******the weirdest and oddest things about civilization ii*******

this is version 3.0 of the faq

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a terrible mini faq created by the inquisitive mind of:

antonio leal (c) 1996 aleal@ctv.es

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well, this doesn't pretend to be too much serious. just to tell you some weird
things i have discovered playing the game and changing the parameters. i have
also added interesting tips from civ2 gamers all around the net. first
of all, you must have your civ2 copy ready. afterwards, you'll be free to
change the numbers and files as i explain here, if you are enough suicide...
hey, always backup your original files before experimenting anything.

1. the mega city

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if you play the game, the maximum population for a city might be 40 or 42.
i must say i have never reach that level (38 maybe, i don't remember). though,
the real max number is 127. yes, this is impossible to get in a normal play,
but if you alter the rules.txt file, let's say the wheat resource to be 52
instead of 3, there is no problem. if you found a city close to 3 or 4 wheat
resources, the magical number of 127 population is at your feet. you can also
change the banana/fruit resource or whatever food one.

hey, wait a moment! this cluster of wheat resources so closer is not possible!
don't panic. read the section 2, changing the seed source. (if you change the
wheat to 100, for instance, the effect could be brutal when you have a look
to the city display: your food container is overhelmed).

why not a city of 1000 population? no. if you try to put something more than
127, negative or lower numbers appear.

well, take into account that this is just possible if you're making a scenario,
where you can vary the characteristics of play at your will.

2. the ultrarich city

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the mega city had a lot of population because there was 4 wheat resources
close to it. how can i do that in a scenario? you need change the set
resource seed when creating the map in the map editor. first of all, look for
a good city site. then, try changing this parameter. it's a number from 1 to
64 (65 is the same as 1, 66 equal to 2, and so on). try changing the number
until you found out a good resource cluster, usually a hilly square:

* 4 or 3 wheat/fruit... (food) for the mega city (population)

* 4 or 3 buffalo/coal... (shields) for the ultrarich city (production)

of course, you must change the value of buffalo,..., to be around 50. the
problem is the awesome pollution such a city would produce. anti-pollutants
mesures (hydro plant, recycling plant...) should be built.
3. the einstein city
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a) without cheating: build coppernico's observatory and newton's college in

the same city, plus the library and university (even better if you have also
the colossus wonder in the same city). this city should be one surrounded by
roads/railroads/rivers in order to increase the trade. the city should have
sent 3 caravans in order to improve the amount of trade converted to
research. when reaching the 20 in population, change the entertainers to
einstein. you can easily get a 300 research just from this city. quite good!

**i have improved this. i was able to get more than 500 research from just
one city. following the previous steps and sending food caravans to the einstein
city to get an overpopulated city. the luxuries tax (under democracy, of course)
should be high (40 or more).

b) changing rules.txt: proceed the same as the ultrarich city, but now you
must look for a cluster of gold/gems/ivory... and later change the number in
the rules.txt to be around 50. that's all.

4. what on earth is doing the plumbing technology here???

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pardon?. yes, friend. you, and anyone who has bought a copy of civ2, have
this odd plumbing tech in the rules.txt. it is not active, so you don't
realize of its existence. you would need pottery and construction to get it.

to activate and "research" it (a waste of time, of course), you must change

the "no" for the two prerequisites you want (construction and pottery are the
"default").

we can take profit of this nonsense switching it on and altering its name and
prerequisites. for instance, what about invisibility tech instead of plumbing?

5. the invisible units.

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i am the first one, as far as i known, to have noticed that you may change
one unit to be invisible! when altering the units.gif file, just paste a
blank square over an original unit, let's say a phalanx, and you'll get the
invisible man unit!! the only thing you'll be able to see will be its shield.
the computer doesn't worry too much about these silly things, but a human
player can find this amazing.

6. what about the et or martian unit just at the bottom??

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look at the bottom of the units.gif file. there is a martian! well, you may
use this unit in your own scenarios. just copy and paste over other unit or
an extra unit square.

7. the speedy gonzales unit.

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i have changed the speed of a unit to be 40 moves per turn. i am not absolutely
sure this is the max, but a number greater than 45 causes the unit to be 0 in
speed. again, these change could be made in the rules.txt file.
8. the extra units.
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you may costumize three extra units and three extra techs (really four, thanks
to the plumbing tech). just follow the steps in the rules.txt

9. how many cities can i build?

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just 254 cities. in fact, the game allows 255, but the last one must be enemy.

10. how much money can i earn?

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your bank account is limited to 32000 gold coins. further addition of money
gets a negative or a lower number.

11. something about techs, happy people and score.

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these are some advices from peter s. kalman, from hungary, talking about a
game played at emperor level with around 229 cities build (!)
(e-mail: peter@baybio.bay.u-szeged.hu):

"after 2000 a.d. i started discovering 8 techs per turn.

maybe it was because in all of my cities the unemployed people were pursueing
science.
but the computer was a jerk and always 0-ed my extra points on the techs. so
i had to put all the sciences on tax collectors. but with this i produced
32000 gold per turn and again it started going berserk , so i put them back
to luxury. and put the luxury rate to a 100. this way i could slow it down.
with this i could easily acheive the 255 techs which is 1275 points.
watch out if you pass 255 it will 0 your tech score!

i found out that finishing before time does not give you extra percentage.
killing everyone gives you less points than sending a scapceship. and the most
points you get are from the population. it is true what i read on the net that
if you put the luxury rate up in the last two turns gives you more points. it
is because you get 3 points per happy , 2 per content, 1 per unhappy and -1
per double unhappy (the black figures) people. my score would have been 4200
and not 12020 ,if i had not put my luxury rate up in the end. and last of
all do not change the hills to grassland cos with capitalization you produce
more money with it."

12. something about fanatics and partisans.

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these are some advices from chuck magee (e-mail: cwmagee@castle.net):

"giving a unit the free funamentalist support option

does not prevent that unit from being built under non-
fundamentalist governments. only the 8th unit listed
(fundamentalist in the original) has that characteristic.

the ninth unit listed is the one that appears what a nation
which has discovered gue loses a city. so, if you change
that to musketeers or clams or orangutans, those are
what you get. (the message, however, will continue to say
'partisans'. that must be changed seperately)"

13. how populated may this world be?

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the max population in the game is 320 million people. this is the display,
but posibly the score takes into account the real population. i must check it.

14. erasing the cheat label from the score.

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from miguel angel aliaga (e-mail: maliagav@hercules.upv.es)

"in the hexadecimal position h14, there is a byte that changes when the cheat
mode is on. it's just a question of modifying it."

15. about caravans and spies.

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again from miguel a. aliaga (e-mail: maliagav@hercules.upv.es), one of

the best civ2 spanish gamers:

"the more trade(in each city)*distance*size = the higher trade route value.
there is not a clear dependence on whether the trade goods are demanded or not.
the more valuable a good, the greater the trade bonus is. the funniest is when
none is either producing uranium or wanting gold. the offer/demand never is zero.
thus, if one demander disappears, another will show soon. when none is producing
uranium, producers will appear from nowhere in just a few turns, even cities
with 3 flamant routes and in capitalization. it's a good idea to look for such
cities, because not always the supply/demmand chart is right. it's quite possible
that a city which has just got a uranium supply changes to be provider.

when buying a city with a spy, the price depends on the direction from where the
spy is approaching. the caravan bonus is also affected by the direction."

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i am thinking over something more impressive than these facts. if you want to
share weird facts about civ2, let me know and i'll add them, stating your
contribution, to later versions of this mini faq.

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i would really appreciate if you send me your experiences.

and that's all folks!

antonio leal. aleal@ctv.es

spain. october 19th, 1996.