What do these numbers mean?

[Squeek]

Sometimes small numbers appear in the city screen at the edge of cities. They are almost always green and are usually a 1 or a 2. What do they mean?

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Since you have not enclosed a picture, it is hard to know what you mean.
But if I had to guess, this is an issue which was recently discussed. Unfortunately I do not remember the exact location. But the conclusion was that these numbers represent various graphical shapes of river beds. They have no relationship to gameplay.

 

[Squeek]

Here is a screenshot. I'm referring to the small green number one on the lower-left side of the city.

I notice these numbers every now and then. Usually they are green, but sometimes they are red. I doubt it has anything to do with graphics, because I've noticed them on three different platforms and with with three different graphics cards.

 

[Catfish]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=125039

Edit: I should add that the reason they are sometimes red is because in some custom terrain2.gif files these numbers use palette index 252: cyan in the terrain files but red in units.gif. The game actually uses the colour palette from units.gif.

 

[Squeek]

Thanks, Wobbegong. I noticed this a long time ago but thought I might figured it out eventually -- nope!

 

[Catfish]

Edit: I should add that the reason they are sometimes red is because in some custom terrain2.gif files these numbers use palette index 252: cyan in the terrain files but red in units.gif. The game actually uses the colour palette from units.gif.

Scrap that idea. I just tested it. In terrain2.gif palette indices 236-252 are typically the colour cyan. Changing the colours of these indices in units.gif has no effect in the game. My guess is that Civ2 only reads indices 0-191 from units.gif and the rest from one of the palettes in the DLL files. Still, the different coloured numbers occur when people use cyan with different palette indices. BTW, the numbers have no function in the game and can be removed by replacing their colours in terrain2.gif with either palette index 253 (magenta) or 255 (various).

 

[Boco]

I wonder if it's always from the same DLL or the one that was accessed last?

 

[Catfish]

The idea that it uses one of the palettes from the DLLs is a guess, but I don't believe it's worth investigating. Mercator might know. Try greyscaling units.gif and loading the game - you'll see pretty easily what graphics use its palette.