User Interface

The first thing most people spot about the User Interface are six collapsible display areas.

Collapsible Display Areas
Click on the gold edged tab to collapse any of these areas. These collapsible display areas are:

Turn, Money, & Advisor display

 * A quick recap showing the turn number, your gold, and a portrait if an advisor would like to give you any hints

Status Reports
There are three folders of Status Reports.

Settlements List

 * Settlement Icon
 * A gold Up arrow will appear to the left of any settlements ready for expansion
 * A double gold Up arrow will appear for any settlements ready for expansion that are experiencing over-crowding
 * A pulsing gold exclamation point over the settlement icon will indicate any villages with high unrest levels
 * A dull red circle around the city icon indicates the designated capital
 * A bright red circle around the city icon indicates that a hostile force is within the settlement's territory
 * Settlement name
 * Settler Status - A green line below the seated figure indicates a settler can be raised here
 * Population, and Trend
 * Green up arrow for increasing
 * Gold Right arrow for steady
 * Red Down arrow for falling
 * Improvements (Forced Labor) indicators
 * New Farms - hovering over the wheat stalk will disclose how many are queued
 * Clearing Forests - hovering over the hand ax will disclose how many are queued
 * Building Roads - hovering over the road icon will disclose how many are queued
 * Buildings - hovering over the building icon will disclose which buildings are queued
 * Any cities with a gold gradient background in the list require some less urgent attention. e.g. slightly declining population
 * Left Clicking on a settlement in the report will center the the map on that settlement
 * Right Clicking on a settlement in the report will open the Settlement Detail Page for that settlement)

Units List

 * Units marked with stars have a general in their ranks
 * Units within the borders of a settlement will show the name of the settlement
 * Units within a settlement's borders reduce unrest and may replenish their ranks
 * Units with a double up arrow in the upper right corner of their report listing have movement orders
 * Units with a red crossed swords indicator have movement orders that... may take them into battle?
 * Clicking on a unit in the report will center your display on the unit selected
 * For a complete list of units consult this list.

Reports List

 * Clicking on a report will place a green check mark on it
 * Double clicking on a report will bring up the details of that report
 * Reports will include those on
 * Qi and Ren Increases (or decreases) of your leaders
 * Building Completions
 * Road Completions
 * Farm Completions
 * War News
 * News of events affecting your settlement and troops as well as those of others

C/A Status Coin (Culture/Authority)
Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area
 * This coin indicates your values for Culture and Authority (as well as your faction logo)
 * Culture is important in that it makes your people happier and your trade deals more lucrative
 * Authority is important in that it limits the number of settlements you can control without increasing unrest.
 * The color of the detailing on the coin also indicates the era that you are in.
 * Grey (as shown) indicates the Bronze Era
 * Red indicates the "Warring States" era.
 * Gold indicates the Imperial Era.

Next Turn Button
Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area Clicking this indicates that you're ready to advance to the next turn.
 * Any units without orders will call for a confirmation.
 * Any technologies requiring selections will call for a confirmation, unless you've elected to automate these choices.

Actions Bar
Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area The choices on the Actions Bar are:
 * Diplomacy - F5 Review existing treaties and deals with the leaders of other factions and propose new ones.
 * Technology and Culture - F6 Review the technologies you've already mastered and select new courses of study
 * Edicts - F7 Review your current edits or decree new ones.
 * Financial Summary - F8 Review the finances of your empire.
 * Player Status - F9 Review the basic information concerning your faction, your progress toward ultimate victory, the factors affecting your culture and authority, and the options you've established as to automating your choices
 * Statistics - F10 Review your standing and compare to the other factions you've encountered.

Map Orientation, Help Display, Settings Load/Save Menu
Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area Help Settings Load/Save Settings Map Orientation
 * The in-game manual / help facility is accessible by clicking on the "i" icon in this area (or anytime via F1)
 * The Settings / Load/Save menu is accessible by clicking the "ll" icon in this area (or anytime via ESC)
 * The compass arrow in this area always points to "true north"
 * Holding the Right Mouse button and moving left to right will rotate the base map

Unit Controls


For more complete details about Moving and orienting units and making battle plans see Battle Plans An entire stack of units (up to 8 units) may be selected by clicking on:
 * The unit/stack itself on the Main Map
 * A settlement's garrison banner
 * The unit stack's entry in the units section of the Status Reports
 * To select a single unit in the stack one may click on the "Unit Card" for the desired unit.
 * To select multiple units CTRL click (or toggling on the sticky select) allows you to select/deselect individual units for a multi-select

Individual Orders

 * Each unit in a stack
 * May be given different battle orders
 * May be given different formation and facing orders
 * May be ordered to different locations via right clicking

Settlement Management
For more complete details see the Settlement Detail Page. A Settlement may be selected by:
 * Left clicking the rectangular part of an on-screen settlement
 * Right clicking the settlement entry in the Settlements section of the Status Reports

Miscellaneous controls

 * One can position the main map by using the standard W A S D movement keys
 * Holding the Left Mouse button one may "drag" the base map in any direction
 * Holding the Right Mouse button and moving left to right will rotate the base map
 * Holding the Right Mouse button and moving up and down will "pan and tilt" the base map
 * Using the Mouse wheel one may zoom in and out on the base map

Console commands

 * Using the Grave (lower case tilde) (key to the left of !1) you can open the Game Command Console
 * The console command "UnlockAllFactions" will allow you to bypass the 150 turn restriction on choosing a starting faction.

Options
Within the options menu there are three sections

Game Settings
Here you can set
 * Difficulty
 * Turn Limit (Default 300)
 * There are those that advocate bumping this number up (350-400) if you're a beginner as it may take you some time to "find your footing."
 * Research Rate (Default 100%)
 * Keyboard Scroll Rate
 * Language
 * Show Grid (May be toggled in-game via ALT G)
 * Allow Cultural Victory (Default is yes but once in game it cannot be changed for that game
 * Keep Height on Zoom (added in 4Decemeber2017 patch)
 * Defaults to yes
 * When opted off clicking on reports doesn't zoom the camera in
 * Chinese Banner Symbols - Show the Chinese logographic symbol for the faction rather than the standard in-game icon (Defaults to no)
 * May not currently be changed in-game

Video Settings

 * Screen Resolution
 * Graphics Quality
 * Windowed
 * Show Grass
 * White Fade Level
 * Controls how much detail is lost to "the mists" as one one scrolls out

Sound Settings

 * Master Volume
 * Music Volume
 * Effects Volume
 * UI Volume
 * Mute