Unsolved Mysteries of Civ2

[techumseh]

This is a thread dedicated to the great unsolved mysteries of Civ2. If you have one, post it here. If you have the answer, here is where you can reveal the secret.

My contribution: I've always wondered, when setting the special rules for a scenario, what does 'Special WWII-only AI' actually do?

[Mr. Oobir]

A related question: Why didn't they take that option out before they shipped the game?

[rmsharpe]

What were they going to use Plumbing for?

[The ANZAC]

My question: What are the Arabs and Incas doing in the rules.txt and were they going to be implemented.

Techumseh: The WW2 AI has something to do with the WW2 scenario that came with Civ2 and ensured some status of treaties. If you engage it in a normal scenario, you'll probably crash it

[St Leo]

I've always wondered, when setting the special rules for a scenario, what does 'Special WWII-only AI' actually do?

It makes the Axis tribe stay at war with the Allied tribe

What were they going to use Plumbing for?

The Aqueduct.

What are the Arabs and Incas doing in the rules.txt and were they going to be implemented.

They are spares that will work if you sub them in for an existing tribe because they also have definitions in city.txt.

[Case]

How much money did Microprose really make as a result of their decision to chop the MP code out of Civ 2 before it was released?

[WarVoid]

Originally posted by Case
How much money did Microprose really make as a result of their decision to chop the MP code out of Civ 2 before it was released?

A sh!tload.

[Imperial-Markus]

When you conquer a city which has only one inhabitant left it usually gets destroyed but in my last game I captured three cities with only one citizen left but all of them stayed? So my question is: Does anybody know when a city with 1 person left get destroyed by conquering and when not?

[techumseh]

If it has city walls?

[Imperial-Markus]

Hmmm that might be the trick but sometimes when I take a city the walls get destroyed and the city also. Do the computer choose randomly which improvements get destroyed?

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Originally posted by Imperial-Markus
Hmmm that might be the trick but sometimes when I take a city the walls get destroyed and the city also. Do the computer choose randomly which improvements get destroyed?

No - SlowThinker tested and found that improvements are clumped in 3 categories, one of which is destroyed upon sacking the city. I can't remember the details, you could search the archives of the CivII Strategy forum, tho...

[techumseh]

OK, St. Leo - here's one for you. They say in the manual that you shouldn't use the WWII AI option because it will almost certainly make your game crash. Why is this so?

[Mercator]

I've also wondered about that WWII AI thing, there must surely be a way that option can be put to good use in some scenario (apart from that WWII one).

I also just did a little testing with the size-1 cities... I tested it on Deity and Warlord level (using FW). Some with City Walls, some with a Wonder, some with a black citizen, some with a red one, a normal one or a happy one, with a courthouse, marketplace, temple and/or aquaduct. I also tried it with varying degrees of Food Storage. They all disappeared. These were by no means thorough tests, but if difficulty level, happiness, food storage or city improvements would be involved in whether a size-1 city remains or not, it would certainly only modify a random number.

[DarthVeda]

This is directly from the complete guide to scenario building:

Special WWII Only AI

When the game manual says not to use this one, it's not kidding. You should pretend this option doesn't exist, because there's no way you can use it productively.

The WWII scenario was designed for the most part by a programmer. Unfortunately, in early versions of the scenario, the computer-controlled civilizations did not act like their historical counterparts. To overcome this failing ( and because he could), he wrote a specific set of instructions for the AI in that scenario. Those instructions cannot be applied to any other scenario, and Civilization II is likely to crash if you try it.

Remember, the ww2 scenario was designed before events files, and it probably stipulates that the German and Allied civs stay at war, and where the German civ should send its submarines (ie the atlantic rather than the baltic).

[Panda]

It would have been more useful if they'd detailed exactly what those instructions were instead of issuing dire warnings against trying it out. It certainly doesn't crash any scenario I've seen which had this flag enabled.