Conquest really pays off in this game!

[Dragon]

I've become accustomed to the idea that conquered cities are a bit of a nuisance. In Civ2 most of the improvements get destroyed, so people are unhappy. In SMAC they are filled with drones, and it's an atrocity to destroy them.

In CTP2, on the other hand, captured cities suffer almost no damage. Frequently my best cities are ones that were built up by the AI. Like Paris in WWII, but historically that was an exception.

Under these rules, when I park 12 powerful units outside a weakly defended AI city, the AI should sell off all the improvements and move out. But this sort of scorched-earth policy isn't programmed in.

[LandBuilder]

Sounds like a programming bug to me. I notice the same thing, I bombarded for several turns then conquered and all improvements were left except for a couple.

[Darkknight]

It would be cool if there was a screen where you could see the view of the city (and units in it) that you are bombarding and you could see the explosions and damage the buildings(reduce effectiveness).

Maybe there should be a CTP3 suggestions section.hehe



------------------
" mind over body "

[Prince_Vegeta]

I agree that in CTP2 conquest definitely does pay off. Letting your enemy build up the infrastructure of the city (especially all those nice production improvements), and then taking it out of his hands and using that city to crank out some reinforcements is great. My only gripe with the system is the limit on the number of cities in your empire. I have regularly exceeded the limit during "cleansing" campaigns, only to have to direct resources to researching the next form of government. Is there a way to tweak the max number of cities allowed by government types?

[Rebel Rick]

off course there is:

take a look at govern.txt, but i strongly recommend that you play with defaults, because the purpose of the limits is exactly what you were forced to do: updating your political knowledge

But if you want to tweak, it's easy: govern.txt

C-ya

From the Const.txt file:

ASSAULT_DESTROY_BUILDING_CHANCE 0.1 # chance of an assault on a city destroying a building
BOMBARD_DESTROY_BUILDING_CHANCE 0.1 # chance of a bombardment on a city destroying a building

So it looks like a 10% chance per attack or bombardment (assuming that this file is still used in CTP2).

It seems to me that the AI is significantly better at developing its cities than in CTP1, so it may look as if there's less damage, simply because there are more improvements in the city when you take it over.

In CTP1, it was the exception for me to take an AI city that had as many improvements as my own cities; in CTP2, it's the rule.

[bad0cat]

Yo - merry Christmas CTP'ers

Well if you ask me conquest has always paid off way more in Civilization (especially CTP, and WAY WAY more in CTP 2) than peaceful expansion. Which I don't mind becuase I like to blow stuff up.

What ticks me off about the AI though is that it still doesnt grasp some very elementary military concepts/tactics. Examples:

1) Blitzkrieg (sp?) works WAY too well against the AI - even on the deity/impossible setting you can totally whomp another CIV if you build 3 or 4 max stacks of troops and tear through your unexpting opponent at full throttle. Of course - I've played several humans who didn't know how to handle that either... >

2) Duuuhhhh....navy?....duuuuh....ships + troops?? - My impression of the AI and its grasp of naval combat -or lack there of. I love naval games so I usually play on a map with multiple large oceans and small continents and islands. I have yet to play a game where the AI launched anything but a laughable naval assault at me....no wait.....there was that one time that it landed a troop ship with 1 cavalry inside and backed it up with an aircraft carrier...without any aircraft on it.....ok, yea - it sucks

3) AI doesnt seem to realize where it needs extra protection. This seems to get a little better on VeryHard/Impossible setting but not by much. Sometime the AI will leave its border cities defended by 1 or 2 obsolete units - whats up with this? Other times the AI will put huge stacks of units in and around some random city that no one cares about and then leave a musketeer and cannon to guard the capitol..... ? <

Short version - AI's military brain SUCKS - so play multiplayer.

[Dyzee400]

your post is giving me deja-vu for some reason badcat.

[bad0cat]

Heheh....you noticed that huh?