How Do You Adjust Basic Civ2?

[MikeLynch]

If you're like me, you've futzed with rules.txt a few times. (Actually, I've futzed with it way more than that, but I digress.) Thus the "basic Civ2" games you play are not in fact 100% the same as when you first installed them.

I'm curious to know what sorts of little tweaks, minor adjustments, etc. have you made? Examples:

In my game, Warriors don't expire until Invention. Reason: I like the idea of a cheap, quick, easy-to-kill "militia"-style unit sticking around for a while.

IMG, Leo's Workshop expires with Mass Production. Reason: I just gotta hang onto it for a little while longer. Plus, I think it makes more logical sense, when you think about it.

I have made many, many more (removing units and sciences, adding new ones), but I'll keep my post simple.

Others? (I did not put this in Scenario Creation b/c we're not talking scenarios here, just alterations to the basic game.)

 

[la fayette]

You should contact Sore Loser, who posts to Apolyton. He just published a project of many small (or not so small) modifications to 'vanilla' civ2.

 

[Tsargrad]

I haven't fiddled with any of the rules yet. (To be honest I didn't know it was possible until I came to this site)..

But I definitely like the above suggestion regarding Leonardo's Workshop

 

[MikeLynch]

LaFayette, am I right in thinking you're referring to the "Rules.txt modifications for SP games" thread? I have indeed seen it, and I like some of his ideas. Consider this to be a CFC version of that thread, but less focused on ICS/similar strategies and without those self-imposed rules, which the AI won't abide by anyway.

I don't know if I like Sore Loser's combination of 100% chance that Trireme-esque ships are lost AND all sail ships are Trireme-esque. I do think, however, there might be some merit to making all sail ships have the 50% chance of being lost . . . after all, just how dangerous WAS sea travel in the sailing days?

Too bad there's no way to make it incremental. Like, Caravels = 40%, Galleons/Frigates 30%.

Here's another one of mine. Fundy's max effective science rate is only 30%. Helps to balance that gov't out a little, IMO.

 

[ElephantU]

Originally posted by MikeLynch
I do think, however, there might be some merit to making all sail ships have the 50% chance of being lost . . . after all, just how dangerous WAS sea travel in the sailing days?

In the early 1700s a squadron of frigates was destroyed when it had been navigating by dead-reckoning for several days without seeing the sun. It ran aground. That led to the reward for a better way of calculating longitude, which led to advances in astronomy and clock-building. A great book on this, which was made into a semi-decent PBS special, is Longitude by Dava Sobel.

The effects are already built into Civ2: the first ships have a greater chance of being "lost" when out of sight of land, which decreases with Seafaring and is "eliminated" with Navigation.

 

[MikeLynch]

The effects are already built into Civ2: the first ships have a greater chance of being "lost" when out of sight of land, which decreases with Seafaring and is "eliminated" with Navigation.

Oh, it IS, ok. I wasn't sure. Nice of the Civilopedia to mention this! (grumble)

So then it DOES make sense for Caravels to have the "trireme" flag, yes?

Wait, no, of course it doesn't. Duh, Navigation gives Caravels. So unless I change it so that Caravels are available w/Seafaring, there's no point at all.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

I haven't done any of these types of adjustments, but If I were to do anything, it would be to make the game more difficult, not extending warriors (Now that I think of it, I often have invention before feudalism, so I guess that's a wash) and Leo's to make it easier.

 

[MikeLynch]

Extending Leo's only makes it easier if I'm the one with Leo's.

I don't see how extending Warriors makes the game *easier*, necessarily, it just provides more options (for everyone).

 

[ElephantU]

People want to extend Warriors because they love Partial Rush Buying, and Warriors are the only 10-shield unit.

The point of a great game is the balance of all the rules together. Some may be harder to justify, but taken together they often balance each other out.

BTW, I hope you have a backup copy of the original RULES.TXT for competitive play like GOTM or Democracy, or MP games. You will throw everyone off if you are using a customized one.

 

[MikeLynch]

Huh, I didn't think of that rush-buying thing. Maybe that IS too imbalancing...
then again, if one always gets INV before FEU, why, then I've just made the game harder!

I do have a backup rules.txt, but since I never play MP except with people who are used to my version of the game, it's a moot point.

Back on topic:
Another change I made was making it possible to mine Oceans, turning them into Mountains. This can only be done with an air settler unit I have integrated into the game. And it takes a looong time ... 40 turns (actually 20 b/c the air unit has the Engineer properties).

 

[BorgeoisBuffoon]

I've altered the CITY.txt more than I ever did rules. 50% bigger and the existing cities themselves are more accurate at that.

 

[MikeLynch]

Care to share BB?
I'm always on the lookout for more city names.

 

[Archer 007]

Im modded my graphics.

 

[HughMungus]

Lately I've been playing with accelerated civ advances.

I play without nukes. The game cheats when using nukes, it's too much of a red herring, and the nuke/offer of peace cycle gets tedious.

 

[Old n Slow]

I haven't touched the rules.txt, nor the cities.txt (but I often type in my city names -- alphabetical, one state per island).

I've found that the "dry" vs "wet" makes a difference -- perhaps a large difference when one is used enough to the game to see subtle effects.

As far as fundy is concerned, I usually toggle the science down to 20%, but I'm learning that it is probably better to toggle it down to zero (with an einstein) & set up a celebrating fundy by having luxuries circa 20-30% or so (and trade, trade, trade.)

 

[HughMungus]

OK more rules changes

1. No bombers or helicopters. The AI likes air/parachute campaigns over land invasions WAY too much.

2. City improvements -- eliminated some. This both limits the size of cities and prevents the AI from building a stock exchange while my howitzers are kicking ass. I think the AI spends too much time building improvements rather than building military units...especially since I like to play Bloodlust.

3. Changed the following units to ignore city walls (based on logical assumptions about indirect fire weapons): artilery, armor, all sea units after destroyer. This helps prevent the period between when Riflemen are available and when units able to defeat Riflemen behind city walls with indirect fire (a time period I think is too long).

 

[funxus]

Citywalls don't have any effect on naval units at all, even without that flagt.

 

[HughMungus]

HAHA.

You know my standard answer: I really need to read the manual sometime.

Originally posted by funxus
Citywalls don't have any effect on naval units at all, even without that flagt.