production

[Civnoob]

Complete noob here. First Civ game ever so forgive me if these are "dumb" questions but...

What does production do? I understand that it allows you to build buildings and units, but does higher production increase the rate at which stuff is built?
How do I check on total production for a city? If I make a new city (one where its taking forever to build stuff), will improving the surrounding tiles (with the most hammers on them) increase the rate of production?

Does increased population also reduce production time?

[Veshta]

Each unit / building has a specific number of hammers it takes to complete.
A worker for example requires 25 hammers to build so a city with 4 hammers will have to spend 7 turns to complete it, overflow should transfer to next build order. 5 Hammers can do it in 5 turns and so on.

Number of hammers in a given city can be seen inside the city, top left corner should have all the date. Another good way to that gives a better overview is to use the F2 panel to see whats what.

Any hill can be mined to yield one more hammer but be aware that you'll get no food from that tile so the 2 food that the worker in the mines eat will have to come from elsewhere.
Common solution it to farm hills adjacent to fresh water, that way you get 1 food, 2 hammers per tile which means that 2 workers can generate 4 hammers for the same 2 food deficit as the miner ..

Population only affects production if the new slave/labourer/citizen is put on a tile that yields hammers.

Hope that cleared it up.

[Civnoob]

Thanks. I wasn't aware of how the turn system works for building stuff.