Can I ask a couple of dumb questions ?

[Bento]

1) What are the little green and white "ribbons" drifting above a couple of cities all about ? ( Rome and the one to its south for eg. )

2) I saw some of my client states' ships ( army stacks too ) with circular "whirly" pattern around it - what the £$% is that trying to indicate ?

3) and then I saw another ship nearby with a cloud whirly around it in the air ? Baffled.

4) How do you build a farm ? I'm playing as Carthage and so far, no city/town I've taken ( mostly in Spain ) gives the option to build a farm - almost everything else, but not that. I've looked in the encyclopedia and I see there is a chain for farms, but even after razing every building in the region, no farm option is present in any of the slots.

- I know, I know, I'm as dumb as a sack of hammers, but it doesn't seem like I'll suddenly wise up without the input from someone here with more wits about them. Please ?
Thank you.

[Jonesy_lmao]

You're not dumb mate, this game is just extremely convoluted. Shogun II was much cleaner all round. Still ill try to help based on what I've worked out.

The confetti is edicts. Edicts can be passed when you own each city in a region. An edict is a region wide buff that improves the tax, recruitment or happiness in a region.

The swirly things I've seen tend to indicate a forced march as far as I know. At least at their feet. Haven't seen one on a head yet.

As for farms, if you don't have a free slot in a city try dismantling one. A green card means agriculture which usually gives food. If you still can't, you should spend more time researching in the civil side of the tech tree.

Good luck mate!

[stabizius]

More dumbness:

*Why are my people always mad (me too, as a consequence )? I see food producing buildings cause squalour, but I have to spam food stuff to actually make my empire work. Is there a bandaid for this? The revolts are not hard to survive, but its getting annoying. And I presume the dignitaries cool down the raging masses, but they are very limited.

*Are we really never getting the option to research more than one item at a time?

*Why is it so infuriatingly hard to get trade agreements?

*I have upgraded my barracks a few times, and according to the info I should have the option to hire archers. I also researched the mercenary auxilliary thingy, but no archers. I want archers. Badly.

Despite everything (epic end of turn loading time after a while, too fast combat, silly victory points and pretty crappy performance on a strong computer) I am enjoying myself quite a bit. Intially I was full of rage, but it got better.

[Jonesy_lmao]

I'm enjoying it too but those victory points can be taken out by me. Why they're even in there I have no idea.

Trade agreements? The AI is stupid. As usual. TCA should hire a few more talented programmers.

Squalor is a major issue for me at the minute. Historically I suppose it makes sense that until you grow a region and research more you will have problems if you don't spend a lot of care on what you build. But in terms of gameplay it means the early game is full of squalor and no way to really change it without fortifying every town + agents and low taxation. Fun.

Also shouldn't new jobs create more wealthy citizens and therefore less squalor?

[stabizius]

That, and I have slums in pretty much all my cities. Slum lord!

[Jonesy_lmao]

That, and I have slums in pretty much all my cities. Slum lord!

Yeah try not to expand cities unless you can afford to build something on the slot it always turns into slums otherwise which has a lot of negative effects and needs to be demolished.

[stabizius]

Okay, so there is no negative effect of calling in the bulldozers?

[Jonesy_lmao]

Okay, so there is no negative effect of calling in the bulldozers?

It costs time which in turn is lost revenue, public order and other benefits. Can't remember if it costs coin to demolish. But yeah get rid of those slums and build something else.

And don't expand a city unless you intend to build something there expanding a city doesn't seem to increase defensive capabilities unfortunately.

I miss the shogun 2 building system.

[stabizius]

Okay, cool. Thanks.

[TheCzech]

I've got one dumb question how do you set a city as a war goal for an ally?

[Bento]

I've got one dumb question how do you set a city as a war goal for an ally?

It's in the Diplomacy map I think - you click the button ( bottom left ) then click the city/town you want them to attack. That's it, it seems - there's no "Done" type of button.

I'm still struggling with farms - I took a settlement, they had a Green Barbarian type farm. I demolish it and next turn I can build anything ... except a farm. Doing my head in !

As far as Diplomacy ... my neighbour, was attacked and besieged by the next tribe. I offered him a Military Alliance and to Join the War against the guy besieging him. Nope, he'd rather die !

[TheCzech]

It's in the Diplomacy map I think - you click the button ( bottom left ) then click the city/town you want them to attack. That's it, it seems - there's no "Done" type of button.

I'm still struggling with farms - I took a settlement, they had a Green Barbarian type farm. I demolish it and next turn I can build anything ... except a farm. Doing my head in !

As far as Diplomacy ... my neighbour, was attacked and besieged by the next tribe. I offered him a Military Alliance and to Join the War against the guy besieging him. Nope, he'd rather die !

thanks