Exploring Centaurus (ToT)

[Gislef]

Maybe I'm a dope, but I've got my spaceship to Centaurus in the Extended game. Ummm, now what? I've got two "Extra Ships" and a Marines. How do I _settle_ anything? Or do I just cruise around the map and hope to find goody huts that will give me a settler?

Also, what "events" trigger you getting the more advanced yellow-box technology on the advance ladder?

All help appreciated - thanks!

 

[cube359]

Whoa! Thats never happened to me, I have always ended up with at least one Colonist, somewhere on the map, and then I was able to build a city.

I would be VERY interested to hear if other people have encountered the same thing?

 

[vladmir_illych_lenin]

Solutions:

1) go to the downloads section of this site and download the TOT 1.1 patch. it directly fixes the problem.

2) research ultrastring, etc. until you get to build transporters.
note: by now, aliens have probably already built transports on earth.

 

[Gislef]

I'll check out the download. Thanks for the help. But...

How do I research ultrastring and the other "yellow/event" boxes? Or rather, when does whatever event kick in so that I can research them? Right now I'm just accumulating Future Techs.

 

[vladmir_illych_lenin]

The techs [should] be working fine. Just download the patch. Without the patch, there's two problems involved with AC-first, you don't get colonists. Second, there's something called the ultrastring bug. Ultrastring is only available in the future, when most of the other techs are discovered, but the bug is that you can gain ultrastring from the great library. It happened to me. After ultrastring, you need to research "Quatum Transport". After you research Quatum Transport, you get to build colonists. The colonists allow you to build Quantum transporters, which transports units to Centaurus. Get the patch! I'm sure everything will be fixed!

 

[Gislef]

Hmmm. First of all, the patch didn't seem to work. I got one more Marine, but I'm still stuck with two Ships, two Marines, and no Colonists.

Not sure if the patch would work in this case, though: I took a game I had saved prior to my ship landing on Centaurus, and replayed it through the landing <u>after</u> I had ran the patch.

So do I have to run the patch before I start a new game, or will the patch work in the middle of a saved game? If the latter, then the patch didn't work for me.

And I guess I still don't understand about the tech. According to the Advance Ladder, Ultrastring is a yellow-box research. I'm not being given the option to learn it - I just keeping getting more Future Technology stuff. At what point will the computer let me learn the yellow-box "future" tech?

 

[vladmir_illych_lenin]

Just try starting a new game.

 

[Gislef]

Oh, that's all...

Actually it occurred to me that the patch might have to be active when the ship is launched (as opposed to when it lands). Unfortunately, I don't have the current game saved at or previous to that point.

So I guess I'll have to start a new game. Still, I wouldn't mind knowing if I fixed the problem <u>before</u> I replayed the whole thing again...

 

[Jake]

At first, the patch didn't work for me. I played two whole games after the patch and didn't get to see the advanced techs. I've been playing the multiplayer over the web lately and found that the game would only load properly from the autosaves. So, I started a new advanced game. I didn't change the name of my ruler or any of the cities, but I don't think that's necessary to make it work. I always loaded the game from the autosaved version and it worked, I finally got to explore centaurus and see the advanced techs. I could tell it was working because the new techs show up on the Civelopedia when it's working, and they mysteriously disappear the moment the game "breaks".

I'm pretty sure you have to start a game after the patch, ones started without it will never work properly. If nothing else does, maybe this can work for you.

 

[Gislef]

Okay, I finally got through an Extended game that I started after I ran the patch. And it worked out even worse. Or weirder, depending on your point of view. I was told the sapceship landed but nothing appeared there at all.

Now...I wasn't the first to get a spaceship to Centaurus. (Third out of three, actually.) Does this make a difference?

 

[Buzzard]

Hmm not sure if this will help but I have been recently trying to get in to scenario design. I was looking at the events.txt file in the extendedoriginal directory and there were several entries in it regarding the trigger of this event and it's result. From what I could understand, a colonist is always generated along with some marines. If this file has been modified recently maybe you should restore the original?

Buzz

 

[Buzzard]

Something else just occured to me.
Are you sure you have several habitat modules on your spaceship? I believe there have been several suggestions you need about 4.
I am sure you need atleast one to get a colonist unit.

Buzz

 

[Gislef]

I haven't done anything with the events.txt file. I don't have a lot of habitat modules on the spaceship, but I have at least one (you can't launch without at least one, can you)?

I'm just finishing up a game right now. Two other nations will beat me there, but I did manage to launch before the game ended (which wasn't the case previously). I won't arrive there until after time is up. So we'll see...

 

[Gislef]

Nope, with one Habitation I still didn't get anything on Centaurus once I arrived there.

How many habitations do you need to send? Or is it simply that if you don't get there first, you don't get any units there period?

 

[Danja]

Are you talking about civ2 or Alpha Centauri? If civ2, please tell me how to get to wherever u are talking about.

 

[Gislef]

I'm talking about Civ2: Test of Time (thus the "(ToT)" in the post title). I'm not sure what you mean about "how to get there." In Test of Time there is a scenario option where you can continue your game after getting your colony ship to Centaurus, and colonize Centaurus. Supposedly. Except I can't ever seem to get anyone to appear on the planet after I'm told my colony ship arrives.

 

[ericj45]

I have had no problems colonizing having arrived with three modules...one each...however I "colonized" for 100 years and still haven't been allowed to research the yellow techs....only future techs...I am now at 18....has anyone ever been able to research them?

 

[Gislef]

Okay, finally I got a fully loaded (i.e., four of each main module) ship to Centaurus, and ended up with four Colonists (and...three Marines, I think) on the planet. So it does work. I'd still be curious to know why you don't get at least one Colonist for getting a single set of modules there, though.

 

[marktaylor]

I got there with four of everything but the tot game will not let me play the second map

 

[Gislef]

You are playing the Extended Scenario, right? Actually, what I've found surprising is that it isn't letting me <u>end</u> the game! I thought it would end at 2020 (or whatever year based on difficulty) and add up my score, with the <u>option</u> to keep going. Instead, it looks like I'm going to keep going unless I wipe out that one last rival city, or I hit Transcendence. Which is fine - just not what I was expecting.