Just felt like talking civ...

[willsanders84]

Hi everyone. After about a year's lapse, I picked up civ2 again about a month ago. Since then, I haven't stopped playing. Is it me, or it it quite simply the most addictive game ever made? I've played quite a few good games, like Planescape, Half-Life, Little Big Adventure, Deus Ex, but none as good as civ2. I tried civ3 once, and almost vomitted on my laptop. Graphics? Who cares. More complicated? Civ's complicated enough thanks.

I've been playing on and off since it's release in '96. Through the good times and the bad. I have been known to toggle cheat mode occasionally, often only to feel empty afterwards and quit the game. Usually I do things like reveal the whole map. Recently I've abstained, and am currently playing a completely load/save free, non cheat game. However, and here it is, I've had to load twice, which as far as I'm concerned, is cheating. Here it is, be nice to get it off my chest...

Declared war on the Sioux, their alliance with the Zulu's (is it me or is it always the bloody Zulu's?) activates. Fine, no problem. Wipe the Sioux out in a turn (the only way to do it) and I'm happy. Next turn, the Zulu's nuke the two cities holding ALL my units (96 in total) however, they can't possibly, because the nearest unit or city they have is miles further than 16 squares. Cheating sods. So I load it and sign a peace treaty with them. Now I cheated, but they did too. I still felt bad about it though.

Next one. I leave some cities miles from the battle front unguarded. Completely safe as far as I'm concerned. A transport turns up out of nowhere (I've got destroyers patrolling) and takes Rome. Now the AI must have 'magiced' that unit out of nowhere. I could build units and take it back, but I'm so pissed off, I load. Cheating on my part again.

Finally, and perhaps the biggest cheat - I use the non zone of control freedom of spies and diplomats to get my units past partisans and to enemy cities. I could, if I'd spent another five turns producing troops, have the resources to take out the partisans, but my 'dippy' just breezes past them followed by a string of howitzers. Ruthless.

I play Deity, 7 civs, Raging Hoardes. I'll win my current game, hopefully hitting something like 4000 pts, once I've dealt with the Carthaginians. Isn't it amazing how little interaction one seemingly has with enemy civs, but how emotive they end up being? I've never been so emotional towards such a simple AI in any other computer game. God I love civ2.

So, should I expect a ruthless, cheating AI on Deity? Is nukes from nowhere what I signed up for? Should someone tell me to go to 'King'? Did I cheat by loading after what should have been an impossible Zulu nuclear strike? Even now I can see Shaka's emissary pointing her spear at me 'Deity?! Ha! We ignore your feeble threats. Have a nuke.'

God I love this game. One more thing, actually, how's multiplayer on civ2? Decent? Or do you have to wait for an hour while someone else moves? I'd probably take an hour. Isn't civ supposed to be slow paced, and would I be rushed?

Thanks guys. Will.

 

[willsanders84]

Just read the thread 'list of AI stupidities'. I did cheat didn't I...

Well sod 'em. The Zulu's caused me enough grief, and I'm going to enjoy making the Carthaginians pay for taking Rome.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Next turn, the Zulu's nuke the two cities holding ALL my units (96 in total) however, they can't possibly, because the nearest unit or city they have is miles further than 16 squares. Cheating sods.

I know that feeling!

 

[ScottieX]

The AI needs some help to be a match for you.
However are you sure there was not a submarine carring missiles or a spy (ready to put a suitcase nuke down) somwhere near your city?

As for the diplomat /partisan/freight escort strategy - I dont consider that cheating at all even if it is not exactly as the game intended.

 

[willsanders84]

Yeah, I cheated to make sure there wasn't anything within 16 squares, and it was a nuke! I saw the rocket!

Your reply 'the AI needs some help to be a match for you' sort of sums it up though doesn't it. If I don't want missiles and transports coming from nowhere I should play on a lower difficulty. Or just stick with it and accept that the civ I'm fighting is dangerous, and would most probably have nukes. That said though, after SPECIFICALLY moving all my units to the furthest cities (railroads and long unit moves isn't exactly a picnic) I think I'm fairly justified loading the game. Wouldn't have loaded if they'd nuked a closer city.

However, I think that leaving my capital unguarded, even for just a turn, was naive of me, and that perhaps loading on that occasion was more like cheating. Anyone with half a brain would plop a paratrooper in there wouldn't they.

 

[ScottieX]

One AI trick I know is that the can use any unit to buy your cities. so they will walk up to your hevily defended mountain city with a partisan, you will wait for him to suicide and instead he will buy your city and get lots of armies with it.

 

[willsanders84]

Mate, that's ludicrous! I've never seen that happen, but I believe you. How can that possibly be within the lines civ2, even if it's accepted that the AI cheats. If a diplomat of spy crept up on a city, we'd all deal with it appropriately (we may even have scouts as a further preventative measure to subversion). But when a partisan creeps up and subverts a city, I'd DEFINATELY load the game. That's just unbelievable. Would you load it? Is that cheating?

 

[ScottieX]

Well in the past I would have restarted but now I let the AI take any advantage it likes. Although if it cripples me (as it did one time) I'd restart the whole game.

I was playing the WWII scenario as the neutrals and I had built a city on a mountain with city walls. the city had quite a few armies in including fighters to tanks and improvements - enough to repel the entire axis empire... or so I thought.

 

[Ace]

Oops! Don't let real life stuff rear its ugly head in the game!! The battle system is based on a mathmatical formula that just crunches the numbers for the involved units, it cares nothing for "swords vs. bombs" or other "real-life" concepts. Look on the positive side, unlike in civ1 were that hardy settler with his trusty shovel could sink that attacking battleship, in Civ2, that won't happen.

 

[Catfish]

Don't give spammers the time of day, either. I wonder how long this one will wait to convert its signature to a hyperlink. [Edit: Answer: Less than 2 days. Reported.] [Edit 2: And even less time for a moderator to delete the post. ]

 

[Tarkhan]

A lot of games from around civ2's time had cheating AI instead of coding them smarter - often due to hardware constraints. Civ2 is just the only one that was good enough to still be fun this far in the future.