Cultural Defection in Civ1

[Verrucosus]

The announcement of Colonization II has sent me on one of my frequent retro-gaming trips and I am currently playing Civilization I. In my last game I had that "Citizens of City A admire the prosperity of City B" message which causes city A to defect to city B's civilization. In this case the city defected between AI civs, so the message could have been about a successful subversion. However, I strongly remember a city once defecting to me without any diplomatic action on my part, so this must have been an early form of the cultural defection that was officially introduced in Civ3. It is not documented in the manual and a (cursory) glance at this site's FAQ has failed to bring up any details. Was the mechanism behind this feature ever revealed?

[Felch]

I think it's only diplomatic intervention that causes it. There simply wasn't any cultural mechanism in those games.

[Verrucosus]

I suppose you are right. My memory was probably playing tricks on me. After 16 years of various civ versions, it's easy to mix things up.

[snoopy369]

I believe you're correct, actually, Verrucosus. I think it had to do with score/wonders or whatnot, not just diplomatic intervention.

[pauli]

i distinctly remember a completely spontaneous defection by a foreign city to join my empire - across an ocean, no less - in civ 1. damnedest thing.

[germanos]

Spontanious defection could (only?) happen if the city was lost to the founding civ. It had something to do with your treasury IIRC. It was very annoying when I lost a city for the first time this way, but when I figured out how it worked it became an asset to regain lost cities. Forgot the exact details on the mechanisms behind it though. I'm not sure if I ever really came to understand them .

[Ijuin]

The city in question has to go into rioting in order to spontaneously defect to another civ as well.

[civilista]

Hi All.
I've been playing CIV1 since I got it as a birthday prezzy in, I think, 1993. Mine annouces itself as Version 474.01, size of CIV.EXE is 304512 bytes and timestamp is 1991-12-03. I've bought 'n played the many subsequent editions but still prefer CIV1. I'm also a big fan of Sid's Colonisation. At 65, still running a business and hence often distracted by other stuff, I don't get much time to play these day. Just copied my CIV directory onto my Netbook (1.6GHz Intel Atom, 1GB ram, C: is 85GB, D: is 65GB). Getting the message "Please insert Disk 7." after I choose my display, audio and keyboard/mouse options. Never seen this before, -and- I no longer have "Disk 7", nor does my Netbook have a floppy drive! Anyone have any similar experience?
Graeme

[Verrucosus]

No, sorry. Mine has "only" 4 floppy disks. It could be looking for sound drivers. Have you tried "No Sound" or "IBM"?

I would not say that I prefer Civ1, but there is something about it that makes me return once in a while. The map, the slightly more serious approach. Loopholes, poor AI (by today's standard) and all, it is probably still the most well-rounded version without any features obviously missing or tacked-on. The documentation is just brilliant and a testament of how well thought out it is. Of course, reading the technical supplement from today's perspective is like time travel.

It's always nice to see that the original is still appreciated. As long as you see your business as a distraction from Civ and not the other way around, your priorities are well-ordered.

Best wishes,
Verrucosus