How Civ 1 actually works

[Tijn]

#12036

I’ve been playing this game since I was little and realised while playing it again now that I’ve developed a great number of superstitions about how the game might work, but I have very little knowledge about how it *actually* works.

For example I tend to play with the Russians because “they sometimes start with 2 settlers”. Which is true, it does happen sometimes. But here’s the thing: it also happens with every other civilization. There are no differences between the civs in Civ 1 for players, they’re just a different name and colour, that’s it. Red Hexapus pointed me to this great forum thread on CivFanatics where they explain the starting bonuses in more detail: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/number-of-starting-settlers-and-techs.494994/

There are some differences between the civs when the AI plays them, like how aggressive they are. Which brings me to perhaps the greatest Civilization superstition of all: nuclear Gandhi.

You all know the story: when coding the AI for Gandhi they wanted to make him a total pacifist, but somehow the number to store his aggression underflowed and wrapped around to max aggression, which is why Gandhi constantly throws nuclear bombs at everyone.

Turns out, none of this is true. It’s a total urban legend. It’s such a famous hoax, there’s a Wikipedia article about it, which has all the details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Gandhi

Last but not least I have a lot of personal superstitions about how the battles work. You know what it’s like, you approach a weak enemy unit with something powerful like a cannon or a battleship, and you lose! Wtf! How is this possible?? Is it because the unit had already attacked this turn? Is it because the enemy is next to another enemy? Does the tech level have anything to do with it?

CivFanatics also have a thread on this very subject: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-combat-mechanics-explained.492843/

The bottom line: it’s all dice rolls. There are some modifiers for the defending unit (terrain, fortified), and it also matters whether the unit is a veteran or not, but for the most part it’s just dice rolls using the attack & defense numbers you see described for each unit. Tech level doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters. Just comparing random numbers, where an equal roll favours the defender.

And because zero is included in the dice roll, it means anything can potentially beat anything. If that battleship of yours happens to roll a zero, it might be beaten by a diplomat. Crazy, right!

Love to hear your personal superstitions and perhaps we can figure out more about the inner workings of this game.

[Wesbat]

#12051

Thanks for sharing Tijn, I enjoyed reading about your Civerstitions!

Mine involves Barbarians, I always suspected they prefer to go out of their way towards your own cities, over the AI civs. I’d even go as far to say the AI civs are in collusion with the Barbies, but that’s all unproven 😀

[secretchief]

#12053

I remember vividly, when I first got a hold of Civ 1 to Amiga, that we had numerous theories and routines around how to get past the intro (world-building) sequence and just start playimg!

Perhaps this button or these? Couple of mouseclicks perhaps? Yes! It worked – one time. However, not the next time. We didn’t realize that it was just building the world and needed its time 😄

Of course, I also wondered about the battle result mysteries or the when triremes would sink or not.
I thoroughly loved Civ 1 and the series overall is clearly my favorite of all time. Can’t say I remember I picked up on the Gandhi myth at the time, though, but I obviously heard about it later. I also seem to recall there were no loading in-game, but you had to go to the main menu. Bit odd and annoying, but less save-scummy, I suppose?

Can’t wait for the episode!🥳

[dr_st]

#12054

Wow, awesome read about the Nuclear Gandhi. It’s amazing how folks can contrive a very elaborate and technical theory that has no basis in reality, and spreads like a wildfire. 😛

Way more elaborate than all the fake ‘hidden characters’ people were talking about around the time of the early Mortal Kombat games.