CD-ROM Today - The Disc! 17/cdrt17.iso/pc/cesar/read.me

Text File | 1995-08-03 | 13KB | 350 lines

CAESAR II PLAYABLE DEMO -- DOCUMENTATION
Copyright * 1995 Sierra On-Line, Inc.
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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, then DISEASE may occur.
These kill houses and lower land values.  You can eliminate
the symptoms of plague easily enough, but you must eliminate
their cause (i.e. low sanitation) if you don't want them to
come back.


ENTERTAINMENT -- There are six entertainment structures in
the game: two theaters (THEATER and ODEUM), two coliseums
(ARENA and COLISEUM), and two circuses (CIRCUS and CIRCUS
MAXIMUS).  The latter building in each category is identical
to the former, except that it accesses a larger area.
Housing likes to be within close proximity of ALL THREE
entertainment types.

INDUSTRY -- On the city level, you build MARKETS near
housing to sell your goods, and up to eight types of
BUSINESSES.  The "Jars" in each business indicate its
output, which directly affects your industrial taxes.
Markets will develop as your city and businesses develop.


EDUCATION -- There are three types of educational
structures.  The GRAMMATICUS is the school for younger
Romans, while the RHETOR is for older students; build these
near housing to help it develop.  The LIBRARY affects
housing across the entire city; build enough to maintain a
high library-to-population ratio.  Also, libraries must be
accessible somehow through roadways, so build them next to
roads that people use.


FORUM -- The Forum is used as a meeting place by your
citizens, and as a tax-collection agency for your
government.  There are three sizes, with increasing areas of
effect.  They will develop as your city develops.


TEMPLES -- These structures increase land value, and also
store your treasury's gold!  Make sure to build them in
secure locations, or else risk having your gold stolen.
They will develop as your city develops.


GARDENS -- Placing gardens in your city's open spaces is a
good way to increase land values.


QUERYING STRUCTURES -- You can query any structure, person,
icon or control on the screen by right-clicking on it.  You
can also query them by selecting the Query icon and then
clicking on them.

When you query something, you access the query panel for
that item.  When a structure is selected, this panel has
three modes:

General -- Displays the most pressing need or problem, if
any, for this structure.

Detail -- Displays all relevant statistics for this
structure -- however, not all statistics will be relevant
for the structure that is built there.

People -- If any people are near the part of the map you
selected, then you can poll them individually through this
mode.  Click on their pictures in the panel to find out
their name, job, and how well they feel their job is being
accomplished in the city.

There are also three links on this panel, which lead to the
pages of on-line help, tips and history for that structure.

When you select an icon or control on the screen, this
instead accesses a brief description of that control.


MAP REPORTS -- You can view a number of reports for your
city by clicking on the pull-down menu above the overview
map.  Select a report from the list provided, and it will be
overlaid onto the overview map.  Press AND HOLD "?" button
next to the menu to see an explanation of the colors in the
current report, and to see those covers overlaid onto the
scrolling view.

To remove any reports from the map, select "Geography" from
the pull-down menu.


THE FORUM
By clicking on the Go to Forum button in the center of your
game controls, you can access a number of reports on your
progress.  These are listed in a menu at the bottom of the
Forum screen; you can also access them by clicking on the
people and structures on the Forum screen itself.

Important reports are:

RATINGS: View your current ratings in Peace, Culture,
Prosperity and Empire.  (Culture and Prosperity are the only
ratings that apply in the demo.  These ratings determine if
and when you can get promoted from your current city to a
more difficult one.

TREASURER: Lets you view your accounts, and set tax rates.

ROME:  Indicates your current favor with the Empire, and
lets you send gifts to the Emperor.

PERSONAL ADVISOR: Lets you view the status of your career,
set your salary, and donate money to the city from your
personal savings.

PLEBEIAN TRIBUNE:  Lets you commission more plebes to
maintain the city, and assign them to specific tasks.
Plebes keep your city from falling into ruin.


HOT-KEYS
The following hot-keys can be used in the game:
+    Zoom in
-    Zoom out
1    Jump to Furthest Zoom level
2    Jump to Medium Zoom level
3    Jump to Closest Zoom level
<    Rotate counter-clockwise
>    Rotate clockwise
BkSp or Del    Select "Clear Area"
spacebar    Cancel current building activity (useful for
roads, aqueducts etc.)
Alt-F    Enter Place Flag mode
D    Jump to Danger Spot
F2 or F    Jump to Forum
P    pause game
Y    Yes for Yes/No panels
N    No for Yes/No panels
Esc    Exit current screen/panel/menu
ALT-X    Exit to DOS