How do you find other civilizations fast?

[el_kalkylus]

I am playing gotm 23 now, and I want to find other civs fast. This time I will really make an effort to play good, but to do that, I need tactics. I remember you could somehow look at the terrain coordinates to locate other civs, but I don't know how to do that .

Thanks.

 

[cliff]

Send out some fast scouts such as horses and diplomats. If you don't have the techs to build them and you haven't found a horse or a chariot in a hut, or you are isolated on a small island, build Marco Polo as your first wonder.

There is a continent number next to the terrain coordinates. The ocean has number 1 and if you click on a black square and see a different continent number you know that there is land there.

 

[el_kalkylus]

Thanks. That is great help.

 

[ElephantU]

If you are in a corner of the map, like in GOTM23, try getting yourself toward the middle where other civs are more likely to have started. MarcoPolo is a good wonder if you are having trouble making contact, but remember that it does not give you maps, you have to bargain wisely for them by trading techs. It helps to have a good tech lead before starting negotiations, because you may need to give 3-5 techs away to get another civ happy enough to trade maps. Plus, you need MapMaking yourself, and may have to give it to the other civ as well. Map trades seem to always work when you get the other civ up to Worshipful, sometimes work at Enthusiastic, and occasionally work at Cordial. Once you find another civ, make sure a Diplomat goes along with the caravans to set up a permanent embassy. MarcoPolo expires with the discovery of Communism, but then you can build the UN for the same effect plus help with making war and peace.

Black clicking tells you there is land somewhere, but not where other civs are. Once other civs start building wonders you can use the city locator to find cities that have wonders in them, even if they are still "black". If you pop a hut and a mercenary unit comes out with no support, that tells you that another civs city is closer to the hut location than one of yours. There is also a trick with unit locations; from the City Screen, right click a unit in the unit list and it will give you its Location and list the nearest city, even if it is undiscovered.

 

[el_kalkylus]

Thanks. Yeah, I just learned about that last paragraph in the strategy&tips forum.

About diplomacy, I wonder if the faction rate depends on what version of the game you have? Because noone EVER likes me in my games, and noone EVER gives me money unless they are almost dead.

Oh, and the "locator" doesn't locate any other cities than those already explored, at least at my version, Civilization II Multiplayer Gold.

 

[Smash]

supported units can help also.Go into the city from which they are supported and click on them in the supported units window.It will say location:xx xx near xx city.

 

[ElephantU]

Not sure what you mean by "faction rate"; I'm going to assume you mean Attitude of AI civs. You cannot control how they "feel" about you when you first bump into them, but you can change that feeling toward you by your actions toward them. Tech-gifting is a powerful way to change things, and can also have the effect of reducing your research costs if you do it right. This is the "Key Civ" concept documented here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum3/HTML/001828.html?17

Breaking peace treaties or alliances are some of the worst things you can do to affect the AI civs attitude. Also, "badgering" another civ by repeatedly asking them to move units out of your city radius or demanding tribute also lowers their attitude toward you. If you are more powerful than them (see your Power Rating on the Foreign Advisor screen, compare it to the left box on their negotiation screen) you can get some tribute, but you must measure out the timing of demands and sometimes "give back" a few techs to bring them back up in attitude. If you are weaker but have an alliance you can ask for gifts, but again too much asking hurts their attitude. And finally, backstabbing one AI civ can make the rest of them wary of your diplomacy efforts.

A good way to study these things is to look for logs of people who play the One City Challenge (OCC), because they are often doing a lot of negotiations from a weaker position. Of course, if you are on top, got a nice tech lead, and want to finish fast, forget your "reputation" and blow them all away! Just make sure you have enough force or techs to pull it off before the other civs band together against you and start lobbing nukes!

Blessed Christ-Mass!

 

[noughmaster]

I am playing gotm 23 now, and I want to find other civs fast. This time I will really make an effort to play good, but to do that, I need tactics. I remember you could somehow look at the terrain coordinates to locate other civs, but I don't know how to do that .

I always build Marco Polo's Embassy very early whether going for spaceship or conquest. This allows me to become the science broker. I'll always trade or give away techs to control the research goals of everybody. This means I can trade maps because they like me (initially, anyway). I think map trading like this is really the best way to find the other civs because it lets you know where to send caravans for maximum trade bonus, followed later by a diplomat to bribe the city of course.
I trade early techs if I'm going for conquest because I want to get Sun Tzu's, crusaders, musketeers and possibly caravels asap. I think tech trading and gifting is always a sensible strategy (even for conquest) because it allows you to control the entire world's research (more or less). It's just a question of when you think you have enough technology for an efficient conquest. Then stop giving and start shooting.

 

[el_kalkylus]

I just think it's strange that everyone is cordial, enthusiastic or worshipful when I have given alot of techs to them, and then the next turn they are all hostile. When I have enough techs to give them, they become glad for a turn, but in the next turn, they are always hostile. I have never demanded, backstabbed or anything, but they will still always be hostile next turn no matter what I do. It is like this the whole game until a civ is so severely damaged that it is forced to be nice.

In gotm23 for example, I never got anything, except when I trade techs to civs that are neutral (often I have to give 2 or 3 techs to get them to neutral so I can trade.) The Sioux always demanded all my gold on top of that or else they wanted war. I could only give the sioux one tech per turn until they stopped our discussion. The next turn the sioux wanted all my gold again... it goes on like this, so I had to spend my gold in order for them to demand a tech instead.

Maybe I should just build a mighty army, so they will be scared, but then I will lose alot of time for research, trading, and developing my cities.

 

[ElephantU]

Well, the MultiPlayer Edition Gold is a bit rougher in AI attitudes, but I did not think it was that bad. I'm doing GOTM23 as a single city, I gifted everything away at first (except for one stupid refusal that cost me centuries of trouble with the Americans), then started measuring it out whenever a civ dropped below "Enthusiastic". My power rating got up to Moderate, then dropped back down (I WLTCDed to size 23, then the rest overtook me). Anyone got a sense of how much harder MPEG is than 2.42?

 

[noughmaster]

I just think it's strange that everyone is cordial, enthusiastic or worshipful when I have given alot of techs to them, and then the next turn they are all hostile. When I have enough techs to give them, they become glad for a turn, but in the next turn, they are always hostile. I have never demanded, backstabbed or anything, but they will still always be hostile next turn no matter what I do. It is like this the whole game until a civ is so severely damaged that it is forced to be nice.

Are you a long way ahead in tech, but hardly have any military?
The other civs always gang up on you then and are very aggressively demanding.
They gang up on you if you're very powerful as well, but form secret alliances rather than demand things.
If a civ is really pissing me off, I go and capture the capital, then start bribing its other cities (after I've sent a caravan to them to earn the bribe cash).

 

[Marlos]

If another civ builds a wonder, you can locate that city (even if it is undiscovered) by using the 'find city' command (Shift+C). The map will center on that city in the undiscovered area of the map.

 

[el_kalkylus]

Thanks for the tips. I decided to go to war. I got pissed off and started attacking everyone as soon as I got ironclads.

I don't know if my version of the game is harder than 2.42. Probably you just have to play differently and much more aggressive. I didn't play it right, I wanted the whole cake.

Thanks again everyone.