Second question: How do I find out what version of civ2 I call my own?

Third question: Concerning the techs being given at the start: Is there any civ that gets more techs than the other civs, just because its this one particular civ?

Go to the patches on this site, or at microprose.com and just load the latest patch... then it won't matter what you have now

If there is... nobody has been able to prove it.

You point on attacking from good defensive terrain has been raised before. I think somebody did some tests to prove that it just isn't true. The tests show that the terrain of the attacker had no effect on the combat, and follows what the rules say

quote: Originally posted by Scouse Gits on 07-21-2000 05:12 PM If this is standard Civ II it should be v2.42 if you are playing a version earlier than this you need the patch - this fixes loads of bugs.

I wouldn't say you need the 2.42. It does fix a few bugs, but it also introduces some new ones (settlers able to irrigate without water, and the user able to see location and numbering of continents).

now that I know how to find the version, I'll look and see what version i actually have when I get home (file is dated 4/3/96 - over 4 months before the 8/10/96 of 2.42)

quote: The SGs in concert (available at all good record stores)

I still want to know where I can get the T-shirt

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April Cantor: Sire, in order to expand further we must first gain favor of the King

SCG: darn, I've never really got the hang of that tribute thing, guess it will be a long time until i make prince

Just a slight correction on your post about 2.42 and new bugs. Settlers irrigating without water is not a bug. This according to the readme this was a request fix. People wanted to automate the Settler and not have to move and give commands all the time. In response the "K" automate command was provided. This turns the settler over to the AI and just like AI settlers don't need water yours no longer will either. If you check the revised manual and Prima Strategy Guide that came out with v2.42 you will see that the continent number is an intended feature not a bug. If you happen to view these as cheats then don't use them.

well, just guessing from the patch.txt file on the CD, I think I have 1.06 at home, i know its less than 1.08.

quote: Originally posted by jpk on 07-21-2000 12:47 PM Chainsaw, once you get to the late stage of the game you can set your tax rate to 0%. Build airports everywhere, have your cities build lots of nonfood freight units, fly them half way around the world to another one of your cities and deliver it on the next turn. Hopefully the receiving city will need the freight item. If not deliver it anyway. If you have lots of cities, then eventually you will not be able to spend all the money you get.

Hm...I see that I will have tons of money that way, but in the late stage, when the slaughtering is done, I usually switch to democracy to max my population. I guess my empire would drown in anarchy when I would set luxuries to 0%?

Set your TAX rate to 0%, not your luxury rate. If you really can't build any more cities and all of your cities have the maximum population, then your only hope for getting more points is to get lots of future technologies. The endless streams of freight units will help. Fool around with your science rate. Sometimes it is possible to have the cities generate more than one science per turn. If you then fill up the science box by using science bonuses from freight units you will be able to get two sciences per turn.

Out of curiosity, how big is your map. I often play on maps with 10,000 squares and I can't imagine filling one with cities. Since

10,000/21 < 255,

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Ohh...the TAX-rate. Ok. Maybe some practical exercices in reading would help...The mystery seems to unveil...
Yep. You really get a helluv money that way...but, trouble with money at the late stage, hehe, what the heck?

Yes, I noticed the thing about the two advancements per turn, too. But it also worked *sometimes* without the freights. Maybe its the large sience surplus that fills up the window with the flasks two times, e.g. if you had the window almost full at the end of a turn?

I have a standart map of big size. 210 (209??) cities bow down to HIS feet... (hope every last one of them will grow to max size until the end, placed the latest in 1990, had to push growth by sending engineers in).

Smash:
Now about the food caravans. I read about that trick in the OCC-rules.
How EXACTLY does it work? When I looked at daniel Tīs game (DAMN! How can an human being beat 2243% AND remain sane?!?!), obviously, the cities have grown over their regular max size. I consider this kinda strange, maybe not against any rules, but it seems to me that this procedure, hm, distorts the game. You have cities that canīt produce enough food to keep their size. If youīd keep SOME cities "alive" like this, it would be OK, but by having all cities been fed by each other, you kinda create food out of nothing. In my eyes, that is strange. But as I said, I donīt know exactly how it works.
(Yes, I know, there must be a thread about this *somewhere*)
I have never used food caravans, and I wonīt use them in that way.

Good night, finally, I will get SOME sleep...like four hours

quote: Yes, I noticed the thing about the two advancements per turn, too. But it also worked *sometimes* without the freights. Maybe its the large sience surplus that fills up the window with the flasks two times, e.g. if you had the window almost full at the end of a turn?

quote: One last thing to ask: What is that stuff about dividing the number of map squares? Do you get the max number of cities that way? Is it not possible to place more than that? (More! MORE! HARR HARR HARR!)

the idea is that each city takes 21 squares. so dividing the total # of squares (10000 for large maps) by the number of squares a city needs without overlapping (21), you get the maximum number of non-overlapping cities. Since 476 is a lot greater than the code limit of 255 cities - even with lots of water, you should have no problem founding the maximum number of cities given the time and patience to do so.

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April Cantor: Sire, in order to expand further we must first gain favor of the King

SCG: darn, I've never really got the hang of that tribute thing, guess it will be a long time until i make prince

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Rehoming food caravans from certain cities(like high food sites) keeps you from having nothing but food routes.You can get really carried away and send them in a big loop.Xin explained his technique somewhere.This is how players get these huge percentages.Might be a cheat or trick but this is how it's done.And pounding the ai to 1 city.It gets very tediuos but every player tries at least 1 "high score" game.

Xin Yu figures you can probably score around 30,000 points. And that sounds about right due to the limitation on city size. If somebody does do that, fine... it could take a long time to do it and the boredom factor is just toooooo high I know I will never try one of those games again...

You couldn't pay me enough to try it though.

Population: 254 * 127 = 32,258
Happy citizens: 254 * 20 = 5,080
Future tech: 255 * 5 = 1,275
Wonders: 28 * 20 = 560
Spaceship: 400
World peace: 100
Barbarian level: 25

Let's see someone crack ming's 20k and change. I get tired of always hearing how he's the only one to beat mine.

I'm not sure about the exact scores for destroying a civ. But a quick test that I just did, killing all civs before 3000 BC, including several new ones that sprung up, gave already a bonus of 1705 points. Killing all except for one and changing the game year to 2019 still gave a bonus of a bit more than 1000 points.

It would be interesting to hear from somebody with more knowledge of the points given for a military victory what the max amount of bonus is. I have no idea what the possible highest bonus could be, or even if I'm overlooking something here.

Paul, 4 week probably wouldn't be enough

But I would still like to see someone top Ming's.

Can't say I'd ever try - my best diety game (Just Another of the Chinese - multiple puns intended ) is only approacing 600% (only restless tribes) with 5 civs each only with a capitol hanging around to trade with. and many cities even still unirrigated. With as many engineers and freights i need to move every turn and quite a few turns left (1880's) I certainly could make a run at a top 10 finish but i can't see me trying this decade I haven't played it in almost a year. And I don't think i'd send it in since its pretty evident from the city layout near the capitol that when i first started the game I got more than my fair share of advanced tribes

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April Cantor: Sire, in order to expand further we must first gain favor of the King

SCG: darn, I've never really got the hang of that tribute thing, guess it will be a long time until i make prince

quote: Originally posted by Chainsaw on 07-21-2000 09:22 AM Letīs go some further, and say that he (she) has put farmland everywehere, built the SS ready for launch and is now pressing Enter all the time.

To go for scores really high, let's say above 15000, you should not have farmland everywhere. Production is what counts, as you need to be able to build a freight in every city every turn. That means that you must have 50 shield available for production. If you have farmland all over, certain cities might not obtain that production level.

quote: Originally posted by Chainsaw on 07-24-2000 04:26 PM jpk: When I looked at daniel Tīs game (DAMN! How can an human being beat 2243% AND remain sane?!?!), obviously, the cities have grown over their regular max size.

It's hard, very hard to remain sane. Keep an eye on the hall of fame, I just posted a new record ... A REALLY,REALLY NEW RECORD.

quote: Originally posted by Chainsaw on 07-24-2000 04:26 PM When I looked at daniel Tīs game (DAMN! How can an human being beat 2243% AND remain sane?!?!), obviously, the cities have grown over their regular max size.

you know,I decided to download the #4 posting by Tom Calman since it was the highest in 2.42 to see how big his cities were. Not one of them was over size 43, even though he had several sites that could have grown to 44 naturally. In fact he only had 3 caravan routes TOTAL. Thats right - 1 city with 3 routes to 3 other local cities. None were food routes. The 250 other cities had a grand total of 0 trade routes (might have missed one since i only checked the AI capitols and adjacent cities). Based on that fact he probably didn't face quite the same boredom levels that we caravan users might face.

He had a 2000%+ score too. A quick scan of the map showed at least one city location that would have been better than what he chose for his 253rd city (size 26 vs 19) so he could have done slightly better.

Anyway, imagine what he could have done with food caravans. He had over 40 cities that would be prime candidates to produce them - all with odd food production. Wouldn't even have to rehome anything to gain benefits since he had no trade routes to begin with. With 12 extra turns (ship landed in 2008) that might have made the difference between #4 and #1.