Question re "black clicking" & ELG rule

[Tanstaafl]

In doing more research on suggested strategies I have come across "back clicking". Is this the method of reloading a previous saved turn when a bad event occured and the player wants another chance to try to get what he/she wanted?

Another question, in the ELG rules the first one says that players cannot use the goodie huts. Why is that? Isnt' it an intrinsic part of the game, like adapting to the terrain?

 

[funxus]

Are you sure they are talking about "back clicking" and not "black clicking"? Or have I confused them?

Anyway, the unexplored territory isn't as unexplored as it seems. There are a few things you can find out from it without sending units. First of all, you can see whether there is land, ocean or a lake in a square by right-clicking on it. In the status window, next to the coordinates of the square, you can see a number. 1 is ocean, lake is another number, and all continents have one number each.
You can also find out whether there is a city or not in a black square. Click on it, and it will usually center on this square. If there's a city below though, it will act the same way it would have acted had you already discovered the square, i.e. not center on it.

 

[Tanstaafl]

It is interesting reading posts since a lot of people don't spell check or just read them before hitting the "submit reply" button.

The actual remark I read was "black cligking". I believe the person meant "black clicking" as you describe. I never used it myself (mainly because I didn't know what it was or how useful it would be). I have found a number of posts, sites and downloads of abbreviations & explanations for Civ II terms and no one piece had all the information.

I have used one "cheat" or help download and that is the pattern of special and hut tiles. I knew there was a pattern and have figured it out on my own but was not creative enough to make a diagram of it. The diagram makes it helpful to plot moves for my exploring units.

 

[funxus]

There is a program made by Scouse Git (?) on apolyton called Hutfinder. By just giving the location of one hut, this program will tell you exactly where to find all the other huts and also specials. I guess some consider it cheat, but it helps when you want to find a good spot.

 

[ElephantU]

Sounds like you got the first part of your question answered by funxus.

I don't consider the hut & special pattern a "cheat" because you can see it plainly if you go into Map Editor and draw a continent of all Plains. Only Grass tiles hide specials, which accounts for the majority of the confusion on the patterns as you explore black terrain.

Regarding the ELG rules, it was felt by several players that in "comparison" games there was too much "luck" in the results of huts (and temptation to reload for better) and those results had too much influence on the early part of the game, so we banned their use. We were looking to minimize the amount of chance involved in seeking to identify the best strategies and tactics for getting earlier launch dates. Note that the random influence of Barbs was not removed (partly because some people wanted somebody they could beat up on!) as it takes some skill to defend against and benefit from their visits. It was purely a player majority decision, although I might mention that for my own play I found it easier to stick to a long-term tech plan without the interruptions of off-path "Scrolls of Ancient Wisdom" that often confound things.