When I tried civ3, 4 and 5, I fell even more in love with the older versions. I first started with civ2 gold and keep going back to it, as I have read quite often from other civ fans on older versions. But the same old problem keeps coming up like an infection; after 300 turns, Russia has only three cities with all kinds of land left, Persian only has eight cities, the Aztecs only has six, etc etc etc with all kinds of untamed land around them. They research well, but only build a few cities, and usually on lousy spots. Is there any download or patch that will increase the AI's will to expand on civ2?
AI that doesn't expand
- Thread starter Hudd02
- Start date
Which level are you playing on? 
Try Test of Time (you can play the regular Civ 2 on that). In my experience, the AI civs build lots of cities.
Heh, I know what you mean, though. There was one game I played - it was in the late stages, and one civ hadn't even bothered building a city, let alone expanding! In a moment of pity, I decided to improve the terrain for him, all the way up to railroad tracks and farmland... and he STILL refused to build anything.
So I killed him.
Try Test of Time (you can play the regular Civ 2 on that). In my experience, the AI civs build lots of cities.
Heh, I know what you mean, though. There was one game I played - it was in the late stages, and one civ hadn't even bothered building a city, let alone expanding! In a moment of pity, I decided to improve the terrain for him, all the way up to railroad tracks and farmland... and he STILL refused to build anything.
So I killed him.
I'm a 50 year old kid, but not too swooft on things. Just another dumb hillbilly in Tennessee. I think the last game I played, it was in the middle, king or something. But I know from experience, higher levels certainly dont make them any smarter. It just makes things cost more for us and less for them, which isn't fair for us. I love this game because of the improving farmland and all the power you can have with an army of spies, being able to move them around as units. Also I love the trading on a city to city basis. Not just "PLOP", one resource gives all. On what you said on improving a single stagnant city, I've done the exact same thing several times, to a tee! Also what I hate so bad in the newer games the corruption and waste is profoundly pathetic, even in the easier levels. Get real, ten squares from the capitol, a city completely stalls on corruption????? In civ2, communism cures all of that, and you still have a powerhouse. On civ3, Ive built whole new worlds, downloaded all kinds of new units (over 100), added alot of extra technologies (ie piracy, plow, milling, jihad etc), alot of new improvements (fishing fleet, newsweek, leatherworks, mill etc.) and over sixty extra great and small wonders. Of couse I've always reduced the corruption in the general settings. I've had a glorious time playing them, but I still always fall back to the old civ2. What do you mean by 'test of time'? Is that a download or a cd? Something else, we just got a big six core processor with 3ghz on each core, 8gb memory, a $250 geforce videocard (with it's own darn radiator!) a fortune for it and we can't even play civ2 on the darn thing! So my wife just plays pogo on it-reckon she has enough power to keep up?
Test of Time is a variation of Civ 2 that includes a multi-tier approach to mapping. You have many more options: You can play the regular game (like normal Civ 2), the Extended game (Civ 2 plus Alpha Centauri) - I hasten to say that's not the same as SMAC, though. One nifty thing is that you can start out as the Alpha Centauri alien civ and have a whole planet all to yourself for most of the game, while still benefiting from the tech gained by the 6 human AI civs as long as you build the Leonardo Wonder first.
And there are the other worlds as well: Lalande, which is a 4-tier science fiction game where you start out as one of 7 factions on the world of Funestis and progress from there to Orbital Platforms, the moon called Naumachia, and a gas giant planet called Nona. You get to use spaceships, teleporters, you've got a choice of 3 alien civs and 4 human civs (with different tech branches for humans and aliens), and the alien monsters on Nona are lethal (unless you have certain units, but you need a LOT to throw at them to kill them!).
You also have two choices of the Midgard scenario - one is an actual quest where you have specific missions to fulfill, and the map is quite a challenge. Then there's a more normal kind of Midgard where you can play one of 7 fantasy civs (Human, Goblin, Stygian; those are undead, Elves, Merfolk, Infidels, and Buteo; these are Bird people). Again, there are 4 tiers: normal land/ocean, underwater, underground, and sky (you build cities in the clouds). You can magically teleport between worlds with certain units or by finding specific places like the Gate of Hel.
Some people complain that the ToT worlds are too dark... but dammit, they take place on alien worlds, and places that are below the surface. Of course they're darker!
I dunno if it's available on Amazon, but there are usually a few to be found on eBay.
And there are the other worlds as well: Lalande, which is a 4-tier science fiction game where you start out as one of 7 factions on the world of Funestis and progress from there to Orbital Platforms, the moon called Naumachia, and a gas giant planet called Nona. You get to use spaceships, teleporters, you've got a choice of 3 alien civs and 4 human civs (with different tech branches for humans and aliens), and the alien monsters on Nona are lethal (unless you have certain units, but you need a LOT to throw at them to kill them!).
You also have two choices of the Midgard scenario - one is an actual quest where you have specific missions to fulfill, and the map is quite a challenge. Then there's a more normal kind of Midgard where you can play one of 7 fantasy civs (Human, Goblin, Stygian; those are undead, Elves, Merfolk, Infidels, and Buteo; these are Bird people). Again, there are 4 tiers: normal land/ocean, underwater, underground, and sky (you build cities in the clouds). You can magically teleport between worlds with certain units or by finding specific places like the Gate of Hel.
Some people complain that the ToT worlds are too dark... but dammit, they take place on alien worlds, and places that are below the surface. Of course they're darker!
I dunno if it's available on Amazon, but there are usually a few to be found on eBay.
This is a whole new world to me. I can deal with all this exotic stuff as long as it is still within the boundaries as the old fashioned "clop-clop" move your unit civ2 stuff. Are the spies still units here? Can you still improve farmlands with a supermarket? Can you still trade city to city? If I go to ebay and find this, buy it, and wait for it, can I still have civ2 on my screen? Will the fonts not change much? After serving 12.5 years active military and serving in the Gulf war, I am pretty down to earth on things. But these 'bird people', the Buteo, they kind of intrigue me. Can you play as them? How soon can I get a ship underhaul to sail to earth to trade with the Aztecs and the Mayans? Can I send a camel caravan on a starship? That would be awesome!
You still have all the basic kinds of units that normal Civ 2 has, but they are called by different names, and may not necessarily be humanoid. You also get nifty new units - like Dwarves, Dragons, and Trees in the fantasy world and the Bombus in the science fiction world (it's a giant bee that's great for exploring and combat).
You can still improve your terrain to farmland, but again, it's called something different. A lot of the techs do the same function, but have different names, and some of them you won't be able to research, depending on which faction you play. You will need to steal them or trade for them - and in the science fiction scenario, you can't trade between humans and aliens until you have the technology to speak to them! So if you want their tech, you either need to be patient, or send in the diplomats/spies.
I'm not sure what you mean by having Civ 2 on your screen. Test of Time is a variation on Civ 2, and it includes the normal Civ 2 game, although the graphics look a bit different. As for odd combinations of units and transportation... well, I've teleported Dwarves to the Cloud world to speed up construction of roads, railroads, and mines, but they can't get there any other way. There's only one way to get a Buteo Settler to the Underground world - through the Gate of Hel, and have them build a city and hopefully not get killed off by a particularly nasty invisible worm monster that you can't see until it actually gets within your city boundary (but you can usually hear it moving for several turns beforehand - very creepy, wondering where the heck that thing is).
So yes, you can play the Bird people if you want, or an Elf, Goblin, undead Stygian, or one of the two human factions. Each comes with advantages/disadvantages as regards tech, movement, and combat abilities.
As for combining the worlds to have aliens trading with the Mayans, that is possible only in the Extended version, and it happens in the late stages.
Sending a camel caravan on a starship? Nope, unless you talk to the people who do modding. That's something beyond my capabilities.
If you have a choice, try to get a boxed edition that comes with a double-sided tech tree poster. It gives the tech trees for all the different worlds. I think somebody posted one here on the forum a few years ago, too, although I don't have the link anymore.
You can still improve your terrain to farmland, but again, it's called something different. A lot of the techs do the same function, but have different names, and some of them you won't be able to research, depending on which faction you play. You will need to steal them or trade for them - and in the science fiction scenario, you can't trade between humans and aliens until you have the technology to speak to them! So if you want their tech, you either need to be patient, or send in the diplomats/spies.
I'm not sure what you mean by having Civ 2 on your screen. Test of Time is a variation on Civ 2, and it includes the normal Civ 2 game, although the graphics look a bit different. As for odd combinations of units and transportation... well, I've teleported Dwarves to the Cloud world to speed up construction of roads, railroads, and mines, but they can't get there any other way. There's only one way to get a Buteo Settler to the Underground world - through the Gate of Hel, and have them build a city and hopefully not get killed off by a particularly nasty invisible worm monster that you can't see until it actually gets within your city boundary (but you can usually hear it moving for several turns beforehand - very creepy, wondering where the heck that thing is).
So yes, you can play the Bird people if you want, or an Elf, Goblin, undead Stygian, or one of the two human factions. Each comes with advantages/disadvantages as regards tech, movement, and combat abilities.
As for combining the worlds to have aliens trading with the Mayans, that is possible only in the Extended version, and it happens in the late stages.
Sending a camel caravan on a starship? Nope, unless you talk to the people who do modding. That's something beyond my capabilities.
If you have a choice, try to get a boxed edition that comes with a double-sided tech tree poster. It gives the tech trees for all the different worlds. I think somebody posted one here on the forum a few years ago, too, although I don't have the link anymore.
Most of them are just new names for the old ones - they function more or less the same. There are some really neat Barbarian-type units - in the Fantasy variation, there are Dragons, Dwarves, Frost Giants, Krakens, and the invisible worms I mentioned before. The Lalande variation has robotic barbarians and some of those are godawful hard to kill! But it's a fun challenge, and I guarantee the AI civs build more than 3 cities. They don't necessarily build smart military units - I've ended up protecting the alien civs so they can survive long enough to discover the tech I need to reach the moon and gas giant worlds. That's the catch with Lalande - if you kill all your enemies too soon, you won't get the techs you need to win in the late stages of the game. And the Midgard scenario that involves the quests is brutally hard. I've never made it all the way through yet, and I don't remember how many times I've tried.
Catfish
Emperor
In Civ2, the AI tribes only ever build on grasslands and plains (or the equivalent in mods). Tiles for these two terrain types are assigned a fertility rating of 8-15 (hidden from the player), depending on the resource values (weighted food 3, shields 2, trade 1) of tiles within a 2-tile radius (also weighted: centre 4, inner ring 2, outer ring 1). All other terrain types are given 0. The higher the fertility value, the greater the likelihood that the AI will colonise. These values are set during the build world phase. This may not necessarily explain what's happening in your situation, but it may shed some light on the AI's decision-making process.
@Hudd02
Test of Time is Civ2. It's simply the version that followed MGE (Multi-player Gold Edition). It is MGE with a new veneer, extra scenario design features, and a few hastily-created mods thrown in. The differences between the mechanics of MGE's standard game and ToT's Original game are minimal; probably amounting to a few minor bug fixes. A player familiar with the earlier versions wouldn't need to learn a new set of units and technologies unless they played the included mods; but that's no different to playing any of the scenarios or mods that were created for the older versions.
With good reason; and it's not just the alien worlds terrain.
Yeah, I prefer original Civ 2 if I'm playing a normal Earth-based game. The ToT graphics are too different for my liking there. But since the Fantasy and Lalande worlds are different anyway, it didn't bother me. I actually shivered the first time I heard a Bombus hum, and the first time I explored the Underground in the fantasy world, it felt positively creepy and claustrophobic.
But then I don't worry too much about the mathematics of playing Civ; for me, I'm imagining a story going on as I play.
But then I don't worry too much about the mathematics of playing Civ; for me, I'm imagining a story going on as I play.
