BMUG Revelations/BMUG Revelations.toast/Entertainment/Game Files⁄ Help/Civilization/Civilization FAQ 1

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From: [e-mail] (<RUBICON>)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: CIV FAQ edition one
Date: 7 May 93 23:20:08 GMT
Organization: University of Birmingham
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Welcome to the CIV FAQ.



Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the game, we would like to thank

personally a few people who without their help, this FAQ would not be

possible. In No particular order:-



        Garth Sweet, Roger Kemp, Bryce Harrington, Earnest To,

        Ralph Betza (FM), skipmeister (laus@midway) and Ronald Bense.

        James Ollinger, Mark Lilback, David Gosselin, Devin Ben-Hur

        and Albion.



A special thanks is due to Maurice Schekkerman for sending us a large

collection of posts that he had collected before we started searching. If

we have left anybody out, we are terribly sorry, but we really appreciate

all the stuff that has been given.



This is NOT the definative version, but more of a preview of what we would

like the FAQ to be. We do not take credit for the information contained

here, as all we have done is collect it together into one document. If you

have any questions, comments, criticisms, or tips please post them to us at

[e-mail] [Dave] or [e-mail] [Alex]



What is civilization. I consider it more than a game, it is more a way of

life. Just ask anyone who has played it. The aim of the game is to take a

tribe, settle them and try and create a civilization from them. Along the

way you develop new sciences, meet other tribes (some warlike, some not),

visit new continents all for the aim of trying to get into space, and/or be

the dominant civilization.



A lot of the information in the FAQ is design to give not only the new

player an insight into the game, showing the various strategies and tricks,

but to also provide the experienced player with information on how to make

his civilization stronger with the aim of getting a higher score. In

compiling the FAQ, we have both found numerous new things that have enabled

us to really enjoy the game further and tell us EXACTLY what a certain city

improvement or wonder does.



We will Now proceed....



 A GENERAL



         1) How can I tell which version I have ?

         2) Which is the best version of CIV ?

         3) What is the advisory bug ?

 B CITIES



         1) How do I make a city?

         2) How do I make my city grow?

         3) More cities or less ?

         4) Is there a limit to the size of my city?

         5) How do you keep a city from getting unhappy ?

         6) How do I make an Elvis (Taxman or Scientist) ?

         7) How much money does a taxman collect ?

         8) How many lightbulbs does a scientist create ?

         9) What is the difference between subvert a city and revolt ?

        10) How does the computer cheat ?

        11) How do you calculate pollution ?

        12) What is the highest population for a single city ?



 C DIFFERENT GAME STRATEGIES



         1) In general

            Which is the best Govt type

            Despotic Conquest

            Democratic Ostrich

            Flexible Evolution

            Republic

            Pyramid

            High Tech

            Rich

            Balanced

            Peaceful

            High Tech Conquest

            Hide in a Corner

            Archipelago

            Diploblitz

            Trading Cities

            Take No Prisoners

            The Helping Hand

            The Rock

            Replay



         2) Colossal City Strategy

         3) What is the best way to take an enemy city

         4) What are the best wonders to build

         5) Final score

         6) Lightbulb formula

         7) Misc. tricks and tips



 D CHEATS



         1) Shift 1-8 cheat

         2) Movement cheat

         3) Settler cheat

         4) Ship movement cheat

         5) Convoy cheat

         6) Unloading ships cheat

         7) Save game cheat

         8) Settler movement cheat



 E THE FUTURE



         1) Will there be a CIV II?

         2) What would people want in it?





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                        G   E   N   E   R   A   L

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1) How can I tell which version I have ?

----------------------------------------

When you run CIV it asks various setup questions. The version number is on

these screens. The number is 474 plus an increment, so version 5 is shown

as 474.05. If you have an older version, you can get the latest version by

anonymous FTP from some of the big game sources such as wuarchive.wustl.edu.



2) Which is the best version of CIV ?

-------------------------------------

There has been much debate on Usenet about the various pros and cons of the

different versions. The only two versions worth considering are 474.01 and

475.05 (versions 1 & 5). The easiest of the two is version 1. If you are

playing with version 5, and not having much luck, try to get hold of

version 1. This is also the version that allows the "shift 1-9 cheat", that

can be a good way of learning the ins and outs of the game. Originialy it

was the Beta copy for the playtesters and they didn't remove the cheat.

However, if you like a challenge, then ver. 5 is really the only one to

play. A further impetus to buy the game is that version 5 contains far less

bugs. If you do get the latest version, the chances that the game will not

crash are far greater. :) . The big problem is the Instant Advice. This is

known as "advisory bug". Fixed in one of the latest versions of CIV. Can be

temporary avoided by turning advisory off. Get the latest update of CIV. On

almost all msdos anonymous servers.



---

Version 1 : Came with the game.



Version 2 : Attempted to fix the Advisor bug.  Fixed the tundra bug.

            Fixed the Civ score bug.  Removed %^ cheat.



Version 3 : Attempted again to remove the Advisor bug.  Added some

            new pics and Very Happy people.  Removed disbanding

            a city by buying a settler at 1 population.



Version 4 : No bug fixes, just made the game harder for veterin

            players.



Version 5 : Finaly fixed the Advisor bug (They think). Version 5 does

            not include version 4, but does include all other fixes

            in other versions.

---[Albion]



If the above is correct then those people moaning about Ver.5 being too

hard are getting confused with Ver.4



If you need further Advice or information about the game, there is a book

called 'Rome on 640k a day'.



===========================================================================

Wilson, Johnny L.

  Sid Meier's Civilization, or Rome on 640K a day

  / by Johnny Wilson and Alan Emrich.

   p. cm.

  Includes index.

  ISBN 1-55958-191-3:$18.95

   1. Computer games. I. Emrich, Alan. II. Title

  GV1469.15.W55 1992

  793.93'2-dc20



                  91-42148

                   CIP



Quantity discounts are available from the publisher, Prima Publishing,

P.O.Box 1260 CIV, Rocklin, CA 95677; telephone [phone], On your

letterhead include information concerning the intended use of the books and

the number of books you wish to purchase.



U.S. Bookstores and Libraries: Please submit all orders to St. Martin's

Press, 175 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10010; telephone [phone].



===========================================================================



3) What is the advisory bug ?

-----------------------------

I have never met this bug, but it is know by Microprose, and has been

reported by a number of sources.  Supposedly fixed by version 5.



-----

Scrambled oceans? Extra "land" at the north pole? Screen goes crazy if you

try to move a unit there?



I have this *every* time I look at the "Civilization Score" So I don't do

that any more. The problem, once it occurs, corrupts the save files as

well, so there's no recovery. If you *must* see your "Score" then do a save

_first_ and restart _after_



You can see the corruption in the small map - some of the "people" from the

score screen get left drawn on the map, and apparrently they distort the

.map file as well. Often, there's lots of new grassland around the north

pole, and even some "mystery" houses. You can, in fact, go get the $50

prizes, if you care to go to the trouble. Or maybe my system's more

forgiving than most.

-----[Bob O'Bob]



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                        C   I   T   I   E   S

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1) How do I make a City?

------------------------

Apart from RTFM, take a settler unit and find a suitable place to build a

city. It is my opinion that you should always look around your continent

before building a city, especially at the begining where you are very

vulnerable. When you have found the site of your city press the 'b' key to

build the city.



2) How do I make my city grow?

-------------------------------

The only way to make a city grow in terms of population is to feed it. The

best way to feed a city is to provide squares with as much wheat in them.

The best way to do this is to irrigate and build roads in the squares and

then change to a republic/democracy. Your cities will have an explosion in

population. Remember you can change you government to suit your needs. So

after you change to the republic/democracy you can change back, although it

is not really worth it unless you want to have a military campaign.



3) More cities or less ?

------------------------

I think the general view is MORE, MORE, MORE !!!

I never play with more than about 30 cities as it gets boring trying to

look after them all, but some people just love 70+, and one person has

mentioned having over 250 !?! Here are a few comments from others.



a) Mark Lilback

More!! My normal strategy is to build as many cities as possible before

attacking anyone not in my immediate vicinity. When you have 60+ cities,

it's very hard not to win the game. (I also stay in despotism and build

cities 1 square apart from each other, just so they are production centers

for military units when I do go to war. Until then, I just build settlers.)



b) James Ollinger

More. A lot of cities close together are easier to defend, since you can

move attack units quickly between them to whichever cities are in trouble.

Second, more cities mean greater population growth, which tends to be

critical in CIV. Greater population = more of everything + higher score.

Spin off as many cities as you can early in the game, and then "perfect"

them later on.



c) David Gosselin

More, the more the merrier. With more cities you can get more of

everything: resource, population,tax,science...Oh yeah, pollution and

unhappy people too. But the advantages certainly offset the disadvantages.



4) Is there a limit to the size a city can be created?

-----------------------------------------------------

If you look at the window around the city it seems that the maximum size a

city can attain is only about 15-20. However it is a BIG mistake to assume

this. So how does one make LARGE (around 40) cities:-



Food production is the primary problem, although if you're in a democracy

and have "we love..." days, your food production is really unimportant, as

long as there is enough to make them grow.



Pollution does become a problem as your city grows, and the following

things have a knwon impact:



        Mass Transit (at about size twenty)

        Recycling Center (Needed at about size 30)

        Nuclear Plant (Needed around size 28-30)



It's funny, but a Nuclear plant increases production, yet decreases

pollution. I've had a city size 30 that had 6 smokestacks (60 tons) of

pollution being produced and minimal production (about 20-30 shields) I

built the Nuclear plant, and the pollution vanished. Obviously it is a real

pain building a nuclear powerplant in each city. An alternative (which will

affect all your cities on that continent) is to build Hoover's Dam instead.

It has the same effect as the Nuclear Plant, but it acts on all cities on

the continent, doesn't have the risk of meltdown (before Fusion) and can be

built at an earlier stage (req. Electronics) A final method of building big

cities is to remove the most hostile opposition. Taking the Zulus is

sometimes a good strategy, since it removes the most militaristic

civilization from the planet.



What is most important in developing the assets of a city - irrigate, build

roads, trade, mine, ?? What else can you do to a sqaure other than mine or

irrigate?



I've found that roads and irrigation are most important. Roads not only

give you trade, but they make your units move faster, which makes it easier

to amass firepower between cities for a common defense against invasions. In

other words, if one city looks like it will be attacked, it is far easier

to bring out the knights/catapults/cannon/armor/whatever to the city's

defense if there is a good network of roads. I also give higher priority to

irrigation. Irrigation means wheat, which means population. Population

increases trade, coins, and lightbulbs. A city with a lot of mines and no

population will watch those mines go unused. But a city with a lot of wheat

production grows fast. Generally, I find it best when a city has maybe one

or two forest squares, one or two mining areas, and the rest are irrigated.

And everything has a road/railroad on it.



5) How do you keep a city from getting unhappy ?

-------------------------------------------------

When playing Republic or Democracy it can be very difficult keeping cities

from revolt. The obvious things to do are to build temples and coliseums,

but these cost to build and are a steady drain on finances. Another way is

to create some entertainers, but the loss in trade (from the unused square)

can make things even worse. Here are a few tips from various sources:



1)Mark Lilback

Raise your luxury rate and build wonders. If you go into republic or

democracy, you should have at least a 20% luxury rate. The increased trade

values makes up for the loss of raising the luxury rate.



2) James Ollinger

It can be tough. Look at how many military units are away from the city

(shown on a panel on the left side of the screen. All military units that

are away from the city have little black sad faces on them) and try and

reduce that number. If your units are garrisoning another city, make those

change their home city (with the H command) to wherever they're located.

Units that are in action will have to be dealt with differently. Try and

get one or two units from each city so that all the cities have one or two

units out--it spreads the burden around evenly. Also try and buy (bribes)

as many enemy units as you can. When you buy an enemy unit and you aren't

close to one of your own cities, that unit will have a "NONE" home city.

You can field a decent army of units that won't create any unhappiness this

way... Also make sure to get the WOWs that make people happy--WOMEN'S

SUFFERAGE and J.S.BACH'S CATHEDRAL are the best.



3) David Gosselin

Well, set luxury rate higher, send out as many canavans as possible to

*large* enemy cities overseas and establish trade routes. If the other

civilization is also under Republic/Democratic, 3 trade routes can get you

close to 30 trades (only happened to me once). With more trade routes you

can also put some luxury back to science. WoW are important too, Bach is a

must especially on large continents, Woman's Suffrage is even more

important, especially if you want to fight a war under Republic or

Democracy. And, primarily use diplomas as your attacking force, buying

enemy cities really pays off since you will get defending units right away

and with city improvements.



Finally, remember that when playing Republic, the further your city is

from the capital, the higher the corruption rate.  It can sometimes

pay to build a courthouse instead of a temple, or even to move your

palace to a more centralised position.



6) How do I make an Elvis (Taxman or Scientist) ?

-------------------------------------------------

RTFM !!!



To make an Elvis (entertainer) look at the city portion of your city screen

and click the mouse on one the squares around your city which you are

currently using/drawing-resources-from. The little wheat/shield symbols

dissapear from that square and suddenly you have an Elvis in the top left

hand corner. This probably made a person happy (turned them light blue) or

got rid of an unhappy person. This is also how you change the squares that

you are currently using. Turn a square that you are using into an Elvis and

then click on another empty square to get rid of the Elvis and make use of

the resources in that formerly-empty square.



To make a tax man or scientist, make an Elvis and then move the mouse up to

the Elvis symbol and click on him. He then turns into a scientist. Click on

him again and he turns into a tax collector. Once more and he's an Elvis

again.



7) How much money does a taxman collect ?

-----------------------------------------

A tax collector collects $2 (3 if city has marketplace; 4 if city has a

bank)



8) How many lightbulbs does a scientist create ?

------------------------------------------------

Each scientist you make in a city adds 2 lightbulbs to your total count. If

the city making them has a library they're worth 3, (4 with university too)

But if the square you are abandoning by making the specialist had 3 trade

arrows (ocean) I don't think you come out ahead. [Roger Kemp]



9) What is the difference between subvert a city and revolt ?

-------------------------------------------------------------

If you revolt an enemy city, you loose some of its units, some of its

improvements and have an unhappy populace. However, if you subvert it you

keep all the installations and all of the military units, and the city

tends to stay happy. Also, revolt tends to break any peace treaties where

as subvert doesn't.



10) How does the computer cheat ?

--------------------------------

The computer is known to cheat in a number of ways.



a) Computer triremes are allowed to move as sails. This means that they

don't sink when out at sea.



b) Wonders are built randomly, whenever the computer feels like it.



c) Improvements (at Emperor level) for the computer are at 1/3 normal cost.



d) Technologies are achieved at silly rates with only a couple of cities.



e) Cities that are suffering civil disorder do not have production

penalties.



f) Caravans are *teleported* to remote cities immediately.



g) Computer opponents make contact with any piece, not just diplomats.



There a probably more, but these few show how difficult it can be to beat

the computer. It is also a good excuse for some to use the various *human*

cheats without feel guilty.



11) How do you calculate pollution ?

-----------------------------------

The book "Civilization - or Rome on 640K a Day" gives the formula for

calculating the probability of pollution around a city each turn.

According to the book:

Each city has a "tolerance" for 20 Smokestack Points (SP) per turn.  The

SP are a sum of industrial pollution (IP) and population pollution (PP).

     SP=IP+PP

     IP= (# of shields generated by city)

     Divide IP by 2 with Hydro or Nuke plant OR (XOR) divide by 3 w/ Recycling

        Center

     PP = (population of city)*(technology multiplier)

     (tech. mult.) = .25 (w/ Industrialization), .50 (W/ Automobile)

                     .75 (w/ Mass Production), 1.0 (w/ Plastics)



The bottom line for all this is Build Hoover's Dam before anyone else does and

your pollution problems will be manageable. [Roger Kemp]



12) What is the highest population for a single city ?

------------------------------------------------------

In theory 55, but in practise there are reports of cities between 39 - 44.

For the 55 monster you would need all squares to be irrigated, railroaded

oasis.  Each of these squares would give off 7 wheat icons!!  Not likely

without cheating, so here are some other comments.



Size 44. To get enough food to support a monster like this, you need to be

positioned in an area where all of the surrounding squares are either

Grassland or River. They should all be irrigated and Railroaded. Cities

like this look nice, but are really quite useless towards the end, since

there is nothing left for them to build, requiring a switch to build/sell

SDI defenses. (Does ANYBODY use these?)



Only the first 8 specialists do anything for you; the others look like

taxmen but produce no money. Therefore, a city of size 29 is no better than

a city of size 28, except for the final score; and except that you can also

use such a city to spin off settlers, bring the population back down to 28,

and use the settlers to build new cities, all the while keeping the city

"maxxed out".



If you change byte 10 (0x0a) of the save file to a 7, you'll be

playing at a difficulty level 3 steps harder than Emperor. There is

a little bug at this level, and computer-owned cities grow

limitlessly. I [Ralph Betza] once owned a city with a population of 110,

which I bought from the Chinese. Starvation followed, of course...



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 D  I  F  F  E  R  E  N   T     G  A  M  E    S  T  R  A  T  E  G  I  E  S

***************************************************************************



This next section is being compiled using a *single* post from Ralph Betza.

Although many people have mentioned one or two strategies Ralph really does

cover the lot!



[QUOTE]



a) In general



In the middle-early days, say after you have started 4 or 5 good cities, in

order to keep science at 100% and still have money, build a few cities in

resource-rich and food-poor places, and have them build and sell barracks.

Don't waste that oil square down in the tundra, Build a tiny city! This

kind of city should have a stable population of 1 or 2.



Later on, don't forget to build the SETI Program. Everybody always mentions

the other important Wonders ( suffrage, Bach, Hoover ) but SETI is just as

important at the stage of the game where it becomes possible.



b) Which is the best Govt type



This really does depend on your strategy.

For a detailed look at the different pros and cons, look at the strategy

section. However, there are two main options. If you are playing a military

game, with the aim of destroying the competion as soon as possible, then

stick with despotism. Although resources are generated slower, your armies

do not take them up as fast. This means that one city can generate huge

armies without much penalty. Any other strategy really requires Diplomacy.

This govt helps to increase trade, which in turn increases science and

money. The only problem is that each military unit away from home causes

two unhappy people, and if a city revolts twice in succession, you have

anarchy for about 6 turns. Republic is a useful government if you have a

compact productive island. If your capital is located somewhere near the

center of the island or in your best knowledge town the corruption is not

too much of a problem. Once you develop women's suffrage, being in a

republic is like having a license to kill. In this government you still get

the growth and trade advantages that democracy gets. Most importantly you

can still celebrate We-Love... The knowledge advances don't come quite as

fast as democracy but you still get armor quick enough that you can go take

over the rest of the world.



c) Despotic Conquest



Maximum city size is 6 at Emperor level. Build many cities, build no

improvements except barracks; possible exception: a few libraries near the

palace. Another exception: Cities of 5 or more that aren't near the front

line may be better off with a temple instead of 2 phalanxes.



Begin with science 100%; develop bronze, wheel, iron, math, writing,

navigation, magnetism (optional), then stop and set taxes 100%, science 0%.

You now have all the tech you'll ever need, so don't waste money on

research. ( And be sure not to develop gunpowder! )



Build lots of phalanxes, chariots, legions, catapults, ships, settlers, and

diplomats. Let me clarify that: by "lots of ...", I mean "infinite numbers

of them". A dozen ships might be enough, but you can never have too many

chariots.



Use the "goto" command to simplify moving them around. Attack at all times.

Build no Wonders, build no caravans; never stop building spears and swords,

and never stop using them. Ignore all treaties and entreaties, but make

peace whenever possible ( peace might protect your units from attack until

you break the treaty; and you just might collect some tribute ). Don't

worry about your losses, just keep attacking; a bloodless turn is a waste

of time.



When you capture a city, sell all its improvements and starve the city down

to a manageable size.



When you invade by ship, build cities on the new landmass. If they survive,

the military units they build will be helpful. If not, so what? You have

more where they came from!



Best result: beat 12 other civilizations, world conquest 900 B.C.; ( I

finished the game in one evening! Without staying up late! ) if the last

reincarnation hadn't been in such an inconvenient place, would have been

1200 B.C. Usual result: circa 400 B.C.



You can always play Despotic Conquest, regardless of the world you find

yourself starting with, and always can win without using any of the mant

ways to cheat. When you choose any other strategy, you are deliberately

risking a loss in order to make the game more interesting. Winning the same

way all the time is boring. If you don't lose sometimes, you are doing

something wrong.



Note: [e-mail], in message

<[e-mail]>,

does it differently, and conquers the world later but with higher scores.

He likes to go with Monarchy, Hanging gardens, and no barracks. You can

probably find a different way to do it...



d) Democratic Ostrich



You find yourself alone on a landmass large enough to support 5 or more

max-sized cities, with decent city sites. Build them, and start making

roads and irrigation. Try to keep all cities at roughly the same stage of

development.



Research bronze, democracy; become democratic. Build Bach's Cathedral!!!

Now you can have one military unit outside each city. Research Steam

Engine; patrol your shores with ironclads. After railroads, it gets easy.

You can choose to build a spaceship or to go out with transports plus

battleships and conquer everybody.



Most important trick: every so often, boost luxuries way up high for a few

turns, and make your cities grow ( "Presidents' Day Sale" ). You don't need

granaries because of this, and the occasional famine is easily repaired.



Finances: You will have many city impovements to pay maintenance on. You

have to take some taxes in cash. Libraries, universities, markets, banks,

all are important. Stockpile caravans when in doubt.



Once you build Suffrage, things get really easy.



Note: Monarchy is often a useful intermediate stage.



e) Flexible Evolution



You find yourself with neighbors, on a landmass of unknown size. Play as in

Despotic Conquest, but build your cities farther apart, so you can change

over to democracy if you want to.



After you get the continent to yourself, consider how many military units

you have left, the state of your cities, and how far advanced your

technology is compared to the date. You may be forced to continue with

Despotic Conquest; or you may be able to change to monarchy and then

democracy if you prefer. The mechanics of the change are interesting, so I

choose democracy when there is any doubt -- at the risk of losing, of

course!



f) Republic



There are several things about Republic that make it an interesting

alternative to Democracy; and you can develop the Republic much sooner than

Democracy.



First of all, civil disorder won't make the government fail. All you lose

is the output from the city that's in disorder. You can use a disorderly

city to support a small army in the field...



Secondly, military unhappiness is less. You can have one unit out without

disorder, even before you build Bach, just by making one Elvis. If this

stabilizes the city's population, just make that city a barracks-factory.



Third, once you build Suffrage, military units cause no unhappiness. You

can enjoy a high-tech Republican Conquest! You might not get a great score,

because it's likely to be after 2000 A.D. when you finally conquer the

world, but it's fun...



Fourth, if your empire is geographically small, so that everything is near

the palace, you get just as much trade with the Republic as you could with

Democracy.



g) Pyramid



You just captured the Pyramids! If you're in Monarchy, quickly change to

Communism. The only thing that changes is that you have less corruption. In

the long run, communism doesn't give you enough trade to support all the

city improvements, and you have to change again.



What else are the Pyramids good for? Perhaps you'd like to go democratic,

but haven't developed it.



In theory, you should be able to take advantage of the Pyramids by changing

governments often, to suit changing circumstances. I haven't been able to

make this happen yet.



h) High Tech



In the Republic or in the Democratic Ostrich, keep your treasury small and

science high. The goal is advances every turn, and see how early you can

launch the spaceship. You'd like the game to be peaceful...



The problem with this is that I have read that launching the spaceship

before time runs at one year per turn is risky; if the spaceship lands

"between turns", it is effectively lost. Therefore, I always wind up

waiting around until 1750 ( or is it 1850 ?) when the time-scale changes

the last time.



i) Rich



In any form of government, keep science at a minimum. If Ostrich, use cash

to help build cathedrals and factories in the resource-poor cities. If

Conquest, use the cash to subvert enemy cities.



j) Mercenary



While playing Rich, try to buy as many enemy units as possible so you can

have a whole army owned by NONE.



k) Balanced



Advances every 6 to 8 turns are all you really need. After you build SETI,

you can get advances every 2 turns with no trouble. Keep your taxes and

science balanced.



In the Ostrich, the difference between Rich, Balanced, and High-Tech might

be just a matter of 10 per cent.



l) Peaceful



Try to get through the whole game without fighting a war.



I managed this in only one game, where I cheated, edited the save file from

3980 BC, and started out with a huge London that had population 49, all

improvements, all Wonders, a few extra settlers owned by NONE, two

battleships from NONE, $4000 cash, and every technology I wanted to have. I

pumped out diplomats by the score, played Mercenary to the hilt, and kept

all 6 other civilizations at one tiny city each for the whole game. They

never even met each other, so *nobody* fought any wars! Except for the

barbarians, it was a completely bloodless game.



I've tried very hard to have a peaceful game without cheating, and I'll try

again; but they always sneak-attack me, or make unreasonable demands.



The only way to stop them is to intimidate them, it seems; so things never

get peaceful until I'm so strong that the computer civs are afraid.



m) High-Tech Conquest



High-tech war involves larger numbers of stronger units than you use in

Despotic Conquest, and can get quite interesting. Usually, I run these wars

half-heartedly, but one time I was bombing the Romans with half my cities

and lackadaisically building a spaceship with a few others, and the

Babylonians built a small ship and launched it! I had 17 years to take

Babylon, with no forces near it, and it wasn't even on the coast! I

succeeded with the last-minute help of a nuke ( build manhattan project,

next turn buy the nuke in a captured Babylonian city, next turn boom! and

walk in, just in time), but it was hectic.



Another time, a Babylonian battleship got me really mad, so I changed the

production of all my cities to nukes, and nuked them repeatedly, an average

of 5 explosions per turn for 20 or more turns; 6 cycles of global warming!

I finally managed to destroy all 8 of their cities without capturing any --

nuke the same city several times in one turn to get its population down to

1, then run in with a Mech Infantry unit. I got a lousy score, thanks to

all the pollution.



In order to get into these situations, you have to leave the enemy alone.

Several of the computer civilizations will develop high tech, but they are

all weak at the beginning of the game. Choosing 6 civilizations seems to

help, as well; both the Indians and the Mongols seem to be stuck on

Conquest -- if you put the Mongols and Babylonians on the same landmass in

4000BC, the Mongols win every time. I often choose 6 and play pink in order

to have the best chance of getting a high-tech opponent.



The Romans always get high tech, but never build enough cities or enough

units; the Babylonians seem to be consistently the most interesting. The

light blues rarely survive into the A.D. years, so the yellows are the

second most interesting opponent.



n) Hide in a Corner



Once in a while, instead of trying to build as many cities as possible as

quickly as posible at the start of the game, try sticking to one or two

cities for the first 1000-1500-2000 years. Not until you have reasonably

powerful cities do you send out an expedition, either a colonization

expedition with two settlers plus a few phalanxes and legions, or an army

of conquest, at least 4 chariots with more to come, plus a settler to build

a military road.



This strategy is indicated when your first explorer finds that you are

stuck in a lousy corner of what looks like it might be a large land mass,

and there are no decent city sites near you.



One advantage of waiting is that the enemy cities can grow large enough to

be really worth capturing, and might contain a few WOWs.



I had this work out well just recently. My first explorer went a long,

winding way and saw a road; I pulled it back, and it seems that nobody

noticed my visit. The Romans and Zulus wiped everybody else out and lined

up against each other; the distance was so great that my first wave of

chariots took 200 years to arrive, but thanks to the two settlers building

a road, the second wave was right behind. Because all their military units

were out in the field facing each other down, their cities were lightly

defended. What a surprise when my hosts swept down upon them! Zimbabwe and

Caesarea ( each of which was larger than both my cities put together ) were

mine at the first stroke, and their vast armies in the field vanished. Rome

held out for hundreds of years after the rest, but after it fell, I had

more than a dozen good-sized captured cities, decent technology due to

captures, and despite having waited 1500 years before beginning the

conquest, I was still on track to go Democratic with my captured Pyramids

and bulging treasury. The rest was boring...



o) Archipelago



You find yourself alone on a small island with room for only 1 or 2

cities....



Actually, I have done the Ostrich with just 2 cities; but they were

resource-rich city sites. The disadvantage of islands is that two important

Wonders work only on cities on one landmass.



If you get a foothold on a major landmass, you can just convert to one of

the other plans; but if the first thing you find is another island, you're

in for it. After 3 or 4 islands, you might as well deliberately avoid the

mainland and instead scout out as many small chunks as you can find, just

to make things interesting.



So far, every time I have customized for small land mass, I wound up on the

biggest chunk around, with neighbors. Maybe the game deliberately avoids

putting you on places that are too small.



p) Diploblitz



After Ostriching for a while, you eventually become very rich. Your

treasury doesn't collect interest, so you might as well use it.



If you just land a few diplomats, the enemy may sneak attack and kill them

all; so what I do is fill up 3 or more transports with diplomats and land

them all at once. You can usually unload 5 diplomats per turn per transport

without stacking them; bribe any units that happen to be standing on the

shore. If you unload 15 diplomats in one turn, at least some will survive!



As the first wave moves inland, the second is unloaded. The first wave buys

any military unit it sees, and of course subverts any city it can. The

transports go back for more diplomats. You can conquer a whole civilization

this way, in just two or three turns; which is fun to watch on the replay!



If you don't have enough cash to buy a city, industrial sabotage is nice.

Doing it just once per turn is almost useless, though; the computer can buy

back whatever you destroy. The right way to do it is to hit one city with 6

or 8 diplomats in one turn -- when the cathedral, bank, city walls, and

factory are all gone in one turn, what's poor Caesar to do?



In short, the idea of the diploblitz is not to use diplomats by ones or

twos, but by bucketloads.



q) Trading Cities



You find yourself woefully behind in technology. The enemy is spreading out

over a large continent.



Scout around the edges and find a small city you can afford to buy. Post a

bunch of diplomats nearby. Steal a tech and buy the city, thereby gaining

two advances. Now make the population into taxmen, sell the improvements,

and leave the city undefended. When the enemy takes it back, steal another

tech and buy the city again! It will be cheaper to buy it this time -- you

sold all the improvements and the population is smaller.



Repeat as needed until the city is completely destroyed. Find another small

city and do it again.



r) Take No Prisoners



Your homeland is full of big, beautiful cities. Your army has overrun the

enemy but you don't feel like managing any of the crappy cities the

computer built.



After you kill the last defender, don't take the city! If the computer has

any money left, it will make a new defender, which you can also kill -- it

won't be fortified, after all.



Hit the city with a DiploBlitz and keep it empty. Eventually, you may get

it down to a population of 1, and can then simply destroy it. Otherwise,

maybe some barbarians will come along...



Here's an interesting goal: try to get a whole enemy civilization into this

state! If its treasury is empty and every city is in disorder, can it ever

recover?



s) The Helping Hand



You have lots of bombers or battleships handy, but no ground units nearby;

besides, you don't feel like dealing with any new cities.



If a different enemy civilization has a unit near the city, or if

barbarians are on the way, just kill all the defenders and watch what

happens. You can weaken the strongest enemy this way.



By the way, the enemy civ that takes over the empty city will *not* feel

any sense of gratitude.



t) The Rock



Sometimes you can throw a monkey wrench into an enemy civ and take it

completely out of the game by posting one lousy phalanx on top of a

mountain. This only works at an early stage of the game, and the victim

must have no open land for expansion -- either on an island, or blocked

into a corner.



Instead of building triremes and settlers, and instead of advancing

quietly, the enemy civ builds lots of cavalry and legions and chariots,

surrounds the rock, and keeps moving its units around. It's fun to watch

them riding around your mountain, brandishing their swords, waving torches,

and shouting imprecations.



Eventually they sneak attack, and lose dozens of units. Then they make

outrageous demands, tell you to prepare for war, ride around and shout, and

eventually attack and lose more units. By the time they destroy that

phalanx, you're ready to put a rifleman up there, and they're still

undeveloped!



This depends on the leader's personality; it works against the Russians and

the French, but not against the Romans or Chinese.



Of course, to ensure against losses, you want to scout around their coast

and find as many rocks as possible, because if they manage to get rid of

all your outposts, they'll start behaving reasonably again, but one phalanx

on a mountaintop is all you really need to make it work!



u) Replay



Always make a save file in 3980 B.C.; as soon as you finish the game,

consider starting over in the same world but following a completely

different strategy.



In the replay, you have the advantage of knowing more or less what the

world looks like, which spoils things a bit; but in compensation, you have

the chance to change history.



A diskette full of old 3980 B.C. save files is nice to have, especially if

it contains interesting worlds. After a while, you don't remember much

about the world, and can replay without spoiling the mystery of discovering

the unknown. When you get an interesting world, you may also want to share

it with someone.



Note: you need both the CIVIL?.SVE and CIVIL?.MAP file!



[UNQUOTE]



2) Colossal City Strategy

--------------------------



I have deliberately kept this separate from the other strategy section as

it really is a game apart. Once again I hand the subject over to Ralph

Betza:



[QUOTE]



The long-awaited Colossal City strategy is not a strategy. Instead, it's

just a simple trick that makes any high-tech strategy work much better.



It's this simple: build the Colossus and Copernicus' Observatory in the

same city.



Of course, you want that city to be your capital, so that there's no

corruption; of course, you want it to grow big and have a university and

lots of nice trade routes.



Of course, you want to build the Colossus as soon as possible.

(   I have done it by 2800 BC without cheating! Lucky villages and

(   ransom from barbarian leaders did the job. Building it with

(   caravans alone, 2300 BC is good; and perhaps the resources you

(   invested building it so early would have been better spent

(   making more settlers and more cities... )

Therefore, you want to develop trade as soon as possible.



Note: since the computer cheats in building its Wonders, if someone else

builds the Colossus first it's not unreasonable to use the save-game cheat

to stop them.



Combining the Ostrich strategy with the Colossal City makes it possible to

reach future tech before 1 AD without cheating; if you have a gold mine and

a swamp in the Colossal City's zone of influence, that's all ( almost all )

the good luck you need.



Building these two Wonders, and building a Cathedral and University in one

city while the others are small, is hard to do unless there are a few

resource-rich cities near the Colossal City.



In fact, this does force a Colossal Strategy for the early part of the

game. Build as many cities as possible; the outer ones fight wars and build

more cities, while the inner ones just build caravans. All but one of the

cities stays small; the Colossal City must grow, grow, grow, so it needs a

temple and a granary and a library and a university and a cathedral. The

division of labor, with different cities doing different things, makes it

interesting.



Customizing for "Large Land Mass" is helpful.



To reach Future Tech by 1 AD, go to democracy as soon as possible, and set

luxuries to 30%, taxes 30%, science 40%; research will slow down for a few

years, but you'll collect a lot of money with which you can build

cathedrals, marketplaces, banks, acqueducts, and so on, and very soon

you'll be up to "advances: 1 turns". 30% luxuries is just enough to keep

everybody happy all the time, and to cause occasional "we love the

president" days, in cities that complete their markets and banks and get

trade routes.



To play a strategy that wouldn't work without the Colossal City, stay in

Despotism until you build Suffrage and then go to Republic -- you'll only

be up to Automobile or so by 1 AD, and your scraggly little cities will

have trouble building those expensive armor units, but you'll have fun

winning. Keep building caravans, keep science at 100% as long as possible,

make factories in a few cities ( using the caravans to do so ), and pay the

rent by building and selling city walls, and by sacking enemy cities. You

may *need* to follow this plan if you have a land war against a tough

opponent on a huge continent. This plan is fun because you don't have to go

into a shell ( like the Ostrich ), and you don't have to concentrate

singlemindedly on military affairs ( as in Conquest ); instead, you get to

do a little bit of everything.



[UNQUOTE]





3) What is the best way of taking an enemy city?

------------------------------------------------



Sure fire way for musket/cannon level cities with city walls:

1.  Build lots of cannon, diplomats (4-6), and settlers (2-3).

2.  Move a vetran musketeer adjacent to the city to take and fortify.

3.  Move a settler to the musketeer and build a fort around him.

4.  Use other settlers to build a road to the musketeer, if necessary.

5.  Stockpile several cannon and diplomats in the fort.

6.  When you are ready, have the diplomats sabotage the city walls, if

    any (it may take several tries).

7.  Bombard the city with the cannon until it is yours.

8.  Move the Musketeer into the city to take posession and be its first

    guard.



I personally believe the best way to take a city is with a diplomat, by

subverting the city. Just keep all military units for defensive purposes.

Then once the city has been bought then build (Buy) a diplomat as the first

thing you make.



4) What are the best wonders to build?

--------------------------------------



I like the Pyramids. I build them as soon as possible, and build no other

ancient wonders. Then I switch to communism. You get the higher production

of monarchy, and corruption is significantly reduced, but you also don't

have to worry about unhappy units from units outside the home city. Also,

you can instantly change to any other government type (even democracy)

without any anarchy in between.



I also like Shakespear's Theater. Build it in you highest producing city

with lots of capability for supporting units. Don't waste effort building

cathedrals or collesiums in the city. Once the wonder is built, station as

many units as possible out of that city, and switch to democracy. You will

get all the benefits of democracy without the pains of having too many

unhappy people. Build this city up with resource increasing items like

power plants, etc. I conducted an entire war this way, with no problem. I

had 20-30 units stationed out of this city!



Bach's wonder is the best if you have a lot of land on one continent and a

lot of cities. You get two unhappy people made happy. Pretty good!



Another good one, as I'm sure you've heard, is Women's Sufferage. It

reduces the number of unhappy people caused by out-of-city units by one.

Great if you have republic.



To remove the problem of pollution, it is best to build hoover dam as soon

as possible.



5) Final score

---------------

There are many factors to the end score, but the main bonuses are

described below (courtesy Roger Kemp):



There are two different ways that percentages are calculated:



a) If you take over the world, your score is determined SOLELY by the date

in which you finish. Wonders, pollution, population etc. have no effect on

the score. I believe the exact formula is something like: you get 1000

points for taking over the world by year 2000 and you get an extra 2 points

for each turn (not year) in advance of the year 2000 if you finish the game

early. Take this score and divide by 10 to get your percentage. This means

that the maximum resonable score you could get (taking over the whole world

around 2000BC) is somewhere around 180%. There is also some sort of

reduction modifier if you start with less than seven initial civilizations.



Note that if you play on a lower level your final percentage is also

multiplied by .2, .4, .6, or .8 depending on whether you play chieftan,

prince etc.



b) If you launch into space (I don't know why anyone would bother playing

the game and pursue this course 8-) you can get those 300% scores that

people brag about. You'd just have to kill off all but one enemy city and

keep peace while you filled the world with people. What a boring game 8-)



Finally remember if you can't be touched, try and develop as many future

techs as possible since they add 15 to your score at the end.



6) Lightbulb formula

---------------------

Here's the formula from _Sid Meier's Civilization, Or Rome On 640K a Day_:

 LightBulbs = PreviousAdvances * DifficultyModifier * TimeModifier

 DifficultyModifier =

     6, Chief

     8, Warlord

    10, Prince

    12, King

    14, Emperor

 TimeModifier = 1 if Year <= 0AD, 2, if Year > 0AD

 In addition the first advance always requires at least 10 lightbulbs

 regardless of difficulty level.



7) Misc. tricks and tips

-------------------------

Here are few tips and tricks that I have collected from Usenet over the

last few months.



a) Structures (temples etc.) are cheaper than units that move (ie.

military, settlers...) If you want to buy a quick rifleman to defend a town

it's much cheaper to select a temple, buy it and then change back to a

rifleman. I use this regularly in the beginning because the third person in

a city (on emperor level) is pissed so I switch over to a barracks (same

number of shields as a settler) buy it and immediately switch it back to

settlers.



b) You can use caravans to build things other than wonders. When you take

over an enemy city you usually need a cathedral or walls or something of

the sort so I throw a few caravans in the transport with my armors. When I

take over the city I switch what it's building over to a wonder, contribute

the caravans to the wonder and switch it back to the cathedral. You can use

this on your own cities as well. If you have a fabulous production town and

want to kick start the other cities, build caravans and throw them into the

other cities wonders and switch them to whatever you want. I build a lot of

factories this way. Building caravans is like putting money in the bank.



c) You can use a bomber to protect a vulnerable city by parking it in the

air outside the city. It appears that when moving it's pieces the computer

moves them in a set order (probably the order in which they were built).

This often means that it moves half of its ground units (which can't get

past your bomber) before finally bringing out a fighter to kill the bomber

(if it ever does actually attack the bomber). This can give you time to

fortify the city.



d) Once you have railroads take a settler into a transport onto one of the

fish squares that is being used and activate the settler. Press 'r' on the

settler for making a road (on water!!) and then 'r' again for a railroad.

You now have a railroad on the fish which gives you the increased

production and trade that railroads normally give. Unfortunately you can't

walk pieces onto the square as if it were a bridge.



e) Apparantly, units are stronger if they haven't moved before an attack.

Take an armor, move it next to another unit, and then attack. It seems,

from my experience, like some penalty is assessed from attacking "on the

move". I've experienced much greater losses doing this (something like 5:1)

then moving next to the piece, waiting a turn, and then attacking. I've

also noticed that if you attack a city with 4 defenders, this doesn't seem

to enter after the first three have been defeated. (does the computer take

some sort of moral into account? I've not seen it documented anywhere, but

once they lose two or three units, the rest seem to loose

disproportianately, even if they're all the same type of unit, and they

have barracks [ie all are vets])



f) Stack units in forts that have been created by settlers, and if you lose

a battle you only lose one unit.



g) If your opponent gets nuclear technology then don't meet with any of

his ambassadors.  I have found that he will not strike until AFTER he has

told you that he has NUCLEAR POWER.  This has only been tested at king

level in ver.5 so if you know different contact us!



h) When you are at advanced technology levels and attacking cities, have

two bombers that alternate turns in sitting above your attacking force. The

enemy can only attack you with fighters because there is an air unit in the

square and attack 4 vs defence 13 for a fortified, veteran mech. inf is a

good bet, besides fighters are very expensive.



i) Always use nucs on enemy battleships and carriers at sea - no polution.



***************************************************************************

                        C   H   E   A   T   S

***************************************************************************



There are lots of ways to cheat, but most of them make the game less

interesting. The one exception is editing the save file. I play most games

honestly, and don't edit the save file just for the sake of winning;

sometimes I edit the save file in order to create unusual and interesting

situations.



( I try never to cheat at all, but occasionally can't resist using the

fast-settler. )



Editing the save file just to give yourself huge amounts of cash is boring.

Be creative! Give the Romans a battleship in 3980 BC and see if you can

still beat them! Try playing difficulty level 5, which is worse than

Emperor, but start yourself with extra advantages to make up for it. Edit

the unit definitions and play with different kinds of military units. Be

the barbarians.



  At difficulty level 6, you have no contented citizens at all,

  even when your city size is 1 (one!). The computer does not

  labor under such a disadvantage; its unhappiness is still Prince

  level, I think. The computer builds a militia with about 3 or 4

  resources. You need a lot of extra advantages to win at

  difficulty level 6.



  To play at difficulty level 6, you must change the tenth byte of

  the save file to a 6. There is always a chance that the game

  will crash when you save, because the difficulty level is used

  to index the strings "Chieftan"..."Emperor". So far I never had

  a crash.



  To play the barbarians, change byte 2 to a zero. If there are no

  barbarian units, you get a "Centuries Later..." ending; this

  means you need to give yourself a Barbarian settler, by writing,

  at offset 0x26c0 of the file,

    00XX YY00 0300 ff00 ff00 ffff

  where XX and YY are the latitude and longitude; try 2020 as a

  start.



I described above a game where I edited the save file to give myself an

incredible advantage, and then set myself an unusual goal in addition to

the normal goal of just winning.



Another time recently, I was getting too many barbarians. I was handling

them easily, but got tired of them. I don't like the barbarians, and I wish

CIV had an option to turn them off. I saved, quit, and deleted all the

barbarian units! I got a 400 year breathing space out of that...



The most famous ('infamous') known cheats are:-



1) shift 1-8 cheat

-------------------

This is the shift 1-8 (sometimes shift 5-6) cheat, only available in

version 1.0. It was the player-test mode for Microprose playtesters.

Refresh the map after pressing Shift 1-8 (by moving the cursor or pressing

t twice) and you will see the map of the whole world. You can click on the

cities of other players and unfortify their troops and sell their city

improvements



F7 will show you the development profile of each civ, showing you all their

advances and allowing you to see if thhey have a vendetta against you.



F8 shows you the powergraph and allows you to see a replay up to that point.



F9 shows numbers representing the attack points, defense points, and 3 of

the cities the computer uses to calculate battle, on each contient (along

with giving the size of each continent in land squares.



F10 shows a complete world map.



The other function keys sometimes do their normal functions, but they mess

up the diplay a lot of the time. Just a word of warning.



2) Movement cheat

------------------

Any piece that sentries in a town before the end of its movement can be

unsentried and REGAINS ITS FULL MOVEMENT for the turn. What this means is

that if you have roads linking your cities together and a chariot in a city

on one side of your continent, you can move it all the way to the other

side of the continent in one turn. All you do is sentry it in each city

along the way (as long as each city is <=5 squares away). In fact if you

have some invaders to kill, you can kill one, sentry it in a nearby city,

unsentry it, kill the second, move into the city again all in one turn.

This is how I defend 10 cities with 4 chariots



3) Settler cheat

-----------------

(Spoils the game) Most settler functions take from 2 to 12 turns to

accomplish. Any of them can be accomplished in one turn by putting the

settler a square, pressing R or M or I or whatever, clicking on the settler

to make it blink again (which seemingly aborts the function) and pressing R

again. Keep repeating this process until the road or irrigation is

finished. If you put on the End-of-Turn feature this helps you perform the

desired function in one turn. Otherwise you could just keep some nearby

piece blinking so that the turn doesn't end before you've milked the cheat

for all it's worth. Irrigating swamp takes 10 or 11 turns so this cheat is

real handy.



4) Ship movement cheat

-----------------------

With two ships (Sail, Frigate and Transport) you can move anywhere in the

world, provided you have one ground unit aboard. The process is to move one

ship (needs to be able to take one unit) until it has one MP, place it in

sentry mode, move the next ship (the one with at least one unit in it) next

to it and "unload" the unit into the sentry mode ship. Then place the just

unloaded ship (with most likely 1 MP) into sentry mode and repeat with the

ship just loaded (It will have its normal MP restored, wonders are not

included). Repeat this process until you get where you want to go. (Note:

sometimes the computer will flash "end of turn" after placing a ship into

sentry mode, even though you just transfered a unit and the other ship

should be active. Just click onto the supposedly active ship, hit a

key/button, and the ship should become fully active again. I've also

noticed what appears to be a glitch after doing this for a while in one

turn. It seems the computer knows you're doing something not quite right,

or the programming is straining with the large number of moves.



Note: Does not work with triremes!!



5) Convoy cheat

----------------

You can make enough transport-type ships, string them along in a convoy,

just enough spaces apart that you use up the full MP of each one, and start

from one shore, move the ship on top of the next, use that ship to go to

the next... and your troops will move with the active ship, provided it can

carry them all.





6) Unloading ships cheat

-------------------------

This one is when you wish to unload units in a city. Dock the ship, and go

into the city description screen (click on city) and then click on the

units in sentry mode you just delivered. They will then have full MP

restored, and you can continue to move them normally at this point. (With

Railroad (RR), this cheat allows for faster deployment across continents

between your cities and/or ships.) Note that a unit can have several full

moves in one turn this way.



7) Save game cheat

-------------------

Apart from the obvious reasons for saving regularly. It is well known that

the computer cheats when it comes to World Wonders. They appear to be

awarded randomly to any city the computer likes. If one gets awarded, it is

possible to go back to your last save, and the chances are that it won't be

awarded again for a while.



8) Settler movement cheat

-------------------------

Move the settler 2 squares along a road, then tell it to do something. Now

wake it up and move it another two squares. This means you can move a

settler a minimum of 13 squares along a road before the development of

railroad. If you move them along a mountain range where it takes a long

time to build mines, or across swamp you can move about 19 squares in one

turn (tell the settlers to mine the mountain/hill or clear the swamp).



As a final word to cheating, there are a number of utilities available from

FTP sites that allow you to completely customize your civilization.





***************************************************************************

                T   H   E       F   U   T   U   R   E

***************************************************************************





Microprose have no plans at the moment to produce a sequel to civilization.

However with so much interest on the Net and If people push and hassle them

enough, who knows...



As I see it, we could have either Civilization version II, which would be

the current game plus important improvements, possibly using the same save

files, or we could have "Civ II", a whole new game written from scratch as

a sequel to CIV. In other words, I would call the current game "Civ I,

version I".



There are two areas of improvement. The first is that of the system itself.

The second is improvements to the game, (i.e. more wonders, better units

etc.). There is No real order to this, rather it was who sent mail first,

got his/her stuff incorporated first.



1. The System

-------------

Improve the user interface. When I hit F4 or F1 or F5 and get a list of

cities, I should be able to go to any city by clicking on its line. When

I'm looking at a city, I should be able to go to any of its units by

clicking on it with the "other button" -- leave the city and center on the

unit. When I click on a unit, if I click the "other button" (OB) on the box

that appears, I should go to that unit's city. When I hit F10 and get a

worldmap, I should be able to go anywhere in the world by clicking. When I

list the wonders of the world, I should be able to go to any city on it,

that I know about, by clicking. When I do demographics, I should be able to

go to a city with smokestacks by clicking on pollution. There should be a

menu/keyboard command to find polluted squares!!!!!!!



Fix the dratted "goto" command. Make it find the most efficient route, as

Perfect General does. The only reason the current version needs the magic

caravans and unsinking triremes is because "goto" doesn't work.



Give it the ability to play a bit more sensibly. I'm not asking for a

really good AI, just not quite so stupid. A really good AI would probably

be too difficult to do.



Provide a startup option for a fast game: everybody gets several settlers

and has many technologies. Kind of like the fast form of Monopoly, where

you deal out the deeds instead of buying the properties.



Provide an "undo" command, for when you hit the wrong key.



Provide an option NOT to go to the next unit! The next unit would blink and

be activated, but the viewpoint wouldn't shift until you hit "C". Reason: I

want to do more stuff in the area where I just moved, like unfortify a

phalanx to move it into the city I just conquered, for example.



How about a "no barbarians" option?



The save-game cheat is tedious. Provide a "load game" command so that I can

study my old save files ( maybe the map editor should be used for this )

and prevent the save-game cheat by subtracting 10 points from the score

whenever the game is manually saved in a turn not divisible by 5, and

prompting "You can save now" whenever saving is "free".



2) The GAME

-----------



Diplomacy is such a loss in the current version. Needs more negotiation

options ("We *demand* tribute"; "You're asking for too much"; "Here's a

free technology for you"; "declare war"), plus the ability to "train" a

computer civ (like you train your dog in Hack) to be permanently

well-disposed towards you.



Units away from home shouldn't start to cause unhappiness until they've

been gone for a move or so; and they shouldn't cause unhappiness if they're

still right near the city. And, it's a little bit ghoulish how if you lose

a battle, all the brothers and mothers of the boys who got killed celebrate

because they're not away from home anymore! Victories, not losses, should

cause greater happiness! Perhaps there's no room in the current save file

for the info you'd need.



Allow more cities and units. Grab a section of the save file, the units

table from a dead color, and use it as an extension area.



Advanced ships are too darned slow. They should be faster, and air

transport should be available. (You can provide for both of these things by

editing the unit definitions in the current save file.)



Allies can carry each others' forces in ships, for example, or use a

railroad passing thru each others' territory, or move freely around each

others' forces.



Even in a democracy, pieces should be able to patrol right next to the city

or maybe two hexes away even without causing unrest.



This idea is more reasonable. In addition, I suggest the military units

(except settlers, caravans, diplomats) should be well supplied, i.e., a

supply line should be able to reach such units. I was once playing a game

where certain enemies units surrounded by my legions completely, but they

still can stand for serveral ten year, which should be impossible in

practice since all their supply lines should have been cut. Also, more

kinds should be added, esp. for land and air units in the modern age:



  Land: engineers, scouts (to check enemy units' damages, etc.),

        headqarters (so the armies belonging to it will surrender

              or reduce in combat value, when the hq is destroyed),

              supply troops, red cross, etc.

  Air:  air transport (for airborne warfare and supply),

        satellite (for increasing trade, enemy informations, or

              even the star war project against the nuclears),

        space shuttle (for carrying satellites), and so on.



        Spies, divide Diplomats into Spies and Diplomats.



        Sentries/Explorers, little units whom are easy to produce,

        have 0 offense,0 defense, but 2 movement. Useful for exploring

        or leaving in the far reaches to alert you of invaders.



I also suggest the addition of space lab (for increasing light bulbs),

space factory (for increasing shields) as city improvements. Satellite

should be able to increase happiness by providing more informations and

entertainments through TV to the people.



Forts are a good thing in the current game; more kinds of non-city

structures would be nice, but I can't think what they might be. Boundary

markers? Customs stations? How about an aqueduct? -- instead of irrigating

all the squares between here and there, you build a pipeline, much cheaper.

An oil pipeline -- extending the city's reach. An airport, so planes could

land without a city. None of these seem like really great ideas.



Different countries should have different commodities. For instance, the

Chinese should have silk, porcelain, while the others do not have. Also,

these commodities should have some function. For example, silk and

porcelain can increase happiness, and you need to give money to certain

Chinese cities to obtain them through caravans (or merchants). Actually, I

don't like money and happiness are increased through simply increasing the

arrows as present. More complicated economic system instead of the 'arrows'

will make the game more interesting. Different kinds of food should be

produced in different cities so trading between cities through the new

economic system will be enhanced.



How about *prospecting* and *drilling* for oil? The obvious oilfields that

you see in the early days get used up; you need to find and develop new

ones. Likewise gold and coal, of course.



More terran types, more kinds of special squares.



As tech increases, you can replace Caravan made routes with Airline routes,

fly the plane to the enemy city a just like Caravan's you get a

self-maintained invisible airline route. But it makes you more money.



Have more ifra-structure, your country is pretty much a collection of stand

alone cites, if you could get some way of joing cities in some way, through

inter-coutry trade routes perhaps. IE you can have food moved from

prosperous cities to lesser cities. Truck or Train routes with roads/rails

perhaps, only not soo complex as to overshadow the rest of the game.



More useful stuff to build, by 1 AD I'm usually down to making barracks and

selling them because there's nothing better to do.



Instead of just mines/farms around cities, perhaps have suburbs that would

increase happiness (for free) or research centers, etc.



Spies, divide Diplomats into Spies and Diplomats.



Sentries/Explorers, little units whom are easy to produce, have 0 offense 0

defense, but 2 movement. Useful for exploring or leaving in the far reaches

to alert you of invaders.



Power chart should be available all the time :-)





3) More civilization advances

-----------------------------



        1. Calendar, requires astronomy and writing

                increases the yield of foods once developed.



        2. Paper, requires invention increases the effect of library and

                university greatly



        3. Printing, requires invention increases the effect of library and

                university even more greatly, allows the building of

                bookstore (new city improvement which increases happiness

                in the city)



        4. Modern Communication System, requires electronics allows the

                building of TV station (new city improvement which

                increases happiness in the city), allow building of radar

                station which increase the intelligence.



        5. The addition of space lab (for increasing light bulbs), space

                factory (for increasing shields) as city improvements.



        6. Satellite should be able to increase happiness by providing more

                informations and entertainments through TV to the people.



        7. As tech increases, you can replace Caravan made routes with

                 Airline routes, fly the plane to the enemy city a just

                 like Caravan's you get a self-maintained invisible airline

                 route, But it makes you more money.





3) The Extras

-------------



1. Provide a map editor, like Populous has, and more choices on the

world-customization menu. If worried about people faking high scores by

editing their games, put a byte or bit in the save file that says "game was

edited, not eligible for hall of fame", and a checksum to make tampering

harder. If you just *look* at a world, because this is like doing the

shift-56 cheat!, but nothing can be done about that -- if you set the

"ineligible" bit in the save file, that proves nothing: there could be

another copy of the save file!



That's Really about it. Again if there are any comments, criticisms or bits

we have left out, give us an email at:-



                [e-mail] or

                [e-mail]



Thanks for reading and have fun :)







--
Dave [Rubicon]

.sig deleted due to good taste