Hmmm ... tricky one, as I can't really remember what I didn't know (having played Caesar before).

1. That bazaar buyers will buy homegrown food from a storeyard if it can also be imported (and set to 0).

2. That a Festival Square doesn't actually have to be attached to anything.

3. That it's a good idea to put down the base of any monuments right at the beginning to save mass-demolition when you suddenly discover your pyramid complex has no way of attaching itself to the Nile or that there's no room for your large pyramid.

And finally a fourth one ... probably most important
4. Before kicking the computer, blaming bugs in the game or generally swearing at anything or anyone who crosses your path ... check stockpiling (or in the case of an export that was stockpiled, check you've manually set it to export again ... it doesn't happen automatically)

Interesting idea papercut. I will have to give some thought as to what I wished I had known, but in the meantime I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on your point 2.

I'm one of those who believe that 1 efficient dock is best, though I would concede that possibly in some circumstances 2 docks next to each other could work better. Multiple docks in separate parts of the map are I believe a recipe for disaster, with ships spending too long moving from dock to dock which therefore means fewer ships from each city actually pass through your docks in year, meaning less trade. One dock with many storeyards which have both any goods to be exported and room for any goods to be imported works far better. If you search for dock you would find a number of threads with peoples opinions on this matter.

5 docks! A formula for disaster! 2 maybe, but then only in special circumstances.

hi all,
it seems that, contrarily to most experts here, I never used a forum, until last week, so had to learn everything by myself. And, of course, going through the posts, I found chats 15 months old about sth I understood only 2 months ago. But I am happy too to have made it on my own.
Would say to beginners: I made during months 2 BIG MISTAKES that had huge consequences on my ability to win a game:
- roads spreading everywhere instead of good self-sufficient "patches" of housings, separated from each other with road blocks (thank you Baltic for having shown me).
- worst one I made: when short on manpower, I used to set priorities at 8&9 for leisure and education. Never do that. As soon as your city grows, and whatever may happen next, set leisure and education priorities at 1&2 and never touch it any more.
OK papercut for 1 and 3.
To you all, I am wondering whether we all perhaps exagerate a bit on all the fuss we make on the "How many docks" topic. One good point is to have them close to each other.

I am also sure that you all think best advice eventually is Gill's point 4 above. Before incriminating the computer, bugs or bad drinking habits from the designers, check your own city! The game is perfectly designed, bugs are extremely rare (with the patches) and the objectives are really easy to attain when you play well.

Good topic papercut

Here are my three:

1) You don't need the little isolated huts to provide manpower for industries, venues, ... Just create a housing block that has houses serviced on one side and an access road on the other side (withing one square)to provide manpower to the industries.

2) Know the evolution of housing, or what you have to supply to bring in the immigrants. It will make you play and plan ahead of the game

3) Don't expand or add improvemengts to your cities until you have a surplus of manpower. (goes together with #2).

I have no problem with papercut's number 2. And I think while 1 dock works most of the time it does not work all of the time.

Experiment and try different approaches to this game there is a lot of discovering yet to be done.

Good gaming,
Vriesea

As I was reading down the threads I was thinking of what my three would be...then I got to Vriesea's three and I agree completely.

1)housing blocks

2)evolution of housing

3)money management

I would also mention statistical data... production rates, comsumption rates, # of gods per 100 people, that sort of thing.

StarKey

hmmm.. I will have to go back to C3 for some real beginner-newbie misconceptions, but there were plenty.

My first mistake was I started out in the sandbox scenarios instead of the career path. I didnt know the early missions introduced you gradually to the different concepts. So, here I was putting all my temples in a pretty square in a "downtown" area, and the industry waaaaay over there and, well.. it was exciting to watch it burn up and fall down, but I was pretty frustrated.

Next, I would have to admit even after I found the forums and experts, I had some misguided notion that housing blocks were not necessary, they were for advanced players or experts or someone else . I wanted an organic looking city and I wouldnt even look at the cities in the downloads section because I wanted to do it my way. That stubborn decision delayed my skills somewhat..

Add to that, it took the longest time for me to understand the difference between the Kingdom Road and kingdom road access. I still remember the light bulb going off in my mind.. aaahhhh..

The best thing I did was overcome my shyness and start asking questions. And making friends with Marty Party didnt hurt a bit . It was so nice to have someone applauding your small achievements and providing encouragement. I have tried to return the favor, as I know many of the players have.

I recommend that beginners pay a lot of attention to the various walkers, using appropriate overlays. Understanding walkers makes many things much clearer, such as why some housing designs work better than others.

Here's my 2 cents worth...

1.) As soon as you start a new map - HIT PAUSE!!! Then drop the game speed to 10 percent. While it's paused, take the time to look around at the map and try to visualize where your housing areas and industrial areas are going to be. Also look at what industries/services are available to you, and look at the world map to find out what you will have to import/export. Leave the game speed at 10 percent while your laying down your initial roads.
There's nothing worse than forgetting to hit pause, letting it run for a few months and suddenly getting a request which you have no hope of fulfilling.

2.) When you build a new storage yard, the first thing you want to do is set it to accept nothing. Avoid letting SY's hold two types of goods which must be delivered.

3.) Avoid wherever possible building the same industry on different parts of the map, ie, put all your breweries in the one spot with a SY set to accept only barley. Outlying SY's can then be set to "get" beer. SY delivery guys going halfway across the map to deliver 100 barley (or whatever) can be a disaster for your industry

4.) HIT PAUSE i tell you!!!

5.) Know how much capacity you have allowed in your SY's for all your goods. This can be a huge help when exporting. For example, if you have in your city 4 SY's capable of accepting beer (set to accept 1/4), then you know you have room for a total of 3200 beer. Now, only let it be exported when it's over 2800. This will ensure you always have some for your people. This also stops dockworkers going all over the map looking for goods.

6.) And just to create controversy, culture parks are a cop-out, and big blocks designed to hold as many people as possible are boring and create their own set of problems...(IMHO)

7.) lastly - HIT PAUSE GODDAMMIT!!

8.) *edit*Delete the kingdom road! That's right! Delete it - it's useless, you don't need it for anything!

[This message has been edited by Spemb Again (edited 06-24-2001 @ 09:25 PM).]

The 3 things I wished I knew?

You do not simply place your soldiers at an invasion point and hope they kill your enemies.

Hippos are fun to look at but not friendly.

Just because your citizens want something doesn't always mean they want it right next to them rofl

Ice, have you ever seen a real hippo running after you? Well, I promise you they run as fast as Pharaoh's ones. But they generally cannot do, like last one I got in town, kill one million people before nap. Yes, they are not that funny...

lol, Tryhard, my view of hippos has always been from a captor-captive position (me being the 'captor' of course ), and most of the times, they seem to be sleeping or at least in a position for us to admire their teeth.

1. Kissing up to the Gods can be done with the cheaper shrines and festivals to the same effect (so far.)

2. Rotate the map to a view that makes sense to you and study it for a few minutes first.

3. Adjust the wages and taxes before you begin building. Keep an eye on them during the game.

When in doubt just shout! Someone here will know what to do.

Hi everyone,

I'm back (I was off recovering from the horrific ending of Xena), and quite chuffed to see so many great responses! Thanks to all who've offered your input.

About the docks - I hadn't realized I was wandering into a hornet's nest there. I can certainly understand the reasoning for limiting them. My approach will probably backfire on me in many situations, but so far it's been working well. (Famous last words, eh?)

As for hitting Pause, well, in some games I think I spend more time paused than running. Sound advice.

Thanks again. Let's hear some more, please.

regards,
papercut

I would add a fourth 'thing' and that is for beginners to go to this thread:

Some rules of thumb ...

and read it carefully.

edited to update link after forum merger

[This message has been edited by Merepatra (edited 12-26-2002 @ 05:43 AM).]

Leave space for movement at the ramp end of your monument. I waited for months for progress on a monument that never would have been completed because its ramp was blocked. Later on I destroyed several monument sites because I believed what my advisor told me (that the ramp was blocked). It turned out that he says that until the first workers arrive.

my thoughts:

1: Find out what a housing block is and how to use roadblocks.

2: Use the commerce overseer and figure out how to trade goods and make money.

3: Get a username for these forums and ask lots of questions.

The first two were the biggest problems that I ran into as a new player, the last has so far solved about all of the questions that I have run into (except for my question on multiple docks, which just generated alot of discussion )

Ok my shout,

1. Study the map in quite some detail...have a plan, pen, paper roughly sketch your plan so that you know what direction you want to go, if you play with a "fly by wire" atitude regrets usually step in in a big way !!
1a. Its much easier to plan where to put a housing block rather than plonk it somewhere in a rush only to realise its in the wrong place.

2. Make long term provisions, in preferable order.
a/ Tell wifey she looks nice tonight but not to wait up.
b/ If that doesnt work, a bedtime drink usually does the trick
c/ Check 10 minutes later that she / he is snoozing and its your turn to "play" !!
d/ Check supplies of tea, coffee, alcohol, headache tablets

3. In game play do a couple of years dry run to find out who needs pleasing and most importantly mission tend to be more difficult at the start, there is always one exportable commodity that will help you to stay financially viable, find out what it is...quick and start exporting, it is never usually what you would expect.
My rule of thumb is to find out which industry cost the most to set up...ie if a pottery costs 50Db and a Papyrus maker cost 100Db then usually Papyrus tends to be more profitable although this cannot be guaranteed...

4. Never ever try to emulate the top players, some people have a gift for this sort of thing...play at your own pace and enjoy !!

for what its worth...

1. This game is very addictive (actually the whole series is)... there is a 'real' world out there...

2. These forums take away a lot of playing time

3. There is no 'right or wrong' in playing a mission, enjoyment comes first - hahaaargh.... (easier said than done...)

3a. Did I mention how addictive the game is?...

As others have taken all the good points, I find it very hard to come up with exclusive facts. Here is my attempt :

1) Always look at your map thoroughly. It is your terrain and you must know every bit of it. As you are looking around think of where your so called "housing blocks" are going to be. Also plan where your industries will be. I usually spend about half an hour looking at the map, finding amounts of exports initially available by opening the trade routes and visualising my city.

2) If you are playing a military mission your primary goal has to be to obtain money. It is obvious that without money your city can never build defences in time. If the city trades well in the begining itself you can build those costly towers fairly quickly (3 towers cost more that a fort!). And never never forget to tax your people. You tend to lose just enough money to drag your KR down each year even though you are trading well.

3) Again pertaining military missions, donot underestimate the towers. They are very powerful and are key to your success. With towers around and a decent army you can beat formidale armies.

BTW sorry for being lengthy.

I would suggest for imported good: rely more on : "import as much as 4,000 beer" rather than "import the required goods". Game reactions are sometimes funny to second one.

This one, I have seen it so many times that I am pretty sure: avoid building anything except roads touching the mausoleum. Game bugs, as bordering squares are not clearly belonging to the monument nor gardens. I saw it with Pharaoh, Cleo and both patches.
Time to create new topic for beginners, this one getting long...

hhm.

1. EXPORT - I pause the game, check what I have available for raw and finished materials and then hop to the world map to see who trades what. Then I go back to the regular map, see where to put my industries and then I look at spots for housing blocks.

2. Pause lots. It's been mentioned before, but it sure helps.

3. Check out Grumpus' site among others for ideas and information on buildings, prosperity, etcetera.

Hi

1) The free garden and roads trick. I know it is a bit cheating but I allow myself to do that until I make a nica annual profit.

2) Housing blocks. When I look at my cities that I built before i got to know this site. --> Endless rows of huts which caught fire and caused me to lose half of my population

3) Building more slowly. That is still a thing I lack. I always want to build my city as fast as possible. It was possible at very easy level and with 'treasure Chest' but I moved on and builiding to fast has forced me to start over several times

Greetings
Enano Rojo

ps 4 This game is really addictive, they should puta warning sticker on the box or something

You often have to build fast because firsts requests come soon. But, if you have lots of money from previous mission, you also can build a running big city within 5 years than would need 20 years beginning short on db (dbucks). Big nasty problem is that all these people will reach retirement age at the same time (year +25-30). Like Schnurbart said, when you want to finish the game, you don't care, you build new blocks of poor housing while waiting for victory and that is it. I am now trying to stabilise my population (getting a flat population-age curve). First time: do not know if it will work, but since my industries work fairly enough, I build new houses at cool speed. This means my pyramids are growing on a slower pace than former game.

Well, well. Use rotating save files and spare saves from time to time. My game file went corrupt (what happened sometimes with all games I can remember for the past ten years); the more I was trying to bypass it, the worst it became. Even reinstalled Pharaoh, Cleo and patch. 8 hours lost (but seems this only, game is at year 57, file year 50 looks fine). And vacation is reaching its end. Well, well, nice day...