A game of Civilization II progresses by turns, representing variable intervals of time within the setting (usually decades, narrowing to individual years in late play). Each player conducts a set of actions during a turn, with their effects resolved either during the turn itself, or at the start of the next turn.
If no victory has been claimed after a certain number of turns, the civilization's leader "retires" and its standing score is entered into the Hall of Fame. The player can continue the game beyond this point, but no further score changes will be submitted.
Order of operations[]
A turn updates in two main stages: "globally" at the start of the calendar change, and then in discrete cycles for each civilization in active play. Global turn operations include calculating global warming, processing scripted events, and publishing Histories.
Each civilization's turn consists of two phases. The first, or "update" phase, resolves automated economic mechanics, namely, city maintenance, growth and production; research progress; and unit repair. The second, or "orders" phase, is the interactive stage in which the player may move units; conduct diplomacy; and reconfigure any ongoing actions. Depending on the player's game settings, the turn can end automatically once all active units have received orders, or wait for manual confirmation (the Enter key).
Certain game behaviour occurs in regular four-turn intervals, known as "Oedo years", including barbarian uprisings and resolution of anarchy. Meta play typically involves synchronizing government research and revolutions to Oedo years.
Order of action[]
Civilizations act in a fixed order, based on their color:
- White
- Green
- Blue
- Yellow
- Cyan
- Orange
- Purple
- Red (Barbarians)
While not officially implemented in the retail game, simultaneous movement can be enabled for multiplayer, whereby human players conduct their actions concurrently, rather than sequentially. It is enabled via manual adjustment of CIV.INI, normally located in the C:\Windows\ directory, prior to hosting the game.[1][note 1]
Calendar[]
A standard game of Civilization II begins in 4000 BC and nominally ends at 2020 AD. The exact number of turns, and the progression of the in-game calendar, varies based on the game's difficulty level and map size; Chieftain provides the maximum turns (570) and Deity the minimum (420).[note 2] Technically, retirement is triggered by the calendar date, rather than total elapsed turns; see the spaceship exploit below.[2]
The following table details how map area determines total play time:[3]
| Difficulty | Total turns | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 570 | 520 | 470 | 420 | |
| Chieftain |  |
— | ||
| Warlord | 3000–10000 | 1000–2999 | — | |
| Prince | 6000–10000 | 3000–5999 | 1000–2999 | — |
| King | — | 6000–10000 | 3000–5999 | 1000–2999 |
| Emperor | — | 6000–10000 | 1000–5999 | |
| Deity | — |
| ||
Note that when starting a game with a custom map, total turns are calculated from the last dimensions submitted to "Start a New Game" or "Customize World", not the size of the map itself. To ensure accurate calculation, the player must first designate a map size through one of these options, then return to the main menu and choose "Start on Premade World".
Scenarios may employ a calendar that subdivides by months; see the Modding section for details.
Spaceship exploit[]
A standard game's mandatory retirement year triggers on the calendar date, not the number of elapsed turns.[2] When a spaceship is launched, calendar progression changes to one year per turn, regardless of the stage of the game.[4][note 3] Even if all active spaceships are destroyed, the calendar is not reset.[note 4] This offers a potential exploit whereby a civilization intentionally allows its spaceship to be destroyed: the game will continue to progress at a rate of 1 year per turn, granting bonus turns relative to its launch date.
Modding[]
The game calendar can be configured through Scenario Parameters in the cheat menu. "Turn Year Increment" determines how the calendar scales to turn progression: 0 uses the default dynamic scaling; a positive value adds this number of years per turn; a negative value activates a monthly calendar. "Starting Year" is the exact date of the initial turn. "Maximum Turns" is the total playable turns before the final score is tallied.
Calendar labels are found in the @LABELS section of Labels.txt. B.C./A.D. are defined at Lines 2 and 3, respectively; months at Lines 421–432.
See also[]
Footnotes[]
- ↑ The "Simultaneous Multiplayer Editor" by Thomas "CornMaster" Hawkins is a program designed for easy editing of CIV.INI in both the Multiplayer Gold Edition and Test of Time. The Civilization II MGE User Interface Additions mod enables the option through the in-game menu.
- ↑ The user interface does not give turn count by default, but the Civ2UIA mod adds a counter to the main Status window.
- ↑ This is likely intended to simplify calculating the spaceship's arrival date: the travel time is labelled in years.
- ↑ Interestingly, the calendar does resume its original scaling if edited via the cheat menu.[2]
References[]
- ↑ Thunderfall (15 December 2000). "Simultaneous Moves in Multiplayer". Civilization Fanatics' Center. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 IMBC2 (25 August 2006). "RE: Sabotaging your own launched spaceship". Civilization Fanatics' Center. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ↑ Duke of Marlbrough (28 May 2006). "RE: Oedo years - I think this should be common knowledge". Civilization Fanatics' Center. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ↑ Six Thousand Year Old Man (21 March 2003). "RE: Optimal space ship configuration revisited". Apolyton Civilization Site. Retrieved 31 August 2023.