RunRickyRun Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for almost 10 years. This is the result. (self.gaming) submitted 23 days ago* by Lycerius http://imgur.com/a/rAnZs I've been playing the same game of Civ II for 10 years. Though long outdated, I grew fascinated with this particular game because by the time Civ III was released, I was already well into the distant future. I then thought that it might be interesting to see just how far into the future I could get and see what the ramifications would be. Naturally I play other games and have a life, but I often return to this game when I'm not doing anything and carry on. The results are as follows. The world is a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation. There are 3 remaining super nations in the year 3991 A.D, each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands. -The ice caps have melted over 20 times (somehow) due primarily to the many nuclear wars. As a result, every inch of land in the world that isn't a mountain is inundated swamp land, useless to farming. Most of which is irradiated anyway. -As a result, big cities are a thing of the distant past. Roughly 90% of the worlds population (at it's peak 2000 years ago) has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm. Engineers (late game worker units) are always busy continuously building roads so that new armies can reach the front lines. Roads that are destroyed the very next turn when the enemy goes. So there isn't any time to clear swamps or clean up the nuclear fallout. -Only 3 super massive nations are left. The Celts (me), The Vikings, And the Americans. Between the three of us, we have conquered all the other nations that have ever existed and assimilated them into our respective empires. -You've heard of the 100 year war? Try the 1700 year war. The three remaining nations have been locked in an eternal death struggle for almost 2000 years. Peace seems to be impossible. Every time a cease fire is signed, the Vikings will surprise attack me or the Americans the very next turn, often with nuclear weapons. Even when the U.N forces a peace treaty. So I can only assume that peace will come only when they're wiped out. It is this that perpetuates the war ad infinitum. Have any of you old Civ II players out there ever had this problem in the post-late game? -Because of SDI, ICBMS are usually only used against armies outside of cities. Instead, cities are constantly attacked by spies who plant nuclear devices which then detonate (something I greatly miss from later civ games). Usually the down side to this is that every nation in the world declares war on you. But this is already the case so its no longer a deterrent to anyone. My self included. -The only governments left are two theocracies and myself, a communist state. I wanted to stay a democracy, but the Senate would always over-rule me when I wanted to declare war before the Vikings did. This would delay my attack and render my turn and often my plans useless. And of course the Vikings would then break the cease fire like clockwork the very next turn. Something I also miss in later civ games is a little internal politics. Anyway, I was forced to do away with democracy roughly a thousand years ago because it was endangering my empire. But of course the people hate me now and every few years since then, there are massive guerrilla (late game barbarians) uprisings in the heart of my empire that I have to deal with which saps resources from the war effort. -The military stalemate is air tight. The post-late game in civ II is perfectly balanced because all remaining nations already have all the technologies so there is no advantage. And there are so many units at once on the map that you could lose 20 tank units and not have your lines dented because you have a constant stream moving to the front. This also means that cities are not only tiny towns full of starving people, but that you can never improve the city. "So you want a granary so you can eat? Sorry; I have to build another tank instead. Maybe next time." -My goal for the next few years is to try and end the war and thus use the engineers to clear swamps and fallout so that farming may resume. I want to rebuild the world. But I'm not sure how. If any of you old Civ II players have any advice, I'm listening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 5, 2012 Moderator Share Posted July 5, 2012 Interesting and probably prophetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 This was on the front page of Reddit about three weeks ago. He uploaded his save and quite a few people managed to "win" the game within half an hour of playing. It's an interesting story, but the deadlock wasnt as tight as he first thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laivasse Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 I read about this when it did the rounds on some news sites the other month. It's intriguing how it fell so perfectly into line with Orwellian/dystopian speculations about the future of the real world, and fascinating how fine the balance of power has ended up. Many have picked holes and suggested he could resolve the deadlock easily if he did X and Y, but guy in question responded in depth to a lot of these points on the original Reddit piece and it does sound as airtight as he suggests. Could be wrong but I thought he didn't initially upload the save and that the deadlock-breaking theories were based on speculation? It makes me wonder what would happen if someone would keep a Footie Manager save going for 10 or 20 years, maybe try and bring the in-game world up to the year 2500. I imagine Villa would be playing handicap matches of 11 vs 44 against Barca, Real, City and Anzhi Makhachkala, and winning them 1000 - 0 with a team of all-20-attribute cyborgs all on £10 trillion/week salaries. EDIT: I had a glimpse back at the Reddit and it does appear that one or two people claim to have brought the game to a close somewhere in the 40th century (once the guy made the save available). I guess with the exposure this got, some savants were bound to find it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 He uploaded his save and quite a few people managed to "win" the game within half an hour of playing. It's an interesting story, but the deadlock wasnt as tight as he first thought. Not really a surprise, I guess this guy played out the deadlock without really trying to end the game to see how far he could go. From the sounds of his description it looks like it was just an infinite cycle that would have gone on forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunRickyRun Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 Downloaded his save and will have a go later. I reckon the first thing I will do is change to Fundamentalism and try and spam the enemy with spies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted July 5, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted July 5, 2012 This has made me fire up CM01/02 and go on holiday from the beginning, leaving it running in the background. I'll try to stop it when it gets to the modern day, to see how things worked out, then I guess I'll just see how far into the future it goes. Shut up, it's not sad, I'm running it in the background! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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