A decent number of folks still reminiscing about Civ2 yet we rarely see you in our forums, or at least hear from you. I've always wondered, as some of the threads there still get 1000s of views, if some of you are lurking or their is simply some sort of "bot" perusing the threads.
Much has changed in Civ2 lately with the
Test of Time Patch Project. We now have the ability to utilize lua scripting in our scenarios, which allows so much more freedom. Have any of you been following
Over the Reich (don't bother going back to 2011 on this one, just read the newer stuff to get an idea),
Napoleon,
Cold War,
Caesar's Gallic Wars,
Midway, or the latest
Medieval Millennium (the last of which is a traditional open world civ game rather than a scenario)? What we're doing these days is incredible compared to what was available even five years ago.
Just as one example, in Over the Reich (which has tens of thousands of lines of codes) here's a few interesting things lua has brought to Civ2:
-A working weather system
-A unit promotion/demotion system, where, for example, healthy B-17s will turn into the one in my avatar after they're damaged
-Munitions and payload, so that bombers can only attack once per sortie
-A radar system to spot enemy units out of visual range, and countermeasures
-Build restrictions so that only certain cities can build certain units
-The ability to transfer veteran status from different units (so an early model Spitfire can give its veteran status to one of the later models)
-A system where enemy units will attack you on
your turn (reactions)
-Enhanced "airlift-esque" abilities that tracks if a path to a target can be found along a railyard or not. If the railyard has been destroyed, you can't "lift" the unit there
-A strategic bombing mechanism whereby attacking units outside of a city (factories, oil refineries, ports, railyards, aircraft factories, special targets, urban centers) destroys improvements
in the city (for example, destroying urban target units destroys happiness improvements within a city)
And so very much more...
As another example, Napoleon features much of the above with some other enhancements:
-A "zone" system where certain areas must be occupied lest the AI know to take advantage of it
-An attrition system and supply system whereby units in Russia will take damage in winter
-A diplomacy system wherein certain cities are transferred back to certain civs after the conclusion of certain wars (when certain objectives are met)
The Cold War has much of all of this plus:
-A rebel spawn device where the USSR, USA, Non-Aligned, and Chinese can attempt to influence global affairs by funding rebels/freedom fighters across the planet
-A weapons sale system wherein the superpowers flood the third world with antiquated equipment
-A nuclear arms treaty system for MP which limits the amount of nuclear units you can have (if you sign up) and has consequences if you fail
-A probability system where events like the Cuban Missile Crisis may shake out historically or there may be a twist, to keep things fresh
Finally, Medieval Millennium basically has all of this stuff, but is a modpack that completely transforms Civ2 into a medieval experience. Every single detail is changed, yet every single detail is familiar. If you enjoyed the base game, you would enjoy this.
Have any of you been lurking and noticed this the past few years?