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1995-08-04
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CAESAR II PLAYABLE DEMO -- DOCUMENTATION
Copyright * 1995 Sierra On-Line, Inc.
----------------------------------------
Welcome to our playable demo of Caesar II. This demo lets
you try many of the features of the finished game, and has
been set to easy mode to make exploring the game fun. These
notes will help you learn what different features in the
game do, and give you some tips for doing well.
OVERVIEW
Caesar II is the sequel to the original Caesar, the hit
simulation of city-building in the Roman Empire. As in that
game, you take on the role of Governor of a Roman province,
committed to expanding the Empire through the conquest of
distant lands. You are responsible for building the capital
city of a province, as well as connecting that city to other
towns and resources within the province. You must also
defend that province from incursions of raiding barbarians,
both passively by building walls and towers, and actively by
raising armies to do battle against them. Your career is of
vital importance, and is linked to your success in ruling
your lands; if you achieve the required ratings in Peace,
Culture, Prosperity and Empire for your current province,
then you are offered promotion to another, more challenging
province and expected to achieve even higher ratings. When
you have conquered enough provinces, then you achieve the
ultimate promotion and are crowned Caesar -- Emperor of
Rome.
RUNNING THE DEMO
After you have installed this demo, you run it by accessing
the directory where you installed the demo and typing:
C2DEMO <ENTER>
This will take you through some introductory screens, and
then place you in the City Level.
To reconfigure the game for your sound card, access the
directory where you installed the demo and type:
SETSOUND <ENTER>
Follow the instructions to select options for playing sound
effects and music.
MEMORY REQUIREMENTS
This demo is designed to run in 4 to 8 megabytes of memory.
To make the game run in 4 megs, you need to access the
directory where you loaded the demo and type:
SET DOS4GVM=1 <ENTER>
-- BEFORE you run the game.
The game will run with most memory managers, but it prefers
certain memory configurations. If you have problems running
the game, try reconfiguring your computer for no EMS, or
disable all memory managers.
THE CITY LEVEL
The demo takes place in the City Level of the game. The
main view of the city is located on the left side of the
screen; the right side displays an overview map and several
icons. Right-click on these controls to learn what they do.
A menu bar featuring game options stretches across the top.
Here are some notes on the structures you can build on the
city level.
NOTE ON LAND VALUE: All structures on the map exert a
positive or negative on the value of the property
surrounding them. The sum total of the effects of
structures on each map-square determines its LAND VALUE.
This value is used to calculate to what level your housing
will develop (or decline). In short, land value is the KEY
to growing your housing.
In addition, some areas of the map will be LIMITED to a
certain level of land value, based on the PRESENCE or
ABSENCE of particular structures or supplies. For example,
areas that are near a barracks are limited to low land
value; and areas that do not have water supply are limited
to a very low land value.
NOTE ON AVAILABILITY: Remember that some structures are not
available until you reach certain levels of population. In
the demo, this means that you will not be able to build
libraries, or upgraded versions of some structures.
PEOPLE: After you build some housing, roads and other
structures, you will see people walking around your city.
These people are the links between some city buildings. To
learn about them and how they are doing, QUERY them (see
below) and select the "People" option.
ROADS AND PLAZAS -- these form links between the following
structures:
* Forums and Housing -- for tax collection
* Businesses and Housing -- for employment
* Markets and Housing -- for customers
* Barracks and housing -- for security
* Praefectures and structures -- for fire prevention
The people that walk along roads and plazas are the actual
links between structures; in a few cases -- specifically
soldiers and "vigiles" (watchmen) -- these people will react
to situations in the city. A good road structure will
ensure that structures are linked as needed. Remember that
in order for most structures to gain the benefit of a road,
they must be within TWO squares of it.
WATER -- There are four structures used to get water through
the city:
RESERVOIRS are the main source of water for a city; they
create water supply (water that is used by people) in a
small radius, and pipe access (water that is piped -- via
underground networks which are not shown -- to other water
structures) in a larger radius. A reservoir only has water
when it is either adjacent to a river, or linked to one such
reservoir via an aqueduct (see below).
FOUNTAINS can be placed in areas with pipe access, to create
water supply over a much larger area. Most of your housing
will get its water from fountains placed within range of
reservoirs.
AQUEDUCTS are used to send water from one reservoir to
another; in this way you can create water sources all across
the map. Many reservoirs can be linked in a series;
however, later reservoirs will supply water to smaller
areas.
When money or space is tight, WELLS can be used to create a
water supply within a small radius. It does not create
water access.
Water supply can also be had from RIVERS, but this is
considered primitive and will restrict the development of
housing.
NOTE: For help in placing water structures, use the PULL-
DOWN MENU above the overview map to access the Water map-
report. Water supply is indicated in blue, pipe access is
red, and areas with both are purple.
HOUSING -- To succeed, housing should:
* have high Land Value
* have Water Supply (but NOT from a river)
* have access to a Forum
* not be near a business, market, wall, gate, barracks or
praefecture
* have bath access
* have high security
* have market access
* have access to a grammaticus and rhetor
* have close access to all three types of entertainment
(theater, coliseum and circus)
* be in a city with high hospital-to-population and
library-to-population ratings
SECURITY -- There are four structures associated with
security:
WALLS and TOWERS enclose areas to give them high security.
YOU MUST ACTUALLY ENCLOSE AN AREA to get this security
bonus. Since barbarians cannot cross rivers without a
bridge, these are also considered walls for the purposes of
enclosure. Be careful -- watch out for breaks in walls, or
bridges on rivers!
BARRACKS generate soldiers that patrol the city in search of
barbarians or rioters. If found, these people will attack
and kill them. Soldiers also pass a security bonus to any
areas they walk past.
PRAFECTURES generate vigiles ("watchmen") that patrol the
city in search of rioters or fire. If found, these people
will take care of them. Praefectures also pass a security
bonus to any areas they walk past.
If security is low in the city, then ROBBERIES may occur.
Robberies lower productivity of businesses and land values,
and can even take gold from your treasury (see TEMPLES,
below!)
SANITATION -- There are two structures associated with
sanitation:
BATH HOUSES need to be placed near housing to affect its
sanitation levels. Make sure they are built in areas that
have pipe access.
HOSPITALS can be placed far from the populations they
service; you must establish a high hospital-to-population
ratio for them to be effective. Hospitals must be
accessible through roadways, so build them next to roads
that people use (particularly forum workers).
If sanitation is not attended to, t