Units Behaviour
FLAGS. The text of these flags can be changed by editing the Rules.txt file".
"See 2 Squares". Units with this attribute will have a visibility radius of
two squares, although it should be noted that units with this and the "See
Subs" will actually only be able to if adjacent.
"Ignore Zones of Control". EVERY unit exerts a "zone of control" (explained
in the Civilization manual). Only Air units with a range greater than 0 can
inherently bypass this rule, even diplomats MUST have this selected.
"Submarine". Any unit with this flag will only be able to attack a Naval
unit. However, it will be undetectable to any unit that does not try to enter
its square or that does not posses the "can spot subs" flag. The message:
"Invisible to most enemy ships" can be edited if inappropriate in "Pedia.txt".
Missiles with this flag will be restricted to 1MP, regardless of that
selected (illogical, as it "lands" on itself). Only Naval units with this
attribute will play "torpedo.wav" for its sound effect when attacking.
"Fighter". Any unit with this flag is unable to be helped by a SAM battery in
a city, even if the defending unit is not a flier. Units with this flag will
always be "scrambled" (change this if inappropriate, in "Labels.txt") against
raiding bombers provided that they spent at least one turn on that square,
and then they will only be scrambled once. Non-Air units will play that slots
default .wav file; submarines with this flag (yes, they do work) will again
use "torpedo.wav" when attacking. "Fighters", if available, will always be
scrambled against a fighter or bomber attack, even if better non-"fighter"
defenders are available.
"Trireme". Any unit with this flag is in danger of being lost at sea if it
ends its turn not adjacent to land. The risk factor is determined in Rules.txt
(by default this is 2), and modified by the Navigation (slot 57) and Seafaring
(slot 75) advances. N.B. These slots can be filled by techs will other names,
values and prerequisites and it will make no difference to this feature. To
not have the risk factor modified they must be made "forbidden" techs (by
changing both prerequisites to "no"). In addition this attribute is suspended
by the Lighthouse wonder (renamed or not makes no difference - it's the slot
that matters), which could be interesting for a game if the risk factor is 1,
but then again, computer controlled trireme units seem to be unaffected.
Units with this flag will use "boatsink.wav" for its sound effect when
destroyed, as opposed to "largexplo.wav".
"Howitzer". "Ignore city walls" is fairly self-explanatory. Air and Land
units must have this flag "checked" if it desired that they have this ability.
"Carrier". Comes with some restrictions:
1) only applies to Naval units;
2) over-rules the "carry units" value if greater than 0;
So having assualt carriers carrying Land units is out, although this flag
will also work with the "Submarine" flag. Carriers can carry a maximum of
20 Air units, of which the only last 8 moved onto it will be selectable.
"Paradrop". Oddly, Naval units can be paradropped, and this is not over-ruled
by other "Naval" characteristics: "Submarine", "Trireme", or "Carrier". Units
with this ability may only be dropped onto land squares, from where they may
then move without penalty to their natural MP. Units may only be paradropped
once a turn. Units may be paradropped from airfields (including Naval units,
if they mysteriously landed there!). They may only be dropped into unoccupied,
or friendly occupied squares, and within a range value determined in
"Rules.txt". This ability does not rely on the discovery of Combined Arms (or
that slot) although a message will "pop-up" when this tech is discovered
(even renamed - again, its only the slot that counts) informing you that
paradrops can now be made. See below for more details on "pop-up" messages.
"Alpine". An attribute that only Land units can take advantage of (you
may start to wonder if perhaps Naval units with this can move over land -
they can't. Just to confirm this I tried it; they can only from from land
onto ocean, or into an adjacent city). Such units treat all squares as roads
- the value is determined in "Rules.txt" - just as the book says.
"Pikemen". Or technically, +50% defense bonus to Land units against other
Land units with MPs >1. Nothing further.
"Fanatics". This flag: "Free support for units under Fundamentalism", perhaps
requires some explanation, to clear up any confusion about Fundamentalism:
Ignore the "Can only be built under Fundamentalism" message - the "Pedia.txt"
file is out of date compared to the "Rules.txt" file, so I suggest editing the
former to change the line to say what it is.The only unit that is restricted
as can only be BUILT under "Fundamentalism" is that of slot number 9, which
by default is Fanatics. "Fundamentalist" governments, like "Monarchy" and
"Communism", can support a determined number of units at no cost. By default
these are 3, 3, and 10, although these values can be changed by editing
"Rules.txt". Units with this flag do not count towards that number.
Additionally, other governments can build this unit, but will support it as
usual (exceptions: "Anarchy" and "Despotism").This flag applies to all types
of units: Land, Air, or naval.
"Missile". "Destroyed after attacking", is applicable to Land and Naval
units as well. Any unit with this flag may only attack for one 'bout' (part
of a series of 'bouts' that determine combat, depending on how the game has
been set-up: the units ability to fight is determined by its attack strength
(which determines the probability of a 'hit'), hit points (in sustaining
damage), and firepower (which determines how much damage the attack causes),
and will then be destroyed. Units with this flag use the "Missile.wav" file
as its sound effect when attacking. If this unit does not attack or return
to a "base" by the end of its turn, then it will crash, and the sound effect
will depend on its slot number (less than (<) 31 for "divcrash.wav", greater
than (>) 30 for "jetcrash.wav").
"AEGIS". Technically +100% defense bonus when defending against Air attack
(missiles, fighters or bombers). Applies to Land and Naval units only. If
land units also have the "fighter" flag checked, then they will not be able
to use this ability; nor will they benefit from the SAM battery's defense
bonus. For example: a land unit designed to protect against air attack would
use this flag and can also benefit from the SAM improvement in a city, but it
cannot attack air units. Having the "fighter" ability actually reduces its
combat performance. Pity. The same is true of sea units with both flags.
"Can spot Subs". Instead of trying to move into a square occupied by a
submarine, which only reveals its location in this event, submarines will
now be revealed by units moving into a square adjacent to a submarine. This
is not modified by the "See 2 squares" flag, it must be adjacent.
OTHER USER-DEFINED ATTRIBUTES
1. Range of Air units. The Maximum moves allowed for any Air unit is 42; any value higher than this isn't allowed, and the unit won't be able to move.,br>
a. A range of 0 will give this unit the characteristics of a helicopter: it doesn't need to ever return to city, airbase or carrier but can survive in the field. However it will gradually sustain damage every time it finished its turn in the field, and it can also be attacked by any Land or Naval unit (ie: AEGIS flag is not applicable). This unit will also use the "helishot.wav" file as its sound effect when attacking Land units, although which sound effect it uses when attacking other helicopters ("aircombt.wav" or "jetcombt.wav") depends on what slot it's in, and this applies to when it is shot down as well ("divcrash.wav" or "jetcrash.wav"). The default is slot 31, which is "divcrash.wav". Helicopter may only attack
once per turn. They are safe only from non-offensive units. They may be flagged as "submarines", in which event they may only attack Naval units (using "Helishot.wav"), and this adds no invulnerability to being attacked themselves. "Submarine" Helicopters attacking other "Submarine" Helicopter will still use the default Air-to-Air attack .wav file.
b. A range of 1 means that this unit must return to a "base" (a city, airfield or carrier) before its moves run out and ends its turns, in which event it will crash without exception (using its slot dependent sounds). Unless they have no other flags, these units may attack for as many times per turn as they have moves, but only Land and Naval units. The "Fighter" flag must be "checked" to attack other Air units. The "Missile" flag must be "checked" to have missile charcteristics, and associated .wav files).
c. A range of 2 is typically for bombers, but it can be for any unit with an extended endurance. The only restrictions are that as offensive units theycan only attack once per turn, and they must return to a "base" by the end of its last turn (ie: when the number of moves shown in the unit display matches the total moves left given next to it in brackets). They can
attack only once per turn, but can do so every turn. Doing so on the last turn is interpreted to mean a kamikaze run, as it will have run out of fuel before returning to "base". The maximum range allowed is 64.
2. Transportation of Land units by Naval units. This can only be done by Naval units without the "Submarine" or "Carrier" flags, which take precedence. As for Carriers, 20 is the maximum number that be carried, although only the last 8 can be activated directly.
3. Nuclear characteristics, require an attack strength of 99 (firepower is irrelevant). These units use "nucexplo.wav" as the nuclear sound effect, although they will also have their default attack sound (eg: "divbomb.wav" for an Air unit (say with a range of 1)) unless the flag "Missile" is checked. Nuclear units (any) can only be built after the Manhattan Project has been built. Spies can only plant nuclear devices after the Manhattan Project has been built. In short, unless in a scenario you happen to start off with nuclear weapons, without this "Wonder" you cannot use any nuclear event. The "Wonder" is also associated with this .wav file.
SLOT LOCATION FEATURES
1. Transformation (default is Engineers), slot no. 2.
2. Only Fundamentalists can build (default is Fanatics), slot no. 9.
3. Partisans, slot no. 8. Defined as "Unit that appears when cities captured from civs who have discovered Guerilla Warfare" (slot no. 34).
4. Civs who have the unit in slot no. 46 will now say "Our words are backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS". (default is Nuclear missile).
5. Spy functions: Cheap bribery, sabotage units, and nuclear device planting (default is Spy), slot no. 48.
6. Double trade bonus (default is Freight), slot no. 50.
Air units use "bases" from which to sortie, which are defined as "City", "Airbase", and "Carrier".
The Spy slot (no.48) gets to do advanced things (poison water, choose targets, nuke a city);
only a land unit may make use diplomatic abilities, other units cannot, but they can be expelled. ("Get that spy satellite off my land")
Any unit may be given the 'Trade' role, but only land units may make use of it - all other units load up with goods, then cannot trade etc at their destination.
Partisans
As I understand it (I may be mistaken) free Partisans appear in the following circumstances: Firstly, when an enemy captures one of your cities (not if the enemy originally owned it) you will get a number of free Partisans. The exact number depends on a lot of factors - for the sake of simplicity, assume that the more money it would cost to buy the city, the more partisans will appear. (it goes without saying that they will only appear if there are free squares around the city (in a two-square radius)).
However, there are other conditions that must be met first:
a) at least one civ must have developed Guerilla Warfare (Gue - slot 34) this can include you.
b) you must have discovered Gunpowder (Gun - slot 35)
c) you must have discovered Guerilla Warfare (Gue - slot 34) and/or Democracy (Dem - slot 21)
Therefore, if you view intelligence and only attack those who don't fill these criteria, they won't get Partisans when you take their cities. Yippee!
Pop-up Text Boxes
Boxes appear with the discovery of the following technologies:
Construction - Cst - 18 (Settlers can now build fortresses)
Philosophy - Phi - 60 (Free tech advance to first to discover it)
Radio - Rad - 66 (Settlers can now build Airbases)
Railroad - RR - 67 (Settlers can now make Railroads)
Refrigeration - Rfg - 70 (Settlers can now make Farmland)
Boxes also appear related to certain unit slots - when that unit becomes
available, a box will make an announcement:
Combined Arms - CA - 13 (Announces Paradrops)
Explosives - Exp - 28 (Engineers can now convert land)
To edit these boxes (and all other text boxes) go into the Game.txt file. Most of the above can be found by searching for '@NEW'.
The tech slots for governments are as follows:
'Despotism' - default, no research needed
'Monarchy' - Mon (slot 54)
Communism' - Cmn (slot 15)
Fundamentalism - Fun (slot 31)
The Republic - Rep (slot 71)
Democracy - Dem (slot 21)
Cities:
Although the largest possible city based on its own food resources is 42, as many have pointed out, based on all squares being grassland and double irrigated, the largest practical city is 36. This is because the first 20 are directly involved in production, which determines trade and resources, with the others that follow being assigned a specialist role of entertainer (adds to luxuries), scientist (adds to science) or taxman (increases credits). The original Civilization only allowed a maximum of eight to be effective, and Civilization 2 does not elimate this problem; however 16 specialists are practical. Any more would appear as entertainers but have no effect on the cities happiness: they are completely reduntant.
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Andrew Livings
HistCiv2@hotmail.com