Common Civ2 Terms: What do they all mean?

Ver. 0.90, 12Aug02 (added some terms)

Purpose:
1. To hide some secrets here where no one will notice!
2. To explain terms, jargon, and acronyms that Civ 2 players use in their posts & discussions.

Notes:
1. If anyone has some secret stuff they want to stash here, post it in this thread & it will be safe. Trust me.
2. If anyone has suggestions of Civ 2 terms & acronyms that confused them when learning Civ 2, just post in this thread.


Authorized Access Only!
OCC - One City Challenge <---- Warning!! You may learn too much about Civ 2 playing OCC!
PD - the Power Democracy <----(Secret: double probation!)
PF - Power Fundamentalism
Reference Guide - by Nethog <----- Top Secret!!
Repository - Library of Civ2 Classic & MGE .TXT& .GIF Game Files.



CONTENTS

1. Common Terms & Acronyms
2. Common Notations (mainly used in player's logs)
3. City Improvement Abbreviations
4. Wonder Abbreviations
5. Advances Abbreviations
6. RB, PRB, IRB, IPRB
7. Revolts, Subversions, Bribes.
8. Pollution Details
9. GOTM Techniques - Also, discussion of rules, cheats, terms.


1. COMMON TERMS & ACRONYMS

Numeric Notation:
12s - The little "s" attached to a number like this refers to shields, and reads as "12 shields"
41g - This refers to gold, and reads "41 gold"
233b - This refers to beakers of science, and reads "233 Breakers".

ADM - Attack, Defense, Movement numbers. Example: Armor's ADM is 10/5/3, or 10-5-3.
Barb - Barbarian.
BB - Battleship (Standard navy term)
Bribe - The act of using a dip/spy to convert an unit ot your Civ. Often used as slang for taking a city via Revolt or Subversion.
Cedric Greene's Patches - Patches which allow you to convert from Classic (2.42) to MGE, or downgrade from MGE to Classic (plus CiC and FW). Highly recommended. May require WinG for Classic, CiC & FW to run.
Celebration - This refers to a city that has 50% or more happy citizens, no unhappy citizens, and at least size 3. The city will produce as if it is the next higher form of government, e.g, a Monarchy will have the lower corruption/waste, and higher trade of Republic. A Republic or Democracy that is celebrating will grow by one population point each turn, as long as it has at least one excess food and the proper improvements (Aquaduct/Sewer).
CFC - Civ Fanatics Center ... We are all CFC'ers!
CiC - Conflicts in Civilization (version 2.62). Follow on to Classic (version 2.42).
Classic - Civ 2, version 2.42. This is still sold as CD-only (in jewel box) for about $9 at discount stores like K-Mart, Wal-Mart, CompUSA, etc. you will need WinG installed to get it to run. Classic can't read MGE or ToT .SAV files.
Corruption - Corruption is trade lost to inefficiencies in Government (only Fundamentalism and Democracy have 0%).
CTP - Call To Power. This is a totally different game which is "based" on Sid Meier's Civilization series, but is quite different and uses totally different underlying code. The title was chosen to trick consumers into buying it and confusing it with Civilization 2 (Classic, CiC, FW, MGE, and ToT). Future versions starting with CTP2 do not have "Civilization" in it's title to avoid copyright lawsuits. CTP1 did have technical permission to use "Civilization" because of a legal prior.
DD - Destroyer (Standard navy term)
Deity - The highest "normal" level of Civ 2 difficulty.
Deity+1 - (aka D+1 or Dp1) The next higher level of difficulty above Deity. Requires special modifications to activate. D+1 2.42 saves cannot be read by MGE.
Democracy - A fun way to play Civilization, developed here at CFC. Players serve in various roles, from President to Governors to Cabinet to ordinary voting Citizens. Everyone has an input and vote; however, only the President actually plays the game turns (no one else is allowed to play the .SAVs). The President plays several game turns at a time, according the the input from the Democracy (not his/her own whims). The results of several turns are posted, and the citizens take a look and post their views. New elections for positions in the Democracy are usually held monthly. Everyone of all skill levels can participate, and everyone has a vote... it's a DEMOCRACY!!
Einstein - A Scientist specialist (makes 3 beakers of science).
Elvis - An Entertainer specialist (makes 2 luxuries).
FC - Food Caravan.
FCT - Food Caravan Trick: delivering FC/FF without incurring the normal game penaltie(s) for doing so. There are many systems and variations. Many players and games forbid the FCT.
FF - Food Freight.
FP - FirePower. Ex.: Armor has FP=1.
FW - Fantastic Worlds (version 2.78). Follow on to CiC.
GOTM - Game Of the Month . A fun game of Civ2 in which all players start from the same .SAV.
HP - Hit Points. Ex: Armor has HP=30. This is abbreviated 3 (you must know the context to multiply by 10 to get 30). Also, HP can be Hydro Plant. In chart form, HP can stand for H=Hit Points and P = FirePower.
ICS - Infinite City Sleaze... a strategy of using lots of very small cities, usually places close together. This can exploit several game weaknesses. Generally not though of as a cheat, though many "look down" on it.
IRB - Incremental Rush Buy. Buy units one line of shields at a time to save gold. Unit is 100% paid for at end of IRB.
IPRB - Incremental Partial Rush Buy. Buy units one line of shilds at a time. Unit is not 100% paid for at end of IPRB, but typically will be completed by the shields a city generates. This is the most efficient (but most time consuming) way to buy a unit.
MGE - Civ 2 Multiplayer Gold Edition. Current version is 5.4.0f. Does not require WinG, but MGE may not be readily available anymore. Can read most 2.42 .SAVs (but not Deity+1 saves).
MP - Multi-Player . Can also mean "Manufacturing Plant", depending on context.
OCC - One City Challenge. Play the game with one and only one city!
Oedo year - "Oedo Year is when the gov't comes out of anarchy following a revolution or gov't collapse. Also when the PG (power graph) is updated. Named after the guy that figured it out and posted the explanation.
PB - The Production Box (where the shields accumulate).
PBEM - Play By EMail . Play the game and after finishing a turn you submit it to the other players via posting or e-mail.
PD - the Power Democracy
Pet - Normally in reference to a "Pet City " or "Pet Civ". This refers to a severely weakened city and/or civ that you do not intend to destroy. This normally occurs when you want to keep the game going, but can't kill the last city of the last civ (or the game would end by conquest). In GOTMs, this is often done to allow time for a Spaceship to land and/or the score to increase.
PF - Power Fundamentalism
PI - Pollution Icon; it is the yellow triangle in the City Status screen, and caused by either RP or PP.
PP - Population Pollution. Pollution Icons caused by a city's size.
PRB - Partial Rush Buy. You change to a lesser cost item, buy it, and switch back, then let the city's shield output complete it. This is most often used for improvements. The IPRB is more efficient for units.
Revolt - The act of converting a city to your side with a Dip/Spy. A diplomatic incident might result if in Cease Fire. Peace, or Allied status.
RB - Rush Buy . You simply click "Buy" and complete the unit/wonder/improvement/SS part in one turn. Quick, but usually wasteful.
RP - Resource Pollution. Pollution Icons caused by a city's non-wasted shield production.
SGC - Super Gold City. Colossus, Marketplace, Bank, Stock Exchange, Roads, plus 3 good Trade Routes. This city can provide hundreds of gold each turn, and is used mainly in PF game.
Skull - Actual Pollution. Deducts 10 point from your Civ 2 score until you clean it up; also contributes to Global Warming calculations.
SMAC - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Similar to Civ 2, but greatly changed; not compatible with Civ 2.
SS - Spaceship.
SSC - Super Science City. Colossus, Copernicus, INC, Lib, Univ, RL, Roads, plus 3 good Trade Routes. This city can provide most of an empire's research.
SGC - Super Gold City. Colossus, Mkt, Bnk, Stk, Roads, and 3 good trade routes to maximize gold production.
Subversion - The act of converting an city to your side with a Dip/Spy, while in Cease Fire, Peace, or Allied status. Will not cause a diplomati incident, but is twice the cost of a Revolt.
Succession - A fun way to play Civilization, consisting of a small group of players that each play about 15 to 20 turns, then pass the game .SAV to the next player, who continues. Half the fun is making the writeups and reading the adventures of other players. Everyone needs to be able to load and save the same version of .SAV files.
Taxman - A Tax specialist (makes 3 gold).
ToT - Test of Time. Significant departure from MGE, FW, CiC, and Classic. Can read these files, but not visa versa. Core programming is still Civ 2, however.
TSL - Taxes, Science, Luxuries. Commonly used in context of the slider, e.g. 20-50-30 TSL would be 20% Tax, 50% Sci, 30% Lux.
Waste - Waste is shields lost to inefficiencies in Government (only Fundamentalism and Democracy have 0% waste).
WinG - Windows Game support. If you run Civ 2 2.42 (classic), or use Cedric Green's MGE to 2.42 downgrade patch, you'll probably need to install WinG.
WLT_ - We Love The ____ . This refers to a city that has 50% or more happy citizens, no unhappy citizens, and at least size 3. It is also called "Celebrating".
WLTC - We Love The Consul. This is a celebration in a Republic.
WLTP - We Love The President. This is a celebration in a Democracy.




----------- History ------------
Ver. 0.80, 13Jun02 Initial
Ver. 0.82, 15Jun02 (addd PD, PF links, Slow Thinker's Suggestions)
Ver. 0.83, 19Jun02 (add Info section, Pollution)
Ver. 0.84, 30Jun02 (Fixed Pollution link, added ICS & CFC)
Ver. 0.85, 07Jul02 (Added terms, alphabetized)
Ver. 0.86, 08Jul02 (Split the post due to 15,000 character limitation, added Civ 2 Versions & WinG info)
Ver. 0.87, 09Jul02 (Reformat, add Table of Contents, Split yet again; add Sodak's input)
Ver. 0.88, 16Jul02 (add some terms)
Ver. 0.89, 01Aug02 (added Secret Suff)
Ver. 0.90, 12Aug02 (added some terms)

Is there a way to find out how many Science beakers you produce in one turn?

-Jed

Originally posted by Jed
Is there a way to find out how many Science beakers you produce in one turn?

-Jed

Click to expand...

Open the Trade Advisor and scroll to the bottom. There is a count next to a beaker. That is your total produced per turn.


Also...

Is there a standard abbreviation for the "multi-player gold edition".

I've seen MPG, and MPGE and MGE and I always have to figure out the context when I see MPE (is it Multi-Player Edition or Marco Polo's Embassy?) mentioned.

quote:
Oedo year - The year gov't come out of anarchy following a revolution or collapse. Also when the PG (power graph) is updated. Named after the guy that figured it out and posted the explanation.

Thanks for that explanation, Starlifter. I thought I knew all the terms, but obviously I'm still missing a few.

And Tim, I don't think there's a standard abbreviation for the Gold edition. I think most folks (including me) use MGE.

Well I have an idea.... if anyone has suggestions of Civ 2 terms & acronyms that confused them when learning Civ 2, just post in this thread & periodically I'll update the top post to keep it all in one place.

If anyone would like a definition or explantion, ask in this thread and with the cumulative brainpower from everyone, we'll come up with something.

If anyone has suggestions or corrections, feel free to post them... the current list (ver. 0.80) contains some terms I've seen asked about, or that are confusing.

Open the Trade Advisor and scroll to the bottom. There is a count next to a beaker. That is your total produced per turn.

Click to expand...

There is also a way to figure almost exactly (-0/+3) how many beakers are currently needed to get an advance.

Using Trade Advisor (F5), look at the bottom:


Note the 4b. This is from only 1 scientist, with the Tax/Sci/Lux Slider set to zero science.
Multiply:
(4 breakers/turn) * ( 722 turns) = 2,888 beakers

In this example, 2,888 beakers are necessary for an advance (this can change as game conditions change, however).


This particular Example is from the current game of Civ 2 Democracy... have a look

here !!

PS, Anyone of any skill level or free time availability can join in with the Democracy game! All are welcome.

Originally posted by starlifter

There is also a way to figure almost exactly (-0/+3) how many beakers are currently needed to get an advance.

Using Trade Advisor (F5), look at the bottom:

Note the 4b. This is from only 1 scientist, with the Tax/Sci/Lux Slider set to zero science.
Multiply:
(4 breakers/turn) * ( 722 turns) = 2,888 beakers

In this example, 2,888 beakers are necessary for an advance (this can change as game conditions change, however).


This particular Example is from the current game of Civ 2 Democracy... have a look

here !!

PS, Anyone of any skill level or free time availability can join in with the Democracy game! All are welcome.

Click to expand...

Why is it that early on in the game you don't need much science but later on in the game you need more?

-Jed

I'm not sure of how to calculate it, never bothered to learn it, but it increases with the number of technologies you have develloped.
There have been some threads about it, which probably answers the question pretty accurately.

Your first advance costs 10 beakers in 4000 AD. Each new advance you discover increases in cost by 10 beakers, plus there are many adjustments that can be made to the science cost during the game and based on difficulty level. The game also compares your state of affairs to a "Reference Civilization", or "Key Civ" and makes adjustments.

Many threads scatered in the Civ 2 Discussion, Civ 2 Strategy, and Civ 2 GOTM threads will discuss these in more detail, BTW. The Search function is a good way to pull up details that are buried in the threads, if you want the technical details and computation methods.

Originally posted by starlifter
Well I have an idea.... if anyone has suggestions of Civ 2 terms & acronyms that confused them when learning Civ 2, just post in this thread & periodically I'll update the top post to keep it all in one place.
If anyone would like a definition or explantion...
If anyone has suggestions or corrections, ...

Click to expand...

Good idea. I have another one: move this to the start of the first post.

A lot of Civ2 terms are cumulated here: "Great Library Index" (tell me if you can't load it, I could send it to you by an e-mail).

Jed,
http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum3/HTML/001831.html?6
http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum3/HTML/001828.html?17

There are also non-archive version of these threads, but you have to search them by the "Search" option.

ST: Your suggestion is done . Thanks!

A lot of Civ2 terms are cumulated here: "Great Library Index" (tell me if you can't load it, I could send it to you by an e-mail).

Click to expand...

I have to manually edit an Apolyton link with a dot IP address that MarkG gave me to make it work, but during the day one page takes way too long to load, so I'll take a note and look late at night... when the page downloads at a speedy 1 to 2 minutes each! (I use a 40 dialup, but the Apolyton server only transmits data about 10% of the time ). But I can indeed got them now, just slow.

What is ICS and CFC? I read it somewhere and didn't know what it was

ICS = Infinite City Sleaze... a strategy of using lots of very small cities, usually places close together. This can exploit several game weaknesses, but ICS is generally not though of as a cheat, though many "look down" on it.

CFC = Civ Fanatics Center! You are a CFCer, BTW!

I'll add those in the next revision....

In the original post:

Pollution - Details

this thread points back to itself.

Thanks! Don't know how I did that! It's fixed now

Ver. 0.85, 07Jul02 -- Added terms requested in other threads, alphabetized, improved formatting.

This thread is quite informative. Thanks a lot starlifter.

Due to multiple 15,000 character limitations in a single post, these 3 sections moved here.

2. COMMON NOTATIONS (Usually in logs)

Here are some notations that may be most often seen in logs, esp. Starlifter's logs:

* - (An asterisk) When after the year at the beginning of a log's line, it is an Oedo year.
Capital Letters: Gov't changes, Wonder Completions, and Hut popping is capitalized since these are often interesting items is a sea of details. e.g., HUT-50g means the hut gave 50 gold.

Trade Notation (Example) - F01-A01(Silk,606,D,rec) This means the source city was F01, destination was A01, cargo was Silk, Trade Bonus was 606 gold & 606 beakers, the cargo was Demanded, and it was a record delivery. An "N" instead of "D" means the cargo was Not demanded.

ABF - "All But Fundy": refers to gifting a weak pet civ. Generally in context, "Gift ABF". Normally don't wanna gift Fundy to a pet....
noAna - no Anarchy. State of city after capture, revolt, subversion.
Chain - moving the contents of a ship from one ship to the other in mid ocean. 2 or more, at intervals, can make a chain.
Crunch Time - Something large scale (affecting much of the empire) and significant has to get done, quick. These can vary in each game, but some are Auto (get all those SHs built on following turn), Mass Production (all those MT's built in that huge Democracy just as pollution is ramped way up), and always Radio (Airports).
Day 39 (for example) refers to the number of days (game turns) since Republic or Democracy was established. This is used mostly by Starlifter to help people unfamiliar with WLT_ growth keep track of how things are going.
Dip - Diplomat.
Ferry - a transport residing in a city (or nearby) that can make it to a city on another continent in one turn. With RR, this is quite powerful.
Ldr - a Barb Leader. Hunt these down, trap them, make 150 gold (as long as Smash gives us Raging Hordes!!).
MT - Metric Tons. Translates directly to total shields (production) of the empire (it is in the Demographics screen).
Prebuild - generally means to start building something, like a wonder, expecting to switch to something else when a new tech occurs.
rec refers to a new Trade Bonus record for the current game. Generally in context:
S - Start. As in "Physics; S-Magnetism": this reads "Completed Physics and started researching Magnetism".
Sz - Size. As in "Sz5", meaning "Size 5 city".
T - Tons (as in 420T), and is the tons of pollution. Divide by 10 andyou have the number of Pollution Icons (PIs) (Yellow Triangles in City Status) from all your cities.



3. CITY IMPROVEMENT ABBREVIATIONS

AP - AirPort (aka Apt)
BN - BaNk
BK - BarracKs (aka Bar or BR)
CH -CourtHouse
CL - Colosseum (aka Col)
F - Factory
GR - GRanary (aka Grn)
HP - HydroPlant (use context: Hp can also mean Hit Points)
LB - Library (aka Lib)
MK - MarketPlace (aka Mkt)
NP - Nuclear Plant
OP - Offshore Platform
PF - Port Facility
PP - PowerPlant (use context: PP also refers to Population Pollution)
PS - Police Station
RC - Recycling Center
RL - Research Lab
SDI - SDI Defense
SE - Stock Exchange
SH - SuperHighways
SM - SuperMarket
SP - Solar Plant
TM - Temple (aka Tmp or Tpl)
UV - UniVeristy (aka Univ)


4. WONDER ABBREVIATIONS

AP - Apollo Program
AS - Adam Smith's Trading Company
CfC - Cure for Cancer
CO - Copernicus' Observatory
COL - COLossus
ET - Eiffel Tower
GW - Great Wall
HG - Hanging Gardens
HD - Hoover Dam
INC - Isaac Newton's College
JSB - JSBach
KRC - King Richard's Crusade
LW - Leonardo's Workshop
MC - Michelangelos Chapel
ME - Magellan's Expedition
MHP - ManHattan Project
MP - Marco Polo (aka MPE) (use context: MP also means MultiPlayer)
OR - ORacle
PYR - PYRamids
SETI - SETI Program
ST - Shakespeare's Theater
SoL - Statue of Liberty
STWA - Sun Tzu's War Academy
UN - United Nations
WS - Women's Sufferage


5. OFFICIAL CIV 2 ADVANCES ABBREVIATIONS
Other common abbreviations in (); Context sometime must be used.


---------- END: Notations; Improvements, Wonders, Advances Abbreviations ----------

Due to multiple 15,000 character limitations in a single post, this section moved here.


6. RB, PRB, IRB, IPRB
RB - Rush Buy
PRB - Partial Rush Buy
IRB - Incremental Rush Buy
IPRB - Incremental Partial Rush Buy

Rush Buy is where you just click "buy" and convert gold to shields to fill the production (shield) box. Unless you are building an improvement with a low-producing city, this is wasteful of shield production on the completion turn. EXAMPLE: Your city produces 11 shields. You buy a Sewer system. On the next turn, you haev a shiney, smelly sewer, but all 11s were wasted. This is equal to 22g, and we must improve efficiency.

The PRB is the answer. Take the Sewer. Say the city produces 11 shields. All I need is a few shields dribbled into the production box, then RB a colosseum. Now there are 100 shields, at a cost of 89x2=178g (shields cost 2g each, for improvment rushes). But the Sewer costs 120 shields. So Simple. Wait 2 turns, and a 3-turn Sewer is produced with only 2s of waste. If you have a non-RR'd forest, on the 3rd turn, when the PB is filled to 111 shields, convert the forest worker to a taxman, and you get six gold for one food, and no waste (Pyramid Power=Food Reserve=Gold ). But.... don't forget to reset your production next turn.

But what about units. Things change because of cost fluctuations. Suffice it to say for now that the cheapest you'll pay for a row of shields is 25g, or 2.5g per shield. The more you buy at once, the more expensive it is. So the answer is the IRB. Say you want an Archer. I never do, but you might. The city makes 3 net shields per turn. Let the PB fill to 3 shields, then change the production to warrior. Buy. It will cost 16g, Then change to Phalanx, cost 25g to RB. Then change to waht you really want, the Archer, and RB for 25g. Total cost is 16+25+25=66g. If you had tried to buy the archer all at once (the archer RB), it would cost 90g. You saved 90-66=24g, and its called the IRB.

The problem with the IRB is that it wastes shields. You can rearrange citizens, but will still likely waste shields, esp in bigger cities. The answer is the mighty IPRB. I do this with caravans and engineers a lot. Assume city makes 13s (that means "13 shields", not plural of the number 13) per day. With the IRB, you would waste 13 shields (or 24 "improvement gold", or at least 30 "unit gold"). So take advantage of that 10 multiple and IRB to just the Phalanx, then switch to Archer. 20 shields in the PB, plus 13. Waste of 3. But we can likely do even better. Make a taxman with a forest worker, and the cost is really just 16-6=10g and you get the archer a day sooner (in 2 days instead of 3). So you've just spent a measly 10g and one food to speed up Archers by 33%!

Note: If someone does not wish to wait until at least 1 shield is accumulated inthe production box, then disbanding a unit can be used to "seed" the production box & avoid the double cost that is applied to any shield bought when it contains zero. The cheapest way to do this is with a 40s improvement, which will cost twice the normal rush cost (e.g., 160g, not 80g) to buy the 40s. The rest of the improvement can be bought at 2g per shield. Switching to a unit or wonder will leave 20 shields, effectively putting the cost of those remaining 20 at 8g per shield. Units can then be bought from this 20s base (e.g., a spy will cost 160g+25g=185g... which is less than the 210g if you bought a spy directly). Likewise, wonders and SS parts shields can be bought at the usual 4g per shield.

I'll leave it to you to consider how cheap it is to build wonders with IPRB's and PRB's caravans vs. clicking "buy" in the constructing city. Also, think about the breakeven point when that caravan is used in trade. Trade values go up as time goes on, but costs remain the same. In late game, a 3,000 gold freight (large map, properly delivered) will also give 3,000 beakers.... yet what was that insiginficant IPRB cost??? And how many Battleships or Nukes can 3,000 gold IRB/IPRB in one turn?

For advanced thinkers, esp. non OCC players: consider how you can apply this info to Wonder construction, and the space race. Hint: which is a "better" city to build a Module, a 50 shield city or a 20 shield city?



---------------- END: RB, PRB, IRB, IPRB ---------------