them bogged down and hardly moving while I can still take one step and shoot when I need to. The second scout I had made never got an upgrade and I gifted him to a maritime city-state once I'd explored everything on my initial continent.
Posts: 2,768

09-30-2010, 07:46 AM	#15
allen_kcCard Veteran Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $4363183	As for the happiness thing, the game I started last night is going a lot better. There are a couple of times that I had it drop to -10, but that only lasted as long as it took the city I was razing to burn down and get out of my effects. China had declared war on me for the second time and I have them on one side and england on the other with only city states on the continent with us otherwise. So, instead of messing around with them I decided to burn them all to the ground, puppeted their capital, and am building about 6 settlers to fill in the void of blackened earth there the chinese used to be. All the food I'm getting from the two maritime city-state allies means the new cities will for like mad, so I'll probably get some more lower happiness even with avoid growth on, but I will be churning out theaters/circuses/coloseums as fast as I can as well. BTW....maritime allies kick ass.
Posts: 2,768