The use of Civilization II for this hobby...

[KingAlanI]

I find playing scenarios in games such as the Civ series to be a useful adjunct to looking at 'alernate history'.

Play a historial scenario (the game includes Roman Republic and WWII Europe), and you can see an alternate timelien develop befiore your eyes, not only providing you with ideas on what might have happened, but ideas on how history got to that point.

Anyone here who wants a copy of this game, and/or the 20-scenario expansion pack, please contact me.

 

[antiquarius]

I have used this game for years for this purpose...good game for being old

I have found the software to be quite easy to use for building one's own time lines. There once were a large number of scenarios floating around cyberspace. You can pretty much pick a year, pick your countries, set up their relationships. I do wish there was a way to add more countries to play at the same time. I think the game allows seven, and I would like to have more like 15 at a time. You can also set the game to play automatically and just watch alternate history unfold. The only scenario, though, that I got fully designed (too anxious to jump in!) was one based on the Mediterranean at the time Islam arose. Sassanid Persia, Byzantine Empire, Franks, Slavs, Arabs all were a part. I have not messed with later incarnations, but if they are better for AH designers, I would love to hear about them.

 

[Max Sinister]

I once wrote some Civ2 scenarios based on AH (Gurps AE 1, to be specific). Look here. (Cornwallis, Dixie, Ezcalli)

 

[RealityBYTES]

I have found the software to be quite easy to use for building one's own time lines.

Definitely a whole helluva lot easier than designing maps, let alone scenarios, for Civ IV!

I'm told by those in the know that it was intentional on the part of Civ IV designers — they wanted quality, rather than quantity, from the mod community. Which is fine, but when it extends to the point where making a simple Earth map is a chore, it gets irritating.

RealityBYTES

 

[fortyseven]

I once wrote some Civ2 scenarios based on AH (Gurps AE 1, to be specific). Look here. (Cornwallis, Dixie, Ezcalli)

Any Civ III?

 

[Max Sinister]

Nah, never liked it as much as Civ2.

 

[fortyseven]

Nah, never liked it as much as Civ2.

Have you played Civ 4?

 

[Max Sinister]

I have it, but nowadays I don't have enough time to play it. I never tried to make a scenario in it.

 

[Ghost 88]

I have it, but nowadays I don't have enough time to play it. I never tried to make a scenario in it.

The World Builder is easy for altering random worlds generated by the game. Things like too much desert. You know a tweak her one there. You will need good typing skills and some understanding of programing to alter the files though. Like the way Paradox games let you do it in Notepad, CivIV is xml .

 

[fortyseven]

I have it, but nowadays I don't have enough time to play it. I never tried to make a scenario in it.

What are your impressions (including longterm playability/re-playability)?

 

[Tom Veil]

What are your impressions (including longterm playability/re-playability)?

Civ4 is a much, much more robust and realistic game, so it actually has more re-playability than previous versions of Civ, if that's possible. I will echo, though, that modding for it is a challege. Over at CFC, one modder (Rhye) has created a wonderful mod, the sort that you could sell as its own expansion pack, but he's had to devote all his time to it and develop a legion of maybe 30 hard-core playtesters.

I've also learned that it's quite easy to create Civ4 mods that are SIMILAR to a real-life time and place, but you'll never quite get it close enough. The internet is littered with abandoned Civ4 mods that attempted to mimic some historical period but gave up in beta-testing.