I'm not sure whether I've encountered a bug or if it's just my own inexperience with the game showing, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to build public works.

I mean, I get that I allocate a percentage of my cities' production towards public works and they are then built as stored public works production allows, but I just can't figure out how to designate a space for a public work to be constructed.

There is a tab on the interface which appears to be related, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Currently, the only public work I can build is a farm. How do I do that? I don't know. Neither the manual nor the in-game tutorial is helping. Clicking the button for a farm and then clicking on a terrain tile within the working radius of my cities does nothing at all, and neither does dragging and dropping on the tiles I want to be worked.

Since public works are about half of city management, my inability to make them is making the game nigh unplayable. I would very much appreciate some help with this.

If i remember correctly, public works is simply a resource like money that you save up and then spend to build something.

What you are allowed to build is limited by technology.... so at the start of the game very little will be in there.

as you research more things will appear in the list what you can build.

Things which cost more public works than what you currently have, will be greyed out, things you can afford will be bright and colorful.

If your first cities are on mostly grassland tiles, you will get very little public works. The best starting locations will have some grassland and some plains, and a river. once you have mining technology the best starting locations will be some grassland and some hills plus a river.

Note... mining increases public works, but watch for pollution later on in the game.

Nice. You completely missed the point of my question. I already know all that, I just can't figure out how to build them.

Like, what buttons do I push? Neither the manual nor the in-game tutorial tells me this. And I have a good starting postion - grasslands, plains, forests and a river. None of which matters because [I]I can't figure out how to build public works.[/I]

On the bottom control panel with Empire, City, Unit, Msgs, Tile, click on the Tile tab.

Then select one of the public work categories: Land, Ocean, Special, Terraform Land, Terraform Ocean.

You get a selection of available public works (might be empty, of course). Click on one that isn't grayed-out.

Now move your cursor on the map. If you can build the public work at this place, it'll show in green, just click on that tile and it'll start construction. If you can't build there, it'll show up in red, or won't show up at all, depending on case (red: could build on this terrain, but not in your territory; not at all: cannot build this improvement on this type of tile).

So basically, after you've selected a public work, just click on the map to build it. That's all.

Keep clicking to keep building as long as you have public works remaining. Right-click to stop.

I tried that; it doesn't work. The marker shows up in yellow and nothing ever gets built. I have no idea what the problem is.

So what you're saying is that I can only build PWs if I have enough PW points from the start? It would be nice if the game ever mentioned that, either in the manual or the tutorial.

And the reason that I'm cross is because the game never explains how to do this, which is rather frustrating for me since I'd like to play the game, but couldn't.

Hmph. I'll try that.

Thank you for your time.

edit:also, do you know if there is any way to unmark a topic as being solved? I pushed the button accidentally and now I can't seem to reverse it.

If i had a dollar for every time i ran into a problem because of insufficient game manuals!!!! hahaha, that's just part of gaming.... and it is also why we all appreciate those few games that actually do it right - but those are the exception not the rule.

I have no idea how to undo a solved? i guess if you have further trouble just make a new thread?

Talking about this game has inspired me to take a break from galactic civilizations 3 and play this one again.

I really love the way armies work in this game, it blows the other civilization series out of the water to be frank..... if only the AI was a little better at managing armies,... sigh.

well that game did not last long! lol

a barbarian showed up near my capital.... i had mountains near my capital so i moved my archer to the mountain expecting it to win - it did not!! next turn game over hahahaha

Its funny but also its stupid - who has time to waste starting games that fold just because of 1 incident of bad luck?

That's why I always make a save as soon as the game starts. :)

After playing for some time i realized i was thinking of civ4 where the archers usually defeat barbarians! my mistake, hahahaha

Anyway, you know what really brings me back to this game more than anything else? Strangely, its the slaver unit.... oh i have such fun with them....

Here is a useful tip.... if you put a slaver in your army, you can enslave barbarians!!!!..... but you need roads to move the slaver around because barbarians will not spawn near where you have a slaver stationed (unless there is lacking military).