Few Questions about the game...

[willba_victory]

Hope this is the right sub-forum

Just discovered the game on my laptop without knowing i had it,

Ive played before and was pretty hopeless and had no idea what i was doing but i understand a bit better now and ive been playing scenarios(because theres more combat)

i started playing a proper game and i read a few thing son this site and i barely understand any of it and i don't really understand the menu of a City. So i've got a few questions...

Anyone explain the menu a bit more

Heard a lot about shields and rush buying-???

How do you bribe?

Using diplomats and spies?

How to trade and building roads, rail etc.

beakers?

if theres any links or guides explaining the advanced part of the game can someone post the link or atl east answer a few of my questions

 

[Magic_gorter]

Anyone explain the menu a bit more

upperleft is an overview of you're citizens/workers. They can be happy (light blue), content (blue), discontent (red) or angry (black=double discontent).

The screen under it is the part where the citizens are working (in the cityradius). In that part you can change which tile the citizen/worker is working on. When a citizen is not working on a tile you see in the upperleft part an elvis. When you're city is large enough (iirc size 5) you can change the elvis to a taxcollector or scienceman by clicking on elvis.

the two lowest screens on the left are just as they say.

Uppermiddle screen is something about how much food, trade, science and taxes every turn is earned by that city. If there is a shortage it is colored dark.

The lowermiddle screen tels you more about how much trade routes are made and which commodities can be made or wanted.

The upperright part of the screen tells you how much food is collected. If it's full youre city grows one size bigger..and when it's almost empty and you get not enough food youre city will shrink.

The middleright part is for chosing what unit or building/wonder to make. When the shieldbox is filled then you get that unit/building. The right low part is extra info and options (renaming city).

Heard a lot about shields and rush buying-???

Shield are needed for building things. Every turn a city will produce them till there is enough to build the unit/building. Rush buying is making the unit/building at once (with zero shields it will cost a lot more then when having some shields) by paying for it with gold.

How do you bribe?
Using diplomats and spies?

Bribing can only be done with diplomats or spies. Capitols can't be bribed. An unit or city can be bribed by moving dip or spy next to it (and still have movementturns left) and click on the unit or city. You get a menu where option to bribe is in.

The other questions I have no time for right now. Mayby somebody else will answer them

 

[Prof. Garfield]

How to trade and building roads, rail etc.

Trade has a double meaning. The first meaning is one of the resources workers produce on the land (other two are shields and food). Each city's trade production (arrows, if you look closely enough) is divided into taxes (gold), science (beakers) and luxuries (cups). Trade can be produced by working oceans, any terrain with a river in it, some special resource squares (eg. gold, wine) and by working "flatlands" (grassland, plains, desert) with a road in it. If your city produces enough trade and is far enough away from the capital, some of your trade will be taken away as "corruption."

The second meaning of trade is the production and delivery of caravans and freight. It will provide you with great benefits, including immediate cash payment and extra trade in your cities forever, but is not an essential part of basic mechanics. Worry about it later.

You build roads with settlers (later engineers). Move the settler to the desired place for the road and press the "r" button the next time he flashes. He will become active again when finished. Adjacent roads will automatically connect. Railroads are improvements on roads and cannot be built without the Railroad tech.

beakers?

Beakers are your science production. Each city produces beakers out of their trade (the rate is based on your tax rate) and they are stockpiled (open your science advisor to see the accumulation). When you produce enough science, you get the science advance you are working on.

For more learning, go to the game options menu (ctrl+O) and enable the tutorial help. The tutorial doesn't give the best strategy out there, but it will guide you through the game.

 

[Banach]

I love how helpful the community is here and how everyone jumps in to help out someone new to the game. I think Magic and the Prof have answered your questions quite well, but feel free to ask more and I'll jump in and help as much as I can. There are many experienced Deity players around who love to share their knowledge.

 

[willba_victory]

Thanks for your help, if i get stuck ill ask...

 

[willba_victory]

worry about doing trade later but for future games can someone quickly explain how to set this up

 

[Banach]

worry about doing trade later but for future games can someone quickly explain how to set this up

My favorite topic. After the technology Trade is discovered, caravans can be built. When a caravan is built, you get to choose what commodity it carries, from a list of three or so that depend on a lot of variables. When the caravan is moved into another city, domestic or foreign, a trade route is established with that city. There are two benefits - an immediate delivery bonus which is proportional to the size of the two cities and their distance, and is bigger for demanded commodities, and a trade route, which increase the base trade or arrows of both cities. There are very complex formulas for both of these, but basically for most of the game you get the biggest bonuses by delivering demanded commodities to a big AI city on another continent. Books can be written about trading strategies in CIV II, and mine in particular is fairly in depth. The pay-off for setting up a good trading system can't be understated. Late game one can pull in thousands of gold per turn from trade or more. I love late game trade, when an alternating trade system I set up provides enough gold to rush buy everything every turn in every city, including wonders of the world when I want them. Please let me know if you have any more questions, I'll be happy to give more detail. That's just the quick summary.

 

[willba_victory]

i think i've got the game sorted out now - i worked most of the other things out by my self (like transporting units on transports) Gonna start a new game tonight and i should be set to conquer the world.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

A couple things that may help:

The posters for various things in the game:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/downloads/poster

The Civ manual in .pdf:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/reference/Civ2manual.zip

Also, make sure you have the latest version of the game:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/downloads/patches

 

[willba_victory]

one more question - when opposition leaders talk to you about diplomatic issues or trading techs, how do you approach them - anything you press or what?

 

[Magic_gorter]

I'll always try to get them content. So tech gifting is a good idea. However it's important not to give away all techs (especially those needed for a wonder like Monotheims). You can use the other civs discovering techs you also need. And the purple civ is important in an early landing game (they are key civ (when youre power is supreme) which determines how much beakers you must have for the next tech).

In the beginning they are not always content...sometimes they are icy. It's important not to have to much gold (less then 50g) when talking to somebody who is less then neutral. Try to trade maps (make sure that you and other civ have map making). That way you find out where they are for setting up those trade routes.

Sometimes it's handy to make them angry. When you have a government which not always lets you attack an enemy civ you can get into war by making them mad.

There are a few more options on diplomatic issues. But that all depands on which kind of game you're playing (OCC, landing, conquest).

 

[Prof. Garfield]

one more question - when opposition leaders talk to you about diplomatic issues or trading techs, how do you approach them - anything you press or what?

If you mean how to innitiate contact yourself, go to the advisors menu, and activate foreign minister (or press F3). Then select the civ you want to talk to and press send emmissary. If you have an embassy with another civ (established with a diplomat or with Marco Polo's Embassy) you can check many parts of their status by selecting check intelligence.

 

[willba_victory]

another question. Ive built caravans to trade, i walk them into the city im trading with ad then i never see them again. Does the comp automatically do trading now?

 

[soccercop]

The link for the manual doesnt work. The link had been dead since the first time i tried it way back in march or april.

Jax

 

[Prof. Garfield]

another question. Ive built caravans to trade, i walk them into the city im trading with ad then i never see them again. Does the comp automatically do trading now?

Yes. Check the city that sent the caravan and the city that received it (if domestic). You should see a note in the center bottom of the screen saying [city] [commodity]: +X trade.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

The link for the manual doesnt work. The link had been dead since the first time i tried it way back in march or april.

Jax

For now, you can use http://old.civfanatics.com/civ2/reference/Civ2manual.zip

They missed some files when they did the site conversion. If you know of or see anything else that is not working let me know.

 

[soccercop]

The Gotm 24 link is wrong in the archive. It downloads Gotm 26. When i point my mouse to the link, it says "http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/gotm_games/GOTM26.zip". But luckily, i was able to download the real Gotm 24 by change the 26 to 24....so i typed this url to download Gotm 24 "http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/gotm_games/GOTM24.zip"

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

The Gotm 24 link is wrong in the archive. It downloads Gotm 26. When i point my mouse to the link, it says "http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/gotm_games/GOTM26.zip". But luckily, i was able to download the real Gotm 24 by change the 26 to 24....so i typed this url to download Gotm 24 "http://civ2gotm.civfanatics.net/gotm_games/GOTM24.zip"

fixed .

 

[willba_victory]

another question. Ive built caravans to trade, i walk them into the city im trading with ad then i never see them again. Does the comp automatically do trading now?

thanks for the link Duke of Malbrough

 

[Magic_gorter]

You've asked it already and Prof. Garfields said the folowing

Yes. Check the city that sent the caravan and the city that received it (if domestic). You should see a note in the center bottom of the screen saying [city] [commodity]: +X trade.