CAESAR II PLAYABLE DEMO -- DOCUMENTATION Copyright * 1995 Sierra On-Line, Inc. ---------------------------------------- Welcome to our playable demo of Caesar II. This demo lets you try many of the features of the finished game, and has been set to easy mode to make exploring the game fun. These notes will help you learn what different features in the game do, and give you some tips for doing well. OVERVIEW Caesar II is the sequel to the original Caesar, the hit simulation of city-building in the Roman Empire. As in that game, you take on the role of Governor of a Roman province, committed to expanding the Empire through the conquest of distant lands. You are responsible for building the capital city of a province, as well as connecting that city to other towns and resources within the province. You must also defend that province from incursions of raiding barbarians, both passively by building walls and towers, and actively by raising armies to do battle against them. Your career is of vital importance, and is linked to your success in ruling your lands; if you achieve the required ratings in Peace, Culture, Prosperity and Empire for your current province, then you are offered promotion to another, more challenging province and expected to achieve even higher ratings. When you have conquered enough provinces, then you achieve the ultimate promotion and are crowned Caesar -- Emperor of Rome. RUNNING THE DEMO After you have installed this demo, you run it by accessing the directory where you installed the demo and typing: C2DEMO This will take you through some introductory screens, and then place you in the City Level. To reconfigure the game for your sound card, access the directory where you installed the demo and type: SETSOUND Follow the instructions to select options for playing sound effects and music. MEMORY REQUIREMENTS This demo is designed to run in 4 to 8 megabytes of memory. To make the game run in 4 megs, you need to access the directory where you loaded the demo and type: SET DOS4GVM=1 -- BEFORE you run the game. The game will run with most memory managers, but it prefers certain memory configurations. If you have problems running the game, try reconfiguring your computer for no EMS, or disable all memory managers. THE CITY LEVEL The demo takes place in the City Level of the game. The main view of the city is located on the left side of the screen; the right side displays an overview map and several icons. Right-click on these controls to learn what they do. A menu bar featuring game options stretches across the top. Here are some notes on the structures you can build on the city level. NOTE ON LAND VALUE: All structures on the map exert a positive or negative on the value of the property surrounding them. The sum total of the effects of structures on each map-square determines its LAND VALUE. This value is used to calculate to what level your housing will develop (or decline). In short, land value is the KEY to growing your housing. In addition, some areas of the map will be LIMITED to a certain level of land value, based on the PRESENCE or ABSENCE of particular structures or supplies. For example, areas that are near a barracks are limited to low land value; and areas that do not have water supply are limited to a very low land value. NOTE ON AVAILABILITY: Remember that some structures are not available until you reach certain levels of population. In the demo, this means that you will not be able to build libraries, or upgraded versions of some structures. PEOPLE: After you build some housing, roads and other structures, you will see people walking around your city. These people are the links between some city buildings. To learn about them and how they are doing, QUERY them (see below) and select the "People" option. ROADS AND PLAZAS -- these form links between the following structures: * Forums and Housing -- for tax collection * Businesses and Housing -- for employment * Markets and Housing -- for customers * Barracks and housing -- for security * Praefectures and structures -- for fire prevention The people that walk along roads and plazas are the actual links between structures; in a few cases -- specifically soldiers and "vigiles" (watchmen) -- these people will react to situations in the city. A good road structure will ensure that structures are linked as needed. Remember that in order for most structures to gain the benefit of a road, they must be within TWO squares of it. WATER -- There are four structures used to get water through the city: RESERVOIRS are the main source of water for a city; they create water supply (water that is used by people) in a small radius, and pipe access (water that is piped -- via underground networks which are not shown -- to other water structures) in a larger radius. A reservoir only has water when it is either adjacent to a river, or linked to one such reservoir via an aqueduct (see below). FOUNTAINS can be placed in areas with pipe access, to create water supply over a much larger area. Most of your housing will get its water from fountains placed within range of reservoirs. AQUEDUCTS are used to send water from one reservoir to another; in this way you can create water sources all across the map. Many reservoirs can be linked in a series; however, later reservoirs will supply water to smaller areas. When money or space is tight, WELLS can be used to create a water supply within a small radius. It does not create water access. Water supply can also be had from RIVERS, but this is considered primitive and will restrict the development of housing. NOTE: For help in placing water structures, use the PULL- DOWN MENU above the overview map to access the Water map- report. Water supply is indicated in blue, pipe access is red, and areas with both are purple. HOUSING -- To succeed, housing should: * have high Land Value * have Water Supply (but NOT from a river) * have access to a Forum * not be near a business, market, wall, gate, barracks or praefecture * have bath access * have high security * have market access * have access to a grammaticus and rhetor * have close access to all three types of entertainment (theater, coliseum and circus) * be in a city with high hospital-to-population and library-to-population ratings SECURITY -- There are four structures associated with security: WALLS and TOWERS enclose areas to give them high security. YOU MUST ACTUALLY ENCLOSE AN AREA to get this security bonus. Since barbarians cannot cross rivers without a bridge, these are also considered walls for the purposes of enclosure. Be careful -- watch out for breaks in walls, or bridges on rivers! BARRACKS generate soldiers that patrol the city in search of barbarians or rioters. If found, these people will attack and kill them. Soldiers also pass a security bonus to any areas they walk past. PRAFECTURES generate vigiles ("watchmen") that patrol the city in search of rioters or fire. If found, these people will take care of them. Praefectures also pass a security bonus to any areas they walk past. If security is low in the city, then ROBBERIES may occur. Robberies lower productivity of businesses and land values, and can even take gold from your treasury (see TEMPLES, below!) SANITATION -- There are two structures associated with sanitation: BATH HOUSES need to be placed near housing to affect its sanitation levels. Make sure they are built in areas that have pipe access. HOSPITALS can be placed far from the populations they service; you must establish a high hospital-to-population ratio for them to be effective. Hospitals must be accessible through roadways, so build them next to roads that people use (particularly forum workers). If sanitation is not attended to, then DISEASE may occur. These kill houses and lower land values. You can eliminate the symptoms of plague easily enough, but you must eliminate their cause (i.e. low sanitation) if you don't want them to come back. ENTERTAINMENT -- There are six entertainment structures in the game: two theaters (THEATER and ODEUM), two coliseums (ARENA and COLISEUM), and two circuses (CIRCUS and CIRCUS MAXIMUS). The latter building in each category is identical to the former, except that it accesses a larger area. Housing likes to be within close proximity of ALL THREE entertainment types. INDUSTRY -- On the city level, you build MARKETS near housing to sell your goods, and up to eight types of BUSINESSES. The "Jars" in each business indicate its output, which directly affects your industrial taxes. Markets will develop as your city and businesses develop. EDUCATION -- There are three types of educational structures. The GRAMMATICUS is the school for younger Romans, while the RHETOR is for older students; build these near housing to help it develop. The LIBRARY affects housing across the entire city; build enough to maintain a high library-to-population ratio. Also, libraries must be accessible somehow through roadways, so build them next to roads that people use. FORUM -- The Forum is used as a meeting place by your citizens, and as a tax-collection agency for your government. There are three sizes, with increasing areas of effect. They will develop as your city develops. TEMPLES -- These structures increase land value, and also store your treasury's gold! Make sure to build them in secure locations, or else risk having your gold stolen. They will develop as your city develops. GARDENS -- Placing gardens in your city's open spaces is a good way to increase land values. QUERYING STRUCTURES -- You can query any structure, person, icon or control on the screen by right-clicking on it. You can also query them by selecting the Query icon and then clicking on them. When you query something, you access the query panel for that item. When a structure is selected, this panel has three modes: General -- Displays the most pressing need or problem, if any, for this structure. Detail -- Displays all relevant statistics for this structure -- however, not all statistics will be relevant for the structure that is built there. People -- If any people are near the part of the map you selected, then you can poll them individually through this mode. Click on their pictures in the panel to find out their name, job, and how well they feel their job is being accomplished in the city. There are also three links on this panel, which lead to the pages of on-line help, tips and history for that structure. When you select an icon or control on the screen, this instead accesses a brief description of that control. MAP REPORTS -- You can view a number of reports for your city by clicking on the pull-down menu above the overview map. Select a report from the list provided, and it will be overlaid onto the overview map. Press AND HOLD "?" button next to the menu to see an explanation of the colors in the current report, and to see those covers overlaid onto the scrolling view. To remove any reports from the map, select "Geography" from the pull-down menu. THE FORUM By clicking on the Go to Forum button in the center of your game controls, you can access a number of reports on your progress. These are listed in a menu at the bottom of the Forum screen; you can also access them by clicking on the people and structures on the Forum screen itself. Important reports are: RATINGS: View your current ratings in Peace, Culture, Prosperity and Empire. (Culture and Prosperity are the only ratings that apply in the demo. These ratings determine if and when you can get promoted from your current city to a more difficult one. TREASURER: Lets you view your accounts, and set tax rates. ROME: Indicates your current favor with the Empire, and lets you send gifts to the Emperor. PERSONAL ADVISOR: Lets you view the status of your career, set your salary, and donate money to the city from your personal savings. PLEBEIAN TRIBUNE: Lets you commission more plebes to maintain the city, and assign them to specific tasks. Plebes keep your city from falling into ruin. HOT-KEYS The following hot-keys can be used in the game: + Zoom in - Zoom out 1 Jump to Furthest Zoom level 2 Jump to Medium Zoom level 3 Jump to Closest Zoom level < Rotate counter-clockwise > Rotate clockwise BkSp or Del Select "Clear Area" spacebar Cancel current building activity (useful for roads, aqueducts etc.) Alt-F Enter Place Flag mode D Jump to Danger Spot F2 or F Jump to Forum P pause game Y Yes for Yes/No panels N No for Yes/No panels Esc Exit current screen/panel/menu ALT-X Exit to DOS