Errors?

[Black.Wind]

Link: https://www.civfanatics.com/civ1/faq/section-d-tips-and-information/#tip17

Corruption = (Total Trade * Distance * 3) / (10 * Govt)
Corruption is halved if a Courthouse or Palace is present.

Distance = City's distance from capital city. Under
Communism distance is always equal to 10 squares. With no palace,
distance is always equal to 32.

Govt = Government modifier; Despotism = 8; Anarchy = 12; Monarchy = 16;
Communism = 20; Republic = 24; Democracy = 0.

I take it "Democracy = 0" is a typo? (Because otherwise you will have to divide by 0).

 

[Black.Wind]

Link: https://www.civfanatics.com/civ1/faq/section-d-tips-and-information/#tip10

a) How does the computer decide combat results?


The computer "pulls a piece of paper out of a hat" in the sense that there are as many bits of paper marked with "Attacker wins" in the hat as the attackers strength. Also there are as many pieces of paper marked with "Defender Wins" in the hat as the defenders strength. So in theory a trireme can defeat a battleship, but the odds are 12-1 against.

Perhaps this is indeed the case. But I rarely saw how the diplomat is infrequently, but still it turns out to repel the attack. How does this happen if there is Defense = 0?

 

[Mize]

Link: https://www.civfanatics.com/civ1/faq/section-d-tips-and-information/#tip10

Perhaps this is indeed the case. But I rarely saw how the diplomat is infrequently, but still it turns out to repel the attack. How does this happen if there is Defense = 0?

Because its defense isn't really zero. It's roughly 1/8. Check this thread:

Civ1 Combat Mechanics Explained

After identifying a lot of variables, offsets and subroutines in civ.exe, I as now able to decode the battle algorithm of Civilization. The results were really interesting, sometimes even surprising :) The algorithm strictly uses integer arithmetics, so when dividing, any fractions are lost...

forums.civfanatics.com

Not sure about the corruption thing. Probably not zero. Here's what tupi found out about corruption calculation:

Thoughts on trade

Maybe many of you have noticed these, but I don't recall seeing them discussed, so here we go: - Per turn trade income in cities apparently derives not from the total trade of the two trading cities but from the trade minus the corruption. Sometimes when I push caravans around my...

forums.civfanatics.com

 

[Black.Wind]

Because its defense isn't really zero. It's roughly 1/8. Check this thread:

It seems to be written about diplomats there, only this:

Since an attacker rolling a zero will always lose, it's possible to lose any attacking unit even to a Diplomat.

But I was talking about a situation where a diplomat successfully repels an attack.

 

[Black.Wind]

Tell me, is this really the name of the Russian cities in the game? I'm just playing the Russian version and I don't know how things are in the original game. As a Russian person, I am confused by the names of cities numbered 8, 10 and 16. Besides, Wikipedia confirms my doubts:

#8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbilisi (Tbilisi)
#10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakutsk (only one letter "S")
#16: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrakhan (Astrakhan)

By the way, I wonder what Novograd is? In the Russian version, it was replaced by Novgorod. Was that what he meant? Or was the Ukrainian city of Zviahel meant? The Russian version of Wikipedia says that it used to be called Новоград-Волынский (Novograd-Volynskyi). However, in the English version of Wikipedia, this name is written as "Novohrad-Volynskyi".

Spoiler :

 

[Mize]

#8 is wrong in the game too, the other two are spelled correctly there, just typos in the wiki. Civ has a few other spelling errors like this and also, being made in '91, there are many anachronisms like Peking (today Beijing), Canton (Guangzhou), Bombay (Mumbai), etc.

 

[Black.Wind]

Mize, what about Novograd? (#12)

By the way, I wonder what Novograd is? In the Russian version, it was replaced by Novgorod. Was that what he meant? Or was the Ukrainian city of Zviahel meant? The Russian version of Wikipedia says that it used to be called Новоград-Волынский (Novograd-Volynskyi). However, in the English version of Wikipedia, this name is written as "Novohrad-Volynskyi".

 

[Mize]

Mize, what about Novograd? (#12)

If I had to bet, I'd bet on Novgorod with a typo, but I can't really be sure. The Russian 'g' spelling of Novohrad was probably more popular in English at the time than the Ukrainian 'h' one, so it could be either.

 

[Black.Wind]

If I had to bet, I'd bet on Novgorod with a typo, but I can't really be sure. The Russian 'g' spelling of Novohrad was probably more popular in English at the time than the Ukrainian 'h' one, so it could be either.

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is a typo. The fact is that this name (Novograd) looks very realistic. It consists of two parts, both of which are found in the names of real cities. For example: Novocherkassk, Leningrad (now it is Saint Petersburg). In fact, these are the same two parts as in Novgorod, only redone. And the meaning of the names of these two cities is essentially the same, that is, "Newtown". But I have never heard of a city called Novograd, or that Novgorod used to have the name Novograd.

But I also have doubts about the city of Zwiahel. For I had never heard of him before. As I think most other people in Russia do. The same cannot be said about the other two Ukrainian cities (Kiev and Odessa). It is very strange if a city that is not well known to Russian people was used in the game.

In general, it turns out that the name of the city is very plausible. But there are big misunderstandings about what kind of city this is.

 

[Mize]

It is very strange if a city that is not well known to Russian people was used in the game.

That is why I said I'd bet it's a misspelling of Novgorod. If Russians don't know about this city, what are the odds a couple of American game designer nerds knew about it in 1991?
Unless Novograd/Novohrad/Zviahel was in the world news back then because a UN meeting was held there or something, there's zero chance they knew about it.

The thing is that Civ was not targeted at Russians. It was made to sell in the US and Western Europe (and maybe Australia and Japan). In 1991, that's where games were being sold. Very few people had personal computers in other countries. Even if they did, the former Eastern Block was pirate territory (still mostly is). You couldn't sell games there, everybody just copied them on floppies. So the designers just chose names familiar to westerners to appeal to the paying audience. And your reasoning is most likely correct. They misspelled Novgorod as Novograd by conflating it with Leningrad, Stalingrad, etc. It's an easy mistake to make for a non-Russian or non-Slavic speaker. I mean, after all, why the hell is one a 'grad' and the other one's a 'gorod'? Well, for the same reason there's a Jamestown and a Boston. And we haven't even gotten to the 'burg's and 'berg's.

Fun fact: when Civ came out, Leningrad was already renamed back to Saint Petersburg. Why didn't they change the name in the game?
A) It was too late because the game was already in print
B) Sid and Bruce hadn't heard the news
C) Saint Petersburg had too many characters to fit in the name box

I say C.

 

[Black.Wind]

By the way, is it really customary in the United States to call Stalin president?

 

[Mize]

I can't really know, I'm not American, but I don't think so. I think he was referred to as Comrade Stalin and Uncle Joe by the media, and really mostly just Stalin. His actual titles of chairman and general secretary were probably only used on official occasions. I'm sure some people might have called him president just because of the analogy--our leader's a president, their leader's a president--it's easier to explain that way, but I don't believe it was customary. Also, if you're asking this because Stalin is listed as president in the intelligence report you linked to, thats's not official, it was made by somebody on the internet for civfanatics and there's a good chance whoever made it is also not American. In the game communist leaders are addressed as comrade.

 

[Black.Wind]

thats's not official, it was made by somebody on the internet for civfanatics

Yes, I understand that this is a fan craft. I just thought that maybe someone would want to fix this mistake.