civ2 recovery 100

[Father Beast]

I just bought CTP for the first time. I'm a civ2 vet (though not good enough to win at deity), so what do I need to know to get me started on this game?

[phoenixcager]

Settlers don't do terraforming

Be careful where you point your mouse...you may just move a unit all the way around the world

Don't assume that units/techs/wonders have the same capabilities/bonuses as in civ2.

When you build a caravan, you don't actually see a caravan unit.

[Father Beast]

OK, I get the feeling caravans are a resource that is simply invisibly used, kind of like the freighters in moo2.

I'm having trouble understanding this "monopoly" business. how does that work? I couldn't figure the manual out.

for units wonders, etc, I guess I can use the onilne help

[ZoboZeWarrior]

In fact you see caravan... It's blue line traveling through cities (sometime foe cities!!).

If you build road, or undersea tunnel it can affect pathes of your caravan!!

You have a monopoly when you bring 4 same tokens in the same cities. Then gold incomes raise greatly...

Edit :
You can build cities in space and undersea. You have "non-conventional" units (slaver, priest, ...).

[Immortal Wombat]

gold for one trade good per city +10
gold for two trade goods per city +20
gold for three trade goods per city +30
gold for four trade goods per city +40

Total - 100 gold per city.

Whereas if you send four goods to four differnt cities, you get 10+10+10+10 = 40 gold

[phoenixcager]

Originally posted by ZoboZeWarrior
In fact you see caravan... It's blue line traveling through cities (sometime foe cities!!).

And this is important because trade routes can be broken by a pirating action of an enemy unit. You might even lose the caravan.

[ZoboZeWarrior]

The caravan choose the quickest path. Sea travel to nearest harbord, road, railroad, etc have great impact on caravan a path.

Some time you'll have to create roads and cities to avoid that your caravan go through a foreign county.

Trade in CtP is a great thing. Because it give you an interest to settle a specific land rather than another. You could start a war only to get land with a particular goods. A good idea!!

[Father Beast]

OK, my first post since I've actually started playing...

I started a game on chieftan, and am cruising around 1200 AD. I thought those caravans were expensive, so I built the labyrinth as my first wonder. very nice, until I discovered the age of reason and all my trade routes evaporated.

Kind of cool, how that trade routes are more under your control than in civ2. I accidentally made a route later on, and I broke it to free the camel for a more lucrative route. I wonder how it can be a "monopoly" when I have more of the same goods I can't send because it has too many routes?

the public works system takes some getting used to, but makes some internal sense. It was a bit neat to pay a bunch of pw points all at once to lay an intercity highway over 8 squares.

I still do have some questions.

How do I know how long it will take for the city to grow? I have a definite food output and loss and input/storage amounts to access, but how much food surplus does it take to grow? many time I had a city pumping out settlers because I didn't know whether it would grow just before finishing the settler.

the little popups on the side are OK, though I have accidentally rightclicked one or two away by accident while trying to rightclick the move arrow away.
I noticed that I get demands to leave the area from enemy civs through these popups. at first I answered them peacefully and had my units teleported back to square one. then I noticed I could hit the (-) symbol and shrink it until I'd got my unit out of dismissing range. can I really just put them off indefinitely?

I only had trade success with domestic routes. I had a couple of single Items I put up for sale to foreigns, but I didn't get any takers. am I doing this wrong?

thats all for now. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.

[Father Beast]

come on guys, anyone here?

how do I know when My cities will grow

and


how do I make money putting stuff up for sale to foreigners?

[Immortal Wombat]

Sorry, I guess we all missed this

can I really just put them off indefinitely?

Yep

I only had trade success with domestic routes. I had a couple of single Items I put up for sale to foreigns, but I didn't get any takers. am I doing this wrong?

Nah, the AI just hate you...
It happens a lot like that, the AI dont generally trade with the human player.

[Father Beast]

OK, I finally got a bite for something I had up for sale. as long as it was happening, I got the request for it every turn! I thought that I hadn't answered properly, since it wasn't showing up on my trade review screens, but I guess that it is a one time sale, only for that turn. hmmnn...

now if only I could figure out how to know when my cities are going to grow...

[Swissy]

Originally posted by Father Beast
OK, I finally got a bite for something I had up for sale. as long as it was happening, I got the request for it every turn! I thought that I hadn't answered properly, since it wasn't showing up on my trade review screens, but I guess that it is a one time sale, only for that turn. hmmnn...

now if only I could figure out how to know when my cities are going to grow...

For some reason an AI will make a trade offer even if it doesn't have an available caravan to make the route, a little bug in the program the AI sees it can make a profit so makes the offer.

To make cities grow:

Build: granary and aqueduct. If you can get it, Stonehedge(but watch out for Age of Reason). These are musts for early city growth.

Set your food to the lowest setting, compensate with the money slider to keep happiness at 74.

Once you have factories, terraform all the non-mountain/hill squares into garsslands and place improved farms on them. Switch to hydroponic farms when you get the tech. If your by ocean do likewise with fisheries and automated fisheries.

You'll have to build the "overcrowding relief" city improvements like hospital and arcology if your going to make it to the 50+ level. Sensorium is great for making really big cities, a must have wonder.

[Father Beast]

I appreciate the advice swissy, but I'm used to the civ2 food box, and being able to tell exactly when a city will increase in size. I know enough to tell that if the food is more than (citizens times food rations), the city will grow. and the higher the factor, the faster.

but is there any way to tell just how close a city is to growing? it would really help for settler production timing

[Swissy]

On the city interface at the botom of the screen, the "MAX" tab has your city stats as far as production, science, gold, food produced, food used, food surplus, happiness, and turns til next population increase. You can also get a grand view you can use the city side tab which gives a bunch of info, including turns til next pop. If you click on the top of that collumn, it will re-order the cities by that factor.