What's a continent?

[stixs]

I've been playing Civ II for years, but never gave much thought to this: what exactly does the game consider a continent? For example, J.S. Bach's Cathedral "decreases unhappy citizens on same continent by two per city." Am I correct in thinking a small island next to the continent would not be affected? What about two land masses that touch each other, but still have a waterway between them (a good example is where Africa and the Middle East meet in the Europe map for the WWII scenario)? Also, does anyone know the specifics on how this determination affects trade?

 

[Magic_gorter]

As far as I know J.S. Bach and other wonders like Hanging Gardens should affect only the continent they are build on but when build it will affect all cities you have. Even build on other continents. It's wrong in the manual. Continents have a number in civ2. When rightclicking on a tile you can see the coordinates and the number of the continent next to it. That way you can see if some place belongs to the same continent.....

 

[Peaster]

Magic has it right. Continent numbers do not affect happiness from Wonders. They do affect trade, and diplomacy (tribute). The trade bonus is doubled when the destination city is on a different continent than the origin of the caravan.

For me, that means almost always send vans overseas. Some players, who value the ongoing benefits of trade, would surely disagree. But to me, the bonuses are what really matter.