Q: Why are some of my roads paved, while others aren't?

A: Citizens pave roads when surrounding property becomes sufficiently desirable.

Q: How can I make land more desirable for housing?

A: Approach this question from two directions: How can you make land more desirable, and how can you make it less undesirable? To make an area more desirable, build pleasant things like gard e n s , plazas, temples, statues, baths and theaters nearby. To make it less undesirable, locate unpleasant structures like industrial and military buildings elsewhere.

Q: What do I need to make my city's housing evolve higher?

A: Housing needs three things to evolve: (1) Access to many different types of services; (2) Various commodities, provided by markets; and (3) Desirable location. Right-click on a house to find out what's holding it back at any given time.

Q: Why don't immigrants move into my vacant housing lots?

A: One or more conditions are probably depressing the mood in your city. High unemployment, high taxes, low wages and low food supplies all make people unhappy and discourage immigration.

Q: I can't attract immigrants because I don't have enough food, but I can't get enough food because I can't attract immigrants! How can I break this cycle?

A: Order your Labor Advisor to reassign the workers that you do have. Make Food Production your number 1 priority for a while. Don't skew these priorities for too long, or you risk fires and riots as workers a re diverted from Engineering and Fire Prevention. As soon as you see immigrants arriving, return your priorities to normal.

Q: Why won't my farms or mines produce anything?

A: Assuming that you haven't ordered your Trade Advisor to turn them off, they probably lack laborers. Try building housing closer to your industries, or tell your Labor Advisor to assign a higher priority to Industry and Commerce.

Q: Workers with full carts are just standing around. Why don't they get to work?

A: They would like to, but there is no place for them to deliver their goods. Make sure you have free space in your w a rehouses and granaries, and that they have enough employees to function properly.

Q: When I right-click on a granary, it says it can store 2400 food, but it doesn't hold anything like 2400 cartloads. What's going on with these numbers?

A: Most of the numbers you see for commodities are measured in cartloads. But each cartload contains 100 units of that commodity. You usually don't have to pay any attention to this, because trade deals only in whole cartloads. However, citizens don't consume entire cartloads of a commodity at a time. When items go to a granary, a market, or a home, they're converted into smaller units that people can use. Keep this rule in mind: When you're looking at industry and trade, you are dealing in full cartloads. When you're looking at granaries, markets or houses, you are dealing with units, and there are 100 units in a cartload. Your concern will be chiefly with cartloads, and you'll rarely (if ever) have to pay attention to units.

Q: How come all of my water supply buildings keep flashing on and off?

A: They need laborers. Consult your Labor Advisor. If the number of actual employees in Water Services is less than the number required, then your water workers are doing their best to spread water coverage throughout the city, but they can only do so sporadically. Assign a higher priority to Water Services or increase your overall workforce.

Q: I need money! How do I get trade working?

A: First, use the Empire Map to open a trade route. Second, make sure you have a commodity your trade partners want stocked in a warehouse. Third, tell your Trade Advisor to export the commodity. Finally, if the route you opened is a sea route, you must have functioning docks.

Q: My housing won't evolve because it can't get pottery, but there's pottery in my warehouse and the houses have market access. What am I missing here?

A: Make sure the market can get pottery from the warehouse. If there's another warehouse closer to the market that doesn't have pottery, the market won't have pottery. Use the Special Orders button on the warehouses to spread the pottery a round. You can tell the closer warehouse to Maintain a Level of pottery, for instance, which will request pottery from the other warehouse.

Q: Do goods spoil if they're stored in granaries and warehouses for a long time?

A: No. Only divine anger or criminal acts can bring harm to your goods.

Q: Is the Emperor deliberately asking me for goods that he knows I can't supply? Is there any way to get him to ask me for things that I have?

A: Caesar asks for what he wants, when he wants it. He doesn't care how hard or easy it is for you to comply with his wishes, or how convenient it is for you to respond to his requests. He will, however, only ask you for items it is possible for you to get him-even if that means importing it.

Q: Are the commodities that trading cities on the Empire Map will deal in determined by set conditions, or does supply and demand play a role?

A: Every province in the Empire has a unique set of resources and capabilities, just as does your own province. Trading cities export goods that they can produce in quantity, and import goods that they lack, just as you must do. So, supply and demand play a role in that sense, but the commodities that cities want and have are predetermined by their climate and resources.